1821
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The Congress of Laibach opens January 26 at what later will be Ljubljana, Slovenia, to discuss last year's protocol of Troppau setting forth the conditions for Austrian occupation of Naples and the Two Sicilies. The king of the Two Sicilies, Piedmont's Victor Emmanuel I, and the dukes of Modena and Tuscany meet with Austria's emperor Franz I, Prussia's Friedrich Wilhelm II, Russia's czar Aleksandr, and France's Louis XVIII, but Britain's George IV does not attend, nor does the Ottoman sultan Mahmud II or any representative of the papacy. Before breaking up May 12 the congress has agreed to abolish the Neapolitan constitution, authorized the Austrian army to restore the absolutist monarchy, and proclaimed its hostility to revolutionary regimes. Britain and France protest the decision and encourage the Neapolitans to continue their resistance.
Piedmont's Victor Emmanuel I abdicates under pressure in March after refusing to accept a constitution; his brother Charles Felix becomes king, but the new king's regent Charles Albert of Savoy proclaims the Spanish Constitution. The (first) Battle of Novara 28 miles west of Milan April 8 ends in victory for combined Austrian and Sardinian forces over the Piedmontese, and Savoy (Sardinia) regains control of Piedmont. The Swiss cantons act in May to expel Italians who have taken refuge following the failure of their movements in Naples and Piedmont (see 1832).
A Greek War of Independence that will continue for 10 years begins following an insurrection in February against Ottoman-Greek rule in Wallachia. Greeks in the Morea (Peloponnese) slaughter the Ottoman minority, Constantinople retaliates by hanging the city's Greek patriarch and massacring its Greek population. Greek nationalist leader Alexander Ypsilanti, 29, invades Moldavia with a battalion, occupies Bucharest, and appeals to Czar Aleksandr for aid, but Britain's foreign secretary Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, warns Aleksandr to stay out of the conflict and the Austrian chancellor Prince Metternich uses his growing influence on the czar to undermine his aide Ioánnis Kapodistrías, who fails to gain Russian support for the Greek cause. The Battle of Dragasani 90 miles (145 kilometers) west of Bucharest June 19 ends in victory for Ottoman forces over Ypsilanti, who escapes but is captured and imprisoned by the Austrians. Constantinople rejects a July 27 Russian ultimatum demanding restoration of Christian churches and protection of the Christian religion, and on October 5 the Greeks take Tripolitsi, the main Ottoman fortress in the Morea, where they massacre some 10,000 Turks (see 1822).
The former French emperor Napoleon I dies of stomach cancer in exile on St. Helena May 5 at age 51.
Britain's George IV bars his wife, Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, from his coronation at Westminster Abbey July 19, having learned not only of her indiscretions while abroad but also that she promoted the seduction of her teenaged daughter by locking her in a room with a young officer. Caroline dies at London August 7 at age 53. George IV rejects the city's decision to pay honor to the late queen (he has increased his mistress Mrs. Fitzherbert's annuity to £10,000 in April and had Tom Cribb along with some other prizefighters as his honor guard at his coronation). Hoping to avoid public demonstrations, he swears that Caroline's funeral cortege will not pass through the city even if he has to call out the Life Guards to stop it, but although his troops actually fire into the crowds at one point the people assemble in such dense throngs that it is impossible to control them.
Mexico declares her independence from Spain February 24, claiming freedom also for the provinces of California and Tejas after 3 centuries of Spanish rule (see 1813). A liberal coup d'état in Spain has relieved some of the worst excesses of Spanish repression in overseas colonies, and former royalist Colonel Agustín de Iturbide, 37, has torn the Spanish insignia off his uniform, fashioned a three-colored flag, and publishes a Plan de Iguala, proclaiming not only independence but also equality for Spaniards and Creoles, the supremacy of Roman Catholicism, and a ban on all other religions. Iturbide has been negotiating with the black republican leader General Vicente Guerrero while ostensibly fighting against him, but his plan is actually a conservative document stipulating that Mexico will be a constitutional monarchy, that a Spanish prince will occupy the throne at Mexico City, and that an interim junta will draw up regulations for electing deputies to a congress that will write a constitution. Royalist forces defect to Iturbide's Army of the Three Guarantees, and Mexican soldier Antonio López de Santa Anna (Pérez de Lebrón), 27, drives Spanish forces out of Veracruz; the newly-appointed Spanish viceroy Juan O'Donoju has no choice but to sign the Treaty of Córdoba August 24, recognizing Mexican independence, and Iturbide becomes regent pending selection of an independent emperor. O'Donoju flees Mexico City in September, but the struggle to free themselves from Spanish rule has cost the Mexicans many lives and left them impoverished (see 1822). Only about 2,500 Mexicans live in the northern province of Tejas, they are scattered about in isolated settlements, and the new government encourages foreigners to enter the territory (see 1823).
The Portuguese princess Maria Leopoldina gives birth at Rio de Janeiro March 6 to a boy, Dom João Carlos, who becomes heir to the thrones of both Brazil and Portugal but will die early next year (see 1819). Her father-in-law, João VI, leaves for Lisbon in late April, never to return (see 1820), and her husband, Pedro, now 22, begins an absolutist rule in Brazil (see 1822).
Simón Bolívar sends his lieutenant Antonio José de Sucre, 28, with an army to liberate Quito (see 1819). Bolívar himself moves into Venezuela where he joins forces with Gen. José Antonio Paez; supported by British and Irish volunteers, his army of 6,500 men slightly outnumbers a royalist army and defeats the Spaniards June 24 at the Battle of Carabobo on the plains near Caracas, it occupies Caracas 5 days later, and Bolívar is named president of Venezuela August 30 (see 1823).
José de San Martin enters Lima, proclaims the independence of Peru July 22, and assumes supreme authority as protector of the new South American nation (see Chile, 1817). Lacking the power to attack the Spaniards in the interior, he asks for support from Símon Bolívar (but see 1822).
Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Honduras declare independence from Spain September 14. A junta convened at Guatemala City makes the declaration, and it is endorsed by the province of San Salvador (see Iturbide, 1822).
Panama declares independence from Spain in December and joins Simón Bolívar's Gran Colombia.
Florida becomes a U.S. territory (see 1819). Its Spanish governor granted Cayo Hueso to cavalry officer Juan Pablo Salas in 1815, and Mobile, Alabama, John Simonton buys the island sight unseen over drinks at Havana for $2,000; he calls it "Key West." Its few inhabitants make their living in large part by salvaging ships that run aground on reefs in the Keys. It now becomes an official U.S. port of entry, and it will grow to be Florida's largest city.
The power of the U.S. Supreme Court is superior to that of any state court in matters involving federal rights, says Chief Justice John Marshall. He hands down the decision March 3 in Cohens v. Virginia.
Missouri enters the Union August 10 as the 24th state under terms of last year's Missouri Compromise that permits slavery (see exploration [Ashley], 1822).
Ohio Quaker saddlemaker Benjamin Lundy, 32, urges abolition of slavery and begins publication of his antislavery newspaper Genius of Universal Emancipation. He soon moves to Greenville, Tennessee, and will relocate to Baltimore in 1824. A slave trader will attack and severely injure him in 1828, but Lundy will enlist the support of William Lloyd Garrison, now 16, and Garrison will serve as associate editor for 6 months beginning in September 1829 (see 1831).
Liberia has her beginnings in a settlement made by free-born emigrant U.S. blacks who arrive at Mesurado Bay on an island they call Perseverance, having come from Sierra Leone aboard the ship Nautilus (see 1820). They name their capital Monrovia after President Monroe (see Ashmun, 1822).
The Daughters of Africa mutual benefit society is founded at Philadelphia by 200 working-class women.
Russian explorer Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, 42, sails his 500-ton sloops Vostok and Mirny to the Antarctic and makes the first sightings of land within the Antarctic Circle—an island that he names Peter I January 22 and another that he names Aleksandr II January 29 (he believes them to be part of the mainland and it will not be established until later that they are islands). He encounters Stonington, Connecticut, sealer Nathaniel Brown Palmer in February and suggests that the region Palmer discovered late last year be called Palmer Land.
Austin, Texas, has its origin in San Felipe de Austin, founded in Mexico's Tejas province by Virginia-born settler Stephen F. (Fuller) Austin, 28, whose father, Moses, received a permit January 17 to obtain land on condition that he settle colonists on it but caught pneumonia en route north and died at his daughter's home in Hazel Run, Missouri, June 10 at age 59 (see 1820). Young Austin carries out his father's plans, and he founds the first permanent Anglo-American Texas settlement. Empressario Austin will bring some 8,000 colonists to the region (see politics, 1823).
Minneapolis has its beginnings in the town of St. Anthony founded on the east bank of the Upper Mississippi at St. Anthony's Falls (see Fort Snelling, 1819; Minneapolis, 1847).
The 151-year-old Hudson's Bay Company absorbs its 38-year-old Montreal-based fur-trading rival the North West Company (see Seven Oaks Massacre, 1816). It appoints Scottish-born executive George Simpson, 29, administrator of its vast North American territories; soon called "the little emperor," Simpson will hold the position until 1856, slashing the company's workforce from 2,000 to 800, using 30-foot York boats based on Orkney Island design to replace canoes (which cannot carry nearly so many pelts), giving traders small shares in company profits, but showing little sympathy for native workers.
Rhode Island textile manufacturer William Sprague, 48, purchases half the water power of Natick Falls in Kent County and puts up a cotton mill with 42 looms and a building for carding and spinning. Sprague converted a grist mill more than 12 years ago into a factory for carding and spinning cotton yarn and went on to arrange with local farmers' wives and daughters to have them weave his yarn on their own hand looms; he has bleached the resulting cloth in the open air and sold it to merchants as far distant as Baltimore, building a substantial business that he is intent on growing (see 1824).
Virginia-born trader William Becknell, 25, leaves Arrow Rock, Mo., September 21 and heads west on what will come to be known as the Santa Fe Trail. Capt. Becknell has made two previous trips and knows the risks, but when he and his small party reach the Rock River November 13 they are surrounded by a group of Mexican soldiers; expecting to be taken prisoner, they are told instead that Mexico has freed herself from Spain, dispose of their trade goods at Sante Fe, and start back in December for Missouri (see 1822).
The first U.S. natural gas well is tapped at Fredonia, New York.
London-born balloonist Charles Green, 36, ascends from St. James's Park in the Royal Vauxhall July 19 to celebrate the coronation of George IV. While experimenting with a device to make gas for lighting his house, he has found a way to make almost pure hydrogen gas and tested it in toy balloons, but in the Royal Vauxhall he has pioneered the use of coal gas (methane) for manned balloons (methane has less lifting power but is much cheaper; see 1836).
Bridge, canal, and dock engineer John Rennie dies at London October 4 at age 60, leaving his son and namesake to complete the New London Bridge that will open in 1831 while his son George runs the firm's mechanical engineering side; mariner and steamboat pioneer Moses Rogers dies of malaria at Georgetown, South Carolina, October 15 at age 42.
English chemist-physicist Michael Faraday demonstrates the principle of electromagnetic rotation. Now 29, Faraday has pondered on Oersted's 1819 discovery and conducts various experiments, including one involving a six-inch length of copper wire suspended from a hook with its lower end dipping into a bowl of mercury. A bar magnet is fixed vertically in the center of the mercury, and Faraday finds that when he passes a continuous electric current from a battery through the hook and down through the wire to the mercury, the wire begins to rotate and continues to do so for as long as the current flows (see Sturgeon, 1823; communications, 1831).
Estonian-born German physicist Thomas Johann Seebeck, 51, discovers that an electric current flows between different conductive materials that are kept at different temperatures. He has used a copper strip joined to a strip of bismuth to form a closed circuit and finds that the "Seebeck effect" will apply to any pair of metals as long as there is a difference in temperatures.
Religious leader Elizabeth Ann Seton dies at the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph in Emmitsburg, Maryland, January 4 at age 46. Mother of five, "Mother Seton" will be credited with several "miracles" and be canonized in 1975 as the first American saint.
North Carolina Quaker Levi Coffin, 22, opens a Sunday school for slaves but soon has to close it because masters forbid their slaves to attend (see human rights, 1826).
Boston's English High School opens under the name English Classical School. The nation's first public secondary school in an age when higher education is available only to the rich, it is intended for sons of the "mercantile" and "mechanic" classes; any boy of 12 or older who can pass an entrance examination may attend, but Massachusetts elementary schools prepare relatively few for advanced learning (see 1837).
McGill University is chartered at Montreal. When local politician-fur trader-merchant James McGill died in 1813 (see politics, 1813), he left £10,000 to found a college.
The Emma Willard School has its beginnings in the Troy Female Seminary at Troy, New York, whose Common Council has appropriated $4,000 to finance the institution (see 1819). Educator Willard moved her Middlebury, Vermont, school to Waterford, New York, at Governor Clinton's invitation and now moves it to Troy, offering a serious course of study equivalent to that at the best men's high schools and better than what is found at some colleges; she will prove that young women can master subjects such as mathematics and philosophy without losing their health or charm.
News of Napoleon's death at St. Helena May 5 reaches Britain only 7 weeks later.
The Manchester Guardian and British Volunteer begins publication May 5. The independent weekly founded by English Liberal John Edward Taylor, 30, with Jeremiah Garnett, 28, will appear daily beginning in 1855 (but see 1844).
The Saturday Evening Post begins publication at Philadelphia. The weekly magazine founded by Samuel C. Atkinson and Charles Alexander will continue until 1969 (see Curtis, 1897).
Nonfiction: "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater" by English author Thomas De Quincey, 36, appears in London Magazine. De Quincey began using opium in his second year at Oxford and dropped out in 1808; Table Talk by William Hazlitt is a collection of his London Magazine essays; Views of Society and Manners in America by Fanny Wright is published anonymously at London and when its author becomes known wins Wright the friendship of such luminaries as Jeremy Bentham and the marquis de Lafayette.
Fiction: Kenilworth and The Pirate by Sir Walter Scott; The Spy by New York novelist James Fenimore Cooper, 32, who has told his wife that he could write a better story than the popular English novel she was reading. His novel gains quick success.
The 1750 pornographic novel Fanny Hill is the subject of a Massachusetts trial following passage of a state obscenity law.
Poetry: The Captive of the Caucasus by Aleksandr Pushkin; The Village Minstrel, and Other Poems (two volumes) by John Clare; Marino Faliero: Doge of Venice by Lord Byron; The Third Tour of Dr. Syntax in Search of a Wife by William Combe.
Poet John Keats dies of tuberculosis at Rome February 23 at age 25 and is buried there. Adonis by his friend Percy Bysshe Shelley is an elegy, and Shelley's Epipsychidion a romantic expression of Platonism.
Painting: Landscape: Noon (The-Hay Wain) by John Constable. John Crome dies at Norwich April 22 at age 52; Constance Mayer slits her throat at Paris May 26 and dies at age 46.
Theater: The Golden Fleece (Das goldene Vliess) by Franz Grillparzer 3/26 at Vienna's Burgtheater; The Prince of Homburg (Prinz Friedrich von Homburg) by the late Heinrich von Kleist 10/3 at Vienna's Burgtheater (it is presented under the title Die Schlacht von Fehrbellin).
Playwright-novelist Elizabeth Inchbald dies at Kensington, London, August 1 at age 67.
Opera: Giuditta Pasta makes her triumphant return to the Théâtre des Italiens 6/5 singing the role of Desdemona in the first Paris performance of the 1816 Rossini opera Otello. She goes on to sing the roles of Donna Anna in the 1786 Mozart opera Don Giovanni and Giulietta in Romeo et Giulietta; Der Freischutz (The Free-Shooter) 6/18 at Berlin's Schauspielhaus, with music by Carl Maria von Weber.
First performances: Konzertstück for Piano and Orchestra in C minor by Carl Maria von Weber 6/25 at Berlin; Invitation to the Dance (Aufforderung zum Tanze) by Weber.
Cantata: "Hinaus In's Frische Leben" by Carl Maria von Weber 11/16 at Dresden, for the birthday of the sister of Saxony's Friedrich August I.
March: "Hail to the Chief" by Scottish composers James Sanderson and E. Rilley (who have adapted lines from Sir Walter Scott's 1810 poem Lady of the Lake) is played March 4 at the second inaugural of U.S. President James Monroe.
Poker has its beginnings in a card game played by sailors at New Orleans. They have combined the ancient Persian game As Nas with the French game poque, a descendant of the Italian game Primiera, and a cousin of the English game Brag. Played with three cards from a deck of 32, the new game contains combinations such as pairs and three of a kind, the draw and the full deck of 52 cards will soon be added, but the game of stud poker will not evolve for many years, nor will straights or flushes (date approximate; see Schenck, 1871).
Ireland's potato crop fails again, as it did in 1816. The resulting famine, from Donegal to Youghal, will cause perhaps 50,000 deaths by the end of next year from starvation and allied diseases as an epidemic of fever in the western counties strikes a population weakened by hunger (see population, 1840).
Game birds shot by market hunters are mainstays of the U.S. diet. A single market hunter kills 18,000 (48,000 by some accounts) migrating golden plover in March. Heath hen and prairie chicken are standard items on U.S. tables.
Britain's population reaches 20.8 million, with 6.8 million of it in Ireland (a British census shows that women outnumber men and are longer-lived than men). France has 30.4 million; the Italian states, 18; Austria, 12; the German states, duchies, free cities, and principalities, 26.1.
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