1819

Events

January–March

• January 2 - The Panic of 1819, the first major peacetime financial crisis in the United States, begins.
• January 25 - Thomas Jefferson founds the University of Virginia.
• January 29 - Sir Stamford Raffles lands on the island of Singapore.
• February 2 - Dartmouth College v. Woodward: The Supreme Court of the United States under John Marshall rules in favor of Dartmouth College, allowing Dartmouth to keep its charter and remain a private institution.
• February 6 - The Treaty of Singapore, is signed between Hussein Shah of Johor and Sir Stamford Raffles of Britain, to create a trading settlement in Singapore.
• February 15 - The United States House of Representatives agrees to the Tallmadge Amendment, barring slaves from the new state of Missouri.
• February 19 - Captain William Smith of British merchant brig Williams sights Williams Point, the northeast extremity of Livingston Island in the South Shetlands, the first land discovered south of latitude 60° S.
• February 22 - Adams–Onís Treaty: Agreement is reached for Spain to cede Florida to the United States in exchange for renunciation of American claims on Texas arising from the Louisiana Purchase, American payment of $5 million to settle citizens' claims regarding Florida, and definition of international borders. Following ratification, the treaty took effect in 1821.
• March 1 - The U.S. naval vessel is launched on the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.
• March 6 - McCulloch v. Maryland: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Bank of the United States is constitutional.
• March 20 - Burlington Arcade opens in London.
• March 23 - In Mannheim, Duchy of Baden, German dramatist August von Kotzebue is assassinated by Karl Ludwig Sand.

  April–June

• April 6-June 21 - The French slave ship Le Rodeur sails from Bonny in West Africa to Guadeloupe in the West Indies. In the course of the transatlantic voyage many onboard become blind, and 30 slaves are thrown overboard as a consequence.
• April 7 - The Governorate of Livonia of the Russian Empire emancipates its peasants from serfdom.
• May 22 - The leaves port at Savannah, Georgia, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean, although only a fraction of the trip will be made under steam. The ship arrives at Liverpool, England, nearly a month later, on June 20.
• May 22 - The city of Memphis, Tennessee, is founded.
• June 16 - The Rann of Kutch earthquake, estimated at at least 7.7 kills at least 1,543 people in India in what is now the state of Gujarat at the Arabian Sea, causing an stretch of land to be raised as much as and creating a natural dam, the Allahbund.

  July–September

• July 1 - German astronomer Johann Georg Tralles discovers what will be called the Great Comet of 1819.
• July 21 - Explorer William Parry, sailing in the Arctic in a quest for the Northwest Passage through North America, guides the ships HMS Hecla and HMS Griper through an iceberg-laden passage that will later be named the Parry Channel.
• July 24 - A cabinet meeting is convened by British Prime Minister Lord Liverpool to discuss a report of an adulterous affair involving the wife of George, Prince of Wales, the regent for his ailing father King George III. Despite reports that Princess Caroline is involved with her servant, Bartolomeo Pergami, the cabinet concludes that the trial of Caroline for adultery would be an embarrassment to the nation.
• August 2 - The first Hep-Hep riots, communal pogroms against Ashkenazi Jews in the German Federation begin at Würzburg in Bavaria. They continue until October with many Jews killed.
• August 6 - Norwich University is founded by Captain Alden Partridge in Vermont as the first private military school in the United States.
• August 7 - Battle of Boyacá: Simón Bolívar is victorious over the Royalist Army in Colombia. Colombia acquires its definitive independence from Spanish rule.
• August 16 - Peterloo Massacre: A yeomanry unit charges into a crowd of radical protesters in Manchester, England, resulting in 15 deaths and over 600 injuries.
• August 25 - Salon of 1819 opens in Paris. Amongst the exhibits is The Raft of the Medusa.
• September 20 - The Carlsbad Decrees are issued throughout the German Confederation in response to the March assassination of August von Kotzebue, suppressing liberal and nationalist views.

  October–December

• October 13 - A treaty is entered between the Raja of Cutch Deshalji II, and East India Company, placing the Cutch State under Company rule.
• October 15 - Desolation Island, in the South Shetland Islands of the Antarctic, is discovered by Captain William Smith.
• November 2 - Bagyidaw is crowned as Emperor of Burma, at the imperial capital of Inwa.
• November 3 - The becomes the first American warship to visit China, landing at Lintin Island, off of the coast of Canton.
• November 19 - The Museo del Prado opens in Madrid. Initially, it has only 311 significant paintings.
• November 25 - A British expeditionary force reaches Ras Al Khaimah in the Persian Gulf, preparatory to the bombardment and invasion of the town, which led to the signing of the General Maritime Treaty of 1820 between the British and what were to become known as the Trucial States.
• December 17
• *The Republic of Gran Colombia is formally established, with Simón Bolívar as its first president.
• *The new astronomical observatory of Capodimonte in Naples starts operating. The astronomer Carlo Brioschi made the first observation by measuring the position of ⍺ Cassiopeiae.

  Date unknown

• Denis Johnson invents the kick scooter.
• The city of Fernandina de Jagua is founded in Cuba.
• A British Arctic expedition under William Parry, comprising HMS Hecla and HMS Griper, reaches longitude 112°51' W in the Northwest Passage, the furthest west which will be attained by any single-season voyage for 150 years.
• The African Slave Trade Patrol is founded to stop the slave trade on the coast of West Africa.

  Births

January–June

• January 1 - Arthur Hugh Clough, English poet
• January 6 - Baldassare Verazzi, Italian painter
• January 7 - Theresa Pulszky, European author
• January 9 - William Powell Frith, English painter
• February 8
• *Sidonija Rubido, Croatian singer
• *John Ruskin, English writer, artist, and social critic
• February 11 - Samuel Parkman Tuckerman, American composer
• February 14 - Christopher Latham Sholes, American inventor
• February 20 - Alfred Escher, Swiss politician, railroad entrepreneur
• February 22 - James Russell Lowell, American poet, essayist
• March 3 - Gustave de Molinari, Belgian economist
• March 14 - Erik Edlund, Swedish physicist, meteorologist
• March 26 - Louise Otto-Peters, German women's rights movement activist
• March 31 - Chlodwig, Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, Chancellor of Germany
• April 4 - Queen Maria II of Portugal
• April 11 - Charles Hallé, German pianist, conductor
• April 18
• *Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, Cuban revolutionary hero
• *Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer
• April 23 - Edward Stafford, Scottish-New Zealand educator and politician, 3rd Prime Minister of New Zealand
• April 28 - Ezra Abbot, American Biblical scholar
• May 5 - Stanisław Moniuszko, Polish composer
• May 24 - Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom
• May 27
• * George V of Hanover
• * Julia Ward Howe, American abolitionist and poet
• May 31
• * Walt Whitman, American poet
• * William Worrall Mayo, English-American physician, chemist
• June 5 - John Couch Adams, English astronomer
• June 10 - Gustave Courbet, French painter
• June 12 - Charles Kingsley, English clergyman, historian, and novelist
• June 20 - Jacques Offenbach, German-born French composer
• June 29 - Nicolae Bălcescu, Wallachian revolutionary

  July–December

• July 8 - Francis Leopold McClintock, Irish explorer and admiral in British Royal Navy
• July 9 - Elias Howe, American inventor, sewing machine pioneer
• July 19 - Gottfried Keller, Swiss writer
• July 26 - Justin Holland, American musician, civil rights activist
• August 1
• * Richard Dadd, British painter
• * Herman Melville, American novelist
• August 7 - Ioan Emanoil Florescu, Romanian general and politician, two-time Prime Minister of Romania
• August 9 - William Thomas Green Morton, American dentist who first administered ether
• August 13 - Sir George Gabriel Stokes, Irish mathematician, physicist
• August 19 - Julius van Zuylen van Nijevelt, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
• August 25 - Allan Pinkerton, American detective
• August 26
• * Prince Albert, Prince Consort to Queen Victoria
• * Lawrence Dudley Bailey, American abolitionist and jurist who served on the Kansas Supreme Court from 1861 to 1869
• September 13 - Clara Schumann, German composer, pianist
• September 17 - Marthinus Wessel Pretorius, 1st President of the South African Republic
• September 18 - Léon Foucault, French physicist
• September 20 - Théodore Chassériau, French painter
• September 22 - Wilhelm Wattenbach, German historian
• September 23 - Hippolyte Fizeau, French physicist
• September 26 - Edward Watkin, English railway pioneer, politician
• September 28 - Narcís Monturiol, Catalan intellectual, artist and engineer
• October 2 - Théonie Rivière Mignot, American restaurateur and businesswoman
• October 16 - Austin F. Pike, American politician from New Hampshire
• October 20 - The Báb, Persian founder of the Bábi Faith
• November 4 - Christopher Raymond Perry Rodgers, American admiral
• November 9 - Annibale de Gasparis, Italian astronomer
• November 22 - George Eliot, British novelist
• November 24 - John Cummings Howell, United States Navy admiral
• December 10 - Felice Orsini, Italian revolutionary
• December 29 - Carl Siegmund Franz Credé, German gynecologist, obstetrician
• December 30 - Theodor Fontane, German writer