Editing 1802 (section)

== Events ==

=== January–March ===
* January 5 – [[Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin]], British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, begins removal of the [[Elgin Marbles]] from the [[Parthenon]] in Athens, claiming they are at risk of destruction during the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] occupation of Greece; the first shipment departs [[Piraeus]] on board Elgin's ship, the ''Mentor'', "with many boxes of moulds and sculptures", including three marble torsos from the Parthenon.<ref>Christopher Hitchens, ''The Parthenon Marbles: The Case for Reunification'' (Verso Books, 2016)</ref>
* January 15 – Canonsburg Academy (modern-day [[Washington & Jefferson College]]) is chartered by the [[Pennsylvania General Assembly]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Coleman|first=Helen Turnbull Waite|title=Banners in the Wilderness: The Early Years of Washington and Jefferson College|publisher=[[University of Pittsburgh Press]]|year=1956|url=https://archive.org/details/bannersinthewild012852mbp|oclc=2191890|page=[https://archive.org/details/bannersinthewild012852mbp/page/n259 206]|access-date=July 25, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121111075417/https://archive.org/details/bannersinthewild012852mbp|archive-date=November 11, 2012|url-status=live}}</ref>
* January 29 – The French [[Saint-Domingue expedition]] (40,000 troops) led by General [[Charles Leclerc (general, born 1772)|Charles Leclerc]] (Bonaparte's brother-in-law) lands in [[Saint-Domingue]] (modern [[Haiti]]) in an attempt to restore colonial rule following the [[Haitian Revolution]] in which [[Toussaint Louverture]] (a black former [[Slavery|slave]]) has proclaimed himself [[President for Life|Governor-General for Life]] and established control over [[Hispaniola]].
* February 3 – Leclerc and the first 5,000 of 20,000 troops arrive at Cap-François (modern [[Cap-Haïtien]]).<ref>Carolyn E. Fick, ''The Making of Haiti: The Saint Domingue Revolution from Below'' (University of Tennessee Press, 1990) p210–211</ref>
* February 17 – The remains of [[Pope Pius VI]] are returned to the Vatican by France; the Pope had died in captivity at [[Valence, Drôme|Valence]], on August 29, 1799.<ref>"Rome", in ''Biography of the Principal Sovereigns of Europe who Have Reigned Since the French Revolution'' (Ogle, Duncan, and Co., 1822) p99</ref>
* February – The [[Rosetta Stone]] is brought to England by Colonel [[Tomkyns Hilgrove Turner]], who arrives at [[Portsmouth]] on the captured French frigate ''L'Egyptiane''.<ref name=Lindsay>Ivan Lindsay, ''The History of Loot and Stolen Art: from Antiquity until the Present Day'' (Andrews UK Ltd., 2014)</ref>
* March 3 – [[Ludwig van Beethoven]] publishes his ''[[Piano Sonata No. 14 (Beethoven)|Piano Sonata No. 14]]'', commonly known as the "Moonlight Sonata" (''Mondschein''), in Vienna; the availability of the sheet music is announced by Giovanni Cappi in the newspaper ''Wiener Zeitung''.<ref>Timothy Jones, ''Beethoven: The 'Moonlight' and Other Sonatas, Op. 27 and Op. 31'' (Cambridge University Press, 1999) p20, p129</ref>
* March 11 – The Rosetta Stone is presented to the [[Society of Antiquaries of London]], which in turn presents it to the [[British Museum]].<ref name=Lindsay/>
* March 16 – The [[United States Army Corps of Engineers]] is re-established, and the [[United States Military Academy]] at [[West Point, New York]] is established under its management, opening on July 4.
* March 25–27 – The [[Treaty of Amiens]] between the French Republic and the United Kingdom ends the [[War of the Second Coalition]]. The treaty also ends the [[French Revolutionary Wars]].
* March 28 – [[Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers|H. W. Olbers]] discovers the [[asteroid]] [[2 Pallas|Pallas]].

=== April–June ===
* April 10 – The [[Great Trigonometrical Survey]] of India begins with the measurement of a baseline near [[Chennai|Madras]].
* April 12 — Beethoven leaves [[Vienna]] for a small nearby Austrian village named [[Heiligenstadt, Vienna |Heiligenstadt]] where he would cope with his declining mental and physical health including his growing deafness. He would stay until October and there he would write an unsent letter to his brothers called the [[Heiligenstadt Testament]]. In the letter, Beethoven contemplates suicide but it was his passion for the art of music that prevented him so.
* April 21 – About 12,000 Wahhabi Sunnis under the command of [[Abdul-Aziz bin Muhammad]], the second ruler of the First Saudi State attack and [[Wahhabi sack of Karbala|sack Karbala]], kill between 2,000 and 5,000 inhabitants and plunder the tomb of [[Husayn ibn Ali]], grandson of [[Muhammad]] and son of [[Ali ibn Abi Talib]].
* April 26 – A general amnesty signed by [[Napoleon]] allows all but about 1,000 of the most notorious [[émigré]]s of the [[French Revolution]] to return to France as part of a conciliatory gesture to make peace with the various factions of the ''[[Ancien Régime]]'' that ultimately consolidates his own rule.
* May 19 – Napoleon establishes the French [[Legion of Honour]] (''Légion d'honneur'').
* May 20 – By the [[Law of 20 May 1802]], [[Napoleon]] reinstates slavery in the [[French colonies]], revoking its abolition in the [[French Revolution]].
* May – Madame [[Marie Tussaud]] first exhibits her [[wax sculpture]]s in London, having been commissioned, during the [[Reign of Terror]] in France, to make death masks of the victims.<ref>Pamela Pilbeam, ''Madame Tussaud: And the History of Waxworks'' (A&C Black, 2006) p65</ref>
* June – The first account of [[Thomas Wedgwood (photographer)|Thomas Wedgwood]]'s experiments in photography is published by [[Humphry Davy]] in the ''Journal of the Royal Institution'' in London.<ref>"An Account of a method of copying Painting upon Glass and making profiles, by the agency of Light upon Nitrate of Silver." Invented by T. Wedgwood, Esq. with Observations by H. Davy.</ref><ref>Robert Hirsch, ''Seizing the Light: A Social & Aesthetic History of Photography'' (Taylor & Francis, 2017)</ref> Since a fixative for the image has not yet been developed, the early photographs quickly fade.
* June 1
** The [[United States Patent and Trademark Office]] is established within the [[Department of State]].
** At [[Huế]], shortly before his conquest of Tonkin, Nguyen Anh is crowned as the Emperor [[Gia Long]], the first ruler of the [[Nguyễn dynasty]] in Vietnam.<ref>"Nguyen Anh (Emperor Gia Long)", by Nguyen The Anh, in ''Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor'', ed. by [[Keat Gin Ooi]] (ABC-CLIO, 2004) p870</ref>
* June 2 – [[Indigenous Australian]] [[Pemulwuy]], a leader of the resistance to European settlement of Australia, is shot dead by [[Henry Hacking]].
* June 8 – Haitian revolutionary [[Toussaint Louverture]] is seized by French troops and imprisoned at the [[Fort de Joux]].

=== July–September ===
* July 5 – [[1802 United Kingdom general election|Parliamentary elections begin in the United Kingdom]], with voting continuing until August 28; the [[Tories (British political party)|Tories]], led by [[Henry Addington]], win control of the House of Commons.
* July 19 – [[Éleuthère Irénée du Pont]] founds E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, the modern [[DuPont (1802–2017)|DuPont]] chemical company, as a [[gunpowder]] manufactory near [[Wilmington, Delaware]].<ref>"E. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company", by Richard Junger, in ''The Advertising Age Encyclopedia of Advertising'' (Routledge, 2015) p500</ref>
* July 22 – [[Gia Long]] captures [[Hanoi]], completing his unification of [[Vietnam]].
* July 31 – [[William Wordsworth]], leaving London for [[Dover]] and [[Calais]] with his sister [[Dorothy Wordsworth|Dorothy]], witnesses the early morning scene which he captures in his [[sonnet]] "[[Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802|Composed upon Westminster Bridge]]".
* August 2 – In a [[Referendum|plebiscite]], [[Napoleon]] Bonaparte is confirmed as the [[First Consul]] of France.
* September 11 – The Italian region of [[Piedmont]] becomes a part of the [[French First Republic]].

=== October–December ===
* October 2 – War ends between Sweden and [[Ottoman Tripolitania|Tripoli]]. The United States also negotiates peace, but war continues over the size of compensation.
* October 15 – French Army General [[Michel Ney]] enters [[Switzerland]] with 40,000 troops, on orders of Napoleon Bonaparte.<ref>Andrew Roberts, ''Napoleon: A Life'' (Penguin, 2014)</ref>
* October 16 – The port of [[New Orleans]] and the lower [[Mississippi River]] are closed to American traffic by order of the city's Spanish administrator, Juan Ventura Morales, threatening the economy in the western United States, and prompting the need for the [[Louisiana Purchase]].<ref>"Mississippi River", by Gene A. Smith, in ''The Louisiana Purchase: A Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia'', Junius P. Rodriguez, ed. (ABC-CLIO, 2002) p226</ref>
* October 26 – A powerful [[1802 Vrancea earthquake|7.9 earthquake]] shakes the Romanian district of [[Vrancea County|Vrancea]] destroying hundreds of buildings, triggering landslides and killing 4 people. This earthquake is considered one of the strongest to have shaken Europe.
* November 16 – The newly elected British Parliament is inaugurated by King George III, who tells the members, "In my intercourse with foreign powers, I have been actuated by a sincere disposition of the maintenance of peace," but adds that "My conduct will be invariably regulated by a due consideration of the actual situation of Europe, and by a watchful solicitude for the permanent welfare of my people."<ref>William Belsham, ''History of Great Britain: From the Revolution, 1688, to the Conclusion of the Treaty of Amiens, 1802'', Volume 12 (Phillips, 1805) p485</ref>
* November 23 – [[East Indiaman]] ''[[Melville Castle (1786 EIC ship)|Vryheid]]'', in the service of the [[Batavian Republic]], is shipwrecked in a gale off [[Hythe, Kent]], in the south of England; only 18 of 472 on board survive.
* December 2 – The [[Health and Morals of Apprentices Act 1802|Health and Morals of Apprentices Act]] in the United Kingdom comes into effect, regulating conditions for [[child labour]] in factories. Although poorly enforced, it pioneers a series of [[Factory Acts]].