1808: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 21:50, 5 April 2025

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File:La Rendición de Bailén (Casado del Alisal).jpg

July 22: Spains defeats French occupying forces at Battle of Bailén.

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File:A.G. Gross - Battle of Zealand Point.jpg

March 22: Britain defeats Denmark-Norway at the Battle of Zealand Point.

File:Peninsular war collage.jpg

May 2: The Peninsular War begins as citizens of Spain begin uprising against the French occupiers.

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Events

January–March

January 1
- The importation of slaves into the United States is formally banned, as the 1807 Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves takes effect. However Americans still continue the slave trade by transporting Africans to Cuba and Brazil.<ref>Joseph R. Conlin, The American Past: A Survey of American History (Cengage Learning, 2008)</ref><ref name="Childs">Template:Cite book.</ref>
- Sierra Leone becomes a British Crown Colony.<ref name=CBH>Template:Cite book</ref>
January 22 – Transfer of the Portuguese court to Brazil: John (Dom João), Prince Regent, and the Bragança royal family of Portugal arrive in their colony of Brazil in exile from the French occupation of their home kingdom.
January 26 – Rum Rebellion: On the 20th anniversary of the foundation of the colony of New South Wales, disgruntled military officers of the New South Wales Corps (the "Rum Corps") overthrow and imprison Governor William Bligh and seize control of the colony.
February 2 – French troops take Rome as part of the Napoleonic Wars.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
February 6 – The ship Topaz (from Boston April 5, 1807, hunting seals) "rediscovers" the Pitcairn Islands; only one HMS Bounty mutineer is still alive, John Adams, who is using the pseudonym Alexander Smith.
February 11 – In Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Jesse Fell becomes the first known person to burn anthracite coal as residential heating fuel.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
February 21
- The Finnish War begins as Russian troops cross the border into Finland without a declaration of war.
- Russia issues an ultimatum to Sweden, to join Napoleon's Continental System against the United Kingdom.<ref>E. I. Kouri and Jens E. Olesen, eds. The Cambridge History of Scandinavia: Volume 2, 1520–1870 (Cambridge University Press, 2016)</ref>
March 1 – The slave trade is abolished by the United Kingdom in all of its colonies as the Slave Trade Act 1807 takes effect.<ref>Antigua and the Antiguans: A Full Account of the Colony and Its Inhabitants (1844, reprinted by Cambridge University Press, 2011) p136</ref> This year, the British Royal Navy establishes the West Africa Squadron on the coast of West Africa to enforce the abolitionist Blockade of Africa.
March 2
- Russian troops occupy Helsinki and threaten Sveaborg.
- The inaugural meeting of the Wernerian Natural History Society, a Scottish learned society, is held in Edinburgh (preliminary meeting January 12).
- A minor naval battle which takes place off the coast of Scarborough results in the capture of the Danish brig Admiral Yawl, commanded by Danish adventurer Jørgen Jørgensen.
March 7 – Transfer of the Portuguese court to Brazil: The Portuguese royal court arrives in Rio de Janeiro, making it the centre of the Portuguese Empire.
March 11 – Russian troops occupy Tampere in Finland.
March 13 – Upon the death of Christian VII, Frederick VI becomes king of Denmark. The next day (March 14), Denmark declares war on Sweden.
March 19 – Charles IV of Spain abdicates in favor of his son, Ferdinand VII.
March 22
- Russian troops occupy Turku in Finland.
- English Wars (Scandinavia): Battle of Zealand Point – British ships defeat those of Denmark and Norway.

April–June

April
- A volcano erupts from an unknown location in the western Pacific. This causes a localized drop in marine air temperatures during this year and a worldwide drop in marine air temperature for the following decade.<ref>Chenoweth, M. (2001), Two major volcanic cooling episodes derived from global marine air temperature, AD 1807–1827, Geophys. Res. Lett., 28(15), 2963–2966, Template:Doi.</ref>
- Prussian philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte publishes his Addresses to the German Nation, having delivered them over the winter at the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin before crowded audiences.
April 6 – John Jacob Astor incorporates the American Fur Company.
April 16 – Troops under Colonel Carl von Döbeln clash with Russian troops in Pyhäjoki, Finland.
May 2 – Peninsular War: Dos de Mayo Uprising – The people of Madrid rise up against the French troops.
May 3
- Finnish War: The fortress of Sveaborg is lost by Sweden to Russia.
- The Madrid rebels who rose on May 2 are executed near the hill of Príncipe Pío (Goya paints the fight and the execution in 1814).
May 6 – Ferdinand is forced to abdicate as King of Spain by Napoleon. This effectively ends the Anglo-Spanish War (1796–1808) as the United Kingdom allies with Spain and Portugal against the French in the Peninsular War.
June 12 – Finnish War: A landing of Swedish troops at Ala-Lemu, near Turku, fails.
June 15–August 14 – Peninsular War: First siege of Zaragoza – Spanish resist the French.
June 19 – Finnish War: A second landing of Swedish troops at Ala-Lemu fails.
June 30
- Finnish War – Battle of Turku: The Swedish archipelago fleet defeats the Russians.
- English chemist Humphry Davy informs the Royal Society of London of his isolation and discovery of two elements by electrolysis. From lime, he has produced calcium and established that lime is calcium oxide; by heating boric acid and potassium in a copper tube, he creates a substance he calls boracium, which is eventually called boron.<ref>Marco Fontani, Mariagrazia Costa and Mary Virginia Orna, The Lost Elements: The Periodic Table's Shadow Side (Oxford University Press, 2014)</ref> This year he also isolates magnesium and strontium.

July–September

July 5 – Wooster, Ohio, established and named for General Wooster.
July 8 – Joseph Bonaparte approves the Bayonne Statute, a royal charter intended as the basis for his rule as King of Spain, during the Peninsular War.
July 14 – Finnish War: Swedish troops under Colonel Adlercreutz force the Russians to withdraw in Lapua.
July 22 – Battle of Bailén: French General Dupont surrenders to Spanish irregular forces.
August 1 – Peninsular War: British expeditionary force lands near Porto.<ref name=CBH/>
August 10 – Finnish War: Swedish troops under Carl von Döbeln defeat a Russian attack in Kauhajoki.
August 17
- Peninsular War: Battle of Roliça: A British-Portuguese army under Sir Arthur Wellesley defeats an outnumbered French army under General Henri Delaborde.
- The Finnish War: the Battle of Alavus is fought.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
August 21 – Peninsular War: Battle of Vimeiro – British-Portuguese troops under Wellesley defeat the French under General Jean-Andoche Junot.
September 13 – Finnish War – Battle of Jutas – Swedish forces under Lieutenant General Georg Carl von Döbeln beat the Russians, making von Döbeln a Swedish war hero.
September 27 – The Congress of Erfurt, between the emperors Napoleon I of France and Alexander I of Russia, begins.
September 29 – Finnish War: A truce is declared between Swedish and Russian troops in Finland.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

October–December

October 6 – English chemist Humphry Davy electrochemically isolates potassium from potash.<ref>"England's Greatest Chemist, Sir Humphry Davy", by John A. Bowes, in Young England magazine (Sunday School Union, 1883) p63</ref>
October 12 – Banco do Brasil, a major financial group in South America, founded in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
November 8 – 1808 United States presidential election: James Madison defeats Charles C. Pinckney, winning 122 electoral votes to Pinckney's 47. Ten of the 17 states choose their electors by popular vote, the rest choose through state legislatures. George Clinton, who is separately elected as vice president, gets six electoral votes for president.<ref>Thomas Hudson McKee, The National Conventions and Platforms of All Political Parties (Friedenwald, 1901) p18</ref>
November 12 – Four large French frigates under the command of Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin, including the Venus, are sent to operate from Isle de France (Mauritius) against British trade in the Indian Ocean, triggering the Mauritius campaign of 1809–1811.<ref>William James and Frederick Chamier, The Naval History of Great Britain, Volume 5 (Macmillan and Company, 1902) p53</ref>
November 15 – Mahmud II (1808–1839) succeeds Mustafa IV (1807–1808), as sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
November 19 – A new truce at Olkijoki ends fighting in Finland, and Swedish troops concede that area to Russia.<ref name=Stefansson>Jón Stefánsson, Denmark and Sweden: With Iceland and Finland (T.F. Unwin, Ltd., 1916) p332</ref>
November 23 – Battle of Tudela: French Marshal Lannes defeats a Spanish army.
December 1 – Tsar Alexander I of Russia proclaims Finland a part of Russia.<ref>Edward C. Thaden, Russia's Western Borderlands, 1710–1870 (Princeton University Press, 2014) p85</ref>
December 4 – Napoleon joins his army in Spain.<ref>James Harvey Robinson and Charles A. Beard, eds., Outlines of European History: From the opening of the eighteenth century to the present day (Ginn and Company, 1912) p214</ref>
December 9 – At 20:34 UTC, Mercury occults Saturn (there are no observation records).
December 20
- Peninsular War: Second siege of Zaragoza begins.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- The original Covent Garden Theatre in London is destroyed by a fire, along with most of the scenery, costumes and scripts.
December 22 – Beethoven concert of 22 December 1808: Ludwig van Beethoven conducts and plays piano in a marathon benefit concert, at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, consisting entirely of first public performances of works by him, including Symphony No. 5, Symphony No. 6, Piano Concerto No. 4 and Choral Fantasy.