1809
1809 was a
common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar).
*
January 5 -
Treaty of Dardanelles between Britain and France concluded
*
January 10 - French Marshal
Jean Lannes begins the
Siege of Zaragoza.
*
January 16 -
Peninsular War: The
British defeat the
French at the
Battle of Corunna.
*
February 3 -
Illinois Territory was created.
*
February 8 -
Franz I of Austria declares war on
France*
February 11 -
Robert Fulton patents the
steamboat.
*
February 20 - A decision by the
Supreme Court of the United States states that the power of the federal government is greater than any individual state.
*
February 20 -
Siege of Zaragoza grinds to a halt as
Jose Palafox surrenders. Over 60,000 have been killed on both sides in 41 days of street fighting.
*
February 25 - A Spanish forces is defeated at the
Battle of Valls in Catalonia by
Marshal St Cyr.
*
March 4 -
James Madison succeeds
Thomas Jefferson as the
President of the United States.
*
March 13 - Military coup ousts
Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden - he is confined in the
Gripsholm Castle.
*
March 29 - At the
Diet of Porvoo,
Finland's
four Estates pledge allegiance to
Alexander I of Russia, commencing the secession of the
Grand Duchy of Finland from
Sweden. King
Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden abdicates after a
coup d'état and is later exiled.
*
March 29 - The
Battle of Oporto ends in disaster as 18,000 Portuguese soldiers are drowned in a rout after defeat by the French under
Marshal Soult and the
Battle of Medellin results in massive Spanish casualties in
Extremadura, when
Marshal Victor's cavalry routs their army.
*
April 9 -
Tyroleans rise against
French and
Bavarian occupation - they include
militia lead by
Andreas Hofer.
*
April 14 -
Napoleon defeats Austrians in the
Battle of Abensberg,
Bavaria*
April 19 -
Battle of Raszyn between armies of
Austria (attackers) and
Duchy of Warsaw (defenders) as a part of struggles of the Fifth Coalition (1809). The Austrian army was defeated.
*
April 22 -
Battle of Eckmuhl - French troops under Marshal
Andre Massena beat Austrians under
Archduke Karl.
* May -
Napoleon captures
Vienna, is excommunicated, imprisons pope
Pius VII.
*
May 5 -
Mary Kies is the first American woman to be awarded a
patent.
*
May 5 - The
Swiss canton of
Aargau denies
Jews citizenship.
*
May 17 -
Napoleon I of France orders the annexation of the
Papal States to the French empire. When he announces Pope's secular power has ended, pope
excommunicates him.
*
May 21 -
Battle of Aspern-Essling: Austrian troops under
Archduke Karl beat French under
Napoleon in a hard fought battle.
*
May 24 -
Dartmoor Prison opens, first to house French prisoners of war
*
June 1 -
Allardyce Barclay begins a bet of walking 1 mile every hour for 1,000 hours. Each hour he walked a mile round trip from his home
*
June 6 -
Sweden promulgates a new
Instrument of Government, which restores political power to the
Riksdag of the Estates after authoritarian rule since
1772.
*
June 7 -
Shoja Shah of
Afghanistan signs a treaty with the British. Only weeks later, he is succeeded by
Mahmud Shah.
*
July 5-
6 - The massive
Battle of Wagram in which
Napoleon defeats the
Austrians.
*
July 6 - French troops arrest
Pope Pius VII and take him to
Liguria*
July 10 - French
Marshal Marmont engages in the inconclusive
Battle of Zniam against the Austrians.
*
July 28 - Sir
Arthur Wellesley's British, Portuguese and Spanish army defeats a mauch larger French force at the
Battle of Talavera.
*
July 30 - British invasion army lands in
Walcheren*
August 8 - 70 disciples of
Gaon of Vilnius arrive in
Palestine*
August 10 -
Ecuador declares
independence from Spain
*
August 11 - Severe
earthquakes strike the
Azores and sinks the village of
São Miguel*
August 11 - A poorly-generaled Spanish army was defeated by King
Joseph Bonaparte's French army at the
Battle of Almonacid de Toledo.
*
September 17 -
Peace of Hamina - Peace between
Russia and
Sweden in the
Finnish War. The territory to become the
Grand Duchy of Finland is ceded to Russia by the
Treaty of Fredrikshamn.
*
September 18 -
Royal Opera House opens in London
*
October 11 - Along the
Natchez Trace in
Tennessee, explorer
Meriwether Lewis dies under mysterious circumstances at an inn called Grinder's Stand.
*
October 14 -
Treaty of Schoenbrunn cedes
Illyrian provinces to
France*
November 19 - A Spanish army is ridden down and 20,000 are killed by French forces at the
Battle of Ocana*
December 26 - British invasion force leaves
Vlissingen*
December 30 - Wearing masks at balls forbidden in
Boston, Massachusetts*
USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) is recommissioned as flagship of the North Atlantic Squadron.
*
Louis Poinsot describes the two remaining
Kepler-Poinsot solids.
*
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck publishes
Philosophie Zoologique, outlining the concept of
evolution.
* First running of the
Two Thousand Guineas Stakes horse race in England.
*
Miami University (Ohio) established by congressional order by George Washington.
*
Napoleonic Wars (
1799-
1815) -
Peninsular War/
Finnish War/Fifth Coalition
*
Russo-Turkish War, 1806-1812*
January 4 -
Louis Braille, French teacher, inventor of braille (d.
1852)
*
January 15 -
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, French anarchist (d.
1864)
*
January 19 -
Edgar Allan Poe, American writer and poet (d.
1849)
*
February 3 -
Felix Mendelssohn, German composer (d.
1847)
*
February 12 -
Abraham Lincoln, 16th
President of the United States (d.
1865)
*
February 12 -
Charles Darwin, British naturalist (d.
1882)
*
February 15 -
Cyrus McCormick, American inventor (d.
1884)
*
March 31 -
Nikolai Gogol, Russian writer (d.
1852)
*
April 15 -
Hermann Gunter Grassmann, Prussian mathematician (d.
1877)
*
June 4 -
Columbus Delano, American statesman (d.
1896)
*
June 4 -
John Henry Pratt, English clergyman and mathematician (d.
1871)
*
June 8 -
Richard Wigginton Thompson, American politician (d.
1900)
*
August 6 -
Alfred Lord Tennyson, British poet (d.
1892)
*
August 8 -
Heinrich Abeken, German theologian (d.
1872)
*
August 8 -
Horace Bingtrotter, British phrenologist (d.
1904)
*
August 27 -
Hannibal Hamlin, American politician (d.
1891)
*
August 29 -
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., American physician and writer (d.
1894)
*
October 22 -
Volney E. Howard, American politician (d.
1889)
*
December 24 -
Kit Carson, American frontiersman (d.
1868)
*
December 29 -
William Ewart Gladstone, British politician (d.
1898)
*
January 16 -
John Moore, British general (killed in battle) (b.
1761)
*
February 25 -
John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore (
Lord Dunmore)
*
March 7 -
Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, Austrian composer (b.
1736)
*
March 25 -
Anna Seward, English writer (b.
1747)
*
March 27 -
Joseph-Marie Vien, French painter (b.
1716)
*
May 13 -
Beilby Porteus, English bishop and abolitionist (b.
1731)
*
May 17 -
Leopold Auenbrugger, Austrian physician (b.
1722)
*
May 31 -
Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer (b.
1732)
*
May 31 -
Jean Lannes, French marshal (mortally wounded in battle (b.
1769)
*
June 4 -
Nikolaj Abraham Abildgaard, Danish painter (b.
1743)
*
June 8 -
Thomas Paine, American revolutionary writer (b.
1737)
*
August 18 -
Matthew Boulton, English manufacturer and engineer (b.
1728)
*
October 8 -
James Elphinston, Scottish philologist (b.
1721)
*
October 11 -
Meriwether Lewis, American explorer (suicide) (b.
1774)
*
November 9 -
Paul Sandby, English cartographer and painter (b.
1725)
*
8 August -
Ueda Akinari, Japanese author and scholar (b.
1734)
