1815

Born in 1815:

• Otto von Bismarck, chancellor of Prussia whose efforts led to the unification of Germany.
• Apache chief Cochise.
• American Suffragette and abolitionist Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
• German mathematician Karl Weierstrass.
• English mathematician Ada Byron, daughter of poet George Gordon, Lord Byron.
• English mathematician and logician George Boole.
• John Alexander Macdonald, first prime minister of Canada, in Scotland.
• Australian politician Henry Parkes, in England.
• British historian and social reformer Arthur Penrhyn Stanley.
• English physicist William Nicholson.
• Texas politician Oran Milo Roberts.
• American writer Joseph Glover Baldwin.
• German author Emanuel Geibel.
• German composer Robert Franz.
• German composer Robert Volkmann.
• American composer Thomas Hastings.
• Hungarian composer Mihály Mosonyi.
• French painter Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier.
• American painter David Gilmour Blythe.
• American sculptor Clark Mills.
• French dramatist Eugène Labiche.
• English artist Hablot Knight Browne, aka "Phiz".
• English painter George D. Dalziel.
• British photographer Juila Margaret Cameron.
• Grace Darling, heroine of the 1838 wreck of the Forfarshire off Lindisfarne.
• French geologist Nicolas Desmarest.
• Italian geologist Giuseppe Mercalli.
• English explorer of Australia Edward John Eyre.
• Scottish explorer of Australia John McDouall Stuart.
• English novelist Anthony Trollope.
• Turkish politician Mehmed Emin Ali Pasha.

• American painter John Singleton Copley.
• British political cartoonist James Gillray.
• German physician Franz Anton Mesmer.
• Austrian composer Romanus Hoffstetter.
• American inventor Robert Fulton.
• (June 1) Louis Alexandre Berthier, Marshal of France, probable suicide (but also possibly assassinated).
• (August 2) Guillaume-Marie-Anne Brune, Marshal of France, killed by a royalist mob in Avignon.
• (October 13) Joachim Murat, by firing squad. See below.
• (December 7) Michel Ney, Marshal of France.
• (December 22) Mexican revolutionary José María Morelos y Pavon, by firing squad. See below.

• Portuguese King Joao VI, in exile in Brazil since being forced out by Napoleon, decides to stay in Brazil.  He makes Brazil an independent kingdom, and rules both countries from Rio de Janeiro.
• A treaty ending the war between the United States and Great Britain was signed in Ghent, Belgium the previous year; however, news of the treaty has not yet reached America. This leads to the final absurdities of the war.
• (January 5) The Federalist Party's Hartford Convention demands changes to the Constitution to reduce the influence of the South and West, and thus avoid another war.
• (January 8) A frontal assault by British troops against American forces defending New Orleans turns into a turkey shoot, as the British must march across an open field with no cover.
• (February 12) British forces retake Mobile.
• (February 8) News of the Treaty of Ghent reaches Washington, at about the same time that news of the American victory at New Orleans.  This juxtaposition leads many Americans to believe they had "won" the War of 1812.  This causes a political firestorm in light of the Federalists' recent demands, and the embarrassment smashes the Federalist Party forever.
• Napoleon Bonaparte has been exiled to the island of Elba, but hears of resistance to the reinstated king (and former Jacobin) Louis XVIII.  He decides that France needs him again.
• (March 1) Napoleon lands at Golfe-Juan near Cannes.
• (March 20) Napoleon Enters Paris; cries of "vive le Roi!" change to cries of "vive L'Empereur!", beginning one Hundred Days of Napoleon's resurgence.
• (March 25) Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia form a Seventh Coalition against France.
• Joachim Murat, King of Naples, Napoleon's brother-in-law, and former Marshal of France, decides that the time is ripe for extending his kingdom to all of Italy.  The Italians are all for Italian independence¹ from the influence of Austria; he leads his army north and captures Rome, Florence, and Bologna easily.  But his army is also the worst in Europe; the Austrians stop him at Modena and his advance turns into a long retreat.
• (May 2-3) Murat nearly defeats the Austrians at Tolentino but is forced to retreat.
• (May) Murat flees to France.  Spanish King Ferdinand VII is restored to the throne of Naples.
• (June 8) With Napoleon still on the field, the Congress of Vienna reaches a settlement for post-Napoleonic Europe.
• (June 12) Napoleon leads an army into Belgium.  There is an allied Anglo-Dutch army under the Duke of Wellington and a Prussian army under von Blücher.
• (June 16) Napoleon defeats the Prussian army  at Ligny.  However, marshal Ney allows the Prussians to escape.
• (June 18) (acc. to Alexandre Dumas) In Toulon, Marshal Brune tells Murat that Napoleon will have no more to do with him.
• (June 18) Napoleon engages the British and Dutch at Waterloo.  Napoleon is expecting reinforcements, but the Prussian army arrives first, and the battle turns into a rout.
• (June 22) Napoleon abdicates again.  He is shipped off the the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena.
• (September 28) Murat decides to retake his kingdom, but his ships are scattered, and upon landing at Pizzo with 30 followers, he is immediately captured.
• Spain sends a large force to pacify its rebellious American colonies.
• With Simon Bolivar in Haiti, Venezuela puts up little resistance.
• New Granada puts up more of a fight.  Cartagena and Bogota are eventually taken, but the reprisals of the new Spanish viceroy in Bogota destroy the support of the Creole royalists.
• José de San Martin leads an army into Upper Peru.  This invasion is a disaster, and San Martin realizes that he cannot take Peru by marching over the Andes.
• José Gervasio Artigas breaks Montevideo and its surroundings from Argentinian control, forming an off an "Eastern State", later Uruguay.
• (November 5) Royalist forces catch up with the Mexican Congress and military leader José Morelos at Temazcala.
• (November 24) Morelos goes before the Inquisition.
• (November 27) Morelos undergoes an auto-da-fé (not involving a burning at the stake, however), the last one in Mexico.
• (December 1-22) During Morelos' trial he repeatedly divulges military secrets, allowing the Spanish to capture many rebel-controlled areas.  This is not enough to save him, however, and on December 20 the death sentence is approved.
• Tambora, a volcano on the island of Sumbawa, erupts, one of the largest eruptions ever recorded (Thira may have been larger).   Enough material is ejected into the atmosphere to cause worldwide climate change; the following year is also known as "The Year Without A Summer".
• John MacAdam invents a new material for road surfaces.

1814 - 1815 - 1816

How they Were Made - 19th Century