A Regency Era Timeline 1803 in progress

Timeline

Each time I start a year, I have already compiled a list, months ago with about 6000 entered of what happened from 1788 to 1837. My first step now (It took several trials to get this down to a science) is to cut out the specific year I will work on and paste it into its own spreadsheet to work with. When I worked on the entire spreadsheet, sometimes inserting a line, with all the graphics I had begun to place, took a long time. Working on each year alone, is a lot faster.

With the year separated out, I now turn to my book sources,

The Timetables of History by Grun and Stein

Chronology of CULTURE by Paxton and Fairfield

What Happened When by Carruth.

, History of the World. A beautiful Dorling Kindersley book.

I now and diligently look through each of these to find entries that I did not come across on the internet, and other printed lists. It is possible that there are places that have more listings for each year. I have not found them. And when you go to the Timelines at the Regency Assembly Press page, there you will see all the graphical references as well. Something that I did not find anywhere else.

Here is the start of 1803:

Year

Month Day

Event



1803

Jan 11

Monroe and Livingston sailed for Paris to buy New Orleans; they ended up buying Louisiana. [see Dec 20, 1802]



1803

Jan

Lord Elgin concluded his diplomatic mission to Constantinople.



1803

January

January: The first edition of the British fashion magazine Le Miroir de la Mode is published by the famous modiste, Madame Lanchester. Read more about her here on this site.



1803

January

January: William Cobbett begins publishing Parliamentary Debates, an unofficial record of Parliamentary proceedings.



1803

Feb 2

Albert Sidney Johnston, Genl. (Confederate Army), was born. He died in 1862 at Shiloh.



1803

Feb 14

An apple parer was patented by Moses Coats in Downington, Penn.



1803

Feb 15

John Augustus Sutter (d.1880), Swiss-US colonist (New Helvetia, Ca., Sutter Mill), was born.



1803

Feb 19

Congress voted to accept Ohio’s borders and constitution. However, Congress did not get around to formally ratifying Ohio statehood until 1953.



1803

Feb 21

The British return the Cape of Good Hope to the Dutch (Batavian Republic) under the Treaty of Amiens.



1803

Feb 21

Edward Despard became the last person drawn & quartered in England.



1803

Feb 24

The Supreme Court ruled itself the final interpreter of constitutional issues. Chief Justice John Marshall, by refusing to rule on the case of Marbury vs. Madison, asserted the authority of the judicial branch. The US Supreme Court 1st ruled a law unconstitutional (Marbury v Madison).



1803

Feb 25

The 1,800 sovereign German states united into 60 states.



1803

Mar 1

Ohio became the 17th state.



1803

Mar 3

The first impeachment trial of a U.S. Judge, John Pickering, began.



1803

Mar 14

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (78), German poet, died.



1803

Mar 19

Johann von Schiller’s “Die Braut von Messina,” premiered in Weimar.



1803

Apr 5

1st performance of Beethoven’s 2nd Symphony in D.



1803

Apr 7

Francois D. Toussaint L’Ouverture (Louverture), Haitian revolutionary, died in a dungeon at Fort Joux in the French Alps. In 2007 Madison Smartt Bell authored “Toussaint Louverture: A Biography.”



1803

Apr 26

Villagers of L’Aigle, France, witnessed a meteor shower. The rocks helped to convince scientists that meteors were of extraterrestrial origin.



1803

Apr 30

The US under Thomas Jefferson signed a treaty that accepted the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon Bonaparte’s government of France for 60 million francs or about $15 mil. The area included most of the thirteen states that lie between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. American envoys sent to France were originally instructed to buy only the port city of New Orleans and were astonished when Napoleon, abandoning plans for an American empire, offered them all of Louisiana. The United States doubled in size through the Louisiana Purchase. The federal government spent less than $8 million in operations and borrowed the money needed for the purchase.



1803

April

April: Beethoven premiers his Second Symphony (Symphony No. 2. in D major, Opus.36) in Vienna.



1803

May 7

Johan Peter Cronhamm, composer, was born.



1803

May 16

Great Britain and France renewed their war.



1803

May 17

John Hawkins and Richard French patented a reaping machine.



1803

May 18

Great Britain declared war on France after General Napoleon Bonaparte continued interfering in Italy and Switzerland.



1803

May 22

The 1st US public library opened in Connecticut.



1803

May 23

Lord Elgin and his family were detained in Paris. Elgin’s family was allowed to proceed but he was arrested and declared a prisoner of war.



1803

May 24

Charles LJL Bonaparte, Corsican, French prince of Canino, Musignano, was born.



1803

May 25

Ralph Waldo Emerson (d.1882), American essayist and philosopher, was born. A biography of Emerson that includes information about his friends was written in 1996 by Carlos Baker and titled: “Emerson Among the Eccentrics: A Group Portrait.” It includes such people as: the transcendental visionary Bronson Alcott, essayist Henry David Thoreau, mad poet Jones Very, activist Margaret Fuller, poet Ellery Channing. Other people included are Hawthorne, Melville, Theodore Parker, and the family of Henry James. “Money often costs too much.” “Nothing astonishes men so much as common sense and plain dealing.”



1803

May

May: Britian declares war on France, dissolving the short-lived Peace of Amiens.



1803

May

May: France begins to assemble a fleet at Boulogne in preparation for an invasion of England.



1803

May

May: Napoleon abandons plans to expand his empire into North America when it becomes clear that French possessions on that continent had become indefensible. He needs money to finance a renewed war with Britain that is looming, and sells all the French territories to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase.



1803

Jul 8

Frederick Augustus Hervey (b.1730), the 4th Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry, died. He had toured Europe with his own cook and entourage and inspired a number of hotels to take on the Bristol name.



1803

Jul 23

Irish patriots throughout the country rebelled against Union with Great Britain. Robert Emmett led the insurrection in Dublin.



1803

Jul 31

John Ericsson, inventor of the screw propeller, was born.



1803

July

July: Robert Emmet leads an unsuccessful uprising in Ireland, and is later executed.



1803

Aug 31

The government-sponsored transcontinental expedition under the leadership of Captain Meriwether Lewis and Lieutenant William Clark set off down the Ohio River. The 40-member expedition wintered and trained near St. Louis before starting up the Missouri River in three boats on May 14, 1804. Lewis and Clark’s three-year journey of exploration and discovery to the Pacific Coast and back stimulated western settlement and proved that an overland route to the West Coast was possible.



1803

August

August: Lewis and Clark embark on their transcontinental expedition to the Pacific coast of North America.



1803

Sep 5

Francois Devienne, composer, died at 44.



1803

Sep 8

A high pressure steam boiler, made by Richard Trevithick, exploded at a corn mill in Greenwich, England, and 3 men were killed. A worker had left a heavy wrench on the safety valve and gone fishing.



1803

Sep 13

Commodore John Barry, considered by many the father of the American Navy, died in Philadelphia.



1803

Sep 17

Franz Xaver Sussmayr, composer, died.



1803

Sep 20

Robert Emmet, Irish nationalist, was executed.



1803

Sep 23

British Major General Sir Arthur Wellesley defeated the Marathas at Assaye, India.



1803

Sep 27

Samuel Francis DuPont (d.1865), Rear Admiral (Union Navy), was born.



1803

Sep 28

Prosper Merimee, playwright (Carmen), was born in Paris, France.



1803

September

September: At the Battle of Assaye in India, British-led troops under the command of Arthur Wellesley defeat Maratha forces.



1803

Oct 2

Samuel Adams (b.1722), former Gov. of Mass. (1793-1797), died. He was a propagandist, political figure, revolutionary patriot and statesman who helped to organize the Boston Tea Party. In 2008 Ira Stoll authored “Samuel Adams: A Life.”



1803

Oct 3

John Gorrie, inventor of the cold-air process of refrigeration, was born.



1803

Oct 20

The US Senate voted to ratify Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase.



1803

Oct 31

Congress ratified the purchase of the entire Louisiana area in North America, which added territory to the United States for 13 subsequent states.



1803

Oct

The USS Philadelphia was captured by the Tripolitans. 307 sailors were held for ransom by the Pasha of Tripoli.



1803

October

October: British scientist John Dalton presents his atomic theory for the first time, in which he proposes that matter is composed of discrete units called atoms.



1803

Nov 3

Henri Moreau, composer (75), died.



1803

Nov 5

Chalderon de Laclos, writer, died.



1803

Nov 18

The Battle of Vertieres was fought. Jean-Jacques Dessalines (b.1758), Haitian rebel leader, led his army to decisive victory over the French with his slogan “Cut off their heads and burn down their houses.”



1803

Nov 29

Christian Doppler (d.1853), Austrian physicist who discovered the Doppler effect, was born. Hubble used his name for the Doppler Effect, that describes the apparent change in the frequency of a wave depending on whether the wave is approaching or receding.



1803

Nov 30

Spain, in a ceremony at New Orleans, completed the process of ceding Louisiana to France, which had sold it to the United States.



1803

November

November: French writer Choderlos de Laclos, author of Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons), dies at age 62 while campaigning as a general for Napoleon.



1803

Dec 3

Hector Berlioz, French composer (Symphony Fantastique), was born. [see Dec 11]



1803

Dec 11

Hector Berlioz (d.1869), French composer and conductor, was born. He introduced arresting and gaudy instrumental colors in combinations that had not been dreamed of before him. He composed “Romeo and Juliet” in 1939 and conducted its first performance. He also composed the “Death of Cleopatra.” He composed “Symphonie Fantastique” and “La Damnation de Faust.” [see Dec 3]



1803

Dec 20

The Louisiana Purchase was completed as the territory was formally transferred from France to the United States during ceremonies in New Orleans. French Prefect Pierre Clement Laussat, US Gov. William CC Claiborne and US Gen. James Wilkinson signed 4 copies the treaty. The Louisiana Purchase effectively doubled the size of the existing U.S. With 827,987 square miles in the deal, that price translates to roughly $18 per square mile- under 3 cents/acre.



1803

Dec 23

Lt. Stephen Decatur, commanding the schooner Enterprise, captured a Barbary ketch, which was entered into the US Navy as the Intrepid.



1803

December

December: The Mughal emperor Shah Alam II comes under British protection.



1803



 



1803

Construction begins in Scotland on a 60.5-mile Caledonian Canal to connect the Atlantic with the North Sea across northern Scotland.



1803

John Constable exhibits for the first time at the Royal Academy.



1803

John Philip Kemble leaves Drury Lane and becomes manager of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. His sister, Sarah Siddons, follows him to Covent Garden, where she will perform until her retirement in 1812.



1803

Matthew Flinders completes the first circumnavigation of Terra Australis.



1803

Napoleon revokes the French assembly’s emancipation decree of 1794, declaring his intention to reintroduce slavery in Hispaniola and other French territorial possessions.



1803

Spanish painter Francisco de Goya paints The Clothed Maja, a picture of the same woman in the same pose as The Nude Maja, painted around 1800, but this time fully dressed. In 1815 the Spanish government confiscates both paintings, calling them obscene, and strips Goya of his position as Court painter.



1803

The Nude Maja, c1800.
The Clothed Maja, 1803 
by Francisco de Goya. 
The second painting was created after general outrage in Spanish society over the first painting (primarily because it showed pubic hair). Without a pretense to allegorical or mythological meaning, The Nude Maja has been called “the first totally profane life-size female nude in Western art”. 




1803

Thomas Sheraton publishes The Cabinet Dictionary, a compendium of instructions on the techniques of cabinet and chair making.



1803-1822

Caledonian Ship Canal cuts clear across Scotland via the Great Glen.



1803

Ohio becomes the 17th U.S. state. (Mar 1)



1803

President Jefferson and others support an investment of $15 million for the Louisiana Territory, which Napoleon is willing to sell for cash for his war efforts.



1803

Toussaint L’Ouverture dies in prison. (Apr 7)



1803

The treaty between Britain and France has broken down. Again they go to war against each other. (May 18)



1803

A German makes morphine from opium. Physicians are delighted that opium has been tamed. Morphine is lauded for its reliability and safety.



1803

In England, seven Irish rebels are the last sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. In deference to public opinion the sentence is commuted to merely hanging and beheading.



1803

Irish are rebelling against British rule. They are crushed militarily by the British, but unrest among the Irish will remain in Ireland through the rest of the century.



1803

The Wahhabis do not view the Shia as Muslims. A Shia assassinates the conqueror Abdul Aziz of the House of Saud.



1803

Jean Baptist Say penned “A Treatise on Political Economy,” in which he said that management is a factor of production.



1803

Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834), English political economist, authored the 2nd edition of his 1798 “An Essay on the Principle of Population.” This edition introduced the idea of moral restraint.



1803

Beethoven composed his “Kreutzer Sonata” dedicated to the French violinist Rudolphe Kreutzer.



1803

One of the architects of the U.S. Capitol, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, who succeeded William Thornton and Stephen Hallet as Capitol architect in 1803, modified the original design of the Capitol and used Greek inspiration in the details. Latrobe was chiefly responsible for introducing the Greek Revival in the U.S. His Bank of Pennsylvania building in Philadelphia was the first Greek building in the country and was characteristic of his free adaptation of ancient precedent and vaulted construction.



1803

The US Mint struck its last silver dollars until 1934, when special 1804 silver dollars were minted as gifts from left over dies.



1803

Dewitt Clinton (1769-1828) began serving his 1st term as Mayor of New York City and continued to 1807. His 2nd term as mayor was from 1808-1810 and again from 1811-1815.



1803

In  NYC the industrial district surrounded the Collect Pond. It got so polluted that the Common Council called for it to be filled and the process was begun in this year.



1803

John Dalton, British chemist and physicist, pointed out that the fact that chemical compounds always combined in certain proportions could be explained by the grouping together of atoms to form units called molecules.



1803

The steel ink pen was developed in Birmingham, England.



1803

The French Academy of Sciences insisted that meteorites could not exist because no specimens had been produced.



1803

Alexander Von Humboldt, German explorer and scientist, spent some time in Taxco, Mexico. The house where he stayed later became the Museum of Colonial Religious Art.



1803

Denmark became the first country to ban slave trade.



1803-1812

Lord Elgin organized the removal of sculptures from the Parthenon.



1803-1815

In 2007 Charles Esdaile covered this period in his book: “Napoleon’s Wars: An International History, 1803-1815.”



1803-1862

Barend Cornelis Koekkoek of Holland came from a renowned family of artists. He considered the painting of nature the only true calling of an artist.



1803-1876

Orestes Augustus Brownson, American author and clergyman was born in  Stockbridge, Vt. At first a Presbyterian, he later became a Universalist, a Unitarian minister, head of his own church, a transcendentalist, and finally (1844) a Roman Catholic. As a writer and magazine editor, Brownson dealt with religious questions and fought social injustice: “We have heard enough of the liberties and the rights of man, it is high time to hear something of the duties of men and the rights of authority.” In 1992 Gregory Butler wrote the biography: “In Search of the American Spirit,” and in 1999 R.A. Herrera published “Orestes Brownson: Sign of Contradiction.”