1812

Decades: 1760s 1770s 1780s 1790s 1800s - 1810s - 1820s 1830s 1840s 1850s 1860s

Years: 1807 1808 1809 1810 1811 - 1812 - 1813 1814 1815 1816 1817

Events

• February 2 - Russia establishes a fur trading colony at Fort Ross, California
• February 7 - The strongest in a series of massive earthquakes near New Madrid, Missouri, est. >8 on Richter scale
• February 11 - Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry invents gerrymandering
• March 26 - An earthquake destroys Caracas, Venezuela
• April 30 - Louisiana is admitted as the 18th U.S. state.
• May 11 - Prime Minster Spencer Perceval is assassinated by a bankrupt banker in the lobby of the British House of Commons .
• June 18 - The War of 1812 begins between the United States and the United Kingdom.
• July 22 - Peninsular War: Battle of Salamanca - British forces led by Lord Wellington defeat French troops near Salamanca in Spain.
• August 5 - War of 1812: Tecumseh's Indian force ambushes Thomas Van Horne's 200 Americans at Brownstone Creek, causing them to flee and retreat.
• August 16 - War of 1812: American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit without a fight to the British Army.
• August 19 - War of 1812: USS Constitution defeats the British frigate Guerrière off the coast of Nova Scotia. The British shot is said to have bounced off the Constitutions sides, earning her the nickname "Old Ironsides".
• September 7 - Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Borodino - Napoleon defeats the Russian army of Alexander I near the village of Borodino.
• September 14 - Napoleon's invasion of Russia is thwarted by the burning of Moscow.
• October-December - Napoleon's retreat from Moscow.
• October 9 - War of 1812: In a naval engagement on Lake Erie, American forces capture two British ships; the HMS Detroit and the HMS Caledonia.
• October 13 - War of 1812: Battle of Queenston Heights - On the Niagara frontier in Ontario, Canada, United States forces under General Stephen Van Rensselaerof are repulsed from invading Canada by British and native troops led by Sir Isaac Brock (although he dies during the battle).
• November - James Madison defeats De Witt Clinton in U.S. presidential election
• Spanish Cortes in exile at Cadiz create the first modern Spanish constitution.|Spanish]] constitution.
• The Old Oscar Pepper Distillery (now the Labrot & Graham Distillery), the oldest Kentucky Bourbon distillery, is established along Glenn's Creek in Woodford County, Kentucky.

Births

• February 11 - Alexander Hamilton Stephens, Vice President (Confederate States of America).
• February 11 - Benjamin Franklin Sands, Commander (Union Navy).
• February 15 - Charles Louis Tiffany, jeweler (+ 1902)
• March 22 - Stephen Pearl Andrews Anarchist Abolitionist
• April 22 - Solomon Caesar Malan, Orientalist (+ 1894)
• June 9 - Johann Gottfried Galle, German astronomer (+ 1910)
• December 24 - Karl Eduard Zachariae Expert on Byzantine Law.

Deaths

• May 11 - Spencer Perceval, Prime Minister of Great Britain (assassination)
• October 13 - General Isaac Brock

Heads of states

• Denmark - Frederick VI King of Denmark (1808-1839), and King of Norway (1808-1814)
• France - Napoléon I Emperor of France (1804-1814)
• Ottoman Empire - Mahmud II Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1808-1839)
• Prussia - Frederick William III King of Prussia (1797-1840)
• Spain - Joseph Bonaparte King of Spain (1808-1813)
• Russia - Alexander I Tsar of Russia (1801-1825)

Referenced By