1803

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Year 1803 (MDCCCIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar.

World Population: Over 1 billion

Events

January–March

• January 1 – New Year's Day.
• January 1 – The first edition of Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de La Reynière's Almanach des gourmands, the first guide to restaurant cooking, is published in Paris.
• January 5 – William Symington demonstrates his Charlotte Dundas, the "first practical steamboat", in Scotland.

January 5: steamboat Charlotte Dundas.

• January 30 – Monroe and Livingston sail for Paris to discuss, and possibly buy, New Orleans; they end up completing the Louisiana Purchase.
• February 19 – Act of Mediation issued by Napoleon Bonaparte establishes the Swiss Confederation to replace the Helvetic Republic. Under the terms of the act, Graubünden, St. Gallen, Thurgau, the Ticino and Vaud become Swiss cantons.
• February 21 – Edward Despard and six others are hanged and beheaded for plotting to assassinate King George III of the United Kingdom and to destroy the Bank of England.
• February 24 – Marbury v. Madison: The Supreme Court of the United States establishes the principle of judicial review.
• February 25 – A major redistribution of territorial sovereignty within the Holy Roman Empire is enacted via an act known as the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss.
• March 1 – Ohio is admitted as the 17th U.S. state, retroactive from August 7, 1953.
• March 9 – Aargau becomes a Swiss canton.

April–June

• March–April – The franc germinal is introduced in France.
• April 26 – The L'Aigle meteorite falls in Normandy, causing a shift in scientific opinion on the origin of meteorites.
• April 30 – Louisiana Purchase is made by the United States from France.
• May – The First Consul of France Citizen Bonaparte begins making preparations to invade England.
• May 18 – The United Kingdom resumes war on France after France refuses to withdraw from Dutch territory.
• May 19 – Master Malati, a Coptic Christian leader, is beheaded by a Muslim mob in Cairo, Egypt.

July–September

• July 4 – The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.
• July 5 – The convention of Artlenburg leads to the French occupation of Hanover (which had been ruled by the British king).
• July 23 – Robert Emmet's uprising in Ireland begins.
• July 26 – The wagonway between Wandsworth and Croydon is opened, being the first public railway line in England.
• August 3 – The British begin the Second Anglo-Maratha War against the Scindia of Gwalior.
• September 2 – Registration day for MIT students to add 18.03 to their schedules.
• September 3 – William Wordsworth writes "Upon Westminster Bridge."
• September 11 – Battle of Delhi, during the Second Anglo-Maratha War, between British troops under General Lake, and Marathas of Scindia's army under General Louis Bourquin.
• September 20 – Irish rebel Robert Emmet is executed.
• September 23 – Battle of Assaye (India): British-led troops defeat Maratha forces.

October–December

• October 20 – The Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase Treaty, doubling the size of the United States.
• November 18 – Battle of Vertières: The Haitian army led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines defeats the army of Napoleon.
• November 30 – At The Cabildo in New Orleans, Spanish representatives Governor Manuel de Salcedo and the Marqués de Casa Calvo, officially transfer the Louisiana Territory to French representative Prefect Pierre Clément de Laussat (just 20 days later, France transfers the same land to the United States as the Louisiana Purchase).

Undated

• Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin begins removal of the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens where they are at risk of destruction during the Ottoman occupation of Greece.
• Odisha, India is occupied by the British under the British East India Company after the Second Anglo-Maratha War.
• Major breakthroughs in chemistry occur, with the identification of the elements rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and cerium.

Births

January–June

• February 2 – Albert Sidney Johnston, American Confederate general (d. 1862)
• February 15 – John Sutter, American pioneer (d. 1880)
• March 16 – Nikolay Yazykov, Russian poet and Slavophile (d. 1846)
• April 7 – Flora Tristan, French feminist (d. 1844)
• April 30
  • Jeremiah E. Cary, American politician (d. 1888)
  • Albrecht von Roon, Prime Minister of Prussia (d. 1879)
• May 12 – Justus von Liebig, German chemist (d. 1873)
• May 24 – Charles Lucien Bonaparte, French naturalist and ornithologist (d. 1857)
• May 25
  • Edward Bulwer-Lytton, English novelist and playwright (d. 1873)
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson, American writer (d. 1882)
• June 24 – George James Webb, English-born composer (d. 1887)

July–December

• July 10 – William Todd (1803–1873), American businessman, Canadian senate nominee
• July 24 – Adolphe Adam, French composer (d. 1856)
• July 31 – John Ericsson, Swedish inventor and engineer (d. 1889)
• August 3 – Sir Joseph Paxton, English gardener, architect and Member of Parliament (d. 1865)
• August 13 – Vladimir Odoyevsky, Russian philosopher, writer, music critic (d. 1869)
• August 27 – Edward Beecher, American theologian (d. 1895)
• September 4 – Sarah Childress Polk, First Lady of the United States (d. 1891)
• September 27 – Samuel Francis Du Pont, American admiral (d. 1865)
• September 28 – Prosper Mérimée, French writer (d. 1870)
• September 29 – Mercator Cooper, American sea captain (d. 1872)
• October 16 – Robert Stephenson, English civil engineer (d. 1859)
• November 14 – Jacob Abbott, American writer (d. 1879)
• November 29 – Christian Doppler, Austrian mathematician (d. 1853)
• December 5 – Fyodor Tyutchev, great Russian Romantic poet (d. 1873)
• December 6 – Susanna Moodie, English writer (d. 1885)
• December 11 – Hector Berlioz, French composer (d. 1869)

date unknown

• Charles Lafontaine, Swiss mesmerist (d. 1892)

Deaths

January–June

• January 18 – Ippolit Bogdanovich, Russian poet (b. 1743)
• January 23 – Arthur Guinness, Irish brewer (b. 1725)
• February 9 – Jean François de Saint-Lambert, French poet (b. 1716)
• February 18 – Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, German poet (b. 1719)
• February 20 – Marie Dumesnil, French actress (b. 1713)
• February 21 – Edward Despard, British revolutionary (b. 1751)
• March 14 – Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, German poet (b. 1724)
• April 2 – Sir James Montgomery, 1st Baronet, Scottish politician and judge (b. 1721)
• April 7 – Toussaint L'Ouverture, Haitian revolutionary (b. 1743)
• June 24 – Matthew Thornton, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1714)

July–December

• August 24 – James Napper Tandy, Irish republican
• September 5 – Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, French general and author (b. 1741)
• September 15
  • Gian Francesco Albani, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1719)
  • François Devienne, French composer (b. 1759)
• September 17 – Franz Xaver Süssmayr, Austrian composer (b. 1766)
• October 2 – Samuel Adams, American revolutionary leader (b. 1722)
• October 8 – Vittorio Alfieri, Italian dramatist and poet (b. 1749)
• October 14 – Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, French philosopher (b. 1743)
• October 26 – Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, English politician (b. 1721)
• December 18 – Johann Gottfried Herder, German philosopher and writer (b. 1744)
• December 30 – Francis Lewis, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1713)

Date unknown

• Jacques-Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont, French Father of the American Revolution (b. 1726)

References