1817 facts for kids

Events of 1817

January – March

• January 19 – An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General José de San Martín, starts crossing the Andes from Argentina to free Chile and then Peru.
• February 12 – The Argentine/Chilean patriotic army defeats the Spanish in the Battle of Chacabuco.
• March 3
  • The Alabama Territory is created by splitting the Mississippi Territory in half, 9 months before Mississippi becomes a U.S. state.
    • President James Madison vetoes John C. Calhoun's Bonus Bill.
• March 4 – James Monroe succeeds James Madison as the President of the United States of America.

April – June

• April – Earthquake in Palermo, Italy
• April 3 – Princess Caraboo appears in Almondsbury in Gloucestershire, England.
• April 15 – The first American school for the deaf opens in Hartford, Connecticut.
• April 17 – Martin Van Buren passes Erie Canal bill.
• April 28 – Rush-Bagot Treaty is signed.
• May – The General Convention of the Episcopal Church founded General Theological Seminary while meeting in New York City.
• June 5 – First Great Lakes steamer, the Frontenac, is launched.
• June 25 – Large prison riot in Copenhagen prison – army is sent for to quell it.

July – September

• July 4 – At Rome, New York, construction on the Erie Canal begins.
• August 22 – City of Araraquara, Brazil founded.
• August 23 – Earthquake near the site of the ancient Greek city of Helike results in 65 deaths.

October – December

• October – President and Mrs. James Monroe move back into the White House, after restoration repairs.
• October 31 – Emperor Ninkō accedes to the throne of Japan.
• November 20 – The first Seminole War begins in Florida.
• November 22 – Fredric Cailliaud discovers the old Roman emerald mines at Sikait, Egypt.
• December 10 – Mississippi is admitted as the 20th U.S. state, separated from the Alabama Territory.

Undated

• Elgin Marbles are displayed in the British Museum.
• John Kidd extracts naphthalene from coal tar.
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge publishes Biographia Literaria.
• A Typhus epidemic occurs in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
• Outbreak of the Pernambucan Revolt.

January – June

• January 6 – J. J. McCarthy, Irish architect (d. 1882)
• January 8 – Sir Theophilus Shepstone, British-born South African statesman (d. 1893)
• February 19 – King William III of the Netherlands (d. 1890)
• February 22 – Carl Wilhelm Borchardt, German mathematician (d. 1880)
• March 6 – Clémentine of Orléans, daughter of King Louis-Philippe of France and mother of Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (d. 1907)
• March 22 – Braxton Bragg, American Confederate general (d. 1876)
• May 15 – Debendranath Tagore, Indian philosopher (d. 1905)
• June 30 – Joseph Dalton Hooker, English botanist (d. 1911)

July - December

• July 12 – Henry David Thoreau, American philosopher (d. 1862)
• July 24 – Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg (d. 1905)
• August 3 – Archduke Albert, Austrian general (d. 1895)
• August 14 – Alexander H. Bailey, American politician (d. 1874)
• August 24 – Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Russian writer (d. 1875)
• October 17 – Sir Syed Ahmed Khan Bahadur Founder of the Two Nation Theory for a future Pakistan (d. 1898)
• November 3 – Leonard Jerome, American entrepreneur and grandfather of Sir Winston Churchill (d. 1891)
• November 12 – Bahá'u'lláh, Persian founder of the Bahá'í Faith (d. 1892)
• November 17 – Benjamin Champney, American painter (d. 1907)
• November 30 – Theodor Mommsen, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1903)

Deaths

January – June

• January 12 – Juan Andres, Spanish Jesuit (b. 1740)
• January 16 – Alexander J. Dallas, American statesman and financier (b. 1759)
• April 4 – André Masséna, French marshal (b. 1758)
• April 12 – Charles Messier, French astronomer (b. 1730)
• June 24 – Thomas McKean, American lawyer and signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1734)

July – December

• July 14 – Anne Louise Germaine de Staël, French writer (b. 1766)
• July 18 – Jane Austen, English novelist (b. 1775)
• July 19 – John Palmer, Bath architect (b. c. 1738)
• October 16 – Manuel Piar, Venezuelan military leader (b. 1774)
• November 14 – Policarpa Salavarrieta, Colombian spy and revolutionary who worked for the Independence of Colombia (b. 1795)
• November 30 – Jean-Baptiste-Melchior Hertel de Rouville, Canadian politician (b. 1748)
• December 7 – William Bligh, Captain of the Bounty, Governor of New South Wales (b. 1754)

Images for kids

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  February 12: Battle of Chacabuco

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  July 4: Construction on the Erie Canal starts.

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  William III of the Netherlands

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  Joseph Dalton Hooker

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  Mihail Kogălniceanu

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  Thomas McKean

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  Jane Austen

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  Karađorđe

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  William Bligh