January 5 –Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, begins removal of theElgin Marbles from theParthenon in Athens, claiming they are at risk of destruction during theOttoman occupation of Greece; the first shipment departsPiraeus on board Elgin's ship, theMentor, "with many boxes of moulds and sculptures", including three marble torsos from the Parthenon.[1]
March 3 –Ludwig van Beethoven publishes hisPiano Sonata No. 14, commonly known as the "Moonlight Sonata" (Mondschein), in Vienna; the availability of the sheet music is announced by Giovanni Cappi in the newspaperWiener Zeitung.[6]
April 12 — Beethoven leavesVienna for a small nearby Austrian village namedHeiligenstadt where he would cope with his declining mental and physical health including his growing deafness. He would stay until October and there he would write an unsent letter to his brothers called theHeiligenstadt Testament. In the letter, Beethoven contemplates suicide but it was his passion for the art of music that prevented him so.
April 26 – A general amnesty signed byNapoleon allows all but about 1,000 of the most notoriousémigrés of theFrench Revolution to return to France as part of a conciliatory gesture to make peace with the various factions of theAncien Régime that ultimately consolidates his own rule.
May 19 – Napoleon establishes the FrenchLegion of Honour (Légion d'honneur).
June – The first account ofThomas Wedgwood's experiments in photography is published byHumphry Davy in theJournal of the Royal Institution in London.[9][10] Since a fixative for the image has not yet been developed, the early photographs quickly fade.
October 2 – War ends between Sweden andTripoli. The United States also negotiates peace, but war continues over the size of compensation.
October 15 – French Army GeneralMichel Ney entersSwitzerland with 40,000 troops, on orders of Napoleon Bonaparte.[13]
October 16 – The port ofNew Orleans and the lowerMississippi River are closed to American traffic by order of the city's Spanish administrator, Juan Ventura Morales, threatening the economy in the western United States, and prompting the need for theLouisiana Purchase.[14]
October 26 – A powerful7.9 earthquake shakes the Romanian district ofVrancea destroying hundreds of buildings, triggering landslides and killing 4 people. This earthquake is considered one of the strongest to have shaken Europe.
November 16 – The newly elected British Parliament is inaugurated by King George III, who tells the members, "In my intercourse with foreign powers, I have been actuated by a sincere disposition of the maintenance of peace," but adds that "My conduct will be invariably regulated by a due consideration of the actual situation of Europe, and by a watchful solicitude for the permanent welfare of my people."[15]
^Pamela Pilbeam,Madame Tussaud: And the History of Waxworks (A&C Black, 2006) p65
^"An Account of a method of copying Painting upon Glass and making profiles, by the agency of Light upon Nitrate of Silver." Invented by T. Wedgwood, Esq. with Observations by H. Davy.
^Robert Hirsch,Seizing the Light: A Social & Aesthetic History of Photography (Taylor & Francis, 2017)
^"Nguyen Anh (Emperor Gia Long)", by Nguyen The Anh, inSoutheast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor, ed. byKeat Gin Ooi (ABC-CLIO, 2004) p870
^"E. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company", by Richard Junger, inThe Advertising Age Encyclopedia of Advertising (Routledge, 2015) p500
^"Mississippi River", by Gene A. Smith, inThe Louisiana Purchase: A Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia, Junius P. Rodriguez, ed. (ABC-CLIO, 2002) p226
^William Belsham,History of Great Britain: From the Revolution, 1688, to the Conclusion of the Treaty of Amiens, 1802, Volume 12 (Phillips, 1805) p485
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