1809

Years: 1806 1807 1808 - 1809 - 1810 1811 1812
Decades: 1770s 1780s 1790s - 1800s - 1810s 1820s 1830s
Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century

1809 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar).

Contents

Events

January 16 - Peninsular War: The British defeat the French at the Battle of Corunna.
February 3 - Illinois Territory was created.
February 11 - Robert Fulton patents the steamboat.
February 20 - A decision by the Supreme Court of the United States states that the power of the federal government is greater than any individual state.
March 4 - James Madison succeeds Thomas Jefferson as the President of the United States.
March 29 - At the Diet of Porvoo, Finland's four Estates pledge allegiance to Alexander I of Russia, commencing the secession of the Grand Duchy of Finland from Sweden. King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden abdicated after a coup d'état.
April 9 - Tyroleans rise against French and Bavarian occupation - they include militia lead by Andreas Hofer.
April 19 - Battle of Raszyn between armies of Austria (attackers) and Duchy of Warsaw (defenders) as a part of struggles of the Fifth Coalition (1809). Austrian army was defeated.
May - Napoleon captures Vienna, is excommunicated, imprisons pope Pius VII.
May 5 - Mary Kies is the first woman to be awarded a patent.
May 5 - The Swiss canton of Aargau denies Jews citizenship.
May 17 - Napoleon I of France orders the annexation of the Papal States to the French empire.
June 6 - Sweden promulgates a new Instrument of Government, which restores political power to the Riksdag of the Estates after authoritarian rule since 1772.
June 7 - Shoja Shah of Afghanistan signs a treaty with the British. Only weeks later, he is succeeded by Mahmud Shah.
September 17 - Peace between Russia and Sweden in the Finnish War. The territory to become the Grand Duchy of Finland is ceded to Russia by the Treaty of Fredrikshamn.
October 11 - Along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee, explorer Meriwether Lewis dies under mysterious circumstances at an inn called Grinder's Stand.

USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) is recommissioned as flagship of the North Atlantic Squadron.
Louis Poinsot describes the two remaining Kepler-Poinsot solids.
Lamarck publishes Philosophie Zoologique, outlining the concept of evolution.
First running of the Two Thousand Guineas Stakes horse race in England.
Miami University (Ohio) established by congressional order by George Washington.

Ongoing events

Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815)-Peninsular War/Finnish War/Fifth Coalition

Births

January 4 - Louis Braille, French teacher, developed writing system for the blind (d. 1852).
January 15 - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, French anarchist (d. 1864)
January 19 - Edgar Allan Poe, American writer (d. 1849)
February 3 - Felix Mendelssohn, German composer (d. 1847)
February 12
- Abraham Lincoln, US president (d. 1865)
- Charles Darwin, British naturalist (d. 1882)
February 15 - Cyrus McCormick, American inventor (d. 1884)
March 31 - Nikolai Gogol, Russian writer (d. 1852)
April 15 - Hermann Gunter Grassmann, Prussian mathematician (d. 1877)
June 4 - Columbus Delano, American statesman (d. 1896)
June 8 - Richard Wigginton Thompson, American politician (d. 1900)
August 6 - Alfred Lord Tennyson, British poet (d. 1892)
August 8 - Heinrich Abeken, German theologian (d. 1872)
August 27 - Hannibal Hamlin, American politician (d. 1891)
August 29 - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., American physician and writer (d. 1894)
October 22 - Volney E. Howard, American politician (d. 1889)
December 24 - Kit Carson, American frontiersman (d. 1868)
December 29 - William Ewart Gladstone, British politician (d. 1898)

Deaths

March 7 - Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, Austrian composer (b. 1736)
March 25 - Anna Seward, English writer (b. 1747)
March 27 - Joseph-Marie Vien, French painter (b. 1716)
May 13 - Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London and abolitionist (b. 1731)
May 31 - Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer (b. 1732)
June 4 - Nikolaj Abraham Abildgaard, Danish painter (b. 1743)
June 8 - Thomas Paine, American revolutionary writer (b. 1737)
August 18 - Matthew Boulton, English industrialist and member of the Lunar Society
October 11 - Meriwether Lewis, American explorer (suicide) (b. 1774)