1816

Year 1816 (MDCCCXVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). This year was known as The Year Without a Summer because of low global temperatures.

Events of 1816

January - June

* Known as the "Year Without A Summer" in the northern hemisphere due to global cooling caused by the Mount Tambora volcanic eruption that had occurred in 1815.
* The Chinese New Year of the Rat begins in January.
* January 1 - Tsar Alexander I of Russia signs an order for the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Russian Empire.
* January 9 - Sir Humphry Davy tests the Davy lamp for Miners at Hebburn Colliery.
* February 12 - Fire nearly destroys the city of St. John's, Newfoundland.
* February 20 - Gioachino Rossini's "The Barber of Seville" debuts at Teatro Argentina, with a "fiasco".
* March 23 - Estonia emancipates its peasants from serfdom.
* March 25 - Friedrich Karl Ludwig, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck dies and is succeeded by the later Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, his son and founder of the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.
* April 11 - In Philadelphia, the African Methodist Episcopal Church is established by Richard Allen and other African-American Methodists, the first such denomination completely independent of White churches.
* May 2 - Leopold of Sayxe-Coburg (later King of the Belgians) marries Charlotte Augusta, but she dies the next year.
* June 19 - Battle of Seven Oaks: The Hudson's Bay Company is defeated by the North West Fur-Trading Company, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

July - December

* July 9 - Argentina gains independence from Spain.
* July 17 - The French passenger ship "Medusa" runs aground off the coast of Senegal, with 140 lives lost in the botched rescue that takes weeks, leading to a scandal in the French government.
* August 24 - The Treaty of St. Louis is signed in St. Louis, Missouri.
* August 27 - Bombardment of Algiers: Various European Allie ships force the Dey of Algiers to free Christian slaves.
* November - James Monroe defeats Rufus King in the U.S. presidential election.
* December 11 - Indiana is admitted as the 19th U.S. state.

Undated

* Tsultrim Gyatso becomes the 10th Dalai Lama.
* Banjul, capital of The Gambia, is founded as a trading post, and named Bathurst.
* René Laennec invents the stethoscope.
* The Second Bank of the United States obtains its charter.
* "E. Remington and Sons" (the famous firearm and later typewriter manufacturing company) is founded.
* The Senate of Finland is established.
* Robert Stirling patents his engine.
* A rail capable of supporting a heavy locomotive is developed.
* The Ottomans grant Serbia local autonomy.
* Rammohun Roy founds Hindu College in Calcutta, offering instructions in Western languages and subjects.

Births

* March 14 - William Marsh Rice, American university founder (d. 1900)
* April 21 - Charlotte Brontë, British novelist (d. 1855)
* April 22 - Charles Denis Bourbaki, French general (d. 1897)
* April 25 - Eliza Daniel Stewart, American temperance movement leader (d. 1908)
* May 24 - Emanuel Leutze, American painter (d. 1868)
* June 19 - William Henry Webb, American industrialist and philanthropist (d. 1899)
* June 30 - Richard Lindon, Inventor of the Rugby Ball (d. 1887)
* July 4 - Arthur de Gobineau, French diplomat and author (d. 1882)
* July 23 - Charlotte Cushman, American stage actress (d. 1876)
* July 31 - George Henry Thomas, American general (d. 1870)
* August 4 - William Julian Albert, U.S. Congressman (d. 1879)
* August 16 - Charles John Vaughan, English scholar (d. 1897)
* November 17 - August Wilhelm Ambros, Austrian composer (d. 1876)
* December 13 - Werner von Siemens, German inventor and industrialist (d. 1892)
*"date unknown" - Francis Dutton, Premier of South Australia (d. 1877)
*"date unknown" - Patrick Henry, Publication of Henry's Speech

Deaths

* January 27 - Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood, British admiral (b. 1724)
* February 6 - Maria Ludwika Rzewuska, Polish szlachcianka (b. 1744)
* February 22 - Adam Ferguson, Scottish philosopher and historian (b. 1723)
* March 19 - Philip Mazzei, Italian physician and friend of Thomas Jefferson (b. 1730)
* March 20 - Queen Maria I of Portugal (b. 1734)
* June 5 - Giovanni Paisiello, Italian composer (b. 1751)
* June 12 - Pierre Augereau, Marshal of France and duc de Castiglione (b. 1757)
* July 5 - Dorothy Jordan, actress, mistress of King William IV of the United Kingdom (b. 1761)
* July 7 - Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Irish playwright (b. 1751)
* September 27 - Edward Charles Howard, British chemist and chemical engineer (b. 1774)
* November 8 - Gouverneur Morris, American statesman (b. 1752)
* December 15 - Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope, English statesman and scientist (b. 1753)
* December 30 - Louis Henri Loison, French general (b. 1771)