Also Within This Year in History:
1812
In this year, a new armed conflict erupted between England and America—named, simply, the War of 1812. In Europe, French emperor Napoleon invaded Russia, along with the largest army ever assembled, some 600,000 men. In England, a group known as the Luddites attacked textile mills to destroy newfangled industrial machinery, adding a new word to the language for anyone who opposes technological progress. And in a landmark for folklore, German brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published their first volume of fairy tales.
On February 7, 1812, the most violent of a series of earthquakes near Missouri causes a so‑called fluvial tsunami in the Mississippi River, actually making the river run backward for…
Having departed St. Louis more than two years earlier, Wilson Hunt and his party stumble into the fur‑trading post of Astoria, Oregon. Later romanticized as the archetypal frontier hero in…
Poet Robert Browning is born on this day in 1812 in Camberwell, outside London. The son of a bank clerk and a musical, religious mother, Robert Browning attended boarding school…
In London, Spencer Perceval, prime minister of Britain since 1809, is shot to death by deranged businessman John Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons. Bellingham, who was…
June 18, 1812: The day after the Senate followed the House of Representatives in voting to declare war against Great Britain, President James Madison signs the declaration into law—and the…
Following the rejection of his Continental System by Czar Alexander I, French Emperor Napoleon orders his Grande Armée, the largest European military force ever assembled to that date, into Russia.…
On this day in 1812, President James Madison delivers a special message calling for emergency commissions for new military officers 12 days after declaring war on Britain. Even though the…
Potawatomi Indians kill William Wells, an Indian captive turned Indian fighter. Born in Pennsylvania in 1770, Wells migrated with his family to Kentucky when he was nine years old. Five…
During the War of 1812, American General William Hull surrenders Fort Detroit and his army to the British without a fight. Hull, a 59‑year‑old veteran of the American Revolution, had…
During the War of 1812, the U.S. Navy frigate Constitution defeats the British frigate Guerrière in a furious engagement off the coast of Nova Scotia. Witnesses claimed that the British…
Staking a tenuous claim to the natural riches of California, Russians dedicate Fort Ross on the coast north of San Francisco on September 11, 1812. As a growing empire with…
One week after winning a bloody victory over the Russian army at the Battle of Borodino, Napoleon Bonaparte’s Grande Armée enters the city of Moscow, only to find the population…
During the War of 1812, British and Indian forces under Sir Isaac Brock defeat Americans under General Stephen Van Rensselaer at the Battle of Queenstown Heights, on the Niagara frontier…
One month after Napoleon Bonaparte’s massive invading force entered a burning and deserted Moscow, the starving French army is forced to begin a hasty retreat out of Russia. Following the…
