1826

Year 1826 (MDCCCXXVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Friday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar.

Events

January–March

• January 15 – The French newspaper Le Figaro begins publication in Paris, initially as a weekly.
• January 30 – The Menai Suspension Bridge, built by engineer Thomas Telford, is opened between the island of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales.
• February 8 – Unitarian Bernardino Rivadavia becomes the first President of Argentina.
• February 11
  • University College London is founded, under the name University of London.
  • Swaminarayan writes the Shikshapatri, an important text within Swaminarayan Hinduism.
• February 13 – The American Temperance Society is founded.
• February 24 – Treaty of Yandabo ends First Anglo-Burmese War, Britain gains Assam, Manipur, Rakhine and Tanintharyi.

April–June

• April 1 – Samuel Morey patents an internal combustion engine.
• April 10 – Third Siege of Missolonghi ends with the massacre of thousands of the Greek defenders by the Ottoman besiegers.
• May 28 – Pedro I of Brazil abdicates as King of Portugal.
• June – Photography: Nicéphore Niépce makes a true photograph.
• June 14–15 – The Auspicious Incident: Mahmud II, sultan of Ottoman Empire, crushes the last mutiny of janissaries in Istanbul.
• June 21 – Greek War of Independence: Attempted Ottoman–Egyptian invasion of Mani begins.
• June 22 – The Pan-American Congress of Panama tries (unsuccessfully) to unify the republics of the Americas.

July–September

• Early July – Ludwig van Beethoven puts the finishing touches on the String Quartet in C sharp Minor, Opus 131, the jewel in the crown of his late string quartets.
• July 4 – Former US Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both die on the 50th Anniversary of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence.
• July 26 – The last auto-da-fé is held in Valencia.
• August – The town of Crawford Notch suffers a landslide. Those killed include the Willey family, after whom Mount Willey is named.
• August 10 – The first Cowes Regatta is held on the Isle of Wight in the UK.^[1]
• August 18 – Explorer Alexander Gordon Laing becomes the first European to reach Timbuktu.^[2]
• September 21 – Construction of the Rideau Canal begins in Canada.

October–December

• October 1 – Opening of the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway in Scotland.^[3]
• October 7 – The first train operates over the Granite Railway in Massachusetts.^[4][5]
• December 25
  • The Eggnog Riot breaks out at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York during the early morning hours, but is squelched by Christmas chapel service.
  • Major Albany.

The oldest surviving photograph, Nicéphore Niépce, circa 1826

Date unknown

• The first railway tunnel is built en route between Liverpool and Manchester in England.
• The British crown colony of the Straits Settlements is established.
• Aniline is first isolated from the destructive distillation of indigo by Otto Unverdorben.
• Ludwig Van Beethoven composes the Grosse Fuge.
• Mahmud II's council orders the janissaries to drill in the European manner.

Births

January–June

• January 1 – Mikhail Loris-Melikov, Russian statesman and general (d. 1888)
• January 12 – William Chapman Ralston, banker and financier (d. 1875)
• January 26 – Louis Favre, Swiss engineer (d. 1879)
• January 27
  • Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Russian writer (d. 1889)
  • Richard Taylor, American Confederate general (d. 1879)
• January 30 – Robert F. R. Lewis, American naval officer (d. 1881)
• February 7 – James Edward Jouett, American admiral (d. 1902)
• February 16
  • Joseph Victor von Scheffel, German poet (d. 1886)
  • James Calder, 5th President of the Pennsylvania State University
  • Julia Grant, First Lady of the United States (d. 1902)
• March 4
  • John Buford, American general (d. 1863)
  • Theodore Judah, railroad engineer (d. 1863)
• March 24 – Matilda Joslyn Gage, pioneering feminist (d. 1898)
• March 29 – Wilhelm Liebknecht, German journalist and politician (d. 1900)
• April 3 – Cyrus K. Holliday, cofounder of Topeka, Kansas, and first president of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad (d. 1900)
• April 6 – Gustave Moreau, French painter (d. 1898)
• 1863)
• May 3 – King Charles XV of Sweden and Norway (d. 1872)
• May 4 – Frederic Edwin Church, American painter (d. 1900)
• South Australia (d. 1898)

July–December

• July 4
  • Stephen Foster, American songwriter and poet (d. 1864)
  • Green Clay Smith, American temperance movement leader (d. 1895)
• July 31 – William S. Clark, American chemist and 3rd President of the Massachusetts Agricultural College
• August 7 – Samuel McLean, American congressman (d. 1877)
• August 11 – Andrew Jackson Davis, American cobbler (d. 1910)
• September 17 – Bernhard Riemann, German mathematician (d. 1866)
• November 13 – Charles Frederick Worth, English couturier (d. 1895)
• November 24 – Carlo Collodi, Italian writer (d. 1890)
• November 27 – Jonathan Young, United States Navy commodore (d. 1885)
• 1885)

Date unknown

• William Daniel (politician), American temperance movement leader (d. 1897)
• Cetshwayo kaMpande, Zulu king (d. 1884)

Deaths

January–June

• January 3 – Louis Gabriel Suchet, French marshal (b. 1770)
• January 17 – Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, Spanish composer (b. 1806)
• March 29 – Johann Heinrich Voß, German poet (b. 1751)
• April 25 – Karl Ludwig von Phull, German military leader (b. 1757)
• May 7 – Sophie Hagman, Swedish ballerina and royal mistress (b. 1758)
• May 16 – Elisabeth Alexeievna (Louise of Baden), Empress Consort of Russian Emperor Alexander I (b. 1779)
• May 16 – Joseph Holt (rebel), 1798 United Irish Rebel General (b. 1756)
• June 3 – Nikolay Karamzin, reformer of the Russian language (b. 1766)
• June 5 – Carl Maria von Weber, German composer (b. 1786)

July–December

• July 4
  • John Adams, 2nd President of the United States (b. 1735)
  • Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States (b. 1743)
• July 5 – Stamford Raffles, British colonial governor and founder of Singapore (b. 1781)
• July 8 – Luther Martin, delegate to the American Constitutional Convention (b. 1746)
• July 22 – Giuseppe Piazzi, Italian astronomer (b. 1746)
• August 13 – René Laennec, French physician (b. 1781)
• November 23 – Johann Elert Bode, German astronomer (b. 1747)

References