1817

Events

January–March

• January 1 - Sailing through the Sandwich Islands, Otto von Kotzebue discovers New Year Island.
• January 19 - An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General José de San Martín, starts crossing the Andes from Argentina, to liberate Chile and then Peru.
• January 20 - Ram Mohan Roy and David Hare found Hindu College, Calcutta, offering instructions in Western languages and subjects.
• February 12 - Battle of Chacabuco: The Argentine-Chilean patriotic army defeats the Spanish.
• March 3
• * President James Madison vetoes John C. Calhoun's Bonus Bill.
• * The U.S. Congress passes a law to split the Mississippi Territory, after Mississippi drafts a constitution, creating the Alabama Territory, effective in August.
• March 4 - James Monroe is sworn in as the fifth President of the United States.
• March 21 - The flag of the Pernambucan Revolt is publicly blessed by the dean of Recife Cathedral, Brazil.

  April–June

• April 3 - Princess Caraboo appears in Almondsbury in Gloucestershire, England.
• April 15 -
• *The American School for the Deaf opens in Hartford, Connecticut.
• *An earthquake strikes Palermo in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. "Prof. Ferrara on the Earthquakes in Sicily in 1823", The Edinburgh Journal of Science p366
• April 29 - The Rush–Bagot Treaty is signed.
• May 27 - The General Convention of the Episcopal Church founds the General Theological Seminary, while meeting in New York City.
• June 12 -
• *German inventor Karl Drais drives his dandy horse, the earliest form of bicycle, in Mannheim.
• * Tradesman Jeffery Sedwards establishes the Skibbereen Abstinence Society in Ireland, considered the first organisation devoted to teetotalism in Europe.
• June 22 - King Ferdinand VII of Spain, by royal decree, makes the production and sale of tobacco a legal endeavor in Cuba, thus sparking the birth of the Cuban cigar industry.
• June 25 - A large riot breaks out in Copenhagen Prison; the army is sent to quell it.

  July–September

• July 4 - At Rome, New York, construction on the Erie Canal begins.
• August 15 - By act of the U.S. Congress, the Alabama Territory is created by splitting the Mississippi Territory in half, on the day the Mississippi constitution is drafted, four months before Mississippi became a U.S. state.
• August 22 - The town of Araraquara, Brazil is founded.
• August 23 - An earthquake near the site of the ancient Greek city of Helike results in 65 deaths.
• August 23 - The University of Michigan is founded in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
• September 11 - The Great Rebellion of 1817-18 begins in Sri Lanka.

  October–December

• October 17 - Frigate is launched in Bombay for the British Royal Navy; she will still be afloat two centuries later.
• October 30 - The independent government of Venezuela is established by Simón Bolívar.
• October 31 - Emperor Ninkō accedes to the throne of Japan.
• November 3 - The Bank of Montreal opens in Montreal.
• November 5 - Third Anglo-Maratha War breaks out with the Battle of Khadki.
• November 20 - The first Seminole War begins in Florida.
• November 22 - Frédéric Cailliaud discovers the old Roman emerald mines at Sikait, Egypt.
• December 10 - Mississippi is admitted as the 20th U.S. state, formerly the Mississippi Territory.

  Date unknown

• The first cholera pandemic originates in Bengal, reaching Calcutta by September.
• A typhus epidemic occurs in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
• L'Anciente Mutuelle, as predecessor of Axa, an insurance and financial service of worldwide, founded in Rouen, France.

  Births

January–June

• January 8 - Sir Theophilus Shepstone, British-born South African statesman
• January 28 - Francisco de Lersundi y Hormaechea, Spanish noble and politician, Prime Minister of Spain
• February 17 - Édouard Thilges, 7th Prime Minister of Luxembourg
• February 18 - Lewis Armistead, American Confederate general
• February 19 - King William III of the Netherlands
• February 22 - Carl Wilhelm Borchardt, German mathematician
• February 24 - Auguste-Alexandre Ducrot, French general
• March 6 - Princess Clémentine of Orléans, daughter of King Louis Philippe I of France, mother of Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria
• March 22 - Braxton Bragg, American Confederate general
• April 1 - , Japanese Buddhist priest Honmon Butsuryū-shū, Kyoto city
• April 15 - Benjamin Jowett, Master of Balliol College, Oxford
• April 24 - Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac, Swiss chemist
• May 15 - Debendranath Tagore, Indian philosopher
• May 19 - Theodor August Heintzman, Canadian piano manufacturer
• June 30 - Joseph Dalton Hooker, English botanist

  July–December

• July 6 - Albert von Kölliker, Swiss biologist, zoologist
• July 12
• *Alphonse Lecointe, French general and politician
• *Henry David Thoreau, American philosopher
• July 15 - John Fowler, British civil engineer
• July 24 - Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg
• July 29 - Ivan Aivazovsky, Armenian-Russian painter
• August 3 - Archduke Albrecht, Duke of Teschen, Austrian general
• August 4 - Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen, 29th United States Secretary of State
• August 14 - Alexander H. Bailey, American politician
• August 24 - Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Russian writer
• August 25 - Marie-Eugénie de Jésus, French religious
• September 6
• * Helga de la Brache, Swedish con artist
• * Mihail Kogălniceanu, 3rd Prime Minister of Romania
• September 14 - Theodor Storm, German writer
• October 10 - Christophorus Buys Ballot, Dutch chemist, meteorologist
• October 17 - Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, Indian founder of the Two Nation Theory for a future Pakistan
• October 30 - Hermann Franz Moritz Kopp, German chemist
• November 3 - Leonard Jerome, American entrepreneur, grandfather of Sir Winston Churchill
• November 12 - Bahá'u'lláh, Persian founder of the Bahá'í Faith
• November 17 - Benjamin Champney, American painter
• November 30 - Theodor Mommsen, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate
• December 8 - Christian Emil Krag-Juel-Vind-Frijs, Prime Minister of Denmark
• December 10 - Alexander Wood, Scottish inventor of the first true hypodermic syringe
• December 23 - Warren Felt Evans, American writer

  Date unknown

• Sophia Wilkens, Swedish social reformer, pioneer in the education of the intellectually disabled

  Deaths

January–June

• January 1 - Martin Heinrich Klaproth, German chemist who discovered uranium, zirconium, and cerium
• January 11 - Timothy Dwight IV, American educator, theologian
• January 11 - Margherita Dalmet, Venetian dogaressa
• January 12 - Juan Andrés, Spanish Jesuit
• January 16 - Alexander J. Dallas, American statesman, financier
• February 8 - Francis Horner, Scottish politician, economist
• March 8 - Anna Maria Lenngren, Swedish writer
• April 2 - Johann Heinrich Jung, German writer
• April 4 - André Masséna, French marshal
• April 12 - Charles Messier, French astronomer
• April 20 - Infante Antonio Pascual of Spain, Spanish prince
• June 2 - Clotilde Tambroni, Italian philologist, linguist
• June 4 - George Farragut, American naval officer
• June 9 - Théroigne de Méricourt, French revolutionary
• June 13
• * Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Anglo-Irish, politician writer and inventor
• * Esther de Gélieu, Swiss educator
• June 18 - Leonard Neale, American Catholic bishop
• June 20 - Marie-Gabriel-Florent-Auguste de Choiseul-Gouffier, French diplomat
• June 24 - Thomas McKean, American lawyer, signer of the Declaration of Independence
• June 30 - Abraham Gottlob Werner, German geologist

  July–December

• July 14 - Anne Louise Germaine de Staël, French writer
• July 18 - Jane Austen, English novelist
• July 19 - John Palmer, Bath architect
• July 24 - Karađorđe Petrović, Serb leader of the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire, founder of the Serbian Karađorđević dynasty
• August 7 - Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, French politician
• August 10 - Leopold III, Duke of Anhalt-Dessau
• September 18 - David Hall, American judge
• October 11 - Gertrudis Bocanegra, Mexican national heroine
• October 13 - Julius Caesar Ibbetson, English artist
• October 15 - Tadeusz Kościuszko, exiled Polish general, nationalist
• October 16 - Manuel Piar, Venezuelan military leader
• November 6 - Princess Charlotte of Wales, Heir-presumptive to the British throne
• November 7 - Jean-André Deluc, Swiss geologist
• November 11 - Francisco Javier Mina, Spanish military leader
• November 14 - Policarpa Salavarrieta, Colombian spy, revolutionary who worked for the independence of Colombia
• November 30 - Jean-Baptiste-Melchior Hertel de Rouville, Canadian politician
• December 7 - William Bligh, British admiral
• December 1 - Justin Heinrich Knecht, German composer, organist and music theorist
• December 12 - Emperor Tekle Giyorgis I of Ethiopia,

  Date unknown

• Usman dan Fodio, founder of Sokoto caliphate