1815

Year 1815 (MDCCCXV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1815

January–March

• January 2 – Lord Byron marries Anna Isabella Milbanke in Seaham, County Durham.
• January 3 – Austria, Britain, and Bourbon-restored France form a secret defensive alliance treaty against Prussia and Russia.
• January 8 – War of 1812 – Battle of New Orleans: American forces under General Andrew Jackson defeat an invading British force.
• February – The Hartford Convention arrives in Washington DC.
• February 3 – The first commercial cheese factory is founded in Switzerland.
• February 4 – The first Dutch student association, the Groninger Studenten Corps, Vindicat atque Polit is founded in the Netherlands. The first rector of the senate was B.J. Winters.
• February 6 – New Jersey grants the first American railroad charter to a John Stevens.
• February 26 – Napoleon Bonaparte escapes from Elba.
• March 1 – Napoleon returns to France from his banishment on Elba.
• March 15 – Joachim Murat, King of Naples declares war on Austria in an attempt to save his throne, starting the Neapolitan War.
• March 16 – William I becomes King of the Netherlands.
• March 20 – Napoleon enters Paris after escaping from Elba with a regular army of 140,000 and a volunteer force of around 200,000 beginning his "Hundred Days" rule.

April–June

April 5–12: Mount Tambora explodes, changing climate.

Congress Vienna, Jean Godefroy – Jean-Baptiste Isabey

• April 5–April 12 – Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies blows its top explosively during an eruption, killing upwards of 92,000 and propelling thousands of tons of aerosols (Sulfide gas compounds) into the upper atmosphere (stratosphere). The high level gases reflect sunlight and cause the widespread cooling (known as a volcanic winter) and heavy rains of 1816, causes snows in June and July in the northern hemisphere, widespread crop failures, and subsequently famine, which is why 1816 is later known as the Year Without a Summer.
• April 23- The Second Serbian Uprising against Ottoman rule takes place in Takovo, Serbia. By the end of the year Serbia is acknowledged as a semi-independent state; the ideals of the First Serbian Uprising have thus been temporarily achieved.
• May 3 – Battle of Tolentino: Austria defeats the Kingdom of Naples, which quickly ends the Neapolitan War. Joachim Murat, the defeated King of Naples, is forced to flee to Corsica and is later executed.
• May 30 – The Arniston, an East Indiaman repatriating wounded troops to England from Ceylon, is wrecked near Waenhuiskrans, South Africa with the loss of 372 of the 378 people on board.
• June 9 – Congress of Vienna: A new European political situation is set.
• June 16 – Battle of Ligny: Napoleon beats the Prussians.
• June 16 – Battle of Quatre Bras: Marshal Ney gets a marginal win against the British and Allies.
• June 18 – Battle of Waterloo: The Duke of Wellington decisively defeats Napoleon, ending the Napoleonic wars.
• June 22 – Napoleon abdicates again; Napoleon II (1811–1832), age 4, rules for two weeks ( 22 June to 7 July ).

June 18 – Napoleon at Waterloo.

July–September

• July 8 – Louis XVIII returns to Paris, and is 'restored' as King of France (he had declared himself king on 8 June 1795, at the death of his nephew, 10-year-old Louis XVII, and had lived in Westphalia, Verona, Russia, and England).
• July 17 – In France, Napoleon surrenders at Rochefort to British forces.
• September – Austria, Prussia and Russia sign a Holy Alliance to uphold the European status quo.
• September 23 – The Great September Gale of 1815 is the first hurricane to strike New England in 180 years.

October–December

• October 3 – The Chassigny Mars meteorite falls in Chassigny, Haute-Marne, France.
• October 15 – Napoleon I of France begins his exile on Saint Helena in the Atlantic Ocean.
• October 21 – Humphry Davy patents the miner's safety lamp for use in coal mining.

Undated

• British missionaries arrive in New Zealand.
• In Britain, use of the pillory is limited to punishment for perjury.
• The second wave of Amish immigration to North America begins.
• First-class cricket begins.
• The Spanish Empire is expelled from Veracruz.

Ongoing events

• Napoleonic Wars (1799–1815)–Seventh Coalition/Hundred Days
• Congress of Vienna (1814–1815)

Births

January–June

• January 11 – John A. Macdonald, First Prime Minister of Canada, Father of Confederation (d. 1891)
• February 15 – Constantin von Tischendorf, German Biblical scholar (d. 1874)
• April 1 – Otto von Bismarck, German statesman (d. 1898)
• April 1 – Edward Clark, Governor of Texas (d. 1880)
• April 6 – Robert Volkmann, German composer (d. 1883)
• April 24 – Anthony Trollope, British author (d. 1882)
• May 27–Sir Henry Parkes, Father of Australian Federation (d. 1896)

July–December

• August 5 – Edward John Eyre, explorer (d. 1901)
• August 16 – Saint John Bosco, priest and educator (d. 1888)
• October 16 – Francis Lubbock, Governor of Texas (d. 1905)
• October 23 – João Maurício Wanderley, Brazilian magistrate and politician (d. 1889)
• October 31 – Karl Weierstrass, German mathematician (d. 1897)
• November 2 – George Boole, English mathematician and philosopher (d. 1864)
• December 10 – Augusta Ada King (née Byron), Countess of Lovelace, early English computer pioneer (d. 1852)
• November 12 – Elizabeth Cady Stanton, American women's rights activist (d. 1902)
• December 21 – Thomas Couture, French painter (d. 1879)

Deaths

January–June

• January 8 – Edward Pakenham, British general (killed in battle) (b. 1778)
• January 16 – Emma, Lady Hamilton, English mistress of Horatio Nelson (b. 1765)
• February 24 – Robert Fulton, American inventor (b. 1765)
• February 26 – Prince Josias of Coburg, Austrian general (b. 1737)
• March 4 – Frances Abington, English actress (b. 1737)
• March 5 – Franz Mesmer, German developer of animal magnetism (b. 1734)
• April 21 – Joseph Winston, American patriot and Congressman from North Carolina (b. 1746)
• June 1 – Louis Alexandre Berthier, French marshal (b. 1753)
• June 16 – Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Brunswick, German noble and general (killed in battle) (b. 1771)
• June 18 – Thomas Picton, British general (killed in battle) (b. 1758)
• June 18 – Claude-Etienne Michel, French general (killed in battle) (b. 1772
• June 18 – Guillaume Philibert Duhesme, French general (killed in battle) (b. 1766)

July–December

• August 2 – Guillaume Marie Anne Brune, French marshal (murdered) (b. 1763)
• August 6 – James A. Bayard (elder), U.S. Senator from Delaware (b. 1767)
• September 9 – John Singleton Copley, American painter (b. 1738)
• September 20 – Nicolas Desmarest, French geologist (b. 1725)
• October 13 – Joachim Murat, French marshal and King of Naples (executed) (b. 1767)
• October 19 – Paolo Mascagni, Anatomist (b. 1755)
• October 22 – Claude Lecourbe, French general (b. 1759)
• December 3 – John Carroll (priest), first American Roman Catholic Archbishop (b. 1735)
• December 7 – Michel Ney, French marshal (executed) (b. 1769)
• December 29 – Saartjie Baartman, sideshow performer