"Is he, too, nothing more than human? Now he will crush the rights of man. He will become a tyrant!"
Ludwig van Beethoven
Born in 1804:
Died in 1804:
Events of 1804:
-
The Federalist Party is foundering. Several prominent Federalists
approach Vice-President Aaron Burr and offer to help him be elected governor
of New York. Alexander Hamilton thinks this is a terrible idea and
expresses this publicly. Burr demands an apology, and, when refused,
demands a duel, which takes place on July 11 in Weehawken, NJ. Hamilton
holds his fire but Burr does not. Hamilton is killed, and Burr loses
the election.
-
United States President Thomas Jefferson is easily re-elected:
-
The United States Navy, commanded by Stephen Decatur, bombards Tripoli
after the capture of the USF Philadelphia. A party of Marines
sneaks into Tripoli harbor and burns the Philadelphia at the docks.
-
Hispaniola declares its independence
-
(January 1) Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaims the Republic of Haiti
with
himself as Governor-General for life. In reality Dessalines is a
despot.
-
(February-April) Dessalines tours Haiti, massacring most of the remaining
French inhabitants.
-
(October 1) Dessalines proclaims himself Emperor Jacques I.
-
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
set off from St. Louis on their jouney westard. By the
end of the year, they have reached what is now North Dakota and build
a fort in which to spend the winter.
-
The British Parliament imposes a duty on imported grain, the first of the
"Corn Laws" which pitted rural English landowners against the
urban working class, and were also a major contributor to the Irish potato
famine of 1845-1848.
-
A horse-drawn railway connects Swansea and Oystermouth in August.
Richard Trevithick tests a steam locomotive in Wales.
-
The British fund French royalists to assassinate Napoleon Bonaparte.
The coup attempt fails.
-
(March 21) Napoleon has the Duc d'Enghien kidnapped and shot.
-
(May 18) In the aftermath, Napoleon has himself made Emperor.
He also arranges for his relatives to be given royal titles.
-
(December 2) At Napoleon's coronation, he takes the crown from Pope Pius
VI and places it on his own head.
- When Beethoven hears of this, he angrigly crosses out the dedication to Napoleon on his Third ("Eroica") Symphony.
-
France enacts a national civil code, known today as the Code Napoleon.
-
Spain declares war on Great Britain.
1803 - 1804 - 1805
How they Were Made - 19th Century | 
