"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:
    • Jefferson Democratic-Republican, 162 electoral votes.
    • Charles Pinckney, Federalist, 14 electoral votes.
  • 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

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