1816
| Years: 1813 1814 1815 - 1816 - 1817 1818 1819 | |
| Decades: 1780s 1790s 1800s - 1810s - 1820s 1830s 1840s | |
| Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century 1816 in topic: Lists of leaders: | |
1816 was a leap year starting on Monday (see link for calendar).
Events
- Known as the "Year Without A Summer" or "Eighteen-hundred-and-froze-to-death" in the northern hemisphere due to global cooling caused by the Mount Tambora volcanic eruption that had occurred in 1815.
- March 25 - Friedrich Karl Ludwig, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck dies and is succeeded by the later Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, his son and founder of the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg.
- May 2 - Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, later King of the Belgians, marries Charlotte Augusta, but she dies the next year.
- July 9 - Argentina gains independence from Spain
- July 17 - The French passenger ship Medusa runs aground off the coast of Senegal, with 140 lives lost in the botched rescue that takes weeks, leading to a scandal in the French government.
- November - James Monroe defeats Rufus King in U.S. presidential election
- December 11 - Indiana is admitted as the 19th U.S. state.
- Tsultrim Gyatso becomes the 10th Dalai Lama.
- The British found Banjul, The Gambia.
- A British expedition explores up from the mouth of the Congo River.
- The Battle of Seven Oaks is fought in the Red River Colony of Canada.
- In France, René Laennec (1781-1826) invents the stethoscope.
- First known cultivation of the cranberry.
- Francis Ellis first describes the Dravidian languages.
- The Second Bank of the United States is founded.
- E. Remington and Sons is founded.
- Buffalo, New York is incorporated.
- African Methodist Episcopal Church is founded in Philadelphia.
- Beau Brummell flees England to escape gambling debts.
- Large-scale slave insurrection in Barbados - one white and 176 slaves killed and 214 executed afterwards
- Divorce annulled in France
Births
- January 2 - Benjamin Hobson, medical missionary to China
- April 21 - Charlotte Brontë, British novelist (d. 1855)
- April 22 - Charles Denis Bourbaki, French general (d. 1897)
- May 24 - Emanuel Leutze, American painter (d. 1868)
- July 4 - Arthur de Gobineau, French diplomat and author (d. 1882)
- July 23 - Charlotte Cushman, American stage actress (d. 1876)
- July 31 - George Henry Thomas, American general (d. 1870)
- October 2 - Ángel de Iturbide y Huarte (d. 1872)
- November 17 - August Wilhelm Ambros, Austrian composer (d. 1876)
- December 8 - August Belmont, Sr., Prussian-born financier (d. 1890)
- December 13 - Werner von Siemens, German inventor and industrialist (d. 1892)
- William Marsh Rice, American university founder (d. 1900)
- Charles John Vaughan, English scholar (d. 1897)
Deaths
- February 22 - Adam Ferguson, Scottish philosopher and historian (b. 1723)
- March 20 - Queen Maria I of Portugal (b. 1734)
- June 5 - Giovanni Paisiello, Italian composer (b. 1751)
- July 5 - Dorothy Jordan, Irish actress, mistress of King William IV of the United Kingdom (b. 1761)
- July 7 - Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Irish playwright (b. 1751)
- November 8 - Gouverneur Morris, American statesman (b. 1752)
- December 15 - Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope, English statesman and scientist (b. 1753)