1811 - Definition and Overview

Events

• February 5 - George, Prince of Wales becomes Regent because of the perceived insanity of his father, King George III of the United Kingdom.He is known as the Prince Regent. This is the beginning of the period known as the English Regency.
• March 1 - Egyptian ruler Mohammed Ali kills the last Mamluk leaders in the Citadel Massacre
• March 25 - The Great Comet of 1811 is discovered by Honoré Flaugergues.
• April 5- April 6 - Revolutionary riots in Buenos Aires.
• May 14 - Paraguay gains independence from Spain.
• July 5 - Venezuela is the first South American country to declare independence from Spain.
• July 11 - Italian scientist Amedeo Avogadro publishes his memoire about molecular content of gases
• October 11 - Inventor John Stevens' boat, the Juliana, begins operation as the first steam-powered ferry (service between New York, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey).
• November - Luddite uprisings begin in northern England and Midlands

• Earthquake in Mississippi Valley near New Madrid reverses the course of the river for a while
• London and Westminster Chartered Gas Society founded in London
• Bolivia declares indepencence
• Uruguay revolts against Spain

Ongoing events

• Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815)-Peninsular War

Births

• January 9 - Gilbert Abbott a Beckett, writer (d. 1856)
• January 17 - Joshua Abraham Norton, later Emperor Norton I of the United States (or February 14, 1819).
• February 3 - Horace Greeley, journalist, editor, publisher (d. 1872).
• February 6 - Henry George Liddell, Dean of the Christ Church, Oxford.
• March 20 - Napoleon II of France (d. 1832)
• March 30 - Robert Bunsen, chemist, inventor: Bunsen burner (d. 1899)
• July - William Makepeace Thackeray, British novelist
• August 31 - Theophile Gautier, poet, novelist
• October 22 - Franz Liszt, composer
• October 27 - Stevens Thomson Mason, first governor of Michigan
• November 24 - Ulrich Ochsenbein, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1890)
• Zeng Guofan - eminent Han Chinese official and military leader of the late Qing Dynasty. (d. 1972)

Deaths

• May 28 - Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, British minister (b. 1742)
• September 8 - Peter Simon Pallas, German zoologist (b. 1741)