1803

This article is about the year 1803.

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	18th century – 19th century – 20th century
Decades:	1770s  1780s  1790s  – 1800s –  1810s  1820s  1830s
Years:	1800 1801 1802 – 1803 – 1804 1805 1806

1803 in topic:

Humanities

Archaeology – Architecture – Art – Literature – Music

By country

Australia – Canada – France – Germany – Mexico – Philippines – South Africa – US – UK

Other topics

Rail Transport – Science – Sports

Lists of leaders

Colonial Governors – State leaders

Birth and death categories

Births – Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments – Disestablishments

Works category

Works

1803 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1803 MDCCCIII
Ab urbe condita	2556
Armenian calendar	1252 ԹՎ ՌՄԾԲ
Assyrian calendar	6553
Bahá'í calendar	-41 – -40
Bengali calendar	1210
Berber calendar	2753
British Regnal year	43 Geo. 3 – 44 Geo. 3
Buddhist calendar	2347
Burmese calendar	1165
Byzantine calendar	7311–7312
Chinese calendar	壬戌年 (Water Dog) 4499 or 4439     — to — 癸亥年 (Water Pig) 4500 or 4440
Coptic calendar	1519–1520
Ethiopian calendar	1795–1796
Hebrew calendar	5563–5564
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1859–1860
- Shaka Samvat	1725–1726
- Kali Yuga	4904–4905
Holocene calendar	11803
Igbo calendar	803–804
Iranian calendar	1181–1182
Islamic calendar	1217–1218
Japanese calendar	Kyōwa 2 (享和２年)
Juche calendar	N/A
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 12 days
Korean calendar	4136
Minguo calendar	109 before ROC 民前109年
Thai solar calendar	2346

Year 1803 (MDCCCIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar.

World Population: Over 1 billion

Events

January–March

• January 5 – William Symington demonstrates his Charlotte Dundas, the "first practical steamboat", in Scotland.

January 5: steamboat Charlotte Dundas.

• January 30 – Monroe and Livingston sail for Paris to discuss, and possibly buy, New Orleans; they end up completing the Louisiana Purchase.
• February 19 – Act of Mediation issued by Napoleon Bonaparte establishes the Swiss Confederation to replace the Helvetic Republic. Under the terms of the act, Graubünden, St. Gallen, Thurgau, the Ticino and Vaud become Swiss cantons.
• February 21 – Edward Despard and six others are hanged and beheaded for plotting to assassinate King George III of the United Kingdom and to destroy the Bank of England.
• February 24 – Marbury v. Madison: The Supreme Court of the United States establishes the principle of judicial review.
• February 25 – A major redistribution of territorial sovereignty within the Holy Roman Empire is enacted via an act known as the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss.
• March 1 – Ohio is admitted as the 17th U.S. state, retroactive from August 7, 1953.
• March 9 – Aargau becomes a Swiss canton.

April–June

• March–April – The franc germinal is introduced in France.
• April 30 – Louisiana Purchase is made by the United States from France.
• May – The First Consul of France Citizen Bonaparte begins making preparations to invade England.
• May 18 – The United Kingdom resumes war on France after France refuses to withdraw from Dutch territory.
• May 19 – Master Malati, a Coptic Christian leader, is beheaded by a Muslim mob in Cairo, Egypt.

July–September

• July 4 – The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.
• July 5 – The convention of Artlenburg leads to the French occupation of Hanover (which had been ruled by the British king).
• July 23 – Robert Emmet's uprising in Ireland begins.
• July 26 – The wagonway between Wandsworth and Croydon is opened, being the first public railway line in England.
• August 3 – The British begin the Second Anglo-Maratha War against Sindhia of Gwalior.
• September 3 – William Wordsworth writes "Upon Westminster Bridge."
• September 11 – Battle of Delhi, during the Second Anglo-Maratha War, between British troops under General Lake, and Marathas of Scindia's army under General Louis Bourquin.
• September 20 – Irish rebel Robert Emmet is executed.
• September 23 – Battle of Assaye (India): British-led troops defeat Maratha forces.

October–December

• October 20 – The Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase Treaty, doubling the size of the United States.
• November 18 – Battle of Vertières: The Haitian army led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines defeats the army of Napoleon.
• November 30 – At the Cabildo building in New Orleans, Spanish representatives Governor Manuel de Salcedo and the Marqués de Casa Calvo, officially transfer the Louisiana Territory to French representative Prefect Pierre Clément de Laussat (just 20 days later, France transfers the same land to the United States as the Louisiana Purchase).

Undated

• Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin begins removal of the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens where they are at risk of destruction during the Ottoman occupation of Greece.
• Odisha, India is occupied by the British under the British East India Company after the Second Anglo-Maratha War.
• Major breakthroughs in chemistry occur, with the identification of the elements Rhodium, Palladium, Osmium, Iridium, and Cerium.

Births

January–June

• February 2 – Albert Sidney Johnston, American Confederate general (d. 1862)
• February 15 – John Sutter, American pioneer (d. 1880)
• April 7 – Flora Tristan, French feminist (d. 1844)
• April 30
  • Jeremiah E. Cary, American politician (d. 1888)
  • Albrecht Graf von Roon, Prime Minister of Prussia (d. 1879)
• May 12 – Justus von Liebig, German chemist (d. 1873)
• May 24 – Charles Lucien Bonaparte, French naturalist and ornithologist (d. 1857)
• May 25
  • Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, English novelist and playwright (d. 1873)
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson, American writer (d. 1882)
• June 24 – George James Webb, English-born composer (d. 1887)

July–December

• July 10 – William Todd (1803–1873), American businessman, Canadian senate nominee
• July 24 – Adolphe Charles Adam, French composer (d. 1856)
• July 31 – John Ericsson, Swedish inventor and engineer (d. 1889)
• August 27 – Edward Beecher, American theologian (d. 1895)
• September 4 – Sarah Childress Polk, First Lady of the United States (d. 1891)
• September 27 – Samuel Francis du Pont, American admiral (d. 1865)
• September 28 – Prosper Mérimée, French writer (d. 1870)
• September 29 – Mercator Cooper, American sea captain (d. 1872)
• October 16 – Robert Stephenson, English civil engineer (d. 1859)
• November 14 – Jacob Abbott, American writer (d. 1879)
• November 29 – Christian Doppler, Austrian mathematician (d. 1853)
• December 6 – Susanna Moodie, English writer (d. 1885)
• December 11 – Hector Berlioz, French composer (d. 1869)

Deaths

January–June

• January 18 – Ippolit Bogdanovich, Russian poet (b. 1743)
• January 23 – Arthur Guinness, Irish brewer (b. 1725)
• February 9 – Jean François de Saint-Lambert, French poet (b. 1716)
• February 18 – Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim, German poet (b. 1719)
• February 20 – Marie Dumesnil, French actress (b. 1713)
• February 21 – Edward Marcus Despard, British revolutionary (b. 1751)
• March 14 – Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, German poet (b. 1724)
• April 2 – Sir James Montgomery, 1st Baronet, Scottish politician and judge (b. 1721)
• April 7 – Toussaint L'Ouverture, Haitian revolutionary (b. 1743)
• June 24 – Matthew Thornton, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1714)

July–December

• August 24 – Napper Tandy, Irish republican
• September 5 – Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, French general and author (b. 1741)
• September 15 – Gian Francesco Albani, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1719)
• September 15 – François Devienne, French composer (b. 1759)
• September 17 – Franz Xaver Süssmayr, Austrian composer (b. 1766)
• October 2 – Samuel Adams, American revolutionary leader (b. 1722)
• October 8 – Vittorio Alfieri, Italian dramatist and poet (b. 1749)
• October 14 - Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, French philosopher (b. 1743)
• October 26 – Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, English politician (b. 1721)
• December 18 – Johann Gottfried Herder, German philosopher and writer (b. 1744)
• December 30 – Francis Lewis, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1713)

Date unknown

• Jacques-Donatien Le Ray, French Father of the American Revolution (b. 1726)