The celebrated Carl Friedrich Gauss, at just twenty-four years old, provided astronomers with the means to recover the asteroid Ceres, developing a new method for determining the orbit of a generic celestial body based on just three observations. The method was based on the use
Von Zach succeeded for the first time in observing Ceres independently of its discoverer, the Italian monk Giuseppe Piazzi, and did so based on Piazzi’s own publication and the orbital predictions made by 24-year-old Carl Friedrich Gauss. By 1807, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta had also
After announcing the possible discovery of a new planetoid, Ceres, the Italian monk Giuseppe Piazzi did not publish any further experimental measurements, partly because Ceres was hidden from the Sun for a couple of months. Then, in July, he published further data confirming the initial
In the (perennial) Franco-British war, Russia is now almost in effect allied with France. This is part of the broader global “Great Game,” which began in the Victorian era, between Great Britain (which sought maritime dominance) and Russia (which sought land dominance) for hegemony in
Mexico City Mining School. Manuel Del Rio, a Spanish-born mineralogist, identified vanadium in a previously unknown mineral he called panchromium. A couple of years later, the Frenchman Alexander von Humboldt declared it to be nothing more than simple chromium. Manuel Del Rio bowed to the
The Italian monk Giuseppe Piazzi, from the telescope of Palermo, discovers Ceres, the first asteroid and gives it the name of the patron goddess of Sicily: Ceres
Wollaston and Tennant, sons of two Anglican ministers, medical graduates and passionate about natural philosophy, purchased 170 kg of platinum from the Americas. Wollaston dissolved the material in white spirit and then reacted it with ammonium salts. After several further steps, they obtained several pure
Battle of Marengo. Napoleon defeats the Austrian army and reestablishes French rule over Italy, reviving the Cisalpine and Ligurian Republics. 28,000 French troops capture 8,000 of the 40,000 Austrians and kill or wound 6,500.
Fort Bard, Aosta Valley, Italy. Final assault on the fort led by General Chabran, commander of the rear guard. General Andreossi, commander of the artillery, placed a 12-mm gun in the presbytery of the parish church, next to the bell tower, and from there, protected
Fort Bard, Aosta Valley, Italy. Napoleon inspects the new path that bypasses the fort and reaches Donnas in two and a half hours’ march, finding it impossible to advance artillery. During the night, the commander of the army’s artillery, General Marmont, orders the wagon wheels,
Aosta Valley, Italy. The army commander writes to Napoleon: “It is impossible to advance the artillery until we have captured Bard Castle… the infantry and cavalry can bypass the castle by taking a mule track from Arnaz to Perlo… the route around the castle is
Italy. The vanguard of Napoleon’s reserve army enters the Aosta Valley and stops at Etroubles after crossing the Great St. Bernard Pass.
The game of billiards, born in Northern Europe in the 15th century, saw cues improved with leather coverings and chalk-covered tips, allowing for greater control over the ball’s spin. This innovation was introduced to America by English sailors, which is why it’s still called “English
Nineteenth-century scientists discovered that the intermediate distillate of petroleum could be useful as fuel for oil lamps, where previously whale blubber, for example, had been used. However, they dismissed the more volatile fraction of the distillation process, what we call gasoline, as completely useless, discarded
The Rochedale Equitable Pioneers Society is the world’s first cooperative.
In Europe, people began to eat tomatoes (previously considered poisonous) and potatoes (previously considered the fruit of witches because they grew underground – it was feared they would spread the plague).
Thomas Jefferson won the presidency as leader of the Democratic-Republican Party (later simply the Democratic Party), which at the time was based on the concepts of unlimited individual liberty, states’ rights, decentralization, hostility to the domination of capital, defense of small business, and defense of
The Great Game, or the complex of operations (military, political, economic, diplomatic, and espionage) managed by London across the entire Central Asian landscape. It involved Britain’s obsession with losing its hegemony over the Mediterranean should the Russians gain access to the Bosphorus, coupled with fears
Mass production of chickens and eggs begins. Within two centuries, the global chicken population will increase to 52 billion by 2000.
The monk Sambredan the Navigator arrives in Iceland and establishes the first permanent settlement of the modern era.
England. James Watt’s powerful patent has finally expired, and Richard Trevithick is able to capitalize on it by building and patenting a double-acting high-pressure engine. The following year, the first vehicles are built, amid widespread opposition from the public and local authorities, as the steam
Engels Pause. This is a pause in the continuous Malthusian cycles of increasing income and population, followed by crises and drastic reductions in both. After the Engels Pause, the Malthusian cycles end, and a long, multi-century period of continuous global growth in income and population
The charter of the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie – VOC) was not renewed. By 1783, the coin-backed accounts at the Bank of Amsterdam had collapsed from 17 million guilders in 1780 to just 300,000 guilders in 1783. This marked the end of
The Rosetta Stone is rediscovered. During the Egyptian campaign, a group of Napoleonic soldiers discovered a black basalt stele bearing ancient inscriptions near the town of Rosetta. According to the Greek text, the stele was engraved in the second century BC. The “Rosetta Stone” was
“The Coup de Brumaire”: Napoleon Bonaparte becomes master of France, the Republic born from the French Revolution is over, the era of the Napoleonic Empire begins.
Pierre Simon de Laplace publishes the five-volume treatise “Traite de mecanique celeste.” It is essentially a modern version of Newton’s Principia Mathematica.
Southern Italy. Cardinal Fabrizio Dionigi Ruffo, Duke of Baranello and Bagnara, leading a group of peasant insurgents, marches on Naples and overthrows Napoleon’s Parthenopean Republic. This was made possible by the Austro-Russian military intervention in Northern Italy to defeat the French, and by Napoleon’s absence,
Lazzaro Spallanzani (Scandiano, January 12, 1729 – Pavia, February 11, 1799) died in Pavia. He was an Italian Jesuit and biologist, considered the “scientific father” of artificial insemination. He is best remembered for having disproved the theory of spontaneous generation with an experiment that was
Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt: it marks the beginning of the great Western interest in Egyptian antiquities.
During this period Giacomo Leopardi wrote To Silvia, The Infinite, To the Moon, Saturday in the Village, etc.
The French fleet is completely destroyed by the English fleet of Admiral Nelson in Aboukir Bay, off Alexandria, Egypt; in total, 1,700 French and 700 English victims; hundreds of sailors perish in the gigantic conflagration of the French flagship’s Santa Barbara gun alone (heard 50
The Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus published “An Essay on the Principle of Population,” in which he discovered and explained an oscillation (he called it “vibration”) between periods of high income and a small population, and, conversely, periods of low income and a large population. These
Treaty of Campo Formio. Venice is ceded by Napoleon Bonaparte to Austria.
Venice. Bonaparte peremptorily ordered the government to dissolve itself and hand over power to a democratic junta, protected by French arms. The Doge urged them to accept his will. At the last meeting of the Great Council, it hastily voted for its own extinction. 4,000
End of the Most Serene Republic of Venice, born in 697: exactly eleven centuries earlier.
Modena changed owners and governments five times in a few weeks, between the Austrians and the French.
Napoleon, to avenge the deaths of Verona, entered Venice with his army; it was the first time in its history that the city was occupied.
In Verona, the population attacks the French garrison and massacres the wounded hospitalized. These are the so-called Veronese Easters. The Last Letters of Jacopo Ortis (by Ugo Foscolo) remain a powerful moral and literary testimony to Italian hatred of France and Napoleon.
Napoleon signs the Treaty of Tolentino with the Holy See in which the latter recognizes the annexation of Avignon and Emilia to France
Modena. First public parade of the Italian flag in Italy, with Modena priest Don Antonio Rovatti leading the procession, Don Rovatti having designed the flag. It had been proclaimed the official Italian flag a few days earlier in Reggio Emilia.