Events

• January 1st The first issue of the Daily Universal Register, later known as The Times, is published in London.
• January 7 - Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard[?] and American John Jeffries[?] travel from Dover, England to Calais, France in a gas balloon, becoming the first to cross the English Channel by air.
• July 6 - The dollar is unanimously chosen as the money unit for the United States. This is the first time a nation has adopted a decimal coinage system.
• University of New Brunswick founded in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada

Births

• January 4 - Jakob Grimm, German philologist, one half of the Brothers Grimm (+ 1863)
• March 27 - Louis XVII of France, later declared one of the Monarchs of France[?] though he actually never ruled
• April 4 - Bettina von Arnim[?], lyricist (+ 1859)
• April 26 - John James Audubon, naturalist, illustrator (+ 1851)
• May 18 - John Wilson, Scottish writer (+ 1854)
• August 15 - Thomas de Quincey - English essayist
• August 23 - Oliver Perry, American naval officer.

Deaths