Title: 1817 Content: 1817 was a common year. == Events of 1817 == === January – March === * January 19 – An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General José de San Martín, starts crossing the Andes from Argentina to free Chile and then Peru. * February 12 – The Argentine/Chilean patriotic army defeats the Spanish in the Battle of Chacabuco. * March 3 **The Alabama Territory is created by splitting the Mississippi Territory in half, 9 months before Mississippi becomes a U.S. state. ***President James Madison vetoes John C. Calhoun's Bonus Bill. * March 4 – James Monroe succeeds James Madison as the President of the United States of America. === April – June === * April – Earthquake in Palermo, Italy * April 3 – Princess Caraboo appears in Almondsbury in Gloucestershire, England. * April 15 – The first American school for the deaf opens in Hartford, Connecticut. * April 17 – Martin Van Buren passes Erie Canal bill. * April 28 – Rush-Bagot Treaty is signed. * May – The General Convention of the Episcopal Church founded General Theological Seminary while meeting in New York City. * June 5 – First Great Lakes steamer, the Frontenac, is launched. * June 25 – Large prison riot in Copenhagen prison – army is sent for to quell it. === July – September === * July 4 – At Rome, New York, construction on the Erie Canal begins. * August 22 – City of Araraquara, Brazil founded. * August 23 – Earthquake near the site of the ancient Greek city of Helike results in 65 deaths. === October – December === * October – President and Mrs. James Monroe move back into the White House, after restoration repairs. *October 31 – Emperor Ninkō accedes to the throne of Japan. * November 20 – The first Seminole War begins in Florida. * November 22 – Fredric Cailliaud discovers the old Roman emerald mines at Sikait, Egypt. * December 10 – Mississippi is admitted as the 20th U.S. state, separated from the Alabama Territory. === Undated === * Elgin Marbles are displayed in the British Museum. * John Kidd extracts naphthalene from coal tar. * Samuel Taylor Coleridge publishes Biographia Literaria. * A Typhus epidemic occurs in Edinburgh and Glasgow. * Outbreak of the Pernambucan Revolt. === January – June === * January 6 – J. J. McCarthy, Irish architect (d. 1882) * January 8 – Sir Theophilus Shepstone, British-born South African statesman (d. 1893) * February 19 – King William III of the Netherlands (d. 1890) * February 22 – Carl Wilhelm Borchardt, German mathematician (d. 1880) * March 6 – Clémentine of Orléans, daughter of King Louis-Philippe of France and mother of Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (d. 1907) * March 22 – Braxton Bragg, American Confederate general (d. 1876) * May 15 – Debendranath Tagore, Indian philosopher (d. 1905) * June 30 – Joseph Dalton Hooker, English botanist (d. 1911) ===July - December=== * July 12 – Henry David Thoreau, American philosopher (d. 1862) * July 24 – Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg (d. 1905) * August 3 – Archduke Albert, Austrian general (d. 1895) * August 14 – Alexander H. Bailey, American politician (d. 1874) * August 24 – Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Russian writer (d. 1875) * October 17 – Sir Syed Ahmed Khan Bahadur Founder of the Two Nation Theory for a future Pakistan (d. 1898) * November 3 – Leonard Jerome, American entrepreneur and grandfather of Sir Winston Churchill (d. 1891) * November 12 – Bahá'u'lláh, Persian founder of the Bahá'í Faith (d. 1892) * November 17 – Benjamin Champney, American painter (d. 1907) * November 30 – Theodor Mommsen, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1903) == Deaths == === January – June === * January 12 – Juan Andres, Spanish Jesuit (b. 1740) * January 16 – Alexander J. Dallas, American statesman and financier (b. 1759) * April 4 – André Masséna, French marshal (b. 1758) * April 12 – Charles Messier, French astronomer (b. 1730) * June 24 – Thomas McKean, American lawyer and signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1734) === July – December === *July 14 – Anne Louise Germaine de Staël, French writer (b. 1766) *July 18 – Jane Austen, English novelist (b. 1775) *July 19 – John Palmer, Bath architect (b. c. 1738) *October 16 – Manuel Piar, Venezuelan military leader (b. 1774) *November 14 – Policarpa Salavarrieta, Colombian spy and revolutionary who worked for the Independence of Colombia (b. 1795) *November 30 – Jean-Baptiste-Melchior Hertel de Rouville, Canadian politician (b. 1748) *December 7 – William Bligh, Captain of the Bounty, Governor of New South Wales (b. 1754)