1817

**1817** (MDCCCXVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday in the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Monday in the Julian calendar.

### 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)

### 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)