1806
Events
July–September
July 4 – Invasion of Naples (War of the Third Coalition ): Battle of Maida – Britain defeats the French in Calabria.
July 10 – Vellore Mutiny : Indian sepoys mutiny against the East India Company , for the first time.
July 12 – Sixteen German Imperial States leave the Holy Roman Empire and form the Confederation of the Rhine , leading to the collapse of the Empire. Liechtenstein is given full sovereignty.
July 15 – Pike Expedition : Near St. Louis, Missouri , United States Army Lieutenant Zebulon Pike leads an expedition from Fort Bellefontaine , to explore the American West.
July 18 – 1806 Birgu polverista explosion : A gunpowder magazine explosion in Birgu , Malta kills around 200 people.
July 23 – British invasions of the River Plate : A British expeditionary force of 1,700 men lands on the left bank of the Río de la Plata and invades Buenos Aires .
August 6 – Francis II , the last Holy Roman Emperor , abdicates, thus ending the Holy Roman Empire after 844 years.
August 18 – English seal hunter Abraham Bristow discovers the Auckland Islands .
September 23 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition reaches St. Louis, Missouri , ending a successful exploration of the Louisiana Territory and the Pacific Northwest . Their arrival comes "much to the amazement of residents, who had given the travelers up for dead" according to one historian.
September 25 – Prussia issues an ultimatum to Paris, threatening war if France does not halt marching its troops through Prussian territory to reach Austria; the message does not reach Napoleon Bonaparte until October 7, and he responds by attacking Prussia.
October–December
October 8 – Napoleon responds to the September 25 ultimatum from Prussia , and begins the War of the Fourth Coalition ; Prussia is joined by Saxony and other minor German states .
October 9 – Battle of Schleiz : French and Prussian forces fight for the first time since the war began. A more numerous French force easily defeats the Prussian army.
October 10 - Battle of Saalfeld : French forces under Marshal Jean Lannes clash at Saalfeld with a Prussian advance guard. The Prussian troops are routed, and Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia is killed in combat.
October 14 – Battle of Jena–Auerstedt : At Jena , Napoleon defeats the Prussian army of Prince Hohenlohe , while at Auerstedt , Marshal Davout defeats the main Prussian army under Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick (who is fatally wounded).
October 17 – Emperor Jacques I of Haiti (Jean-Jacques Dessalines ) is assassinated at the Pont-Rouge, Haiti , and Alexandre Pétion becomes first President of the Republic of Haiti.
October 20 – British ship of the line HMS Athenienne (1800) is wrecked in the Strait of Sicily with the loss of 347 of the 488 on board.
October 24 – French forces enter Berlin .
October 30 – Capitulation of Stettin : Believing themselves massively outnumbered, the 5,300-man garrison at Stettin in Prussia surrenders to a much smaller French force without a fight.
November 15 – Pike Expedition : During his second exploratory expedition, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike sees a distant mountain peak while near the Colorado foothills of the Rocky Mountains (later named Pikes Peak in his honor).
November 21 – Napoleon 's Berlin Decree initiates the Continental System , blocking the import of British manufactured goods to the rest of Europe.
November 24 – The last major Prussian field force, under Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher , surrenders to the French near Lübeck . Frederick William III has by this time fled to Memel in East Prussia.
November 28 – French troops enter Warsaw .
December 23 – Ludwig van Beethoven premieres his violin concerto at the Theater an der Wien .
December 26 – War of the Fourth Coalition :
Births
January–June
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Emma Catherine Embury
J. V. Snellman
John Stuart Mill
January 1 – Lionel Kieseritzky , Baltic-German chess player (d. 1853)
January 27 – Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga , Spanish composer (d. 1826)
February 22 – Józef Kremer , Polish messianic philosopher (d. 1875)
March 4
March 6 – Elizabeth Barrett Browning , English poet (d. 1861 )
March 11 – Carlo Pellion di Persano , Italian admiral, politician (d. 1883)
March 12 – Jane Pierce , First Lady of the United States (d. 1863)
March 21 – Benito Juárez , Mexican statesman, folk hero (d. 1872)
March 28 – Ludolph Anne Jan Wilt Sloet van de Beele , Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (d. 1890 )
April 3 – Ivan Kireyevsky , Russian literary critic, philosopher (d. 1856)
April 6 – Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl , German scholar (d. 1876)
April 9 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel , British civil engineer (d. 1859)
May 2 – Catherine Labouré , French visionary, saint (d. 1876)
May 4 – William Fothergill Cooke , English inventor (d. 1879)
May 12 – J. V. Snellman , Finnish statesman and influential Fennoman philosopher (d. 1881)
May 20 – John Stuart Mill , British philosopher (d. 1873)
June 12 – John Augustus Roebling , German-American engineer (d. 1869)
June 27 – Augustus De Morgan , British mathematician, logician (d. 1871)
July–December
Max Stirner
Emilia Plater
July 5
James Dawson , Scottish-born Australian settler, champion of aboriginal interests (d. 1900)
Blanka Teleki , Hungarian countess, women's rights activist (d. 1862)
September 12 – Andrew Hull Foote , American admiral (d. 1863)
September 22 – Bernardino António Gomes , Portuguese physician and naturalist (d. 1877)
October 3 – Oliver Cowdery , American religious leader (d. 1850)
October 25 – Max Stirner , German philosopher (d. 1856)
November 10 – Sir Alexander Milne , British admiral (d. 1896)
November 13 – Emilia Plater , Polish heroine (d. 1831)
December 11 – Otto Wilhelm Hermann von Abich , German geologist (d. 1886)
Deaths
January–June
William Pitt the Younger
January 8 – Magdalena Dávalos y Maldonado , Ecuadorian scholar, socialite (b. 1725)
January 23 – William Pitt the Younger , Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1759)
February 2 – Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne , French writer (b. 1734)
February 16 – Franz von Weyrother , Austrian general (b. 1755)
February 19 – Elizabeth Carter , English writer (b. 1717)
February 20 – Lachlan McIntosh , Scottish-born American military and political leader (b. 1725)
March 20 – Salomea Deszner , Polish actress, singer and theater director (b. 1759)
March 30 – Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire , English noblewoman, socialite, political organizer, style icon, author and activist (b. 1757)
April 9 – William V, Prince of Orange , last Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic (b. 1748)
April 10 – Horatio Gates , British soldier, served as an American general during the American Revolutionary War (b. 1727)
April 22 – Pierre-Charles Villeneuve , French admiral (stabbed) (b. 1763)
May 9 – Robert Morris , English-born merchant, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States , "financier of the American Revolution " (b. 1734)
May 24 – John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll , British field marshal (b. 1723)
June 23 – Mathurin Jacques Brisson , French naturalist (b. 1723)
July–December
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
Benjamin Banneker
July 4 – Charles Henri Sanson , Royal Executioner of France during the reign of King Louis XVI (b. 1739)
July 10 – George Stubbs , English animal painter (b. 1724)
July 11 – James Smith , Irish-born American lawyer and politician, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (b. 1719)
July 16 – Johann Gottfried Arnold , German cellist (lung infection) (b. 1773)
August 10 – Michael Haydn , Austrian composer and brother of Joseph Haydn (b. 1737)
August 22 – Jean-Honoré Fragonard , French painter (b. 1742)
August 23 – Charles-Augustin de Coulomb , French physicist (b. 1736 )
September 9 – William Paterson , Irish-born American judge, signer of the United States Constitution , Governor of New Jersey (b. 1745)
September 13 – Charles James Fox , English politician (b. 1749)
September 30 – William Fortescue, 1st Earl of Clermont , Irish politician (b. 1722)
October 9 – Benjamin Banneker , American astronomer and surveyor (b. 1731)
October 10 – Louis Ferdinand of Prussia , German prince (killed in battle) (b. 1772)
October 25 – Henry Knox , Secretary of War under George Washington (b. 1750)
October 26 – John Graves Simcoe , English army officer and colonial administrator, first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada (b. 1752)
November 10 – Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick , German ruling prince and general (died of wounds) (b. 1735)
November 23 – Roger Newdigate , English politician (b. 1719)
December 9 – Josef Georg Hörl , Austrian politician (b. 1722)
Date unknown
Mungo Park , Scottish explorer (drowned in attack) (b. 1771)
References
↑ Hibbert, Christopher (1994). Nelson: A Personal History . p. 382.
↑ Davis, John (2006). Naples and Napoleon: Southern Italy and the European Revolutions, 1780–1860 . Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198207559 .
1 2 Abbott, John S. C. (1869). A History of Joseph, King of Naples . New York: Harper.
↑ Coleman, Helen Turnbull Waite (1956). Banners in the Wilderness: The Early Years of Washington and Jefferson College . University of Pittsburgh Press . p. 210 . OCLC 2191890 .
↑ "Documents upon the Continental System" . The Napoleon Series / Archive . The Waterloo Association. April 21, 2025.
↑ Bryce, James Bryce. "The Holy Roman Empire" . www.gutenberg.org . Retrieved July 12, 2025 .
↑ "Auckland Islands", in Exploring Polar Frontiers: A Historical Encyclopedia , ed. by William J. Mills (ABC-CLIO, 2003) p39
↑ Jones, A. G. E. (1970). "Captain Abraham Bristow and the Auckland Islands". Notes and Queries . 17 (10): 369– 371. doi :10.1093/nq/17-10-369 .
↑ Sandweiss, Lee Ann (2000). Seeking St. Louis: Voices from a River City, 1670–2000 . Missouri History Museum. p. 41.
1 2 Petre, F. Loraine (1907). Napoleon's Conquest of Prussia – 1806 . John Lane Company. p. xv.
↑ Chandler, David G. (1993). Jena 1806 : Napoleon destroys Prussia , pp. 40–41. Osprey Campaign Series, vol. 20. London: Osprey. ISBN 978-1-8553-2285-1 .
↑ Marzagali, Silvia (2007). "Napoleon's Continental Blockade – An Effective Substitute to Naval Weakness?". In Elleman, Bruce A.; Paine, S. C. M. (eds.). Naval Blockades and Seapower: Strategies and Counter-Strategies, 1805–2005 . London: Routledge. p. 25. ISBN 9786611158309 .
↑ Sampson, Fiona (2021). Two Way Mirror: The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning . Profile Books, p 33
↑ Johan Vilhelm Snellman at the Encyclopædia Britannica
↑ "History of William Pitt 'The Younger' - GOV.UK" . www.gov.uk . Retrieved July 1, 2023 .
↑ This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Chisholm, Hugh , ed. (1911). "Restif, Nicolas Edme ". Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 200.
↑ "Elizabeth Carter - British author" . Encyclopedia Britannica . Retrieved January 3, 2017 .
↑ Foreman, Amanda (2004). "Cavendish, Georgiana, duchess of Devonshire (1757–1806)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi :10.1093/ref:odnb/4934 . (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
↑ One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Chisholm, Hugh , ed. (1911). "Coulomb, Charles Augustin ". Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 308.
↑ Chisholm, Hugh , ed. (1911). "Newdigate, Sir Roger" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
External links
Media related to 1806 at Wikimedia Commons