1818
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1 January 1818 Forces of Peshwa Baji Rao II are defeated by British at Koregaon, near Pune.
The Black Ball Lines begins regular packet service between Britain and the United States. Today, the Courier departs Liverpool for New York.
Rob Roy by Walter Scott is published.
Chilean rebels under Bernardo O’Higgins raise their siege of Talcahuano and move north.
President James Monroe hosts a reception marking the official reopening of the White House after its destruction in 1814.
Retribution, or The Chieftain’s Daughter, a tragedy with music by Henry R. Bishop (31) to words of Dillon, is performed for the first time, in Covent Garden, London.
2 January 1818 The Institute of Civil Engineers is founded in a London coffee house to encourage greater professionalism and qualification in engineering.
6 January 1818 By the Treaty of Mandsaur, Great Britain annexes the dominions of the Holkar of Indore while the Rajputana States are placed under British protection.
Dervis Mehmed Pasha replaces Mehmed Emin Rauf Pasha as Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire.
22 January 1818 Leise weht es, a romanze for voice and guitar by Carl Maria von Weber (31) is performed for the first time, as part of Das Nachtlager von Granada, a play by Kind, in the Dresden Hoftheater.
24 January 1818 Ludwig van Beethoven (47) removes his nephew from the boarding school he is now attending and places the boy in his own home with a private tutor.
The Wiener Zeitung announces the publication of the first music of Franz Schubert (20) to appear in print, the song Erlafsee D.586. It is part of a large collection.
27 January 1818 Jacob Berzelius writes to JSC Schweigger in Germany announcing his discovery of Selenium. Schweigger will publish the letter in his Journal fur Chemie und Physik.
31 January 1818 Royal Assent is given to the Habeas Corpus Repeal Act.
3 February 1818 The Illustrious Traveller, or The Forges of Kanzel, a melodrama with music by Henry R. Bishop (31) to words of Reynolds, is performed for the first time, in Covent Garden, London.
5 February 1818 King Carl XIII of Sweden, Carl II of Norway, dies in Stockholm, succeeded by his adopted son, Jean Baptiste Sebastien Bernadotte who rules as Carl XIV of Sweden, Carl III of Norway, founder of the Bernadotte dynasty.
Fazio, a tragedy with a song by Henry R. Bishop (31) to words of Milman, is performed for the first time, in Covent Garden, London.
11 February 1818 In Paris, a former French Army sergeant named Cantillon fires at a carriage containing the commander of allied occupation forces in France, the Duke of Wellington. He fails to hit anything. A jury will acquit the man and he will one day receive 10,000 francs from the will of Napoléon.
Publication of the Mass op.77 for chorus and orchestra by Johann Nepomuk Hummel (39) is announced in the Wiener Zeitung.
12 February 1818 On the first anniversary of the Battle of Chacabuco, Chile formally proclaims its independence from Spain.
14 February 1818 Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka (13) begins studies at the Blagorodny Boarding School, part of the Chief Pedagogical Institute, St. Petersburg.
In articles appearing in Vienna journals, Ludwig van Beethoven (47) and Antonio Salieri (67) recommend the use of Johann Nepomuk Maelzel’s new contraption, the metronome.
A royalist garrison at Calabozo, Venezuela escapes the encircling rebel army under Simón Bolívar and retreats north towards Caracas.
15 February 1818 Having caught up with the royalist army, the rebels attack at El Sombrero but are repulsed. Bolívar then allows the royalists to continue their retreat north.
17 February 1818 Arianna a Nasso, a cantata by Johann Simon Mayr (54), is performed for the first time, possibly in Naples.
20 February 1818 Forces of Peshwa Baji Rao II are defeated by the British at Ashti, east of Bombay (Mumbai).
21 February 1818 After drinking a healthy amount of red wine with his friend Anselm Hüttenbrunner at Hütenbrunner’s Vienna home, Franz Schubert (21) composes the song Die Forelle at his friend’s desk.
Zuma, or The Tree of Health, a comic opera with music by Henry R. Bishop (31) to words of Dibdin after Genlis, is performed for the first time, in Covent Garden, London.
24 February 1818 Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin (7) makes his first appearance in public playing a piano concerto in e minor by Czech composer Adalbert Gyrowetz at a concert organized by Countess Zofia Zamoyska to benefit her Warsaw Charitable Society. The performance takes place in the French Theatre of the Radziwill Palace, Warsaw.
Beppo: A Venetian Story by George Gordon, Lord Byron is published.
1 March 1818 The first public performance of Franz Schubert’s (21) Overture in the Italian Style D.590 takes place in the Gasthof ‘zum römischen Kaiser’, Vienna. It is the first instrumental work by Schubert to be presented in public.
3 March 1818 Sei gegrüsst, Frau Sonne, mir, a lied by Carl Maria von Weber (31), is performed for the first time, as part of Das Turnier zu Kronstein, oder Die drei Wahrzeichen, a play by Holbein, in the Dresden Hoftheater.
Lord Byron writes that he has recently witnessed a performance of Otello by Gioachino Rossini (26) in Venice. His opinion is that Shakepeare’s play has been “crucified” and that the music is “good but lugubrious.”
5 March 1818 Franz Schubert (21) applies for membership as an accompanist in the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. He will be rejected because he is not an amateur.
Mosè in Egitto, an azione tragico-sacra by Gioachino Rossini (26) to words of Tottola after Ringhieri, is performed for the first time, in Teatro San Carlo, Naples. It is an immediate success.
11 March 1818 Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley is published.
12 March 1818 Overture in the Italian Style D.597 for two pianos, eight hands by Franz Schubert (21) is performed for the first time, in the Gasthof ‘zum römischen Kaiser’, Vienna.
14 March 1818 Spanish forces attack rebels at Maracay, Venezuela. After initial success, the rebels are forced to flee towards La Victoria.
15 March 1818 1,500 United States troops under Andrew Jackson, with questionable authority, cross into Florida (Spanish territory) destroying the homes or property of any Indians or Blacks they encounter.
16 March 1818 Pursued by Spanish and royalists, Bolívar’s army turns and stands at La Puerta, Venezuela. They are overrun and chase the insurgents, killing most of them and capturing much materiel.
19 March 1818 In a night assault, royalist forces rout Chilean and Argentine revolutionaries at Cancha Rayada, northeast of Talca.
20 March 1818 The second Théâtre de l’Odéon is destroyed by fire in Paris.
1 April 1818 United States troops burn 300 Seminole homes (at Mikasuki, Florida).
5 April 1818 South American forces under José de San Martín destroy Spanish and Loyalist troops on the Plain of Maipó (Maipú), just south of Santiago de Chile within earshot of the capital. The victory ensures Chilean independence.
7 April 1818 H & DH Brooks & Co. (Brooks Brothers) opens at the corner of Cherry and Catherine Streets in New York City.
10 April 1818 John Keats dates the preface to his Endymion: a Poetic Romance.
13 April 1818 Heinrich August Marschner’s (22) wife of six months, Emilie von Cerva, dies in Pressburg (Bratislava) of gangrene, perhaps from a miscarriage.
Wilhelm II Gustav Friedrich resumes his former throne as Baron of Knyphausen as Russian occupation of the Barony ends.
Im Provence blüht die Liebe, a dance and song for tenor, chorus and orchestra by Carl Maria von Weber (31), is performed for the first time, as part of Das Haus Anglade, oder Die Vorsehung erwacht, a play by Hell, in the Dresden Hoftheater.
14 April 1818 After 35 years of work, Noah Webster publishes his American Dictionary of the English Language. It contains 70,000 words.
16 April 1818 Simón Bolívar narrowly escapes death when nine royalist soldiers gain entry to his camp at Rincón de los Toros, Venezuela and fire into his tent. He takes horse and flees.
18 April 1818 Jever is ceded to Oldenburg.
19 April 1818 Antonio Salieri’s (67) chorus Do re mi fa is performed for the first time, in Vienna.
Publication of the Adagio, Variations and Rondo on “Schöne Minka” op.78 for piano by Johann Nepomuk Hummel (39) is announced in the Wiener Zeitung.
20 April 1818 The US Congress enacts sharply increased protectionist tariffs.
26 April 1818 Friedrich Stromeyer writes from Göttingen to JSC Schweigger telling him of his discovery of the element cadmium.
27 April 1818 Irish and British mercenaries in two ships supporting Chilean independence defeat two Spanish warships blocking the harbor of Valparaiso.
28 April 1818 Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage: Canto the Fourth by George Gordon, Lord Byron is published.
29 April 1818 Andrew Jackson executes two British subjects in Florida for inciting local Indians against him. Alexander Arbuthnot, a civilian, probably innocent, is hanged. Robert Ambrister, a former Royal Marine, probably guilty, is shot. Ambrister was sentenced to 50 lashes and a year at hard labor but Jackson had him shot.
2 May 1818 La morte di Didone, a cantata by Gioachino Rossini (26), is performed for the first time, in Teatro San Benedetto, Venice. A review in the Gazzetta privilegiata di Venezia will state, “Poetry beneath criticism, music nothing, performance indifferent.”
Spanish and royalist forces engage rebles at Cojedes, Venezuela. Both sides have successes. The rebels keep the field but suffer greater casualties.
4 May 1818 A treaty between Great Britain and the Netherlands provides for mutual rights of search of each others’ ships looking for slaves.
7 May 1818 Jan Antonín (Leopold) Kozeluch dies in Vienna, aged 70 years, ten months and eleven days.
16 May 1818 December and May, an operatic farce with music by Henry R. Bishop (31) to words of Dimond after Brittle, is performed for the first time, in Covent Garden, London.
19 May 1818 Rebels suffer a humiliating defeat at Los Patos Lagoon near Chinea, Venezuela.
22 May 1818 Johann Nepomuk Hummel (39) and cellist Nikolaus Kraft perform in Stuttgart.
26 May 1818 The Tariff Reform Act abolishes internal duties in Prussia and creates uniform tariffs throughout the kingdom.
27 May 1818 After a three-day bombardment, the Spanish garrison at Pensacola surrenders to United States forces.
28 May 1818 Walk-in-the-Water is launched at the mouth of Scajaquada Creek at Buffalo. It is the first steamboat on the Great Lakes.
3 June 1818 Baji Rao II, the Peshwa of Pune, surrenders to the British, thus ending the third war between the Marathas and the British. His dominions are annexed to Bombay and become the Province of Marathas and Gujaratis.
6 June 1818 Incidental music to Gehe’s play Heinrich IV, König von Frankreich by Carl Maria von Weber (31) is performed for the first time, in the Dresden Hoftheater.
10 June 1818 The newly rebuilt opera house in Pesaro is opened with a performance of La gazza ladra by Gioachino Rossini (26) in his birthplace.
17 June 1818 Charles François Gounod is born at 11 place Saint-Andre-des-Arts (no longer standing) in the Sixth Arrondissement, in Paris, second and last child born to François-Louis Gounod, official artist to the Duc de Berry and drawing master to the pages of the King’s Chamber, and Victoire Lemachois, daughter of a lawyer.
18 June 1818 Carl Maria von Weber (31) and his wife move into a cottage in the village of Hosterwitz, upstream from Dresden. He is worried about his deteriorating health.
19 June 1818 Iyoas II Hezqeyas replaces Egwale Seyon Hezqeyas as Emperor of Ethiopia.
26 June 1818 Sarah Wesley writes that her brother Samuel (52) is thought well enough to have been released from the lunatic asylum of Blacklands House after almost a year there.
30 June 1818 Le petit chaperon rouge, an opéra comique by Adrien Boieldieu (42) to words of Théaulon de Lambert after Perrault, is performed for the first time, at the Théâtre Feydeau, Paris.
7 July 1818 Franz Schubert (21) receives a passport. He will soon use it to travel to Zseliz, Hungary (Zeliezovce, Slovakia) to spend the summer months as music tutor to the teenage daughters of Count Johann Karl Esterházy von Galánta.
11 July 1818 William, Duke of Clarence and Edward, Duke of Kent, both brothers of the Prince Regent are married at Kew. Clarence is married to Princess Adelaide, Princess of Saxe-Coburg-Meiningen and Kent is married to Mary Louisa Victoria, Princess of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.
18 July 1818 Heil dir, Sappho!, for chorus, winds and percussion by Carl Maria von Weber (31) is performed for the first time, as part of Sappho, a play by Grillparzer, in the Dresden Hoftheater.
20 July 1818 Nicolò Paganini (35) is made a member of the Accademia Filarmonica, Bologna.
3 August 1818 Natur und Liebe J.241, a cantata for mixed voices and piano by Carl Maria von Weber (31) to words of Kind, is performed for the first time, in Dresden, for the name day of the King of Saxony.
4 August 1818 The British Parliament convenes after a recent general election. The government of the Earl of Liverpool loses a small number of seats but retains a healthy majority.
18 August 1818 Incidental music for Klinger’s play Die Zwillinge, by Carl Maria von Weber (31) is performed for the first time, in the Dresden Hoftheater.
29 August 1818 A liberal constitution is promulgated in Baden, providing for a bicameral Diet and legal equality.
1 September 1818 Samples are taken from the ocean floor, for the first time ever at a depth of 1,000 fathoms, in Baffin Bay by English explorer Sir John Ross aboard HMS Isabella.
7 September 1818 Today and tomorrow see a great music festival in Hamburg wherein Handel’s (†59) Messiah and Mozart’s (†26) Requiem are performed. The participating choruses are prepared by Louise Reichardt (39).
14 September 1818 Carlos Fernando Martínez de Irujo y Tacón, marqués de Casa-Irujo, duque de Sotomayor replaces José García de León y Pizarro as First Secretary of State of Spain.
Solomon Juneau, local agent of the American Fur Company, arrives on the western shore of Lake Michigan and founds a trading post. It will one day be known as Milwaukee.
18 September 1818 The Austrian Landrechte rules that Johanna van Beethoven’s petition to remove her son from the guardianship of her brother-in-law Ludwig (47) is denied.
The Theatre Royal in Edinburgh becomes the first theatre in Great Britain to be lit by gas.
20 September 1818 Two works by Carl Maria von Weber (31) are performed for the first time, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the accession of King Friedrich August of Saxony, in Dresden: Jubel-Cantate J.244 to words of Kind, and Jubel-Ouvertüre J.245.
21 September 1818 Pursuant to the Treaty of Vienna, the British return Malacca (Melaka, Malaysia) to Dutch control.
23 September 1818 The Burgomaster of Saardam, or The Two Peters, a musical drama with music by Henry R. Bishop (31) to words of Reynolds, is performed for the first time, in Covent Garden, London.
28 September 1818 Le premier venu, ou Six lieus de chemin, an opéra comique by Ferdinand Hérold (27) to words of Vial and de Planard, is performed for the first time, in the Théâtre Feydeau, Paris.
29 September 1818 Polonaise in B flat D.580 for violin and strings by Franz Schubert (21) is performed for the first time, in the Waisenhaus, Vienna.
30 September 1818 A congress of the great powers meets in Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen). Present are Emperor Franz I of Austria, King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, Tsar Alyeksandr I of Russia, and representing Great Britain, Lord Castlereagh and the Duke of Wellington. Accompanying their monarchs are Prince Metternich of Austria, Prince Hardenberg and Count Bernstorff of Prussia, and Count Capo d’Istria and Count Nesselrode of Russia. France is represented by the Duc de Richelieu.
Tired of having to fight for the money he feels is due him, and the attacks on his honor, Johann Nepomuk Hummel (39) writes to King Wilhelm I of Württemberg asking to be released from his contract. The King will refuse.
3 October 1818 Johanna van Beethoven’s petition that her son be placed in a public school is denied by the Austrian Landrechte.
9 October 1818 The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, agreed to by Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia, provides for the removal of the occupying army from France by 30 November and calls for the reintegration of France into Europe.
11 October 1818 Heinrich August Marschner’s (23) Ouvertüre über ungarische Nationalweisen is performed for the first time, in Stuhlweissenburg. It was composed for the opening of a new theatre and, on hearing the national themes, the Hungarian audience is wildly enthusiastic.
20 October 1818 A treaty between Great Britain and the United States defines the border between the United States and Canada as the 49th parallel from the Lake of the Woods to the Continental Divide, but the Oregon Territory is not included.
22 October 1818 On his seventh birthday, Franz Liszt accompanies his father Adam on a business trip to see a merchant named Ruben Hirschler in Lackenbach. Adam asks Hirschler’s daughter to play something for Franz on her new piano. Franz is so overcome by the music that he begins to cry and flies into his father’s arms. Hirschler is so taken by the scene that he gives the piano to the boy.
28 October 1818 Felix Mendelssohn (9) takes part in a concert in Berlin given by the horn player Friedrich Gugel. It is his first public performance.
31 October 1818 The royalist garrison attacks out of Cariaco, Venezuela scattering the rebel army attempting to subdue them.
12 November 1818 Johann Nepomuk Hummel (39) informs the Stuttgart management that he considers himself absolved from his contract. The court responds that he is dismissed.
14 November 1818 The first opera of Gaetano Donizetti (20) to be staged, the melodramma Enrico de Borgogna to words of Merelli, is performed for the first time, in Teatro San Luca, Venice. The soprano faints from stage fright at the end of Act I and has to be replaced in Act III.
Albert Lortzing (17) appears on stage for the first time in Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell in Aachen.
20 November 1818 Simón Bolívar declares the independence of Venezuela from Spain.
26 November 1818 Saidar und Zulima oder Liebe und Grossmut, by Heinrich August Marschner (23) to words of Hornbostel, is performed for the first time, in Pressburg (Bratislava) Schauspielhaus.
28 November 1818 Lord Hastings, Governor-General of India, sends Thomas Stamford Raffles, Lieutenant Governor of Bencoolen, to establish a British trading presence at the southern end of the Malay Peninsula.
Thomas Alexander, Lord Cochrane, a British naval officer, arrives at Valparaiso to take command of the Chilean navy.
30 November 1818 The allied occupation of France formally ends.
1 December 1818 This month, Arthur Schopenhauer publishes Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung (The World as Will and Idea)
3 December 1818 Karl van Beethoven, young nephew and ward of Ludwig (47), runs away from his uncle back to his mother. The composer goes to his sister-in-law’s house to secure the return of the boy. She promises to release him that evening, but this is not good enough for Ludwig and he summons the police who remove the boy by force. Beethoven then places Karl back in the Del Rio boarding school from whence he removed him last 24 January.
Giaocchino Rossini’s (26) dramma Ricciardo e Zoraide to words of Berio di Salsa after Forteguerri, is performed for the first time, in Teatro San Carlo, Naples. It is very successful.
Illinois becomes the 21st state of the United States.
7 December 1818 Johanna van Beethoven appeals for a second time to the Austrian Landrechte that her son be removed from the care of his uncle and placed in the Imperial Royal Seminary.
10 December 1818 String Quartet op.104 by Ludwig van Beethoven (47), an arrangement of his Piano Trio op.1 no.3, is performed for the first time, in Vienna.
11 December 1818 While giving testimony in the ongoing custody battle between himself and his sister-in-law, Ludwig van Beethoven (47) lets it be known that neither he, nor his nephew Karl, is of noble birth. This puts the case out of the jurisdiction of the Landrechte and the case must be entirely retried in the commoners’ courts.
13 December 1818 Grand Duke Karl Ludwig Friedrich of Baden dies and is succeeded by his uncle, Ludwig I.
17 December 1818 Una follia, a farsa by Gaetano Donizetti (21) to words of Merelli, is performed for the first time, in Teatro San Luca, Venice, to mixed reviews.
18 December 1818 Friedrich Ferdinand replaces Ludwig II as Duke of Anhalt-Köthen. Heinrich replaces Friedrich Ferdinand as Prince of Anhalt-Köthen-Pless.
24 December 1818 In the St. Nikolaus Kirche in Oberndorf, near Salzburg, the local organist, Franz Gruber, performs his composition Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht at mass. The assistant priest, Joseph Mohr, wrote the words two years ago but gave it to Gruber only this afternoon. Mohr sings the tenor part and plays guitar while Gruber sings the bass part.
28 December 1818 Jean Joseph Paul Augustin, Marquis Dessolles replaces Armand Emmanuel du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu as Prime Minister of France.
©2004-2015 Paul Scharfenberger
7 October 2015
Last Updated (Wednesday, 07 October 2015 06:06)