| January 1 | African Benevolent Society (education) forms |
| January 1 | Congress prohibits importation of slaves |
| January 1 | Sierra Leone becomes a British colony |
| January 10 | Herman Daendels succeeds A Wiese as Governor-General of Netherlands Indies |
| January 19 | Louis Napoleon signs 1st Dutch aviation law |
| February 11 | Anthracite coal 1st burned as fuel, experimentally, Wilkes-Barre, Pa |
| March 6 | 1st college orchestra in U.S. founded, at Harvard |
| March 7 | Portugal's regent Dom Juan IV arrives in Rio De Janeiro |
| March 23 | Napoleon's brother Joseph takes the throne of Spain |
| March 27 | Joseph Haydns oratorio "Die Schopfung" premieres in Vienna |
| March 31 | French created Kingdom of Westphalia orders Jews to adopt family names |
| April 9 | Mayor Wolters offers French king Louis Napoleon townhall as a palace |
| April 13 | William Henry Lane ("Juda") perfects tap dance |
| April 17 | Bayonne Decree by Napoleon I of France orders seizure of U.S. ships |
| April 30 | 1st practical typewriter finished by Italian Pellegrini Turri |
| May 2 | Uprising against French occupation begins in Madrid |
| May 3 | Goya's "Executions of 3rd of May" |
| May 30 | Napoleon annexes Tuscany and gave it seats in French Senate |
| June 1 | 1st U.S. land-grant university founded at Ohio University, Athens, Ohio |
| June 5 | Battle at Wagram: French army beats Austrians |
| June 15 | Jozef Napoleon becomes king of Spain |
| June 22 | Zebulon Pike reaches his peak |
| July 2 | Simon Fraser completes his trip down Fraser R, BC, lands at Musqueam |
| July 5 | Battle of Buenos Aires |
| July 15 | French marshal Joachim Murat becomes king of Naples |
| July 20 | Napoleon decrees all French Jews adopt family names |
| July 28 | Mahmud II succeeds Mustafa IV as sultan of Turkey |
| August 17 | Napoleon asks King Louis for Holland brigade towards Spain |
| September 30 | Covent Garden Theatre Royal destroyed by fire |
| October 17 | Political rights of Jews suspended in Duchy of Warsaw |
| October 31 | Holland Brigade battle at Durango, Spain |
| November 10 | Osage Treaty signed |
| December 7 | James Madison elected U.S. president/George Clinton vice-president |
