Historical Events In 1808

May 02 Uprising against French occupation begins in Madrid

May 30 Napoleon annexes Tuscany & gave it seats in French Senate

May 03 Goya's "Executions of the 3rd of May"

Jan 01 African Benevolent Society (education) forms

Jan 19 Louis Napoleon signs first Dutch aviation law

Jan 01 Importation of slaves into the United States is banned as of January 1 by an act of Congress passed last year, but illegal imports continue

Jan 10 Herman Daendels succeeds A Wiese as Governor-General of Netherlands Indies

Jan 01 Sierra Leone becomes a British colony

Jan 01 Congress prohibits importation of slaves

Feb 11 Anthracite coal first burned as fuel, experimentally, Wilkes-Barre PA

Apr 30 The first practical typewriter finished by Italian Pellegrini Turri

Apr 13 William Henry Lane ("Juda") perfects the tap dance

Apr 17 Bayonne Decree by Napoleon I of France orders seizure of US ships

Nov 10 Osage Treaty signed

Nov 22 The birth of Thomas Cook, Founder of the Thomas Cook travel agents

Jun 01 The fir1st US land-grant university founded-Ohio Univ, Athens, Ohio

Jun 22 Zebulon Pike reaches his peak

Dec 04 Napoleon moves into Spain in the autumn with an army of 150,000, routs the Spanish in a series of engagements in November, takes Madrid December 4, and puts his brother Joseph back on the throne

Aug 01 British forces invade Portugal under Sir Arthur Wellesley, they defeat Gen Dupont August 21, but Wellesley's superiors prevent him from following up his victory

Aug 15 A British mission to Japan arrives but the Tokugawa shogun Ienari rejects the emissaries

Oct 29 The last punishment for witchcraft is administered in England.

Jul 05 Battle of Buenos Aires

Jul 23 Spanish forces at Bailen force a French army of 18,000 under Gen Pierre Antoine Dupont, 43, to surrender July 23

Jul 02 Simon Fraser completes his trip down the Fraser River , BC, and lands at Musqueam

Mar 26 Napoleon announces that France must guard the coast of Spain against Britain, he orders upwards of 70,000 men to cross the Spanish frontier in January, French forces occupy the fortresses of San Sebastian, Pamplona, Figuera, and Barcelona by treachery in February, and by mid-March there are nearly 100,000 French troops in Spain Their commander in chief Joachim Murat occupies Madrid and Carlos IV abdicates in favor of his son Ferdinand, 23

Mar 07 Portugal's regent Dom Juan IV arrives in Rio De Janeiro

Mar 29 Williamstown Ontario John Johnson 1742-1830 gives patent and grants 12 acres of land for Williamstown Fair; oldest continuously operating farm fair in Ontario.

Mar 31 French created Kingdom of Westphalia orders Jews to adopt family names

Mar 13 Denmark's demented Christian VII has died March 13 at age 59 after a 32-year reign

Mar 23 Napoleon's brother Joseph takes the throne of Spain

Mar 06 The first college orchestra in US founded, at Harvard