Media History Project
mediahst@umn.edu

1800-1809

  • 1800: Romantic movement in Europe rebels against rationalism, reason, classicism.
  • 1800: Starting in France, silhouettes are popular; decline when photography arrives.
  • 1800: Mozart’s Requiem is published.
  • 1800: Friedrich Schleiermacher invents hermeneutics.
  • 1800: Semaphore-like system built between Boston and Martha’s Vineyard.
  • 1800: In Germany, a simple sizing process for paper.
  • 1800: Inaugural voyage on the Erie Canal announced by a line of cannons firing.
  • 1800: The popular dances are minuets and quadrilles. Partners barely touch hands.
  • 1800: In Japan, haiku verse form gains popularity.
  • 1800: Iron press permits printing on large sheets of paper, thicker fonts.
  • 1800: Wordworth’s Lyrical Ballads will be the mainfesto of the Romantic movement.
  • 1800: Letter from Portland, Maine, takes only 20 days to reach Savannah, Georgia.
  • 1800: In West Africa, the emir of Gwandu writes religious poetry.
  • 1800: Allesandro Volta’s battery provides first long-term source of electricity.
  • 1800: Ludwig von Beethoven’s First Symphony in C Major.
  • 1800: Parson Weem’s The Life of Washington creates myths about the first president.
  • 1801: Semaphore system built along the coast of France.
  • 1801: Joseph-Marie Jacquard loom uses punch cards, anticipates computers.
  • 1801: Beethoven’s First and Second Piano Concertos.
  • 1801: Haydn’s The Seasons.
  • 1801: Thomas Young theorizes that the retina is sensitive to blue, green, and red light.
  • 1801: In Germany, Carl Gauss lays foundation of modern number theory.
  • 1801: Thomas Jefferson begins tradition of annual presidential messages to Congress.
  • 1802: Beethoven’s Second Symphony, Moonlight Sonata.
  • 1802: Library of Congress established.
  • 1802: Thomas Wedgewood produces silhouettes with silver nitrate, but they darken.
  • 1802: Samuel Hutton’s book on changes in earth’s crust foreshadows Darwin.
  • 1803: The periodic table of atomic elements is created.
  • 1803: Semaphore code is used on ships.
  • 1804: Beethoven’s Third Symphony (Eroica) begins music’s Romantic period.
  • 1804: Fourdriner machines put into operation to increase paper output.
  • 1804: Artist Francisco Goya’s Nude Maja and Clothed Maja.
  • 1805: Beethoven’s Fidelio, Fourth Piano Concerto.
  • 1805: Walter Scott’s ballad epic, The Lay of the Last Minstrel, is immediate success.
  • 1806: Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony in B Flat, Violin Concerto (Op 61).
  • 1806: Noah Webster publishes A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language.
  • 1806: Carbon paper.
  • 1806: William Wilberforce’s 1789 speech in Parliament against slave trade is printed.
  • 1807: Camera lucida is invented, improves image tracing.
  • 1807: Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, Leonora No. 3, Coriolanus.
  • 1807: John Wiley & Sons publish books.
  • 1807: Charles and Mary Lamb, Tales from Shakespeare.
  • 1807: In Russia, Romani (Gypsies) are allowed to form a music chorus and perform.
  • 1808: In Speeches to the German Nation, Johann Fichte encourages nationalism.
  • 1808: Turri of Italy builds a typewriter for a blind contessa.
  • 1808: Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Sixth Symphony (Pastoral).
  • 1808: Thomas Moore’s Irish Melodies advance the cause of Irish nationalism.
  • 1808: Sweden’s Berzelius publishes lectures changing awareness of life’s processes.
  • 1808: The first war correspondent: Henry Robinson of The Times of London.
  • 1809: Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto.
  • 1809: George Gordon, Lord Byron, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.
  • 1809: John Dickinson invents a cylinder paper-making machine.
  • 1809: Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle, who wakes after 20 years.