1820 - What happened in 1820 ?

January 1820

Friday 28:

Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev approaches the Antarctic coast.

Sunday 30:

Edward Bransfield lands on the Antarctic mainland.

February 1820

Sunday 06:

The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society established a settlement in present-day Liberia

Wednesday 23:

Cato Street Conspiracy: A plot to murder all the British cabinet ministers is exposed.

March 1820

Friday 03:

The U.S. Congress passes the Missouri Compromise.

Monday 06:

The Missouri Compromise is signed into law by President James Monroe. The compromise allows Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, but makes the rest of the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase territory slavery-free.

Wednesday 15:

Maine becomes the 23rd U.S. state.

April 1820

Saturday 08:

The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Melos.

August 1820

Tuesday 01:

London's Regent's Canal opens.

September 1820

Thursday 28:

The tomato is publicly proven safe when Robert Johnson eats a bushel (24 kg) of tomatoes in Salem, Massachusetts.

October 1820

Monday 09:

Guayaquil declared independence from Spain.

November 1820

Monday 20:

An 80-ton sperm whale attacks the Essex (a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts) 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America (Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick was in part inspired by this story).