| 1799–1825 | [maths] | The French mathematician and physicist Pierre-Simon Laplace publishes the five-volume Traité de mécanique céleste/Celestial Mechanics, which applies calculus to the motions of celestial bodies and Isaac Newton's theories of the Solar System to show how its stability is implicit in the law of gravitation. |
| 1800–1850 | USA [consumer products] | A revolution in retail and wholesale trade occurs: specialization transforms the urban retail market, replacing the general store with individual stores for hardware, groceries, dry goods, furnishing, books, tobacco, and so on. Cash-only sales policies are instituted around 1806. |
| 1810–1859 | USA [agriculture] | US cotton production, the vast majority of which is grown in the southern states, rises from 171,000 bales in 1810 to just under 5.4 million in 1859. |
| 1819–1826 | UK [other structures] | Scottish engineer Thomas Telford constructs the 177 m/580 ft Menai suspension bridge over the Menai Straits between Bangor, Wales and the island of Anglesey. The first modern suspension bridge, it uses chains of wrought-iron links suspended from masonry towers at either end. Lacking stiffening girders it is vulnerable to high winds. |
| 1821–1830 | USA, UK, Ireland [statistics and demography] | Emigration to the USA from Britain is 27,489, and from Ireland, 54,338. |
| 1824 | UK [companies and organizations] | English Quaker John Cadbury opens a tea and coffee shop in Birmingham, England, the beginnings of the Cadbury confectionery company. |
| 1824 | Germany [historical study] | The German historian Leopold von Ranke publishes Geschichten der romanischen und germanischen Völker, 1494–1535/History of the Roman and Teutonic People, 1494–1535. |
| 1824 | England [literature and language] | The English writer Mary Mitford publishes the first volume of her account of village life Our Village: Sketches of Rural Life, Character and Scenery. The final volume appears in 1832. The sketches began to appear in Lady Magazine in 1819. |
| 1824 | [maths] | French scientist Sadi Carnot publishes Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu et sur les machines propres à développer cette puissance/Thoughts on the Motive Power of Fire, and on Machines Suitable for Developing that Power, a pioneering study of thermodynamics in which he explains that a steam engine's power results from the decrease in temperature from the boiler to the condenser. He also describes the ‘Carnot cycle’ whereby heat is converted into mechanical motion and mechanical motion converted into heat – the basis of the second law of thermodynamics. |
| 1824 | Austria [solo and chamber music] | The Austrian composer Franz Schubert completes his String Quartets No. 13 (D 804) and No. 14 (D 810), Der Tot und das Mädchen/Death and the Maiden. |
| 1824 | Germany [painting] | The German artist Caspar David Friedrich paints Arctic Shipwreck. |
| 1824 | France [painting] | The French artist Eugène Delacroix paints The Massacre at Chios, a depiction of a contemporary event from the Great War of Independence. |
| 1824 | Italy [poetry] | The Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi publishes his poetry collection Canzoni e versi/Songs and Verses. |
| 21 January 1824 | USA [births and deaths] | Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson, one of the ablest Confederate generals in the American Civil War, born in Clarksburg, Virginia (–1863). |
| 10 February 1824 | Peru [administration] | The South American revolutionary leader Simón Bolívar is proclaimed emperor of Peru. |
| 24 February 1824 | UK, Burma [wars] | The British governor general of India, Lord Amherst, declares war against the Burmese as the latter have violated the territory of the British East India Company by capturing the island of Shahpuri. |
| April 1824 | USA, Russian Empire, North America [diplomacy] | The USA and Russia settle the controversy over the northernmost coast of North America. Russia is granted the territory north of latitude 54° 40', in exchange for Russia's lifting of a fishing ban off its North American territorial waters. |
| 19 April 1824 | Greece, England [births and deaths] | George Gordon, Lord Byron, English Romantic poet, dies in Missolonghi, Greece (36). |
| 26 June 1824 | Scotland, Northern Ireland [births and deaths] | William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), Scottish physicist who developed the absolute temperature scale, born in Belfast, Ireland (–1907). |
| 16 September 1824 | France [political events] | Following the death of King Louis XVIII of France, he is succeeded by his brother, Charles X. |
