What happened in 1816
6 entries recorded for 1816, listed by date. That was 210 years ago.
1816 at a glance
- Years ago
- 210 (as of 2026)
- Century
- 19th century
- Decade
- 1810s
- Generation born
- Before the named generations
- Entries here
- 6
- Breakdown
- 6 historical events
February
- February 20
The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville, an opera buffa composed by Gioachino Rossini, premiered at the Teatro Argentina in Rome to jeers from the audience.
May
- May 25
Kubla Khan
The poems Kubla Khan and Christabel by English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge were published.
July
- July 2
French frigate Méduse (1810)
The French frigate Méduse ran aground off the coast of present-day Mauritania, with the survivors escaping on a makeshift raft, depicted in Théodore Géricault's painting The Raft of the Medusa.
August
- August 5
Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet
Sir John Barrow, secretary at the Admiralty, rejected a proposal to use Francis Ronalds's electrical telegraph, deeming it "wholly unnecessary".
- August 14
Tristan da Cunha
The United Kingdom formally annexed the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, administering the islands from the Cape Colony in South Africa.
September
- September 5
Louis XVIII
Facing rising discontent in France, Louis XVIII was forced to dissolve the Chambre introuvable, the legislature dominated by Ultra-royalists.
Questions about 1816
What happened in 1816?
This site records 6 entries for 1816, including The Barber of Seville on February 20. They are listed below by date.
How long ago was 1816?
210 years ago, counting from 2026. Anyone born in 1816 turns 210 this year.
Which century is 1816 in?
1816 falls in the 19th century, in the 1810s.
Text adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0 and from Wikidata (CC0). Images come from Wikimedia Commons; credit and licence are shown with each image. Editorial entries are © What's On This Date. Sources & licensing · How this site works.