Modern Era
Napoleon and Josephine: Their Marriage and 1809 Divorce
The marriage was dissolved by a ceremony and a Senate decree in December 1809, and Napoleon married Marie Louise of Austria in 1810.
Region
Europe
Modern Era
Battle of Aspern-Essling (1809): Napoleon's First Defeat
Austrian victory; Napoleon withdrew to Lobau island, and Marshal Lannes was mortally wounded.
Modern Era
Battle of Wagram (1809): Napoleon Defeats Austria Again
French victory; Austria sought an armistice and signed the Treaty of Schonbrunn in October 1809, losing large territories.
Modern Era
Lines of Torres Vedras (1810): Wellington's Secret Defences
Massena's army could not break through and withdrew from Portugal in 1811 after losing about 25,000 men, mostly to hunger and disease.
Prehistory
Mary Anning and the Lyme Regis Ichthyosaur Discovery of 1811
The Annings' ichthyosaur, followed by Mary Anning's plesiosaur and pterosaur finds, gave early geologists some of the first complete skeletons of extinct marine reptiles.
Modern Era
Battle of the Berezina (1812): Napoleon's Desperate Crossing
Napoleon and the core of his army escaped across the river, but tens of thousands of soldiers and stragglers were killed, captured or left behind.
Modern Era
Assassination of Spencer Perceval (1812): A Prime Minister Shot
Perceval died within minutes; Bellingham was tried, convicted and hanged within a week, and Lord Liverpool became prime minister.
Modern Era
Battle of Borodino (1812): The Bloodiest Day of Napoleon's Wars
Tactical French victory; the Russian army withdrew intact, and Napoleon occupied Moscow a week later.
Modern Era
French Invasion of Russia (1812): Napoleon's Grande Armée
Catastrophic French defeat; most of the Grande Armée was destroyed, and Napoleon's enemies formed the Sixth Coalition that drove him from power by 1814.
Modern Era
War of 1812: Britain and the United States at War Again
The Treaty of Ghent restored pre-war borders; Canada remained British, the United States gained confidence, and Native nations lost their British ally and much of their land.
Modern Era
Battle of Vitoria (1813): Wellington Drives France From Spain
Decisive Anglo-Portuguese and Spanish victory; the French army fled towards France, abandoning almost all its artillery and baggage.
Modern Era
Battle of Leipzig (1813): The Battle of the Nations
Decisive Coalition victory; Napoleon retreated across the Rhine and French power in Germany collapsed.