1803

Events in 1803 11

• 1803 – 1862 Albert Sidney Johnston (1803-1862) Died 6 April 1862, aged 59 Johnston was a senior Confederate general who commanded Southern forces at the Battle of Shiloh. He bled to death from a leg wound on the first day of the battle, the highest-ranking officer killed on either side during the Civil War.
• 1803 – 1853 Christian Doppler (1803-1853) Died 17 March 1853, aged 49 Christian Doppler was an Austrian physicist and mathematician best known for describing the frequency shift of waves now called the Doppler effect. He proposed the effect in 1842 to explain the colors of binary stars, and it later became fundamental to astronomy, radar, and medical imaging. He died in Venice of a pulmonary disease.
• 1803 – 1857 Douglas Jerrold (1803-1857) Died 8 June 1857, aged 54 Jerrold was an English playwright and writer best known for his contributions to the satirical magazine Punch and his play Black-Eyed Susan. He was a prominent figure in London literary circles alongside Charles Dickens. His journalism combined social criticism with popular humor.
• 1803 – 1873 Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) Died 18 January 1873, aged 69 The English novelist, playwright, and politician died at Torquay. His novels, including The Last Days of Pompeii, made him one of the best-selling authors of his era, and his famous opening line "It was a dark and stormy night" remains widely quoted.
• 1803 – 1876 Ferenc Deak (1803-1876) Died 28 January 1876, aged 72 Ferenc Deak was a Hungarian statesman known as the Wise Man of the Nation for negotiating the 1867 Austro-Hungarian Compromise that created the dual monarchy. He died in Budapest on January 28, 1876.
• 1803 – 1887 John Ericsson (1803-1887) Died 8 March 1887, aged 83 John Ericsson was a Swedish-American engineer and inventor best known for designing the ironclad warship USS Monitor, which fought the CSS Virginia in the American Civil War's first battle between ironclads. He also contributed to the development of the screw propeller for ships. He emigrated to the United States in 1839 and spent the rest of his career there.
• 1803 – 1889 John Ericsson (1803-1889) Died 8 March 1889, aged 85 Swedish-American engineer Ericsson designed the ironclad USS Monitor, whose 1862 duel with CSS Virginia transformed naval warfare. He also pioneered the screw propeller for ships.
• 1803 – 1873 Justus von Liebig (1803-1873) Died 18 April 1873, aged 69 The German chemist, a pioneer of organic and agricultural chemistry, died in Munich. His research on plant nutrition and mineral fertilizers helped found the science of agricultural chemistry, and he developed early techniques for protein and beef extract analysis still associated with his name.
• 1803 – 1870 Prosper Merimee (1803-1870) Died 23 September 1870, aged 67 Prosper Merimee, the French writer best known for the novella Carmen, later adapted into Bizet's opera, died in Cannes on 23 September 1870. He was also a noted historian and one of France's pioneering advocates for the preservation of historic monuments. He served as a senator during the Second Empire.
• 1803 – 1882 Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) Died 27 April 1882, aged 78 Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement in the mid-19th century. His essays on self-reliance and individualism shaped American literary and philosophical thought. He died at his home in Concord, Massachusetts.
• 1803 – 1869 Hector Berlioz Romantic orchestral innovator French Romantic composer who revolutionised orchestration with his Symphonie fantastique and expanded the scope of the orchestra to unprecedented scale.