Timeline June 1816

Events in June 1816 2

• 1816 British Parliament purchases the Elgin Marbles Sculptures from the Parthenon acquired for the British Museum Parliament voted to buy the classical Greek sculptures removed from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin and place them in the British Museum. The acquisition settled a public and parliamentary dispute over the propriety of Elgin's removal of the marbles from Ottoman-ruled Athens, a dispute that continues as a diplomatic issue between Britain and Greece today.
• 1816 Villa Diodati ghost story challenge Lake Geneva gathering produces the seeds of Frankenstein and The Vampyre During a cold, rain-bound summer caused by the Tambora eruption, Lord Byron, Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley, and John Polidori spent weeks at the Villa Diodati near Geneva. Byron proposed each guest write a ghost story, leading Mary Shelley to conceive Frankenstein and Polidori to write The Vampyre, both published later.