Anglo-US tensions are heightened by a clash between the frigates Leopard and Chesapeake off the coast of Norfolk, Virginia

Napoleon launches an invasion of Portugal, increasing the likelihood of a Peninsular War

The Portuguese royal family flees to Brazil on the approach of a French army led by Jean-Andoche Junot

In Phenomenology of Spirit Friedrich Hegel interprets history as the advance of the human mind, often through thesis, antithesis and synthesis

George Canning is appointed British foreign secretary in the new administration of the Duke of Portland

English collector Thomas Hope publishes his Greek and Egyptian designs in Household Furniture and Interior Decoration

A French army under Joachim Murat advances on Madrid, causing the Spanish royal family to flee

Napoleon transfers his brother Joseph Bonaparte from the throne of Naples to that of Spain

Napoleon gives the throne of Naples, vacated by his brother Joseph, to Joachim Murat

The French capture of Madrid provokes a British response and the resulting Peninsular War

An uprising in Madrid, brutally put down by the French, is vividly depicted by the Spanish painter Goya

Russia, after winning much of Finland from Sweden during the previous century, invades again in 1808

A British army under Arthur Wellesley (later duke of Wellington) defeats the French at Vimeiro, near Lisbon

Beethoven's sixth symphony (the Pastoral) has its first performance in Vienna

Klemens von Metternich becomes foreign minister to the Austrian emperor Francis II

British commander Arthur Wellesley builds the lines of Torres Vedras, to defend the promontory leading south to Lisbon

Napoleon annexes the Papal States and is excommunicated by the pope, Pius VII

French chemist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac shows that when gases combine they do so in simple ratios by volume (later known as his Law of Combining Volumes)

In the Treaty of Hamina (or Fredrikshamn), Sweden cedes Finland to Russia as an autonomous grand duchy

Napoleon, in response to his excommunication, has pope Pius VII arrested and kept in captivity in northern Italy and then France

Napoleon enters Vienna and defeats the Austrians in a battle at nearby Wagram

French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck argues in Zoological Philosophy that creatures can inherit acquired characteristics

Napoleon arranges to have his marriage to Josephine annulled so that he can marry the daughter of an emperor

John Moore dies at Corunna but his army escapes from Spain and gets back to England

Rival British politicians Lord Castlereagh and George Canning fight a duel in which Canning is wounded