Napoleon arrives back in Paris ahead of the remains of his army, after losing half a million men in the Russian campaign

William Hedley's Puffing Billy, the first steam locomotive running on smooth rails, goes to work at Wylam colliery

The king of Prussia, Frederick William III, changes sides and declares war on France

The Turks recapture Belgrade and sell thousands of Serb women and children into slavery

Wellington defeats Napoleon's brother Joseph at Vitoria, and captures his valuable baggage train

Quaker philanthopist Elizabeth Fry, appalled by the condition of female prisoners in London's Newgate gaol, begins campaigning on their behalf

The head of the house of Orange becomes, for the first time, the sovereign prince of the Netherlands

Wellington crosses the Bidassoa river in the north of Spain, bringing an enemy army on to French soil for the first time in twenty years

The allies inflict a heavy defeat on Napoleon at Leipzig, in the so-called Battle of the Nations

Pride and Prejudice, based on a youthful work of 1797 called First Impressions, is the second of Jane Austen's novels to be published

Denmark cedes Norway to Sweden, in the Treaty of Kiel, following Bernadotte's successful Danish campaign

A cold February freezes the Thames and makes possible the last of London's famous frost fairs

The Russian emperor and the Prussian king take a salute in the Champs Elysées after the allies capture Paris

Napoleon abdicates at Fontainebleau and the French senate invites Louis XVIII to return to reclaim his throne

English engineer George Stephenson builds his first locomotive, the Blucher, and runs it at the Killingworth colliery

Ferdinand VII, restored to Spain, imposes a reactionary regime and persecutes his liberal opponents

Beethoven's Mass in D (the Missa Solemnis) has its first performance in Vienna, though still incomplete

The final version of Beethoven's opera Fidelio has its premiere in Vienna

Napoleon goes into exile on the island of Elba, which he immediately treats as a miniature state in need of improvement

The crowned heads of Europe and their representatives gather in Vienna to tidy up the post-Napoleonic continent

Robert Peel, chief secretary for Ireland, introduces a police force soon known as the 'Peelers'

The Jesuit Order is restored by Pius VII on his return to Rome

The Times, England's oldest daily newspaper, becomes the first to print on a steam press

Britain and the United States sign the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812

English chemist Humphry Davy invents a safety lamp that shields the naked flame and prevents explosions in mines