– Henry Halleck, American lawyer, general, and scholar (d. 1872)

– Francis Ronalds describes the first battery-operated clock in the Philosophical Magazine.

– The Mount Tambora volcano begins a three-month-long eruption, lasting until July 15. The eruption ultimately kills 71,000 people and affects Earth's climate for the next two years.

– The Second Serbian Uprising: A second phase of the national revolution of the Serbs against the Ottoman Empire, erupts shortly after the annexation of the country to the Ottoman Empire.

– Henry Parkes, English-Australian politician, 7th Premier of New South Wales (d. 1896)

– The East Indiaman Arniston is wrecked during a storm at Waenhuiskrans, near Cape Agulhas, in present-day South Africa, with the loss of 372 lives.

– Napoleon promulgates a revised Constitution after it passes a plebiscite.

– Ľudovít Štúr, Slovak philologist and politician (d. 1856)

– Thomas Couture, French painter and educator (d. 1879)