Castlereagh wounding Canning in the thigh. October–December October 8 – Prince Klemens von Metternich becomes foreign minister of the Austrian Empire. October 11 – Along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee, explorer Meriwether Lewis dies under mysterious circumstances at an inn called Grinder's Stand. October 14 – The Treaty of Schönbrunn cedes the Illyrian Provinces to France. November 18 – Napoleonic Wars: Action of 18 November 1809 – In the Bay of Bengal, a French frigate squadron captures three British East Indiamen mainly carrying recruits for the presidency armies in India. November 19 – Battle of Ocaña: A Spanish army is ridden down, and 4,000 are killed and wounded by French forces. November 21 – First stone laid of first 'guided bus' passenger wagonway Gloucester and Cheltenham Tramroad. November 25 – Benjamin Bathurst, a British diplomat, mysteriously disappears (possibly murdered) in Perleberg, west of Berlin. December – Boyd massacre: Whangaroa Māori people kill and eat 66 crew and passengers of the brigantine Boyd in New Zealand. December 25 – American physician Ephraim McDowell performs the first ovariotomy, removing a 22-pound tumor. December 26 – A British invasion force leaves Vlissingen. December 30 – Wearing masks at balls is forbidden in Boston, Massachusetts. Date unknown William Combe begins publication of the verse Tour of Dr. Syntax in search of the Picturesque in Ackermann's Political Magazine (London), illustrated with cartoons by Thomas Rowlandson, depicting comic and ridiculous scenes involving a hapless country physician, and coming to represent British Regency humour. Louis Poinsot describes the two remaining Kepler–Poinsot polyhedra. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck publishes Philosophie Zoologique, outlining a (wrong) concept of evolution, by acquisition or loss of inherited characteristics, through use or disuse. British recruits to the British East India Company (and subsequently to the Indian Civil Service) are required to learn at least one Indian language fluently. Arorae an atoll of the Gilbert Islands was sighted by Captain John Patterson, on British brig Elizabeth. Births January–June January 1 – Cao Bá Quát, Vietnamese poet (d. 1855) January 4 – Louis Braille, French teacher, inventor of braille (d. 1852) January 6 – Marie Durocher, Brazilian obstetrician, physician (d. 1893) January 15 Cornelia Connelly, American founder of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus (d. 1879) Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, French anarchist (d. 1864) January 19 – Edgar Allan Poe, American writer, poet (d. 1849) January 21 – Queen Sinjeong, Korean regent (d. 1890) February 3 – Felix Mendelssohn,