in Britain, under the leadership of James Braidwood. October 21 – Joseph Aspdin patents Portland cement. November 5 – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the first technological university in the English-speaking world, is founded in Troy, New York. – In the worst flood to date in Saint Petersburg, water rises above normal, and 200 lose their lives. November 30 – The first sod is turned in Ontario for the first of four Welland Canals (the canal opens for a trial run five years later to the day). December 3 – 1824 United States presidential election: None of the four candidates for U.S. president gain a majority of the electoral votes, so the election is thrown into the U.S. House of Representatives. December 9 – Battle of Ayacucho: Peruvian forces defeat the Spanish. December 23 – Chief Pushmataha of the Choctaw Nation dies in Washington. December 24 – The first American fraternity, Chi Phi (ΧΦ), is founded at Princeton University. December 28 – The Bathurst War comes to an end, with the defeat of the Wiradjuri. Date unknown The Egyptians capture Crete. The Dutch sign the Masang Agreement, temporarily ending hostilities in the Padri War. The name Australia, recommended by Matthew Flinders in 1804, is finally adopted as the official name of the country once known as New Holland. The Fort Vancouver trading post is established on the lower Columbia River by the Hudson's Bay Company. The Panoramagram is invented as the first stereoscopic viewer. The Colorado potato beetle is first described, by Thomas Say. Births January–June January 7 – Julia Kavanagh, Irish novelist (d. 1877) January 8 – Wilkie Collins, British novelist (d. 1889) January 15 – Marie Duplessis, French courtesan (d. 1847) January 21 – Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson, American Confederate general (d. 1863) January 26 – Emil Czyrniański, Polish chemist (d. 1888) February 7 – Sir William Huggins, British astronomer (d. 1910) February 8 – Barnard Elliott Bee, Jr., American Confederate general (d. 1861) February 12 – Dayananda Saraswati, Hindu religious leader, Vedic scholar who founded the reform movement Arya Samaj (d. 1883) February 14 – Winfield Scott Hancock, American Civil War Union general, Democratic presidential candidate (d. 1886) February 27 – Prince Kuni Asahiko of Japan (d. 1891) March 2 – Bedřich Smetana, Czech composer (d. 1884) March 9 – Amasa Leland Stanford, American tycoon, industrialist and politician, 8th Governor of California (d. 1893) March 12 – Gustav Kirchhoff,