interchangeable parts, an origin of the American system of manufacturing. Conrad John Reed, 12, finds what he describes as a "heavy yellow rock" along Little Meadow Creek in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, and makes it a doorstop in his home. Conrad's father John Reed learns that the rock is actually gold in 1802, initiating the first gold rush in the United States. The assassination of the 14th Tu'i Kanokupolu, Tukuʻaho, plunges Tonga into half a century of civil war. The Nawab (provincial governor) of Oudh in northern India sends to George III of Great Britain the Padshah Nama, an official history of the reign of Shah Jahan. William Cockerill begins building cotton-spinning equipment in Belgium. The small town of Tignish, Prince Edward Island, Canada is founded. Births January–June January 6 – Jedediah Smith, American fur trapper, explorer (d. 1831) January 12 – Priscilla Susan Bury, British botanist (d. 1872) January 23 – Alois Negrelli, Tyrolean engineer, railroad pioneer active in the Austrian Empire (1858) January 31 – Rodolphe Töpffer, Swiss teacher, author, and artist (d. 1846) February 4 – Almeida Garrett, Portuguese writer (d. 1854) February 11 – Basil Moreau, founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross (d. 1873) February 14 – Walenty Wańkowicz, Polish painter (d. 1842) February 17 – Carl Julian (von) Graba, German lawyer and ornithologist who visited the Faroe Islands (d. 1874) February 27 – Edward Belcher, British admiral (d. 1877) March 8 – Simon Cameron, American politician (d. 1889) March 16 – Anna Atkins, British botanist (d. 1871) March 22 – Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander, German astronomer (d. 1875) March 28 – Karl Adolph von Basedow, German physician, noted for reporting the symptoms of Graves–Basedow disease (d. 1854) March 29 – Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1869) April 12 – Henri Druey, Swiss Federal Councilor (d. 1855) April 17 – Eliza Acton, English poet and cookery writer (d. 1859) May 9 – Philipp von Stadion und Thannhausen, Austrian field marshal (d. 1868) May 20 – Honoré de Balzac, French author (d. 1850) May 21 – Mary Anning, British paleontologist (d. 1847) May 25 – Alexei Lvov, Russian composer (d. 1870) June 3 – Elisabetta Fiorini Mazzanti, Italian botanist (d. 1879) June 6 – Alexander Pushkin, Russian author (d. 1837) June 18 – Prosper Ménière, French physician (d. 1862) June 25 – David Douglas, Scottish-born botanist (d. 1834) July–December