On This Day

Great Britain annexes Tristan da Cunha

Tristan da Cunha (), colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean.

Tristan da Cunha (), colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is one of three constituent parts of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, with its own constitution.

The territory consists of the inhabited island Tristan da Cunha, which has a diameter of roughly 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) and an area of 98 square kilometres (38 sq mi); the wildlife reserves of Gough Island and Inaccessible Island; and the smaller, uninhabited Nightingale Islands. As of October 2018, the main island had 250 permanent inhabitants, who all hold British Overseas Territories citizenship.

Historical Significance

Tristan da Cunha (), colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean.

Events Before

  1. Leading Romantic poet Lord Byron (27) marries Anne Isabella Milbanke (22) by special licence, at Seaham Hall in County D

    Leading Romantic poet Lord Byron (27) marries Anne Isabella Milbanke (22) by special licence, at Seaham Hall in County Durham

  2. Burned US Library of Congress re-established with Thomas Jefferson's 6,500 volumes

    Burned US Library of Congress re-established with Thomas Jefferson's 6,500 volumes

  3. Napoléon Bonaparte and his supporters leave Elba to start a 100-day reconquest of France

    Napoléon Bonaparte and his supporters leave Elba to start a 100-day reconquest of France

  4. Napoleon Bonaparte enters Paris after his escape from Elba and begins his 100-day rule

    Napoleon Bonaparte enters Paris after his escape from Elba and begins his 100-day rule

  5. Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies experiences a cataclysmic eruption, one of the most powerful in history, killing

    Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies experiences a cataclysmic eruption, one of the most powerful in history, killing around 71,000 people and causing a global volcanic winter

Events After

  1. Argentine General José de San Martín leads a revolutionary army over the Andes to attack Spanish royalists in Chile

    Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, extending along a narrow strip of land...

  2. Gioachino Rossini's opera "La Cenerentola" (Cinderella) premieres at Rome's Teatro Valle

    La Cenerentola, ossia La bontà in trionfo ("Cinderella, or Goodness Triumphant") is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini.

  3. The New York Stock Exchange is founded

    The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "the Big Board") is an American stock exchange headquartered at the New York Stock Exchange Building in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New…

  4. Tsar of Russia, Nicholas I (21) weds Alexandra Feodorovna [Princess Charlotte] (19) at the Grand Church of the Winter Pa

    Tsar of Russia, Nicholas I (21) weds Alexandra Feodorovna [Princess Charlotte] (19) at the Grand Church of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, Russia

  5. Alexander Twilight, likely the first African American to graduate from a US college, receives a BA degree from Middlebur

    Alexander Twilight, likely the first African American to graduate from a US college, receives a BA degree from Middlebury College

More from the 1810s

Frequently Asked Questions

What happened on August 14, 1816?
Tristan da Cunha (), colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is one of three constituent parts of the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, with its own constitution. The territory consists of the inhabited island Tristan da Cunha, which has a diameter of roughly 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) and an area of 98 square kilometres (38 sq mi); the wildlife reserves of Gough Island and Inaccessible Island; and the smaller, uninhabited Nightingale Islands.
Why is Great Britain annexes Tristan da Cunha significant?
Tristan da Cunha (), colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean.

Explore More