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Oldest English-language school in Southeast Asia, Penang Free School is founded in George Town, Penang, Malaysia, by Eng

Oldest English-language school in Southeast Asia, Penang Free School is founded in George Town, Penang, Malaysia, by English clergyman Rev. Hutchings

George Town is the capital of the Malaysian state of Penang. It is the core city of the George Town Conurbation, Malaysia's second largest metropolitan area with a population of 2.84 million and the second largest metropolitan economy in the country. The city proper spans an area of 306 km2 (118 sq mi) encompassing Penang Island and surrounding islets, and had a population of 794,313 as of 2020.

Classified as a "Gamma −" city, the second highest in Malaysia after Kuala Lumpur, George Town is the commercial centre for northern Malaysia and one of the few high-income economies of the cities outside the Klang Valley.

Historical Significance

George Town is the capital of the Malaysian state of Penang.

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

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

Field Marshal Blücher's troops cross the Rhine at Kaub

Field Marshal Blücher's troops cross the Rhine at Kaub

US Vice President John C. Calhoun (28) weds Floride Bonneau (19)

US Vice President John C. Calhoun (28) weds Floride Bonneau (19)

French church annuls marriage of Napoleon I and Empress Joséphine

Joséphine Bonaparte was the first wife of Emperor Napoleon I and as such Empress of the French from 18 May 1804 until their marriage was annulled on 10 January 1810.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happened on October 21, 1816?
George Town is the capital of the Malaysian state of Penang. It is the core city of the George Town Conurbation, Malaysia's second largest metropolitan area with a population of 2.84 million and the second largest metropolitan economy in the country. The city proper spans an area of 306 km2 (118 sq mi) encompassing Penang Island and surrounding islets, and had a population of 794,313 as of 2020.
Why is Oldest English-language school in Southeast Asia, Penang Free School is found... significant?
George Town is the capital of the Malaysian state of Penang.

Explore More

October 21 in HistoryYear 1816