Events from 1800

Alessandro Volta invents electric battery using mathematical principles of electrical potential

Pope Pius VII elected during conclave in Venice under Austrian protection

Early anti-vaccination propaganda appears - French cartoon shows men with syringe and monster, children fleeing

St. Madeleine Sophie Barat age 20 founds Sacred Heart Society after vision - will establish 100+ schools

Railroad expansion drives accounting innovation - need for tracking costs across routes and time periods

First U.S. Bankruptcy Act passed - applies only to merchants and traders, allows voluntary and involuntary bankruptcy, discharge available

Tomatoes widely accepted as food in southern Europe - Naples becomes center of tomato cuisine, pizza margherita still decades away

Potatoes become Ireland's primary crop - population depends almost entirely on potato, setting stage for disaster

Connecticut called 'Nutmeg State' for wooden nutmeg fraud - peddlers allegedly carved fake nutmegs from wood, sold to unsuspecting buyers

Chapman plants orchards to claim frontier land - law requires 'improvement' for land claims, 50 apple trees qualify