Year 1814 Fun Facts, Trivia, and History

This quick read is a mix of fun facts, trivia, and historical events from the year 1814. Discover the year’s top news stories, most influential people, historic firsts, famous births, U.S. economic news, and much more.

Take a journey through history in just minutes.

1. President of the United States: James Madison (DR-Virginia)
2. Vice President: Elbridge Gerry (DR-Massachusetts) - Until November 23, when he passed away from a heart attack
3. Vice President: Vacant after November 23
4. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: John Marshall (Virginia)
5. Speaker of the House of Representatives: Henry Clay (DR-Kentucky) - Until January 19
6. Speaker of the House of Representatives: Langdon Cheves (DR-South Carolina) - Starting January 19
7. The 13th U.S. Congress was in session.
8. Inflation rate: 10.00%
9. $100.00 in 1814 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $1,876.21 today. The U.S. dollar had “an average inflation rate of 1.39% per year” between 1814 and 2026, “producing a cumulative price increase of 1,776.21%.” In other words, a U.S. dollar today buys about 5.330% of what it could purchase back in 1814.
10. Consumer price index (CPI): 17.660
11. In 1814, the United States was in the third year of the War of 1812, suffering a “notable low point” when British troops entered Washington, D.C., and set fire to the White House and Capitol Building on August 24. The year was also marked by “significant battles” on both the Great Lakes and in the Chesapeake Bay area, “culminating in the signing of the Treaty of Ghent on December 24, which brought the war to a close.”
12. On February 1, Lord Byron published his narrative poem, The Corsair, and sold an estimated 10,000 copies on the first day.
13. On March 27, under the command of Major General Andrew Jackson, United States forces and Native American allies defeated an estimated 1,000 “Red Stick” Creek warriors at Horseshoe Bend, Alabama, which “ended Creek resistance to American advances into the southeast” and opened up the Mississippi Territory for pioneer settlement.
14. On March 28, the funeral for Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin—the inventor of the “infamous” execution device—took place outside of Paris, France.
15. On March 31, American agricultural pioneer John Lineback of Salem, North Carolina, received the world’s first patent for a cottonseed hulling machine.
16. On April 2, the American inventor Erastus Brigham Bigelow was born in West Boylston, Massachusetts. He later invented a machine for manufacturing gingham cloth.
17. On July 2, British author Jane Austen published her third novel, Mansfield Park.
18. War of 1812: On July 25, the Battle of Lundy’s Lane, near Niagara Falls, New York, was the bloodiest battle of the War of 1812. It resulted in a “bloody, inconclusive stalemate that ended the American invasion of Upper Canada. Despite heavy casualties—nearly 900 on each side—the British and Canadian forces held the field after American forces withdrew due to severe losses and exhaustion.”
19. On July 25, British engineer George Stephenson launched “his first steam locomotive, a traveling engine designed for hauling coal on the Killingworth Wagonway.”
20. On August 10, Henri Nestlé was born in Frankfurt, Germany. In 1867, he created Farine Lactée, “a pioneering infant formula” that led to the creation of one of the world's largest food companies.
21. On August 21, the American-born British physicist and inventor Benjamin Thompson, Count von Rumford, passed away. He invented the Rumford fireplace, coffee percolator, and slow cooker.
22. War of 1812: On August 24, British troops entered Washington, D.C., and burned the White House “in retaliation for the American attack on the city of York in Ontario, Canada, in June 1813.”
23. War of 1812: On August 24, American first lady Dolly Madison removed an iconic portrait of George Washington from the White House before the residence was looted and burned by British troops.
24. On September 14, Francis Scott Key, an American lawyer and poet, penned the poem Defence of Fort M'Henry, which was later set to music and became America’s national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner.
25. October 17: At the Horseshoe Brewery in London, the metal bands on a 22-foot wooden beer vat snapped, and a “tidal wave” of 320,000 gallons of porter beer crashed through the brewery walls, killing eight people in the adjacent St. Giles slum.
26. On November 6, the Belgian musician and inventor Adolphe Sax was born. In the early 1840s, he invented the saxophone.
27. On November 28, the Times of London was first printed “by automatic, steam-powered presses built by German inventors Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Friedrich Bauer,” thus “making newspapers available to a mass audience.”
28. War of 1812: On December 24, the Treaty of Ghent was signed, which ended the War of 1812 between the United States, the United Kingdom, and their respective allies.
29. Key fiction books published in 1814 included Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park, Mary Brunton’s Discipline, and Walter Scott’s Waverley.
30. Barbara Hofland, who wrote numerous moral stories for children, published Emily and Her Friends.
31. Notable nonfiction works for the year were Percy Bysshe Shelley’s A Refutation of Deism and Thomas Hartwell Horne’s Introduction to the Study of Bibliography.
32. Noteworthy poetic works for 1814: Lord Byron’s The Corsair and Lara
33. Top dramatic works for the year included James Kenney’s Debtor and Creditor and Leigh Hunt’s The Descent of Liberty.
34. Famous people who were born in 1814 included American entrepreneur Samuel Colt, who invented the revolver at age 16, and Archibald Gardner, a Scottish-American flour and lumber pioneer “who helped establish communities in Ontario, Wyoming, and Utah.”
35. In 1814, the words “adult education,” “a race against time,” “bicarbonate of soda,” “bloodbath,” “bobbinet,” “booking office,” “countersuit,” “electrician,” “gastronomy,” “glee club,” “grapefruit,” “green pepper,” “guidebook,” “home brew,” “horror-struck,” “instrumentalist,” “iodine,” “keno,” “laissez-faire,” “meet one’s maker,” “moral compass,” “Napoleon,” “Neufchâtel,” “personnel,” “profiteering,” “pumpkinseed,” “safety lamp,” “scabies,” “sermonette,” “shut up,” “side effect,” “silicon,” “straitjacket,” “Trappist,” and “upper class” all appeared in print for the first time.

References:

1. https://www.officialdata.org/us/inflation/1814
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1814_in_the_United_States
3. https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/1814
4. https://www.foodreference.com/html/html/food-timeline-1811.html
5. https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/1814
6. https://www.history.com/a-year-in-history/1814
7. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/august-24/dolley-madison-saves-portrait-from-british

Disclaimer: In writing and editing this article, Gregory DeVictor has made every effort to ensure historical accuracy and not to mislead his audience. In addition, the contents of this article, including text, graphics, and captions, are for general informational purposes only.

© 2026 Gregory DeVictor