1808 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar).

Events

• January 1 - Importation of slaves into the United States is banned
• February 11 - Anthracite coal first burned as fuel, experimentally.
• February - Russia issues an ultimatum to Sweden, to join France, Denmark and Russia and attacks Finland.
• March 26 - Charles IV of Spain abdicates in favor of his son, Ferdinand VII
• April 6 - John Jacob Astor incorporates the American Fur Company.
• May 2 - Peninsular War: The people of Madrid uprise against the French troops.
• May 3:
  • The fortress of Sveaborg is lost by Sweden to Russia, during the Finnish War.
  • Peninsular War: The Madrid rebels who uprose on May 2 are fired near Príncipe Pío hill.
• November - Swedish troops evacuate Finland. Tsar Alexander I of Russia proclaims Finland a part of Russia.
• November - James Madison defeats Charles C. Pinckney in U.S. presidential election
• Change of emperor of the Ottoman Empire from Mustafa IV (1807-1808) to Mahmud II (1808-1839)
• December - Napoleon invades Spain
• December 9 - At 20:34 UTC Mercury occulted Saturn. It was the pre-last occultation of a planet by an other planet until now. There are no observation records.

Ongoing events

• Napoleonic Wars

Births

• January 19 - Lysander Spooner, individualist anarchist (d. 1887)
• January 27 - David Strauss, German theologian (d. 1874)
• February 5 - Carl Spitzweg, painter (d. 1885)
• February 26 - Honoré Daumier, painter, illustrator, lithograph and sculptor (d. 1879)
• May 22 - Gérard de Nerval, French writer (d. 1855)
• June 3 - Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America (d. 1889)
• June 17 - Henrik Wergeland, Norwegian author (d. 1845)
• June 20 - Samson Raphael Hirsch, rabbi (d. 1888)
• July 9 - Alexander William Doniphan, lawyer and military leader from Missouri (d. 1887)
• October 6 - King Frederick VII of Denmark (d. 1863)
• October 20 - Karl Andree, German geographer (d. 1875)
• November 1 - John Taylor, American religious leader (d. 1887)
• December 29 - Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States (d. 1875)

Deaths

• March 13 - King Christian VII of Denmark (b. 1749)
• May 18 - Elijah Craig, important to the invention of bourbon whiskey
• September 17 - Benjamin Bourne, politician (b. 1755)