Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on the remote island of St. Helena, six years after his defeat at Waterloo ended his rule.

Simón Bolívar's forces crushed Spanish royalist troops in Venezuela, sealing the nation's independence and cementing Bolívar's legend as Liberator.

José de San Martín proclaimed Peru's independence from Spain in Lima, ending nearly three centuries of colonial rule in the viceroyalty's capital.

Missouri became the 24th U.S. state under the terms of the Missouri Compromise, entering as a slave state while balancing the Senate with free-state Maine.

Panama declared independence from Spain, joining Gran Colombia rather than standing alone, ending three centuries of Spanish colonial rule on the isthmus.

Fyodor Dostoevsky was born in Moscow, the writer whose novels of guilt, faith, and suffering would reshape the modern psychological novel.