WHAT ALL HAPPENED JANUARY TO NOVEMBER 1820
Find out what all happened January to November 1820

The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Melos. (8. April 1820)

The Missouri Compromise is signed into law by President James Monroe. The compromise allows Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, brings Maine into the Union as a free state, and makes the rest of the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase territory slavery-free. (6. March 1820)

Constitutionalist revolution in Lisbon, Portugal. (15. September 1820)

Guayaquil declares independence from Spain. (9. October 1820)

Alexander Ypsilantis is declared leader of Filiki Eteria, a secret organization to overthrow Ottoman rule over Greece. (12. April 1820)

An 80-ton sperm whale attacks the Essex (a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts) 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America. (Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick is in part inspired by this story.) (20. November 1820)

The Chilean Navy under the command of Lord Cochrane completes the 2-day long Capture of Valdivia with just 300 men and 2 ships. (4. February 1820)

The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society depart New York to start a settlement in present-day Liberia. (6. February 1820)

HMS Beagle, the ship that will take Charles Darwin on his scientific voyage, is launched. (11. May 1820)

Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to see Antarctica. (The Palmer Peninsula is later named after him.) (17. November 1820)

Edward Bransfield sights the Trinity Peninsula and claims the discovery of Antarctica. (30. January 1820)

A Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev discovers the Antarctic continent, approaching the Antarctic coast. (28. January 1820)

Maine becomes the 23rd U.S. state. (15. March 1820)

Cato Street Conspiracy: A plot to murder all the British cabinet ministers is exposed. (23. February 1820)

Constitutionalist insurrection at Oporto, Portugal. (24. August 1820)

The U.S. Congress passes the Missouri Compromise. (3. March 1820)