1828
Jackson Elected
Andrew Jackson, the hero of New Orleans, beat John Quincy Adams in a campaign so filthy both candidates' wives were dragged through it. Jackson's wife Rachel died before the inauguration. His supporters said she had been killed by slander. The Age of Jackson had arrived, and the common man had a president.
Treaty of Turkmenchay
After a crushing Russian advance into the Caucasus, the Persian Qajars signed away their last claims on what is now Azerbaijan and Armenia. Russia gained the right to station consuls and to trade free of duty. It was a humiliation that would reshape Iranian politics and Russian reach into Central Asia for a century.
Shaka Assassinated
The Zulu king, increasingly erratic since his mother's death, was stabbed near his kraal at Dukuza by his half-brothers Dingane and Mhlangana. He had conquered an empire and ruled it for twelve years. His last words, tradition says, warned his killers that the whites would come. Dingane would meet them at Blood River a decade later.
Uruguay Independent
After three years of British-mediated negotiation, Argentina and Brazil agreed to recognize the Banda Oriental as a buffer state between them, to be called the Oriental Republic of Uruguay. The British, who had engineered the compromise to keep the Rio de la Plata open to trade, went home satisfied. A new small country had been midwifed into being.