Simón Bolívar, leader of independence movements across much of South America, is born in Caracas.
Enslaved people in the French colony of Saint-Domingue rise up, beginning the only successful slave revolution in history.
Toussaint Louverture, leader of the Haitian Revolution, dies while imprisoned at Fort de Joux in France.
Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaims Haiti's independence, making it the second independent nation in the Americas and the first republic founded by formerly enslaved people.
Priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla calls on the people of Dolores to rise against Spanish rule, starting Mexico's War of Independence.
The Congress of Tucumán declares the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata independent from Spain.
Simón Bolívar's forces defeat the Spanish at Boyacá, securing the liberation of New Granada (present-day Colombia).