The United States buys the vast Louisiana territory from France, roughly doubling the size of the country.
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.
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark lead an expedition across the American West to the Pacific coast and back.
Napoleon crowns himself at Notre-Dame de Paris in the presence of Pope Pius VII, formalising the First French Empire.
The British fleet under Admiral Nelson defeats the combined French and Spanish fleets, securing British naval supremacy; Nelson is killed in the battle.
Napoleon defeats a combined Russian and Austrian army in the "Battle of the Three Emperors", one of his most celebrated victories.