1814

1814 (MDCCCXIV) was a common year starting on Saturday (dominical letter B) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Thursday (dominical letter D) of the Julian calendar, the 1814th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 814th year of the 2nd millennium, the 14th year of the 19th century, and the 5th year of the 1810s decade. Note that the Julian day for 1814 is 12 calendar days difference, which continued to be used from 1582 until the complete conversion of the Gregorian calendar was entirely done in 1929.

Events

January–March

Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico (Spanish: Golfo de México) is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent. as well as Central America. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. The U.S. states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida border the Gulf on the north, which are often referred to as the "Third Coast" in comparison with the U.S. Atlantic and Pacific coasts, or sometimes the "south coast", in juxtaposition to the Great Lakes region being the "north coast."

The Gulf of Mexico formed approximately 300 million years ago as a result of plate tectonics. The Gulf's basin is roughly oval and is approximately 810 nautical miles (1,500 km; 930 mi) wide and floored by sedimentary rocks and recent sediments. It is connected to part of the Atlantic Ocean through the Florida Straits between the U.S. and Cuba, and with the Caribbean Sea (with which it forms the American Mediterranean Sea) via the Yucatan Channel between Mexico and Cuba. With the narrow connection to the Atlantic, the Gulf experiences very small tidal ranges. The size of the Gulf basin is approximately 1.6 million km² (615,000 sq mi). Almost half of the basin is shallow continental shelf waters. The basin contains a volume of roughly 2500 quadrillion litres (550 quadrillion Imperial gallons, 660 US quadrillion gallons, 2.5 million cu km or 600,000 cu mi).

New Orleans

New Orleans (/nuː ˈɔːrlɪnz/,/nuː ˈɔːrliənz/, /nuː ɔːrˈliːnz/, or /ˈnɔːrlənz/; French: La Nouvelle-Orléans [la nuvɛlɔʁleɑ̃]) is a major United States port and the largest city and the center of the metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The population of the city was 343,829 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. The New Orleans metropolitan area (New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area) had a population of 1,167,764 in 2010 and was the 46th largest in the United States. The New Orleans–Metairie–Bogalusa Combined Statistical Area, a larger trading area, had a 2010 population of 1,452,502.

The city is named after the Duke of Orleans, who reigned as Regent for Louis XV from 1715 to 1723, as it was established by French colonists and strongly influenced by their European culture. It is well known for its distinct French and Spanish Creole architecture, as well as its cross-cultural and multilingual heritage. New Orleans is also famous for its cuisine, music (particularly as the birthplace of jazz), and its annual celebrations and festivals, most notably Mardi Gras, dating to French colonial times. The city is often referred to as the "most unique" in the United States.

Battle of New Orleans

The Battle of New Orleans was an engagement fought between January 8 and January 18, 1815, constituting the final major and most one-sided battle of the War of 1812. American combatants, commanded by Major General Andrew Jackson, prevented the British Army, Royal Marines and a large Royal Navy fleet, commanded by Admiral Alexander Cochrane and General Edward Pakenham, from seizing New Orleans as a strategic tool to end the war by using it as a starting point for an occupation of the vast territory the United States had acquired from the Louisiana Purchase. The British at the time were occupying the Florida Panhandle and attempting a westward expansion through the territory which is the present day Gulfport–Biloxi Mississippi metropolitan area. Strategically, New Orleans would have anchored these conquests. Conditions were harsh for the British who were used to Northern European conditions.

The British defeat convinced the Spanish to sell these territories to the US, as ratified in the Adams–Onís Treaty, thus depriving the British of a larger stake in the Caribbean.