What Happened in 1831 — Events, Births & Deaths

The French Foreign Legion is created by Louis Philippe, the King of France, from the foreign regiments of the Kingdom of France.

First documented bank heist in U.S. history, when burglars steal $245,000 (1831 values) from the City Bank (now Citibank) on Wall Street. Most of the money was recovered.

Soldiers marching on the Broughton Suspension Bridge in Manchester, England, cause it to collapse.

The University of Alabama is founded in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Regulamentul Organic, a quasi-constitutional organic law, is adopted in Wallachia, one of the two Danubian Principalities that were to become the basis of Romania.

French intervention forces William I of the Netherlands to abandon his attempt to suppress the Belgian Revolution.

Nat Turner leads black slaves and free blacks in a rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, claiming the lives of 55 to 65 whites and about twice that number of blacks.

The Order of St. Gregory the Great is established by Pope Gregory XVI of the Vatican State to recognize high support for the Vatican or for the Pope, by a man or a woman, and not necessarily a Roman Catholic.

Ioannis Kapodistrias, the first head of state of independent Greece, is assassinated.

Nat Turner is arrested for leading the bloodiest slave rebellion in United States history.

Former U.S. President John Quincy Adams takes his seat in the House of Representatives.

The Great Jamaican Slave Revolt begins; up to 20% of Jamaica's slaves mobilize in an ultimately unsuccessful fight for freedom.

Charles Darwin embarks on his journey aboard HMS Beagle, during which he will begin to formulate his theory of evolution.