Edgar Allan Poe was born on 19 January 1809 in Boston. An American writer and critic, Poe was orphaned young and raised in Richmond, Virginia, and he struggled with poverty and gambling debts. He wrote poems and tales of horror and the macabre, such as The Fall of the House of Usher and The Tell-Tale Heart, and his poem The Raven of 1845 made him famous. His story The Murders in the Rue Morgue is widely regarded as the first modern detective story. He was also an influential literary critic and a pioneer of the short story as a form. He died in Baltimore in mysterious circumstances, and the cause of his death is still debated.
Before and after
- 1809Symphony No. 5
- 1809Lamarck proposes the first theory of evolution
- 4 January 1809Birth of Louis Braille
- 15 January 1809Birth of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
- 19 January 1809Birth of Edgar Allan Poe
- 3 February 1809Birth of Felix Mendelssohn
- 12 February 1809Birth of Charles Darwin
- 12 February 1809Birth of Abraham Lincoln
- 31 March 1809Birth of Nikolai Gogol
More in Art, literature & culture
- 1792Publication of Dream of the Red Chamber
- 21 February 1848Publication of The Communist Manifesto
- 18 September 1851Founding of The New York Times
- 1857Rise of Symbolism
- 28 December 1895The Lumiere brothers hold the first public film screening
- 1909Rise of Futurism
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.