Ceres was counted as a planet for half a century.
Found on the first day of the 19th century, 1 January 1801, it was listed among the planets until dozens of similar bodies turned up. Now, like Pluto, it is a dwarf planet.
More amazing facts
- 1798 The Orthodox emperor Paul I became Grand Master of the Catholic Knights of Malta: in 1798, after Napoleon seized their island, the knights in Saint Petersburg elected the Russian tsar head of the order.
- 1800 In Siberia, Mongolia and Tibet bricks of pressed tea served as money.
- 1800 · 1844 As early as 1800 Humphry Davy wrote that laughing gas might be useful in surgery.
- 1803 The land Napoleon sold the US in 1803 now lies in 15 American states and two Canadian provinces.
- 1803 Count Fyodor Tolstoy so exasperated Krusenstern on Russia's first voyage round the world that he was put ashore in Kamchatka — after teaching the ship's orangutan to pour ink over the captain's log. He came home tattooed and nicknamed 'the American'.
- 1804 1804: Napoleon crowned himself emperor, while the former slaves of Haiti, having beaten his army, declared independence — the first nation founded by a slave revolt.