As of March 1 (O.S. February 18), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 12 days until February 28 (O.S. February 16), 1900. Events World population approaches the 1 billion milestone which it will attain in 1802. The population distribution by region: Africa: 107,000,000 Asia: 635,000,000 China: 300–400,000,000 Europe: 203,000,000 Latin America: 24,000,000 Northern America: 7,000,000 Oceania: 2,000,000 January–March January 1 Quasi-War: Action of 1 January 1800 – A naval battle off the coast of Haiti, between four United States merchant vessels escorted by naval schooner , and a squadron of armed barges manned by Haitian pirates (known as picaroons), under the command of general André Rigaud, ends indecisively. The Dutch East India Company dissolves. February 7 – A public plebiscite in France confirms Napoleon as First Consul, by a substantial majority. February 11 – Infrared radiation is discovered by astronomer Sir William Herschel. March 14 – Papal conclave, 1799–1800: cardinal Barnaba Chiaramonti succeeds Pius VI as Pius VII, the 251st pope. He is crowned on March 21, in Venice. March 17 – The British Royal Navy ship of the line, , catches fire off the coast of Capraia, with the loss of 673 lives. March 20 – Alessandro Volta describes his new invention, the voltaic pile, the first chemical battery, in a letter to the Royal Society of London. March 26 – British Royal Navy officer Henry Waterhouse first charts the Antipodes Islands. April–June April 2 Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 premieres at the Burgtheater, in Vienna. The Treaty of Constantinople establishes the Septinsular Republic, the first autonomous Greek state since the Fall of the Byzantine Empire. April 3 – The first voting, albeit indirect, begins in the 1800 United States presidential election as voters in the New York make their selections for the New York state legislature, which in turn will vote on October 31 for the state's 12 presidential electors. A majority of state legislature members are from the Democratic-Republican Party, rather than the Federalist Party. At the time, only 4 of the 16 U.S. states (Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia) have a popular vote for the presidential electors and the President. The other 12, including New York, have a popular vote for the state legislature, but not for the president. At the time, neither of