1848 is historically famous for the wave of revolutions, a series of widespread struggles for more liberal governments, which broke out from Brazil to Hungary; although most failed in their immediate aims, they significantly altered the political and philosophical landscape and had major ramifications throughout the rest of the century. Events January–March January 3 – Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in, as the first president of the independent African Republic of Liberia. January 12 – The Palermo rising erupts in Sicily, against the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. January 24 – California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill, in Coloma, California. January 31 Construction of the Washington Monument begins in Washington, D.C. John C. Frémont is court-martialed on grounds of mutiny and disobeying orders. The verdict is set aside by United States President James K. Polk, but Frémont retires to California Territory. February 2 Mexican–American War – Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: Mexico cedes virtually all of what becomes the Southwestern United States to the U.S. The unincorporated California Territory becomes a provisional official possession; it is never organized by the United States Congress as a territory, but directly passes the requirements for statehood in 1850. John Henry Newman founds the first Oratory in the English-speaking world, when he establishes the Birmingham Oratory at 'Maryvale', Old Oscott, England. February 17 – John Bird Sumner is nominated as Archbishop of Canterbury. February 21 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto (Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei) in London. February 23 – French Revolution of 1848: François Guizot, Prime Minister of France, resigns; 52 people from the Paris mob are killed by soldiers guarding public buildings. February 24 – Louis Philippe I, King of the French, abdicates in favour of his grandson, Prince Philippe, Count of Paris, and flees to England after days of revolution in Paris. The French Second Republic is later proclaimed by Alphonse de Lamartine, in the name of the provisional government elected by the Chamber, under the pressure of the mob. March 2 – The March Unrest breaks out in Sweden. March 7 – Comptoir national d'escompte de Paris, as predecessor of BNP Paribas, as major financial operation in Europe, founded in France. March 11 – Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin became the first Joint Premiers of the Province of Canada to be democratically elected, under a system of responsible government. March 13