Events January–March January 22 – By secret treaty signed at the Congress of Verona, the Quintuple Alliance gives France a mandate to invade Spain for the purpose of restoring Ferdinand VII (who has been captured by armed revolutionary liberals) as absolute monarch of the country. January 23 – In Paviland Cave on the Gower Peninsula of Wales, William Buckland inspects the "Red Lady of Paviland", the first identification of a prehistoric (male) human burial. February 3 Jackson Male Academy, precursor of Union University, opens in Tennessee. Gioachino Rossini's opera Semiramide is first performed, at La Fenice in Venice. February 10 – The first worldwide carnival parade takes place in Cologne, Prussia. February 11 – Carnival tragedy of 1823: About 110 boys are killed during a stampede at the Convent of the Minori Osservanti in Valletta, Malta. February 15 (approx.) – The first officially recognised gold is found in Australia, by surveyor James McBrien at Fish River, near Bathurst, New South Wales, predating the Australian gold rushes. February 20 – Explorer James Weddell's expedition to Antarctica reaches latitude 74°15' S and longitude 34°16'45" W: the southernmost position any ship has reached at this time, a record that will hold until 1841. March 15 – Sailor Benjamin Morrell erroneously reported the existence of the island of New South Greenland near Antarctica. March 19 – Emperor Agustín de Iturbide of Mexico abdicates, thus ending the short-lived First Mexican Empire. April–June April 7 – French forces, the "Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis", cross the Spanish border. April 13 – Franz Liszt, 11, gives a concert in Vienna, after which he is personally congratulated by Ludwig van Beethoven. May 5 – Emperor Pedro I of Brazil inaugurates Brazil's first Assembleia Geral, with 50 Senators and 102 Deputies. May 7 – Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov in appointed as Governor-General of Novorossiya (New Russia), the portion of Russian Empire bordering the Black Sea (nowadays it constitutes southern regions of Ukraine). May 9 – Russian author Alexander Pushkin begins work on his verse novel Eugene Onegin. May 23 – The rebel Spanish government withdraws from Madrid to Seville following French attacks. May 25 – The Catholic Association begins in Ireland at a meeting of 13 people at a bookseller's house on Capel Street in Dublin. June 5 – Raffles Institution is established (as the Singapore Institution) by the founder of Singapore, Sir Stamford Raffles. July–September July 1 –