Events January–March January 5 – The first regatta in Australia is held, taking place on Tasmania (called at the time Van Diemen's Land), on the River Derwent at Hobart. January 15 – Furman University, founded in 1826, begins its first classes with 10 students, as the Furman Academy and Theological Institution, located at Edgefield, South Carolina. By the end of 2016, it will have 2,800 students at its main campus in Greenville, South Carolina. January 27 – Author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe first elaborates on his vision of Weltliteratur (world literature), in a letter to Johann Peter Eckermann, declaring his belief that "poetry is the universal possession of mankind", and that "the epoch of world literature is at hand, and each must work to hasten its coming." January 30 – The first public theatre in Norway, the Christiania Offentlige Theater, is inaugurated in Oslo. February 20 – Battle of Ituzaingó (Passo do Rosário): A Brazilian Imperial Army force is tactically defeated by Argentine–Uruguayan troops. February 28 – The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is incorporated, becoming the first railroad in the United States offering commercial transportation of both people and freight. March 7 Brazilian marines sail up the Rio Negro and attack the temporary naval base of Carmen de Patagones, Argentina; they are defeated by the local citizens. Shrigley abduction: Ellen Turner, a wealthy heiress in Cheshire, England, is abducted by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, the future politician in colonial New Zealand. March 11 – The new state constitution for the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas is ratified, including a phasing-out of slavery in its Article 13, which declares that "From and after the promulgation of the constitution in the capital of each district, no one shall be born a slave in the state, and after six months the introduction of slaves under any pretext shall not be permitted." The prohibition of importing slaves from the United States was lifted when Texas declared independence in 1836, and the Republic of Texas Constitution provided specifically that Africans and "the descendants of Africans" will not be considered "citizens of the republic". March 16 – Freedom's Journal, the first African-American owned and published newspaper in the United States, is founded in New York City by John Russwurm. March 26 – German composer Ludwig van Beethoven dies in Vienna, after a prolonged illness. Thousands of citizens line the streets for the funeral procession 3 days