Events January–March January 1 – Sailing through the Sandwich Islands, Otto von Kotzebue discovers New Year Island. January 19 – An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General José de San Martín, starts crossing the Andes from Argentina, to liberate Chile and then Peru. January 20 – Ram Mohan Roy and David Hare found Hindu College, Calcutta, offering instructions in Western languages and subjects. February 12 – Battle of Chacabuco: The Argentine–Chilean patriotic army defeats the Spanish. March 3 President James Madison vetoes John C. Calhoun's Bonus Bill. The U.S. Congress passes a law to split the Mississippi Territory, after Mississippi drafts a constitution, creating the Alabama Territory, effective in August. March 4 – James Monroe is sworn in as the fifth President of the United States. March 21 – The flag of the Pernambucan Revolt is publicly blessed by the dean of Recife Cathedral, Brazil. April–June April 3 – Princess Caraboo appears in Almondsbury in Gloucestershire, England. April 15 – The American School for the Deaf opens in Hartford, Connecticut. An earthquake strikes Palermo in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. April 29 – The Rush–Bagot Treaty is signed. May 27 – The General Convention of the Episcopal Church founds the General Theological Seminary, while meeting in New York City.<ref> James Grant Wilson, The Memorial History of the City of New-York: From Its First Settlement to the Year 1892, Volume IV (New York History Company, 1893) p596</ref> June 12 – German inventor Karl Drais drives his dandy horse ("Draisine" or Laufmaschine''), the earliest form of bicycle, in Mannheim. Tradesman Jeffery Sedwards establishes the Skibbereen Abstinence Society in Ireland, considered the first organisation devoted to teetotalism in Europe. June 22 – King Ferdinand VII of Spain, by royal decree, makes the production and sale of tobacco a legal endeavor in Cuba, thus sparking the birth of the Cuban cigar industry. June 25 – A large riot breaks out in Copenhagen Prison; the army is sent to quell it. July–September July 4 – At Rome, New York, construction on the Erie Canal begins. July 4 - 1817 Santiago del Estero earthquake. A 7.0 magnitude earthquake hits Argentina's Santiago del Estero Province. August 15 – By act of the U.S. Congress (March 3), the Alabama Territory is created by splitting the Mississippi Territory in half, on the day the Mississippi constitution is drafted, four months before Mississippi became a U.S. state. August