Events January–March January 1 – Haiti gains independence from France, and becomes the first black republic, having the only successful slave revolt ever. February 4 – The Sokoto Caliphate is founded in West Africa. February 14 – The First Serbian uprising begins the Serbian Revolution. By 1817, the Principality of Serbia proclaims self-rule from the Ottoman Empire, the first nation-state in Europe to do so. February 15 – New Jersey becomes the last of the northern United States to abolish slavery. February 16 – First Barbary War: Stephen Decatur leads a raid to burn the pirate-held frigate at Tripoli to deny her further use by the captors. February 18 – Ohio University is chartered by the Ohio General Assembly. February 21 – Cornishman Richard Trevithick's newly built Penydarren steam locomotive operates on the Merthyr Tramroad, between Penydarren in Merthyr Tydfil and Abercynon in South Wales, following several trials since February 13, the world's first locomotive to work on rails. February 22 – April 22 – 1804 Haiti massacre, an ethnic cleansing with the goal of eradicating the white population on Haiti. March 4–5 – The Castle Hill convict rebellion breaks out in New South Wales, led by Irish convicts in Australia. March 7 – In Britain: John Wedgwood founds the Royal Horticultural Society. Thomas Charles is instrumental in founding the British and Foreign Bible Society. March 10 – Louisiana Purchase, Three Flags Day: In St. Louis, a formal ceremony is conducted to transfer ownership of Louisiana Territory from France to the United States. March 17 – Friedrich Schiller's play Wilhelm Tell, is first performed at Weimar, under the direction of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. March 21 – The Napoleonic Code is adopted as French civil law. April–June April 2 – Forty merchantmen are wrecked, when a convoy led by runs aground off Portugal. April 4 – Samuel Taylor Coleridge, aboard The Speedwell, sails to the Mediterranean. April 5 – The High Possil meteorite, the first recorded meteorite to fall in Scotland in modern times, falls at High Possil. April 26 – Henry Addington resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. May 10 – William Pitt the Younger begins his second term as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. May 14 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition departs from Camp Dubois, and begins their historic journey by traveling up the Missouri River. May 18 – Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed Emperor