Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaimed Haiti's independence at Gonaïves, creating the first Black republic and the only nation born of a successful slave revolt.

Days after declaring independence from France, Haiti's new leaders moved to secure the world's first Black republic born of a successful slave revolt.

Jean-Jacques Dessalines issued Haiti's founding proclamation, cementing the world's first successful slave revolt into a sovereign nation just days after independence.

Napoleon Bonaparte promulgated the Napoleonic Code, a sweeping civil law reform that abolished feudal privilege and became the legal template for much of the world.

The Corps of Discovery, roughly 45 men under Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, shoved off from Camp Dubois to explore the Louisiana Purchase and reach the Pacific.

Italian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi's earlier discovery of Ceres was mathematically confirmed, cementing the existence of an entirely new class of celestial object.

Franklin Pierce, who would become the 14th President of the United States and preside over the fractious years preceding the Civil War, was born in Hillsborough, New Hampshire.

Franklin Pierce, who would become the 14th U.S. president and preside over a nation sliding toward civil war, was born in Hillsborough, New Hampshire.

In Notre-Dame Cathedral, Napoleon Bonaparte took the crown from Pope Pius VII's hands and placed it on his own head, declaring himself Emperor of the French.