February 10, 1824 become the leader of Peru.

On this day in 1824, Simón Bolívar, having already liberated what later became Venezuela, Columbia, Panama and Ecuador, became the leader of Peru, which he had recently liberated.

I frankly have mixed opinions on Bolivar, who did manage to boot Spain from much of South America, but didn't establish functioning democracies in the end.

Perhaps that would have been asking too much, however.