January–March •
January 1 – The destructive
Galilee earthquake causes thousands of deaths in
Ottoman Syria. •
January 26 –
Michigan becomes the 26th state admitted to the United States. •
February 4 –
Seminoles attack
Fort Foster in
Florida. •
February 25 – In
Philadelphia, the
Institute for Colored Youth (ICY) is founded, as the first institution for the higher education of black people in the United States. •
February –
Charles Dickens's
Oliver Twist begins publication in serial form in London. •
March 1 – The
Congregation of Holy Cross is formed in
Le Mans, France, by the signing of the Fundamental Act of Union, which legally joins the Auxiliary Priests of Blessed
Basil Moreau, CSC, and the Brothers of St. Joseph (founded by
Jacques-François Dujarié) into one religious association.
April–June •
April 12 – The conglomerate of
Procter & Gamble has its origins, when British-born businessmen
William Procter and
James Gamble begin selling their first manufactured goods (soap and candles) in
Cincinnati, Ohio. •
April 24 – The
great fire in Surat, a city of India, begins. Over a three-day period, the fire kills more than 500 people and destroys more than 9,000 houses. •
May 10 – The
Panic of 1837 begins in
New York City. •
May –
W. F. Cooke and
Charles Wheatstone patent an
electrical telegraph system. •
June 5 – The city of
Houston is incorporated by the
Republic of Texas. •
June 11 – The
Broad Street Riot occurs in
Boston,
Massachusetts, fueled by ethnic tensions between the Irish and the Yankees. •
June 20 –
Queen Victoria, 18, accedes to the throne of the United Kingdom, on the death of her uncle King
William IV without legitimate heirs (she will reign for more than 63 years). Under
Salic law, the
Kingdom of Hanover passes to William's brother,
Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, ending the
personal union of Britain and Hanover which has persisted since
1714.
July–September •
July 13 –
Queen Victoria moves from
Kensington Palace into
Buckingham Palace, the first reigning British monarch to make this, rather than
St James's Palace, as her London home. •
July –
Charles W. King sets sail on the American merchant ship
Morrison. In the
Morrison incident, he is turned away from Japanese ports with cannon fire. •
August 16 – The
Dutch colonial forces sack the fortress of Bonjol, Indonesia, ending the
Padri War. •
September 19 –
First Carlist War:
Battle of Aranzueque – The liberal forces loyal to Queen
Isabel II of Spain are victorious, ending the Carlist campaign known as the
Expedición Real. •
September 26 – The destructive "
''Racer's'' hurricane" sweeps across the
Caribbean, northeastern
Mexico, the
Republic of Texas and the
Gulf Coast of the United States and lasts until
October 9, after killing at least 105 people. •
September 28 –
Samuel Morse files a caveat for a patent for the
telegraph.
October–December •
October 13 – The French army under
Sylvain Charles Valée captures the city of Constantine in
French Algeria after a siege of three days. •
October 30 – The
Tsarskoye Selo Railway, the first in the
Russian Empire, opens between
Saint Petersburg Tsarskoselsky station and
Zarskoje Selo (modern-day
Pushkin), engineered by
Franz Anton von Gerstner. •
October 31 – In what will become the world's leading
consumer goods brand,
Procter & Gamble is founded in
Ohio in the United States. •
November 6 Louis-Joseph Papineau begins the
Lower Canada Rebellion in the
Quebec city of
Montreal. •
November 7 – American abolitionist and newspaper editor
Elijah Lovejoy is killed by a pro-
slavery mob, at his warehouse in
Alton, Illinois. •
November 8 – Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, later
Mount Holyoke College, is founded in South Hadley, Massachusetts. •
November 17 –
An earthquake in Valdivia, south-central Chile, causes tsunamis that led to significant destruction along Japan's coast. •
November 20 – The Prussian king has
Clemens August Droste zu Vischering, archbishop of Cologne, arrested over differences concerning the treatment of mixed protestant-catholic marriages. The archbishop remains in custody for over a year. •
December 4 –
Samuel Lount begins the
Upper Canada Rebellion by marching with rebel followers to
Toronto, one month after a similar rebellion against British rule had begun in
Lower Canada. •
December 17 –
Fire breaks out in the Winter Palace, in
Saint Petersburg, Russia killing 30 guards. •
December 23 – The
Slave Compensation Act is signed into law by the government of the United Kingdom. This pays a substantial amount of money, constituting 40% of the
Treasury’s tax receipts at the time, to former enslavers but nothing to those formerly enslaved. •
December 29 – The
Caroline Affair, on the
Niagara River, becomes the basis for the
Caroline test for anticipatory self-defence in international relations.
Date unknown by
Louis Daguerre. •
Louis Daguerre develops the
daguerreotype. • The 5th century B.C.
Berlin Foundry Cup is acquired for the
Antikensammlung Berlin in Germany. • The
Olney Friends School is founded in the
Appalachian Mountains of the United States. • The first
electric locomotive built is a miniature
battery locomotive constructed by chemist
Robert Davidson of
Aberdeen in
Scotland, and powered by
galvanic cells (batteries). •
Atlanta is fixed as the
terminal of the
Western and Atlantic Railroad; it is originally named Marthasville. == Births ==