1834 CE

The Peasants' Revolt in Egyptian-ruled Palestine begins; it is suppressed in August. HMS Tartarus is launched at Pembroke Dock. It is the Royal Navy's first steam-powered man-of-war (a paddle gunvessel). Ursulines of Jesus take up residence at St Margaret’s Convent in the Whitehouse in Edinburgh, the first Roman Catholic convent established in Scotland since the Reformation; it will be another 5 years before the first such modern establishment in England.

In the 1830s, the 19th century.

1834 at a glance

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United States: Andrew Jackson (President) Wikipedia rev. 1360994931
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Who led every country in 1834 →

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

1 January – The Western Australian Police Force is formed.Australia source
25 January – The Agreement Regarding Compensation for the Kubo (Kabaw) Valley is signed.India source
February 12 – Freed American slaves from Maryland form a settlement in Cape Palmas, it is named the Republic of Maryland.source
April 14 – The Whig Party is officially named by United States Senator Henry Clay.source
April 22 – Spain, France, Portugal and the United Kingdom sign the Quadruple Alliance.source
26 June - The Coat of arms of Chile is adopted.Chile source
July 16 – William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, succeeds Earl Grey as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.source
July 24 – The Liberal Wars end in Portugal.source
August 1 – Slavery is abolished in the British Empire, by the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.source
August 12 – In the Empire of Brazil, the Additional Act provides for establishment of the Provincial Legislative Assembly, extinction of the State Council, replacement of the Regency Trina, and introduction of a direct and secret ballot.source
August 15 – The South Australia Act allows for the creation of a colony there.source
September 18 – Athens becomes Greece's capital city, replacing the provisional capital of Nafplio.source
24 September – Pedro de Sousa Holstein, 1st Duke of Palmela becomes the first official prime minister of PortugalPortugal source
November 14 – William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne becomes the last Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to be dismissed by the British monarch. King William IV temporarily appoints Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, to form a caretaker government.source
December 10 – Sir Robert Peel succeeds The Duke of Wellington as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.source
29 December – Extradition treaty with the Kingdom of France comes into force.Belgium source
The house for James Busby is completed. After the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi there in 1840 it will be known as the Treaty House.New Zealand source
Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1834)Russia source
New Governor Sir Benjamin D'Urban establishes Executive and Legislative Councils. No elections, but debates are allowed, and laws require Council approval.South Africa source

Conflict & Security

May 19 – The Peasants' Revolt in Egyptian-ruled Palestine begins; it is suppressed in August.source
26 May – Concession of Evoramonte, ending the civil war period; Miguel I of Portugal surrenderedPortugal source
July 7–10 – Anti-abolitionist riots break out in New York City.source
July 8 – Imam Faisal bin Turki enters Riyadh and upon entering his father's palace, assassinates his father's murderer, Ibrahim Hamza, and his master; Mishari, and becomes the ruler and founder of the Second Saudi State.source
July 15 – The Spanish Inquisition, which began in the 15th century, is suppressed by royal decree.source
October 27 - Battle of Alegría de ÁlavaSpain source
28 October – The Battle of Pinjarra occurs in the Swan River Colony in present-day Pinjarra, Western Australia. Between 14-40 Aborigines are killed by British colonists.Australia source
12 November – The Landgraviate of Hesse-Rotenburg loses its independence when the estates not bequeathed to princes Victor and Chlodwig of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst are reunited with Hesse-Kassel.Germany source
18 December – Tithe War: "Rathcormac massacre": At Gortroe, near Rathcormac, County Cork, armed Constabulary reinforced by the regular British Army kill at least nine and wound thirty protesters.Ireland source
18 December – Tithe War in Ireland: "Rathcormac massacre": At Gortroe, near Rathcormac, County Cork, armed Constabulary reinforced by the regular British Army kill at least nine and wound thirty protesters against tithes.United Kingdom source
Mr. Neilson replies: "The American revolutionists and the British Liberals contended for the maintenance of franchises already acquired; we oppositionists are reaching out our hands for freedom which we never possessed. The Resolutions can not be justified, for they favour the refusal of supplies, without which there would be no means of defraying the expense of governing the Province."Canada source
Sir Harford Jones Brydges - An Account of His Majesty's Mission to Persia in the years 1807-11Wales source

Exploration & Expansion

January 1 – Zollverein (Germany): Customs charges are abolished at borders within its member states.source
March 11 – The United States Survey of the Coast is transferred to the Department of the Navy.source
March – John Scott Russell's Scottish Steam Carriage Company begins operating a regular passenger service in west central Scotland on the open road between Glasgow and Paisley, Renfrewshire.source
August – Foresters Friendly Society formed as the Ancient Order of Foresters in Rochdale.United Kingdom source
9 October – first shipment of tea direct from India arrives at the Broomielaw quay in Glasgow.Scotland source
October 31 – Solon Robinson settled in the location that would eventually become Crown Point, Indiana.United States source
November 2 – The ship Atlas docks in Mauritius carrying the first group of laborers (from Calcutta) under the Indian indenture system to work on sugar plantations following the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.source
19 November – The first permanent European settlement on the north coast of Bass Strait is established at Portland by Edward Henty.Australia source
December 11 – The Sixth Xhosa War is characterized by severe clashes between white settlers and Bantu peoples in Cape Colony; Dutch-speaking settlers colonize the area north of Orange River.source
29 December - The West of England and South Wales District Bank is established in Bristol.Wales source
30 December – William Colenso, printer/missionary for the Church Missionary Society, arrives at Paihia in the Bay of Islands.New Zealand source
Two Māori converts returning from the Bay of Islands introduce Christianity to Gisborne. (see also 1838)New Zealand source
Secret preparations for the Great Trek begin as armed Boer farmers plan to leave Cape Colony.South Africa source

Religion & Belief

January – King William IV appoints an arbitrator to settle questions regarding customs dues between the Canadas.Canada source
30 May - Extinction of religious orders by D. Pedro and his minister Joaquim António de AguiarPortugal source
10 June – Belgian bishops announce plans to establish a Catholic University (later to become Catholic University of Leuven).Belgium source
26 December – Ursulines of Jesus take up residence at St Margaret’s Convent in the Whitehouse in Edinburgh, the first Roman Catholic convent established in Scotland since the Reformation; it will be another 5 years before the first such modern establishment in England.Scotland source
The turf-roofed church at Víðimýri in Varmahlíð is constructed.Iceland source
The establishment of the Anglican mission at Te Papa peninsula, Tauranga, is begun late in the year.New Zealand source
John Humffreys Parry - The Cambrian Plutarch: Comprising Memoirs of Some of the Most Eminent WelshmenWales source

Economy & Finance

1 January – Zollverein (Germany): Customs charges are abolished at borders within its member states.Germany source
12 February - The city of Bangor, Maine, is incorporated in the United States. It is said to have been named after the Welsh hymn tune "Bangor".Wales source
February 13 – Robert Owen organizes the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union in the United Kingdom.source
March 6 – York, Upper Canada, is incorporated as Toronto.source
March 6 – Incorporation of Toronto, heretofore York, Upper Canada.Canada source
March 28 – Andrew Jackson is censured by the United States Congress (expunged in 1837).source
March 28 – The United States Senate censures President Andrew Jackson for his actions in defunding the Second Bank of the United States (censure expunged in 1837).United States source
29 November – P. Hertz is founded by Peter Hertz in Copenhagen.Denmark source
The British East India Company monopoly on China trade ends. It appoints a Tea Committee to assess the potential of Assam tea.source
Adopting revolutionary tactics, Papineau advises wearing homespun cloth and buying nothing British, in order to diminish misused revenues. Bankstocks being of British ownership, he advises a general demand of gold for banknotes.Canada source
Harrods founded as a wholesale tea dealer in Stepney in the East End of London.United Kingdom source

Technology & Infrastructure

January – The Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad is chartered in Wilmington, North Carolina.source
1 May – Belgian State Railways established.Belgium source
June 21 – American inventor and businessman Cyrus McCormick is granted a patent for his mechanical reaper.source
23 June - HMS Tartarus is launched at Pembroke Dock. It is the Royal Navy's first steam-powered man-of-war (a paddle gunvessel).Wales source
August 1 – Construction work begins on the Wilberforce Monument in Kingston upon Hull, England.source
Charles Babbage begins the conceptual design of the Analytical Engine, a mechanical forerunner of the modern computer. It will not be built in his lifetime.source
Thomas Davenport, inventor of the first American DC electrical motor, installs his motor in a small model car, creating one of the first electric cars.source
William Lyon Mackenzie elected first mayor of the city of Toronto.Canada source
Henning Smith's Iron Foundry is established in Aalborg.Denmark source
Aass Brewery is founded in Drammen. Norway's oldest brewery still active.Norway source
Naval architect John Scott Russell first observes a nondecaying solitary wave (a soliton, which he calls "the Wave of Translation") while watching a boat hauled through the water of the Union Canal near Edinburgh, subsequently using a tank to study the dependence of solitary wave velocities on amplitude and liquid depth.Scotland source
The famous coffee house Tysta Mari is opened in Stockholm.Sweden source
The Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad is chartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, and begins construction.United States source

Science & Discovery

March 14 – John Herschel discovers the open cluster of stars now known as NGC 3603, observing from the Cape of Good Hope.source
March – William Whewell (anonymously) first publishes the term scientist in the Quarterly Review (but notes it as "not generally palatable").United Kingdom source
November 11 – The rare 1804 dollar coin is struck by the United States Mint.United States source
Croquet is recorded as being played in Ireland (at Greenmount near Castlebellingham, County Louth) at about this date.Ireland source
Taras Shevchenko National University of KyivRussia source
Thomas Henderson is appointed first Astronomer Royal for Scotland.Scotland source
Edinburgh Geological Society is established.Scotland source
Foulk Robert Williams - Llyfr Cerddoriaeth o Gerddi Sion... (unpublished MS)Wales source

Health & Medicine

December 3 – The Zollverein institutes the first regular census in Germany. The population is 23,478,120.source
3 December – The Zollverein institutes the first regular census in Germany. The population is 23,478,120.Germany source
The Romanian language is banned in the schools and government facilities of the Russian Empire's Bessarabia Governorate.source
A majority of the Assembly call for Lord Aylmer's impeachment for maladministration, and invite Daniel O'Connell and others to assist them. The Council and British Canadians counter-petition. The Assembly omit voting supplies.Canada source
St. Vincent's Hospital is set up at St Stephen's Green, Dublin, by Mary Aikenhead, staffed by the Religious Sisters of Charity.Ireland source
Princess Royal Maternity Hospital is established as the Glasgow Lying-in Hospital and Dispensary.Scotland source

Crime & Justice

January 3 – The government of Mexico imprisons Stephen F. Austin in Mexico City.source
14 January – The ten remaining convicts at the Macquarie Harbour Penal Station hijack a brig and escape to Chile in the Frederick escapeAustralia source
June 7 – Greek independence: General Theodoros Kolokotronis is sentenced to death for treason, for resisting the rule of Otto of Greece (he is released the following year).source
August 14 – The Poor Law Amendment Act in the United Kingdom states that no able-bodied British man can receive assistance, unless he enters a workhouse (a kind of poorhouse).source
14 August – Poor Law Amendment Act states the able-bodied cannot receive assistance unless they enter a workhouse; poor-law authorities should no longer attempt to identify the fathers of illegitimate children to recover support from them.United Kingdom source
10th New Brunswick Legislative AssemblyCanada source
14th General Assembly of Nova ScotiaCanada source
14th Parliament of Lower CanadaCanada source
Drottningens juvelsmycke by Carl Jonas Love Almquist.Sweden source
Thomas Medwin - The Angler in Wales: Or, Days and Nights of SportsmenWales source

Disasters & Accidents

January 23 – The Chateau St. Louis (Quebec) is burned.Canada source
April 10 – The LaLaurie mansion in New Orleans burns, and Madame Marie Delphine LaLaurie flees to France.source
August 11–12 – Ursuline Convent riots: A convent of Ursuline nuns is burned near Boston.source
September 11 – The emigrant ship Sybelle out of Cromarty (Scotland) is wrecked off St. Paul Island (Nova Scotia) with the loss of all 316 passengers and all but six of her crew.source
11 September – emigrant ship Sybelle out of Cromarty wrecked off St. Paul Island (Nova Scotia) with the loss of all 316 passengers and all but six of her crew.Scotland source
11 September – Emigrant ship Sybelle out of Cromarty (Scotland) is wrecked off St. Paul Island (Nova Scotia) with the loss of all 316 passengers and all but six of her crew.United Kingdom source
October 16 – The Palace of Westminster in London is destroyed by fire, along with both the House of Commons and the House of Lords (which are not in session) of the British Parliament. An investigation later traces the disaster to an order from the Exchequer to the Board of Works to destroy the tally sticks that had been stored as part of record keeping, the use of the furnaces beneath the House of Lords to carry out the task, and the failure of authorities to stop the work or to fight the fire after smoke had first been detected, the conclusion being that the fire was "wholly attributable to carelessness and negligence."source
16 October – Burning of Parliament: Much of the Palace of Westminster is destroyed by fire resulting from the burning of tally sticks formerly used by the Exchequer.United Kingdom source
27 December - A ferry from Penally to Caldey sinks and 15 people drown.Wales source

Climate & Environment

With an average Central England temperature of 10.51 °C, this narrowly overtakes 1733 as the hottest calendar year in the CET record until equalled in 1921 and beaten in 1949.United Kingdom source

Culture & Society

February 3 – Wake Forest University is founded as the Wake Forest Manual Labor Institute in Wake Forest, North Carolina.source
March 8 – The Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society, an institution in Quebec dedicated to the protection of Quebec francophone interests and to the promotion of Quebec Sovereignism, is founded.Canada source
9 March or 20 March – The United Tribes of New Zealand choose a design for their flag.New Zealand source
July 29 – The Office of Indian Affairs is organized in the United States.source
September 13 – The Gleaner newspaper is first published in Jamaica.source
October 24 – Mohammad Shah Qajar ascends to the throne after the death of Fat′h-Ali Shah Qajar.Iran source
November 4 – Delta Upsilon fraternity founded at Williams College.United States source
8 November – Opening of the Catholic University of Belgium in Mechelen.Belgium source
The Medical School of Louisiana (later Tulane University) is founded in New Orleans.source
Statue of Jean-Jacques Rousseau is erected in his birthplace of Geneva.source
Andrarímur, written by Hannes Bjarnason and Gísli Konráðsson, is published.Iceland source
The National Republican Guard establishedPortugal source
National Pedagogical Dragomanov UniversityRussia source

Births

January 7 – Johann Philipp Reis, German physicist, inventor (died 1874)source
20 January - Petrus Jacobus Joubert, a South African Republic Triumvirate member, is born near Cango in the Oudtshoorn district of Cape ColonySouth Africa source
February 8 – Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist (died 1907)source
February 16 – Ernst Haeckel, German zoologist, philosopher (died 1919)source
16 February – Ernst Haeckel, German zoologist, philosopher (died 1919)Germany source
March 16 – Sir James Hector, Scottish geologist (died 1907)source
16 March (in Scotland): James Hector, geologist.New Zealand source
March 17 – Gottlieb Daimler, German engineer, inventor (died 1900)source
March 20 – Charles W. Eliot, American President of Harvard University (died 1926)source
March 24 – John Wesley Powell, American explorer (died 1902)source
March 24 – William Morris, English poet, artist (died 1896)source
April 2 – Paškal Buconjić, Herzegovinian Catholic bishop (died 1910)source
June 19 – Charles Spurgeon, English Baptist preacher (died 1892)source
July 10 – James McNeill Whistler, American painter, etcher (died 1903)source
July 19 – Edgar Degas, French painter (died 1917)source
7 November - Manuel José Yrarrázaval Larraín (died 1896)Chile source
November 21 – Hetty Green, American businesswoman (died 1916)source
December 16 – Léon Walras, French economist (died 1910)source

Deaths

January 12 – William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1759)source
February 12 – Friedrich Schleiermacher, German theologian and philosopher (born 1768)source
April 5 – Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Goodwin Keats, Governor of Newfoundland (born 1757)source
April 10 – John 'Merino' MacArthur, Australian farmer (born 1767)source
May 9 – The founder of the Second Saudi State, Imam Turki bin Abdullah Al Saud, is assassinated after the Friday prayers by Ibrahim Hamza, following the orders of his cousin Mishari.source
May 20 – Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, French nobleman, soldier (born 1757)source
July 25 – Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English writer (born 1772)source
July 26 – Jonathan Jennings, American politician and the first governor of Indiana (born 1784)source
August 1 – Robert Morrison, British Protestant missionary to China (born 1782)source
September 2 – Thomas Telford, Scottish engineer (born 1757)source
September 24 – Emperor Pedro I of Brazil (born 1798)source
September 24: Emperor Pedro I of Brazil, Pedro IV of Portugal (born 1798)Brazil source
24 September – King Dom Pedro IV, King of Portugal, Emperor of Brazil (born 1798).Portugal source
10 October - Bernardino EscribanoChile source
October 23 – Fath Ali Shah Qajar, King of Iran (born 1772)source
October 24 – Fath-Ali Shah Qajar, the second king of Qajar dynasty, dies in Isfahan at the age of 62.Iran source
December 23 – Thomas Malthus, English economist, political philosopher (born 1766)source
December 27 – Charles Lamb, English essayist (born 1775)source