1838 CE

A combination of rain and melting snow causes the Danube River to overflow its banks, washing away villages in western Hungary and inundating the twin cities that become Budapest. More than 150 people are drowned and Europe's nations come to Hungary's aid to prevent the spread of famine and disease. Jenners department store established as drapers in Princes Street, Edinburgh. Austria: Moravia opens the final section of Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway (Rajhrad–Brno) for exhibition (preliminary) use.

In the 1830s, the 19th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

31 January - Lord Glenelg, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies sent Governor Gipps the report of the Select committee of the House of Commons on Aborigines (British Settlements). The report recommended that Protectors of Aborigines should be engaged. They would be required to learn the Aboriginal language and their duties would be to watch over the rights of Aborigines, guard against encroachment on their property and to protect them from acts of cruelty, oppression and injustice. The Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate was established with George Augustus Robinson as chief protector and four full-time protectors.Australia source
4 February - The AmaZulu King, Dingane signs a deed of cession to cede land to the voortrekkers led by Piet RetiefSouth Africa source
28 February: The Provincial Assembly is installed in Pará.Brazil source
April 30 – Nicaragua declares independence from the Federal Republic of Central America.source
May 26 – Trail of Tears: The Cherokee Nation is forcibly relocated in the United States.source
May 28 – Braulio Carrillo is sworn in as Head of State of Costa Rica, thus beginning his second term in office.source
June 12 – Iowa Territory is created. At the time of its founding, Iowa Territory encompassed parts of modern-day Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, as well as all of Iowa. The river city of Burlington functions as the territorial capital until 1841.United States source
July 4 – In the United States, the Iowa Territory is formally established, following the signing of a bill by President Martin Van Buren on June 12. In addition to Iowa, which will become a state on December 28, 1846, the Territory also includes most of what will become the states of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. Robert Lucas, former Governor of Ohio, takes office as the first Territorial Governor.source
July 30 - North Peru President Obregoso declares secession of his republic from the Peru-Bolivian Confederation.Peru source
August 1 – Most former slaves in the British Empire are released from apprenticeships, giving them full emancipation under terms of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.source
2 August – Jean Langlois completes the purchase of Banks Peninsula from local Māori and makes a downpayment of goods to the value of 150 francs. Captain Cecille of the Héroine raises the French flag and proclaims French sovereignty over Banks Peninsula.New Zealand source
November 5 – Dissolution of the Federal Republic of Central America: Honduras and Costa Rica follow the example of Nicaragua and secede from the federation.source
23 December – Declarations on postal reciprocity between Belgium and the Office of the Prince of Tour and Taxis signed in Frankfurt am Main.Belgium source
The People's Charter is drawn up in the United Kingdom, demanding universal suffrage.source
The Pitcairn Islands become a Crown colony of the United Kingdom, and women there are the first in the world to be granted and maintain women's suffrage.source
An insurrection breaks out in Tizimín, beginning the campaign for the independence of Yucatán from Mexico.source
Jhalawar State is founded in the Hadoti regionIndia source

Conflict & Security

January 12–13: War of the Confederation: Battle of IslayChile source
January 12 and 13 - War of the Confederation: Battle of IslayPeru source
26 January – A surprise attack by mounted police attack on a Kamilaroi camp organised by the colonial government killing at least 40 people. Part of the Waterloo Creek massacre.Australia source
February 17 – Weenen massacre: Zulu impis massacre about 532 Voortrekkers, Khoikhoi and Basuto around the site of Weenen in South Africa.source
February 24 – U.S. Representatives William J. Graves of Kentucky and Jonathan Cilley of Maine face each other in a duel with rifles at 80 yards near Bladensburg, Maryland. On the third attempt, Congressman Cilley is fatally wounded and bleeds to death.source
11 April - Battle of Italeni where the AmaZulu repulsed the Voortrekkers close to uMgungundlovu.South Africa source
June 20–22 - Battle of PeñacerradaSpain source
June 24 - War of the Confederation: Battle of MontenegroBolivia source
24 September – Monument to the fallen of the Belgian Revolution inaugurated on Place des Martyrs, Brussels.Belgium source
October 1 – First Carlist War – Battle of Maella: Supporters of Infante Carlos María Isidro of Spain are victorious.source
October 5 – Killough massacre, believed to be both the largest and last Native American attack on white settlers in East Texas. 18 casualties are either killed or carried away.source
November 27 – Pastry War: Mexico is invaded by French forces.source
13 December: The beginning of the Balaiada; a rebellion that took place in Maranhão.Brazil source
December 16 – Battle of Blood River: The Boers win a decisive victory over the Zulus.source
December – First Anglo-Afghan War: British and Presidency armies set out from Punjab in support of Shah Shujah Durrani's claim to the throne of Afghanistan.source
Lord Durham and his entourage arrive in Upper Canada, to investigate the cause of the 1837 rebellion in that province. This leads to Durham submitting the Durham Report to Britain.source

Exploration & Expansion

February 6 – Boer explorer Piet Retief and 60 of his men are massacred by King Dingane kaSenzangakhona of the Zulu people, after Retief accepts an invitation to celebrate the signing of a treaty, and his men willingly disarm as a show of good faith.source
April 4–22 – The paddle steamer SS Sirius makes the transatlantic crossing to New York from Cork, Ireland in 18 days, though not using steam continuously.source
23 April 1838 - The arrival of the first German vinedressers in Australia. The barque Kinnear arrived at Sydney carrying six German vinedresser families who were one of the first group of foreign immigrants brought to Australia under the newly formed Bounty Scheme. They were Caspar Flick, Georg Gerhard, Johann Justus, Friedrich Seckold, Johann Stein, and Johann Wenz. They brought with them the first Riesling grape cuttings to Australia and worked in the vineyards belonging to John Macarthur's son William Macarthur at Camden Park. Major Edward Macarthur recruited these six families from the Rheingau region of Hesse in October 1837.Australia source
August 18 – The United States Exploring Expedition sets sail from Hampton Roads, Virginia.United States source
31 August – scene painter David Roberts sets sail for Egypt to produce a series of drawings of the region for use as the basis for paintings and chromolithographs.Scotland source
September 7 – Grace Darling and her father rescue 13 survivors from the Forfarshire, off the Farne Islands.source
November 4 – Survivors of the Potawatomi Trail of Death arrive at the modern-day site of Osawatomie, Kansas.United States source
16 November - The ship Bengalee arrived at Port Misery (South Australia) with a group of Prussian immigrants, the first in a large wave of 19th-century German immigration to Australia.Australia source
Sylvain Charles Valée founds Skikda, Algeria.source
4–22 April – the paddle steamer SS Sirius (1837) makes the Transatlantic Crossing to New York from Cork in eighteen days, though not using steam continuously.Ireland source
The Voortrekkers establish Natalia Republic with Pietermaritzburg as capitalSouth Africa source
John Cory of Devon opens his chandlery near the Custom House in Cardiff.Wales source

Religion & Belief

June 28 – The coronation of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom takes place at Westminster Abbey in London.source
28 June – The Coronation of Queen Victoria takes place at Westminster Abbey. However, Lord Melbourne denies her the traditional medieval banquet due to budget constraints and critics refer to it as "The Penny Crowning". The Imperial State Crown is remade for her.United Kingdom source
Biblical criticism: Christian Hermann Weisse proposes the two-source hypothesis.source
Undated - Five nuns from the Religious Sisters of Charity in Ireland became the first women of religion to set foot on Australian soil.Australia source
Hólavallagarður cemetery is consecrated.Iceland source
Afghan Church founded in MumbaiIndia source
Foundation of a temperance society in Cork known as the Knights of Father Mathew by Theobald Mathew, a capuchin friar.Ireland source
Three Gisborne Māori, having had Christian instruction in the Bay of Islands, return as catechists.New Zealand source
Royal Scottish Academy is granted its Royal charter.Scotland source
Lady Charlotte Guest begins publication of her translation into English of the Mabinogion.Wales source

Economy & Finance

2 March – Clydesdale Bank founded in Glasgow.Scotland source
March 8 – The New Orleans Mint strikes its first coinage, 30 dimes.United States source
7 April – Tariffs raised on woollen cloth, porcelain, glass, crystal and chemical products.Belgium source
16 August – The Tin Duties Act converts the tin coinage taxation system of the mines of Devon and Cornwall into an annual payment to the Duchy of Cornwall.United Kingdom source
Thomas Gee joins his father's printing business.Wales source

Technology & Infrastructure

1 January - John Pascoe Fawkner founded The Melbourne Advertiser, the Port Phillip district's first newspaper.Australia source
January 6–11 – Samuel Morse first publicly demonstrates electric telegraphy, at Morristown, New Jersey, assisted by Alfred Vail and using dots and dashes, the forerunner of Morse code.United States source
January 11 – At Morristown, New Jersey, Samuel Morse, Alfred Vail and Leonard Gale give the first public demonstration of Morse's new invention, the telegraph.source
April 8–23 – Isambard Kingdom Brunel's paddle steamer SS Great Western (1838) makes the transatlantic crossing to New York from Avonmouth, England, in 15 days, inaugurating a regular steamship service.source
1 June – Parliament approves government loan of 2 million Belgian francs for building highways and railways.Belgium source
4 July – Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway authorised.Scotland source
November 16 – Austria: Moravia opens the final section of Emperor Ferdinand Northern Railway (Rajhrad–Brno) for exhibition (preliminary) use.source
22 December - Potchefstroom is founded as the Transvaal Republic's capital by Andries Hendrik Potgieter.South Africa source
Niverød Brickworks us established on the coast north of Copenhagen.lDenmark source
Jessop & Company work on the construction of the first iron bridge in British India, Loha-ka-Pul over the River Gomti at Lucknow, 1812–1840India source
Tinplate manufacture at Ystalyfera begins.Wales source

Science & Discovery

November 1 – Lord Durham leaves Quebec.Canada source
Proteins are discovered by Gerardus Johannes Mulder. and named by Jöns Jacob Berzelius.source
Friedrich Bessel makes the first accurate measurement of distance to a star.source
David Brewster originates the stereoscope.Scotland source
Alexander and John Bethune publish Tales and Sketches of the Scottish Peasantry.Scotland source
Isaac Williams - Thoughts in Past YearsWales source

Health & Medicine

21 May – Elizabeth Jeffrey of Carluke is hanged in Glasgow for poisoning a neighbour and a lodger.Scotland source
September 4 – Potawatomi Trail of Death, the forced relocation of 859 members of the Potawatomi nation from Indiana to Kansas, begins. More than 40 Potawatomi die from disease and the stress of the march.United States source
October 27 – Lilburn Boggs, Governor of Missouri, by Missouri Executive Order 44, declares Mormons to be enemies of the state, and encourages the extermination or exile of the religious minority, forcing nearly 10,000 Mormons out of the state. It was later rescinded in 1976.source
October 27 – Governor of Missouri Lilburn Boggs issues Missouri Executive Order 44 (the "Extermination Order"), ordering the expulsion of all Mormons from the state. This winter, Mormons fleeing this persecution are welcomed in Quincy, Illinois.United States source
The population of Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island is 1,282,000.Canada source
The state licensed brothels, London and Stadt Hamburg, open in the capital in an attempt by the city authorities to control the spread of sexual disease.Sweden source
Wrexham Infirmary established.Wales source

Crime & Justice

January – leaders of the Glasgow cotton spinners' strike are sentenced to penal transportation (but cleared of murder).Scotland source
April 12 – Samuel Lount and Peter Matthews hanged in Toronto.Canada source
15 May – Court of assizes to have jury verdicts.Belgium source
17 September – After almost four decades in Rome, Bertel Thorvaldsen, accompanied by his art collections and most of his own works, returns to Copenhagen.Denmark source
24 September – "Monster meeting" on Kersal Moor, Salford, in support of Chartism.United Kingdom source
October 16 – Grave Creek Stone, a probable hoax, allegedly discovered in Moundsville, West Virginia.United States source
17 December – Run on the Banque de Belgique.Belgium source
The 5th century BC bronze Chatsworth Head is acquired by the 6th Duke of Devonshire at Smyrna, from H. P. Borrell.source
J. M. W. Turner paints a watercolour of Flint Castle.Wales source

Disasters & Accidents

January 10 – A fire destroys Lloyd's Coffee House and the Royal Exchange in London.source
10 January – A fire destroys Lloyd's Coffee House and the Royal Exchange in London.United Kingdom source
4 July – Huskar Pit disaster in the South Yorkshire Coalfield results in the deaths by drowning of 26 children working underground in the mine aged 7 to 17.United Kingdom source
7 September – Dundee paddle steamer Forfarshire (1834), homeward bound from Hull, is wrecked on the Farne Islands off the north east coast of England with the loss of more than 40 people; Grace Darling rescues nine survivors.Scotland source
7 September – Grace Darling rescues nine survivors from the wreck of the paddle steamer SS Forfarshire (1834) off the Farne Islands.United Kingdom source

Climate & Environment

20 January – With a daily average of −11.9, this day sees the coldest daily Central England temperature value on record.United Kingdom source
January 21 – The first known report about the lowest temperature on Earth is made, indicating -60 °C in Yakutsk.source
January 23 – A 7.5 earthquake strikes the Romanian district of Vrancea causing damage in Moldavia and Wallachia, killing 73 people.source
March 13 – A combination of rain and melting snow causes the Danube River to overflow its banks, washing away villages in western Hungary and inundating the twin cities that become Budapest. More than 150 people are drowned and Europe's nations come to Hungary's aid to prevent the spread of famine and disease.source
15 August – following a year of widespread hunger the government institutes relief work and reduces the tithe rent for the poor by the Poor Law and Tithe Acts.Ireland source
Agra famine of 1837–38 kills 800,000 people in the North-Western ProvincesIndia source
Sir Henry Ellis (ed.) - Registrum vulgariter nuncupatum "The record of Caernarvon"Wales source

Culture & Society

2 January: The National Public Archives is established in Rio de Janeiro.Brazil source
7 March – Jenny Lind as her breakthrough in Der Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm.Sweden source
March 31 – The first installment of Nicholas Nickleby, the new novel by Charles Dickens, is released as the opener of a 20-part serialization in London.source
1 May – Jenners department store established as drapers in Princes Street, Edinburgh.Scotland source
August 6 – The Polytechnic Institution, predecessor of the University of Westminster and Britain's first polytechnic, opens in Regent Street, London.source
September 18 – The Anti-Corn Law League is established in Britain by Richard Cobden.source
November 3 – The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce is founded (renamed The Times of India in 1861).source
1 December - The first annual Hobart Regatta is held.Australia source
December 13 – Sir John Colborne, Governor General, Messrs. Moffat, Stuart and Badgley go to England, to represent British Canadian views.Canada source
Duke University is established in North Carolina.source
The Times of India is founded on 3 NovemberIndia source
Duke University is established in North Carolina as the Brown School.United States source
A major eisteddfod is held at Abergavenny.Wales source

Births

January 13 - André Rebouças, military engineer, abolitionist and inventor (died 1898)Brazil source
February 6 – Sir Henry Irving, English actor (died 1905)source
February 9 – Sir Evelyn Wood, British field marshal, Victoria Cross recipient (died 1919)source
April 10 - Nicolás Salmerón y AlonsoSpain source
April 21 – John Muir, American ecologist (died 1914)source
May 10 – John Wilkes Booth, American actor, assassin of Abraham Lincoln (died 1865)source
June 14 – Yamagata Aritomo, Japanese field marshal, Prime Minister (died 1922)source
July full date unknown – Bass Reeves, one of the first black Deputy U.S. Marshals west of the Mississippi River (died 1910)source
September 2 – Liliuokalani, last Queen of Hawaii (died 1917)source
September 2 – Bhaktivinoda Thakur, Indian guru, philosopher (died 1914)source
September 21 – Victoria Woodhull, American woman's suffrage leader; first woman to run for U.S. President (died 1927)source
September 27 – Lawrence Sullivan Ross, Confederate brigadier general, Texas governor and president of Texas A&M University (died 1898)source
September 29 – Henry Hobson Richardson, American architect (died 1886)source
October 8 – John Hay, diplomat, private secretary to Abraham Lincoln, 37th United States Secretary of State (died 1905)source
October 25 – Georges Bizet, French composer (died 1875)source
31 October – Luís I of Portugal, king (died 1889)Portugal source
November 13 – Joseph F. Smith, 6th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (died 1918)source
? – Shokouh al-Saltaneh, Iranian Qajar princess.Iran source

Deaths

January 13 – John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (born 1751)source
6 February - Voortrekker leader Piet Retief and his men are murdered by the Zulus under the command of DingaanSouth Africa source
March 7 – Robert Townsend (spy), American member of the Culper Spy Ring (born 1753)source
March 16 – Nathaniel Bowditch, American mathematician (born 1773)source
April 3 – François Carlo Antommarchi, French physician (born 1780)source
April 6 - José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva, statesman and mineralistBrazil source
May 17 – Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, French politician (born 1754)source
May – Francisco Gómez, President of El Salvador (born 1796)source
June 10 – Myall Creek massacre: 28 Indigenous Australians are killed.source
August 1 – John Rodgers, American naval officer (born 1772)source
August 17 – Lorenzo Da Ponte, librettist for Mozart (born 1749)source
August 21 – Adelbert von Chamisso, German writer (born 1781)source
September 1 – William Clark, American explorer (born 1770)source
September 1 - Gabriel de Mendizábal IraetaSpain source
October 1 – Charles Tennant, Scottish chemist, industrialist (born 1768)source
October 3 – Black Hawk, Sauk Indian chief, autobiographer (born 1767)source
November 7 – Anne Grant, Scottish poet (born 1755)source
11 December — Francisco Manuel Trigoso, politician (born 1777).Portugal source