1837

Years: 1834 1835 1836 - 1837 - 1838 1839 1840
Decades: 1800s 1810s 1820s - 1830s - 1840s 1850s 1860s
Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century

1837 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar).

Contents

Events

January 10 - DePauw University founded in Greencastle, Indiana
January 26 - Michigan is admitted as the 26th U.S. state
February 8 - Richard Johnson becomes the first Vice President of the United States chosen by the United States Senate
February 11 - American Physiological Society organizes in Boston
February 13 - Rowland Hill at a UK government inquiry into postal reform discloses the idea of carrying letters in a separate sheet which folded to become an envelope and the idea of "a bit of paper" which could be affixed to a letter to flag that postage had been paid.
February 15 - Knox College founded in Galesburg, Illinois
February 25 - First US electric printing press patented by Thomas Davenport
March 4 - Martin Van Buren succeeds Andrew Jackson as the President of the United States of America.
March 4 - Chicago is granted a city charter by Illinois.
May 10 - Panic of 1837 (Global economic crisis): New York City banks fail, and unemployment reaches record levels.
June 3 - The London Hippodrome opens in Bayswater
June 5 - The city of Houston, Texas is granted a city charter.
June 20 - Queen Victoria, monarch of the United Kingdom ascends to the throne
July 20 - Euston Station, London's first railway stations, is opened
August 16 - Dutch sack of the fortress of Bonjol , ending the Padri War
October 21 - General Thomas Jessup captures Osceola in pretext of negotiations
November 7 - In Alton, Illinois, abolitionist printer Elijah P. Lovejoy is shot to death by a mob (supporters of slavery) while he was attempting to protect his printing shop from being destroyed a third time.
December 4 - Date of the Confrontation at Montgomery's Tavern.
November 8 - Formation of Mount Holyoke Seminary, first US college founded for women

Unknown date

Financial and economic panic in US (wildcat banking, paper speculation and inflated land values)
In the Canadas, William Lyon Mackenzie leads the Upper Canada Rebellion and Louis-Joseph Papineau leads the Patriotes Rebellion.
Samuel Morse patents telegraph
Great_Moon_Hoax – New York Sun claims that astronomer John Herschel has found life in the Moon
British Piracy Act

Births

January 2 - Mily Balakirev, Russian composer (d. 1910)
February 5 - Dwight L. Moody, evangelist (d. 1899)
March 1 - William Dean Howells, American writer, historian, editor, and politician. (d. 1920)
March 7 - Henry Draper, doctor, astronomer (d. 1882)
March 18 - Grover Cleveland, President of the United States (d. 1908)
March 23 - Charles Wyndham , English actor and theatrical manager (d. 1919)
April 5 - Algernon Charles Swinburne, English poet (d. 1909)
April 17 - John Pierpont Morgan, American financier and banker (d. 1913)
May 9 - Adam Opel , German engineer and industrialist (d. 1895)
May 27 - Wild Bill Hickok, American gunfighter (d. 1876)
June 7 - Aloys Schicklgruber, Alois Hitler, Austrian civil servant
June 22 - Paul Morphy, American chess player (d. 1884)
June 22 - Paul Bachmann, mathematician (d. 1920)
July 4 - Carolus-Duran, French painter (d. 1917)
August 24 - Théodore Dubois, composer and teacher (d. 1924)
October 11 - Joseph Burton Sumner, founder and first mayor of Sumner, Mississippi (d. 1920)
November 14 - Lucas Barrett, English naturalist (d. 1862)
December 26 - George Dewey, naval officer (d. 1917)
Osman Pasha, Turkish general and statesman (d. 1900)
Sarah Lockwood Pardee (Sarah Winchester), American eccentric and builder of the Winchester Mystery House (d. 1922)

Deaths

January 20 - John Soane, British architect (b. 1753)
January 23 - John Field (composer) (b. 1782)
February 7 - Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden (b. 1778)
February 10 - Alexander Pushkin, author (b. 1799)
March 31 - John Constable, painter (b. 1776)
June 14 - Giacomo Leopardi, Italian writer (b. 1798)
June 20 - King William IV of the United Kingdom (b. 1765)
October 5 - Hortense de Beauharnais Queen of Holland and mother of the Emperor Napoleon III of France (b. 1783)
December 4 - Colonel Robert Moodie, first casualty of the Upper Canada Rebellion.
November 7 - Elijah P. Lovejoy, American abolitionist (b. 1809)
December 13 - Saint Herman of Alaska (b. c1756)