1838

Events of 1838

January 10 - a fire destroys Lloyd's Coffee House and the Royal Exchange in London.
April 8 - Regular Atlantic steamship service begins with the SS Great Western.
April 30 - Nicaragua declares independence from the Central American Federation (See Nicaragua's early history)
May - The People's Charter drawn up in the United Kingdom demanding universal suffrage.
May 26 - USA: Trail of Tears - forced relocation of the Cherokee tribe, killing at least 8,000.

1 August - Trinidad and Tobago: Slavery officially abolished
7 September - The paddlesteamer Forfarshire foundered on the Farne Islands, UK, giving rise to the fame of Grace Darling, who rescued nine passengers.
October - The Simla Manifesto is published by the British government, resulting in the First British-Afghan War.
November 3 India: The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce is founded. This paper was later renamed to The Times of India in 1861
November 5 - Central American Civil War begins with Honduras' separation from the Central American Federation.
December - Beginning of Pastry War: Mexico invaded by French forces

Yucatan declares independence from Mexico
Proteins discovered by Jöns Jakob Berzelius
Friedrich Bessel makes the first accurate measurement of distance to a star.
Biblical criticism: Christian Hermann Weisse proposes the two-source hypothesis.
Duke University is established in North Carolina.

January 4 - General Tom Thumb, American circus performer and entertainer (d. 1883)
January 6 - Max Bruch, German composer (d. 1920)
January 16 - Franz Brentano, German philosopher and psychologist (d. 1917)
February 6 - Henry Irving, English actor (d. 1905)
February 10 - Gustav Oelwein, founder of Oelwein, Iowa (d. 1913)
February 16 - Henry Brooks Adams, American historian (d. 1918)
February 18 - Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist and philosopher (d. 1916)
March 3 - George William Hill, American astronomer (d. 1914)
March 11 - Ōkuma Shigenobu, Japanese politician (d. 1922)
April 3 - John Willis Menard, African-American politician (d. 1893)
April 8 - Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German inventor (d. 1917)
April 12 - John Shaw Billings, M.D., American military and medical leader (d. 1913)
April 16 - Martha McClellan Brown, American temperance movement leader (d. 1916)
April 28 - Tobias Michael Carel Asser, Dutch jurist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1913)
April 21 - John Muir, American ecologist (d. 1914)
May 10 - John Wilkes Booth, American actor and assassin (d. 1865)
May 20 - Jules Méline, French statesman (d. 1925)

January 3 - Prince Maximilian of Saxony (b. 1759)
January 5 - Anthony Van Egmond, rebel leader in Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837 {died in jail}
February 21 - Silvestre de Sacy, linguist (b. 1758)
March 13 - Poul Martin Møller, philosopher (b. 1794)
April 6 - José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva, Brazilian statesman and naturalist (b. 1763)
April 9 - Piet Uys, Voortrekker leader (in battle) (b. 1797)
May - Francisco Gómez, president of El Salvador (b. 1796)
May 17 - Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, French diplomat (b. 1754)
May 19 - Richard Colt Hoare, English archaeologist (b. 1758)
June 14 - Maximilian von Montgelas, Bavarian statesman (b. 1759)