1837

Year 1837 (MDCCCXXXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1837

January - June

* January 26 - Michigan is the 26th state admitted to the United States of America.
* February - Charles Dickens's "Oliver Twist" begins publication in serial form.
* February 4 - Seminoles attack Fort Foster.
* February 25 - In Philadelphia, The Institute for Colored Youth (ICY) is founded as the first institution for the higher education of Blacks.
* March 4
**Martin Van Buren succeeds Andrew Jackson as President of the United States.
** The city of Chicago is incorporated.
* May - Samuel Morse patents the telegraph.
* May 10 - The Panic of 1837 begins in New York City.
* June 5 - The city of Houston, Texas is incorporated by the Republic of Texas.
* June 11 - The Broad Street Riot occurs in Boston, Massachusetts, fueled by racial tensions between Irish-Americans and English-Americans.
* June 20 - Queen Victoria accedes to the throne of the United Kingdom.

July - December

* 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.
* July 29 - The Spanish government auctions the Catholic Church's property.
* August 16 - The Dutch sack the fortress of Bonjol, ending the Padri War.
* November 7 - American abolitionist and newspaper editor Elijah Lovejoy is killed by a pro-slavery mob.
* November 8 - Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, later Mount Holyoke College, is founded in South Hadley, Massachusetts.
* November-December - In the Canadas, William Lyon Mackenzie leads the Upper Canada Rebellion and Louis-Joseph Papineau leads the Lower Canada Rebellion.

Undated

* At Le Mans, France, Father Basil Moreau, CSC founds the Congregation of Holy Cross by joining the Brothers of St. Joseph and the Auxiliary Priests of Le Mans.
* Louis Daguerre develops the daguerreotype.

Births

January - June

* January 2 - Mily Balakirev, Russian composer (d. 1910)
* February 5 - Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist (d. 1899)
* January 7 - Thomas Henry Ismay, known for acquiring the WSL flag
* March 1 - William Dean Howells, American writer, historian, editor, and politician (d. 1920)
* March 7 - Henry Draper, American physician and 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)
* April 21 - Fredrik Bajer, Danish politician and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1922)
* May 9 - Adam Opel, German engineer and industrialist (d. 1895)
* May 27 - Wild Bill Hickok, American gunfighter (d. 1876)
* May 28 - George Ashlin, Irish Architect (d. 1921)
* June 22 - Paul Morphy, American chess player (d. 1884)
* June 22 - Paul Bachmann, German mathematician (d. 1920)

July - December

* July 4 - Carolus-Duran, French painter (d. 1917)
* July 18 - Vasil Levski, Bulgarian revolutionary (d. 1873)
* August 24 - Théodore Dubois, French composer (d. 1924)
* September 14 - Nikolai Bugaev, prominent Russian mathematician (d.1903)
* September 16 - King Pedro V of Portugal (d. 1861)
* September 18 - Aires de Ornelas e Vasconcelos, (Portuguese) Archbishop of Goa (d. 1880)
* October 10 - Robert Gould Shaw, American Civil War General, reformer (d. 1863)
* October 29 - African-American folk artist Harriet Powers (d. 1910)
* November 2 - Émile Bayard, French artist, illustrator (d. 1891)
* November 5 - Saint Arnold Janssen (d. 1909)
* November 14 - Lucas Barrett, English naturalist (d. 1862)
* November 20 - Lewis Waterman, American inventor and businessman (d.1901)
* November 23 - Johannes Diderik van der Waals, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1923)
* December 15 - George B. Post American architect (d. 1913)
* December 26 - George Dewey, U.S. naval officer (d. 1917)

Deaths

* January 20 - John Soane, British architect (b. 1753)
* January 23 - John Field, Irish composer (b. 1782)
* February 7 - Gustav IV Adolf, ex-King of Sweden (b. 1778)
* February 10 - Alexander Pushkin, Russian author (b. 1799)
* February 19 - Georg Büchner, German playwright (b. 1813)
* March 31 - John Constable, English painter (b. 1776)
* April 28 - Joseph Souham, French general (b. 1760)
* May 20 - Landgrave Frederick of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel) (b. 1747)
* June 14 - Giacomo Leopardi, Italian writer (b. 1798)
* June 20 - King William IV of the United Kingdom (b. 1765)
* September 7 - Fabian Gottlieb von Osten-Sacken, Russian military leader (b. 1752)
* September 21 - Pieter Vreede, Dutch politician (b. 1750)
* September 28 - Akbar Shah II, last Mughal emperor of India (b. 1760)
* October 1 - Robert Clark, American politician (b. 1777)
* October 10 - Charles Fourier, philosopher (b. 1772)
* November 7 - Elijah P. Lovejoy, American abolitionist (b. 1809)