1837
Victoria Becomes Queen
At five in the morning, an eighteen-year-old princess was awakened at Kensington Palace and told that her uncle William IV had died and she was queen. Her first act was to ask for an hour alone. The reign that began that day would last sixty-four years, lend its name to a moral style, and define an empire.
Morse's Telegraph
In a New York University laboratory, Samuel F. B. Morse - painter turned tinkerer - demonstrated a working electromagnetic telegraph and a simple code of dots and dashes. Congress, unimpressed, took seven years to fund a line. When it did, the first public message, from Baltimore to Washington, read: "What hath God wrought."
Panic of 1837
Jackson's war on the Bank of the United States, combined with British credit tightening, produced a full-scale financial collapse: banks suspended payments, cotton prices tanked, and unemployment swept the northeastern cities. The depression lasted six years and made Martin Van Buren a one-term president. It also hardened American arguments about paper money.
Elijah Lovejoy Killed
An abolitionist editor in Alton, Illinois, was shot defending his press from a pro-slavery mob trying to throw it in the river. It was his fourth press; the mob had wrecked the first three. Lovejoy's death made him the abolitionist movement's first martyr and made clear that free speech, in that country, had a race.
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Frequently asked
What happened in the year 1837?
Saeculum lists 4 curated events from 1837. The most significant is Victoria Becomes Queen: At five in the morning, an eighteen-year-old princess was awakened at Kensington Palace and told that her uncle William IV had died and she was queen.
What era was 1837 part of?
1837 falls within the Industrial Age (1801-1900). Steam, empire, and the unmaking of the old order.
Which regions saw notable events in 1837?
The curated events from 1837 span Europe and North America.