Directory

1834 CE

Wake Forest University is founded as the Wake Forest Manual Labor Institute in Wake Forest, North Carolina. John Scott Russell's Scottish Steam Carriage Company begins operating a regular passenger service in west central Scotland on the open road between Glasgow and Paisley, Renfrewshire. The Peasants' Revolt in Egyptian-ruled Palestine begins; it is suppressed in August.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • February 12 – Freed American slaves from Maryland form a settlement in Cape Palmas, it is named the Republic of Maryland.source
  • April 14 – The Whig Party is officially named by United States Senator Henry Clay.source
  • April 22 – Spain, France, Portugal and the United Kingdom sign the Quadruple Alliance.source
  • July 16 – William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, succeeds Earl Grey as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.source
  • July 24 – The Liberal Wars end in Portugal.source
  • August 1 – Slavery is abolished in the British Empire, by the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.source
  • August 12 – In the Empire of Brazil, the Additional Act provides for establishment of the Provincial Legislative Assembly, extinction of the State Council, replacement of the Regency Trina, and introduction of a direct and secret ballot.source
  • August 15 – The South Australia Act allows for the creation of a colony there.source
  • September 18 – Athens becomes Greece's capital city, replacing the provisional capital of Nafplio.source
  • November 14 – William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne becomes the last Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to be dismissed by the British monarch. King William IV temporarily appoints Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, to form a caretaker government.source
  • December 10 – Sir Robert Peel succeeds The Duke of Wellington as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.source

Conflict & Security

  • May 9 – The founder of the Second Saudi State, Imam Turki bin Abdullah Al Saud, is assassinated after the Friday prayers by Ibrahim Hamza, following the orders of his cousin Mishari.source
  • May 19 – The Peasants' Revolt in Egyptian-ruled Palestine begins; it is suppressed in August.source
  • July 7–10 – Anti-abolitionist riots break out in New York City.source
  • July 8 – Imam Faisal bin Turki enters Riyadh and upon entering his father's palace, assassinates his father's murderer, Ibrahim Hamza, and his master; Mishari, and becomes the ruler and founder of the Second Saudi State.source
  • July 15 – The Spanish Inquisition, which began in the 15th century, is suppressed by royal decree.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • January 1 – Zollverein (Germany): Customs charges are abolished at borders within its member states.source
  • March 11 – The United States Survey of the Coast is transferred to the Department of the Navy.source
  • March – John Scott Russell's Scottish Steam Carriage Company begins operating a regular passenger service in west central Scotland on the open road between Glasgow and Paisley, Renfrewshire.source
  • November 2 – The ship Atlas docks in Mauritius carrying the first group of laborers (from Calcutta) under the Indian indenture system to work on sugar plantations following the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.source
  • December 11 – The Sixth Xhosa War is characterized by severe clashes between white settlers and Bantu peoples in Cape Colony; Dutch-speaking settlers colonize the area north of Orange River.source

Economy & Finance

  • February 13 – Robert Owen organizes the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union in the United Kingdom.source
  • March 6 – York, Upper Canada, is incorporated as Toronto.source
  • March 28 – Andrew Jackson is censured by the United States Congress (expunged in 1837).source
  • The British East India Company monopoly on China trade ends. It appoints a Tea Committee to assess the potential of Assam tea.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January – The Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad is chartered in Wilmington, North Carolina.source
  • June 21 – American inventor and businessman Cyrus McCormick is granted a patent for his mechanical reaper.source
  • August 1 – Construction work begins on the Wilberforce Monument in Kingston upon Hull, England.source
  • Charles Babbage begins the conceptual design of the Analytical Engine, a mechanical forerunner of the modern computer. It will not be built in his lifetime.source
  • Thomas Davenport, inventor of the first American DC electrical motor, installs his motor in a small model car, creating one of the first electric cars.source
  • Statue of Jean-Jacques Rousseau is erected in his birthplace of Geneva.source

Science & Discovery

  • March 14 – John Herschel discovers the open cluster of stars now known as NGC 3603, observing from the Cape of Good Hope.source

Health & Medicine

  • December 3 – The Zollverein institutes the first regular census in Germany. The population is 23,478,120.source
  • The Romanian language is banned in the schools and government facilities of the Russian Empire's Bessarabia Governorate.source

Crime & Justice

  • January 3 – The government of Mexico imprisons Stephen F. Austin in Mexico City.source
  • June 7 – Greek independence: General Theodoros Kolokotronis is sentenced to death for treason, for resisting the rule of Otto of Greece (he is released the following year).source
  • August 14 – The Poor Law Amendment Act in the United Kingdom states that no able-bodied British man can receive assistance, unless he enters a workhouse (a kind of poorhouse).source

Disasters & Accidents

  • April 10 – The LaLaurie mansion in New Orleans burns, and Madame Marie Delphine LaLaurie flees to France.source
  • August 11–12 – Ursuline Convent riots: A convent of Ursuline nuns is burned near Boston.source
  • September 11 – The emigrant ship Sybelle out of Cromarty (Scotland) is wrecked off St. Paul Island (Nova Scotia) with the loss of all 316 passengers and all but six of her crew.source

Culture & Society

  • February 3 – Wake Forest University is founded as the Wake Forest Manual Labor Institute in Wake Forest, North Carolina.source
  • July 29 – The Office of Indian Affairs is organized in the United States.source
  • September 13 – The Gleaner newspaper is first published in Jamaica.source
  • The Medical School of Louisiana (later Tulane University) is founded in New Orleans.source

Births

  • January 20 – Piet Joubert, Boer politician, military commander (d. 1900)source
  • February 6 – Edwin Klebs, German-Swiss pathologist who discovered Diphtheria (d. 1913)source
  • February 8 – Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist (d. 1907)source
  • February 16 – Ernst Haeckel, German zoologist, philosopher (d. 1919)source
  • February 19 – Charles Davis Lucas, British Victoria Cross recipient (d. 1914)source
  • March 20 – Charles W. Eliot, American President of Harvard University (d. 1926)source
  • March 24 – John Wesley Powell, American explorer (d. 1902)source
  • March 24 – William Morris, English poet, artist (d. 1896)source
  • April 2 – Paškal Buconjić, Herzegovinian Catholic bishop (d. 1910)source
  • June 19 – Charles Spurgeon, English Baptist preacher (d. 1892)source
  • July 10 – James McNeill Whistler, American painter, etcher (d. 1903)source
  • July 19 – Edgar Degas, French painter (d. 1917)source
  • August 22 – Samuel Pierpont Langley, American astronomer, physicist, and aeronautics pioneer (d. 1906)source
  • November 8 – Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner, German astrophysicist (d. 1882)source

Deaths

  • January 6 – Richard Martin, Irish founder of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (b. 1754)source
  • January 12 – William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1759)source
  • February 4 – Amélie-Julie Candeille, French composer, librettist, writer, singer, actress, comedian, and instrumentalist (b. 1767)source
  • February 12 – Friedrich Schleiermacher, German theologian and philosopher (b. 1768)source
  • February 18 – William Wirt, 9th United States Attorney General (b. 1772)source
  • April 5 – Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Goodwin Keats, Governor of Newfoundland (b. 1757)source
  • July 14 – Edmond-Charles Genêt, French ambassador to the United States during the French Revolution (b. 1763)source
  • July 26 – Jonathan Jennings, American politician and the first governor of Indiana (b. 1784)source
  • August 1 – Robert Morrison, British Protestant missionary to China (b. 1782)source
  • September 2 – Thomas Telford, Scottish engineer (b. 1757)source
  • September 15 – William H. Crawford, American politician, judge (b. 1772)source
  • October 23 – Fath Ali Shah Qajar, King of Iran (b. 1772)source
  • December 23 – Thomas Malthus, English economist, political philosopher (b. 1766)source
  • December 27 – Charles Lamb, English essayist (b. 1775)source