1838 - What happened in 1838 ?

January 1838

Saturday 06:

Samuel Morse first successfully tested the electrical telegraph.

Monday 08:

Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code).

Friday 12:

In order to avoid anti-Mormon.persecution, Joseph Smith, Jr. and his followers leave Ohio for Missouri.

Friday 26:

Tennessee enacts the first prohibition law in the United States

February 1838

Friday 16:

Weenen Massacre: Hundreds of Voortrekkers along the Blaukraans River, Natal were killed by Zulus.

April 1838

Monday 30:

Nicaragua declares independence from the Central American Federation

June 1838

Monday 11:

An earthquake occurs in Belgium.

July 1838

Wednesday 04:

The Iowa Territory is organized.

August 1838

Wednesday 01:

Slaves in Trinidad and Tobago are emancipated.

September 1838

Monday 03:

Dressed in a sailor's uniform and carrying identification papers provided by a Free Black seaman, future abolitionist Frederick Douglass boards a train in Maryland on his way to freedom from slavery.

October 1838

Saturday 27:

Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issues the Extermination Order, which orders all Mormons to leave the state.

November 1838

Saturday 03:

The Times of India, the world's largest circulated English language daily broadsheet newspaper is founded as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce.

Monday 05:

The United States of Central America began to disintegrate when Honduras separated from the federation.

December 1838

Sunday 16:

Boers defeat Zulu troops at Battle of Blood River, led by Dambuza and Nhlela, celebrated in South Africa as the day of the vow.