26 Star Flag

Politics and Government

 

February 5, 1837: The city of Chicago is incorporated.

 

March 4, 1837: Martin Van Buren is inaugurated as the 8th President of the United States.

 

June 27, 1838: The U.S. Mint begins issuing the first U.S. silver coins.

 

June 6, 1839: Chief Justice Roger B. Taney issues the ruling in the Amistad case, declaring that the slaves who rebelled on the Amistad ship were free individuals.

 

August 9, 1842: The Webster-Ashburton Treaty is signed, resolving border disputes between the United States and the British North American colonies.

 

 

Science, Technology and Medicine

 

November 18, 1837: American physician Isaac Blaisdell performs the first recorded surgical removal of an ovarian tumor.

 

February 24, 1839: William Otis receives a patent for the steam shovel.

 

June 20, 1840: Samuel Morse patents the telegraph.

 

February 21, 1842: John Greenough receives the first U.S. patent for sewing machines.

 

March 25, 1843: The first recorded use of anesthesia in childbirth occurs in the United States.

 

October 16, 1843: Sir William Rowan Hamilton presents his theory of quaternions, a significant development in mathematics.

 

May 24, 1844: Samuel Morse sends the first telegraph message, using the phrase "What hath God wrought!"

 

 

Education

 

June 2, 1843: Henry Highland Garnet delivers his "Address to the Slaves of the United States of America" at the National Negro Convention.

 

 

Arts, Culture and Literature

 

July 4, 1838: Ralph Waldo Emerson delivers his famous essay "The American Scholar" at Harvard University. 

July 15, 1838: Ralph Waldo Emerson delivers his influential essay "Self-Reliance,

 

1842: The New York Philharmonic, one of the oldest orchestras in the United States, is founded.

 

January 1, 1842: The United States Post Office issues its first adhesive postage stamps, known as "The Penny Black."

 

December 1, 1842: The New York Philharmonic performs its first concert, becoming the oldest active symphony orchestra in the United States.

 

September 18, 1843: The News Letter and Daily Advertiser, the first daily newspaper in the United States, is published in Philadelphia.

 

October 13, 1843: B'nai B'rith, the oldest Jewish service organization in the world, is founded in New York City.

 

 

Sports

 

The first recorded baseball game played under modern rules takes place in Cooperstown, New York (1839)

 

 

 

International Events (July 4, 1837 - July 3, 1845)

 

 

October 22, 1837: Canadian physician William Beaumont performs experiments on digestion, studying the stomach of Alexis St. Martin.

 

December 27, 1843: Sir Henry Cole introduces the concept of the Christmas card in England.

 

September 11, 1839: British forces capture Aden, establishing a strategic port in Yemen.

 

February 25, 1843: The foundation stone for the first Roman Catholic cathedral in Australia, St Mary's Cathedral, is laid in Sydney.

 

July 24, 1837: Canada gives African Canadian men the right to vote.

 

October 22, 1844: The Great Disappointment occurs among followers of William Miller, who expected the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

 

August 16, 1839: The French government announces the invention of photography, presented by Louis Daguerre.

 

May 5, 1840: The world's first adhesive postage stamp, the Penny Black, is issued in the United Kingdom.

 

April 30, 1838: Nicaragua declares independence from the Central American Federation.

 

October 16, 1843: Charles Dickens publishes his novella "A Christmas Carol" in London.

 

July 4, 1837: The Grand Junction Railway opens in England, becoming the world's first long-distance railway