On This Day

What Happened in December 1837

Historical Events

  • Dec 5 Hector Berlioz' "Requiem" premieres
  • Dec 5 Uprising under William Lyon Mackenzie in Canada
  • Dec 25 Battle of Okeechobee-US forces defeat Seminole Indians
  • Dec 29 Canadian militia destroy Caroline, a US steamboat docked at Buffalo
  • Dec 29 Steam-powered threshing machine patented in Winthrop, Maine

Famous Birthdays

  • Dec 2 Charles Garrison Harker, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Swedesboro, New Jersey (d. 1864)
  • Dec 9 Émile Waldteufel, French composer, born in Strasbourg (d. 1915)
  • Dec 14 William Wells, American businessman, politician, and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Waterbury, Vermont (d. 1892)
  • Dec 18 A Adolf Daens, Belgian priest/Dutch party founder (CVP)
  • Dec 19 John Carpenter Carter, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1864)
  • Dec 24 Empress Elisabeth of Austria, born in Munich, Germany (d. 1898)
  • Dec 25 Cosima Liszt, wife of Austrian composer Richard Wagner

Person of interestGeorge Dewey

Dec 26 George Dewey, American admiral, naval hero in Battle of Manila Bay, born in Montpelier, Vermont (d. 1917)

Admiral George Dewey
Admiral
George Dewey
  • Dec 26 Morgan Bulkeley, American politician and baseball commissioner (d. 1922)
  • Dec 28 Benjamin Johnson Lang, American conductor and composer, born in Salem, Massachusetts (d. 1909)

Famous Deaths

  • Dec 13 Herman of Alaska, Russian Orthodox hermit (b. 1756)
  • Dec 26 Martinus van Marum, chemist/physicist (giant salamander), dies at 87

What Happened in 1837

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