In the year 1838, the first public demonstration of a new invention - telegraph - occurs in Morristown, New Jersey (Jan 6), the first known report about the lowest temperature on Earth is made, -60°C (-76°F) in Yakutsk, Siberia (Jan 21), the first East Indian immigrants arrive in British Guiana (May 5), several native tribes in the United States, there among Cherokee, Muscogee and Seminole, are forcefully relocated in what came to be known Trail of Tears (May 26), the coronation of Queen Victoria takes place at Westminster Abbey in London (Jun 28), Governor of Missouri declares Mormons to be enemies of state, leaving either extermination or exile their only option (Oct 27) - and all these fine people were born:
1838-0101 Ernst Linder* journalist/ founder of newspapers/politician - Tallinn, Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire (1868/30)
1838-0104 General Tom Thumb* circus entertainer - Bridgeport, CT USA (1883/45)
1838-0107 Max Bruch* German composer/ teacher/conductor - Köln, Prussia (1920/82)
1838-0119 Arthur Fredrik Nordmann* Finnish naturalist/explorer - Odessa, Russian Empire (1862/24)
1838-0201
1838-0202 Anna Heikel* teacher at a deaf school/Baptist activist - Turku, GD of Finland (1907/69)
1838-0206 Henry Irving* (b Brodribb) actor-manager - Keinton Mandeville, Somerset, England (1905/67)
1838-0214 Margaret E. Knight* inventor of flat-bottomed paper bag - York, ME USA (1914/76)
1838-0218 Ernst Mach* physicist/philosopher - Brno, Austrian Empire (1916/78)
1838-0303 George William Hill* mathematician/ astronomer - New York City, NY USA (1914/76)
1838-0305 Fredrik Wilhelm Grönqvist* businessman with architectural interests - Helsinki, GD of Finland (1912/74)
1838-0312 William Henry Perkin* chemist/ entrepreneur - London, England (1907/69)
1838-0315 Alice Cunningham Fletcher* American ethnologist/anthropologist/social scientist - Havana, Cuba (1923/85)
1838-0319 Josef Julius Wecksell* poet/ playwright - Turku, GD of Finland (1907/69)
1838-0401 August Robert Svanström* forester/ friend and sponsor of Aleksis Kivi - Helsingin pitäjä, GD of Finland (1901/62)
1838-0418 Johannes von Widenmayer* German lawyer/Mayor of Munich - Lindau (1893/54)
1838-0421 John Muir* Scottish-American naturalist/early advocate for the preservation of wilderness in the United States/to America as a child - Dunbar, Scotland (1914/76)
1838-0428 Tobias Asser* lawyer/N - Amsterdam, Netherlands (1913/75)
1838-0430
1838-0509 Alexander Innes McGregor* politician/MP/mayor of Akaroa - New Zealand (1901/62)
1838-0510 John Wilkes Booth* actor/ assassin of Abraham Lincoln - Bel Air, MD USA (1865/26)
1838-0511 Axel Niklas Herlin* lawyer/called “the first Finnish socialist” - Naantali, GD of Finland 1906/68)
1838-0523 Amaldus Nielsen* Norwegian painter - Halse, Sweden-Norway (1932/94)
1838-0601
1838-0610
1838-0614 Yamagata Aritomo* 山縣 有朋 field marshal/PM - Kawashima, Japan (1922/83)
1838-0620
1838-0625
1838-0627 Walter Cheesman* businessman - Hempstead Harbor, NY USA (1907/68)
1838-0701
1838-0705
1838-0708 Ferninand von Zeppelin* general/engineer - Konstanz, Grand Duchy of Baden (1917/78)
1838-0710 Melville Sewell Bagley* businessman/originator of the archetypical Argentine national liqueur Hesperidina - Bangor, ME USA (1880/42)
1838-0711 John Wanamaker* merchant/political figure - Philadephia, PA USA (1922/84)
1838-0731
1838-0801
1838-0818 Emil Ganz* German-American businesman/mayor/to U.S. at age 20 - Walldorf, Thuringia (1922/83)
1838-0831
1838-0901
1838-0902 Queen Lili’uokalani of Hawaii* the last sovereign monarch of the Kingdom of Hawai’i - Honolulu, O’ahu, Kingdom of Hawaii (1917/79)
1838-0906 Juho Matinpoika Luoma** father of Sanna Amalia Hakoniemi (b Linnusmaa) - L. Mattila, ILmajoki, GD of Finland (unknown)
1838-0910
1838-0920
1838-0923 Victoria Woodhull* leader of the women’s suffrage movement in the United States - Homer, OH USA (1927/88)
1838-0929 Henry Hobson Richardson* architect - St. James Parish, LA USA (1886/47)
1838-0930
1838-10
1838-10
1838-1025 Georges Bizet* composer - Paris, France (1875/36)
1838-11
1838-11
1838-11
1838-12
1838-12
1838-1229 Walter Runeberg* sculptor/ son of Johan Ludvig Runeberg - Porvoo, Finland (1920/81)
1838-1231 Jules Dalou* sculptor - Paris, Kingdom of France (1902/63)
1838-0
1838-0
1838-0
Updated 2025-0325 Helsinki
Search for more years here