Events of 1838

January–June

• January 10 – A fire destroys Lloyd's Coffee House and the Royal Exchange in London.

• April 8 – Regular Atlantic steamship service begins with the SS Great Western.

• April 30 – Nicaragua declares independence from the Central American Federation (See Nicaragua's early history).

• May

• *The People's Charter is drawn up in the United Kingdom, demanding universal suffrage.

• *Lord Durham and his entourage arrive in Upper Canada to investigate the cause of the 1837 rebellion in that province. This leads to Durham submitting the Durham Report to Britain.

• *An insurrection breaks out in Tizimín, beginning the campaign for the independence of Yucatan from Mexico.

• May 26 – USA: The Cherokee Tribe is forcibly relocated in the Trail of Tears.

• May 28 – Braulio Carrillo is sworn in as Head of State of Costa Rica, thus beginning his second term in office.

• June 10 – 28 Aborigines are killed in the Myall Creek Massacre.

• September 7 – Grace Darling and her father rescue 13 survivors from the SS Forfarshire.

• October 1 – Supporters of Infante Carlos, Count of Molina, are victorious in the Battle of Maella during the First Carlist War.

• November 3 – The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce is founded (later renamed The Times of India in 1861).

• November 5 – The Central American Civil War begins with Honduras' separation from the Central American Federation.

• December – Pastry War: Mexico is invaded by French forces.

Undated

• Proteins are discovered by Jöns Jakob Berzelius.

• Friedrich Bessel makes the first accurate measurement of distance to a star.

• Women in Pitcairn are the first in the world to obtain and maintain the right to vote.

• Biblical criticism: Christian Hermann Weisse proposes the two-source hypothesis.

• Duke University is established in North Carolina.

• 40,000 chests of opium are sold in China.

• Chatsworth Head acquired by the 6th Duke of Devonshire at Smyrna from H.P. Borrell.

Ongoing

• War of the Confederation (1836–39)

• War of Tatters (1835–45)

Births

January–June

• January 4 – General Tom Thumb, American circus performer and entertainer (d. 1883)

• January 6 – Max Bruch, German composer (d. 1920)

• January 16 – Franz Brentano, German philosopher and psychologist (d. 1917)

• February 6 – Henry Irving, English actor (d. 1905)

• February 10 – Gustav Oelwein, founder of Oelwein, Iowa (d. 1913)

• February 16 – Henry Brooks Adams, American historian (d. 1918)

• February 18 – Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist and philosopher (d. 1916)

• March 3 – George William Hill, American astronomer (d. 1914)

• March 11 – Ōkuma Shigenobu, Japanese politician (d. 1922)

• April 3 – John Willis Menard, African-American politician (d. 1893)

• April 8 – Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German inventor (d. 1917)

• April 12 – John Shaw Billings, M.D., American military and medical leader (d. 1913)

• April 16 – Martha McClellan Brown, American temperance movement leader (d. 1916)

• April 28 – Tobias Michael Carel Asser, Dutch jurist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1913)

• April 21 – John Muir, American ecologist (d. 1914)

• May 10 – John Wilkes Booth, American actor and assassin (d. 1865)

• May 20 – Jules Méline, French statesman (d. 1925)

• June 14 – Yamagata Aritomo, Japanese Prime Minister (d. 1922).

July–December

• July 8 – Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German military officer and founder of the Zeppelin Company (d. 1917)

• September 2 – Liliuokalani of Hawai'i, last Queen of Hawaii (d. 1917)

• September 27- Lawrence Sullivan Ross, Confederate brigadier general, Texas governor, and president of Texas A&M University (d. 1898)

• October 6 – Giuseppe Cesare Abba, Italian patriot and writer (d. 1910)

• October 25 – Georges Bizet, French composer (d. 1875)

• October 31 – King Luis I of Portugal (d. 1889)

• November 7 – Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, French writer (d. 1889)

• November 13 – Joseph Fielding Smith, 10th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1918)

• November 20 – Hedvig Raa-Winterhjelm, pioneer actor (d. 1907)

• December 3 – Cleveland Abbe, American meteorologist (d. 1916)

• December 19 – Khedrup Gyatso, 11th Dalai Lama (d. 1856)

• December 20 – Edwin Abbott Abbott, theologian and author (d. 1926)

• December 30 – Émile Loubet, 7th President of France (d. 1929)

• Jamal-al-Din Afghani, teacher and writer (d. 1897)

Deaths

January–June

• January 3 – Prince Maximilian of Saxony (b. 1759)

• January 5 – Anthony Van Egmond, rebel leader in Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837 {died in jail}

• February 21 – Silvestre de Sacy, linguist (b. 1758)

• March 13 – Poul Martin Møller, philosopher (b. 1794)

• April 3 – François Carlo Antommarchi, French physician (b. 1780)

• April 6 – José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva, Brazilian statesman and naturalist (b. 1763)

• April 9 – Piet Uys, Voortrekker leader (in battle) (b. 1797)

• May – Francisco Gómez, president of El Salvador (b. 1796)

• May 17 – Charles Maurice de Talleyrand, French diplomat (b. 1754)

• May 19 – Richard Colt Hoare, English archaeologist (b. 1758)

• June 14 – Maximilian von Montgelas, Bavarian statesman (b. 1759)

July–December

• July 19 – Christmas Evans, preacher (b. 1766)

• August 17 – Lorenzo Da Ponte, librettist for Mozart (b. 1749)

• August 21 – Adelbert von Chamisso, German writer (b. 1781)

• September 1 – William Clark, American explorer (b. 1770)

• September 27 – Bernard Courtois, French chemist (b. 1777)

• October 1 – Charles Tennant, Scottish chemist and industrialist (b. 1768)

• October 3 – Black Hawk, Sauk Indian Chief and autobiographer (b. Saukenuk village - now Rock Island, Illinois 1767)

• November 21 – Georges Mouton, count of Lobau, Marshal of France (b. 1770)