WHAT HAPPENED IN 1838.
Look what happened the 1838.

Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph system using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code). (6. January 1838)

Tennessee enacts the first prohibition law in the United States (26. January 1838)

Weenen massacre: Hundreds of Voortrekkers along the Blaukraans River, Natal are killed by Zulus. (17. February 1838)

Robert Nelson, leader of the Patriotes, proclaims the independence of Lower Canada (today Quebec) (28. February 1838)

Nicaragua declares independence from the Central American Federation. (30. April 1838)

Myall Creek massacre: 28 Aboriginal Australians are murdered. (10. June 1838)

Coronation of Victoria of the United Kingdom. (28. June 1838)

The Iowa Territory is organized. (4. July 1838)

Ralph Waldo Emerson delivers the Divinity School Address at Harvard Divinity School, discounting Biblical miracles and declaring Jesus a great man, but not God. The Protestant community reacts with outrage. (15. July 1838)

Non-laborer slaves in most of the British Empire are emancipated. (1. August 1838)

The Wilkes Expedition, which would explore the Puget Sound and Antarctica, weighs anchor at Hampton Roads in 1838 (18. August 1838)

Future abolitionist Frederick Douglass escapes from slavery. (3. September 1838)

The Anti-Corn Law League is established by Richard Cobden. (18. September 1838)

Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issues the Extermination Order, which orders all Mormons to leave the state or be exterminated. (27. October 1838)

The Times of India, the world's largest circulated English language daily broadsheet newspaper is founded as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce. (3. November 1838)

The Federal Republic of Central America begins to disintegrate when Nicaragua separates from the Federation. (5. November 1838)

Great Trek: Battle of Blood River – Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius and Sarel Cilliers defeat Zulu impis, led by Dambuza (Nzobo) and Ndlela kaSompisi in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. (16. December 1838)