Wilkes convinces the government that the Columbia River harbour is useless, and that Puget Sound is essential to US interests. Iowa Territory is formed. Alexis de Tocqueville publishes the first American edition of Democracy in America . The last fur trade rendezvous is held at Fort Bonneville. The business panic of 1837, the change in men's fashions from beaver to silk top hats, and the exhaustion of the beaver supply has led to the decline of trapping and trading.
American traders counter by using bigger wagons.
Mormons found Nauvoo in Illinois, after being forced to leave Missouri. France becomes the first European nation to recognize Texan independence. Frenchman Louis J.M. Daguerre announces the invention of the Daguerreotype, the world's first practical photographic process. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.