December 7, 1836 - Martin Van Buren was elected the eighth president of the United States.

February 8, 1837 - The Senate selected Richard Mentor Johnson as vice president after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes; first VP chosen by Senate.

March 4, 1837 - Martin Van Buren inaugurated as 8th president.

May 10, 1837 - Failure of cash-strapped banks in New York unleashed the Panic of 1837, one of the most devastating economic crisis in the nation's history. Absence of federal-based Second Bank of the United States (SBUS), closed by the efforts of states-rights advocate President Andrew Jackson, which had served as a storing house for federal funds via the Treasury, triggered a "liquidity crisis" that imperiled "small banks." The panic forced closing of hundreds of banks, wiped out scores of small businesses and farmers who had heavily relied on the support of local fiscal institutions. Unemployment climbed to unprecedented peaks, tension and anguish gripped good chunks of the country; in New York, the militia had to be called in to keep order on Wall Street. Panic of 1837 stretched on for seven long and painful years.

June 20, 1837 - Queen Victoria, the longest serving monarch in British history, ascended the throne following the death of her uncle, King William IV.

July 13, 1837 - Queen Victoria became the first sovereign to move into Buckingham Palace, London.

September 5, 1837 - President Martin Van Buren spoke out against state-chartered banks; called for a Treasury independent of state institutions.

October 12, 1837 - To quell Panic of 1837 (expansion and over-extended credit) the House sanctioned the use of Treasury notes, provided that they didn't exceed $10 million; Congress's efforts to stabilize the nation's currency failed to lift the depression, continued to plague the country for the next seven years.

January 26, 1838 - Tennessee passed first Prohibition law in the history of the United States; made it a misdemeanor to sell alcoholic beverages in taverns and stores. The bill stated that all persons convicted of retailing "spirituous liquors" would be fined at the "discretion of the court" and that the fines would be used in support of public schools.

June 12, 1838 - The Iowa Territory was organized.

June 28, 1838 - Britain's Queen Victoria was crowned in Westminster Abbey.

July 2, 1839 - Africans on the Cuban schooner Amistad rise up against their captors, used sugar-cane knives found in the hold, killed the captain of the vessel and a crewmember, seized control of the ship, which had been transporting them to a life of slavery on a sugar plantation at Puerto Principe, Cuba. June 28, 1839 - 53 slaves recently captured in Africa left Havana, Cuba, aboard the Amistad schooner for a sugar plantation at Puerto Principe, Cuba. Three days later, Sengbe Pieh, a Membe African known as Cinque, freed himself and the other slaves and planned a mutiny. August 26 - the USS Washington, a U.S. Navy brig, seized the Amistad off the coast of Long Island and escorted it to New London, Connecticut. Ruiz and Montes were freed, and the Africans were imprisoned pending an investigation of the Amistad revolt. The two Cubans demanded the return of their supposedly Cuban-born slaves, while the Spanish government called for the Africans' extradition to Cuba to stand trial for piracy and murder. In opposition to both groups, American abolitionists advocated the return of the illegally bought slaves to Africa. January 13, 1840 - Judge Andrew Judson ruled that the Africans were illegally enslaved, that they would not be returned to Cuba to stand trial for piracy and murder, and that they should be granted free passage back to Africa. The Spanish authorities and U.S. President Martin Van Buren appealed the decision, but another federal district court upheld Judson's findings. President Van Buren, in opposition to the abolitionist faction in Congress, appealed the decision again. March 9, 1841 - the Supreme Court ruled, with only one dissent, that the Africans had been illegally enslaved and had thus exercised a natural right to fight for their freedom. In November 1841-  with the financial assistance of their abolitionist allies, the Amistad Africans departed America aboard the Gentleman on a voyage back to West Africa.

November 3, 1839 - The first Opium War between China and Britain broke out.

January 19, 1840 - Captain Charles Wilkes sights the coast of eastern Antarctica and claims it for the United States. 1842 - expedition returned to New York (began in 1838), having circumnavigated the globe.

January 22, 1840 - British colonists reach New Zealand Under the leadership of British statesman Edward G. Wakefield, the first British colonists to New Zealand arrive at Port Nicholson on Auckland Island. Britain formally annexed the islands and established New Zealand's first permanent European settlement at Wellington. That year, the native Maori people signed the Treaty of Waitangi, by which they recognized British sovereignty in exchange for guaranteed possession of their land. However, armed territorial conflict between the Maori and white settlers continued until 1870, when there were few Maori left to resist the European encroachment. 1841 - originally part of the Australian colony of New South Wales, New Zealand became a separate colony; 1852 - made self-governing; 1907 -  Dominion status was attained; 1831 - full independence was granted; 1947 -  ratified by New Zealand.

February 24, 1840 - Former President John Quincy Adams begins to argue the Amistad case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. 1839 - a Spanish slave ship named La Amistad appeared off the coast of New York. The "slaves" aboard it, who were free Africans kidnapped in Africa and originally bound for sale in Cuba, had rebelled, killing the Spanish ship's captain and cook. The African mutineers then promised to spare the lives of the ship's crew and their captors if they took them back to Africa. The crew agreed, but then duped the slaves by sailing up the coast to New York, where they were taken into custody by the U.S. Navy. A complicated series of trials ensued regarding the ownership and outcome of the ship and its human cargo. After two district courts ruled in favor of the abolitionists, President Van Buren immediately instructed the U.S. attorney general to appeal. Abolitionists hired Adams, who some referred to as "Old Man Eloquent," to argue for the Africans' freedom in the Supreme Court. In a seven-hour argument that lasted two days, Adams attacked Van Buren's abuse of executive power. His case deflated the U.S. attorney's argument that the treaty with Spain should override U.S. principles of individual rights. In appeasing a foreign nation, Adams argued that the president committed the "utter injustice [of interfering] in a suit between parties for their individual rights." In a dramatic moment, Adams faced the judges, pointed to a copy of the Declaration of Independence hanging on the courtroom wall, and said "[I know] no law, statute or constitution, no code, no treaty, except that law…which [is] forever before the eyes of your Honors." Adams' skillful arguments convinced the court to rule in favor of returning the Africans to their native country, but later, President Tyler refused to allocate federal funds to send the Africans back to Africa. Instead, the abolitionists had to raise money to pay for the expense.

March 31, 1840 - President Van Buren declared that federal employees would only put in ten-hour days. Though later legislation would bump the Federal workday down to a more reasonable eight hours, Van Buren's apologists point to the ten-hour mandate as proof that he did in fact care for "average" Americans.

May 21, 1840 - New Zealand was declared a British colony.

July 4, 1840 - Legislators passed Independent Treasury Act (cut the ties between banks and the government); mandated the transfer of funds from state banks to a putatively "independent" treasury. To help handle the inevitable tide of fiscal transactions, the bill created a network of subtreasuries, which were dotted along east coast--including branches in Boston, New York and Philadelphia--and in other patches of the country.

July 23, 1840 - Union Act passed by British Parliament, uniting Upper and Lower Canada.

January 20, 1841 - China cedes the island of Hong Kong to the British with the signing of the Chuenpi Convention, an agreement seeking an end to the first Anglo-Chinese conflict. 1839 - Britain invaded China to crush opposition to its interference in the country's economic and political affairs. One of Britain's first acts of the war was to occupy Hong Kong, a sparsely inhabited island off the coast of southeast China. 1842 - the Treaty of Nanking was signed, formally ending the First Opium War. 1898 - Britain was granted an additional 99 years of rule over Hong Kong under the Second Convention of Peking. September 1984 - after years of negotiations, the British and the Chinese signed a formal agreement approving the 1997 turnover of the island in exchange for a Chinese pledge to preserve Hong Kong's capitalist system. July 1, 1997 - Hong Kong was peaceably handed over to China in a ceremony attended by numerous Chinese and British dignitaries. The chief executive under the new Hong Kong government, Tung Chee Hwa, formulated a policy based upon the concept of "one country, two systems," thus preserving Hong Kong's role as a principal capitalist center in Asia.

February 4, 1841 - Bank of the United States closed; had been reestablished by Nicholas Biddle as a state institution based in Pennsylvania after President Andrew Jackson, who fiercely opposed the notion of a central bank system; used his executive power to veto the bill to renew the bank's charter (last chartered in 1816).

June 22, 1848 - Barnburners (anti-slavery) party nominated Martin Van Buren for President.

August 9, 1848 - The Free-Soil Party nominated Martin Van Buren for president at its convention in Buffalo, NY.

Donald B. Cole (1984). Martin Van Buren and the American Political System. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 477 p.). Van Buren, Martin, 1782-1862; Presidents--United States--Biography; United States--Politics and government--1815-1861; New York (State)--Politics and government--1775-1865.

Jerome Mushkat and Joseph G. Rayback (1997). Martin Van Buren: Law, Politics, and the Shaping of Republican Ideology. (DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 261 p.). Van Buren, Martin, 1782-1862; Lawyers--New York (State)--Biography; Presidents--United States--Biography; Republicanism--United States--History.

John Niven (1983). Martin Van Buren: The Romantic Age of American Politics. (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 715 p.). Van Buren, Martin, 1782-1862; United States -- Politics and government -- 1837-1841; Presidents -- United States -- Biography.

Joel H. Silbey (2002). Martin Van Buren and the Emergence of American Popular Politics. (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 237 p.). President White Professor of History (Cornell University). Van Buren, Martin, 1782-1862; Presidents--United States--Biography; Political culture--United States--History--19th century; United States--Politics and government--1837-1841.