In July 1837 the Swiss-born naturalist Louis Agassiz, speaking at the Swiss Society of Natural Sciences in Neuchatel, argued that a great ice age had once covered Europe in glaciers. Earlier observers, including the Swiss peasant-naturalist Jean-Pierre Perraudin and the engineer Ignace Venetz, had noticed that huge boulders in the Alps had been carried far from their sources by ice. Agassiz then expanded the idea to Britain and North America, and moved to Harvard in 1847. The theory transformed geology and explained erratic boulders, scratched bedrock and U-shaped valleys.
Before and after
- 29 July 1836Construction of Arc de Triomphe
- August 1836Founding of Houston
- from 1837 to 1901Victorian era
- from 1837 to 2023Founding of National Gallery of Norway
- 1837Louis Agassiz proposes the Ice Age theory
- 29 January 1837Death of Alexander Pushkin
- 4 March 1837Founding of Chicago
- 18 March 1837Birth of Grover Cleveland
- 7 April 1837Publication of The Little Mermaid
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- 30 June 1808Discovery of boron
- 1810Discovery of fluorine
- 1823Discovery of silicon
- 1898Discovery of neon
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.