a phosphorus friction match is granted to Alonzo Dwight Phillips, of Springfield, Massachusetts. October 25 – Construction begins on the Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad in North Carolina. Due to a lack of support in Raleigh, the route is revised to run from Wilmington to the Petersburg Railroad in Weldon. November 28 – The University of London is established by Royal Charter, with University College London and King's College London named as the first affiliated colleges. December 4 – The Whig Party (United States) holds its first national convention, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. December 7 – 1836 United States presidential election: Martin Van Buren defeats William Henry Harrison, and three other Whig candidates. December 15 – The United States Patent Office burns in Washington, D.C. December 26 – The Crown colony of South Australia is officially proclaimed (subsequently celebrated in the state of South Australia as Proclamation Day). December 27 – Lewes avalanche: An avalanche at Lewes in Sussex, England, kills eight of fifteen people buried, when a row of cottages is engulfed in snow. December 28 Spain recognizes the independence of Mexico. The Colony of South Australia is founded by Captain John Hindmarsh. December 30 – In Saint Petersburg, the Lehman Theater catches fire, killing 800 people. Date unknown The first printed literature in Assyrian Neo-Aramaic is produced by Justin Perkins, an American Presbyterian missionary in Persia. The New Board brokerage group is founded in New York City. Eugène Schneider and his brother Adolphe Schneider purchase a bankrupt ironworks near the town of Le Creusot, in the Burgundy region of France, and found the steelworks and engineering company Schneider Frères & Cie. George Catlin ends his 6-year tour of 50 tribes in the Dakota Territory. John Murray III publishes A Hand-book for Travellers on the Continent; being a guide through Holland, Belgium, Prussia and northern Germany, and along the Rhine from Holland to Switzerland, the first of Murray's Handbooks for Travellers, in London. Chatsworth Head is found near Tamassos, Cyprus. Births January–June January 2 – Mendele Mocher Sforim, Russian Yiddish writer (d. 1917) January 8 – Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Dutch-English painter (d. 1912) January 10 – Charles Phillip Ingalls, American pioneer, father of author Laura Ingalls Wilder (d. 1902) January 14 Henri Fantin-Latour, French painter (d. 1904) Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, American general, politician, and diplomat (d. 1881) January 24 – Signe Rink, Greenland-born Danish writer, ethnologist (d. 1909) January 27 –