December 15, 1836 – The United States Patent Office burns in Washington, D.C. December 27, 1836 – 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 30, 1836 – In Saint Petersburg, the Lehman Theater catches fire, killing 800 people. January 1, 1837 – Galilee earthquake. December 17, 1837 – Fire in the Winter Palace, Saint Petersburg. January 10, 1838 – A fire destroys Lloyd's Coffee House and the Royal Exchange in London. September 7, 1838 – Grace Darling and her father rescue thirteen survivors from the SS Forfarshire off the Farne Islands. September 9, 1839 – In the Great Fire of Mobile, Alabama, hundreds of buildings are burned. November 25, 1839 – A disastrous cyclone slams India with terrible winds and a giant 40-foot storm surge, wiping out the port city of Coringa; 300,000 people die. Cholera Historians believe that the first cholera pandemic had lingered in Indonesia and the Philippines in 1830. The second cholera pandemic spread from India to Russia and then to the rest of Europe claiming hundreds of thousands of lives. It reached Moscow in August 1830, and by 1831, the epidemic had infiltrated Russia's main cities and towns. Russian soldiers brought the disease to Poland during the Polish–Russian War 1830–31. "Cholera Riots" occurred in Russia, caused by the anti-cholera measures undertaken by the tsarist government. The epidemic reached western Europe later in 1831. In London, the disease claimed 6,536 victims; in Paris, 20,000 died (out of a population of 650,000), with about 100,000 deaths in all of France. In 1832 the epidemic reached Quebec, Ontario, and Nova Scotia, Canada; and Detroit and New York City in the United States. It reached the Pacific coast of North America between 1832 and 1834. Establishments January 11, 1830 – LaGrange College (now the University of North Alabama) opens its doors, becoming the first publicly chartered college in Alabama. July 13, 1830 – The General Assembly's Institution, now the Scottish Church College, one of the pioneering institutions that ushered the Bengal Renaissance, is founded by Alexander Duff and Raja Ram Mohan Roy, in Calcutta, India. 1830 – Austins of Derry established in Northern Ireland. it will be the world's oldest independent department store. March 10, 1831 – The French Foreign Legion is founded. December 31, 1831 – Gramercy Park is deeded to