Political meeting at Bloomington, painted by Theophilus Adam Wylie

1833 Worldwide cholera epidemic reaches Bloomington; Indiana College students abandon town for a month.

1834 Charles Babbage of England invents the principle of the modern computer. Cyrus Hall McCormick patents his reaper.

1836 Completion of "First College Building" in Bloomington. William McGuffey, a former student of Andrew Wylie, publishes his first and second Eclectic Readers.

1837William Procter and James Gamble go into business together in Cincinnati, selling soap and candles.

1838 With a total faculty of four professors, Indiana College becomes Indiana University. $150 is appropriated to create an IU band, and the first "boarding club" (dorm) appears: cost is about $1.50 a week.