1842

Events

January–March

• January
• * Michael Alexander takes office, as the first appointee to the Anglican-German Bishopric in Jerusalem.
• * American medical student William E. Clarke of Berkshire Medical College becomes the first person to administer an inhaled anesthetic, to facilitate a surgical procedure.
• January 6-13 - First Anglo-Afghan War - Massacre of Elphinstone's army : British East India Company troops are destroyed by Afghan forces on the road from Kabul to Jalalabad, Afghanistan, by Akbar Khan, son of Dost Mohammad Khan.
• January 8 - Delft University of Technology is established by William II of the Netherlands, as a 'Royal Academy for the education of civilian engineers'.
• January 23 - Antarctic explorer James Clark Ross, charting the eastern side of James Ross Island, reaches a Farthest South of 78°09'30"S.
• February 1 - Willamette University is established in Salem, Oregon.
• February 7 - Battle of Debre Tabor: Ras Ali Alula, Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia, defeats warlord Wube Haile Maryam of Semien.
• March - Commonwealth v. Hunt: the Massachusetts Supreme Court makes strikes and unions legal in the United States.
• March 2 - Gaylad, ridden by Tom Olliver, wins the Grand National at Aintree Racecourse in England.
• March 5 - Mexican troops led by Ráfael Vásquez invade Texas, briefly occupy San Antonio, and then head back to the Rio Grande. This is the first such invasion since the Texas Revolution.
• March 9 - Giuseppe Verdi's third opera Nabucco premieres at La Scala in Milan; its success establishes Verdi as one of Italy's foremost operatic composers.
• March 17 - The Relief Society, a philanthropic and educational women's organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is founded.
• March 28 - The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, founded by Otto Nicolai, performs its first concert.
• March 30 - American physician and pharmacist Crawford Long administers an inhaled anesthetic to facilitate a surgical procedure.
• March 31 - The Middleton Junction and Oldham Branch Railway line is opened up to Werneth in North West England.

  April–June

• April 13 - First Anglo-Afghan War - Battle of Jellalabad: British troops are victorious.
• May 8 - Versailles rail accident: A train traveling between Versailles and Paris, France derails, due to a broken locomotive axle, and catches fire, killing at least 55 passengers in the locked carriages.
• May 11 - The Income Tax Act establishes the first peacetime income tax in the United Kingdom; 7 pence in the pound, for incomes over 150 pounds.
• May 19 - Dorr Rebellion: Militiamen supporting Thomas Wilson Dorr attack the arsenal in Providence, Rhode Island, but are repulsed.
• June 4 - In South Africa, hunter Dick King rides into a British military base in Grahamstown, to warn that the Boers have besieged Durban. The British army dispatches a relief force.
• June 13 - Queen Victoria becomes the first reigning British monarch to travel by train, on the Great Western Railway between Slough and London Paddington station.
• June 18 - A primary school system is established in Sweden.
• June - James Nasmyth patents the steam hammer in the United Kingdom.

  July–September

• July 8 - A total solar eclipse occurs in Asia.
• July 13 - The Tri-Kap fraternity is founded at Dartmouth College.
• August 4 - The Armed Occupation Act is signed, providing for the armed occupation and settlement of the unsettled part, of the Peninsula of East Florida.
• August 9 - The Webster–Ashburton Treaty is signed, establishing the United States–Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains.
• August 10 - The Mines Act 1842 becomes law, prohibiting underground work for all women and boys under 10 years old in the United Kingdom.
• August 14 - American Indian Wars: United States general William J. Worth declares the Second Seminole War to be over.
• August 29 - The Treaty of Nanking, an unequal treaty between Britain and Qing dynasty China, ends the First Opium War, and establishes Hong Kong as a British colony until 1997.
• September - Wesleyan University is established in Ohio.
• September 16-17 - The Treaty of Chushul ends the Sino-Sikh War.

  October–December

• October 5 - Josef Groll brews the first pilsner beer in the city of Pilsen, Bohemia.
• October 29 - The Iberian Peninsula is struck by a category 2 hurricane.
• November 26 - The University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana is established by Father Edward Sorin, of the Roman Catholic Congregation of Holy Cross.
• December 7 - The New York Philharmonic, founded by Ureli Corelli Hill, performs its first concert.
• December 20 - The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, is established.

  Date unknown

• The Polynesian islands of Tahiti and Tahuata are declared a protectorate of France.
• The New Zealand seat of government moves from Russell to Auckland.
• Dzogchen Monastery, in Sichuan, China, is almost completely destroyed by an earthquake.
• English palaeontologist Richard Owen coins the name Dinosauria, hence the Anglicized dinosaur.
• Julius von Mayer proposes that work and heat are equivalent.
• Pentonville Prison in London begins to function.
• The Sons of Temperance is founded in New York City.
• Beecham's Pills, as predecessor of Glaxo Smith Kline founded in Lancashire, England.
• Founding of:
• * Cumberland University.
• * Hollins University.
• * Villanova University.
• * Indiana University Maurer School of Law at Indiana University Bloomington.
• * Delft University of Technology.

  Births

January–June

• January 11 - William James, American psychologist, philosopher
• January 15 - Mary MacKillop, first Australian saint
• February 3 - Sidney Lanier, American writer
• February 7 - Alexandre Ribot, 46th Prime Minister of France
• February 11
• * Erik Gustaf Boström, 2-Time Prime Minister of Sweden
• * Maria Louise Eve, American author
• February 23 - Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann, German philosopher
• February 24 - Arrigo Boito, Italian poet, composer
• February 25 - Karl May, German writer
• March 2 - Carl Jacobsen, Danish brewer, patron of the arts after whom the Carlsberg brewery was named
• March 5 - A. Viola Neblett, American activist, suffragist, women's rights pioneer
• March 10 - Mykola Lysenko, Ukrainian composer
• March 18 - Stéphane Mallarmé, French poet
• March 25 - Susan Augusta Pike Sanders, American teacher, clubwoman, author; national president of the Woman's Relief Corps
• March 26 - Alexandre Saint-Yves d'Alveydre, French occultist
• March 30 - John Fiske, American philosopher
• April 2 - Dominic Savio, Italian adolescent student of John Bosco
• April 17 - Maurice Rouvier, Prime Minister of France
• May 4 - Marietta Bones, American suffragist, social reformer, philanthropist
• May 7 - Isala Van Diest, Belgian physician
• May 8 - Emil Christian Hansen, Danish fermentation physiologist
• May 13 - Sir Arthur Sullivan, English composer
• June 11 - Carl von Linde, German scientist, engineer
• June 12 - Rikard Nordraak, Norwegian composer
• June 16 - David Herold, accomplice of John Wilkes Booth
• June 24 - Ambrose Bierce, American writer, satirist
• June 25 - Eloy Alfaro, 15th President of Ecuador

  July–December

• July 2 - Albert Ladenburg, German chemist
• July 4 - Hermann Cohen, German-Jewish philosopher
• July 14 - Christian Lundeberg, 10th Prime Minister of Sweden
• July 19 - Lydia Hoyt Farmer, American author, women's rights activist
• July 30 - Thomas J. O'Brien, American politician, diplomat
• August 21 - Harriet Earhart Monroe, American lecturer, educator, writer, producer
• August 23 - Osborne Reynolds, Irish engineer, physicist
• September 3 – John Devoy, Irish rebel leader, exile
• September 13 - John H. Bankhead, American senator
• September 20 - Sir James Dewar, Scottish chemist, physicist
• September 22 - Abdul Hamid II, Ottoman Sultan
• October 3 - Frederick Rodgers, American admiral
• October 14 - Joe Start, American baseball player
• October 17 - Gustaf Retzius, Swedish physician, anatomist
• October 27 - Giovanni Giolitti, 5-time Prime Minister of Italy
• October 28 - Anna Elizabeth Dickinson, American orator, younger sister of journalist Susan E. Dickinson
• November 12
• *Ōyama Iwao, Japanese field marshal, a founder of the Imperial Japanese Army
• *John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• November 26 – Madeleine Brès, French physician
• December 2 - C. W. Alcock, English footballer, football official
• December 3 - Ellen Swallow Richards, American chemist
• December 9 - Peter Kropotkin, Russian anarchist
• December 12 - Alfred Parland, Russian architect

  Deaths

January–June

• January 12 - Johanna Stegen, German heroine
• January 19 - Comte Siméon Joseph Jérôme, French jurist and politician
• February 15 - Carlo Andrea Pozzo di Borgo, Corsican politician, Russian diplomat
• March 4 - James Forten, African American abolitionist
• March 6 - Constanze Mozart, German-born wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• March 13
• * Samuel Eells, American founder of Alpha Delta Phi fraternity
• * Henry Shrapnel, English army officer, inventor
• March 15 - Luigi Cherubini, Italian composer
• March 23 - Stendhal, French novelist
• March 30 - Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, French painter
• May 8 - Jules Dumont d'Urville, French explorer
• May 12 - Walenty Wańkowicz, Polish painter
• June 9 - Maria Dalle Donne, Bolognese physician
• June 18 - François-André Baudin, French admiral

  July–December

• July 13 - Prince Ferdinand Philippe, Duke of Orléans, French prince
• July 21 - Laura M. Hawley Thurston, American poet and educator
• July 25 - Dominique Jean Larrey, French surgeon
• July 28 - Clemens Brentano, German poet
• August 24 - Leona Vicario, leader of Mexican War of Independence and wife of Andrés Quintana Roo
• September 10
• *William Hobson, Irish-born officer in the British Royal Navy, first Governor-General of New Zealand and co-author of Treaty of Waitangi
• *Letitia Christian Tyler, First Lady of the United States 1841-1842
• September 15 - Francisco Morazán, Honduran-born politician, President of Federal Republic of Central America
• October 2 - William Ellery Channing, American Unitarian theologian, minister
• October 20 - Grace Darling, English heroine
• October 24 - Bernardo O'Higgins, first Chilean head of state after independence
• October 25 - Sampson Salter Blowers, American lawyer, jurist File:MohammadKhanQajari.jpg|thumb|right|110px|Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar
• December 1 - Philip Spencer, American founder of Chi Psi fraternity, midshipman aboard the, hanged for mutiny.
• December 12 - Robert Haldane, British theologian
• December 24 - Adam Gillies, Lord Gillies, Scottish judge

  Date Unknown

• Nodira, Uzbek poet, stateswoman