1842
| Years: 1839 1840 1841 – 1842 – 1843 1844 1845 | |
| Decades: 1810s 1820s 1830s – 1840s – 1850s 1860s 1870s | |
| Centuries: 18th century – 19th century – 20th century 1842 in topic: Lists of leaders: | |
1842 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar).
Events
- February 21 – John J. Greenough patents the sewing machine.
- March 5 – 00 Mexican troops led by Rafael Vasquez 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 30 – Anesthesia is used for the first time in an operation (Dr. Crawford Long performed the operation and ether was used).
- March 31 – Middleton Junction and Oldham Branch Railway line opened up to Werneth in North West England.
- August 9 – Webster-Ashburton Treaty is signed, establishing the United States-Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains.
- Massacre of Elphinstone's British army on the road from Kabul to Jallalabad, Afghanistan, by Mohammed Akbar, son of Dost Mohammed Khan
- August 29 – Treaty of Nanking signing ends the First Opium War
- British Empire annexes Hong Kong
- Pentonville Prison built.
- New Zealand seat of government moves from Russell to Auckland
- Ohio's Wesleyan University is established.
Births
- February 3 – Sidney Lanier, American writer (d. 1881)
- February 4 – Arrigo Boito, Italian poet and composer (d. 1918)
- February 25 – Karl May, German writer (d. 1912)
- March 10 – Mykola Lysenko, Ukrainian composer (d. 1912)
- March 18 – Stéphane Mallarmé, French poet (d. 1898)
- May 8 – Emil Christian Hansen, Danish fermentation physiologist (d. 1909)
- May 13 – Arthur Sullivan, English composer (d. 1900)
- May 17 – August Thyssen, Swiss industrialist (d. 1926)
- June 12 – Rikard Nordraak, Norwegian composer (d. 1866)
- August 23 – Osborne Reynolds, Irish engineer and physicist (d. 1912)
- September 13 – John H. Bankhead, U.S. Senator (d. 1920)
- September 21 – Abd-ul-Hamid II, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1918)
- October 14 – Joe Start, baseball player (d. 1927)
- December 9 – Peter Kropotkin, Russian anarchist (d. 1921)
- Anna Elizabeth Dickenson, American orator (d. 1932)
Deaths
- March 13 – Henry Shrapnel, English soldier and inventor (b. 1761)
- March 15 – Luigi Cherubini, Italian composer (b. 1760)
- March 23 – Stendhal, French writer (b. 1783)
- March 30 – Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, French painter (b. 1755)
- April 4 – Jean Moufot, French philosopher and mathematician (b. 1784)
- May 8 – Jules Dumont d'Urville, French explorer (b. 1790)
- July 28 – Clemens Brentano, German poet (b. 1778)
- September 15 – Francisco Morazán, President of Central America (b. 1792)
Categories: 1842