1842

Events of 1842

January - Akbar Khan, son of Dost Mohammed Khan, carries out the Massacre of Elphinstone's Army on the road from Kabul to Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
February 7 - Battle of Debre Tabor: Ras Ali Alula, Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia, defeats warlord Wube Haile Maryam of Semien province|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.
March 5 - 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 9 - Giuseppe Verdi's third opera Nabucco premieres in Milan; its success establishes Verdi as one of Italy's foremost opera writers.
March 30 - Anesthesia is used for the first time in an operation (Dr. Crawford Long performed the operation using ether).
March 31 - Middleton Junction and Oldham Branch Railway line opened up to Werneth in North West England.

May 8 - Versailles train crash: Two trains collide near Paris and catch fire, killing 59.
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 (he had left 11 days earlier). The British army dispatches a relief force.

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 England.
August 29 - The Treaty of Nanking ends the First Opium War and establishes Hong Kong as a British colony.
October 29 - The Iberian Peninsula is struck by a category 2 hurricane.
December 20 - The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina is established.

The Sons of Temperance is founded in New York City.
The Income Tax Act 1842 is passed in the United Kingdom; 7 pence on the pound sterling, for incomes over 150 pounds.
Pentonville Prison is built.
The New Zealand seat of government moves from Russell to Auckland.
The Scroll and Key secret society of Yale University is established.
The first pils beer is brewed in the Czech city of Pilsen. The Pils is the original lager beer of which all modern lagers are copies.
Founding of:

January 11 - William James, American psychologist and philosopher (d. 1910)
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 2 - Carl Jacobsen, Danish brewer and patron of the arts after whom the Carlsberg brewery was named (d. 1914)
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)
June 12 - Rikard Nordraak, Norwegian composer (d. 1866)