|-
| align="center" colspan=2 | Years:
1839 1840 1841 - 1842 - 1843 1844 1845
|-
| align="center" colspan=2 | 1820s 1830s - 1840s ''' - 1850s 1860s 1870s
|-
| align="center" | - 19th Century ''' - 20th Century
|}
1842 was a Common Year Starting On Saturday (see link for calendar).
Events
Month/day unknown
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 )
- 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 )
- November 12 - John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh , English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1919 )
- December 2 - C. W. Alcock , English footballer and football official (d. 1907 )
- December 9 - Peter Kropotkin , Russian anarchist (d. 1921 )
- Anna Elizabeth Dickenson , American orator (d. 1932 )
Deaths
- March 13 - Samuel Eells , Founder of Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity (b. 1810 )
- 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 )
- April 4 - Jean Moufot , French philosopher and mathematician (b. 1784 )
- May 8 - Jules Dumont D'Urville , French explorer (b. 1790 )
- July 13 - Prince Ferdinand-Philippe D'Orléans , French prince (b. 1810 )
- July 25 - Dominique Jean Larrey , French surgeon (b. 1766 )
- July 28 - Clemens Brentano , German poet (b. 1778 )
- September 15 - Francisco Morazán , President of Central America (b. 1792 )
|
