- Jan 1 1st official horse race in South Australia-Adelaide
Morse, Vail Demonstrate Telegraph
Jan 6 Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail demonstrate their telegraph machine in New Jersey
- Jan 8 Rebellion at Amherstburg, Ontario breaks out
Morse Code Demonstrated
Jan 11 First public demonstration of telegraph messages sent using dots and dashes at Speedwell Ironworks in Morristown, New Jersey by Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail
- Jan 26 Myall Creek Massacre: about 50 Wirrayaraay indigenous people killed by New South Wales Mounted Police (seven men later the first ever to be hanged for killing Australian Aborigines) [1]
- Jan 26 Tennessee enacts the first prohibition law in the United States
- Feb 16 Kentucky passes law permitting women to attend school under conditions
- Feb 16 Weenen Massacre: Hundreds of Voortrekkers along the Blaukraans River, Natal are killed by Zulu warriors
- Feb 25 London pedestrian walks 20 miles backward then forward in 8 hours
- Feb 28 Robert Nelson, leader of the Patriotes, proclaims the independence of Lower Canada (today Québec)
- Mar 3 Rebellion at Pelee Island, Ontario, Canada
- Mar 6 Franz Grillparzer's "Weh dem, der Lugt" premieres in Vienna
- Mar 8 US mint in New Orleans begins operation (producing dimes)
- Apr 8 Steamship "Great Western" makes her maiden voyage from Bristol, England, to New York
- Apr 9 UK National Gallery re-opens in its new dedicated building in Trafalgar Square, London
- Apr 22 English steamship "Sirius" docks in NYC after crossing the Atlantic, first transatlantic steam passenger service
- Apr 23 English steamship "Great Western" crosses the Atlantic docks in NYC
- Apr 27 Fire destroys half of Charleston
- Apr 30 Nicaragua declares independence from the Federal Republic of Central America
- Jun 4 First baseball-type game in Canada played at Beachville, Upper Canada
- Jun 10 Myall Creek Massacre in Australia: 28 Aboriginal Australians are murdered
- Jun 12 Hopkins Observatory, dedicated in Williamstown, Massachusetts
- Jun 12 Iowa Territory forms with Burlington as its capital
Coronation of Queen Victoria
Jun 28 Coronation of Queen Victoria, aged 19, during a five-hour ceremony at Westminster Abbey, London [1]
- Jul 4 Huskar Pit Disaster: 26 children drown trying to escape flooding in the Silkstone Colliery in England. Leads to the 1842 Mines Act, which bans women and children working underground. [1]
- Jul 4 Iowa Territory is organised from Wisconsin Territory, lasting until 1846
- Jul 7 Central American federation is dissolved
- Jul 8 Arabs attack Jewish community of Safed
- Aug 1 Apprenticeship system abolished in most of the British Empire. Former slaves no longer indentured to former owners.
US Exploring Expedition
Aug 18 United States Exploring Expedition headed by Charles Wilkes departs for the Pacific Ocean and Antarctica
- Aug 23 Mt Holyoke Female Seminary (South Hadley, Mass) 1st graduating class
Escape of Frederick Douglass
Sep 3 Frederick Douglass escapes from slavery disguised as a sailor
- Sep 5 Central Museum opens in Utrecht, Netherlands
Benvenuto Cellini
Sep 10 Hector Berlioz's opera "Benvenuto Cellini" premieres in Paris
- Sep 18 Anti-Corn Law League established in Great Britain by Richard Cobden
- Sep 19 Ephraim Morris granted US patent for a railroad brake
- Sep 24 Anti-Corn-Law League forms to repeal English Corn Law
- Oct 27 Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issues the Extermination Order, which orders all Mormons to leave the state or be exterminated
- Nov 3 The Times of India, world's largest circulated English language daily broadsheet newspaper founded as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce
- Nov 5 Honduras declares independence of Central American Federation
Ruy Blas
Nov 8 Victor Hugo's "Ruy Blas" premieres in Paris
Admirals
Aviators
Gangsters
Generals
Industrialists
Suffragists