In the year 1842, an American medical student becomes the first person to administer an inhaled anesthetic to facilitate a surgical procedure (Jan), Mexican troops invade Texas, but soon head back - the first such invasion since the Texas Revolution (Mar 5), the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra performs its first concert (Mar 28), a primary school system is established in Sweden (Jun 18), the Treaty of Nanking ends the First Opium War, and establishes Hong Kong as a British colony until 1997 (Aug 29), the New York Philharmonic performs its first concert (Dec 7) - and all these fine people were born:

1842-xxxx Poundmaker* (b Pîhtokahanapiwiyin) Plains Cree chief/peacemaker/defender of his people, the Poundmaker Cree Nation - near Battleford, Rupert’s Land, British North America (1886/c. 43) 1842-0101 Wilhelm Johan Burjam* German-Finnish bank executive in Viborg - Lübeck, Holy Roman Empire (1914/72) 1942-0106 Clarence King* geologist/mountaineer/author - Newport, RI USA (1901/56) 1842-0111 William James* philosopher/psychologist - New York, NY USA (1910/68) 1842-0115 1842-0120 1842-0121 Hanna Styrell* actress/royal mistress of King Charles XV of Sweden - Stockholm, Sweden (1904/62) 1842-0130 1842-0131 1842-0201 1842-0205 1842-0209 Joseph Beal Steere* ornithologist- Rollin, MI USA (1940/98) 1842-0210 Agnes Mary Clerke* astronomer /writer - Skibbereen, County Cork, Ireland (1907/64) 1842-0217 Johannes Gripenberg* civil servant/senator/ fennoman - Sääksmäki, GD of Finland (1893/51) 1842-0225 Karl May* writer/musician - Ernstthal, Kingdom of Saxony, German Confederation (1912/70) 1842-0226 Camille Flammarion* astronomer/ author - Montigny-le-Roi, Haute-Marne, Kingdom of France (1925/83) 1842-0302 Carl Jacobsen* brewer/Carlsberg brewery was named after him/philanthropist - Copenhagen, Denmark  (1914/71) 1842-0305 A. Viola Neblett* temperance activist/suffragist/women’s rights pioneer - Hambug, SC USA (1897/55) 1842-0310 Mykola Lysenko* Ukrainian pianist/ composer/conductor - Hrynky, Russian Empire (1912/70) 1842-0326 Alexandre Saint-Yves d’Alveydre* occultist/developed the term Synarchy - Paris, Kingdom of France (1909/66) 1842-0331 1842-0401 1842-0402 Dominic Savio* Italian student of John Bosco - San Giovanni, Piedmont, Kingdom of Sardinia (1857/14) 1842-0407 Carl Emil Edvard Lenngren* Finnish sculptor - St. Petersburg, Russia (1903/61) 1842-0407 Karl August Weikkolin* missionary in Africa - Vihti, GD of Finland (1894/49) 1842-0408 Elizabeth Bacon Custer* (b Bacon) author/ public speaker/wife of General Custer - Monroe, MI USA (1933/90) 1842-0410 1842-0414 Catherine Eddowes* victim of Jack the Ripper - Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England(1888/46) 1842-0418 Antero de Quental* poet/ philosopher/writer - Ponta Delgada, São Miguel, Portugal (1891/49) 1842-0420 1842-0427 Emil Jakob Schindler* landscape painter - Vienna, Austrian Empire (1892/50) 1842-0429 Carl Millöcker* composer/conductor - Vienna, Austrian Empire (1899/57) 1842-0430 1842-0501 1842-0504 Marietta Bones* woman suffragist/social reformer/philanthropist - Clarion County, PA USA (1901/59) 1842-0507 Isala Van Diest* the first female medical doctor in Belgium - Leuven, Belgium (1916/73) 1842-0508 Emil Christian Hansen* mycologist/ fermentation physiologist - Ribe, Denmark (1909/67) 1842-0510 1842-0513 Arthur Sullivan* composer - London, England (1900/58) 1842-0520 1842-0522 Gustaf Robert Stenwall** married to Amanda Lindqvist/father of Carl Fredrik Stenvall (->Kivi) - GD of Finland (after 1890) 1842-0523 Maria Konopnicka* poet/writer/activist - Suwalki, Congress Poland (1910/68) 1842-0527 Juana Alarco de Dammert* philanthropist/ benefactor of Peruvian children/known as the grandmother of all children (La abuelita de los niños) - Lima, Peru (1932/90) 1842-0601 Elis Nilsson* military officer/politician/reformer - Hardeberga, Sweden (1898/56) 1842-0608 Ferdinand Freiherr von Miller* ore caster/ sculptor - Munich, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Confederation (1929/8) 1842-0611 Carl von Linde* engineer/ scientist/businessman - Berndorf, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Confederation (1934/92) 1842-0625 Eloy Alfaro* politician/P - Montecristi, Ecuador (1912/69) 1842-0630 1842-0702 Ernst Fabritius* landowner/ violinist/composer - Viborg, GD of Finland (1899/57) 1842-0702 Albert Ladenburg* German chemist -  Mannheim, Grand Duchy of Baden (1911/69) 1842-0704 Hermann Cohen* philosopher - Coswig, Anhalt, Kingdom of Saxony, German Confederation (1918/75) 1842-0710 1842-0714 Juho Iisakinpoika Aspinen** father of Juhana Juhonpoika Aspinen - Vanhakylä, Viipuri, GD of Finland (unknown) 1842-0714 Christian Lundeberg* politician/PM - Valbo, Sweden (1911/69) 1842-0718 William D. Coleman* politician/ President of Liberia/to Liberia at age 11 - Fayette County, KY USA (1908/65) 1842-0731 1842-0801 J. R. Aspelin* archeologist - Messukylä, GD of Finland (1915/72) 1842-0817 Hugo Egmont Hørring* politician/PM - Copenhagen, Kingdom of Denmark (1909/66) 1842-0818 Iivana Onoila* singer of poems - Suistamo, GD of Finland (1924/82) 1842-0821 Harriet Earhart Monroe* educator/ writer/traveling producer of religious stage plays - Indiana, PA USA (1927/84) 1842-0823 Osborne Reynolds* engineer/ physicist - Belfast, Ireland (1912/69) 1842-0831 Gustave Niebaum* (b Gustaf Nybom) Finnish-American captain/furtrader/ winemaker in Napa Valley - Helsinki, GD of Finland (1908/65) 1842-0831 Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin* journalist/ publisher/civil rights leader - Boston, MA USA (1924/81) 1842-0903 John Devoy* Irish-American republican rebel/newspaper owner/to U.S. at age 23  - Kill, County Kildare, Ireland (1928/86) 1842-0916 Alessandro Fortis* politician/PM - Forli, Papal States (1909/67) 1842-0917 Sofia Hagman* educator - Vaasa, GD of Finland (1900/57) 1842-0920 James Dewar* chemist/ physicist/inventor of the vacuum flask - Kincardine-on-Forth, Scotland (1923/80) 1842-0921 Abdul Hamid II* the 34th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire - Topkapi Palace, Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (1918/75) 1842-0923 Gustaf Adolf Ramsay the younger* military leader - Kuopio, GD of Finland (1918/76) 1842-1001 1842-1011 Hjalmar Lagerborg* engineer/developer of the Finnish postal service - Oulu, GD of Finland (1910/67) 1842-1017 Gustaf Retzius* physician/anatomist/married to Anna Hierta - Stockholm, Sweden (1919/76) 1842-1028 Theodor Granstedt* architect - Helsinki, GD of Finland (1927/84) 1842-1031 Lavinia Warren* circus performer - Middleborough, MA USA (1919/77) 1842-1104 Olof Arborelius* landscape painter - Orsa, Sweden (1915/72) 1842-1112 Ōyama Iwao* 大山 巌 field marshal/a founder of the Imperial Japanese Army - Kagoshima, Tokugawa Shogunate (1916/74) 1842-1112 John William Strutt* physicist/N - Essex, England (1919/76) 1842-1125 Rudolf Blasius* German physician/bacteriologist/ornithologist - Braunschweig (1907/64) 1842-1130 1842-1203 Ellen Swallow Richards* environmental chemist/industrial and safety engineer - Dunstable, MA USA (1911/68) 1842-1209 Peter Kropotkin* socialist revolutionary/anarchist/historian - Moscow, Russian Empire (1921/78) 1842-1212 Alfred Parland* architect - Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire (1919/76) 1842-1222 Joseph B. Bloomingdale* businesman/co-founder of Bloomingdale’s - New York, NY USA (1904/61) 1842-1224 1842-1228 Calixa Lavallée* musician/ Union Army band musician during the American Civil War - Verchères, Province of Canada (1891/48) 1842-1230 Osman Hamdi Bey* administrator/ intellectual/pioneering painter - Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (1910/67) 1842-0 1842-0 1842-0 Updated 2025-0429 Helsinki Search for another year here