1842 in the United States

Events from the year 1842 in the United States.

Federal government

 * President: John Tyler (I-Virginia)
 * Vice President: vacant
 * Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney (Maryland)
 * Speaker of the House of Representatives: John White (W-Kentucky)
 * Congress: 27th

{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" ! Governors and lieutenant governors

Governors

 * Governor of Alabama: Benjamin Fitzpatrick (Democratic)
 * Governor of Arkansas: Archibald Yell (Democratic)
 * Governor of Connecticut: William W. Ellsworth (Whig) (until May 4), Chauncey Fitch Cleveland (Democratic) (starting May 4)
 * Governor of Delaware: William B. Cooper (Whig)
 * Governor of Georgia: Charles J. McDonald (Democratic)
 * Governor of Illinois: Thomas Carlin (Democratic) (until December 8), Thomas Ford (Democratic) (starting December 8)
 * Governor of Indiana: Samuel Bigger (Whig)
 * Governor of Kentucky: Robert P. Letcher (Whig)
 * Governor of Louisiana: André B. Roman (Whig)
 * Governor of Maine: Edward Kent (Whig) (until January 5), John Fairfield (Democratic) (starting January 5)
 * Governor of Maryland: William Grason (Democratic) (until January 3), Francis Thomas (Democratic) (starting January 3)
 * Governor of Massachusetts: John Davis (Whig)
 * Governor of Michigan: James Wright Gordon (Whig) (until January 3), John S. Barry (Democratic) (starting January 3)
 * Governor of Mississippi: Alexander G. McNutt (Democratic) (until January 10), Tilghman Tucker (Democratic) (starting January 10)
 * Governor of Missouri: Thomas Reynolds (Democratic)
 * Governor of New Hampshire: John Page (Democratic) (until June 2), Henry Hubbard (Democratic) (starting June 2)
 * Governor of New Jersey: William Pennington (Whig)
 * Governor of New York: William H. Seward (Whig) (until end of December 31)
 * Governor of North Carolina: John Motley Morehead (Whig)
 * Governor of Ohio: Thomas Corwin (Whig) (until December 14), Wilson Shannon (Democratic) (starting December 14)
 * Governor of Pennsylvania: David R. Porter (Democratic)
 * Governor of Rhode Island: Samuel Ward King (Rhode Island)
 * Governor of South Carolina: John Peter Richardson II (Democratic) (until December 8), James Henry Hammond (Democratic) (starting December 8)
 * Governor of Tennessee: James C. Jones (Whig)
 * Governor of Vermont: Charles Paine (Whig)
 * Governor of Virginia: John Rutherfoord (Whig) (until March 31), John Munford Gregory (Whig) (starting March 31)

Lieutenant governors

 * Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Charles Hawley (Whig) (until May 4), William S. Holabird (Democratic) (starting May 4)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Stinson Anderson (Democratic) (until December 8), John Moore (Democratic) (starting December 8)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Samuel Hall (Whig)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Manlius Valerius Thomson (political party unknown)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: George Hull (political party unknown)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Origen D. Richardson (Whig) (starting month and day unknown)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Meredith Miles Marmaduke (Democratic)
 * Lieutenant Governor of New York: Luther Bradish (Whig) (until end of December 31)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Byron Diman (political party unknown) (until month and day unknown), Nathaniel Bullock (political party unknown) (starting month and day unknown)
 * Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: William K. Clowney (Democratic) (until December 8), Isaac Donnom Witherspoon (Democratic) (starting December 8)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Waitstill R. Ranney (Whig)
 * }

Events

 * February 1 – Willamette University is established in Salem, Oregon.
 * March – Commonwealth v. Hunt: the Massachusetts Supreme Court makes strikes and unions legal in the United States.
 * 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 – First documented discovery of gold in California, by Francisco Lopez at Placerita Canyon in Rancho San Francisco, sparking a small-scale gold rush, mainly of Mexicans from Sonora.
 * May 19 – Dorr Rebellion: Militiamen supporting Thomas Wilson Dorr attack the arsenal in Providence, Rhode Island but are repulsed.
 * August 1 – A parade in Philadelphia celebrating the end of slavery in the Caribbean is attacked by a mob, leading to the 3-day Lombard Street riot.
 * 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.
 * September – Ohio Wesleyan University is established in Delaware, Ohio.
 * November 26 – The University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana is established by Father Edward Sorin of the Roman Catholic Congregation of Holy Cross.
 * December 20 – The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina is established.

Undated

 * The Sons of Temperance is founded in New York City.
 * Founding of:
 * Cumberland University (in Lebanon, Tennessee)
 * Hollins University (in Roanoke, Virginia by Charles Cocke)
 * Villanova University (in Villanova, Pennsylvania by the Augustinian order)
 * Indiana University Bloomington
 * Indiana University Maurer School of Law
 * The Merchants Fund organization in Philadelphia
 * The Scroll and Key secret society of Yale University is established.

Ongoing

 * Second Seminole War (1835–1842)

Births

 * January 11 – William James, psychologist and philosopher (died 1910)
 * January 21 – Henry Livermore Abbott, Union Army major and brevet brigadier general (died 1864)
 * February 3 – Sidney Lanier, musician, poet and writer (died 1881)
 * February 28 – Stephen Wallace Dorsey, U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1873 to 1879 (died 1916)
 * March 30 – John Fiske, philosopher (died 1901)
 * June 16 – David Herold, accomplice of John Wilkes Booth (died 1865)
 * June 24 – Ambrose Bierce, writer and satirist (died c. 1914 in Mexican Revolution)
 * July 9 – Mary E. Smith Hayward, businesswoman and suffragist (died 1938)
 * July 15 – James Hard, last verified living Union combat veteran of the American Civil War (died 1953)
 * July 30 – Thomas J. O'Brien, politician and diplomat (died 1933)
 * August 31 – Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, African American civil rights campaigner and publisher (died 1924)
 * September 13 – John H. Bankhead, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1907 to 1920 (died 1920)
 * October 3 – Frederick Rodgers, admiral (died 1917)
 * October 14 – Joe Start, baseball first baseman (died 1927)
 * October 28 – Anna Elizabeth Dickinson, orator (died 1932)
 * December 15 – George Keller, architect (died 1935)

Deaths

 * January 4 – John W. Beschter, Jesuit priest and academic (born 1763 in Luxembourg)
 * March 4 – James Forten, African American abolitionist and businessman (born 1766)
 * March 13 – Samuel Eells, founder of Alpha Delta Phi fraternity (born 1810)
 * July 23 – Timothy Swan, psalmist and hatter (born 1758)
 * September 10 – Letitia Tyler, First Lady of the United States from 1841 to 1842 as wife of the 10th U.S. president, John Tyler (born 1790)
 * October 2 – William Ellery Channing, Unitarian theologian and minister (born 1780)
 * November 3 – Robert Smith, 6th United States Secretary of State (born 1757)
 * December 1 – Philip Spencer, founder of Chi Psi fraternity and midshipman aboard USS Somers (1842) (born 1823)
 * December 31 – George Cassedy, U.S. Representative from New Jersey (born 1783)