Year 1842: Fun Facts, Trivia, and History

This quick read presents a mix of fun facts, trivia, and history events from the year 1842. Discover the year’s top news stories, most influential people, historic firsts, noteworthy inventions, famous birthdays and deaths, retail prices, entertainment trivia, and much more.

Take a journey through history in just minutes.

1. President of the United States: John Tyler (Independent-Virginia)
2. Vice President: Vacant
3. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: Roger B. Taney (Maryland)
4. Speaker of the House of Representatives: John White (Whig-Kentucky)
5. The 27th U.S. Congress was in session, and both chambers had a Whig majority.
6. Inflation rate: -5.75%
7. Consumer price index (CPI): 8.200
8. $100.00 in 1842 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $4,061.22 today. The U.S. dollar had “an average inflation rate of 2.03% per year” between 1842 and 2026, “producing a cumulative price increase of 3,961.22%.” In other words, a U.S. dollar today buys about 2.462% of what it could purchase back in 1842.
9. It’s worth noting that the U.S. dollar has lost 98% of its value since 1842.
10. American companies founded in 1842 included the Case Corporation (an agricultural machinery manufacturer); Mott’s (a producer of apple-based products, such as apple juice); People's United Bank (founded as the Bridgeport Savings Bank in Bridgeport, Connecticut); Sands Anderson (a law firm based in Richmond, Virginia); The Verdin Company (a Cincinnati, Ohio-based manufacturer of bronze bells and clocks); and Whitman's (a manufacturer of boxed chocolates).
11. American railroads established in 1842 were the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, Pittsfield and North Adams Railroad, and the Spuyten Duyvil and Port Morris Railroad.
12. In 1842, there were 26 U.S. states. In order of admission to the Union, they were Delaware (1787), Pennsylvania (1787), New Jersey (1787), Georgia (1788), Connecticut (1788), Massachusetts (1788), Maryland (1788), South Carolina (1788), New Hampshire (1788), Virginia (1788), New York (1788), North Carolina (1789), Rhode Island (1790), Vermont (1791), Kentucky (1792), Tennessee (1796), Ohio (1803), Louisiana (1837), Indiana (1816), Mississippi (1817), Illinois (1818), Alabama (1819), Maine (1820), Missouri (1821), Arkansas (1836), and Michigan (1837).
13. In 1842, the most populous U.S. states were New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, and Tennessee. The most populated cities were New York, Baltimore, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Boston.
14. Farmers comprised about 69% of the American labor force, and farming practices in the U.S. varied by region. For example, the Northeast focused on “diversified agriculture” to support growing urban areas like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. On the other hand, the South “experienced a boom in cotton production fueled by the cotton gin and slave labor.”
15. On January 1, the New York Illustrated News, America’s “first illustrated weekly magazine,” began publishing in New York City.
16. On January 2, the first major wire-cable suspension bridge in the United States opened to traffic in Philadelpia. The 358-foot "Wire Bridge at Fairmount" “crossed the Schuylkill River and operated toll-free.”
17. On February 1, Alexander M. Greig’s City Despatch Post, a private New York City mail carrier, “issued the first adhesive postage stamps in the United States.” The company “charged three cents per letter and featured a portrait of George Washington on its black on grayish stamps.”
18. On February 21, John Greenough of Washington, DC, received the first U.S. patent for a sewing machine.
19. On March 30, Dr. Crawford W. Long of Georgia performed the world’s first surgical procedure using ether anesthesia.
20. On May 14, British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, published a two-volume collection—entitled Poems—which established him as “the preeminent poet of the Victorian era.”
21. On May 30, nineteen-year-old John Francis made an assassination attempt on British Queen Victoria outside of Buckingham Palace.
22. On June 11, Carl Paul Gottfried Linde, a German engineer, was born. He invented mechanical refrigeration, which allowed beer to be brewed year round. (It’s worth noting that brewing requires low temperatures.)
23. On June 15, United States Army officer and explorer John C. Frémont set off from the Kansas River “on his first expedition of the Oregon Trail with frontierman Kit Carson as his guide.”
24. On July 9, American author Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlet Letter, The House of Seven Gables, and Young Goodman Brown) married painter Sophia Peabody at the Peabody home in Boston, Massachusetts.
25. On August 9, the Webster-Ashburton Treaty resolved the Aroostook War—sometimes called the "Pork and Beans War"—between the U.S. and Great Britain. Negotiated by the U.S. Secretary of State Daniel Webster and British diplomat Lord Ashburton, “the treaty established the official boundary between the U.S. state of Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick.”
26. On September 18, the first edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was published.
27. On September 20, Scottish scientist James Dewar was born. In 1892, he invented the "Dewar flask,” the original thermos bottle.
28. On November 4, future U.S. president and lawyer Abraham Lincoln married Mary Anne Todd, a Kentucky native, at her sister’s home in Springfield, Illinois.
29. On November 9, George Bruce received the first U.S. design patent for printing type faces.
30. On November 22, Mount St. Helens in Washington state erupted.
31. On November 26, Father Edward Sorin, a French priest, founded the University of Notre Dame in northern Indiana.
32. On December 7, the New York Philharmonic's first concert was held at the Apollo Rooms on lower Broadway in New York City.
33. In 1842, the world’s first grain elevator was built in Buffalo, New York.
34. Favorite baby names for boys in 1842 were Arthur, Benjamin, Eli, George, Henry, James, John, Joseph, Thomas, and William. Popular baby names for girls were Ada, Alice, Amelia, Charlotte, Clara, Cora, Elizabeth, Emma, Jane, and Lucy.
35. In 1842, the average life expectancy at birth in the United States was about 41 years for a white male and around 43 years for a white female. During the 1800s, if an individual survived to age 10, their remaining life expectancy would jump considerably, and they could often expect to live into their 50s, 60s, or even 70s.
36. In terms of religious affiliation, over 90% of Americans were Protestant, and major Protestant denominations included Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians.
37. Key fiction works published in 1842 were James Fenimore Cooper’s The Two Admirals, Samuel Lover’s Handy Andy, and Walt Whitman’s Franklin Evans; or The Inebriate.
38. Notable nonfiction published during the year included Henry David Thoreau’s A Walk to Wachusett and Ralph Waldo Emerson’s The Transcendentalist.
39. Famous people born in 1842 were Ambrose Bierce (American novelist), Anna Elizabeth Dickinson (American civil rights leader), Edmund Neupert (Norwegian pianist), James Dewar (Scottish chemist), and Karl May (German novelist).
40. Notable people who died in 1842 included Henry Shrapnel (British entrepreneur), Letitia Christian Tyler (American first lady), and Louise Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun (French painter).
41. In 1842 as well, the words “billboard,” “bill of goods,” “blood plasma,” “blue jeans,” “clean-cut,” “common-law marriage,” “countersuggestion,” “denture,” “dinosaur,” “evaluate,” “music hall,” “no-see-um,” “office boy,” “outer space,” “pornography,” “respiratory tract,” “simmer down,” “sitz bath,” “sliding scale,” “sociology,” “solarization,” “subcategory,” “subheading,” “teeny-weeny,” “topsy-turviness,” “Underground Railroad,” “windbag,” and “wisteria” all appeared in print for the first time.
42. 18 eggs: Around 18 cents
43. Fresh beef: About five cents a pound
44. One bushel of apples: Around 37½ cents
45. One bushel of potatoes: About 50 cents
46. One pound of butter: Around 20 cents
47. One ton of coal for home heating: About $1.00
48. Two pounds of ham: Around 25 cents
49. Two pounds of sugar: About 30 cents
50. Washboard: Around 37 cents

References:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1842_in_the_United_States
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_companies_established_in_1842
3. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/november-4/abraham-lincoln-marries-mary-todd
4. https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/1842
5. https://www.foodreference.com/html/html/food-timeline-1841.html
6. https://www.officialdata.org/us/inflation/1842
7. https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/1842
8. https://www.famousbirthdays.com/deceased/1842.html
9. https://www.famousbirthdays.com/year/1842.html
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1842_in_literature
11. https://www.history.com/a-year-in-history/1842

Disclaimer: In writing and editing this article, Gregory DeVictor has made every effort to ensure historical accuracy and not to mislead his audience. In addition, the contents of this article, including text, graphics, and captions, are for general informational purposes only.

© 2026 Gregory DeVictor