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February 7 - Ras Ali Alula, Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia defeats warlord Wube Haile Maryam of Semien in the Battle of Debre Tabor

February 21 - John J. Greenough patents the sewing machine.

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 - Giuseppe Verdi's third opera Nabucco premieres in Milan; its success establishes Verdi as one of Italy's foremost opera writers.

March 30 - Anesthesia is used for the first time in an operation (Dr. Crawford Long performed the operation using ether).

March 31 - Middleton Junction and Oldham Branch Railway line opened up to Werneth in North West England.

May 8 - Two trains collide in Paris and catch fire - 59 dead

May 19 - Dorr Rebellion - militiamen supporting Thomas Wilson Dorr attack arsenal in Providence, Rhode Island but are repulsed

June 4 - In South Africa, hunter Dick King rides into British military base in Grahamstown to warn that Boers have besieged Durban. He had left 11 days earlier. British army dispatches a relief force.

August 4 - Armed Occupation Act is signed, providing for the armed occupation and settlement of the unsettled part of the Peninsula of East Florida.

August 9 - Webster-Ashburton Treaty is signed, establishing the United States-Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains.

August 29 - Treaty of Nanking signing ends the First Opium War

December 20 - The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina is established.

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Sons of Temperance founded in New York City.

Massacre of Elphinstone's British army on the road from Kabul to Jalalabad, Afghanistan, by Akbar Khan, son of Dost Mohammed Khan

British Empire annexes Hong Kong

Income Tax Act 1842 passed in the United Kingdom; 7 pence on the pound sterling, for incomes over 150 pounds.

Pentonville Prison built.

New Zealand seat of government moves from Russell to Auckland

Ohio's Wesleyan University is established.

University of Notre Dame is founded by Father Edward Sorin, CSC of the Congregation of Holy Cross.

Scroll and Key secret society of Yale University established.

Commonwealth v. Hunt makes strikes and unions legal in the United States.

First pils beer brewed in the Chech city of Pilsen. The Pilz is the original lager beer of which all modern lagers are copies.

Hollins University founded in Roanoke, Virginia by Charles Cocke.

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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)

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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)