On This Day

January 1842 in History

Events in History

  • Jan 1 1st illustrated weekly magazine in US publishes 1st issue, NYC
  • Jan 2 1st US wire suspension bridge for general traffic opens in Penn

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Jan 3 Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine leave Liverpool, England for America on board the RMS Britannia

Novelist Charles Dickens
Novelist
Charles Dickens
  • Jan 6 4,500 British & Indian troops leave Kabul, massacred before reaching India
  • Jan 8 Dutch King Willem II charters Technical College Delft
  • Jan 12 Franciscan nuns begin missionary work on Netherland Antilles
  • Jan 13 Dr. William Brydon, a surgeon in the British Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for (reputedly) being the sole survivor of an army of 16,500 when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad.
  • Jan 22 Charles Dickens arrives in Boston, Massachusetts with his wife, Catherine

Birthdays in History

  • Jan 2 Amy G C A Bonet-Maury, French reformed theologist
  • Jan 4 Frederic T. Greenhalge, 38th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1896)
  • Jan 6 Clarence King, American geologist & mountaineer, born in Newport, Rhode Island (d. 1901)

Person of interestWilliam James

Jan 11 William James, American psychologist & philosopher (The Principles of Psychology), born in New York (d. 1910)

Father of American psychology William James
Father of American psychology
William James
  • Jan 12 Francois Coppee, French poet
  • Jan 15 Blessed Mary McKillop, Australian nun & candidate for sainthood, born in Fitzroy, Australia (d. 1909)
  • Jan 15 Josef Breuer, Austrian psychologist, born in Vienna, Austria (d. 1925)
  • Jan 18 Albert Alonzo Ames, Mayor of Minneapolis (d. 1911)

Weddings in History

  • Jan 31 10th US President John Tyler's daughter Elizabeth marries in the White House

Deaths in History

  • Jan 8 Viscount Pierre Cambronne, French General during the wars of the Revolution and the Napoleonic Era, dies at 71
  • Jan 16 Thomas Freanby, Norwegian landscape painter, dies