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Ultimate History of Pro Wrestling - A Time Line of Every Major Event in Pro Wrestling History - 1842
The following is taken from Author and Pioneer Era Pro Wrestling Historian Karl Stern’s book DragonKingKarl’s Pioneer Era Pro Wrestling Omnibus.
1842:
02-24-1842: The New York Evening Post runs a story about the first President George Washington as a young man. While the year is not given, the story is placed during his time in military school in Virginia. A school sanctioned wrestling match is taking place and an unnamed champion has dispatched all comers. George Washington, sitting under a tree reading a book, hears the champions’ challenge and stoically gets up, enters the ring, takes off his jacket, and easily throws the champion wrestler. The story is syndicated out via the news services and appears in dozens of newspapers across the United States.
04-18-1842: May the Wrestler dies. According to newspapers across the United States: “The lovers of wrestling will be sorry to hear that the fine young man William Davey May, the champion wrestler of Devon, if not of England, departed this life at Black Torrington after a few days of illness... During his wrestling career he has thrown most of the first men of Devon and Cornwall.” The fact this story ran in many American newspapers indicates that the long running popularity of wrestling in England has been followed or known by many in the United States as well, either through the newspapers or through immigrants from Europe.
