1742

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	17th century 18th century 19th century
Decades:	1720s 1730s 1740s 1750s 1760s
Years:	1739 1740 1741 1742 1743 1744 1745

1742 in various calendars

Gregorian calendar	1742 MDCCXLII
Ab urbe condita	2495
Armenian calendar	1191 ԹՎ ՌՃՂԱ
Assyrian calendar	6492
Balinese saka calendar	1663–1664
Bengali calendar	1149
Berber calendar	2692
British Regnal year	15 Geo. 2 – 16 Geo. 2
Buddhist calendar	2286
Burmese calendar	1104
Byzantine calendar	7250–7251
Chinese calendar	辛酉年 (Metal Rooster) 4439 or 4232     — to — 壬戌年 (Water Dog) 4440 or 4233
Coptic calendar	1458–1459
Discordian calendar	2908
Ethiopian calendar	1734–1735
Hebrew calendar	5502–5503
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1798–1799
- Shaka Samvat	1663–1664
- Kali Yuga	4842–4843
Holocene calendar	11742
Igbo calendar	742–743
Iranian calendar	1120–1121
Islamic calendar	1154–1155
Japanese calendar	Kanpō 2 (寛保２年)
Javanese calendar	1666–1667
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 11 days
Korean calendar	4075
Minguo calendar	170 before ROC 民前170年
Nanakshahi calendar	274
Thai solar calendar	2284–2285
Tibetan calendar	阴金鸡年 (female Iron-Rooster) 1868 or 1487 or 715     — to — 阳水狗年 (male Water-Dog) 1869 or 1488 or 716

April 13: First performance of Handel's Messiah.

1742 (MDCCXLII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar, the 1742nd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 742nd year of the 2nd millennium, the 42nd year of the 18th century, and the 3rd year of the 1740s decade. As of the start of 1742, the Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

Events

January–March

• January 9 – Robert Walpole is made Earl of Orford, and resigns as First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer, effectively ending his period as Prime Minister of Great Britain. On his formally relinquishing office five days later, he will have served 20 years and 314 days as Prime Minister, the longest single term ever, and also longer than the accumulated terms of any other British Prime Minister.
• January 14 – Death of Edmond Halley; James Bradley succeeds him as Astronomer Royal in Great Britain.
• January 24 – Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
• January 28 – The House of Commons of Great Britain votes on the alleged rigging of the Chippenham by-election . It becomes a motion of no confidence, which leads to the resignation of Robert Walpole.
• February 12 – John Carteret, 2nd Lord Carteret becomes Secretary of State for the Northern Department in Great Britain.
• February 16 – Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain.
• February 22 – Henry Fielding publishes his picaresque novel Joseph Andrews anonymously in London when "the first edition... reached the bookstalls" in the city .
• March 15 – Denmark concludes a treaty of friendship with France, a day after the expiration of its 1739 treaty with Great Britain. p105
  • The Verendrye brothers take possession of South Dakota in the name of the King of France
• March 29 – Acting in his capacity of Grand Duke of Lithuania, Poland's King Stanisław August Poniatowski issues a proclamation allowing Jews in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius to live anywhere except for two public streets, the Pilies street and the Galves Street

April –June

• April 13 – George Frideric Handel's oratorio The Messiah is first performed, in Dublin, Ireland in aid of local charities.
• May 17 – Frederick the Great's army defeats the Austrians in Chotusitz.
• May 24 – War of the Austrian Succession: French forces defeat the Austrians in the Battle of Sahay.
• June 7 – Christian Goldbach first describes Goldbach's conjecture ("Every even number is the sum of two primes") in a letter to fellow mathematician Leonhard Euler .
• June 11 – Peace of Breslau: Austria cedes Silesia to Prussia.
• June 20 – Izmir, formerly the ancient Greek city of Smyrna, is destroyed by fire.

July–December

• July 7 – War of Jenkins' Ear: Battle of Bloody Marsh – British troops repel those of Spain (under Montiano), in the Province of Georgia.
• July 14 – William Pulteney is created 1st Earl of Bath in Great Britain.
• September – Construction starts on the Foundling Hospital in London.
• November 13 – The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters is founded.
• December 2 – The Pennsylvania Journal first appears in the United States.

Date unknown

• The Kingdom of Prussia captures Jihlava.
• The Lopukhina Conspiracy arises at the Russian court.
• In Peru, Juan Santos takes the name Atahualpa II, and begins an ill-fated rebellion against Spanish rule.
• The Afghan tribes unite as a monarchy.
• Daniel le Pelley succeeds Nicolas le Pelley, as Seigneur of Sark.
• Molde, Norway, becomes a city.
• Eisenach, Germany builds its Stadtschloss (city castle).
• Spain completes the construction of Fort Matanzas in the Matanzas Inlet, approximately 15 miles (24 km) south of St. Augustine, Florida.
• The University of Erlangen is founded in Bavaria.
• Anders Celsius publishes his proposal for a centigrade temperature scale originated in 1741.
• Colin Maclaurin publishes his Treatise on Fluxions.
• Charles Jervas's English translation of Don Quixote is published posthumously. Through a printer's error, the translator's name is printed as 'Charles Jarvis', leading the book to forever be known as the Jarvis translation. It is acclaimed as the most faithful English rendering of the novel made up to this time.
• The Roman Catholic church decrees that Roman ceremonial practice in Latin (not in Chinese) is to be the law for Chinese missions.

Births

• January 8 – Philip Astley, English circus organizer (d. 1814)
• March 9 – Michael Anckarsvärd, Swedish politician (d. 1838)
• March 10 – Sampson Salter Blowers, American lawyer, jurist (d. 1842)

Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar

• March 14 – Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, Iranian king (d. 1797)
• March 12 – Aletta Haniel, German business person (d. 1815)
• April 28 – Henry Dundas, British statesman (d. 1811)
• May 6 – Jean Senebier, Swiss pastor, botanist (d. 1809)
• June 25 – Johann Schweighäuser, German classical scholar (d. 1830)
• June 26 – Arthur Middleton, American politician (d. 1787)
• June 28 – William Hooper, American statesman (d. 1790)
• July 21 – John Cleves Symmes, American statesman (d. 1814)
• July 27 – Nathanael Greene, American general (d. 1786)
• August 14 – Pope Pius VII (b. Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti), Italian Benedictine (d. 1823)

James Wilson

• September 14 – James Wilson, American politician, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1798)
• October 3 – Anders Jahan Retzius, Swedish chemist, botanist (d. 1821)
• October 6 – Johan Herman Wessel, Norwegian poet (d. 1785)
• November 5 – Richard Cosway, English artist (d. 1821)

Carl Wilhelm Scheele

• December 9 – Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish chemist (d. 1785)
• December 16 – Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Prussian general (d. 1819)
• December 26 (bapt.) – George Chalmers, Scottish antiquarian (d. 1825)
• date unknown – Rafaela Herrera, Nicaraguan heroine (d. 1805)
• date unknown – Francis Nash, American military officer (d. 1777)
• date unknown – Hendrik Frans de Cort, Flemish painter (d. 1810)

Deaths

• January 1 – Peregrine Bertie, 2nd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, English statesman (b. 1686)

Edmond Halley

Susanna Wesley

• January 14 – Edmond Halley, English astronomer (b. 1656)
• February 22 – Charles Rivington, English publisher (b. 1688)
• March 23 – Jean-Baptiste Dubos, French author (b. 1670)
• April 2 – James Douglas, Scottish physician, anatomist (b. 1675)
• April 15 – Samuel Shute, Governor of Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire (b. 1662)
• April 17 – Arvid Horn, Swedish statesman (b. 1664)
• May 13 – Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt (b. 1719)
• May 21 – Lars Roberg, Swedish physician (b. 1664)
• May 26 – Pylyp Orlyk, Ukrainian Zaporozhian Cossack starshina, diplomat (b. 1672)
• June 18 – John Aislabie, British politician (b. 1670)
• June 27 – Nathan Bailey, English philologist, lexicographer
• July 1 – Bohuslav Matěj Černohorský, Czech composer (b. 1684)
• July 2 – Robert Petre, 8th Baron Petre, British peer, renowned horticulturist (b. 1713)
• July 4 – Guido Grandi, Italian mathematician (b. 1671)
• July 9 – John Oldmixon, English historian (b. 1673)
• July 12 – Evaristo Abaco, Italian composer (b. 1675)
• July 14 – Richard Bentley, English scholar and critic (b. 1662)
• July 19 – William Somervile, English poet (b. 1675)
• July 23 – Susanna Wesley, mother of John and Charles Wesley, known as mother of Methodism. (b. 1669)
• July 30 – Nicholas Roosevelt (1658–1742), Dutch-American politician (b. 1658)
• August 14 – Maria van Lommen, Dutch gold- and silversmith and guild member (b. 1688)
• August 25 – Carlos Seixas, Portuguese composer (b. 1704)
• September 18 – Vincenzo Ludovico Gotti, Italian Catholic cardinal (b. 1664)
• September 22 – Frederic Louis Norden, Danish explorer (b. 1708)
• September 27 – Hugh Boulter, Irish Archbishop of Armagh (b. 1672)
• September 28 – Jean Baptiste Massillon, French bishop (b. 1663)
• November 12 – Friedrich Hoffmann, German physician, chemist (b. 1660)
• November 20 – Melchior de Polignac, French diplomat (b. 1661)
• November 24 – Andrew Bradford, American publisher (b. 1686)
• December 18 – William Fairfield, Massachusetts Speaker of the House of Deputies (b. 1662)
• December 31 – Karl III Philip, Elector Palatine (b. 1661)