Centuries:	17th century - 18th century - 19th century
Decades:	1710s  1720s  1730s  - 1740s -  1750s  1760s  1770s
Years:	1739 1740 1741 - 1742 - 1743 1744 1745

1742 in topic:

Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -

Art - Literature (Poetry) - Music - Science

Countries:   Canada -

Great Britain - Mexico

Leaders:   State leaders - Colonial governors

Category: Establishments - Disestablishments

Births - Deaths - Works v • d • e

Year 1742 (MDCCXLII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1742

January - June

April 13: Handel's Messiah.

• January 24 - Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
• February 16 - Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain.
• February 18 - British attack La Guayra.
• April 13 - The first performance of George Frideric Handel's oratorio The Messiah, in Dublin, Ireland.
• May 17 - Frederick the Great's army defeats Austrians in Chotusitz; later Austria cedes Silesia to Prussia
• May 25 - A battle is fought at Sahay.

July - December

• December 2 - The Pennsylvania Journal first appears in print in the United States.

Undated

• Daniel le Pelley succeeds Nicolas le Pelley as Seigneur of Sark.
• Kingdom of Prussia captures Jihlava.
• Christian Goldbach formulates Goldbach's conjecture.
• Colin Maclaurin publishes his Treatise on Fluxions.
• Anders Celsius proposes the Celsius temperature scale (see: 1741).
• James Bradley succeeds Edmond Halley as Astronomer Royal.
• Henry Fielding publishes Joseph Andrews.
• John Carteret, 2nd Lord Carteret becomes Secretary of State for the Northern Department in Great Britain.
• Rigging of Chippenham by-election causes a political scandal in Great Britain.
• William Pulteney is created as 1st Earl of Bath in Great Britain.
• Robert Walpole was elevated to the peerage and thus moved from the British House of Commons to the House of Lords, effectively ending his reign as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (see February 16, above).
• University of Erlangen is founded.
• Lopukhina Conspiracy arises at the Russian court.
• Molde in Norway becomes a city.
• Construction starts on the Foundling Hospital in London.
• Eisenach, Germany, builds its Stadtschloss (city castle).
• In Peru, Juan Santon takes the name Atahualpa II and begins an ill-fated rebellion against the Spanish rule.
• Afghan tribes unite as a monarchy.
• 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 that time.
• Spain completes the construction of Fort Matanzas in the Matanzas Inlet approximately 15 miles south of St. Augustine, Florida.
• Rome decrees that Roman ceremonial practice in Latin (not in Chinese) is to be the law for Chinese missions.

Ongoing events

• War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748)

Births

• January 8 - Philip Astley, English circus organizer (died 1814)
• March 10 - Sampson Salter Blowers, American lawyer and jurist (died 1842)
• April 28 - Henry Dundas, British statesman (died 1811)
• May 6 - Jean Senebier, Swiss pastor and botanist (died 1809)
• June 25 - Johann Schweighauser, German classical scholar (died 1830)
• June 26 - Arthur Middleton, American politician (died 1787)
• June 28 - William Hooper, American statesman (died 1790)
• July 21 - John Cleves Symmes, American statesman (died 1814)
• July 27 - Nathanael Greene, American general (died 1786)
• September 14 - James Wilson, American politician (died 1798)
• October 6 - Johan Herman Wessel, Norwegian poet (died 1785)
• December 9 - Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish chemist (died 1785)
• December 16 - Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Prussian general (died 1819)
• date unknown
  • George Chalmers, Scottish antiquarian (died 1825)
  • Francis Nash, American military officer (died 1777)
• probable - Joseph Brant, Mohawk leader (died 1807)

See also Category: 1742 births.

Deaths

• January 1 - Peregrine Bertie, 2nd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, English statesman (born 1686)
• January 14 - Edmond Halley, English astronomer (born 1656)
• February 22 - Charles Rivington, English publisher (born 1688)
• March 23 - Jean-Baptiste Dubos, French author (born 1670)
• April 2 - James Douglas, Scottish physician and anatomist (born 1675)
• April 17 - Arvid Horn, Swedish statesman (born 1664)
• May 13 - Ludwig IX, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt (born 1719)
• May 21 - Lars Roberg, Swedish physician (born 1664)
• May 26 - Pylyp Orlyk, Ukrainian Zaporozhian Cossack starshina, diplomat (born 1672)
• June 18 - John Aislabie, British politician (born 1670)
• June 27 - Nathan Bailey, English philologist and lexicographer
• July 4 - Guido Grandi, Italian mathematician (born 1671)
• July 9 - John Oldmixon, English historian (born 1673)
• July 12 - Evaristo Abaco, Italian composer (born 1675)
• July 14 - Richard Bentley, English scholar and critic (born 1662)
• July 19 - William Somervile, English poet (born 1675)
• August 25 - Carlos Seixas, Portuguese composer (born 1704)
• September 22 - Frederic Louis Norden, Danish explorer (born 1708)
• September 27 - Hugh Boulter, Irish Archbishop of Armagh (born 1672)
• September 28 - Jean Baptiste Massillon, French bishop (born 1663)
• November 12 - Friedrich Hoffmann, German physician and chemist (born 1660)
• November 20 - Melchior de Polignac, French diplomat (born 1661)
• November 24 - Andrew Bradford, American publisher (born 1686)
• December 31 - Karl III Philip, Elector Palatine (born 1661)

See also Category: 1742 deaths.