1742
*
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.
*
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.
*
December 2 -
The Pennsylvania Journal first appears in print.
*
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.
*
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.
*Rigging of
Chippenham by-election causes a political scandal.
*
William Pulteney created as 1st
Earl of Bath.
*
Robert Walpole was elevated to the peerage and thus moved from the
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 at the Russian court.
*
Molde in
Norway becomes a city.
*Construction starts on the
Foundling Hospital in
London.
*
Eisenach 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.
*
War of the Austrian Succession (
1740-
1748)
*
January 8 -
Philip Astley, English circus organizer (d.
1814)
*
March 10 -
Sampson Salter Blowers, American lawyer and jurist (d.
1842)
*
April 28 -
Henry Dundas, British statesman (d.
1811)
*
May 6 -
Jean Senebier, Swiss pastor and botanist (d.
1809)
*
June 25 -
Johann Schweighauser, 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)
*
September 14 -
James Wilson, American politician (d.
1798)
*
October 6 -
Johan Herman Wessel, Norwegian poet (d.
1785)
*
December 9 -
Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish chemist (d.
1785)
*
December 16 -
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Prussian general (d.
1819)
*
George Chalmers, Scottish antiquarian (d.
1825)
*
Joseph Brant, Mohawk leader (d.
1807)
*
Francis Nash, American military officer (d.
1777)
*
January 1 -
Peregrine Bertie, 2nd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, English statesman (b.
1686)
*
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 and anatomist (b.
1675)
*
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)
*
June 18 -
John Aislabie, British politician (b.
1670)
*
June 27 -
Nathan Bailey, English philologist and lexicographer
*
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)
*
August 25 -
Carlos Seixas, Portuguese composer (b.
1704)
*
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 and chemist (b.
1660)
*
November 20 -
Melchior de Polignac, French diplomat (b.
1661)
*
November 24 -
Andrew Bradford, American publisher (b.
1686)
*
December 31 -
Karl III Philip, Elector Palatine (b.
1661)
