1942

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1910s  1920s  1930s  – 1940s –  1950s  1960s  1970s
Years:	1939 1940 1941 – 1942 – 1943 1944 1945

1942 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1942 MCMXLII
Ab urbe condita	2695
Armenian calendar	1391 ԹՎ ՌՅՂԱ
Assyrian calendar	6692
Bahá'í calendar	98–99
Balinese saka calendar	1863–1864
Bengali calendar	1349
Berber calendar	2892
British Regnal year	6 Geo. 6 – 7 Geo. 6
Buddhist calendar	2486
Burmese calendar	1304
Byzantine calendar	7450–7451
Chinese calendar	辛巳年 (Metal Snake) 4638 or 4578     — to — 壬午年 (Water Horse) 4639 or 4579
Coptic calendar	1658–1659
Discordian calendar	3108
Ethiopian calendar	1934–1935
Hebrew calendar	5702–5703
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1998–1999
- Shaka Samvat	1863–1864
- Kali Yuga	5042–5043
Holocene calendar	11942
Igbo calendar	942–943
Iranian calendar	1320–1321
Islamic calendar	1360–1361
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 17 (昭和１７年)
Javanese calendar	1872–1873
Juche calendar	31
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4275
Minguo calendar	ROC 31 民國31年
Nanakshahi calendar	474
Thai solar calendar	2485
Tibetan calendar	阴金蛇年 (female Iron-Snake) 2068 or 1687 or 915     — to — 阳水马年 (male Water-Horse) 2069 or 1688 or 916

1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1942nd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 942nd year of the 2nd millennium, the 42nd year of the 20th century, and the 3rd year of the 1940s decade.

Events

• January 1 – World War II: The term "United Nations" is first officially used to describe the Allied pact.
• January 2 – World War II: Manila is captured by Japanese forces. The Japanese Admiral stays in Solvec (owned by Charles Henry de Silva), Philippines.
• January 5 – Amy Johnson disappears in flight over River Thames estuary – assumed drowned.
• January 6 – Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to have a flight go around the world.
• January 7 – World War II: Siege of the Bataan Peninsula begins.
• January 11 – World War II: Japan declares war on the Netherlands and invades the Netherlands East Indies.
• January 11 – World War II: The Japanese capture Kuala Lumpur.
• January 12 – President Franklin Roosevelt creates the National War Labor Board.
• January 13 – Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car.
• January 16 – Airplane crashes near Las Vegas. Dead include Carole Lombard and her mother.
• January 19 – World War II: Japanese forces invade Burma.
• January 20 – World War II: Nazis at the Wannsee conference in Berlin decide that the "final solution to the Jewish problem" is relocation, and later extermination.
• January 25 – World War II: Thailand declares war on the United States and United Kingdom.
• January 26 – World War II: The first American forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.
• July 6 - The family of Anne Frank goes into hiding at the secret annex in Amsterdam.
• October 23 - World War II: Battle of El Alamein

Births

• January 8 - Stephen Hawking, British physicist (d. 2018)
• January 17 – Muhammad Ali, American boxer (d. 2016)
• January 23 - Brian Croucher, British actor
• January 25 - Eusebio, Portuguese footballer
• January 27 - Stewart Raffill, British writer and director
• February 2 - Graham Nash, British singer-songwriter and guitarist (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
• February 9 - Carole King, American pianist
• February 12 – Huey Newton, Black Panther
• February 13 - Peter Tork, American keyboardist (The Monkees) (d. 2019)
• February 21 - Margarethe von Trotta, German movie director
• February 28 - Dino Zoff, Italian footballer
• March 5 - Felipe Gonzalez, former Prime Minister of Spain
• March 8 – Jan Vyčítal, Czech musician
• March 17 - John Wayne Gacy, American serial killer (d. 1994; executed)
• March 24 - Stephen Yardley, British actor (Howards' Way)
• March 25 - Aretha Franklin, American singer (d. 2018)
• April 1 - Philip Margo, American singer (The Tokens)
• April 16 - Frank Williams, British Formula One team principal
• April 20 - Arto Paasilinna, Finnish writer
• April 24 - Barbra Streisand, American singer
• May 22 - Theodore Kaczynski, American serial bomber (unabomber)
• June 1 - Eric Nagler, Canadian children’s musician
• June 7 - Muammar Gaddafi, Libyan leader (d. 2011)
• June 18 – Roger Ebert, American movie critic (d. 2013)
• June 18 – Sir Paul McCartney, British musician (The Beatles)
• June 20 - Brian Wilson, American singer-songwriter (The Beach Boys)
• July 6 - Izora Armstead, American singer (The Weather Girls) (d. 2004)
• July 9 – Richard Roundtree, American Actor (d. 2023)
• July 13 - Harrison Ford, American actor
• August 1 - Michael Martchenko, Canadian illustrator
• August 2 - Isabel Allende, Chilean novelist
• August 7 – B.J. Thomas, singer
• August 27 - Daryl Dragon, American songwriter (Captain & Tennille) (d. 2019)
• September 29 - Madeline Kahn, American actress (d. 1999)
• October 31 – David Ogden Stiers, American actor
• November 7 – Johnny Rivers, American musician
• November 27 – Jimi Hendrix, American musician (The Jimi Hendrix Experience) (d. 1970)
• December 7 - Harry Chapin, American folk musician (d. 1981)
• December 23 - Quentin Bryce, Governor-General of Australia
• December 26 - Gray Davis, former Governor of California
• December 30 – Michael Nesmith, musician and member of the Monkees
• December 30 – Janko Prunk, Slovenian historian
• December 31 - Andy Summers, English guitarist (The Police)

People who were born in this year but their day of birth is unknown

• Ningali Cullen - Australian activist

Deaths

• January 6 – Henri de Baillet-Latour, Belgian International Olympic Committee president (b. 1876)
• January 14 – Porfirio Barba-Jacob, Colombian poet and writer (born 1883)
• January 16 – Carole Lombard, actress
• January 26 – Felix Hausdorff, German mathematician (born 1868)
• February 19 – Frank Abbandando, Mafia hitman (executed)
• February 28 – Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral
• March 1 – Cornelius Vanderbilt III, military officer, inventor, engineer
• March 8 – José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban chess player
• April 15 – Robert Musil, Austrian novelist
• April 18 – Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, sculptor and socialite
• May 3 – Thorvald Stauning, Prime Minister of Denmark
• May 7 – Felix Weingartner, Yugoslavian conductor (born 1863)
• May 29 – John Barrymore, actor (born 1882)
• c. June 18 – Elsa Binder, Polish–born Jewish diarist and supposed Holocaust victim (born c. 1920)
• July 13 - Irving Cutler, Airman Aboard a B-24 Bombing Bengazi Libya
• July 23 – Adam Czerniakow, Polish Jew (suicide)
• August 3 – Richard Willstätter, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1872)
• August 6 – Jonathan Campbell, movie pioneer (born 1875)
• August 25 – Prince Edward, Duke of Kent
• September 17 - Cecilia Beaux, American painter (born 1855)
• November 1 – Hugo Distler, German composer (born 1908)
• November 5 – George M. Cohan, American songwriter and entertainer
• November 19 – Bruno Schulz, Polish writer and painter (shot) (born 1892)
• December 22 – Franz Boas, German anthropologist (born 1858)
• December 25 - Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, British Indian statesman (born 1892)

Movies released

• Casablanca