History
1742
General
Population: 781 Million*
- Entertainment: Writers include Crebillon Fils, Henry Fielding, John Campbell (admirals), Etienne Fourmont (Sinaica grammar), Charles Viner (legal encyclopedia)
Art includes Boucher "Bath of Diana", Hogarth "The Graham Children", JB Oudry "The Gardens of Arcueil"
Music: Handel's "Messiah" first performed in Dublin, JS Bach, CPE Bach
- Science: Swiss astronomer Anders Celsius invents centigrade thermometer
Colin Maclaurin writes "Treatise on Fluxions
- Sports: Hoyle publishes book on playing a card game that developed into bridge
- Deaths: Astronomer Edmund Halley, Poet William Somerville
Americas
- Peru: Juan Santos takes name Atahualpa II and leads native Peruvians in revolt against Spanish
Europe
- General: Prussians evacuate Olmutz – defeat Austrians at Chotusitz - Peace of Berlin ends first Silesian War between Prussia and AUstria
Construction of canal linking Elbe and Havel
- Germany: Karl Heinrich Graun introduces Italian opera to Berlin
- Great Britain: End of service of Robert Walpole as first British prime minister as Sir Spencer Compton takes over
William Kent creates Horse Guards at London
Cotton factories established in Birmingham and Northampton
- Holy Roman Empire: Charles Albert Elector of Bavaria elected and crowned emperor as Charles VII - War of Austrian succession until 1745
East
- New York: First playhouse opens
West and Pacific
- Alaska: Bering and Chirikov explore south Alaska