1742 CE

George Frideric Handel's oratorio The Messiah is first performed, in Dublin, Ireland in aid of local charities. First performance of Handel's Messiah staged at Neal's Music Hall in Fishamble Street, Dublin in aid of local charities. Matthew Dubourg leads the orchestra. Handel leaves Ireland on 13 August. George Frideric Handel's oratorio The Messiah is first performed in Dublin.

In the 1740s, the 18th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

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.source
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.source
January – the House of Commons 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.United Kingdom source
February 16 – Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain.source
16 February – the post of Secretary of State for Scotland, vacant since 1725, is revived in favour of John Hay, 4th Marquess of Tweeddale; he holds it until 1746.Scotland source
23 February – John Myddelton completes his term as MP for Denbighshire.Wales source
March 15 – Denmark-Norway concludes a treaty of friendship with France, a day after the expiration of its 1739 treaty with Great Britain.source
March 15 – The Verendrye brothers take possession of South Dakota in the name of the King of France.source
18 March - Empress Elizabeth I of Russia issued a manifesto to the people of Finland, suggesting a possibility of an autonomous Finnish state.Sweden source
October 5 – Pennsylvania's Colonial Governor George Thomas bars citizens from settling in Lancaster County, or west of the Blue Mountains.source
October 5 – Pedro Cebrian y Agustin, Count of Fuenclara, arrives at Veracruz to become the new Spanish Viceroy of New Spain.source
The Afghan tribes unite as a monarchy.source
Kristiansund is incorporated as a city through a royal charter.Norway source
Molde is incorporated as a city through a royal charter.Norway source
Elizabeth I reconfirms a Ukase issued by Peter the Great and expels Jews from the Russian Empire.Russia source
Howell Harris, Daniel Rowland and their converts form the Methodist Association in Wales. One of these, William Prichard, is exiled with his family from Glasfryn Fawr and relocates to Plas Penmynydd, Anglesey.Wales source

Conflict & Security

February 15— First Silesian War, part of War of the Austrian Succession: Troops of the Kingdom of Prussia, Saxony and France, under the command of Prince Dietrich of Anhalt-Dessau, capture the Moravian town of Iglau (now Jihlava). At this point, the Saxons and French declare that their obligations to Prussia have ceased.source
18 February – British attack La Guayra.United Kingdom source
May 17 – Battle of Chotusitz: Frederick the Great's army defeats the Austrians.source
May 24 – War of the Austrian Succession – Battle of Sahay: French forces defeat the Austrians.source
24 May – War of the Austrian Succession: Battle of SahayFrance source
May – In Peru, Juan Santos takes the name Atahualpa II, and begins an ill-fated rebellion against Spanish rule. Father Domingo Garcia sends the first report of the rebellion to his superiors on June 2.source
June 11 – Peace of Breslau: Austria cedes Silesia to Prussia.source
June - Finland is occupied by Russia during the War of the Hats.Sweden source
July 7 – War of Jenkins' Ear: Battle of Bloody Marsh – British troops repel those of Spain (under Montiano), in the Province of Georgia.source
7 July – War of Jenkins' Ear: British troops defeat those of Spain in the Battle of Bloody Marsh in the Province of Georgia.United Kingdom source
9 August - The Swedish forces in Finland surrender to the Russian army in Helsingfors (Helsinki).Sweden source
August 17 – Accompanied by 10 French Army observers, Choctaw Indians from the French Louisiana territory cross the Tombigbee River and raid Chickasaw Indian towns in Georgia. Over three days, the attackers lose 50 men, the Chickasaw defenders about 25. For permitting the attack, the French Louisiana governor, the Sieur de Bienville, is summoned back to Paris.source
August 19 – A British fleet led by Commodore William Martin enters the harbor of Naples with three warships, two frigates, and four bomb vessels, and sends a message giving the King Charles VII of Naples (the future King Charles III of Spain) 30 minutes to agree to withdraw Neapolitan troops from the Spanish Army. Don Carlos agrees and ends the threat of a Spanish foothold in Italy.source
19 August – A British fleet led by Commodore William Martin enters the harbor of Naples with three warships, two frigates, and four bomb vessels, and sends a message giving the King Charles VII of Naples (the future King Charles III of Spain) 30 minutes to agree to withdraw Neapolitan troops from the Spanish Army. Don Carlos agrees and ends the threat of a Spanish foothold in Italy.United Kingdom source
August 20 – The Swedish-Russian War effectively ends as 17,000 Swedish troops surrender in Finland at Helsingfors (Helsinki).source

Exploration & Expansion

August 27 – George Anson, captain of HMS Centurion, arrives with his seriously ill crew at the island of Tinian (now U.S. territory as one of the Northern Mariana Islands) and saves his mission.source
27 August – George Anson, captain of HMS Centurion, arrives with his seriously ill crew at the island of Tinian (in the Northern Mariana Islands).United Kingdom source
Morgan John Lewis – Sail, Dibenion, a Rheolau'r SocietiesWales source

Religion & Belief

January 24 – Charles VII becomes Holy Roman Emperor.source
March - The Free church; Zionittene is established.Norway source
Daniel le Pelley succeeds Nicolas le Pelley, as Seigneur of Sark.source
The Roman Catholic church decrees that Roman ceremonial practice in Latin (not in Chinese) is to be the law for Chinese missions.source
Richard Farrington – Twenty SermonsWales source

Economy & Finance

Glass company Kosta Glasbruk (now known as Kosta Boda) is founded.Sweden source

Technology & Infrastructure

28 May – opening in London of first known British bagnio to offer a swimming pool.United Kingdom source
Molde, Norway, becomes a city.source
Spain completes the construction of Fort Matanzas in the Matanzas Inlet, approximately 15 mi south of St. Augustine, Florida.source
Eisenach, Germany builds its Stadtschloss (city castle).source
First Fort Paskoya built by La Vérendrye at Cedar Lake.Canada source
c. March – Newry Canal opened. On 28 March the Cope brings the first load of Tyrone coal carried from Lough Neagh to Dublin by this route.Ireland source
Kirkcaldy Beer Duties Act passed.Scotland source
Delftware manufactured in Glasgow.Scotland source
Rebuilding of Trevor Hall, Denbighshire, begins, following the marriage of Mary and John Lloyd (Pentrehobin).Wales source

Science & Discovery

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.source
First scientific report on the North Pacific fur seal.Canada source
Christian Goldbach becomes a staff member of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and proposes what will become known as Goldbach's conjecture in a letter to Leonhard Euler.Russia source
Anders Celsius construct the Celsius thermometer.Sweden source

Health & Medicine

February–November – Cambuslang Work, an outbreak of Christian revival at Cambuslang.Scotland source
July – Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, 3rd Baronet vacates his Montgomeryshire seat when the result of the previous year's election for Denbighshire is overturned in his favour.Wales source
August 17 – Irish author and poet Dean Jonathan Swift is declared by a court to be "of unsound mind and memory" and confined to home treatment for the remaining three years of his life.source
September 16 – Construction starts on the Foundling Hospital in London.source
16 September – construction starts on the Foundling Hospital in London.United Kingdom source

Crime & Justice

30 March: Sveinn Sölvason became deputy attorney general for the north and west of the country.Iceland source
13 April – first performance of Handel's Messiah staged at Neal's Music Hall in Fishamble Street, Dublin in aid of local charities. Matthew Dubourg leads the orchestra. Handel leaves Ireland on 13 August.Ireland source
The Lopukhina Conspiracy arises at the Russian court.source
Adelriks och Giöthildas äfwentyr by Jacob Henrik Mörk.Sweden source

Disasters & Accidents

6 May – 150 houses in the Northamptonshire town of Stony Stratford are consumed by a fire, the second in 6 years.United Kingdom source
June 20 – İzmir, formerly the ancient Greek city of Smyrna, is destroyed by fire.source

Culture & Society

February 12 – John Carteret, 2nd Lord Carteret becomes Secretary of State for the Northern Department in Great Britain.source
February 22 – Henry Fielding publishes his picaresque novel Joseph Andrews anonymously in London when "the first edition... reached the bookstalls" in the city.source
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.source
April 13 – George Frideric Handel's oratorio The Messiah is first performed, in Dublin, Ireland in aid of local charities.source
13 April – George Frideric Handel's oratorio The Messiah is first performed in Dublin.United Kingdom source
July 14 – William Pulteney is created 1st Earl of Bath in Great Britain.source
14 July – William Pulteney is created 1st Earl of Bath.United Kingdom source
July - Zionittene performs their first adult baptism in Drammenselva.Norway source
August 19 – Voltaire's controversial play Fanatacism, or Mahomet the Prophet is first performed, in Paris, to a theatre audience filled with French nobility.source
November 13 – The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters is founded.source
13 November– The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters is founded as a historical Collegium Antiquitatum. It was founded by secretary of state, Count Johan Ludvig Holstein and the history professor Hans Gram.Denmark source
December 2 – The Pennsylvania Journal first appears in the United States.source
Anders Celsius publishes his proposal for a centigrade temperature scale originated in 1741.source
The University of Erlangen is founded in Bavaria.source
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.source
Colin Maclaurin publishes his Treatise on Fluxions.source
Peter III of Russia is brought to Russia from Germany by his aunt, Elizabeth I, to be received by the Russian Orthodox Church and declared heir to the Russian throne.Russia source

Births

January 8 – Philip Astley, English circus organizer (died 1814)source
9 February – David Davies, clergyman and author (died 1819)Wales source
March 14 – Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, Iranian king (died 1797)source
April 28 – Henry Dundas, British statesman (died 1811)source
May 6 – Jean Senebier, Swiss pastor, botanist (died 1809)source
June 28 – William Hooper, American statesman (died 1790)source
July 21 – John Cleves Symmes, American statesman (died 1814)source
July 27 – Nathanael Greene, American general (died 1786)source
August 14 – Pope Pius VII (born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti), Italian Benedictine (died 1823)source
September 14 – James Wilson, American politician, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (died 1798)source
6 October – Johan Herman Wessel, poet (died 1785)Norway source
November 5 – Richard Cosway, English artist (died 1821)source
December 9 – Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish chemist (died 1785)source
December 16 – Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Prussian general (died 1819)source
December 26 (bapt.) – George Chalmers, Scottish antiquarian (died 1825)source
date unknown – Túpac Amaru II, Peruvian indigenous rebel leader (died 1781)source
Esteban José Martínez Fernández y Martínez de la Sierra, naval officer (died 1798)Canada source
Yemelyan Pugachev was an ataman of the Yaik Cossacks who led a great popular insurrection during the reign of Catherine the Great. (died 1775)Russia source

Deaths

January 14 – Edmond Halley dies; James Bradley succeeds him as Astronomer Royal of Great Britain.source
14 January – Edmond Halley, astronomer (born 1656)United Kingdom source
January 25 – Edmond Halley, English astronomer (born 1656)source
6 March – Arthur Bevan, MP, about 54Wales source
April 15 – Samuel Shute, Governor of Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire (born 1662)source
April 17 – Arvid Horn, Swedish statesman (born 1664)source
May 26 – Pylyp Orlyk, Ukrainian Zaporozhian Cossack starshina, diplomat (born 1672)source
June 18 – John Aislabie, British politician (born 1670)source
July 2 – Robert Petre, 8th Baron Petre, British peer, renowned horticulturist (born 1713)source
July 4 – Guido Grandi, Italian mathematician (born 1671)source
July 14 – Richard Bentley, English scholar and critic (born 1662)source
July 19 – William Somervile, English poet (born 1675)source
July 23 – Susanna Wesley, mother of John and Charles Wesley, known as mother of Methodism. (born 1669)source
24 July: Nikulás Magnússon, sheriff of Rangárvallasýsla, drowned in Flosagjá.Iceland source
13 August – Karen Toller, estate owner and ship owner (born 1662).Norway source
August 25 – Carlos Seixas, Portuguese composer (born 1704)source
November 12 – Friedrich Hoffmann, German physician, chemist (born 1660)source
November 20 – Melchior de Polignac, French diplomat (born 1661)source