* 1664 – Arvid Horn, Swedish statesman ( d. 1742 )

* 1742 – Nathanael Greene, American general ( d. 1786 )

* 1742 – George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah makes its world-premiere in Dublin, Ireland.

* 1720 – 1742 Edmond Halley

* 1742 – 1762 James Bradley

* Principality of Anhalt-Dornburg: 1667 – 1742

* 1673 – Wilhelmina Amalia of Brunswick, Holy Roman Empire Empress ( d. 1742 )

* Pope Pius VII ( 1742 – 1823, r. 1800 – 23 )

* 1742 – Gebhard Fürst Blücher von Wahlstatt, German Field Marshal ( d. 1819 )

* 1709 – Louise Élisabeth d ' Orléans, queen consort of Spain ( d. 1742 )

* 1660 – Friedrich Hoffmann, German physician and chemist ( d. 1742 )

* 1742 – Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, becomes British Prime Minister.

La Fontaine's model was subsequently emulated by England's John Gay ( 1685 – 1732 ); Poland's Ignacy Krasicki ( 1735 – 1801 ); Italy's Lorenzo Pignotti ( 1739 – 1812 ) and Giovanni Gherardo de Rossi ( 1754 – 1827 ); Serbia's Dositej Obradović ( 1742 – 1811 ); Spain's Félix María de Samaniego ( 1745 – 1801 ) and Tomás de Iriarte y Oropesa ( 1750 – 1791 ); France's Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian ( 1755 – 94 ); and Russia's Ivan Krylov ( 1769 – 1844 ).

* Dositej Obradović ( Serbian, 1742 – 1811 )

Henry Dundas ( 1742 – 1811 ) dominated political affairs in the latter part of the century.

Middleton's son, Arthur ( 1742 – 1787 ) would also get involved in politics, succeeding his father as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress in 1776, after his resignation, and, later on, sign the Declaration of Independence.

* February 24 – Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, a German scientist, satirist, and Anglophile ( b. 1742 )

Johann Reinhold Forster and Georg Forster in Tahiti, by John Francis Rigaud ( 1742 – 1810 ), 1780.

Johann Reinhold Forster and Georg Forster in Tahiti, by John Francis Rigaud ( 1742 – 1810 ), 1780.

Johann Reinhold Forster and Georg Forster in Tahiti, by John Francis Rigaud ( 1742 – 1810 ), 1780

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg ( 1 July 1742 – 24 February 1799 ) was a German scientist, satirist and Anglophile.

* Georg Christoph Lichtenberg ( 1742 – 1799 ), German scientist, satirist and anglophile

Rugendas was born in Augsburg, Germany, into the seventh generation of a family of noted painters and engravers of Augsburg ( he was a great-great grandson of Georg Philipp Rugendas, 1666 – 1742, a celebrated painter of battles ), and studied drawing and engraving with his father, Johann Lorenz Rugendas II ( 1775 – 1826 ).

Kosta Glasbruk ( later known as Kosta Boda ) is a Swedish glassworks founded by two foreign officers in Charles XII's army, Anders Koskull and Georg Bogislaus Stael von Holstein, in 1742.

He was born in Frankfurt am Main. He received his earliest training from his father, the painter Johann Georg Pforr ( 1745 – 98 ), and his uncle, the art professor and first inspector of the painting gallery in Kassel, Johann Heinrich Tischbein the younger ( 1742 – 1808 ).

* Johann Christoph Brotze ( 1742 – 1823 ), educator

* February 24-Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, German satirist ( born 1742 )

A further three survived into adulthood: Elisabeth Juliane Friederica ( 1726 – 1781 ) who married Bach's pupil Johann Christoph Altnikol, Johanna Carolina ( 1737 – 1781 ) and Regina Susanna ( 1742 – 1809 )

Colonel Johann Christoph von Naumann ( 1664 – 1742 ), husband of Catharina Elisabeth Jauch ( 1671 – 1736 ), was a member of the diplomatic mission of the Holy League in the course of the Treaty of Karlowitz 1699 with the Ottoman Empire, which ended the Great Turkish War.

Eugenius Johann Christoph Esper ( 2 June 1742 – 27 July 1810 ) was a German entomologist.

* 1742 – Friedrich Hoffmann, German physician and chemist ( b. 1660 )

Most of Silesia was conquered by Prussia in 1742, later becoming part of the German Empire, the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany up to 1945.

* February 19 – Friedrich Hoffmann, German physician and chemist ( d. 1742 )

The family provided two Holy Roman Emperors: Louis IV ( 1314 – 1347 ) and Charles VII ( 1742 – 1745 ), both members of the Bavarian branch of the family, and one German King with Rupert of the Palatinate ( 1400 – 1410 ), a member of the Palatinate branch.

On 7 June 1742, the German mathematician Christian Goldbach ( originally of Brandenburg-Prussia ) wrote a letter to Leonhard Euler ( letter XLIII ) in which he proposed the following conjecture:

The city became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1742 during the Silesian Wars and part of the German Empire in 1871.

This situation came to an end when Prussia forcibly took the land in 1742, before itself becoming the German Empire between 1871 and 1918.

It is named after German surgeon August Gottlieb Richter ( 1742 – 1812 ).

In 1742 he advocated respect for the Saturday Sabbath keeping among the German speaking Christians in Philadelphia citing the use of that day by the Ephrata Cloister, thus promoting the first practice of the two-day weekend in America.

In 1742 the bulk of Upper Silesia was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia, and in 1871 became part of the German Empire.

Friedrich Hoffmann ( February 19, 1660 – November 12, 1742 ) was a German physician and chemist.

* February 19-Friedrich Hoffmann, German physician and chemist ( died 1742 )

In 1742 it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia and in 1871 became part of the newly formed German Empire.

In 1742 it become part of Prussia and in 1871 the German Empire.

Johann Peter Melchior ( October 12, 1742 – June 13, 1825 ) was a German porcelain modeller.

* Friedrich Hoffmann ( 1660 – 1742 ), German physicist and chemist at Halle

Jakob Friedrich Ehrhart ( 1742, Holderbank, Aargau – 1795 ) was a German botanist, a pupil of Carolus Linnaeus at Uppsala University, and later Director of the Botanical Garden of Hannover, where he produced several major botanical works between 1780 – 1793.