A decade and a half later, the Polish anthropology student, Bronisław Malinowski ( 1884 – 1942 ), was beginning what he expected to be a brief period of fieldwork in the old model, collecting lists of cultural items, when the outbreak of the First World War stranded him in New Guinea.

He was the fourth child of Ondrej Varchola ( Americanized as Andrew Warhola, Sr., 1889 – 1942 ) and Júlia ( née Zavacká, 1892 – 1972 ), whose first child was born in their homeland and died before their move to the U. S. Andy had two older brothers, Paul, born about 1923, and John, born about 1925.

* 1942 – Barry Levinson, American producer and director

* 1942 – Carlos Reutemann, Argentine race car driver and politician

* 1942 – Jacob Zuma, African politician, President of South Africa

* 1942 – Daryl Dragon, American keyboardist ( Captain & Tennille )

* 1942 – Brian Peckford, Canadian politician, 3rd Premier of Newfoundland

* 1942 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands becomes the first reigning queen to address a joint session of the United States Congress.

* 1942 – George Jung, American convicted drug smuggler

* 1942 – Byard Lancaster, American saxophonist ( d. 2012 )

* 1942 – Indian leader Mohanda Gandhi is arrested in Bombay by British forces, launching the Quit India Movement.

* 1942 – World War II: Battle of Savo Island – Allied naval forces protecting their amphibious forces during the initial stages of the Battle of Guadalcanal are surprised and defeated by an Imperial Japanese Navy cruiser force.

* 1942 – Tommie Agee, American baseball player ( d. 2001 )

* 1942 – Jack DeJohnette, American drummer, pianist, and composer ( Gateway and Trio Beyond )

* 1942 – David Steinberg, Canadian comedian, actor, director, and author

* 1942 – Major General Eugene Reybold of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers authorizes the construction of facilities that would house the " Development of Substitute Materials " project, better known as the Manhattan Project.

* 1872 – Richard Willstätter, German chemist, Nobel Prize Laureate ( d. 1942 )

* 1942 – Isabel Allende, Chilean author

* 2012 – Jamaa Fanaka, American director, producer, and screenwriter ( b. 1942 )

* 1942 – André Gagnon, Canadian pianist and composer

* 1942 – Jerry Garcia, American singer-songwriter and guitarist ( Grateful Dead, Legion of Mary, Reconstruction, Old and in the Way, and New Riders of the Purple Sage ) ( d. 1995 )

* 1942 – Giancarlo Giannini, Italian actor

* 1942 – Richard Willstätter, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate ( b. 1872 )

On December 2, 1942, physicist Enrico Fermi conducted the world's first controlled nuclear reaction at the University of Chicago as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project.

On June 23, 1942, he returned to London as Commanding General, European Theater of Operations ( ETOUSA ), based in London, and replaced Chaney.

On 19 February 1942 at 0957, 188 Japanese warplanes attacked Darwin in two waves.

On 2 December 1942 he initiated the atomic age with the first self-sustaining chain reaction, after which he became known as " father of the atomic bomb ".

On 21 June 1941, the day before invasion of the Soviet Union, Himmler commissioned the preparation of the Generalplan Ost ( General Plan for the East ); the plan was finalised in July 1942.

On his orders, by spring 1942 the camp at Auschwitz had been greatly expanded, including the addition of gas chambers, where victims were killed using the pesticide Zyklon B.

On 1 January 1942 he was knighted and appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath, and in February, after the Japanese invasion of Burma, was sent to India to become GOC-in-C of British Forces in Burma as a full general.

On 7 August 1942, a German Focke-Wulf Fw 200 " Condor ", probably on a mission to bomb the station, smashed into the nearby mountainside of Danielsenkrateret in fog, killing all 9 crewmembers.

On 7 February 1942, the USCGC Taney evacuated the colonists, then shelled and burned the dwellings.

On 21 December 1941, the Partisans created the First Proletarian Brigade ( commanded by Koča Popović ) and on 1 March 1942, Tito created the Second Proletarian Brigade.

On 12 September 1942,, carrying some 80 civilians, 268 British Army soldiers, about 1, 800 Italian prisoners of war, and 160 Polish soldiers ( on guard ), was struck and sunk by a torpedo from Kriegsmarine submarine off the coast of west Africa.

* On 12 September 1942, Werner Hartenstein commanding the German Navy U-156 sighted and sank the British Cunard White Star passenger liner Laconia, which was serving as a troopship.

* 1942 – World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.

* 1942 – World War II: Battle of Cape Esperance – On the northwest coast of Guadalcanal, United States Navy ships intercept and defeat a Japanese fleet on their way to reinforce troops on the island.

* CBC Radio's " Nazi Eyes On Canada " ( 1942 ), series with Hollywood stars promoting Canadian War Bonds

On March 14, 1942, John Bumstead and Orvan Hess saved a dying patient's life using penicillin.

On March 14, 1942, the first patient was treated for streptococcal septicemia with US-made penicillin produced by Merck & Co. Half of the total supply produced at the time was used on that one patient.

* Adorno, Theodor W., ( 1942 ) " On Popular Music ", Institute of Social Research.

On 20 January 1942 Heydrich chaired the Wannsee Conference, at which he presented to the heads of a number of German Government departments a plan for the deportation and transporting of 11 million Jewish people from every country in Europe, to be worked to death or killed outright in extermination camps.

On 27 May 1942 Heydrich was scheduled to attend a meeting with Hitler in Berlin.

Hugh MacDiarmid, the Scots poet and writer lived in Whalsay from the mid-1930s through 1942, and wrote many poems there, including a number that directly address or reflect the Shetland environment such as " On A Raised Beach ", which was inspired by a visit to West Linga.

On January 25, 1942 Uruguay broke diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany, as 21 American nations did the same ( except for Argentina ).

On 25 November 1942, the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia was convened in Bihać, modern day Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On 27 June 1942, he married his childhood sweetheart Hannelore " Loki " Glaser ( 3 March 1919 – 21 October 2010 ).