1642

Years: 1639 1640 1641 - 1642 - 1643 1644 1645
Decades: 1610s 1620s 1630s - 1640s - 1650s 1660s 1670s
Centuries: 16th century - 17th century - 18th century

Events

January 4 - Charles I attempts to arrest five leading members of the Long Parliament, but they escape. Beginning of English Civil War.
March 1 - Georgeana, Massachusetts (now known as York, Maine) becomes the first incorporated city in America
May 17 - Sieur de Maisonneuve founds the Ville Marie de Montréal.
July - Charles I besieges Hull in an attempt to gain control of its arsenal.
September 8 - Thomas Granger executed by hanging at Plimouth, Massachusetts for confessing to numerous acts of bestiality.
October - Battle of Edgehill.
November 24 - Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania).
The Dutch drive Spain from Taiwan.
Abel Tasman achieves the first recorded European sighting of New Zealand.
Blaise Pascal produces a mechanical adding machine (the "Pascaline").
Claudio Monteverdi's opera l'Incoronazione di Poppeia is first performed.
First Battle of Lostwithiel
Jean-Baptiste Tavernier brings Hope diamond to Europe
Puritans close all theaters in England
Peter Stuyvesant becomes the governor of Curacao