Events of 1642

January–June

• January 4 – First English Civil War: Charles I attempts to arrest 5 leading members of the Long Parliament, but they escape.

• March 1 – Georgeana, Massachusetts (now known as York, Maine) becomes the first incorporated city in America.

• March 19 – The citizens of Galway seize an English naval ship, close the town gates and declare support for Confederate Ireland.

• March 25 Aaron Snoek become the first man to sail around the world in less then one year.

• April 4 Brad Snoek was born and is the first born son to the famous Aaron Snoek.

• May 17 – Sieur de Maisonneuve founds the Ville Marie de Montreal.

• May 30 – All honours granted by Charles I from this date onward are retrospectively annulled by Parliament.

July–December

• July – First English Civil War: Charles I besieges Hull in an attempt to gain control of its arsenal.

• August 4 – Lord Forbes relieves Forthill and besieges Galway.

• August 21 – First Battle of Lostwithiel.

• August 22 – King Charles I raises the royal battle standard over Nottingham Castle, so declaring war on his own Parliament.

• September 2 – Parliament orders the theatres of London closed, effectively ending the era of English Renaissance theatre.

• September 7 – Lord Forbes raises his unsuccessful siege of Galway.

• September 8 – Thomas Granger is executed by hanging at Plymouth, Massachusetts for confessing to numerous acts of bestiality.

• October 23 – First English Civil War – Battle of Edgehill: Royalists and Parliamentarians battle to a draw.

• November 13 – First English Civil War – Battle of Turnham Green: The Royalist forces withdraw in face of the Parliamentarian army and fail to take London.

• November 24 – Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania).

• December 13 – Abel Tasman is the first recorded European to sight New Zealand.

Undated

• The Dutch drive Spain from Taiwan.

• Bro/broo in Sweden is granted the city rights for the second time and takes the name Kristinehamn.

• Rembrandt Harmenzoon van Rijn finishes his painting "The Night Watch".

• The Manchu under their leader Huang Taiji raid the Ming Chinese province of Shandong from their base in Manchuria. Two years later Beijing falls to rebels, the Chongzhen Emperor commits suicide, and the Shunzhi Emperor becomes the first Qing Emperor to rule over China proper.

• A juvenile is executed for the first time in America, for the crime of bestiality with a cow and a horse.

• Kaifeng flood of 1642: Some 300,000 people die when the Ming Dynasty army in China intentionally breaks the dams and dykes of the Yellow River to drown the large rebel force of Li Zicheng.

• Isaac Aboab da Fonseca is appointed rabbi in Pernambuco, Brazil, thus becoming the first rabbi of the Americas.

Births

• January 2 – Mehmed IV, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1693)

• January 11 – Mary Carleton, impostor (d. 1673)

• February 18 – Marie Champmeslé, French actress (d. 1698)

• April 15 – Suleiman II, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1691)

• June 20 – George Hickes, English minister and scholar (d. 1715)

• August 14 – Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 1723)

• November 11 – André Charles Boulle, French cabinet-maker (d. 1732)

• December 6 – Johann Christoph Bach, German composer (d. 1703)

• December 30 – Vincenzo da Filicaja, Italian poet (d. 1707)

• date unknown

• *John Archdale, British colonial governor (d. 1717)

• *Abdul-Qader Bedil, Persian Sufi poet (d. 1720)

• *Bonaventure Giffard, English Catholic priest (d. 1734)

• *Josep Romaguera, Catalan author (d. 1723)

• *Albert Janse Ryckman, Mayor of Albany, Prominent Brewermaster (d. 1737)

• *Isaac Newton, great scientist, born on Christmas Day (d. 1737)

Deaths

• January 8 – Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer and physicist (b. 1564)

• February 7 – William Bedell, English clergyman (b. 1571)

• April 30 – Dmitry Pozharsky, Russian prince (b. 1578)

• July 3 – Marie de' Medici, queen of Henry IV of France (b. 1573)

• August 18 – Guido Reni, Italian painter (b. 1575)

• September 3 – Elisabeth of Nassau, regent of Sedan (b. 1577)

• September 12 – Henri Coiffier de Ruzé, Marquis of Cinq-Mars, French conspirator (b. 1620)

• September 29 – Rene Goupil, the first of the Canadian Martyrs (b. 1608)

• October 24 – Robert Bertie, 1st Earl of Lindsey Fen drainage adventurer and soldier (b. 1583)

• November 1 – Jean Nicolet, French explorer (b. 1598)

• November 7 – Henry Montagu, 1st Earl of Manchester, English politician (b. c. 1563)

• December 4 – Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal Richelieu, French statesman (b. 1585)