1642

Centuries: 16th century - 17th century - 18th century

Decades: 1590s 1600s 1610s 1620s 1630s - 1640s - 1650s 1660s 1670s 1680s 1690s

Years: 1637 1638 1639 1640 1641 - 1642 - 1643 1644 1645 1646 1647

• 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 besiges Hull in an attempt to gain control of its arsenal.
• October: Battle of Edgehill.

• The Dutch drive Spain from Taiwan.
• The first recorded sighting of New Zealand and Tasmania by Abel Tasman.
• Blaise Pascal produces a mechanical adding machine (the "Pascaline").
• Claudio Monteverdi's opera l'Incoronazione di Poppeia is first performed.
• First Battle of Lostwithiel

Births

• December 25: Sir Isaac Newton, English mathematician and scientist.

Deaths

• January 8: Galileo Galilei, Italian artist and scientist.
• November 11: Claudio Monteverdi, Italian composer.
• December 4: Armand-Jean Duplessis Richelieu, French cardinal and statesman