1942

2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: World War II; Years

Centuries:	19th century - 20th century - 21st century
Decades:	1910s  1920s  1930s  - 1940s -   1950s   1960s   1970s
Years:	1939 1940 1941 - 1942 - 1943 1944 1945

Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events of 1942

(Below, many events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.)

January

• 1 January - WWII: The United States and Filipino troops fight the Battle of Bataan.
• 2 January - WWII: Manila is captured by Japanese forces.
• 7 January - WWII: Siege of the Bataan Peninsula begins.
• 10 January - WWII: The last German air-raid on Liverpool. This raid destroyed the home of William Patrick Hitler, Adolf Hitler's nephew. After his house was destroyed William Hitler went to the USA and joined the navy to fight against his uncle.
• 11 January - WWII:
  • Japan declares war on the Netherlands and invades the Netherlands East Indies.
  • WWII: The Japanese capture Kuala Lumpur.
• 16 January - Actress Carole Lombard and her mother are among those killed in a plane crash near Las Vegas while returning from a tour to promote the sale of war bonds.
• 19 January - WWII: Japanese forces invade Burma.
• 20 January - WWII: Nazis at the Wannsee conference in Berlin decide that the " final solution to the Jewish problem" is relocation, and later extermination.
• 23 January - WWII: The Battle of Rabaul begins.
• 25 January - WWII: Thailand declares war on the United States and United Kingdom.
• 26 January - WWII: The first American forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.
• 31 January - WWII: The last organized Allied forces leave Malaya, ending the 54-day campaign.

February

• 2 February - WWII: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs an executive order directing the internment of Japanese Americans and the seizure of their property.
• 8 February
  • António Óscar Carmona is elected president of Portugal.
  • WWII: Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss American military strategy in the war.
  • Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States.
• 11 February - Operation Cerberus - Flotilla of Kriegsmarine ships dash from Brest through the English Channel to northern ports; British fail to sink any one of them.
• 15 February - WWII: Singapore surrenders to Japanese forces.
• 19 February - WWII:
  • 242 Japanese warplanes attack Darwin, Australia.
  • President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs executive order 9066 allowing the United States military to define areas as exclusionary zones. These zones affect the Japanese on the West Coast, and Germans and Italians primarily on the East Coast.
• 20 February - Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace.
• 22 February - WWII: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defense of the nation collapses.
• 23 February - The Japanese submarine I-17 fires seventeen high-explosive shells toward an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California, causing little damage.
• 24 February - Propaganda: The Voice of America begins broadcasting.
• 25 February - Princess Elizabeth registers for war service.
• 25 February - Over 1400 AA shells were fired at an unidentified, slow-moving object in the skies over Los Angeles. The appearance of the object triggered most of Southern California into an immediate wartime blackout with thousands of Air Raid Wardens being deployed throughout the city. In total there were six deaths. Despite the several hour barrage no planes were downed during the ' Battle of Los Angeles'.
• 26 February
  • The worst Coal dust explosion to date occurs in Honkeiko, China. It claims 1549 lives. The growth of the coal mining industry was a major goal of Mao Zedong's first Five-Year Plan.
  • 14th Academy Awards ceremony
• 27 February - WWII: During the Battle of the Java Sea an allied ( ABDA) task force under Dutch command, trying to stem a Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies is defeated by a Japanese task force in the Java Sea.

March

• March - Construction began what would be the largest army ammunition plant in the United States during WWII; the Badger Army Ammunition Plant
• 9 March - WWII: Executive Order 9082 (February 28, 1942) reorganized the United States Army into three major commands - Army Ground Forces, Army Air Forces, and Services of Supply, later redesignated Army Service Forces.
• 28 March - WWII: British Commandos raided St Nazaire on the coast of Western France.

April

• 3 April - WWII: Japanese forces begin an all-out assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula. Bataan fell on 9 April and the Bataan Death March began.
• 5 April - WWII: Japanese Navy attacks Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Royal Navy Cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island.
• 9 April - WWII: Japanese Navy launches air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Royal Navy Aircraft Carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy Destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk off the country's East Coast.
• 13 April - The FCC minimum programming time required of TV stations is cut from 15 hours to four hours a week during the war.
• 15 April - WWII:King George VI awards the George Cross to Malta, "To honour her brave people I award the George Cross to the Island Fortress of Malta, to bear witness to a heroism and a devotion that will long be famous in history." From January 1 to July 24, 1942, there was only one 24-hour period during which no bombs fell on this tiny island.
• 18 April - Tokyo, Japan is bombed by B-25 Mitchells commanded by then-Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle.
• 27 April - WWII: A national plebiscite is held in Canada on the issue of conscription.
• 29 April - WWII: Explosion at a chemical factory in Tessenderlo, Belgium leaves 200 dead and 1,000 injured.

May

• May - First test of an undersea oil pipeline in Operation Pluto.
• 5 May - WWII: Operation Ironclad - United Kingdom forces invades French colony of Madagascar.
• 6 May - WWII: On Corregidor, the last American and Filipino forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.
• 8 May - WWII: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end. This is the first time in the naval history where two enemy fleets fought without seeing each other's fleets.
• 8 May/ 9 May - WWII: On the night of 8/9 May 1942, gunners of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands rebelled. Their mutiny was crushed and three of them were executed, the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War.
• 12 May - WWII: Second Battle of Kharkov - In the eastern Ukraine, the Soviet Army initiates a major offensive. During the battle the Soviets will capture the city of Kharkov from the German Army, only to be encircled and destroyed.
• 14 May - Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait is performed for the first time by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
• 15 May - WWII: In the United States, a bill creating the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) is signed into law.
• 20 May - First African-American seamen taken into United States Navy.
• 21 May - WWII: Mexico declares war against Nazi Germany after the sinking of the Mexican tanker Faja de Oro by the German U-boat, U-160, off Key West.
• 26 May - WWII: Battle of Bir Hakeim.
• 27 May - WWII: Operation Anthropoid - attempted assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague.
• 31 May - 1 June- WWII: Attack on Sydney Harbour - Japanese submarines infiltrate Sydney Harbour in an attempt to attack Allied warships.

June

• 1 June - WWII: Mexico declares war on Germany, Italy and Japan.
• 4 June - WWII: Reinhard Heydrich succumbs to wounds sustained on 27 May from Czechoslovakian paratroopers acting in Operation Anthropoid
• 4 June- 7 June - WWII: The Battle of Midway.
• 7 June - WWII: Japanese forces invade the Aleutian Islands. This is the first invasion of American soil in 128 years.
• 8 June - WWII: Attack on Sydney Harbour: Australian cities of Sydney and Newcastle are shelled by Japanese submarines. The eastern suburbs of both cities are damaged and the east coast is blacked-out.
• 9 June - WWII: Nazis burn the Czech village of Lidice as reprisal for the killing of Reinhard Heydrich.
• 10 June - WWII: the Gestapo massacre 173 male residents of Lidice, Czechoslovakia in retaliation for the killing of a Nazi official.
• 12 June - Holocaust: Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.
• 13 June - The United States opens its Office of War Information, a centre for production of propaganda.
• 21 June - Fort Stevens was fired upon by Japanese submarine.
• 29 June - The German Eleventh Army under Erich von Manstein takes Sevastopol, although fighting rages until 9 July.

July

• 1 July - 27 July - WWII: the First Battle of El Alamein.
• 3 July - Guadalcanal falls to the Japanese.
• 9 July - Holocaust: Anne Frank's family goes into hiding in an attic above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse.
• 13 July - WWII: German U-Boats sink three more merchant ships in Gulf of St. Lawrence.
• 16 July
  • Holocaust: On order from the Vichy France government headed by Pierre Laval, French police officers round-up 13,000-20,000 Jews and imprison them in the Winter Velodrome.
  • Georges Bégué and others escape from Mauzac prison camp.
• 18 July - WWII: The Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me-262 using only its jets for the first time.
• 19 July - WWII: Battle of the Atlantic - German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz orders the last U-boats to withdraw from their United States Atlantic coast positions in response to an effective American convoy system.
• 21 July - Japanese establish beachhead on the north coast of New Guinea in the Buna-Gona area; small Australian force begins rearguard action on the Kokoda Track Campaign.
• 22 July - Holocaust: The systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto begins.
• 29 July - The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR institutes the Order of Suvorov, the Order of Kutuzov, and reinstates the Order of Alexander Nevsky.
• 31 July - The Oxford Committee of Famine Relief (OXFAM) founded.

August

• 7 August - WWII: Battle of Guadalcanal begins - USMC initiate the first American offensive of the war with a landing on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.
• 8 August
  • WWII: In Washington, DC, six German would-be saboteurs are executed (two others were cooperative and received life imprisonment instead).
  • Quit India resolution is passed by the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), which led to the start of a historical civil disobedience movement across India.
• 9 August
  • Indian leader, Mohandas Gandhi is arrested in Bombay by British forces.
  • Start, led by the goalkeeper Nikolai Trusevich, play football against the German Luftwaffe team Flakelf in Nazi-occupied Kiev. Against all odds, they win 5-3. Eight of them are later arrested and tortured, and at least four are killed.
• 10 August Music legend Isaac Hayes is born.
• 13 August - 14 night - In London instruments detect a massive burst of cosmic rays.
• 15 August - WWII: SS Ohio, an American tanker, reaches Malta as part of the convoy of Operation Pedestal.
• 16 August - Polish-Jewish teacher Janusz Korczak follows a group of Jewish children into Treblinka death camp.
• 16 August - U.S. Navy blimp L-8 (Flight 101) comes ashore near San Francisco, eventually coming down in Daly City. The crew is missing.
• 19 August - WWII: The Dieppe Raid - Allied forces raid Dieppe, France. Fred Thompson Born.
• 22 August - WWII: Brazil declared war on Germany and Italy.
• 25 August - WWII: Japanese marines land at Milne Bay.
• 30 August - Luxembourg is formally annexed to the German Reich.
• 31 August - General strike launched in Luxembourg to protest against forced conscription.

September

• 3 September - An attempt by the Germans to liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Lakhva leads to an uprising.
• 5 September - WWII: Japanese forces suffer their first defeat on land at the Battle of Milne Bay.
• 12 September - RMS Laconia, carrying civilians, Allied soldiers and Italian POWs is torpedoed off the coast of West Africa and sinks.
• 24 September - Andrée Borrel and Lise de Baissac became the first female SOE agents to be parachuted into occupied France.

October

• 2 October - British cruiser Curaçao collides with the liner Queen Mary off the coast of Donegal and sinks - 338 drowned.
• 3 October - First successful launch of A-4 rocket from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany. The rocket flew 147 kilometres wide and reached a height of 84.5 kilometres and was therefore the first man-made object reaching space.
• 9 October - Statute of Westminster Adoption Act formalizes Australian autonomy.
• 11 October - WWII: 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.
• 14 October - A German U-boat sinks the ferry SS Caribou, killing 137.
• 16 October - Hurricane and flooding in Bombay - 40,000 dead.
• 23 October - Award-winning composer and Hollywood songwriter Ralph Rainger ("Thanks for the Memory") is among the 12 people killed in the mid-air collision between an American Airlines DC-3 airliner and a U.S. Army bomber near Palm Springs, California.
• 23 October - 4 November - WWII: the Second Battle of El Alamein.
• 26 October - WWII: Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands - Two Japanese aircraft carriers are heavily damaged and one US carrier is sunk.
• 28 October - The Alaska Highway is completed.
• 29 October - Holocaust: In the United Kingdom, leading clergymen and political figures hold a public meeting to register outrage over Nazi Germany's persecution of Jews.

November

• 2 November - USAF forces, including B-24 Liberator's fly toward Oran, Africa. The squad intercepts many Luftwaffe patrols off the coast of Oran. The US Force won the air battle.
• 3 November - WWII: Second Battle of El Alamein ends - German forces under Erwin Rommel are forced to retreat during the night.
• 8 November - WWII:
  • Operation Torch - United States and United Kingdom forces land in French North Africa.
  • French Resistance Coup in Algiers, by which 400 French civil resistants neutralize the Vichyist XIXth Army Corps and the Vichyist generals (Juin, Darlan, etc.), so allowing the immediate success of Operation Torch in Algiers, and ultimately the whole of French North Africa.
• 9 November - WWII: U.S serviceman Edward Leonski hanged at Melbourne's Pentridge Prison for the "Brown-Out" Murders of three women in May.
• 10 November - WWII: In violation of a 1940 armistice, Germany invades Vichy France following French Admiral François Darlan agreement to an armistice with the Allies in North Africa.
• 12 November - WWII: Battle of Guadalcanal begins - A naval battle near Guadalcanal starts between Japanese and American forces.
• 13 November - WWII: Battle of Guadalcanal - Aviators from the USS Enterprise sink the Japanese battleship Hiei.
• 15 November - WWII: Battle of Guadalcanal ends - Although the United States Navy suffered heavy losses, it was able to retain control of Guadalcanal.

• 15 November - An BOAC scheduled passenger flight, a DC-3 with registration: G-AGBB, (formerly KLM PH-ALI, Ibis), enroute between Lisbon and Bristol, is attacked over the Bay of Biscay by German fighters. Although damaged they manage to escape and land in England. Other attacks on the same aircraft and on the same scheduled route: April 19 1943 and June 1 1943 (fatal).

• 19 November - WWII: Battle of Stalingrad - Soviet Union forces under General Georgy Zhukov launch the Operation Uranus counter-attacks at Stalingrad, turning the tide of the battle in the USSR's favour.
• 21 November - The completion of the Alaska Highway (also known as the Alcan Highway) is celebrated (the " highway" was not usable by general vehicles until 1943, however).
• 22 November - WWII: Battle of Stalingrad - The situation for the German attackers of Stalingrad seems desperate during the Soviet counter-attack Operation Uranus and General Friedrich Paulus sends Adolf Hitler a telegram saying that the German Sixth Army is surrounded.
• 23 November - German U-boat sinks SS Ben Lomond off the coast of Brazil. One crewman, Chinese second steward Poon Lim, is separated from the others and spends 130 days adrift until he is rescued 3 April 1943.
• 26 November - The movie Casablanca premièred at the Hollywood Theatre in New York City.
• 27 November - WWII: At Toulon, the French navy scuttles its ships and submarines to keep them out of Nazi hands.
• 28 November
  • In Boston, Massachusetts, a fire in the Cocoanut Grove night club kills 491 people.
  • The large-scale German "pacification" of Zamojszczyzna region of Poland begins.

December

• 1 December - Gasoline rationing begins in the United States.
• 2 December - Manhattan Project: Below the bleachers of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, a team led by Enrico Fermi initiate the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction (a coded message, "The Italian navigator has landed in the new world" was then sent to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt).
• 4 December - Holocaust: In Warsaw, two women, Zofia Kossak and Wanda Filipowicz risk their lives by setting up the Council for the Assistance of the Jews.
• 7 December - WWII: British commandos conduct Operation Frankton a raid on shipping in Bordeaux harbour.
• 24 December - French Admiral Darlan, the former Vichy leader who had switched over to the Allies following the Torch landings, assassinated in Algiers.
• 27 December - The Union of Pioneers of Yugoslavia is founded.

Undated

• Grand Coulee Dam finished in Columbia River.
• DDT first used as a pesticide.
• C. S. Lewis publishes The Screwtape Letters.
• Lions became extinct in Iran by this date.

Ongoing

• World War II (1939-1945)
• Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)

Births

1942 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1942 MCMXLII
Ab urbe condita	2695
Armenian calendar	1391 ԹՎ ՌՅՂԱ
Bahá'í calendar	98 – 99
Berber calendar	2892
Buddhist calendar	2486
Burmese calendar	1304
Byzantine calendar	7450 – 7451
Chinese calendar	辛巳年十一月十五日 (4578/4638-11-15) — to — 壬午年十一月廿四日 (4579/4639-11-24)
Coptic calendar	1658 – 1659
Ethiopian calendar	1934 – 1935
Hebrew calendar	5702 – 5703
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1997 – 1998
- Shaka Samvat	1864 – 1865
- Kali Yuga	5043 – 5044
Holocene calendar	11942
Iranian calendar	1320 – 1321
Islamic calendar	1360 – 1361
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 17 (昭和17年)
Korean calendar	4275
Thai solar calendar	2485

January

• 1 January
  • Martin Frost, American politician
  • Gennadi Sarafanov, cosmonaut
  • Country Joe McDonald, American musician
• 2 January
  • Dennis Hastert, American politician and former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
  • Hugh Shelton, American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
• 3 January - John Thaw, English actor (d. 2002)
• 5 January
  • Maurizio Pollini, Italian pianist
  • Charlie Rose, American talk show host
  • Jan Leeming, Former BBC newsreader
• 7 January - Vasily Alexeev, Soviet weightlifter
• 8 January
  • Stephen Hawking, British physicist and Autoharp player
  • Junichiro Koizumi, Prime Minister of Japan
  • Yvette Mimieux, American actress
  • George Passmore, English artist ( Gilbert and George)
• 11 January - Clarence Clemons, American musician
• 14 January - Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal, Chief Justice of India
• 15 January - Charo, American singer and actress
• 17 January
  • Muhammad Ali, American boxer
  • Ulf Hoelscher, German violinist
  • Nancy Parsons, American actress (d. 2001)
• 19 January - Michael Crawford, English singer and actor
• 25 January
  • Carl Eller, American football player
  • Eusébio, Portuguese footballer
• 26 January - Souad Hosni, Egyptian actress (d. 2001)
• 31 January
  • Derek Jarman, English director and writer (d. 1994)
  • Daniela Bianchi, Italian actress

February

• 1 February - Terry Jones, Welsh actor and writer
• 2 February - Graham Nash, American (English-born) rock musician
• 5 February - Roger Staubach, American football player
• 9 February - Carole King, American singer and composer
• 12 February - Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel
• 13 February - Peter Tork, American musician and actor
• 14 February
  • Michael Bloomberg, American businessman, philanthropist, and the founder of Bloomberg L.P., Mayor of New York City
  • Andrew Robinson, American actor
• 15 February - Sherry Jackson, American actress
• 19 February - Paul Krause, American football player
• 20 February
  • Phil Esposito, Canadian hockey player
  • Mitch McConnell, American Politician
• 21 February - Margarethe von Trotta, German actress, film director, and writer
• 24 February - Joseph Lieberman, American politician
• 27 February - Robert H. Grubbs, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 27 February - Michel Forget, Canadian actor
• 28 February - Brian Jones, English musician (The Rolling Stones) (d. 1969)

March

• 2 March
  • John Irving, American author
  • Lou Reed, American singer-songwriter and guitarist ( Velvet Underground)
• 4 March
  • Charles C. Krulak, U.S. Marine Corps commander
  • Gloria Gaither, American gospel songwriter
• 5 March - Felipe González Márquez, Spanish politician
• 7 March
  • Tammy Faye Bakker, American evangelist, singer and television personality (d. 2007)
  • Michael Eisner, American film studio executive
• 9 March - John Cale, Welsh composer and musician ( Velvet Underground)
• 12 March - Jimmy Wynn, American baseball player, 1963-1977
• 13 March
  • Dave Cutler, American software engineer
  • Scatman John, American musician (d. 1999)
• 16 March - James Soong, Taiwan politician
• 17 March - John Wayne Gacy, American serial killer (d. 1994)
• 23 March - Walter Rodney, Guyanese historian and political figure
• 25 March
  • Aretha Franklin, American singer
  • Richard O'Brien, English-born actor and writer
• 26 March - Erica Jong, American author
• 27 March
  • John E. Sulston, British chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
  • Michael York, English actor
  • Michael Jackson, English writer (d. 2007)
• 28 March
  • Neil Kinnock, British statesman
  • Mike Newell, British film director
  • Conrad Schumann, East German border guard (d. 1998)
  • Jerry Sloan, American basketball coach
• 29 March - Scott Wilson, American actor

April

• 1 April - Annie Nightingale, British DJ (Radio 1)
• 2 April
  • Hiroyuki Sakai, Japanese chef
  • Leon Russell, American singer, songwriter, pianist, and guitarist
• 3 April
  • Marsha Mason, American actress
  • Wayne Newton, American singer
• 4 April - Elizabeth Levy, American author
• 5 April
  • Peter Greenaway, Welsh film-maker
  • Pascal Couchepin, Swiss Federal Councilor
• 6 April - Barry Levinson, American film producer and director
• 8 April - Roger Chapman, British rock singer ( Family, Streetwalkers)
• 9 April - James Cowan, Australian novelist
• 10 April - Nick Auf der Maur, Canadian journalist and politician (d. 1998)
• 14 April
  • Valeriy Brumel, Russian athlete (d. 2003)
  • Valentin Lebedev, cosmonaut
• 15 April
  • Kenneth Lay, American businessman (d. 2006)
  • Julie Sommars, American actress
• 17 April
  • David Bradley, British actor
  • Buster Williams, American jazz bassist
• 23 April - Sandra Dee, American actress (d. 2005)
• 24 April - Barbra Streisand, American singer, theatre and film actress, composer
• 26 April
  • Bobby Rydell, American singer
  • Michael Kergin, Canadian diplomat
  • Claudine Auger, French actress
• 27 April - Jim Keltner, American drummer

May

• 2 May - Jacques Rogge, Belgian International Olympic Committee president
• 5 May - Tammy Wynette, American musician (d. 1998)
• 8 May - Terry Neill, Northern Irish footballer and football manager
• 9 May - John Ashcroft, United States Attorney General
• 10 May - Youssouf Sambo Bâ, Burkinabé politician
• 12 May - Ian Dury, British musician (d. 2000)
• 17 May - Taj Mahal, American singer and guitarist
• 18 May
  • Albert Hammond, English-born musician and composer
  • Nobby Stiles, English footballer
• 19 May - Gary Kildall, American computer scientist (d. 1994)
• 20 May - David Proval, American actor
• 22 May
  • Theodore Kaczynski, American bomber
  • Calvin Simon, American musician ( P Funk)
• 23 May - Gabriel Liiceanu, Romanian philosopher
• 26 May - Levon Helm, American musician ( The Band)
• 28 May - Stanley B. Prusiner, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

June

• 2 June - Eduard Malofeyev, Russian football coach and former international player
• 3 June
  • Curtis Mayfield, American musician (d. 1999)
  • Frank McRae, American actor
• 10 June
  • Gordon Burns, British journalist and TV presenter
  • Preston Manning, Canadian politician
• 12 June - Bert Sakmann, German physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 17 June
  • Mohamed ElBaradei, Egyptian International Atomic Energy Agency director, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
  • Roger Steffens, Reggae archivist, actor, author, Bob Marley biographer
• 18 June
  • Roger Ebert, American film critic and television personality
  • Paul McCartney, British musician and composer (The Beatles)
  • Hans Vonk, Dutch conductor
  • Thabo Mbeki, South African politician
• 19 June
  • Michael Broggie, Disney historian and author
  • Ralna English, American singer
• 20 June - Brian Wilson, American singer ( The Beach Boys)
• 24 June
  • Mick Fleetwood, English drummer ( Fleetwood Mac)
  • Michele Lee, American actress, singer and dancer
• 27 June - Bruce Johnston, American musician ( The Beach Boys)
• 28 June - David Miner, musician and record producer

July

• 4 July
  • Floyd Little, American football player
  • Prince Michael of Kent
• 7 July - Carmen Duncan, Welsh-born actress
• 8 July - Janice Pennington, American model and playboy playmate
• 9 July - Richard Roundtree, African-American actor
• 10 July
  • Pyotr Klimuk, cosmonaut
  • Ronnie James Dio, American singer
• 13 July
  • Harrison Ford, American actor and producer
  • Roger McGuinn, American musician ( The Byrds)
• 15 July - Mil Máscaras, Mexican professional wrestler
• 18 July - Adolf Ogi, member of the Swiss Federal Council
• 23 July - Myra Hindley, English murderer
• 24 July - Chris Sarandon, American actor
• 27 July - Dennis Ralston, American tennis player
• 28 July - Kaari Utrio, Finnish writer
• 29 July - Tony Sirico, American actor

August

• 1 August - Jerry Garcia, American musician (d. 1995), ( Grateful Dead)
• 2 August - Isabel Allende, Chilean writer
• 4 August - David Lange, Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 2005)
• 7 August - Garrison Keillor, American writer and radio host
• 17 August - Roshan Seth, British Indian actor
• 18 August - Judith Keppel, First person to win £1,000,000 on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
• 19 August - Fred Dalton Thompson, U.S. Senator and actor
• 20 August - Isaac Hayes, American singer and actor (d. 2008)
• 26 August - Dennis Turner (Lord Bilston), British politician
• 27 August - "Captain" Daryl Dragon, American musician
• 28 August - Sterling Morrison, American musician (d. 1995)
• 31 August - Isao Aoki, Japanese golfer

September

• 1 September - John Lange, American scientist
• 3 September - John Shrapnel, English actor
• 14 September - Bernard MacLaverty, Irish writer
• 15 September - Lee Dorman, American Bassist
• 17 September - Desmond Lynam, British TV presenter
• 19 September - Freda Payne, American singer and actress
• 22 September - David Stern, American commissioner of the National Basketball Association
• 24 September - Ilkka "Danny" Lipsanen, Finnish singer
• 28 September - Marshall Bell, American actor
• 29 September
  • Madeline Kahn, American actress (d. 1999)
  • Ian McShane, English actor
  • Jean-Luc Ponty, French jazz violinist
• 30 September - Frankie Lymon, American singer (d. 1968)

October

• 1 October - Gunther Wallraff, German investigative journalist
• 6 October
  • Britt Ekland, Swedish actress
  • Fred Travalena, American comedian and impressionist
• 7 October - Ronald Baecker, American computer scientist
• 11 October - Amitabh Bachchan, Indian actor
• 12 October - Melvin Franklin, American musician (d. 1995)
• 13 October - Jerry Jones, American football team owner
• 14 October - Evelio Javier, Filipino politician, lawyer, and civil servant (d. 1986)
• 15 October
  • Penny Marshall, American actress, producer and director
  • Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, American Hindu guru and pontiff of Kauai's Hindu monastery on Kauai, Hawaii, USA.
• 19 October - Andrew Vachss, American author and attorney
• 20 October
  • Earl Hindman, American actor (d. 2003)
  • Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, German biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• 21 October - Elvin Bishop, American musician
• 22 October - Annette Funicello, American actress
• 23 October - Michael Crichton, American author
• 26 October
  • Bob Hoskins, British actor
  • Chelcie Ross, American actor
• 29 October - Bob Ross, American painter and television presenter (d. 1995)
• 31 October - David Ogden Stiers, American voice-over artist

November

• 1 November
  • Larry Flynt, American publisher
  • Ralph Klein, Premier of Alberta
• 2 November - Stefanie Powers, American actress
• 8 November
  • Angel Cordero Jr., Puerto Rican jockey
  • Fernando Sorrentino, Argentine writer
• 10 November
  • Robert F. Engle, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
  • Hans-Rudolf Merz, Swiss Federal Councilor
• 13 November - John P. Hammond, American singer
• 15 November - Daniel Barenboim, Argentine-born pianist and conductor
• 17 November - Martin Scorsese, American film director
• 18 November
  • Linda Evans, American actress
  • Susan Sullivan, American actress
• 20 November - Joe Biden, U.S. Senator from Delaware
• 22 November - Francis K. Butagira, Ugandan ambassador
• 24 November - Billy Connolly, Scottish comedian
• 26 November - Khalil Kalfat, Egyptian intellectual and writer
• 27 November
  • Henry Carr, American athlete
  • Jimi Hendrix, American musician (d. 1970)
  • Manolo Blahnik, Spanish shoe designer
• 28 November - Paul Warfield, American football player
• 29 November - Michael Craze, British actor (d. 1998)
• 29 November - Philippe Huttenlocher, Swiss baritone

December

• 4 December - Gemma Jones, British actress
• 6 December - Peter Handke, Austrian novelist
• 7 December - Peter Tomarken, American game show host (d. 2006)
• 9 December - Dick Butkus, American football player
• 11 December - Donna Mills, American actress
• 12 December - Peter Sarstedt, British musician
• 17 December - Paul Butterfield, American musician (d. 1987)
• 20 December - Bob Hayes, American athlete
• 21 December - Carla Thomas, American singer
• 23 December - Jorma Kaukonen, American musician ( Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna)
• 27 December - Charmian Carr, American actress
• 29 December - Rajesh Khanna, Indian actor
• 30 December
  • Betty Aberlin, American actress
  • Allan Gotthelf, American philosopher
• 31 December - Andy Summers, English guitarist

Date unknown

• Roger Angleton, American murderer (d. 1998)
• John M. Bennett, American poet
• Dick Stockton, American sports announcer
• George Negus, Australian author, journalist, and television presenter.
• probable - Muammar al-Gaddafi, leader of Libya

Deaths

January-February

• 6 January - Henri de Baillet-Latour, Belgian International Olympic Committee president (b. 1876)
• 14 January - Porfirio Barba-Jacob, Colombian poet and writer (b. 1883)
• 16 January
  • Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, second youngest son of Queen Victoria (b. 1850)
  • Carole Lombard, American actress (air crash) (b. 1908)
• 22 January - Walter Sickert, English Impressionist painter (b. 1860)
• 26 January - Felix Hausdorff, German mathematician (suicide) (b. 1868)
• 14 February - Mirosław Ferić, Polish pilot of the No. 303 Squadron in Northolt (b. 1915)
• 19 February - Frank Abbandando, American gangster (executed) (b. 1910)
• 22 February - Stefan Zweig, Austrian writer (suicide with wife) (b. 1881)
• 28 February - Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral (sinking ship) (b. 1889)

March-May

• 1 March - Cornelius Vanderbilt III, American military officer, inventor, and engineer (b. 1873)
• 1 March - George S. Rentz, United States Navy Chaplain and Navy Cross winner (b. 1882)
• 8 March - José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban chess player (b. 1888)
• 10 March - William Henry Bragg, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1862)
• 21 March - J.S Woodsworth, Canadian politician (b. 1874)
• 15 April - Robert Musil, Austrian-born novelist (b. 1880)
• 16 April - Princess Alexandra of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, granddaughter of Queen Victoria
• 17 April - Jean Baptiste Perrin, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1870)
• 18 April - Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, American sculptor and socialite (b. 1875)
• 24 April - Deenanath Mangeshkar, Indian singer and composer (b. 1900)
• 2 May - Jose Abad Santos, Filipino chief justice of the Supreme Court (b. 1886)
• 3 May - Thorvald Stauning, Prime Minister of Denmark (b. 1873)
• 7 May - Felix Weingartner, Yugoslavian conductor (b. 1863)
• 27 May - Chen Duxiu, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (b. 1879)
• 29 May - John Barrymore, American actor (b. 1882)
• 29 May - Akiko Yosano, Japanese author, poet (b. 1878)

June-October

• 4 June - Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the Nazi Reich Main Security Office and Reich governor of Bohemia and Moravia (assassinated) (b. 1904)
• 7 June - Alan Blumlein, English electronics engineer (b. 1903)
• 30 June - William Henry Jackson, American photographer (b. 1843)
• 15 July - Wenceslao Vinzons, Filipino politician and resistance leader (bayoneted to death) (b. 1910)
• 23 July - Adam Czerniakow, Polish engineer and senator (suicide) (b. 1880)
• 26 July - Roberto Arlt, Argentine writer (b. 1900)
• 28 July - William Matthew Flinders Petrie, English Egyptologist (b. 1853)
• 3 August - Richard Willstätter, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1872)
• 25 August- Prince George, Duke of Kent, fourth eldest son of King George V
• 14 September - Ezra Seymour Gosney, American philanthropist and eugenicist (b. 1855)
• 29 September - Gene Stack, first player from a major league roster to be drafted during WWII and also the first to die in service (b. 1920)
• 23 October - Ralph Rainger, American composer and Hollywood songwriter (b. 1901)

November-December

• 1 November - Hugo Distler, German composer (b. 1908)
• 5 November - George M. Cohan, American songwriter and entertainer (b. 1878)
• 12 November - Laura Hope Crews, stage & film actress (aunt PittyPat), (b. 1879)
• 19 November - Bruno Schulz, Polish writer and painter (shot) (b. 1892)
• 21 November - Leopold Graf Berchtold, Austro-Hungarian foreign minister (b. 1863)
• 7 December - Orland Steen Loomis, Governor-elect of Wisconsin (b. 1893)
• 22 December - Franz Boas, German anthropologist (b. 1858)

Nobel prizes

• Physics - not awarded
• Chemistry - not awarded
• Medicine - not awarded
• Literature - not awarded
• Peace - not awarded

Ship events

• List of ship launches in 1942
• List of ship commissionings in 1942
• List of ship decommissionings in 1942
• List of shipwrecks in 1942

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