1642

Decades:1600s,1610s,1620s,1630s,1640s,1650s?,1660s,1670s?,1680s,1690s

1637 1638 1639 1640 1641 1642 1643 1644 1645? 1646 1647?

1642 - decade 1640s - 17th century

Events

• January 4: Charles I attempts to arrest five leading members of the Long Parliament, but they escape. Beginning of the English Civil War.
• 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.
• Claudio Monteverdi's opera l'Incoronazione di Poppeia is first performed.
• First Battle of Lostwithiel?

Births

• December 25: Isaac Newton, English scientist.

Deaths

• January 8: Galileo, Italian artist and scientist.