Title: 1942 Content: == Events == * January 1 – World War II: The term "United Nations" is first officially used to describe the Allied pact. * January 2 – World War II: Manila is captured by Japanese forces. The Japanese Admiral stays in Solvec (owned by Charles Henry de Silva), Philippines. * January 5 – Amy Johnson disappears in flight over River Thames estuary – assumed drowned. * January 6 – Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to have a flight go around the world. * January 7 – World War II: Siege of the Bataan Peninsula begins. * January 11 – World War II: Japan declares war on the Netherlands and invades the Netherlands East Indies. * January 11 – World War II: The Japanese capture Kuala Lumpur. * January 12 – President Franklin Roosevelt creates the National War Labor Board. * January 13 – Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car. * January 16 – Airplane crashes near Las Vegas. Dead include Carole Lombard and her mother. * January 19 – World War II: Japanese forces invade Burma. * January 20 – World War II: Nazis at the Wannsee conference in Berlin decide that the "final solution to the Jewish problem" is relocation, and later extermination. * January 25 – World War II: Thailand declares war on the United States and United Kingdom. * January 26 – World War II: The first American forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland. * July 6 - The family of Anne Frank goes into hiding at the secret annex in Amsterdam. * October 23 - World War II: Battle of El Alamein == Births == * January 8 - Stephen Hawking, British physicist (d. 2018) * January 17 – Muhammad Ali, American boxer (d. 2016) * January 25 - Eusebio, Portuguese footballer * January 27 - Stewart Raffill, British writer and director * February 2 - Graham Nash, British singer-songwriter and guitarist (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) * February 9 - Carole King, American pianist * February 12 – Huey Newton, Black Panther * February 13 - Peter Tork, American keyboardist (The Monkees) (d. 2019) * February 21 - Margarethe von Trotta, German movie director * February 28 - Dino Zoff, Italian footballer * March 5 - Felipe Gonzalez, former Prime Minister of Spain * March 8 – Jan Vyčítal, Czech musician * March 17 - John Wayne Gacy, American serial killer (d. 1994; executed) * March 24 - Stephen Yardley, British actor (Howards' Way) * March 25 - Aretha Franklin, American singer (d. 2018) * April 1 - Philip Margo, American singer (The Tokens) * April 16 - Frank Williams, British Formula One team principal * April 20 - Arto Paasilinna, Finnish writer * April 24 - Barbra Streisand, American singer * May 22 - Theodore Kaczynski, American serial bomber (unabomber) * June 1 - Eric Nagler, Canadian children’s musician * June 7 - Muammar Gaddafi, Libyan leader (d. 2011) * June 18 – Roger Ebert, American movie critic (d. 2013) * June 18 – Sir Paul McCartney, British musician (The Beatles) * June 20 - Brian Wilson, American singer-songwriter (The Beach Boys) * July 6 - Izora Armstead, American singer (The Weather Girls) (d. 2004) * July 13 - Harrison Ford, American actor * August 1 - Michael Martchenko, Canadian illustrator * August 2 - Isabel Allende, Chilean novelist * August 7 – B.J. Thomas, singer * August 27 - Daryl Dragon, American songwriter (Captain & Tennille) (d. 2019) * September 29 - Madeline Kahn, American actress (d. 1999) * October 31 – David Ogden Stiers, American actor * November 7 – Johnny Rivers, American musician * November 27 – Jimi Hendrix, American musician (The Jimi Hendrix Experience) (d. 1970) * December 7 - Harry Chapin, American folk musician (d. 1981) * December 23 - Quentin Bryce, Governor-General of Australia * December 26 - Gray Davis, former Governor of California * December 30 – Michael Nesmith, musician and member of the Monkees * December 30 – Janko Prunk, Slovenian historian * December 31 - Andy Summers, English guitarist (The Police) ;People who were born in this year but their day of birth is unknown *Ningali Cullen - Australian activist == Deaths == * January 6 – Henri de Baillet-Latour, Belgian International Olympic Committee president (b. 1876) * January 14 – Porfirio Barba-Jacob, Colombian poet and writer (born 1883) * January 16 – Carole Lombard, actress * January 26 – Felix Hausdorff, German mathematician (born 1868) * February 19 – Frank Abbandando, Mafia hitman (executed) * February 28 – Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral * March 1 – Cornelius Vanderbilt III, military officer, inventor, engineer * March 8 – José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban chess player * April 15 – Robert Musil, Austrian novelist * April 18 – Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, sculptor and socialite * May 3 – Thorvald Stauning, Prime Minister of Denmark * May 7 – Felix Weingartner, Yugoslavian conductor (born 1863) * May 29 – John Barrymore, actor (born 1882) * July 13 - Irving Cutler, Airman Aboard a B-24 Bombing Bengazi Libya * July 23 – Adam Czerniakow, Polish Jew (suicide) * August 3 – Richard Willstätter, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1872) * August 6 – Jonathan Campbell, movie pioneer (born 1875) * August 25 – Prince Edward, Duke of Kent * November 1 – Hugo Distler, German composer (born 1908) * November 5 – George M. Cohan, American songwriter and entertainer * November 19 – Bruno Schulz, Polish writer and painter (shot) (born 1892) * December 22 – Franz Boas, German anthropologist (born 1858) * December 25 - Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan British Indian statesman (born 1892) == Movies released == * Casablanca