1542

Events 
 December 14 – Accession of Mary, Queen of Scots

 Births 
 June 6 – Richard Grenville, Elizabethan sailor (died 1591)
 June 24 – St. John of the Cross, Spanish Carmelite friar and poet (died 1591)
 October 15 – Akbar, Jellaladin Mahommed, ruler of the Mughal Empire (died 1605)
 December 8 – Mary, Queen of Scots (died 1587)
 Robert Bellarmine, Catholic theologian and saint (died 1621)
 Toda Kazuaki, samurai in the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu (died 1604)
 Anthony Shirley, English traveller (died 1635)
 John Speed, historian (died 1629)
 Horio Yoshiharu, Japanese daimyo (died 1611)
 Kuki Yoshitaka, Japanese naval commander
 Jan Zamoyski, Polish nobleman (died 1605)

 Deaths 
 February 13 – Katherine Howard, Queen of England
 December 14 – James V, King of Scotland