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This article is about the year. For the 1984 Capcom arcade game, see 1942 (video game).

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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 7 - World War II: Siege of the Bataan Peninsula begins.

January 10 - World War II 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.

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 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 23 - World War II: The Battle of Rabaul begins.

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.

January 31 - World War II: The last organised Allied forces leave Malaya, ending the 54-day campaign.

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February 9 - World War II: Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss American military strategy in the war.

February 9 - Daylight-saving time goes into effect in the United States.

February 11 - Operation Cerberus - Flotilla of Kriegsmarine ships dash from Brest through the English Channel to northern ports; British fail to sink any one of them.

February 15 - World War II: Singapore surrenders to Japanese forces.

February 19 - World War II: 242 Japanese warplanes attack Darwin, Australia.

February 19 - World War II: 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.

February 20 - Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace.

February 22 - World War II: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defense of the nation collapses.

February 23 - The Japanese submarine I-17 fires sixteen high-explosive shells toward an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California, causing little damage.

February 24 - Propaganda: The Voice of America begins broadcasting.

February 25 - Princess Elizabeth registers for war service.

February 26 - 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.

February 27 - World War II: the USS ''Langley'', the first United States aircraft carrier, is sunk by Japanese warplanes off Java.

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March 9 - The Secretary of War reorganized the United States Army into three major commands - Army Ground Forces, Army Air Forces, and Services of Supply, later redesignated Army Service Forces.

April 3 - World War II: Japanese forces begin an all-out assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula. Bataan fell on April 9 and the Bataan Death March began.

April 5 - World War II: Japanese Navy attacks Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Royal Navy Cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island.

April 9 - World War II: 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.

April 18 - Tokyo, Japan is bombed by B-25 Mitchells commanded by then-Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle.

April 27 - World War II: A national plebiscite is held in Canada on the issue of conscription.

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May - first test of an undersea oil pipeline in Operation Pluto.

May 5 - World War II: Operation Ironclad - United Kingdom forces invades french colony of Madagascar.

May 6 - World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.

May 8 - World War II: 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.

May 8/May 9 - World War II: 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.

May 12 - World War II: 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.

May 15 - World War II: In the United States, a bill creating the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) is signed into law.

May 20 - First African-American seamen taken into US Navy.

May 27 - World War II: Operation Anthropoid - assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague.

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June 1 - World War II: Mexico declares war on Germany, Italy and Japan.

June 4 - World War II: Reinhard Heydrich is assassinated by Czechoslovakian paratroopers (Operation Anthropoid).

June 4-June 7 - World War II: The Battle of Midway.

June 7 - World War II- Japanese forces invade the Aleutian Islands. This is the first invasion of American soil in 128 years.

June 9 - World War II: Nazis burn the Czech village of Lidice as reprisal for the killing of Reinhard Heydrich.

June 10 - World War II: the Gestapo massacred 173 male residents of Lidice, Czechoslovakia in retaliation for the killing of a Nazi official.

June 12 - Holocaust: Future essayist Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.

June 13 - The United States opens its Office of War Information, a center for production of propaganda.

June 19 - Disney Historian and Author Michael Broggie born in Los Angeles.

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July 1 - July 27 - World War II: the First Battle of El Alamein.

July 3 - Guadalcanal falls to the Japanese.

July 9 - Holocaust: Anne Frank's family goes into hiding in an attic above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse.

July 13 - World War II: German U-Boats sink three more merchant ships in Gulf of St. Lawrence.

July 16 - 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.

July 16 - Georges Bégué and others escape from Mauzac prison camp.

July 18 - World War II: The Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me-262 using only its jets for the first time.

July 19 - World War II: 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.

July 21 - 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.

July 22 - Holocaust: The systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto begins.

July 29 - 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.

July 31 - The Oxford Committee of Famine Relief (OXFAM) founded.

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August 7 - World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal begins - US Marines initiate the first American offensive of the war with a landing on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.

August 8 - World War II: In Washington, DC, six German would-be saboteurs are executed (two others were cooperative and received life imprisonment instead).

August 8 - Quit India resolution was passed by the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), which led to the start of a historical civil disobidience movement across India.

August 9 - Indian leader, Mohandas Gandhi is arrested in Bombay by British forces.

August 9 - FC Start, led by Nikolai Trusevich, play football against the German Luftwaffe team Flakelf in Nazi-occupied Kiev. Against all odds, they win 5-3. They are later arrested and tortured, and most are killed.

August 13-14 night - In London instruments detect a massive burst of cosmic rays.

August 16 - Polish-Jewish teacher Janusz Korczak follows a group of Jewish children into Treblinka death camp.

August 19 - World War II: The Dieppe Raid - Allied forces raid Dieppe, France.

August 22 - World War II: Brazil declared war on Germany and Italy.

August 25 - World War II: Japanese marines land at Milne Bay.

August 30 - Luxembourg is formally annexed to the German Reich.

September 3 - Francisco Franco fires foreign minister Serrano Súñer.

September 3 - An attempt by the Germans to liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Lakhva leads to an uprising.

September 5 - World War II: Japanese forces suffer their first defeat on land at the Battle of Milne Bay.

September 12 - RMS Laconia, carrying civilians, Allied soldiers and Italian POWs is torpedoed off the coast of West Africa and sinks.

September 24 - Andrée Borrel and Lise de Baissac became the first female SOE agents to be parachuted into occupied France.

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October 2 - British cruiser Curacao collides with the liner ''Queen Mary'' off the coast of Donegal and sinks - 338 drowned.

October 3 - 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.

October 9 - Statute of Westminster Adoption Act formalizes Australian autonomy.

October 11 - World War II: 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.

October 14 - A German U-boat sinks the ferry SS Caribou, killing 137.

October 16 - Hurricane and flooding in Bombay - 40,000 dead.

October 23 - Award-winning composer and Hollywood songwriter Ralph Rainger ("Thanks for the Memory") is among the 12 people killed in the midair collision between an American Airlines DC-3 airliner and a U.S. Army bomber near Palm Springs, California.

October 23 - November 4 - World War II: the Second Battle of El Alamein.

October 28 - The Alaska Highway is completed.

October 29 - Holocaust: In the United Kingdom, leading clergymen and political figures hold a public meeting to register outrage over Nazi Germany's persecution of Jews.

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November 3 - World War II: Second Battle of El Alamein ends - German forces under Erwin Rommel are forced to retreat during the night.

November 8 - World War II: Operation Torch - United States and United Kingdom forces land in French North Africa.

November 8 - World War II: French Resistance Coup in Algiers, by which 400 French civil resistants neutralized the Vichyist XIXth Army Corps and the Vichyist generals (Juin, Darlan, etc.), so allowing the immediate success of Operation Torch in Algiers, and from there in the whole French North Africa.

November 9 - World War II: U.S serviceman Edward Leonswki hanged at Melbourne's Pentridge Prison for the "Brown-Out" Murders of three women in May.

November 10 - World War II: 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.

November 12 - World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal begins - A naval battle near Guadalcanal starts between Japanese and American forces.

November 13 - World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal - Aviators from the USS ''Enterprise'' sink the Japanese battleship Hiei.

November 15 - World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal ends - Although the United States Navy suffered heavy losses, it was able to retain control of Guadalcanal.

November 19 - World War II: Battle of Stalingrad - Soviet Union forces under General Georgy Zhukov launch the Operation Uranus counterattacks at Stalingrad, turning the tide of the battle in the USSR's favor.

November 21 - 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).

November 22 - World War II: 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.

November 23 - 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 April 3 1943.

November 27 - World War II: At Toulon, the French navy scuttles its ships and submarines to keep them out of Nazi hands.

November 28 - In Boston, Massachusetts, a fire in the Cocoanut Grove night club kills 491 people.

November 28 - The large-scale German "pacification" of Zamojszczyzna region of Poland begins.

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December 2 - 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).

December 4 - Holocaust: In Warsaw, two Christian women, Zofia Kossak and Wanda Filipowicz risk their lives by setting up the Council for the Assistance of the Jews.

December 7 - British commandos conduct Operation Frankton a raid on shipping in Bordeaux harbour.

December 24 - French Admiral Darlan, the former Vichy leader who had switched over to the Allies following the Torch landings, assassinated in Algiers.

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Catavi massacre - Bolivian soldiers shoot miners.

Serial killer Singing Strangler in Melbourne.

Grand Coulee Dam finished in Columbia River.

DDT first used as a pesticide.

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World War II (1939-1945)

Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)

1942 in art

1942 in film

Mrs. Miniver

Bambi

Casablanca starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman

Quattro passi fra le nuvole by Alessandro Blasetti.

1942 in literature

Mythology

1942 in music

"White Christmas" - Bing Crosby

1942 in rail transport

1942 in sports

1942 in television

April 13 - The FCC minimum programming time required of TV stations is cut from 15 hours to four hours a week during the war.

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Roger Angleton, American murderer (d. 1998)

Priscilla Davis, American socialite (d. 2001)

George Negus, Australian author, journalist, and television presenter.

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January 1 - Martin Frost, American politician

January 1 - Gennadi Sarafanov, cosmonaut

January 2 - Hugh Shelton, American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

January 3 - John Thaw, English actor (d. 2002)

January 5 - Maurizio Pollini, Italian pianist

January 5 - Charlie Rose, American talk show host

January 7 - Vasily Alexeev, Soviet weightlifter

January 8 - Stephen Hawking, British physicist

January 8 - Junichiro Koizumi, Prime Minister of Japan

January 8 - Yvette Mimieux, American actress

January 8 - George Passmore, English artist (Gilbert and George)

January 14 - Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal, Chief Justice of India

January 15 - Charo, American singer and actress

January 17 - Muhammad Ali, American boxer

January 17 - Cus D'Amato, boxing manager (d. 1985)

January 17 - Ulf Hoelscher, German violinist

January 17 - Nancy Parsons, American actress (d. 2001)

January 19 - Michael Crawford, singer and actor

January 25 - Carl Eller, American football player

January 25 - Eusébio, Portuguese footballer

January 31 - Derek Jarman, English director and writer (d. 1994)

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February 1 - Terry Jones, Welsh actor and writer

February 2 - Graham Nash, American (English-born) rock musician

February 5 - Roger Staubach, American football player

February 9 - Carole King, American singer and composer

February 12 - Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel

February 13 - Peter Tork, American musician and actor

February 14 - Andrew Robinson, American actor

February 19 - Paul Krause, American football player

February 20 - Phil Esposito, Canadian hockey player

February 21 - Margarethe von Trotta, German actress, film director, and writer

February 24 - Joseph Lieberman, American politician

February 27 - Robert H. Grubbs, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

February 28 - Brian Jones, English musician (The Rolling Stones) (d. 1969)

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March 2 - John Irving, American author

March 2 - Lou Reed, American singer and guitarist

March 4 - Charles C. Krulak, U.S. Marine Corps commander

March 5 - Felipe González Márquez, Spanish politician

March 7 - Tammy Faye Bakker, American evangelist

March 7 - Michael Eisner, American film studio executive

March 9 - John Cale, Welsh composer and musician

March 13 - Dave Cutler, American software engineer

March 13 - Scatman John, American musician (d. 1999)

March 16 - James Soong, Taiwan politician

March 17 - John Wayne Gacy, American serial killer (d. 1994)

March 23 - Walter Rodney, Guyanese historian and political figure

March 25 - Aretha Franklin, American singer

March 25 - Richard O'Brien, English-born actor and writer

March 26 - Erica Jong, American author

March 27 - John E. Sulston, British chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

March 27 - Michael York, English actor

March 28 - Neil Kinnock, British statesman

March 28 - Mike Newell, British film director

March 28 - Conrad Schumann, East German border guard (d. 1998)

March 28 - Jerry Sloan, American basketball coach

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April 2 - Hiroyuki Sakai, Japanese chef

April 3 - Marsha Mason, American actress

April 3 - Wayne Newton, American singer

April 4 - Elizabeth Levy, American author

April 5 - Peter Greenaway, Welsh filmmaker

April 5 - Pascal Couchepin, Swiss Federal Councilor

April 6 - Barry Levinson, American film producer and director

April 8 - Roger Chapman, British rock singer (Family, Streetwalkers)

April 14 - Valeriy Brumel, Russian athlete (d. 2003)

April 14 - Valentin Lebedev, cosmonaut

April 15 - Kenneth Lay, American businessman (d. 2006)

April 26 - Bobby Rydell, American singer

April 26 - Michael Kergin, Canadian diplomat

April 27 - Jim Keltner, American drummer

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May 2 - Jacques Rogge, Belgian International Olympic Committee president

May 5 - Tammy Wynette, American musician (d. 1998)

May 8 - Terry Neill, Northern Irish footballer and football manager

May 9 - John Ashcroft, United States Attorney General

May 12 - Ian Dury, British musician (d. 2000)

May 17 - Taj Mahal, American singer and guitarist

May 18 - Albert Hammond, English-born musician and composer

May 18 - Nobby Stiles, English footballer

May 19 - Gary Kildall, American computer scientist (d. 1994)

May 22 - Theodore Kaczynski, American bomber

May 22 - Calvin Simon, American musician (P Funk)

May 26 - Levon Helm, American musician (The Band)

May 28 - Stanley B. Prusiner, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

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June 3 - Curtis Mayfield, American musician (d. 1999)

June 10 - Preston Manning, Canadian politician

June 12 - Bert Sakmann, German physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate

June 17 - Mohamed ElBaradei, Egyptian International Atomic Energy Agency director, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

June 17 - Roger Steffens, Reggae archivist, actor, author, Bob Marley biographer

June 18 - Roger Ebert, American film critic

June 18 - Paul McCartney, English musician and composer (The Beatles)

June 18 - Hans Vonk, Dutch conductor

June 19 - Ralna English, American singer

June 20 - Brian Wilson, American singer (The Beach Boys)

June 24 - Mick Fleetwood, English drummer (Fleetwood Mac)

June 24 - Bruce Johnston, American musician (The Beach Boys)

June 24 - Michele Lee, American singer, dancer and actress

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July 4 - Floyd Little, American football player

July 4 - Prince Michael of Kent

July 7 - Carmen Duncan, Welsh-born actress

July 10 - Pyotr Klimuk, cosmonaut

July 10 - Ronnie James Dio, American singer

July 13 - Harrison Ford, American actor and producer

July 13 - Roger McGuinn, American musician

July 15 - Mil Mascaras, Mexican professional wrestler

July 17 - Tim Brooke-Taylor, English radio and television personality

July 18 - Adolf Ogi, member of the Swiss Federal Council

July 23 - Myra Hindley, English murderer

July 24 - Chris Sarandon, American actor

July 27 - Dennis Ralston, American tennis player

July 28 - Kaari Utrio, Finnish writer

July 29 - Tony Sirico, American actor

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August 1 - Jerry Garcia, American musician (d. 1995)

August 2 - Isabel Allende, Chilean writer

August 4 - David Lange, Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 2005)

August 7 - Garrison Keillor, American writer and radio host

August 19 - Fred Dalton Thompson, U.S. Senator and actor

August 20 - Isaac Hayes, American singer and actor

August 26 - Dennis Turner, British politician

August 28 - Sterling Morrison, American musician (d. 1995)

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September 1 - John Lange, American scientist

September 14 - Bernard MacLaverty, Irish writer

September 17 - Desmond Lynam, British TV presenter

September 19 - Freda Payne, American singer and actress

September 22 - David Stern, American commissioner of the National Basketball Association

September 28 - Marshall Bell, American actor

September 29 - Madeline Kahn, American actress (d. 1999)

September 29 - Jean-Luc Ponty, French jazz violinist

September 30 - Frankie Lymon, American singer (d. 1968)

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October 10 - Peter Coyote, American actor

October 11 - Amitabh Bachchan, Indian actor

October 12 - Melvin Franklin, American musician (d. 1995)

October 13 - Jerry Jones, American football team owner

October 19 - Andrew Vachss, American author and attorney

October 20 - Earl Hindman, American actor (d. 2003)

October 20 - Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, German biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

October 21 - Elvin Bishop, American musician

October 22 - Annette Funicello, American actress

October 23 - Michael Crichton, American author

October 26 - Bob Hoskins, British actor

October 31 - Paul S. George, American professor & historian of South Florida

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November 1 - Larry Flynt, American publisher

November 1 - Ralph Klein, Premier of Alberta

November 8 - Angel Cordero Jr., Puerto Rican jockey

November 8 - Fernando Sorrentino, Argentine writer

November 10 - Robert F. Engle, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate

November 10 - Hans-Rudolf Merz, Swiss Federal Councilor

November 13 - John P. Hammond, American singer

November 15 - Daniel Barenboim, Argentine-born pianist and conductor

November 17 - Martin Scorsese, American film director

November 20 - Joe Biden, U.S. Senator from Delaware

November 22 - Francis K. Butagira, Ugandan Ambassador

November 27 - Henry Carr, American athlete

November 27 - Jimi Hendrix, American musician (d. 1970)

November 27 - Manolo Blahnik, Spanish Shoe designer

November 28 - Paul Warfield, American football player

November 29 - Michael Craze, British actor (d. 1998)

November 29 - Philippe Huttenlocher, Swiss baritone

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December 4 - Gemma Jones, British actress

December 6 - Peter Handke, Austrian novelist

December 7 - Peter Tomarken, American game show host (d. 2006)

December 9 - Dick Butkus, American football player

December 11 - Donna Mills, American actress

December 17 - Paul Butterfield, American musician (d. 1987)

December 20 - Bob Hayes, American athlete

December 21 - Carla Thomas, American singer

December 29 - Rajesh Khanna, Indian actor

December 31 - Andy Summers, English Guitarist

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Moammar Al Qadhafi, leader of Libya

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January 6 - Henri de Baillet-Latour, Belgian International Olympic Committee president (b. 1876)

January 14 - Porfirio Barba-Jacob, Colombian poet and writer (b. 1883)

January 16 - Carole Lombard, American actress (b. 1908)

January 26 - Felix Hausdorff, German mathematician (suicide) (b. 1868)

February 14 - Mirosław Ferić, Polish pilot of the No. 303 Squadron in Northolt (b. 1915)

February 16 - Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, son of Queen Victoria (b. 1850)

February 19 - Frank Abbandando, American gangster (executed) (b. 1910)

February 28 - Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral (sinking ship) (b. 1889)

March 1 - Cornelius Vanderbilt III, American military officer, inventor, and engineer (b. 1873)

March 8 - José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban chess player (b. 1888)

March 10 - William Henry Bragg, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1862)

March 21 - J.S Woodsworth, Canadian politician (b. 1874)

April 15 - Robert Musil, Austrian-born novelist (b. 1880)

April 17 - Jean Baptiste Perrin, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1870)

April 18 - Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, American sculptor and socialite (b. 1875)

April 24 - Dinanath Mangeshkar, Indian singer and composer (b. 1900)

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May 3 - Thorvald Stauning, Prime Minister of Denmark (b. 1873)

May 7 - Felix Weingartner, Yugoslavian conductor (b. 1863)

May 27 - Chen Duxiu, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (b. 1879)

May 29 - John Barrymore, American actor (b. 1882)

June 4 - Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the Nazi Reich Main Security Office and Reich governor of Bohemia and Moravia (assassinated) (b. 1904)

June 7 - Alan Blumlein, English electronics engineer (b. 1903)

June 30 - William Henry Jackson, American photographer (b. 1843)

July 23 - Adam Czerniakow, Polish engineer and senator (suicide) (b. 1880)

July 26 - Roberto Arlt, Argentine writer (b. 1900)

July 28 - William Matthew Flinders Petrie, English Egyptologist (b. 1853)

August 3 - Richard Willstätter, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1872)

September 14 - Ezra Seymour Gosney, American philanthropist and eugenicist (b. 1855)

October 23 - Ralph Rainger, American composer and Hollywood songwriter (b. 1901)

November 1 - Hugo Distler, German composer (b. 1908)

November 5 - George M. Cohan, American songwriter and entertainer (b. 1878)

November 19 - Bruno Schulz, Polish writer and painter (shot) (b. 1892)

November 21 - Leopold Graf Berchtold, Austro-Hungarian foreign minister (b. 1863)

December 7 - Orland Steen Loomis, Governor-elect of Wisconsin (b. 1893)

December 22 - Franz Boas, German anthropologist (b. 1858)

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Physics - not awarded

Chemistry - not awarded

Medicine - not awarded

Literature - not awarded

Peace - not awarded

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List of ship launches in 1942

List of ship commissionings in 1942

List of ship decommissionings in 1942

List of shipwrecks in 1942