Events from the year 1742 in Denmark.
Incumbents Monarch – Christian VI Prime minister – Johan Ludvig Holstein-Ledreborg
Events 13 November– The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters is founded as a historical Collegium Antiquitatum. It was founded by secretary of state, Count Johan Ludvig Holstein and the history professor Hans Gram.
Undated
Births
JanuaryMarch 5 February Frederik Christian Willerup, sculptor (died 1819) 16 February – Niels Lunde Reiersen, government official businessman (died 1795)
AprilJune 12 April – Søren Gyldendal, bookstore owner, publisher (died 1802) 14 June Jens Bruun de Neergaard, judge and landowner (died 1788)
JulySeptember 5 July Henrik Gerner, naval officer and shipbuilder (died 1787) 9 August – Johan Christian Schønheyder, bishop (died 1803) 19 August Andreas Collstrop, timber merchant and one of Copenhagen's 32 Men (died 1820)
OctoberDecember 7 October – Johan Zoëga, entomologist and botanist (died 1788)
Deaths
26 February Knud Nielsen Benstrup, (born 1692) 22 September – Frederic Louis Norden, naval captain and explorer (born 1708) 31 December Christian Hans von Warnstedt, county governor (born 1675)
References