1542

1542 (MDXLII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar, the 1542nd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 542nd year of the 2nd millennium, the 42nd year of the 16th century, and the 3rd year of the 1540s decade. As of the start of 1542, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which was the dominant calendar of the time.

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	15th century – 16th century – 17th century
Decades:	1510s  1520s  1530s  – 1540s –  1550s  1560s  1570s
Years:	1539 1540 1541 – 1542 – 1543 1544 1545

1542 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1542 MDXLII
Ab urbe condita	2295
Armenian calendar	991 ԹՎ ՋՂԱ
Assyrian calendar	6292
Balinese saka calendar	1463–1464
Bengali calendar	949
Berber calendar	2492
English Regnal year	33 Hen. 8 – 34 Hen. 8
Buddhist calendar	2086
Burmese calendar	904
Byzantine calendar	7050–7051
Chinese calendar	辛丑年 (Metal Ox) 4238 or 4178     — to — 壬寅年 (Water Tiger) 4239 or 4179
Coptic calendar	1258–1259
Discordian calendar	2708
Ethiopian calendar	1534–1535
Hebrew calendar	5302–5303
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1598–1599
- Shaka Samvat	1463–1464
- Kali Yuga	4642–4643
Holocene calendar	11542
Igbo calendar	542–543
Iranian calendar	920–921
Islamic calendar	948–949
Japanese calendar	Tenbun 11 (天文１１年)
Javanese calendar	1460–1461
Julian calendar	1542 MDXLII
Korean calendar	3875
Minguo calendar	370 before ROC 民前370年
Nanakshahi calendar	74
Thai solar calendar	2084–2085
Tibetan calendar	阴金牛年 (female Iron-Ox) 1668 or 1287 or 515     — to — 阳水虎年 (male Water-Tiger) 1669 or 1288 or 516

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