1742
Handel's Messiah Premieres in Dublin
George Frideric Handel, out of fashion in London and deep in debt, premiered his English-language oratorio at the New Music Hall on Fishamble Street. Dublin's audience was rapturous; ladies had been asked to leave their hoops at home to fit more listeners in. The 'Hallelujah' chorus would outlast every opera he ever wrote.
Celsius Proposes His Temperature Scale
The Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius, observing water's reliable boiling and freezing, proposed a centigrade scale. His version ran backwards: zero for boiling, one hundred for freezing. After his death a colleague inverted it to the modern arrangement. Two Baltic Protestants had given the world its two competing thermometric languages within thirty years.
Fall of Walpole
After twenty-one years at the Treasury, Robert Walpole resigned under opposition pressure over the handling of the Spanish war. He was made Earl of Orford and retired to Houghton Hall to admire his paintings. The office of prime minister, which he had not asked for, survived him. British party politics would not.
Goldbach's Conjecture
In a letter to Euler, the Prussian mathematician Christian Goldbach conjectured that every even number greater than two was the sum of two primes. Euler refined it. Neither could prove it. Three centuries later, despite trillions of computer checks and partial proofs, the conjecture remains unresolved, a beautiful unfinished line across mathematics.
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Frequently asked
What happened in the year 1742?
Saeculum lists 4 curated events from 1742. The most significant is Handel's Messiah Premieres in Dublin: George Frideric Handel, out of fashion in London and deep in debt, premiered his English-language oratorio at the New Music Hall on Fishamble Street.
What era was 1742 part of?
1742 falls within the Enlightenment (1651-1800). Reason, revolution, and the first global wars.
Which regions saw notable events in 1742?
The curated events from 1742 span Europe.