January 1, 1942

1942Dennis Archer, American lawyer and politician, 67th Mayor of Detroit^[†]

Dennis Wayne Archer is an American lawyer, jurist and former politician from Michigan. A Democrat, Archer served as Justice on the Michigan Supreme Court and as mayor of Detroit. He later served as president of the American Bar Association, becoming the first black president of the organization, which, until 1943, had barred African-American lawyers from membership.

1942Anthony Hamilton-Smith, 3rd Baron Colwyn, English dentist and politician^[†]

Ian Anthony Hamilton-Smith, 3rd Baron Colwyn,, commonly known as Anthony Hamilton-Smith, was a British peer, politician and dentist.

1942Country Joe McDonald, American singer-songwriter and guitarist^[†]

Joseph Allen "Country Joe" McDonald is an American singer, songwriter and musician who was the lead vocalist of the 1960s psychedelic rock group Country Joe and the Fish.

1942Alassane Ouattara, Ivorian economist and politician, President of the Ivory Coast^[†]

Alassane Dramane Ouattara is an Ivorian politician and economist who has been President of Ivory Coast since 2010. An economist by profession, he worked for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Central Bank of West African States, and was the Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire from November 1990 to December 1993, appointed to that post by then-President Félix Houphouët-Boigny. Ouattara became the president of the Rally of the Republicans (RDR), an Ivorian political party, in 1999.

1942Gennadi Sarafanov, Russian pilot and cosmonaut (died 2005)^[†]

Gennady Vasiliyevich Sarafanov was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on the Soyuz 15 spaceflight in 1974. This mission was intended to dock with the space station Salyut 3, but failed to do so after the docking system malfunctioned.

1942The Declaration by United Nations is signed by twenty-six nations.^[†]

The Declaration by United Nations was the main treaty that formalized the Allies of World War II and was signed by 47 national governments between 1942 and 1945. On 1 January 1942, during the Arcadia Conference in Washington D.C., the Allied "Big Four"—the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China—signed a short document which later came to be known as the United Nations Declaration, and the next day the representatives of 22 other nations added their signatures.