1941

**1941 in other calendars**
Gregorian calendar	1941; MCMXLI
Ab urbe condita	2693
Armenian calendar	1390; ԹՎ ՌՅՂ
Bahá'í calendar	97 – 98
Bengali calendar	1348
Berber calendar	2891
Buddhist calendar	2485
Burmese calendar	1303
Byzantine calendar	7449 – 7450
Chinese calendar	庚辰年十二月初四日; (4577/4637-12-4) — to — 辛巳年十一月十四日; (4578/4638-11-14)
Coptic calendar	1657 – 1658
Ethiopian calendar	1933 – 1934
Hebrew calendar	5701 – 5702
Hindu calendars
- Bikram Samwat	1997 – 1998
- Shaka Samvat	1863 – 1864
- Kali Yuga	5042 – 5043
Holocene calendar	11941
Iranian calendar	1319 – 1320
Islamic calendar	1359 – 1360
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 16; (昭和16年)
Korean calendar	4274
Thai solar calendar	2484
	v • d • e

1941 by topic
	Subject: Archaeology – Architecture – Art – Aviation – Film – Literature (Poetry) – Meteorology – Music (Country) – Rail transport – Radio – Science – Sports – Television
	Countries: Australia – Canada – China – Ecuador – France – Germany – India – Ireland – Italy – Japan – Malaysia – Mexico – New Zealand – Norway – Palestine Mandate – Philippines – Singapore – South Africa– Soviet Union – UK – USA
	Leaders: Sovereign states – State leaders – Religious leaders – Law
	Categories: Births – Deaths – Works – Introductions – Establishments – Disestablishments – Awards
	v • d • e

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1910s 1920s 1930s – 1940s – 1950s 1960s 1970s
Years:	1938 1939 1940 – 1941 – 1942 1943 1944

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For other uses, see 1941 (disambiguation).

Year 1941 (MCMXLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link will display 1941 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Contents:
Events of 1941 - Jan. ^. Feb. ^. March ^. April - May ^. June ^. July ^. Aug. - Sept. ^. Oct. ^. Nov. ^. Dec. - Undated ^. Ongoing Births Deaths Nobel Prizes Ship events See also - Notes - External links

[edit] Events

(Below, many events of World War II have the "World War II" prefix.)

[edit] January

January 1 – Thailand Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram decrees January 1 as the official start of the Thai solar calendar new year (thus the previous year that began April 1 had only 9 months).
January 3 – A decree in Germany outlaws the use of Blackletter Gothic typefaces in favour of Antiqua.
January 4 – The short subject Elmer's Pet Rabbit is released, marking the second appearance of Bugs Bunny, and also the first to have his name on a title card.
January 6 – The keel of the USS Missouri is laid at the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn.
January 10 – Lend-Lease is introduced into the U.S. Congress.
January 13 – All persons born in Puerto Rico since this day are declared U.S. citizens by birth, through U.S. federal law 8 U.S.C. § 1402.
January 14 – World War II: Commerce raiding hilfskreuzer Pinguin captures the Norwegian whaling fleet near Bouvet Island, effectively ending Southern Ocean whaling for the duration of the war.^[1]
January 15 – John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford E. Berry describe the workings of the Atanasoff–Berry Computer in print.
January 19 – World War II: British troops attack Italian-held Eritrea.
January 20 – Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes swears in U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt for his third term.
January 21 – World War II – Battle of Tobruk: Australian and British forces attack Tobruk, Libya.
January 22 – World War II: British troops capture Tobruk from the Italians.
January 23 – Aviator Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.
January 27 – World War II – Attack on Pearl Harbor: Joseph C. Grew, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, reports to Washington a rumor overheard at a diplomatic reception concerning a planned surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
January 30 – World War II – Australians capture Darnah, Libya from the Italians.

January 21 Tobruk

[edit] February

February 3 – World War II: The Nazis forcibly restore Pierre Laval to office in occupied Vichy France.
February 4 – World War II: The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.
February 5 – Air Training Corps: The Air Training Corps was formed.
February 6 – World War II – Fall of Benghazi to the Western Desert Force. Lieutenant-General Erwin Rommel is appointed commander of Afrika Korps.
February 8 – World War II – The U.S. House of Representatives passes the Lend-Lease Act (260–165).
February 9 – Winston Churchill, in a worldwide broadcast, tells the United States to show its support by sending arms to the British: "Give us the tools, and we will finish the job."
February 12
- World War II: Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli.
- Reserve Constable Albert Alexander, a patient at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, becomes the first person treated with penicillin intravenously, by Howard Florey’s team. He reacts positively but there is insufficient supply of the drug to reverse his terminal infection. A successful treatment is achieved during May.^[2]
February 14 – World War II – Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura begins his duties as Japanese Ambassador to the United States.
February 19–February 22 – World War II: Three Nights' Blitz over Swansea, South Wales: Over these 3 nights of intensive bombing, which last a total of 13 hours and 48 minutes, Swansea's town centre is almost completely obliterated by the 896 high explosive bombs employed by the Luftwaffe. A total of 397 casualties and 230 deaths are reported.
February 23: Glenn T. Seaborg isolates and discovers plutonium.

[edit] March

March 1 – World War II: Bulgaria signs the Tripartite Pact, thus joining the Axis powers.
March 1 – W47NV begins operations in Nashville, Tennessee, becoming the first FM radio station.
March 1 – Arthur L. Bristol becomes Rear Admiral for the U.S. Navy's Support Force, Atlantic Fleet.
March 4 – World War II: Operation Claymore - British Commandos carry out a successful raid on the Lofoten Islands off the north coast of Norway.
March 8 – World War II: The U.S. Senate passes the Lend-Lease Act (60–31).
March 11 – World War II: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act into law.
March 15 – Richard C. Hottelet is arrested by the Gestapo on "suspicion of espionage". He is eventually released in July as part of a prisoner exchange.
March 16 – A group of U.S. warships arrive in Auckland, New Zealand on a goodwill visit. On March 20, they visit Sydney, Australia.
March 17 – In Washington, D.C., the National Gallery of Art is officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
March 17 – British Minister of Labour Ernest Bevin calls for women to fill vital jobs.
March 22 – Washington's Grand Coulee Dam begins to generate electricity.
March 24 – World War II: Rommel launches his first offensive in Cyrenaica.
March 25 – World War II: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia joins the Axis powers in Vienna.
March 27 – World War II: An anti-Axis coup d'état in Yugoslavia forces Prince Paul into exile; 17-year-old King Peter II assumes power.
March 27 – World War II – Attack on Pearl Harbor: Empire of Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa arrives in Honolulu, Hawaii and begins to study the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
March 27 – World War II – Battle of Cape Matapan: Off the Peloponnesus coast in the Mediterranean, British naval forces defeat those of Italy, sinking 5 warships. Battle ends on March 29.
March 30 – All German, Italian, and Danish ships anchored in United States waters are taken into "protective custody".
March 30 – German Lorenz code machine operator sent a 4,000 character message twice, allowing British mathematician Bill Tutte to decipher the machine's coding mechanism.^[3]

[edit] April

April 4 – World War II: Axis forces capture Benghazi.
April 6 – World War II: Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece.
April 9 – The U.S. acquires full military defense rights in Greenland.
April 10 – World War II: The U.S. destroyer USS Niblack, while picking up survivors from a sunken Dutch freighter, drops depth charges on a German U-Boat (the first "shot in anger" fired by America against Germany).^{[citation needed]}
April 12 – World War II: German troops enter Belgrade.
April 13 – The Soviet Union and Japan sign a neutrality pact.
April 15 – World War II: Axis forces reach Halfaya Pass on the Libyan-Egyptian frontier.
April 17 – World War II: The Yugoslav Royal Army capitulates.
April 18 – World War II: Prime Minister of Greece Alexandros Koryzis commits suicide as German troops approach Athens.
April 19 – Bertolt Brecht's anti-war play Mother Courage and Her Children (German: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder) receives its first theatrical production at the Schauspielhaus Zürich.
April 21 – World War II: Greece capitulates. Commonwealth troops and some elements of the Greek Army withdraw to Crete.
April 23 – The America First Committee holds its first mass rally in New York City, with Charles Lindbergh as keynote speaker.
April 25 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, at his regular press conference, criticizes Charles Lindbergh by comparing him to the Copperheads of the Civil War period. In response, Lindbergh resigns his commission in the U.S. Army Air Corps Reserve on April 28.
April 27 – World War II: German troops enter Athens.

[edit] May

May 1 – The breakfast cereal Cheerios is introduced as CheeriOats by General Mills.
May 1 – Orson Welles' film Citizen Kane premieres in New York City.
May 1 – The first Defense Bonds and Defense Savings Stamps go on sale in the United States, to help fund the greatly increased production of military equipment.
May 5 – World War II: Emperor Haile Selassie enters Addis Ababa, which had been liberated from Italian forces; this date has been since commemorated as Liberation Day in Ethiopia.
May 6 – At California's March Field, entertainer Bob Hope performs his first USO Show.
May 9 – World War II: The German submarine U-110 is captured by the British Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma cryptography machine, which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded German messages.
May 10 – World War II: The British House of Commons is damaged by the Luftwaffe in an air raid.
May 10 – Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland, claiming to be on a peace mission.
May 12 – Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin.
May 15 – The first British jet aircraft, the Gloster E.28/39, is flown.
May 15 – Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak begins as the New York Yankee center fielder goes one for 4 against Chicago White Sox Pitcher Eddie Smith.
May 20 – World War II: The Battle of Crete begins as Germany launches an airborne invasion of Crete.
May 24 – World War II: In the North Atlantic, the German battleship Bismarck sinks battlecruiser HMS Hood, killing all but 3 crewmen aboard the pride of the Royal Navy.
May 26 – World War II: In the North Atlantic, Fairey Swordfish aircraft from the carrier HMS Ark Royal cripple the steering of Bismarck in an aerial torpedo attack.
May 27 – World War II: President Roosevelt proclaims an "unlimited national emergency."
May 27 – World War II:Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic, killing 2,300.
May 30 – World War II: Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas tear down the Nazi swastika on the Acropolis in Athens, and replace it with the Greek flag

[edit] June

June 5 – Four thousand Chongqing residents are asphyxiated in a bomb shelter during the Bombing of Chongqing.
June 8 – World War II: British and Free French forces invade Syria.
June 5 – A Serbian ammunition depot explodes at Smederevo on the outskirts of Belgrade, Serbia, killing 2,500, and injuring over 4,500.
June 13 – TASS, the official Soviet news agency, denies reports of tension between Germany and the Soviet Union.
June 14 – Mass deportations by Soviet Union authorities take place in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
June 14 – All German and Italian assets in the United States are frozen.
June 16 – All German and Italian consulates in the United States are ordered closed and their staffs to leave the country by July 10.
June 20 – Army Air Forces.
June 20 – Walt Disney's live-action animated feature, The Reluctant Dragon, is released.
June 22 – World War II: Italy and Romania declare war on the Soviet Union.
June 22 – World War II: Germany invades the Soviet Union under Operation Barbarossa.
June 22 – World War II: Winston Churchill promises all possible British assistance to the Soviet Union in a worldwide broadcast: "Any man or state who fights against Nazidom will have our aid. Any man or state who marches with Hitler is our foe."
June 22 – World War II: The First Sisak Partisan Brigade, the first anti-fascist armed unit in occupied Europe, is founded by partisans near Sisak, Croatia.
June 23 – World War II: Hungary and Slovakia declare war on the Soviet Union.
June 24 – Founding of RIA Novosti.
June 25 – World War II: Finland attacks the Soviet Union to seek the opportunity of revenge in the Continuation War.
June 28 – World War II: Albania declares war on the Soviet Union.

[edit] July

July – The British Army's Special Air Service is formed.
July 2 – World War II: Empire of Japan calls up 1 million men for military service.
July 3 – World War II: Joseph Stalin, in his first address since the German invasion, calls upon the Soviet people to carry out a "scorched earth" policy of resistance to the bitter end.
July 4 – The Mass murder of Polish scientists and writers is committed by German troops in the captured Polish city of Lwów.
July 5 – World War II: German troops reach the Dnieper River.
July 5 – July 31 – War is fought between Peru and Ecuador.
July 7 – World War II: American forces take over the defense of Iceland from the British.
July 7 – World War II: German troops take over Estonia from the Soviets.
July 13 – World War II: Montenegro starts the first popular uprising in Europe against the Axis Powers.
July 14 – World War II: Vichy France signs armistice terms, ending all fighting in Syria and Lebanon.
July 17 – Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak ends.
July 19 – World War II: A BBC broadcast by "Colonel Britton" calls on the people of occupied Europe to resist the Nazis under the slogan "V for Victory".
July 19 – The first episode The Midnight Snack in which Tom and Jerry are officially named, more than a year after their first production Puss Gets the Boot.
July 25 – The Postal Code system was introduced for the first time in Germany.
July 26 – World War II: In response to the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the seizure of all Japanese assets in the United States.
July 26 – World War II: General Douglas MacArthur is named commander of all U.S. forces in the Philippines; the Philippines Army is ordered nationalized by President Roosevelt.
July 31 – World War II – Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring orders S.S. General Reinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired Final Solution of the Jewish question."

[edit] August

August – Political Warfare Executive is formed in the United Kingdom.
August 1 – The first Jeep is produced.^{[citation needed]}
August 6 – Six-year-old Elaine Esposito goes to an appendix operation in Florida and lapses into a coma. She dies in 1978, still in a coma.
August 9 – Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet at Argentia, Newfoundland and Labrador. The Atlantic Charter is created as a result.
August 16 – The HMS Mercury, Royal Navy Signals School and Combined Signals School open at Leydene, near Petersfield, Hampshire, England.
August 18 – Adolf Hitler orders a temporary halt to Nazi Germany's systematic euthanasia of the mentally ill and handicapped due to protests. However, graduates of the T-4 Euthanasia Program are then transferred to concentration camps, where they continue in their trade.
August 22 – World War II – France: The German Occupation Authority announces that anyone found either working for or aiding the Free French will be sentenced to death.
August 24 – World War II: A Luftwaffe bomb hits an Estonian steamer with 3,500 Soviet-mobilized Estonian men on board, killing 598 of them.
August 25 – World War II: Operation Countenance begins with United Kingdom and Soviet forces invading Iran.
August 27 – World War II – Pierre Laval is shot in an assassination attempt at Versailles, France.
August 28 – World War II: The Soviets announce the destruction of the massive Dnieper River dam at Zaporozhye, to prevent its capture by the Germans.
August 31 – The Great Gildersleeve debuts on NBC Radio.

[edit] September

September 6 – Holocaust: The requirement to wear the Star of David with the word "Jew" inscribed, is extended to all Jews over the age of 6 in German-occupied areas.
September 8 – World War II – The Siege of Leningrad begins: German forces begin a siege against the Soviet Union's second-largest city, Leningrad. Stalin orders the Volga Germans deported to Siberia.
September 11 – World War II: Charles Lindbergh, at an America First Committee rally in Des Moines, Iowa, accuses "the British, the Jewish, and the Roosevelt administration" of leading the United States toward war. Widespread condemnation of Lindbergh follows.
September 12 – World War II: The first snowfall is reported on the Russian front.
September 14 – The State of Vermont declares war on Germany.
September 15 – The Estonian Self-Administration, headed by Hjalmar Mäe, is appointed by the German military administration.
September 16 – Shah Reza Pahlavi of Iran is forced to resign in favor of his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran, under pressure from the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union.
September 22 The town of Reshetylivka in the Soviet Union is occupied by German forces.
September 27 – The first Liberty Ship, the SS Patrick Henry, is launched at Baltimore, Maryland.
September 29 – World War II: The Moscow Conference begins; U.S. representative Averill Harriman and British representative Lord Beaverbrook meet with Soviet foreign minister Molotov to arrange urgent assistance for Russia.
September 29 and September 30 – Holocaust: Babi Yar massacre – German troops, assisted by Ukrainian police and local collaborators, killed 33,771 Jews of Kiev, Ukraine.

[edit] October

mid-month – First production P-38E Lightning fighter produced by Lockheed.
October 2 – World War II: Operation Typhoon begins as Germany launches an all-out offensive against Moscow.
October 7 – John Curtin becomes the 14th Prime Minister of Australia.
October 8 – World War II: In their invasion of the Soviet Union, Germany reaches the Sea of Azov with the capture of Mariupol.
October 11 - October 12 - Fire destroys a Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Fall River, Massachusetts, consuming 15,850 tons of rubber and causing a setback to the United States war effort.^[4]
October 16 – World War II: The Soviet Union government moves to Kuibyshev (modern Samara), but Stalin remains in Moscow.
October 17 – World War II: The destroyer USS Kearny is torpedoed and damaged near Iceland, killing 11 sailors (the first American military casualties of the war).
October 18 – General Hideki Tojo becomes the 40th Prime Minister of Japan.
October 21 – World War II: The Germans rampage in Yugoslavia, killing thousands of civilians.
October 23 – Walt Disney's animated film Dumbo is released.
October 24 – Franz von Werra disappears during a flight over the North Sea.
October 30 – World War II: Franklin Delano Roosevelt approves US$1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union.
October 31 – Last day of carving on Mount Rushmore.
October 31 – World War II: The destroyer USS Reuben James is torpedoed by a German U-boat near Iceland, killing more than 100 United States Navy sailors.

[edit] November

November 6 – World War II: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin addresses the Soviet Union for only the second time during his three-decade rule (the first time was earlier that year on July 2). He states that even though 350,000 troops have been killed in German attacks so far, that the Germans have lost 4.5 million soldiers (a gross exaggeration) and that Soviet victory is near.
November 7 – World War II: The Soviet hospital Ship Armenia is sunk by German planes while evacuating refugees, wounded military and the staff of several Crimean hospitals. It is estimated that over 5,000 people die in the sinking.
November 10 – In a speech at the Mansion House in London, Winston Churchill promises, "should the United States become involved in war with Japan, the British declaration will follow within the hour."
November 12 – World War II: As Battle of Moscow begins, temperatures around Moscow drop to -12 °C, and the Soviet Union launches ski troops for the first time against the freezing German forces near the city.
November 13 – World War II: The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal is hit by German U-boat U-81.
November 14 – World War II: The HMS Ark Royal capsizes and sinks, having been torpedoed by U-81.
November 17 – World War II – Attack on Pearl Harbor: Joseph Grew, the United States ambassador to Japan, cables to Washington a warning that Japan may strike suddenly and unexpectedly at any time.
November 18 – World War II: Operation Crusader in North Africa begins
November 19 – World War II: Both commerce raiding hilfskreuzer Kormoran and Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney sink following a battle off the coast of Western Australia. There are no survivors from the 645 Australian sailors aboard Sydney.^[5]
November 21 – The radio program King Biscuit Time is broadcast for the first time (it later becomes the longest running daily radio broadcast in history and the most famous live blues radio program).
November 22 – World War II: HMS Devonshire sinks commerce raiding hilfskreuzer Atlantis, ending the longest warship cruise of the war. (622 days without in-port replenishment or repair)^[6]
November 26 – World War II – Attack on Pearl Harbor: A fleet of 6 aircraft carriers commanded by Japanese Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo leaves Hitokapu Bay for Pearl Harbor under strict radio silence
November 27 – A group of young men stop traffic on U.S. Highway 99 south of Yreka, California, handing out fliers proclaiming the establishment of the State of Jefferson.
November 27 – World War II: Germans reach their closest approach to Moscow. They are subsequently frozen by cold weather and attacks by the Soviets.

[edit] December

USS Arizona ablaze after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor

December 1 – World War II: Fiorello La Guardia, Mayor of New York City and Director of the Office of Civilian Defense, signs Administrative Order 9, creating the Civil Air Patrol under the authority of the United States Army Air Force.
December 1 – World War II: A state of emergency is declared in Malaya and the Straits Settlements.
December 2 – World War II – Attack on Pearl Harbor: The code message "Climb Mount Niitaka" is transmitted to the Japanese task force, indicating that negotiations have broken down and that the attack is to be carried out according to plan.
December 4 – The State of Jefferson is declared in Yreka, California, with judge John Childs as a governor.
December 6 – World War II – Soviet counterattacks begin against German troops encircling Moscow. Wehrmacht is subsequently pushed back over 200 miles.
December 6 – World War II – The United Kingdom declares war on Finland.
December 7, (December 8, Japan standard time) – The Japanese Navy launches a surprise attack on the United States fleet at Pearl Harbor, thus drawing the United States into World War II. The attack is announced on radio stations in the US at about 2:26 p.m. EST (19.26 GMT).
December 7 – Tobruk's garrison is relieved.
December 8 – World War II: The United States, United Kingdom, China and The Netherlands officially declare war on the Empire of Japan.
December 8 – President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Infamy" Address to a Joint Session of Congress at 12:30 p.m. EST (17.30 GMT) and transmitted live over all four major national networks attracts the largest audience ever for an American radio broadcast, over 81% of homes.^[7]
December 8 – World War II: Empire of Japan launches invasions in Hong Kong, Malaya, Manila, Singapore and the Philippines.
December 10 – World War II: The British battleships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk by Japanese aircraft in the South China Sea north of Singapore.
December 11 – World War II: Germany and Italy declare war on the United States. The U.S. responds in kind.
December 12 – World War II: Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States.
December 12 – World War II: British India declares war on Empire of Japan.
December 12 – World War II: The United States seizes the French ship SS Normandie.
December 12 – World War II: The Kimura Detachment of the Japanese Imperial forces is occupied in Legaspi, Albay in Eastern Philippines.
December 13 – Sweden's low temperature record of -53°C is set in a village within the Vilhelmina Municipality.
December 19 – World War II: Hitler becomes Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the German Army.
December 23 – World War II: A second Japanese landing attempt on Wake Island is successful, and the American garrison surrenders after a full night and morning of fighting.
December 24 – World War II: British forces capture Benghazi.
December 25 – World War II: The British and Canadians are defeated by the Japanese at Hong Kong.
December 26 – World War II: Winston Churchill becomes the first British Prime Minister to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress.
December 27 – World War II: British Commandos raid the Norwegian port of Vaagso, causing Hitler to reinforce the garrison and defenses, drawing vital troops away from other areas.

[edit] Undated

The Valley of Geysers is discovered in Russia.
Results of the Ives–Stilwell experiment are published, showing that ions radiate at frequencies affected by their motion.
In Sweden, Victor Hasselblad forms the Hasselblad Camera Company.
The Indochina Communist party, led by Ho Chi Minh, combines with the Nationalist party to form the Viet Minh.

[edit] Ongoing

Japanese Occupation of the Philippines (1941–1945)
Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945)
World War II (1939–1945)