1941

Template:Use mdy dates Template:Events by month Template:Year dab Template:Multiple image Template:Year nav Template:Sidebar Template:Year in various calendars Template:Sister project Template:Year article header The Correlates of War project estimates this to be the deadliest year in human history in terms of conflict deaths, placing the death toll at 3.49 million. However, the Uppsala Conflict Data Program estimates that the subsequent year, 1942, was the deadliest such year. Death toll estimates for both 1941 and 1942 range from 2.28 to 7.71 million each.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:TOC limit

Events

Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.

January

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

January–August – 10,072 men, women and children with mental and physical disabilities are asphyxiated with carbon monoxide in a gas chamber, at Hadamar Euthanasia Centre in Germany, in the first phase of mass killings under the Aktion T4 program here.
January 1 – Thailand's 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 (Normalschrifterlass) promulgated in Germany by Martin Bormann, on behalf of Adolf Hitler, requires replacement of blackletter typefaces by Antiqua.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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 5 – WWII: Battle of Bardia in Libya: Australian and British troops defeat Italian forces, the first battle of the war in which an Australian Army formation takes part.
January 6
- During his State of the Union address, President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt presents his Four Freedoms, as fundamental global human rights.
- The keel of battleship Template:USS is laid at the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn.
January 10 – The Lend-Lease Act is introduced into the United States Congress.
January 11 – WWII: The British Royal Navy light cruiser Template:HMS is bombed, catches fire and has to be sunk off Malta, with the loss of 81 crew.
January 13 – All persons born in Puerto Rico since this day are declared U.S. citizens by birth, through U.S. federal law.<ref>Template:UnitedStatesCode.</ref>
January 14
- WWII: Commerce raiding German auxiliary cruiser Pinguin captures the Norwegian whaling fleet near Bouvet Island, effectively ending Southern Ocean whaling for the duration of the war.<ref>Template:Cite book.</ref>
- In a BBC radio broadcast from London, Victor de Laveleye asks all Belgians to use the letter "V" as a rallying sign, being the first letter of victoire (victory) in French and of vrijheid (freedom) in Dutch. This is the beginning of the "V campaign" which sees "V" graffities on the walls of Belgium and later all of Europe and introduces the use of the "V sign" for victory and freedom. Winston Churchill adopts the sign soon afterwards, though he sometimes gets it the wrong way around and uses the common insult gesture.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
January 15 – John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry describe the workings of the Atanasoff–Berry computer in print.
January 19 – WWII: British troops attack Italian-held Eritrea in Africa.
January 22
- WWII: Battle of Tobruk: Australian and British forces capture Tobruk from the Italians.
- In Sweden, Victor Hasselblad registers the Hasselblad Camera Company.
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 – WWII: Joseph 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 28 – Subhas Chandra Bose, the chief of the separatist Indian National Army, reaches Kabul, Afghanistan by successfully evading the British authorities in British India.
January 30 – WWII: Australians capture Derna, Libya, from the Italians.

February

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

February 3 – WWII: The Nazis forcibly restore Pierre Laval to the office of Prime Minister in occupied Vichy France.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

February 4 – WWII: The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.
February 5 – The Air Training Corps is formed in the United Kingdom.
February 5–April 1 – WWII: Battle of Keren – British and Free French Forces fight hard to capture the strategic town of Keren in Italian Eritrea.
February 6 – WWII: Benghazi falls to the British Western Desert Force. Lieutenant-General Erwin Rommel is appointed commander of Afrika Korps.
February 8 – WWII: The U.S. House of Representatives passes the Lend-Lease Act.<ref>260–165.</ref>
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."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

February 12
- WWII: Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli.
- Reserve Constable Albert Alexander, a patient at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, England, 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
February 13 – Aircraft from British carrier Template:HMS attack Massawa in Eritrea.
February 14 – WWII: Admiral Kichisaburō Nomura begins his duties as Japanese Ambassador to the United States.
February 19–22 – WWII: Three Nights' Blitz over Swansea, South Wales: Over these 3 nights of intensive bombing, which lasts 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; 397 casualties and 230 deaths are reported.
February 22 – WWII: British cruiser Template:HMS bombards Barawa, on the coast between Kismayo and Mogadishu.
February 23 – Glenn T. Seaborg and associates isolate and discover plutonium, at the University of California, Berkeley.
February 25 – WWII:
- The occupied Netherlands starts the first popular uprising in Europe against the Axis powers, the "February strike" against German deportation of Jews in Amsterdam and surroundings.
- British submarine Template:HMS attacks an Italian convoy, sinking the cruiser Armando Diaz.
February 27 – WWII: The New Zealand Division cruiser HMS Leander (1931) sinks Italian armed merchant raider Ramb I off the Maldives.

March

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

March 1
- WWII: Bulgaria signs the Tripartite Pact, thus joining the Axis powers.
- Arthur L. Bristol becomes Rear Admiral for the United States Navy's Support Force, Atlantic Fleet.
March 4 – WWII: Operation Claymore – British Commandos carry out a successful raid on the Lofoten Islands, off the north coast of Norway.
March 5 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, having been President of the United States for 8 years, 1 day, becomes the longest-serving president in American history.
March 11 – WWII: Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, signs the Lend-Lease Act (passed by the Senate on March 8) into law, providing for the U.S. to provide Lend-Lease aid to the Allies.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

March 15 – Berlin-based American journalist Richard C. Hottelet is arrested by the Gestapo on "suspicion of espionage", but eventually released in July as part of a prisoner exchange with the U.S.
March 16 – A group of U.S. warships arrive in Auckland, New Zealand, on a goodwill visit. On March 20, they arrive in Sydney, Australia.
March 17
- In Washington, D.C., the National Gallery of Art is officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
- British Minister of Labour Ernest Bevin calls for women to fill vital jobs.
March 22 – Washington state's Grand Coulee Dam begins to generate electricity.
March 24 – WWII: Rommel launches his first offensive in Cyrenaica.
March 25 – WWII: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia joins the Axis powers in Vienna.
March 27 – WWII:
- Battle of Cape Matapan: Off the Peloponnese coast in the Mediterranean, British naval forces defeat those of Italy, sinking 5 warships (the battle ends on March 29).
- Yugoslav coup d'état: An anti-Axis coup d'état in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia led by General Dušan Simović, Brigadier General Borivoje Mirković, Colonels Dragutin Savić and Stjepan Burazović, Colonel General Miodrag Lazić, Milorad Petrović and many other general officers (with British support) forces Prince Paul into exile; 17-year-old King Peter II assumes power following the coup and Simović is elected new Prime Minister of Yugoslavia.
- Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa arrives in Honolulu to study the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, in preparation for a future attack.
March 30 – WWII:
- All German, Italian and Danish ships anchored in United States waters are taken into "protective custody".
- A German Lorenz cipher machine operator sends a 4,000-character message twice, allowing British mathematician Bill Tutte to decipher the machine's coding mechanism.<ref>BBC (archived from the original)</ref>

April

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

April – The Valley of Geysers is discovered on the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia, by Tatyana Ustinova.
April 1 – A military coup d'état, launched by Rashid Ali Al-Gaylani, overthrows the pro-British regime in Iraq.
April 4 – WWII: Axis forces capture Benghazi.
April 6 – WWII: Germany, Italy and Hungary invade Yugoslavia and the Battle of Greece begins.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

April 9 – The U.S. acquires full military defense rights in Greenland.
April 10 – WWII:
- U.S. destroyer Template:USS, 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).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

- The Independent State of Croatia, a puppet state of the Axis powers, is established with Ustashe leader Ante Pavelić as head (Poglavnik) of the government.
April 12 – WWII: German troops enter Belgrade.
April 13 – The Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact is signed.<ref name="ref1">Template:Cite book</ref>
April 15 – WWII: Axis forces reach Halfaya Pass, on the Libyan-Egyptian frontier.
April 17 – WWII: Yugoslavia capitulates after the joint Axis invasion of the country results in the bombing of Belgrade.<ref name=":0" />
April 18 – WWII: Greek Prime Minister Alexandros Koryzis commits suicide as German troops approach Athens.
April 19 – Bertolt Brecht's anti-war play Mother Courage and Her Children (Template:Langx) receives its first theatrical production, at the Schauspielhaus Zürich.
April 21 – WWII: Greece capitulates to Germany. 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 – WWII: German troops enter Athens.
April 28 – World War II persecution of Serbs: Gudovac massacre – Members of the Croatian nationalist Ustashe movement kill around 190 Bjelovar Serbs in the village of Gudovac, in the Independent State of Croatia.

May

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

May 1
- The breakfast cereal Cheerios is introduced as CheeriOats by General Mills in the United States.
- Orson Welles' film Citizen Kane premieres in New York City.
- 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 2 – WWII: Anglo-Iraqi War: British combat operations against the rebel government of Rashid Ali in the Kingdom of Iraq begin.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
May 5 – WWII: Emperor Haile Selassie enters Addis Ababa, which has been liberated from Italian forces; this date is subsequently commemorated as Liberation Day in Ethiopia.
May 6 – At California's March Field, entertainer Bob Hope performs his first USO Show.
May 8 – WWII: The German auxiliary cruiser Pinguin is sunk by British cruiser Template:HMS in the Indian Ocean; 555 are killed.
May 9 – WWII: Template:Ship 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
- WWII: The British House of Commons is damaged by the Luftwaffe in an air raid on London.
- Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland, claiming to be on a peace mission.
May 11/May 12 – WWII: The Ustaše massacre 260–373 Serb men in a Catholic church in Glina, Croatia, where the men have assembled to be received into the Catholic faith in exchange for their lives.
May 12 – Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin.
May 13 – WWII: Yugoslav General Draža Mihailović and a group of 80 soldiers and officers cross the Drina river in Bosnia and Herzegovina, arrive at Ravna Gora, in western Nazi-occupied Serbia and start fighting with German occupation troops.
May 15
- The first British jet aircraft, the Gloster E.28/39, is flown.
- Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak begins, as the New York Yankees' center fielder goes 1 for 4 against Chicago White Sox pitcher Eddie Smith in baseball.
May 19 – The Viet Minh is formed at Pác Bó in Vietnam, to overthrow French rule of the nation, as an alliance between the Indochina Communist party, led by Ho Chi Minh, and the Nationalist party. It will become the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War.
May 20 – WWII: The Battle of Crete begins, as Germany launches an airborne invasion of Crete, the first mainly airborne invasion in military history.
May 21 – Template:Ship sinks the U.S.-flagged Template:SS off the west African coast, having allowed the passengers and crew to disembark.
May 24 – WWII:
- In the North Atlantic, Template:Ship sinks British battlecruiser Template:HMS, killing all but 3 crewmen, from a total of 1,418 aboard the pride of the Royal Navy.
- British submarine Template:HMS torpedoes and sinks Italian ocean liner Template:SS.
May 26 – WWII: In the North Atlantic, Fairey Swordfish aircraft from the carrier Template:HMS cripple the steering of Template:Ship in an aerial torpedo attack.
May 27
- WWII: Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, proclaims an "unlimited national emergency".<ref>Proclamation of Unlimited National Emergency, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, May 27, 1941</ref>
- WWII: German battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic, killing 2,300. It is eventually found in 1989.
- The Swiss Socialist Federation is banned.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
May 29 – The Disney animators' strike begins, due to lack of recognition by Walt Disney of his animators' inequities of pay and privileges.
May 30 – WWII: Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas tear down the Nazi swastika on the Acropolis in Athens and replace it with the Greek flag.
May 31 – Anglo-Iraqi War: British troops complete the re-occupation of the Kingdom of Iraq, returning Prince 'Abd al-Ilah to power as regent for Faisal II.

June

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

June 1 – WWII: The Battle of Crete ends, as Crete surrenders to invading German forces.
June 4 – Guidelines for the Conduct of the Troops in Russia are issued by Nazi high-command through OKW. This order (a lesser known precursor to the Commisar Order) explicitly commands that Jews (in addition to Bolshevik partisans and Commisars) be killed. In a sense, this order – in combination with the Commissar Order about to be delivered, and Goring's instruction to Heydrich to look into logistics later in the month, that is mentioned at the beginning of the Wannsee Conference of the following year – inaugurates the European Holocaust of the Jews.
June 5
- Second Sino-Japanese War: Four thousand Chongqing residents are asphyxiated in a bomb shelter during the Bombing of Chongqing.
- Smederevo Fortress explosion: A Serbian ammunition depot explodes at Smederevo on the outskirts of Belgrade, Serbia, killing 2,500 and injuring over 4,500.
June 6 – WWII: The Commissar Order is issued by Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, requiring all Soviet political commissars identified in Operation Barbarossa among captured forces to receive summary execution.
June 8 – WWII: British and Free French forces invade Syria.
June 13 – TASS, the official Soviet news agency, denies reports of tension between Germany and the Soviet Union.
June 14
- June deportation: Soviet officials deport about 65,000 people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to Siberia.
- 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.
- WWII: British Fleet Air Arm aircraft sink the Vichy French destroyer Chevalier Paul off Syria.
June 18 – The German–Turkish Treaty of Friendship is signed between Nazi Germany and Turkey, in Ankara.
June 20
- The United States Army Air Corps becomes the United States Army Air Forces, with the earlier name reserved solely for the new USAAF's logistics and training elements.
- Walt Disney's live-action/animated feature The Reluctant Dragon is released.
June 22
- WWII: Operation Barbarossa: Nazi Germany (with allies) invades the Soviet Union and declares war on it. 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." Italy and Romania declare war on the Soviet Union.
- WWII: The First Sisak Partisan Brigade, the first anti-fascist armed unit in occupied Europe, is founded by Yugoslav partisans near Sisak, Croatia.
- June Uprising in Lithuania: A Provisional Government of Lithuania is established by the Lithuanian Activist Front, in an attempt to liberate Lithuania from Soviet occupation.
- Rapid escalation of the Holocaust in Lithuania: Between now and the end of the year, an estimated 190,000-195,000 out of 210,000 Lithuanian Jews will be massacred, killing an estimated 95% of the nation's Jewish population.<ref name=Oshry>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Rapid Vienna beats Schalke 04, in the final of the German Fottballchampionship, after 0:3 with 4:3.
June 23 – WWII: Hungary and Slovakia declare war on the Soviet Union.
June 24
- Rainiai massacre: Approximately 80 political prisoners are killed by the NKVD in Lithuania.
- The Soviet Information Bureau, predecessor of RIA Novosti, is founded.
June 25 – WWII: Finland (as a co-belligerent with Germany) attacks the Soviet Union, starting the Continuation War.
June 25–29 – The Holocaust: Kaunas pogrom – Thousands of Jews are massacred in Lithuania by local partisans and invading German forces.<ref name=Oshry/>
June 28 – WWII: Albania declares war on the Soviet Union.
June 28–30 – The Holocaust: Iași pogrom – "At least 13,266" Romanian Jews are massacred by local governmental forces.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

June 29 – WWII: Hitler's second-in-command, Reichsmarshall Hermann Göring, is appointed as Hitler's successor in a written decree. The decree will come into effect, should Hitler die in the middle of the war. (The decree becomes void in April 1945, after Göring tries to assume power while Hitler is still alive, leading to Göring's expulsion from the Nazi Party.)

July

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

July – The British Army's Special Air Service is formed.
July 1
- Commercial television is authorized by the Federal Communications Commission in the United States.
  - NBC Television begins commercial operation on WNBT, on Channel 1. The world's first legal TV commercial, for Bulova watches, occurs at 2:29 PM over WNBT, before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. The 10-second spot displays a picture of a clock superimposed on a map of the United States, accompanied by the voice-over "America runs on Bulova time."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> As a one-off special, the first quiz show called "Uncle Bee" is telecast on WNBT's inaugural broadcast day, followed later the same day by Ralph Edwards hosting the second game show broadcast on U.S. television, Truth or Consequences, as simulcast on radio and TV and sponsored by Ivory Soap. Weekly broadcasts of the show commence in 1956, with Bob Barker.

1941

Events

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Date unknown

Births

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Deaths

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Nobel Prizes

References

Further reading

Navigation menu

Search