1941

1941 is also the title of a Steven Spielberg movie made in 1979 see 1941 (film).

1941 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January-February

• January 6 – Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms Speech in the State of the Union Address.
• January 10 – Lend-Lease is introduced into the U.S. Congress.
• January 19 – British troops attack Italian-held Eritrea.
• January 21 – World War II: Australian and British forces attack Tobruk, Libya.
• January 22 – World War II: British troops capture Tobruk from the Italians.
• January 23 – Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.
• 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 11 – World War II: Lieutenant-General Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli.
• February 11 – James Wong, famous composer of Hong Kong (d. November 23, 2004.)

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 11 – World War II: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act into law, allowing American-built war supplies to be shipped to the Allies on loan.
• March 17 – In Washington, DC, 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 25 – World War II: Kingdom of Yugoslavia in Vienna joins the Axis powers
• March 27 – World War II: Attack on Pearl Harbor – Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa arrives in Honolulu, Hawaii and begins to study the United States fleet at Pearl Harbor.
• March 29 – World War II: Battle of Cape Matapan – Off the Peloponnesus coast in the Mediterranean, British naval forces defeat those of Italy sinking five warships. Battle started on March 27.

April

• April 6 – World War II: Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece.
• April 9 – Slavomir Rawicz and six others escape from a Soviet prison camp in Yakutsk – they begin 6500 km long walk to India
• April 17 – World War II: Yugoslav Royal Army capitulates.
• April 21 – World War II: Greece capitulates. British troops retract to Crete.
• April 27 – World War II: German troops enter Athens.
• April – Russia and Japan sign a neutrality pact.

May

• May 1 – Breakfast cereal Cheerios is introduced as CheeriOats by General Mills
• May 1 – Orson Welles' screenplay, Citizen Kane, premieres in New York City
• May 5 – 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, 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 United Kingdom's House of Commons is damaged by the Luftwaffe in an air raid.
• May 10 – World War II: Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland claiming to be on a peace mission.
• May 20 – World War II: Battle of Crete – German troops invade Crete.
• May 21 – World War II: 950 miles off the coast of Brazil, the freighter SS Robin Moor becomes the first United States ship sunk by a German U-boat.
• May 24 – World War II: In the North Atlantic, the German battleship Bismarck sinks the HMS Hood killing all but three crewman on what was the pride of the Royal Navy.
• May 26 – World War II: In the North Atlantic, Fairey Swordfish aircraft from the carrier HMS Ark Royal fatally cripple the German battleship Bismarck in torpedo attack.
• May 27 – World War II: President Roosevelt proclaims an "unlimited national emergency."
• May 27 – World War II: German battleship Bismarck is sunk in North Atlantic killing 2,300.

June

• June 1 – World War II: Crete capitulates to Germany.
• June 8 – World War II: Allies invade Syria and Lebanon.
• June 9 – World War II: Finland initiate mobilization and put some units under German command.
• June 14 – Mass deportations by Soviet Union authorities take place in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
• June 22 – World War II: Germany attacks the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa
• June 25 – World War II: Finland attacked by the Soviet Union seeks the opportunity of revenge in the Continuation War.

July-August

• July 4 – Mass murder of Polish scientists and writers, committed by Nazi Germans in captured Polish city of Lwów.
• July 5 – World War II: German troops reach the Dnipro River.
• July 5-19 – War between Peru and Ecuador
• July 7 – World War II: American forces land in Iceland to forestall an invasion by the Nazis.
• July 26 – World War II: In response to the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the seizure of all Japanese assets in the United States.
• July 31 – Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring, orders SS 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."
• August – Formation of the Political Warfare Executive in the United Kingdom
• August 18 – Adolf Hitler orders a temporary halt to Nazi Germany's systematic euthanasia of mentally ill and handicapped due to protests. However, graduates of the T-4 Euthanasia Program were then transferred to concentration camps, where they continued in their trade.

September-October

• 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: Siege of Leningrad begins – German forces begin a siege against the Soviet Union's second-largest city, Leningrad.
• September 16 – Reza Pahlavi, Shah 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.
• October 2 – World War II: Operation Typhoon – Germany begins an all-out offensive against Moscow.
• October 8 – World War II: In their invasion of the Soviet Union, Germany reaches the Sea of Azov with the capture of Mariupol.
• October 21 – World War II: Germans rampage in Yugoslavia, killing thousands of civilians
• October 24 – Franz von Werra disappears during a flight over North Sea
• October 30 – World War II: Franklin Delano Roosevelt approves US$1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union.
• October 31 – After 14 years of work, drilling is completed 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.

November

• November 6 – World War II: Soviet leader Josef 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 were killed in German attacks so far, that the Germans have lost 4.5 million soldiers (a gross exaggeration) and that Soviet victory was near.
• November 12 – World War II:Battle of Moscow: 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: 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 the State Department that Japan had plans to launch an attack against Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (his cable was ignored).
• November 19 – World War II: The Australian war cruiser HMAS Sydney sinks off the coast of Western Australia, killing 645 sailors.
• November 21 – The radio program King Biscuit Time is broadcast for the first time (it would later become the longest running daily radio broadcast in history and the most famous live blues radio program).
• November 24 – World War II: The United States grants Lend-Lease to the Free French.
• November 26 – US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States (this partly reversed a 1939 action by Roosevelt that changed the celebration of Thanksgiving to the third Thursday of November).
• November 26 – World War II: The Hull note ultimatum is delivered to Japan by the United States.
• November 26 – World War II: Attack on Pearl Harbor – A fleet of six 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 highway US 99 south of Yreka, California, handing out fliers proclaiming the establishment of the State of Jefferson.
• November 27 – World War II: Battle of Moscow – Germans reach their closest approach to Moscow. They are subsequently frozen by cold weather and attacks by the Soviets.

December

• December 1 – World War II: Former mayor of New York City, Fiorello LaGuardia, and the director of the Office of Civilian Defense, sign an order creating the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) as the civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force (in April 1943 the CAP was placed under the jurisdiction of the United States Army Air Force).
• December 7, December 6 (in Japan standard time) – Japanese navy launches a surprise attack on the United States fleet at Pearl Harbor, thus drawing the United States into World War II.
• December 8 – World War II: The United States officially declares war on Japan.
• December 11 – World War II: Germany declares war on the United States.
• December 25 – World War II: British and Canadians are defeated by the Japanese at Hong Kong.
• December 27 – World War II: British Commandos raid the Norwegian port of Vaagso, causing Hitler to reinforce the garrison and defenses

Unknown dates

• John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford E. Berry developed the Atanasoff Berry Computer.
• Ives and Stilwell prove that ions radiate at frequencies affected by their motion.
• In Sweden, Victor Hasselblad forms the Hasselblad camera company.
• The Pinnacle Commune, a Rastafarian community, is destroyed by Jamaican authorities
• Indochina Communist party, led by Ho Chi Minh, combines with Nationalist party to form the Vietminh.

Ongoing events

• Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) (which may or may not be a part of World War II, depending on who's telling the tale)
• World War II (1939-1945)

Year in topic

• 1941 in film
  • May 1 – Citizen Kane, starring Orson Welles
  • October 3 – The Maltese Falcon, starring Humphrey Bogart
  • Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion
  • Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde starring Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman and Lana Turner
• 1941 in literature
  • The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
  • Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler
  • Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry
• 1941 in music
  • February 11 – 1st Gold record presented to Glenn Miller for Chattanooga Choo Choo.
• 1941 in rail transport
  • Heisler Locomotive Works produces the last Heisler locomotive.
  • The Hollywood, a lounge car built for use on the City of Los Angeles train, becomes the first passenger car whose interior is built entirely out of synthetic materials. The car's interior featured the newly invented materials of formica and naugahyde.
• 1941 in sports
  • May 15 – Joe DiMaggio starts his record-breaking 56-game hitting streak.
  • One of the greatest race horses of his time, Epinard, was taken during the German occupation of France and used as a delivery wagon horse.
• 1941 in television
  • April 30 – The FCC approves the NTSC standards of 525 lines and 30 frames per second, and authorizes commercial TV to begin on July 1.
  • May 2 – 10 television stations were granted commercial TV licenses (effective July 1). These stations were required to broadcast 15 hours per week. Bulova Watch Co., Sun Oil Co., Lever Bros. Co. and Procter & Gamble sign on as sponsors of the first commercial telecasts from WNBT in New York.
  • July 1 – Commercial TV authorized by the FCC.
  • July 1 – Ralph Edwards hosted the first game show broadcast on television, Truth Or Consequences, simulcast on radio and TV and sponsored by Ivory Soap. The first legal TV commercial in the United States for Bulova watches occurs at 2:29, superimposed over a test pattern.

Births

January

• January 3 – Van Dyke Parks, musician
• January 5 – Miyazaki Hayao, Japanese film maker
• January 5 – Grady Thomas, singer (P-Funk)
• January 7 – John E. Walker, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• January 8 – Graham Chapman, comedian
• January 14 – Faye Dunaway, actress
• January 14 – Milan Kučan, Slovenian politician and statesman
• January 15 – Captain Beefheart, singer
• January 18 – David Ruffin, singer (d. 1991)
• January 21 – Plácido Domingo, Spanish-born tenor
• January 21 – Richie Havens, American musician
• January 26 – Scott Glenn, actor
• January 26 – Henry Jaglom, director
• January 30 – Dick Cheney, American politician
• January 31 – Dick Gephardt, American politician

February

• February 5 – Kaspar Villiger, member of the Swiss Federal Council
• February 6 – Howard Phillips, founding member of the United States Constitution Party
• February 8 – Nick Nolte, actor
• February 10 – Michael Apted, director
• February 11 – Jeremy Mackenzie, general
• February 11 – Glenn Randall Jr, stuntman
• February 13 – Sigmar Polke, painter
• February 17 – Julia McKenzie, actress
• February 17 – Gene Pitney, American singer
• February 20 – Buffy Sainte-Marie, American singer
• February 26 – Tony Ray-Jones, British photographer (d. 1972)
• February 27 – Paddy Ashdown, British politician

March-May

• March 3 – Jutta Hoffmann, actress
• March 4 – Adrian Lyne, director
• March 6 – Willie Stargell, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 2001)
• March 14 – Wolfgang Petersen, film director
• March 15 – Mike Love, musician (The Beach Boys)
• March 16 – Bernardo Bertolucci, film director
• March 18 – Wilson Pickett, singer
• March 26 – Richard Dawkins, British scientist
• March 28 – Jim Turner, American football player
• March 30 – Wasim Sajjad, President of Pakistan
• April 3 – Philippe Wynne, musician (d. 1984)
• April 6 – Hans W. Geissendörfer, German film director
• April 14 – Pete Rose, baseball star
• April 23 – Paavo Lipponen, Prime Minister of Finland
• April 24 – John Williams, Australian guitarist
• April 27 – Lee Roy Jordan, American football player
• April 28 – K. Barry Sharpless, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• May 5 – Alexander Ragulin, hockey player (d. 2004)
• May 13 – Senta Berger, Swedish actress
• May 13 – Ritchie Valens, American singer (d. 1959)
• May 15 – K.T. Oslin, country musician
• May 19 – Nora Ephron, screenwriter
• May 24 – Bob Dylan, American poet and musician

June-December

• June 5 – Martha Argerich, Argentine pianist
• June 5 – Spalding Gray, actor, screenwriter, and monologue artist (d. 2004)
• June 8 – Fuzzy Haskins, musician (P-Funk)
• June 24 – Bill Reardon, American politician and educator
• June 27 – Krzysztof Kieslowski, film director
• July 14 – Maulana Karenga, author and activist
• July 19 – Vikki Carr, singer
• July 28 – Riccardo Muti, Italian conductor
• July 31 – Amarsinh Chaudhary, politician
• August 3 – Martha Stewart, television and magazine personality
• August 22 – Bill Parcells, American football coach
• September 4 – Sushilkumar Shinde, Indian politician
• September 9 – Otis Redding, musician (d. 1967)
• September 9  – Dennis Ritchie, computer scientist
• September 10 – Christopher Hogwood, English conductor
• September 14 – Alberto Naranjo, Venezuelan musician
• September 15 – George Saimes, American football player
• September 17 – Bob Matsui U.S. Senator from Hawaii (d. 2005)
• September 19 – Cass Elliott, American singer (d. 1974)
• October 4 – Anne Rice, writer
• October 5 – Eduardo Duhalde, President of Argentina
• October 16 – Tim McCarver, baseball commentator
• November 29 – Bill Freehan, baseball player
• December 9 – Beau Bridges, actor
• December 10 – Colin Kelly, American airman
• December 13 – John Davidson (game show host), singer and actor
• December 18 – His Royal Highness Prince William of Gloucester
• December 23 – Tim Hardin, musician
• December 30 – Mel Renfro, American football player

Unknown dates

• T S Krishnamurthy, Chief Election Commissioner of India
• Peter Sarstedt, singer and songwriter
• Thom Bell, record producer

Deaths

• January 4 – Henri Bergson, French philiosopher (b. 1859)
• January 5 – Amy Johnson, English aviator (b. 1903)
• January 8 – Lord Robert Baden-Powell, English soldier, founder of Scouting (b. 1847)
• January 10 – Frank Bridge, English composer (b. 1879)
• January 10 – Joe Penner, comedian and actor
• January 13 – James Joyce, Irish writer (b. 1882)
• February 11 – Rudolf Hilferding, German economist, Minister of Finance (b. 1877)
• February 28 – King Alfonso XIII of Spain (b. 1886)
• March 6 – Gutzon Borglum, American sculptor (b. 1867)
• March 8 – Sherwood Anderson, American author (b. 1876)
• March 15 – Alexej von Jawlensky, Russian painter (b. 1864)
• March 28 – Virginia Woolf, English writer (b. 1882)
• April 13 – Annie Jump Cannon, American astronomer (b. 1863)
• June 2 – Lou Gehrig, baseball player (b. 1903)
• June 6 – Louis Chevrolet, Swiss-born automobile builder and race car driver (b. 1878)
• June 29 – Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Polish pianist and composer (b. 1860)
• July 10 – Jelly Roll Morton, American jazz musician & composer (b. 1890)
• July 11 – Arthur Evans, English archaeologist (b. 1851)
• July 26 – Henri Lebesgue, mathematician
• August 7 – Rabindranath Tagore, author
• August 13 – James Stuart Blackton, American film producer of the Silent Era
• August 31 – Marina Tsvetaeva, Russian poet (suicide)
• September 13 – Elias Disney, American farmer and father of Walt Disney.
• November 18 – Chris Watson, third Prime Minister of Australia
• December 3 – Christian Sinding, Norwegian composer (b. 1856)
• December 30 – El Lissitzky, Russian artist and architect (b. 1890)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – not awarded
• Chemistry – not awarded
• Medicine – not awarded
• Literature – not awarded
• Peace – not awarded