1941 - What happened in 1941 ?

January 1941

Monday 06:

Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms Speech in the State of the Union Address.

Sunday 19:

World War II: British troops attack Italian-held Eritrea.

Tuesday 21:

World War II: Australian and British forces attack Tobruk, Libya.

Wednesday 22:

World War II: The United Kingdom captures Tobruk from Nazi forces.

Monday 27:

World War II: Fighting at Derna, Libya, begins Following the capture of Tobruk 2 brigades of the 6th Australian Division under Major General Iven Mackay pursued the Italians westwards and encountered an Italian rear guard at Derna.

February 1941

Monday 03:

World War II: The Nazis forcibly restore Pierre Laval to office in occupied Vichy, France.

Tuesday 04:

World War II: The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.

Tuesday 11:

First Gold record presented to Glenn Miller for "Chattanooga Choo Choo".

Wednesday 19:

World War II: The Deutsches Afrikakorps, the corps-level headquarters controlling the German Panzer divisions in North Africa, was formed.

March 1941

Saturday 01:

W47NV (now known as WSM-FM) begins operations in Nashville, Tennessee becoming the first FM radio station in the U.S..

Tuesday 04:

Britain launches Operation Claymore on the Lofoten Islands, during World War II.

Monday 17:

In Washington, DC, the National Gallery of Art is officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Saturday 22:

Washington's Grand Coulee Dam begins to generate electricity.

Tuesday 25:

Kingdom of Yugoslavia joins the Axis powers.

April 1941

Tuesday 01:

The Blockade Runner Badge for German navy is instituted.

Wednesday 02:

The radio program Life of Riley aired for the first time.

Thursday 03:

Hungarian and German troops march into Yugoslavia.

Sunday 06:

Germany invades Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Greece.

Sunday 27:

World War II: German troops enter Athens.

May 1941

Thursday 01:

Cheerios is introduced as CheeriOats by the General Mills cereal company.

Monday 05:

Emperor Haile Selassie returns to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; this date has been since commemorated as Liberation Day.

Friday 09:

World War II: The German submarine U-110 is captured by the Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma cryptography machine which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded German messages.

Tuesday 20:

World War II: Battle of Crete – German paratroops invade Crete.

Friday 30:

World War II: Germany captures Crete.

June 1941

Sunday 01:

World War II: Battle of Crete ends as Crete capitulates to Germany.

Sunday 08:

World War II: Allies invade Syria and Lebanon.

Saturday 14:

Soviet mass deportations and murder of Estonians, Lithuanians and Latvians begun.

Monday 23:

Lithuanian Activist Front initiates Lithuanian 1941 independence from the Soviet Union; it lasted only briefly as the Nazis occupied Lithuania a few weeks later.

Tuesday 24:

Government of briefly independent Lithuania conducts its first meeting under prime minister Juozas Ambrazevičius

July 1941

Monday 07:

World War II: American forces land in Iceland to forestall an invasion by Germany.

Sunday 13:

World War II: Montenegrins start the first popular uprising in Europe against the Axis Powers (Crnogorski ustanak).

Sunday 20:

Joseph Stalin consolidates the Commissariats of Home Affairs and National Security to form the NKVD and names Lavrenti Beria its chief.

Saturday 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.

Sunday 27:

Japanese troops occupy French Indo-China.

August 1941

Friday 01:

The first Jeep is produced.

Thursday 14:

Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter of war stating postwar aims

Monday 18:

Adolf Hitler orders a temporary halt to Nazi Germany's systematic euthanasia of mentally ill and handicapped due to protests.

Friday 22:

World War II: German troops reach Leningrad, leading to the siege of Leningrad

Saturday 30:

Siege of Leningrad begins.

September 1941

Saturday 06:

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.

Thursday 11:

World War II: US Navy ordered to attack German U-boats.

Monday 15:

The U.S. Attorney General rules that the Neutrality Act is not violated when U.S. ships carry war materiel to British territories, opening the door for the Lend-Lease Act.

Tuesday 16:

Concerned that Reza Pahlavi the Shah of Persia was about to align his petroleum-rich country with Germany during World War II, the United Kingdom and the USSR occupy Iran and forced him to resign in favor of his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Monday 29:

The Babi Yar massacre begins.

October 1941

Thursday 02:

World War II: In Operation Typhoon, Germany begins an all-out offensive against Moscow.

Tuesday 07:

German army occupies Viarma, U.S.S.R.

Wednesday 08:

World War II: In their invasion of the Soviet Union, Germany reaches the Sea of Azov with the capture of Mariupol.

Friday 17:

For the first time in World War II, a German submarine attacks an American ship

Tuesday 21:

World War II: Germans rampage in Yugoslavia, killing thousands of civilians.

November 1941

Saturday 08:

Albanian Communist Party founded.

Thursday 13:

World War II: The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal is torpedoed by U 81, she sinks on November 14.

Saturday 15:

SS chief Heinrich Himmler orders the arrest and deportation to concentration camps of all homosexuals in Germany, with the exception of certain top Nazi officials.

Wednesday 19:

World War II: The Royal Australian Navy cruiser HMAS Sydney and the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran sink each other off the coast of Western Australia, with the loss of 645 Australians and about 77 German seamen.

Monday 24:

World War II: The United States grants Lend-Lease to the Free French.

December 1941

Monday 01:

World War II: Mayor of New York City, Fiorello LaGuardia, and the director of the Office of Civilian Defense, sign an order creating the Civil Air Patrol.

Sunday 07:

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor officially brings the United States into World War II.

Monday 08:

Holocaust: First Nazi use of gas vans on Jews, at the Chelmno camp near Lodz.

Wednesday 24:

Wake Island is conquered by Japanese forces.

Thursday 25:

Hong Kong surrenders to the Japanese.