1942 - What happened in 1942 ?

January 1942

Tuesday 13:

The United States begins the iternment of Japanese-Americans living on the American west coast.

Monday 19:

World War II: Japanese forces invade Burma.

Tuesday 20:

World War II: Nazis at the Wannsee conference in Berlin decide the "final solution to the Jewish problem".

Sunday 25:

Thailand declares war on the United States and United Kingdom.

Monday 26:

World War II: The first American forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.

February 1942

Sunday 15:

World War II: The Fall of Singapore. Following an assault by Japanese forces, the British General Arthur Percival surrenders. About 80,000 Indian, United Kingdom and Australian soldiers become prisoners of war, the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history.

Friday 20:

Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace.

Sunday 22:

World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defense collapses.

Tuesday 24:

Propaganda: The Voice of America begins broadcasting.

Friday 27:

World War II: the USS Langley, the first United States aircraft carrier, is sunk by Japanese warplanes.

March 1942

Wednesday 11:

World War II: General Douglas MacArthur abandons Corregidor.

Friday 20:

1942 – General Douglas MacArthur, at Terowie, South Australia, makes his famous speech regarding the fall of the Philippines, in which he says: "I came out of Bataan and I shall return".

Sunday 22:

World War II: In the Mediterranean sea, Regia Marina defeats Royal Navy in the Second Battle of Sirte.

Thursday 26:

World War II: In Poland, Auschwitz receives its first female prisoners.

Friday 27:

World War II: United Kingdom forces raid the U-boat base at St. Nazaire, France.

April 1942

Friday 03:

World War II: Japanese forces begin an all-out assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula. Bataan falls on April 9 and the Bataan Death March began.

Wednesday 08:

Soviet Union forces open a much-needed railway link to Leningrad.

Wednesday 15:

its people and defenders" by King George VI.

Saturday 18:

Pierre Laval becomes Prime Minister of Vichy France.

Sunday 26:

The worst-ever mining accident in history kills 1,549 miners in an explosion at the Honkeiko Colliery, Manchuria.

May 1942

Monday 04:

World War II: Battle of the Coral Sea – The battle begins with the launch of attack aircraft from American and Japanese aircraft carriers.

Monday 11:

William Faulkner's collections of short stories, Go Down, Moses, is published.

Tuesday 12:

1,500 Jews are sent to gas chambers in Auschwitz.

Friday 15:

World War II: In the United States, a bill creating the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) is signed into law.

Thursday 28:

World War II: In retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Nazis in Czechoslovakia kill over 1800 people.

June 1942

Thursday 04:

World War II: Battle of Midway begins. Japanese Admiral Chuichi Nagumo orders a strike on Midway Island with much of the Imperial Japanese navy.

Sunday 07:

Japanese troops land on the islands of Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian Islands.

Wednesday 10:

World War II: Nazis burn the Czech village of Lidice as reprisal for the killing of Reinhard Heydrich.

Thursday 11:

World War II: The United States agrees to send Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union.

Sunday 21:

World War II: A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at nearby Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by the Japanese against the U.S. mainland.

July 1942

Thursday 09:

Holocaust: Anne Frank's family goes into hiding in an attic above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse.

Sunday 19:

German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz orders the last U-boats to withdraw from their United States Atlantic coast postions in response to the an effective American convoy system.

Monday 20:

World War II: Red Army troops take bridgeheads over the Don River near Voronezh.

Wednesday 22:

Holocaust: The systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto begins.

Thursday 23:

1942- The Treblinka extermination camp is opened

August 1942

Friday 07:

US Marines initiate the first American offensive of the war with a landing on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.

Saturday 15:

The SS Ohio reaches the island of Malta barely afloat carrying vital fuel supplies for the island defenses.

Wednesday 19:

The 2nd Canadian Infantry Division leads an allied forces amphibious assault on Dieppe, France.

Saturday 22:

World War II: Brazil declares war on the Axis powers (Germany, Italy and Japan)

Monday 24:

World War II: The Battle of the East Solomon Islands. Japanese aircraft carrier Ryuho is sunk.

September 1942

Wednesday 09:

World War II: A Japanese floatplane drops an incendiary bomb on Oregon.

Thursday 10:

The Allies carry out an amphibious landing at Majunga, north-west Madagascar, to re-launch Allied offensive operations in the Madagascar Campaign.

Saturday 12:

RMS Laconia, carrying civilians, Allied soldiers and Italian POWs is torpedoed off the coast of West Africa and sinks.

Friday 18:

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation authorized.

Monday 21:

The B-29 Superfortress makes its debut.

October 1942

Saturday 03:

First successful launch of A4-rocket from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany: the first man-made object to reach space.

Friday 09:

Statute of Westminster Adoption Act formalizes Australian autonomy.

Sunday 11:

On the northwest coast of Guadalcanal, United States Navy ships intercept and defeat a Japanese fleet on their way to reinforce troops on the island.

Friday 23:

At El Alamein in Egypt, British forces begin a major offensive against Axis forces.

Wednesday 28:

The Alaska Highway is completed.

November 1942

Tuesday 03:

German forces under Erwin Rommel are forced to retreat during the night.

Wednesday 04:

Disobeying a direct order by Adolf Hitler, General Field Marshal Erwin Rommel leads his forces on a five-month retreat.

Sunday 08:

World War II: French resistance coup in Algiers, by which 400 Civil French patriots neutralized Vichyst XIXth Army Corps during 15 hours, arrested vichyst generals (Juin, Darlan, etc.), and so allowed the immediate success of Operation Torch in Algiers, then, from there, to the whole French North Africa.

Tuesday 10:

World War II: Germany invades Vichy France following French Admiral François Darlan agreement to an armistice with the Allies in North Africa.

Saturday 21:

The completion of the Alaska Highway (also known as the Alcan Highway) is celebrated (the highway was not usable by general vehicles until 1943, however).

December 1942

Wednesday 02:

Manhattan Project: A team led by Enrico Fermi initiate the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.

Friday 04:

Holocaust: In Warsaw, two Christian women, Zofia Kossak and Wanda Filipowicz risk their lives by setting up the Council for the Assistance of the Jews.

Saturday 12:

A fire in a hostel in St. John's, Newfoundland kills 100 people.

Wednesday 16:

SS Chief Heinrich Himmler orders that the Roma (gypsy) people be sent to Auschwitz for extermination.