1942 - What happened in 1942 ?

January 1942

Friday 02:

The United States Navy opens a blimp base at Lakehurst, New Jersey.

Sunday 11:

The Japanese capture Kuala Lumpur.

Monday 19:

World War II: Japanese forces invade Burma.

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

Sunday 08:

World War II: Japan captures Rangoon, Burma.

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".

Friday 27:

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

Saturday 28:

World War II: In occupied France, British naval forces raid the German-occupied port of St. Nazaire.

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.

Friday 17:

POW French General Henri Giraud escapes from his castle prison in Festung Königstein.

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

Friday 08:

World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end. This is the first time in the naval history where two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between warring ships.

Monday 11:

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

Friday 15:

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

Wednesday 27:

assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague.

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.

Saturday 13:

The United States opens its Office of War Information, a center for production of propaganda.

July 1942

Thursday 09:

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

Monday 13:

World War II: German U-Boats sink three more merchant ships in Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Saturday 18:

World War II: The Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me-262 using only its jets for the first time.

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 08:

1942- Quit India resolution was passed by the Bombay session of the AICC, which leads to the start of a historical civil disobedience movement across India

Sunday 09:

Indian leader, Mohandas Gandhi is arrested in Bombay by British forces, launching the Quit India Movement.

Thursday 13:

Walt Disney's fifth animated feature, Bambi, premiers.

Saturday 22:

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

September 1942

Wednesday 09:

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

Tuesday 15:

World War II: The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Wasp is torpedoed at Guadalcanal.

Friday 18:

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation authorized.

Monday 21:

The B-29 Superfortress makes its debut.

Sunday 27:

Glenn Miller and his Orchestra perform for the last time before Miller enters the US Army.

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

Wednesday 04:

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

Wednesday 11:

Road to Morocco, starring Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Dorothy Lamour, premieres.

Thursday 12:

World War II: The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal between Japanese and American forces begins near Guadalcanal, will last for three days.

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).

Saturday 28:

In Boston, Massachusetts, a fire in the Cocoanut Grove night club kills 491 people.

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.