1941-busy year for America!

1941

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

January

• 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 20 – Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes swears in U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt for his third term.

February

• February 4 – WWII: The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.
• 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."

March

• March 1 -W47NV begins operations in Nashville, Tennessee, becoming the first FM radio station.
• March 8 – WWII: The U.S. Senate passes the Lend-Lease Act (60–31).
• March 11 – WWII: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act into law.
• March 22 – Washington's Grand Coulee Dam begins to generate electricity.
• March 27 - WWII – Attack on Pearl Harbor: Empire of Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa arrives in Honolulu, Hawaii and begins to study the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
• March 30
• All German, Italian, and Danish ships anchored in United States waters are taken into "protective custody".
• German Lorenz code machine operator sent a 4,000 character message twice, allowing British mathematician Bill Tutte to decipher the machine's coding mechanism.^[3]

May

• May 1
• The breakfast cereal Cheerios is introduced as CheeriOats by General Mills.
• 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 6 – At California's March Field, entertainer Bob Hope performs his first USO Show.
• May 9 – WWII: 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 12 – Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin.
• May 15
• Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak begins as the New York Yankee center fielder goes one for 4 against Chicago White Sox Pitcher Eddie Smith.
• May 27
• WWII: President Roosevelt proclaims an "unlimited national emergency."
• WWII:Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic, killing 2,300.

July

• July – The British Army's Special Air Service is formed.
• July 3 – WWII: Joseph Stalin, in his first address since the German invasion, calls upon the Soviet people to carry out a "scorched earth" policy of resistance to the bitter end.
• July 4 – The Mass murder of Polish scientists and writers is committed by German troops in the captured Polish city of Lwów.
• July 17 – Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak ends.
• July 19
• The first episode The Midnight Snack in which Tom and Jerry are officially named, more than a year after their first production Puss Gets the Boot.
• July 26 -WWII: In response to the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the seizure of all Japanese assets in the United States.

August

• August 18 – Adolf Hitler orders a temporary halt to Nazi Germany's systematic euthanasia of the mentally ill and handicapped due to protests. However, graduates of the T-4 Euthanasia Program are then transferred to concentration camps, where they continue in their trade.

September

• 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 14 – The State of Vermont declares war on Germany.
• September 29–September 30 – Holocaust: Babi Yar massacre – German troops, assisted by Ukrainian police and local collaborators, killed 33,771 Jews of Kiev, Ukraine.

October

• October 1 – Holocaust: the Nazi German extermination camp Konzentrationslager Lublin (commonly known as "Majdanek") opens in occupied Poland on the outskirts of the town Lublin. Between October 1941 and July 1944 at least 200,000 people were killed in the camp.
• October 11–October 12 – Fire destroys a Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Fall River, Massachusetts, consuming 15,850 tons of rubber and causing a setback to the United States war effort.^[4]
• October 17 – WWII: The destroyer USS Kearny is torpedoed and damaged near Iceland, killing 11 sailors (the first American military casualties of the war).
• October 23 – Walt Disney's animated film Dumbo is released.
• October 31 - Last day of carving on Mount Rushmore.

November

• November 17 – WWII – Attack on Pearl Harbor: Joseph Grew, the United States ambassador to Japan, cables to Washington a warning that Japan may strike suddenly and unexpectedly at any time.
• November 26 – WWII – Attack on Pearl Harbor: A fleet of 6 aircraft carriers commanded by Japanese Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo leaves Hitokapu Bay for Pearl Harbor under strict radio silence

December

December 2 – WWII – Attack on Pearl Harbor: The code message "Climb Mount Niitaka" is transmitted to the Japanese task force, indicating that negotiations have broken down and that the attack is to be carried out according to plan.

• December 7
• (December 8, Japan standard time) – The Japanese Navy launches a surprise attack on the United States fleet at Pearl Harbor, thus drawing the United States into WWII. The attack is announced on radio stations in the US at about 2:26 p.m. EST (19.26 GMT).
• December 8
• WWII: The United States, United Kingdom, China and The Netherlands officially declare war on the Empire of Japan.
• President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Infamy" Address to a Joint Session of Congress at 12:30 p.m. EST (17.30 GMT) and transmitted live over all four major national networks attracts the largest audience ever for an American radio broadcast, over 81% of homes.^[7]
• Holocaust: the Nazi German extermination camp Chelmno opens in occupied Poland near a small village called Chełmno nad Nerem. Between December 1941-April 1943 and June 1944-January 1945 at least 153,000 people were killed in the camp.
• December 12
• WWII: Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States.
• WWII: British India declares war on Empire of Japan.
• WWII: The United States seizes the French ship SS Normandie.
• WWII: The Kimura Detachment of the Japanese Imperial forces is occupied in Legaspi, Albay in Eastern Philippines.
• December 19 – WWII: Hitler becomes Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the German Army.