Year 1941 (MCMXLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link will display 1941 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.
Events
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- (Below, many events of World War II have the "World War II" prefix.)
January
February
March
- March - Captain America Comics #1 issues the first Captain America & Bucky comic.
- 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 4 - World War II: British Commandos carry out a successful raid on the Lofoten Islands off the north coast of Norway.
- 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 11 - The Kinsmen Club of Brantford is chartered.
- March 17 - In Washington, D.C., 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: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia joins the Axis powers in Vienna.
- March 27 - World War II: An anti-Axis coup d'état in Yugoslavia forces Prince Paul into exile; 17-year-old King Peter II assumes power.
- 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 27 - World War II - Battle of Cape Matapan: Off the Peloponnesus coast in the Mediterranean, British naval forces defeat those of Italy, sinking 5 warships. Battle ends on March 29.
- March 30 - All German, Italian, and Danish ships anchored in United States waters are taken into "protective custody".
April
May
- May 1 - The breakfast cereal Cheerios is introduced as CheeriOats by General Mills.
- May 1 - Orson Welles' film Citizen Kane premieres in New York City.
- May 1 - 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 5 - World War II: 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, entertainer 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 British House of Commons is damaged by the Luftwaffe in an air raid.
- May 10 - Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland, claiming to be on a peace mission.
- May 12 - Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin.
- May 15 - The first British jet aircraft, the Gloster E.28/39, is flown.
- May 15 - Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak begins, lasting until July 17.
- May 20 - World War II: The Battle of Crete begins as Germany launches an airborne invasion of 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 3 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 a torpedo attack.
- May 27 - World War II: President Roosevelt proclaims an "unlimited national emergency."
- May 27 - World War II: The German battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic, killing 2,300.
June
July
August
- August - Political Warfare Executive is formed in the United Kingdom.
- August 1 - The first Jeep is produced.
- August 6 - Six-year-old Elaine Esposito goes to an appendix operation in Florida and lapses into a coma. She dies in 1978, still in a coma.
- August 9 - Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet at Argentia, Newfoundland and Labrador. The Atlantic Charter is created as a result.
- August 12 - By one vote (203-202), the U.S. House of Representatives passes legislation extending the draft period for selectees and the National Guard from 1 year to 30 months.
- August 16 - The HMS Mercury, Royal Navy Signals School and Combined Signals School open at Leydene, near Petersfield, Hampshire, England.
- 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.
- August 22 - World War II - France: The German Occupation Authority announces that anyone found either working for or aiding the Free French will be sentenced to death.
- August 24 - World War II: A Luftwaffe bomb hits an Estonian steamer with 3,500 Soviet-mobilized Estonian men on board, killing 598 of them.
- August 25 - World War II: Operation Countenance begins with United Kingdom and Soviet forces invading Iran.
- August 27 - World War II - Pierre Laval is shot in an assassination attempt at Versailles, France.
- August 28 - World War II: The Soviets announce the destruction of the massive Dnieper River dam at Zaporozhye, to prevent its capture by the Germans.
- August 31 - The Great Gildersleeve debuts on NBC Radio.
September
- September 4 - World War II: The USS Greer becomes the first United States ship fired upon by a German submarine in the war, even though the United States is a neutral power. Tension heightens between the 2 nations as a result.
- 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 - The Siege of Leningrad begins: German forces begin a siege against the Soviet Union's second-largest city, Leningrad. Stalin orders the Volga Deutsche deported to Siberia.
- September 11 - World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the United States Navy to shoot on sight if any ship or convoy is threatened.
- September 11 - World War II: Charles Lindbergh, at an America First Committee rally in Des Moines, Iowa, accuses "the British, the Jewish, and the Roosevelt administration" of leading the United States toward war. Widespread condemnation of Lindbergh follows.
- September 12 - World War II: The first snowfall is reported on the Russian front.
- September 15 - The Estonian Self-Administration, headed by Hjalmar Mäe, is appointed by the German military administration.
- September 16 - Shah Reza Pahlavi 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.
- September 27 - The first Liberty Ship, the SS Patrick Henry, is launched at Baltimore, Maryland.
- September 29 - World War II: The Moscow Conference begins; U.S. representative Averill Harriman and British representative Lord Beaverbrook meet with Soviet foreign minister Molotov to arrange urgent assistance for Russia.
October
November
- November 6 - World War II: Soviet leader Joseph 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 have been killed in German attacks so far, that the Germans have lost 4.5 million soldiers (a gross exaggeration) and that Soviet victory is near.
- November 7 - World War II: The Soviet hospital Ship Armenia is sunk by German planes while evacuating refugees, wounded military and the staff of several Crimean hospitals. It is estimated that over 5,000 people die in the sinking.
- November 10 - In a speech at the Mansion House in London, Winston Churchill promises, "should the United States become involved in war with Japan, the British declaration will follow within the hour."
- November 12 - World War II: As Battle of Moscow begins, 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: The HMS Ark Royal capsizes and sinks, having been torpedoed by U-81.
- November 14 - World War II - Attack on Pearl Harbor: Japanese diplomat Saburo Kurusu arrives in the United States to assist Ambassador Kichisaburo Nomura in peace negotiations.
- November 17 - World War II - 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 19 - World War II: The Australian 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 later becomes 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 - U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs a bill establishing the 4th Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States (this partly reverses a 1939 action by Roosevelt that changed the celebration of Thanksgiving to the third Thursday of November).
- November 26 - The Hull note ultimatum is delivered to Japan by the United States.
- November 26 - World War II - 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.
- November 27 - A group of young men stop traffic on U.S. Highway 99 south of Yreka, California, handing out fliers proclaiming the establishment of the State of Jefferson.
- November 27 - World War II: Germans reach their closest approach to Moscow. They are subsequently frozen by cold weather and attacks by the Soviets.
- November 27 - World War II - Attack on Pearl Harbor: All U.S. military forces in Asia and the Pacific are placed on war alert.
December
The USS Arizona ablaze after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
- December 1 - World War II: Fiorello La Guardia, Mayor of New York City and Director of the Office of Civilian Defense, signs Administrative Order 9, creating the Civil Air Patrol under the authority of the United States Army Air Force.
- December 1 - World War II: A state of emergency is declared in Malaya and the Straits Settlements.
- December 2 - World War II - 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 4 - The State of Jefferson is declared in Yreka, California, with judge John Childs as a governor.
- December 6 - World War II - Attack on Pearl Harbor: Franklin D. Roosevelt makes a personal peace appeal to Emperor Hirohito of Japan.
- 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 World War II.
- December 8 - World War II: The United States officially declares war on Japan.
- December 8 - World War II: China officially declares war on Japan.
- December 8 - World War II: The Netherlands declares war on Japan.
- December 8 - World War II: Japan launches invasions in Hong Kong, Malaya, Manila, and Singapore.
- December 8 - World War II: Japan launches invasions in the Philippines.
- December 10 - World War II: The British battleships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk by Japanese aircraft in the South China Sea north of Singapore.
- December 11 - World War II: Germany and Italy declare war on the United States. The U.S. responds in kind.
- December 11 - World War II: American forces repel a Japanese landing attempt at Wake Island.
- December 12 - World War II: Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States.
- December 12 - World War II: India declares war on Japan.
- December 12 - World War II: The United States seizes the French ship SS Normandie.
- December 13 - Sweden's low temperature record of -53°C is set in a village within the Vilhelmina Municipality.
- December 19 - World War II: Hitler becomes Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the German Army.
- December 23 - World War II: A second Japanese landing attempt on Wake Island is successful, and the American garrison surrenders after a full night and morning of fighting.
- December 25 - World War II: The British and Canadians are defeated by the Japanese at Hong Kong.
- December 26 - World War II: Winston Churchill becomes the first British Prime Minister to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress.
- December 27 - World War II: British Commandos raid the Norwegian port of Vaagso, causing Hitler to reinforce the garrison and defenses, drawing vital troops away from other areas.
- December 28 - World War II - Operation Anthropoid: Reinhard Heydrich is assasinated in Prague.
Undated
Ongoing
Births
January
- January 3 - Van Dyke Parks, American composer, producer, and musician
- January 4
- January 5
- January 7
- January 8 - Graham Chapman, British comedian (Monty Python) (d. 1989)
- January 9 - Joan Baez, American singer and activitist
- January 11 - Dave Edwards, American musician (d. 2000)
- January 12 - Long John Baldry, British singer (d. 2005)
- January 14
- January 15 - Captain Beefheart, American singer
- January 18 - David Ruffin, American singer (The Temptations) (d. 1991)
- January 19 - Pat Patterson, Canadian professional wrestler
- January 21
- January 24
- January 26
- January 27 - Beatrice Tinsley, English astronomer
- January 30
- January 31 - Dick Gephardt, American politician
February
- February 1 - Jerry Spinelli, American children's author
- February 3 - Dory Funk, Jr., American professional wrestler
- February 5
- February 6 - Howard Phillips, American politician
- February 7 - Peter Foxhall, Australian evangelist
- February 8 - Nick Nolte, American actor
- February 10 - Michael Apted, English film director
- February 12 - Naomi Uemura, Japanese adventurer (d. 1984)
- February 13 - Sigmar Polke, German painter
- February 19 - David Gross, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- February 20 - Buffy Sainte-Marie, American singer
- February 26 - Tony Ray-Jones, British photographer (d. 1972)
- February 27 - Paddy Ashdown, British politician
March
- March 4
- March 5 - Nona Gaprindashvili, Georgian chess player
- March 6 - Willie Stargell, African-American baseball player (d. 2001)
- March 13 - Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian prominent poet and writer of prose (d. 2008)
- March 14 - Wolfgang Petersen, German film director
- March 15 - Mike Love, American musician (The Beach Boys)
- March 16
- March 18 - Wilson Pickett, African-American singer (In The Midnight Hour) (d. 2006)
- March 20 - Kenji Kimihara, Japanese long-distance runner
- March 23 - Jim Trelease, American educator and author
- March 26 - Richard Dawkins, British scientist
- March 28 - Jim Turner, American football player
- March 29 - Joseph Hooton Taylor, Jr., American astrophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- March 30 - Wasim Sajjad, President of Pakistan
April
- April 2 - Dr. Demento (Barret Eugene Hansen), American radio disc jockey and novelty music collector
- April 3 - Philippe Wynne, American musician (d. 1984)
- April 8 - Peggy Lennon, American singer (The Lennon Sisters)
- April 9 - Kaye Adams, American country singer
- April 12 - Bobby Moore, English football player and World Cup winning captain (d. 1993)
- April 13 - Michael Stuart Brown, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- April 14 - Julie Christie, British actress (Dr. Zhivago)
- April 14 - Pete Rose, American baseball player
- April 23
- April 24 - John Williams, Australian guitarist
- April 27 - Lee Roy Jordan, American football player
- April 28
May
June
July
July 14
August
September
October
- October 2 - Zareh Baronian, Archimandrite doctor, theologian of the Armenian Church, Bucarest
- October 4
- October 5 - Eduardo Duhalde, President of Argentina
- October 8 - Jesse Jackson, African-American clergyman and civil rights activist
- October 9 - Trent Lott, former United States Senate Minority Leader and United States Senate Majority Leader
- October 10 - Peter Coyote, American actor
- October 13 - Paul Simon, American singer and composer (Simon and Garfunkel)
- October 16 - Tim McCarver, American baseball commentator
- October 20 - Anneke Wills, British actress
- October 23 - Mel Winkler, American actor
- October 25
- October 28
- October 27 - Gerd Brantenberg, Norwegian feminist author and gay rights activist
- October 30 - Theodor W. Hänsch, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
November
- November 1 - Nigel Dempster, British journalist, author, broadcaster and diarist (d.2007)
- November 5 - Art Garfunkel, American singer (Simon and Garfunkel)
- November 6 - Doug Sahm, American musician (d. 1999)
- November 18 - David Hemmings, English actor (d. 2003)
- November 23 - Derek Mahon, Irish poet
- November 25 - Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi, Pakistani author, spiritual leader and founder of the international spiritual movement Anjuman Serfaroshan-e-Islam (d. 2001)
- November 26 - G. Alan Marlatt, American psychologist
- November 27 - Eddie Rabbitt, American country musician (I Love A Rainy Night) (d. 1998)
- November 29 - Bill Freehan, American baseball player
December
Deaths
January-February
- January 4 - Henri Bergson, French philosopher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (b. 1859)
- January 5 - Amy Johnson, English aviator (b. 1903)
- January 8 - Lord Robert Baden-Powell, English soldier and founder of the Boy Scouts (b. 1847)
- January 10
- January 13 - James Joyce, Irish writer (b. 1882)
- February 6 - Banjo Paterson, Australian poet & journalist (b. 1864)
- February 9 - Aaron S. Watkins, American temperance movement leader (b. 1863)
- February 11 - Rudolf Hilferding, German economist and Minister of Finance (b. 1877)
- February 21 - Frederick Banting, Canadian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1891)
- February 24 - Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière, German submariner (b. 1886)
- February 27 - William D. Byron, U.S. Congressman (b. 1895)
- February 28 - King Alfonso XIII of Spain (b. 1886)
March-July
- March 6 - Gutzon Borglum, American sculptor (Mount Rushmore) (b. 1867)
- March 8 - Sherwood Anderson, American author (b. 1876)
- March 15 - Alexej von Jawlensky, Russian painter (b. 1864)
- March 28
- April 13 - Annie Jump Cannon, American astronomer (b. 1863)
- April 16 - Josiah Stamp, 1st Baron Stamp, Bt, GCB, GBE, FBA, British civil servant, industrialist, economist, statistician and banker (b.1880)
- April 24 - Karin Boye, Swedish poetess (suicide) (b. 1900)
- April 28 - Luisa Tetrazzini, Italian coloratura soprano (b. 1871)
- May 16 - Minnie Vautrin, American missionary and heroine of the Nanjing Massacre (b. 1887)
- May 30 - Prajadhipok, Rama VII, king of Thailand (b. 1893)
- June 2 - Lou Gehrig, American baseball player (b. 1903)
- June 4 - Wilhelm II, last Emperor of Germany (b. 1859)
- June 6 - Louis Chevrolet, Swiss-born automobile builder and race car driver (b. 1878)
- June 29 - Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Polish pianist, composer, and third Prime Minister of Poland (b. 1860)
- July 4 - Antoni Łomnicki, Polish mathematician (b. 1881)
- July 10 - Jelly Roll Morton, African-American jazz musician and composer (b. 1890)
- July 11 - Arthur Evans, English archaeologist (b. 1851)
- July 25 - Allan Forrest, American actor (b. 1885)
- July 26 - Henri Lebesgue, French mathematician (b. 1875)
August-December
- August 7 - Rabindranath Tagore, Indian author, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1861)
- August 13 - James Stuart Blackton, American film producer (b. 1875)
- August 14 - Paul Sabatier, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1854)
- August 30 - Peder Oluf Pedersen, Danish engineer and physicist (b. 1874)
- August 31 - Marina Tsvetaeva, Russian poet (suicide) (b. 1892)
- September 12 - Hans Spemann, German embryologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1869)
- October 5 - Louis Brandeis, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1856)
- October 8 - Valentine O'Hara, Irish author and authority on Russia and the Baltic States (b. 1875)
- October 26 - Arkady Gaidar, Russian writer (b. 1904)
- October 29 - Harvey Hendrick, American baseball player (b. 1897)
- November 18
- November 21 - Henrietta Vinton Davis, American elocutionist, dramatist, impersonator, public speaker (b. 1860)
- November 26 - Niels Hansen Jacobsen, Danish sculptor and ceramist (b. 1861)
- December 3 - Christian Sinding, Norwegian composer (b. 1856)
- December 7 - Isaac Campbell Kidd, American admiral (died in the attack on Pearl Harbor) (b. 1884)
- December 12 - Cesar Basa, Filipino pilot (b. 1915)
- December 30 - El Lissitzky, Russian artist and architect (b. 1890)
Nobel prizes
Ship events
External links
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