1941 Nostalgia: When We Were Kids

January
1st	Thailand Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram decrees January 1 as the official start of the Thai solar calendar new year (thus the previous year that began April 1 had only nine months)
4th	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
6th	Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms Speech in the State of the Union Address
8th	Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell the founder of Scouting, dies
8th	Comedian and Monty Python actor, Graham Chapman is born in Leicester, England (d. 1989)
9th	American folk singer and activitist, Joan Baez is born in New York
12th	Blues singer, Long John Baldry is born in Northamptonshire, England
14th	American actress, Faye Dunaway is born
15th	Singer, Captain Beefheart is born in California
19th	British troops attack Italian-held Eritrea.
20th	Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes swears in U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt for his third term
21st	World famous tenor, Plácido Domingo is born in Spain
21st	Musician Richie Havens is born
22nd	Tobruk in North Africa falls to the British and Australians
23rd	Aviator Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler
24th	Singer and songwriter, Neil Diamond is born in New York
26th	American Actor, Scott Glen is born
27th	U.S. Ambassador to Japan Joseph C. Grew passes on to Washington a rumor overheard at a diplomatic reception about a planned surprise attack upon Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

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February
3rd	The Nazis forcibly restore Pierre Laval to office in occupied Vichy, France
8th	Actor, Nick Nolte born in Nebraska, USA
9th	Winston Churchill, in a worldwide broadcast, pleads with the U.S. to show its support by sending arms to the British: "Give us the tools, and we will finish the job."
11th	British forces advance into Italian Somaliland in East Africa.
12th	German General Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli, North Africa.
14th	First units of German 'Afrika Korps' arrive in North Africa.
19th	The start of the Three Nights' Blitz over Swansea, South Wales. Over these three nights of intensive bombing, which lasted a total of 13 hours and 48 minutes, Swansea town centre was almost completely obliterated by the 896 High Explosive bombs employed by the Luftwaffe. A total of 397 casualties and 230 deaths were reported. The Three nights Blitz ended in the early hours of February 22
20th	American singer, Buffy Sainte-Marie born in Saskatchewan, Canada
23rd	Glenn T. Seaborg isolates and discovers plutonium
27th	British politician Paddy Ashdown born in New Delhi, British India

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March
1st	Bulgaria signs the Tripartite Pact thus joining the Axis powers
1st	W47NV begins operations in Nashville, Tennessee becoming the first FM radio station
4th	British Commandos carry out a successful raid on the Lofoten Islands off the north coast of Norway
7th	British forces arrive in Greece.
11th	US passes the Lend Lease act.
11th	President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act into law, allowing American-built war supplies to be shipped to the Allies on loan.
15th	Beach Boy vocalist, Mike Love is born in California
18th	American singer, Wilson Pickett is born (d. 2006)
22nd	Washington's Grand Coulee Dam begins to generate electricity
26th	Emininent British scientist, Richard Dawkins is born
27th	Battle of Cape Matapan starts off the Peloponnesus coast in the Mediterranean, British naval forces defeat those of Italy sinking five warships. Battle ends on March 29
27th	A coup in Yugoslavia overthrows the pro-Axis government.
30th	All German, Italian, and Danish ships anchored in United States waters are taken into "protective custody"

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April
3rd	Pro-Axis regime set up in Iraq.
6th	Nazis invade Greece and Yugoslavia
10th	U.S. destroyer Niblack, while picking up survivors from a sunken Dutch freighter, drops depth charges on a German U-Boat - the first "shot in anger" fired by America against Germany
12th	German troops enter Belgrade
12th	English football player and World Cup winning captain, Bobby Moore is born (d. 1993)
13th	Soviet Union and Japan sign a neutrality pact
14th	British actress, Julie Chritstie is born
14th	Rommel attacks Tobruk.
17th	Yugoslavia surrenders to the Nazis
18th	Prime Minister of Greece Alexandros Koryzis commits suicide as German troops approach Athens
21st	Greece capitulates. Commonwealth troops and some elements of the Greek Army withdraw to Crete
23rd	DJ, Ed Stewart is born in Devon
24th	Greece surrenders to the Nazis
24th	Virtuoso guitarist John Williams is born in Melbourne, Australia
27th	German troops enter Athens
28th	Actress, Ann-Margret is born in Valsjöbyn, Jämtlands Iän, Sweden

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May
1st	German attack on Tobruk is repulsed.
1st	Orson Welles' screenplay, Citizen Kane, premieres in New York.
1st	Breakfast cereal Cheerios is introduced as CheeriOats by General Mills.
5th	Emperor Haile Selassie enters Addis Ababa, which had been liberated from Italian forces; this date has been since commemorated as Liberation Day in Ethiopia
9th	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
10th	Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland claiming to be on a peace mission
10th	Heavy German bombing of London. The House of Commons is damaged by the Luftwaffe in an air raid
10th	British bomb Hamburg.
11th	Vocalist of The Animals, Eric Burdon is born
12th	Konrad Zuse presented the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer in Berlin
13th	American Rock and Roller, Ritchie Valens is born (d. 1959)
15th	Operation Brevity begins (the British counter-attack in Egypt)
20th	The Battle of Crete begins as Germany launches an airborne invasion of Crete
21st	950 miles off the coast of Brazil, the freighter SS Robin Moor becomes the first United States ship sunk by a German U-boat
24th	Musician and poet, Bob Dylan is born in Duluth, Minnesota, USA
24th	Sinking of the British ship HMS Hood by the Bismarck.
27th	The Royal Navy sink the Bismark in the North Atlantic killing 2,300.

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June
4th	Pro-Allied government installed in Iraq
4th	The ex-kaiser of Germany, Wilhelm II, dies in exile at Doorn, Netherlands
8th	A Serbian ammunition plant explodes at Smederevo, outskirt of Belgrade, Serbia, killing 1,500
8th	Allies invade Syria and Lebanon
9th	Organist of Deep Purple, Jon Lord was born in Leicester, England
13th	TASS, the official Soviet news agency, denies reports of tension between Germany and the Soviet Union
14th	Mass deportations by Soviet Union authorities take place in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
14th	United States freezes German and Italian assets in America
16th	All German and Italian consulates in the United States are ordered closed and their staffs to leave the country by July 10
22nd	Germany attacks Soviet Union as Operation Barbarossa begins
22nd	Italy and Romania declare war on the Soviet Union
22nd	Actor, Michael Lerner born in Brooklyn, New York
22nd	Winston Churchill promises all possible British assistance to the Soviet Union in a worldwide broadcast: "Any man or state who fights against Nazidom will have our aid. Any man or state who marches with Hitler is our foe."
23rd	Hungary and Slovakia declare war on the Soviet Union
25th	Finland attacks the Soviet Union to seek the opportunity of revenge in the Continuation War
28th	Albania declares war on the Soviet Union
28th	Germans capture Minsk

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July
2nd	Japan calls up one million men for military service
3rd	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
4th	Mass murder of Polish scientists and writers, committed by German troops in captured Polish city of Lwów
7th	Serbia starts the first popular uprising in Europe against the Axis Powers
7th	Comedian, ornithologist and former "Goodie", Bill Oddie was born in Rochdale, England
7th	American forces take over the defense of Iceland from the British
7th	German troops take over Estonia from the Soviets
10th	Germans cross the River Dnieper in the Ukraine
11th	DJ, Tommy Vance is born in Eynsham, Oxfordshire (d. 2005)
12th	Mutual Assistance agreement between British and Soviets
13th	Montenegro starts the second popular uprising in Europe against the Axis Powers
14th	British occupy Syria.
19th	A BBC broadcast by "Colonel Britton" calls on the people of Occupied Europe to resist the Nazis under the slogan "V for Victory"
26th	Roosevelt freezes Japanese assets in United States and suspends relations
26th	General Douglas MacArthur is named commander of all U.S. forces in the Philippines; the Philippines Army ordered nationalised by President Roosevelt
30th	U.S. gunboat Tutuila attacked by Japanese aircraft while anchored in the Yangtze River at Chungking. Japan apologizes for the incident the following day
30th	Canadian-American singer and songwriter, Paul Anka is born in Ontario, Canada
31st	Under instructions from Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring, orders SS general Reinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired final solution of the Jewish question."

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August
1st	United States announces an oil embargo against aggressor states
1st	The first ever Jeep rolls off the production line
6th	Six-year-old Elaine Esposito goes into an appendix operation in Florida and lapses into a coma. She dies 1978, still in coma
14th	Roosevelt and Churchill announce the Atlantic Charter
18th	Adolf Hitler orders a temporary halt to Nazi Germany's systematic euthanasia of mentally ill and handicapped due to protests. However, graduates of the T-4 Euthanasia Program were then transferred to concentration camps, where they continued in their trade
20th	Nazi siege of Leningrad begins
22nd	In France, The German Occupation Authority announces that anyone found either working for or aiding the Free French will be sentenced to death
24th	A Luftwaffe bomb hits an Estonian steamer with 3500 Soviet-mobilized Estonian men on board, killing 598 of them
25th	Operation Countenance begins with United Kingdom and Soviet forces invading Iran
27th	Pierre Laval is shot in an assassination attempt at Versailles, France
28th	The Soviets announce the destruction of massive Dnieper River dam at Zaporozhye to prevent its capture by the Germans

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September
3rd	First experimental use of gas chambers at Auschwitz
4th	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 two nations as a result
6th	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
8th	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
9th	American soul singer, Otis Redding is born in Georgia, USA (d. 1967)
11th	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
15th	Self-government of Estonia, headed by Hjalmar Mäe, is appointed by German military administration
16th	Reza Pahlavi, Shah 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
19th	Nazis take Kiev
19th	Mamas and Papas singer, Cass Elliot is born in Maryland, USA (d. 1974)
29th	Nazis murder 33,771 Jews at Kiev

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October
2nd	Operation Typhoon begins (German advance on Moscow)
8th	In their invasion of the Soviet Union, Germany reaches the Sea of Azov with the capture of Mariupol
8th	American clergyman and civil rights activist, Jesse Jackson is born in Greenville, South Carolina, USA
10th	Actor Peter Coyote is born in New York
13th	Singer, Composer Paul Simon is born in New Jersey, USA
16th	The Soviet Union government moves to Kuibyshev, but Stalin remains in Moscow
16th	Germans take Odessa
17th	The destroyer USS Kearny is torpedoed and damaged near Iceland, killing eleven sailors - the first American military casualties of the war
18th	General Hideki Tojo becomes the 40th Prime Minister of Japan
23rd	Walt Disney's feature-length cartoon Dumbo is released
24th	Germans take Kharkov
28th	Shadows guitarist, Hank Marvin is born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England
28th	Operation Anthropoid was put into action with the object being, the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague
30th	Germans reach Sevastopol
31st	After 14 years of work, drilling is completed on Mount Rushmore
31st	The destroyer USS Reuben James is torpedoed by a German U-boat near Iceland, killing more than 100 United States Navy sailors

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November
1st	British journalist, author, broadcaster and diarist, Nigel Dempster is born in Ham, Surrey (d.2007)
5th	Singer, Art Garfunkel is born in New York
6th	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 were killed in German attacks so far, that the Germans have lost 4.5 million soldiers (a gross exaggeration) and that Soviet victory was near
7th	The Soviet hospital Ship Armenia sunk by German planes while evacuating refugees, wounded military and staff of several Crimean hospitals. It is estimated that over 5,000 people died in the sinking
10th	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
12th	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
13th	British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal is sunk off Gibraltar by a U-boat
18th	Actor, David Hemmings is born in Guildford, Surrey
19th	The Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney sinks off the coast of Western Australia, killing 645 sailors
20th	Germans take Rostov
23rd	Irish poet, Derek Mahon is born in Belfast, Northern Ireland
26th	US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States (this partly reversed a 1939 action by Roosevelt that changed the celebration of Thanksgiving to the third Thursday of November)
26th	In preparation of the Attack on Pearl Harbor, a fleet of six aircraft carriers commanded by Japanese Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo leaves Hitokapu Bay for Pearl Harbor under strict radio silence
27th	Germans reach their closest approach to Moscow. They are subsequently frozen by cold weather and attacks by the Soviets
27th	All U.S. military forces in Asia and the Pacific are placed on war alert
27th	Soviet troops retake Rostov

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December
5th	German attack on Moscow is abandoned
6th	Roosevelt makes a personal peace appeal to Emperor Hirohito of Japan
6th	Soviet Army launches a major counter-offensive around Moscow
7th	The Japanese Navy launches a surprise attack on the United States fleet at Pearl Harbor, thus drawing the United States into World War II
7th	Hitler issues the Night and Fog decree
8th	United States and Britain declare war on Japan
8th	China officially declares war on Japan
8th	The Netherlands declares war on Japan
8th	Japan launches invasions in Hong Kong, Malaya, Manila, and Singapore
8th	Japan launches invasions in the Philippines
9th	Actor, Beau Bridges born in California, USA
10th	The British battleships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk by Japanese aircraft in the South China Sea north of Singapore
11th	American forces repel a Japanese landing attempt at Wake Island
11th	Germany and Italy declare war on the US. The U.S. responds in kind
12th	Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States
12th	India declares war on Japan
12th	United States seizes French ship Normandie
13th	Sweden's low temperature record of -53°C was set in a village within Vilhelmina Municipality
16th	Rommel begins a retreat to El Agheila in North Africa
19th	Hitler assumes complete command of the German Army
23rd	A second Japanese landing attempt on Wake Island is successful, and the American garrison surrenders after a full night and morning of fighting
25th	Britain surrenders Hong Kong to the Japanese
26th	Winston Churchill becomes the first British Prime Minister to address a Joint session of the U.S. Congress
27th	British Commandos raid the Norwegian port of Vaagso, causing Hitler to reinforce the garrison and defenses, drawing vital troops away from other areas
31st	Sir Alex Ferguson, Manager of Manchester United born in Glasgow, Scotland