1942 Nostalgia: When We Were Kids

January
1st	Declaration of the United Nations signed by 26 Allied nations
1st	American musician, Country Joe McDonald is born
2nd	Manila is captured by Japanese forces
3rd	Actor, John Thaw is born in Manchester (d. 2002)
5th	Former BBC newsreader, Jan Leeming is born
8th	British physicist and Autoharp player, Stephen Hawking is born
10th	The last German air-raid on Liverpool. This raid destroyed the home of William Patrick Hitler, Adolf Hitler's nephew. After his house was destroyed William Hitler went to the USA and joined the navy to fight against his uncle
11th	Japan declares war on the Netherlands and invades the Netherlands East Indies
11th	The Japanese capture Kuala Lumpur
13th	Germans begin a U-boat offensive along east coast of USA
16th	Actress Carole Lombard and her mother are among those killed in a plane crash near Las Vegas while returning from a tour to promote the sale of war bonds
17th	Boxing legend, Muhammad Ali is born (as Cassius Clay) in Kentucky, US
19th	Japanese forces invade Burma
19th	Singer and Actor, Michael Crawford is born in Salisbury, Wiltshire
20th	SS Leader Heydrich holds the Wannsee Conference to coordinate the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question."
21st	Rommel's counter-offensive from El Agheila begins
25th	Thailand declares war on the United States and United Kingdom
25th	Portuguese footballing legend, Eusébio is born in Lourenço Marques, Mozambique
26th	First American forces arrive in in Europe, landing in Northern Ireland
31st	The last organised Allied forces leave Malaya, ending the 54-day campaign
31st	English director and writer, Derek Jarman is born in Northwood, Middlesex (d. 1994)

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February
1st	Welsh actor, writer, and form Python Terry Jones is born
2nd	Japan invades Singapore
2nd	President Roosevelt signs an executive order directing the internment of Japanese Americans and the seizure of their property
2nd	American rock musician, Graham Nash is born in Blackpool, Lancashire
9th	American singer and composer Carole King is born in New York
11th	In Operation Cerberus, a flotilla of Kriegsmarine ships dash from Brest through the English Channel to northern ports; British fail to sink any of them
13th	American musician, actor and one time "Monkee", Peter Tork is born
15th	Singapore surrenders to Japanese forces
16th	The 14th Academy Awards ceremony is held in Los Angeles, California
19th	242 Japanese warplanes attack Darwin, Australia
22nd	President Franklin Delano Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defense of the nation collapses
25th	Princess Elizabeth registers for war service
25th	Over 1400 AA shells were fired at an unidentified, slow-moving object in the skies over Los Angeles. The appearance of the object triggered most of Southern California into an immediate wartime blackout with thousands of Air Raid Wardens being deployed throughout the city. In total there were six deaths. Despite the several hour barrage no planes were downed during the "Battle of Los Angeles"
27th	During the Battle of the Java Sea an allied (ABDA) task force under Dutch command, trying to stem a Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies is defeated by a Japanese task force in the Java Sea
28th	Rolling Stones guitarist, Brian Jones is born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire (d. 1969)

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March
2nd	American Author, John Irving is born in Exeter, New Hampshire
2nd	American singer-songwriter and guitarist (part of The Velvet Underground), Lou Reed is born in New York
9th	Composer and musician, most famous for his work with The Velvet Underground, John Cale is born in Carmarthenshire, Wales
9th	Executive Order 9082 (February 28, 1942) reorganized the United States Army into three major commands - Army Ground Forces, Army Air Forces, and Services of Supply, later redesignated Army Service Forces
13th	Jazz musician, Scatman John is born in El Monte, California (d. 1999)
17th	American serial killer, John Wayne Gacy is born (d. 1994)
25th	The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin is born in Memphis, Tennessee
25th	Actor, writer and star of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Richard O'Brien is born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
26th	American author, Erica Jong is born in New York
27th	Actor, Michael York is born in Fulmer, Buckinghamshire
28th	Politician, Neil Kinnock is born in Tredegar, Wales
28th	British Commandos raided St Nazaire on the coast of Western France
28th	British film director, Mike Newell is born in St. Albans, Hertfordshire

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April
1st	British radio DJ, Annie Nightingale is born
2nd	American singer, songwriter, pianist, and guitarist, Leon Russell is born
3rd	Japanese forces begin an all-out assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula. Bataan fell on April 9 and the Bataan Death March began
5th	Film maker, Peter Greenaway is born
5th	Japanese Navy attacks Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Royal Navy Cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island
6th	Barry Levinson, American film producer and director is born
8th	British rock singer (Family, Streetwalkers), Roger Chapman is born
9th	Japanese Navy launches air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Royal Navy Aircraft Carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy Destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk off the country's East Coast
9th	Japan captures Baatan
9th	Japanese forces sink HMS Hermes near Ceylon
15th	Malta receives the George Cross for bravery
15th	King George VI awards the George Cross to Malta, "To honour her brave people I award the George Cross to the Island Fortress of Malta, to bear witness to a heroism and a devotion that will long be famous in history." From January 1 to July 24, 1942, there was only one 24-hour period during which no bombs fell on this tiny island
18th	Tokyo, Japan is bombed by B-25 Mitchells commanded by then-Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle
23rd	Sandra Dee, American actress is born (d. 2005)
23rd	German air raids begin against cathedral cities in Britain
24th	American singer, theatre and film actress,Barbra Streisand is born
27th	A national referendum is held in Canada on the issue of conscription
29th	An explosion at a chemical factory in Tessenderlo, Belgium leaves 200 dead and 1,000 injured

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May
5th	United Kingdom forces invades French colony of Madagascar in Operation Ironclad
5th	Country singing legend, Tammy Wynette is born (d. 1998)
6th	The last American and Filipino forces in the Philippines surrender Corregidor to Japanese forces
8th	The Battle of the Coral Sea ends
8th	Germany launches Summer offensive in Crimea
8th	On the night of 8/9 May 1942, gunners of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands rebelled. Their mutiny was crushed and three of them were executed, the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War
12th	Musician and punk, Ian Dury is born in Harrow, Middlesex (d. 2000)
12th	In the eastern Ukraine, the Soviet Army initiates a major offensive with the Second Battle of Kharkov. During the battle the Soviets will capture the city of Kharkov from the German Army, only to be encircled and destroyed
15th	In the United States, a bill creating the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) is signed into law
17th	Blues Guitarist, Taj Mahal is born in Harlem, New York
18th	English-born musician and composer, Albert Hammond is born
18th	England footballing great, Nobby Stiles is born in Manchester
20th	First African-American seamen accepted into the US Navy
21st	Mexico declares war against Nazi Germany after the sinking of the Mexican tanker Faja de Oro by the German U-boat, U-160, off Key West
26th	Rommel begins an offensive against the Gazala Line
27th	The attempted assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague takes place as the final part of Operation Anthropoid. Heydrich died 8 days later from septicemia (blood poisoning) caused by shrapnel he received during the attempt to kill him
29th	Hollywood legend John Barrymore dies, aged 60
30th	First thousand bomber British air raid (against Cologne)
31st	Japanese midget subs attack Sydney Harbour

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June
1st	Mexico declares war on Germany, Italy and Japan
3rd	American musician, Curtis Mayfield is born in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1999)
4th	SS Leader Reinhard Heydrich succumbs to wounds sustained on May 27 from Czechoslovakian paratroopers acting in Operation Anthropoid
5th	Germans besiege Sevastopol
7th	Japanese forces beaten in The Battle of Midway
7th	Japanese forces invade the Aleutian Islands. This is the first invasion of American soil in 128 years
8th	Australian cities of Sydney and Newcastle are shelled by Japanese submarines. The eastern suburbs of both cities are damaged and the east coast is blacked-out
10th	Nazi Gestapo officers liquidate Lidice (Czechoslovakia), killing 173 male residents in reprisal for Heydrich's assassination
12th	Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday
18th	Former beatle, musician and composer, Paul McCartney is born in Liverpool
20th	Beach boys singer, Brian Wilson is born in Hawthorne, California
21st	Rommel captures Tobruk in Libya
24th	Fleetwood Mac drummer, Mick Fleetwood is born in Redruth, Cornwall
25th	Eisenhower arrives in London
27th	Beach Boy, Bruce Johnston is born in Peoria, Illinois
29th	The German Eleventh Army under Erich von Manstein takes Sevastopol, although fighting continues until July 9
30th	Rommel reaches El Alamein near Cairo, Egypt

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July
1st	First Battle of El Alamein begins
3rd	Germans take Sevastopol
3rd	Guadalcanal falls to the Japanese
4th	Prince Michael of Kent is born in Coppins, Iver, Buckinghamshire
5th	Soviet resistance in the Crimea ends
9th	Germans begin a drive toward Stalingrad in the USSR
9th	Anne Frank's family goes into hiding in an attic above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse
9th	Actor, Richard Roundtree (Shaft) is born in New Rochelle, New York
10th	Rock singer, Ronnie James Dio is born in New Hampshire, USA
13th	Hollywood star, actor and producer, Harrison Ford is born in Chicago, Illinois
13th	German U-Boats sink three more merchant ships in Gulf of St. Lawrence
13th	Musician and member of The Byrds, Roger McGuinn is born in Chicago, Illinois
16th	On order from the Vichy France government headed by Pierre Laval, French police officers round-up 13,000-20,000 Jews and imprison them in the Winter Velodrome
18th	The Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me-262 using only its jets for the first time
19th	In the Battle of the Atlantic, German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz orders the last U-boats to withdraw from their United States Atlantic coast positions in response to an effective American convoy system
21st	Japanese establish beachhead on the north coast of New Guinea in the Buna-Gona area; small Australian force begins rearguard action on the Kokoda Track Campaign
22nd	First deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to concentration campsbegin as the Treblinka extermination camp is opened
23rd	Moors Murderer, Myra Hindley is born in Manchester
31st	The Oxford Committee of Famine Relief (OXFAM) is founded in England by a group of Quakers, social activists, and Oxford academics

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August
1st	Grateful Dead star, Jerry Garcia is born in San Francisco, California (d. 1995)
2nd	Acclaimed Chilean writer, Isabel Allende in born in Lima, Peru
7th	Battle of Guadalcanal begins - US Marines initiate the first American offensive of the war with a landing on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands
7th	American writer and radio host, Garrison Keillor is born in Anoka, Minnesota
7th	British General Bernard Montgomery takes command of Eighth Army in North Africa
8th	Quit India resolution is passed by the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), which led to the start of a historical civil disobedience movement across India
9th	Indian leader, Mohandas Gandhi is arrested in Bombay by British forces
9th	Start, (A team of Soviets including 8 Dynamo Kiev players), led by the goalkeeper Nikolai Trusevich, play football against the German Luftwaffe team Flakelf in Nazi-occupied Kiev. Against all odds, they win 5-3. Eight of them are later arrested and tortured, and at least four are killed
12th	Stalin and Churchill meet in Moscow
15th	SS Ohio, an American tanker, reaches Malta as part of the convoy of Operation Pedestal
16th	Polish-Jewish teacher Janusz Korczak, with a large group of Jewish children from the orphanage he ran in the Warsaw ghetto, is "evacuated" to Treblinka death camp
16th	U.S. Navy blimp L-8 (Flight 101) comes ashore near San Francisco, eventually coming down in Daly City. The crew is missing
17th	First all American air attack takes place in Europe
18th	Judith Keppel, (First person to win £1,000,000 on game show, "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?") is born
19th	Operation Jubilee starts with the Battle of Dieppe in France
20th	Singer and actor, Isaac Hayes is born in Covington, Tennessee
22nd	Brazil declare war on Germany and Italy
23rd	Massive German air raid on Stalingrad
25th	Japanese marines land at Milne Bay
28th	Sterling Morrison, musician with The Velvet Underground, is born in New York (d. 1995)
30th	Luxembourg is formally annexed to the German Reich
31st	General strike launched in Luxembourg to protest against forced conscription

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September
2nd	Rommel driven back by Montgomery in the Battle of Alam Halfa
3rd	An attempt by the Germans to liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Lakhva leads to an uprising
5th	Japanese forces suffer their first defeat on land at the Battle of Milne Bay
12th	RMS Laconia, carrying civilians, Allied soldiers and Italian POWs is torpedoed off the coast of West Africa and sinks
13th	Battle of Stalingrad begins
17th	TV presenter, Desmond Lynam is birn in Ennis, County Clare, Ireland
23rd	The Manhatten Project begins, working to create an effective atomic bomb
24th	Andrée Borrel and Lise de Baissac became the first female SOE agents to be parachuted into occupied France
29th	Actor, Ian McShane is born in Blackburn

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October
2nd	British cruiser Curaçao collides with the liner Queen Mary off the coast of Donegal and sinks killing 338
3rd	First successful launch of A-4 rocket from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany. The rocket flew 147 kilometres wide and reached a height of 84.5 kilometres and was therefore the first man-made object to reach space
6th	Swedish actress, Britt Ekland was born
9th	Statute of Westminster Adoption Act formalises Australian autonomy
11th	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
14th	A German U-boat sinks the ferry SS Caribou, killing 137
16th	A hurricane and flooding in Bombay leave 40,000 dead
18th	Hitler orders the execution of all captured British commandos
23rd	The Second Battle of El Alamein, led by Montgomery begins
23rd	Michael Crichton, American author who created Jurassic Park was born in Chicago, Illinois
23rd	Award-winning composer and Hollywood songwriter Ralph Rainger ("Thanks for the Memory") is among the 12 people killed in the mid-air collision between an American Airlines DC-3 airliner and a U.S. Army bomber near Palm Springs, California
26th	In the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands two Japanese aircraft carriers are heavily damaged and one US carrier is sunk
26th	Actor, Bob Hoskins was born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
28th	The Alaska Highway is completed
29th	In the United Kingdom, leading clergymen and political figures hold a public meeting to register outrage over Nazi Germany's persecution of Jews
29th	Bob Ross, the American painter and television presenter was born (d. 1995)

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November
1st	Operation Supercharge (Allies break Axis lines at El Alamein)
1st	Publisher of Hustler, Larry Flynt is born in Kentucky
2nd	Actress, Stefanie Powers is born in Hollywood, California
3rd	The Second Battle of El Alamein ends when German forces under Erwin Rommel are forced to retreat during the night
8th	United States and United Kingdom forces land in French North Africa as part of Operation Torch
8th	French Resistance Coup in Algiers, by which 400 French civil resistants neutralize the Vichyist XIXth Army Corps and the Vichyist generals (Juin, Darlan, etc.), so allowing the immediate success of Operation Torch in Algiers, and ultimately the whole of French North Africa
8th	Operation Torch begins (U.S. invasion of North Africa)
9th	U.S serviceman Edward Leonski hanged at Melbourne's Pentridge Prison for the "Brown-Out" Murders of three women in May
10th	In violation of a 1940 armistice, Germany invades Vichy France following French Admiral François Darlan agreement to an armistice with the Allies in North Africa
11th	Germans and Italians invade unoccupied Vichy France
12th	A naval battle near Guadalcanal starts between Japanese and American forces
13th	Singer, John Hammond is born in New York
13th	Aviators from the USS Enterprise sink the Japanese battleship Hiei
15th	The Battle of Guadalcanal ends. Although the United States Navy suffered heavy losses, it was able to retain control of Guadalcanal
17th	American film director, Martin Scorsese is born in New York
19th	Soviet Union forces under General Georgy Zhukov launch the Operation Uranus counter-attacks at Stalingrad, turning the tide of the battle in the USSR's favour
22nd	The situation for the German attackers of Stalingrad seems desperate during the Soviet counter-attack Operation Uranus and General Friedrich Paulus sends Adolf Hitler a telegram saying that the German Sixth Army is surrounded
23rd	German U-boat sinks SS Ben Lomond off the coast of Brazil. One crewman, Chinese second steward Poon Lim, is separated from the others and spends the next 133 days adrift until he is rescued April 3, 1943
24th	Scottish comedian, Billy Connolly is born in Glasgow
26th	The movie Casablanca premièred at the Hollywood Theater in New York City
27th	At Toulon, the French navy scuttles its ships and submarines to keep them out of Nazi hands
27th	Legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix is born in Seattle, Washington (d. 1970)
28th	In Boston, Massachusetts, a fire in the Cocoanut Grove night club kills 491 people

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December
1st	Gasoline rationing begins in the United States
2nd	Manhattan Project: Below the bleachers of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, a team led by Enrico Fermi initiate the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction (a coded message, "The Italian navigator has landed in the new world" was then sent to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt)
4th	In Warsaw, two women, Zofia Kossak and Wanda Filipowicz risk their lives by setting up the Council for the Assistance of the Jews
7th	British commandos conduct Operation Frankton, a raid on shipping in Bordeaux harbour
12th	Musician, Peter Sarstedt ("Where do you go to my lovely") is born in Delhi, India
13th	Rommel withdraws from El Agheila
16th	Soviets defeat Italian troops on the River Don in the USSR
17th	British Foreign Secretary Eden tells the British House of Commons of mass executions of Jews by Nazis; U.S. declares those crimes will be avenged
17th	Blues harmonica player and singer, Paul Butterfield is born in Chicago, Illinois
20th	American Athelete, Bob Hayes is born in Jacksonville, Florida
24th	French Admiral Darlan, the former Vichy leader who had switched over to the Allies following the Torch landings, is assassinated in Algiers
27th	The Union of Pioneers of Yugoslavia is founded
31st	Guitarist with The Police, Andy Summers is born in Lancashire
31st	Battle of the Barents Sea between German and British ships