January 1941
The following events occurred in January 1941:
- 141 aircraft of the Royal Air Force bombed the Focke-Wulf aircraft production plant south of Bremen.[1]
- British naval officers were encouraged to search all captured ships for encoding machines and related paperwork.[2]
- ASCAP boycott: Music licensed by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers disappeared from American airwaves over a licensing fee dispute. The boycott would last ten months.
- CBC News was founded in Canada.
- The Stanford Indians defeated the Nebraska Cornhuskers 21-13 in the 27th Rose Bowl.
- The Boston College Eagles defeated the Tennessee Volunteers 19-13 in the 1941 Sugar Bowl.
- The Case Western Reserve Spartans beat the Arizona State Bulldogs 26-13 in the 1941 Sun Bowl.
- In the 1941 Orange Bowl, the Mississippi State Maroons defeated the Georgetown Hoyas 14-7.
- The Texas A&M Aggies edged the Fordham Rams 13-12 in the 1941 Cotton Bowl Classic.
- Following a hockey game between the Chicago Black Hawks and Detroit Red Wings at Chicago Stadium, Jimmy Orlando of the Red Wings exchanged harsh words with a spectator in the stands, then threw a punch over the rail that knocked the fan unconscious. Hundreds of angry fans surged onto the ice and some tried to go after Orlando, but ushers held them back. By the time police arrived to arrest Orlando he was nowhere to be found.[3]
- Born: Lynn Steen, mathematician, in Chicago, Illinois (d. 2015)
- Died: József Konkolics, 79, Hungarian Slovene writer
- The Battle of Bardia began as part of Operation Compass. The Australian 6th Division assaulted the strongly held Italian fortress of Bardia, Libya.
- The longest raid of the Bristol Blitz began, lasting 12 hours.
- Éamon de Valera held an urgent session with his cabinet and sent a note of protest to Germany over the bombing of Dublin.[5]
- The 77th United States Congress began.
- Martin Bormann promulgated a Nazi decree banning gothic typefaces in all printing and proclaiming roman type as the new standard. The order sought to make Nazi communications more understandable in occupied France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Norway, where roman type was used.[6]
- The results of a Gallup poll were published asking Americans, "Do you think our country's future safety depends on England winning this war?" 68% said yes, 26% said no and 6% expressed no opinion.[7]
- Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto presented Minister of the Navy Koshirō Oikawa with his ideas for a war against the United States in a memorandum titled Gumbi ni kansuru shiken (Views on Preparations for War). Yamamato proposed a crippling first strike on American forces in the first few hours of the war, something that could best be accomplished by an air attack on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor.[10]
- The New Fourth Army incident occurred in China when 80,000 forces of the Kuomintang attacked the Communist New Fourth Army in Maolin, Anhui Province, ending the co-operation of the two factions to fight the Japanese instead of each other.
- A special committee of the Canadian government recommended that Japanese Canadians not be allowed to volunteer for the armed forces on the grounds of strong public opinion against them.[10]
- Born: Iona Brown, violinist and conductor, in Salisbury, England (d. 2005); Manfred Schellscheidt, footballer and coach, in Söllingen, Germany; John E. Walker, chemist and Nobel laureate, in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England
- Hitler held a conference with his generals to discuss plans to attack the Soviet Union. Hitler said that German success in Russia would encourage Japan to attack the United States, thus keeping the Americans too occupied to get involved in the war in Europe.[13]
- The Avro Lancaster had its first flight.
- Born: Joan Baez, folk musician and activist, on Staten Island, New York
- The British began Operation Excess, a series of supply convoys to Malta, Alexandria and Greece.
- The British aircraft carrier Illustrious was damaged by Stukas as it escorted a convoy to Malta.[14]
- President Roosevelt submitted H.R. 1776, better known as the Lend-Lease bill, to Congress.[15]
- The German civil administration in the Netherlands ordered the registration of all Jews in the country.[16]
- The results of a Gallup poll were published asking Americans, "Which of these two things do you think it is more important for the United States to try to do — to keep out of the war ourselves, or to help England win, even at the risk of getting into the war?" 60% said help England, 40% said keep out. A separate question asked, "If you were asked to vote on the question of the United States entering the war against Germany and Italy, how would you vote — to go into the war, or to stay out of the war?" 88% said stay out, 12% said go in.[7]
- Died: Frank Bridge, 61, English composer, violinist and conductor; John Lavery, 84, Irish painter; Joe Penner, 36, American comedian (heart failure)
- Romanian Conducător Ion Antonescu met with Hitler at Obersalzberg, where it was agreed that Antonescu would liquidate the Iron Guard.[22]
- British Commander-in-Chief Middle East Archibald Wavell met Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas and General Alexander Papagos in Athens. Papagos requested nine British divisions plus air support, but Wavell replied that he could only offer two or three. Papagos declined the offer.[4]
- The British government announced new price controls to thwart food profiteering. Price freezes were announced for more than 20 food items including coffee, rice, biscuits and jelly.[8]
- Former Belgian Justice Minister Victor de Laveleye suggested in a BBC radio broadcast that Belgians use a V sign as a symbol of resistance, since the French and Flemish words for "victory" both started with the letter V. Within weeks the "V for victory" sign began appearing on walls in Belgium, northern France and Holland.[23]
- German auxiliary cruiser Pinguin captured 14 ships of a Norwegian whaling fleet in a single operation.
- In New York City, brothers Anthony and William Esposito held up a man in a Fifth Avenue office building, shot him dead and then led police in a daytime chase through Manhattan. Both men were eventually apprehended, but not before a police officer was slain and a cab driver wounded in the throat. The trial would become one of the most famous insanity defense cases in history.[24]
- Born: Faye Dunaway, actress, in Bascom, Florida; Milan Kučan, 1st President of Slovenia, in Križevci, Gornji Petrovci, Kingdom of Yugoslavia
- The Legionnaires' rebellion and Bucharest pogrom began in Bucharest, Romania when members of the Iron Guard revolted.
- Bulgaria passed antisemitic legislation modeled after Germany's Nuremberg Laws.[31]
- Home Secretary Herbert Morrison used Defence Regulation 2D to ban the Communist newspaper Daily Worker, on the grounds that it was attempting to hinder the British war effort.[32]
- The United States lifted the trade embargo on the Soviet Union that had been imposed during the Winter War.[33]
- Bob Feller signed a new contract with the Cleveland Indians for $30,000, the highest annual salary for any pitcher in history at the time.[34]
- The heist film High Sierra starring Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart was released.
- Born: Plácido Domingo, tenor, in Madrid, Spain; Richie Havens, singer-songwriter and guitarist, in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2013); Ivan Putski, professional wrestler, in Kraków, General Government
- British and Australian forces captured Tobruk and took 25,000 Italians prisoner.[11]
- Wendell Willkie departed the United States aboard a transatlantic flight for a "fact finding" mission in Britain.[35]
- German submarine U-67 was commissioned.
- Died: Hayashi Tadataka, 92, Japanese daimyo
- The Legionnaires' rebellion was put down in Romania.
- Charles Lindbergh came before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee to oppose the Roosevelt Administration's Lend-Lease bill. Lindbergh testified that he would prefer to see "neither side win" in the war and hoped to see a "negotiated peace," and also expressed his belief that American entry into the war on Britain's side would still not be enough to defeat Germany without some kind of internal collapse.[36]
- The stage musical Lady in the Dark with music by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ira Gershwin and book and direction by Moss Hart premiered at the Neil Simon Theatre on Broadway.
- Thai bombers raided the French airbase at Angkor.[37]
- U.S. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox sent Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson a letter warning of the possibility of a surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.[38]
- Born: Neil Diamond, singer-songwriter, in Brooklyn, New York; Aaron Neville, R&B singer, in New Orleans, Louisiana; Dan Shechtman, scientist and Nobel laureate, in Tel Aviv
- Died: Finn Blakstad, 76, Norwegian politician; Tommy Bond, 84, American baseball player
- Panjiayu tragedy: The Imperial Japanese Army conducted a massacre of the Chinese village of Panjiayu, Hebei, in accordance with the orders from General Yasuji Okamura that all Chinese villages suspected of harboring communist guerilla fighters were to be wiped out.[4]
- William C. Bullitt told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that invasion of the Western Hemisphere by the Axis powers would be almost certain if the British Navy was eliminated and the Panama Canal blockaded before the United States was prepared. Bullitt said that "for our own self-preservation" the United States should ensure that Britain was not defeated.[39]
- German submarine U-201 was commissioned.
- Born: Theo Berger, criminal, in Ludwigsmoos, Germany (d. 2003)
- A report circulated claiming that the converted troopship RMS Empress of Australia had been torpedoed and was sinking 200 miles off Dakar.[41]
- Allied shipping docked in the harbor of Tobruk for the first time.[4]
- A conference on economic co-operation between the countries of South America opened in Montevideo. The conference lasted until February 6.[42]
- Constitutional Act No. 7 was passed in Vichy France, requiring state secretaries, high dignitaries and high officials to swear allegiance to the Chief of State. Article 3 stated that if any of them should prove "unfaithful to his obligations", the Chief of State was empowered to impose penalties that included loss of political rights and detention in a fortress.[43]
- Born: Beatrice Tinsley, English-born New Zealand astronomer and cosmologist, in Chester (d. 1981)
- British naval authorities made a terse announcement maintaining that the Empress of Australia was "safe in port".[44]
- The British steamer Urla was sunk by the Italian submarine Luigi Torelli 250 miles west of Ireland; all 42 crew survived.[4]
- Born: King Tubby, born Osbourne Ruddock, sound engineer, in Kingston, Jamaica (d. 1989)
- Died: Gangalal Shrestha, 21 or 22, Nepalese revolutionary (executed)
- The battle known as the Capture of Kufra began in Libya.
- The Japanese government arranged a truce in the Franco-Thai War aboard the Japanese cruiser Natori.[30]
- Joe Louis retained the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship with a fifth round knockout of Red Burman at Madison Square Garden.[48]
- German submarine U-751 was commissioned.
- The service comedy film Buck Privates starring Abbott and Costello was released.
- Born: Lynne Abraham, 23rd District Attorney of Philadelphia, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Dick Gephardt, politician, in St. Louis, Missouri; Eugène Terre'Blanche, politician, in Ventersdorp, South Africa (d. 2010); Jessica Walter, actress, in Brooklyn, New York
References
- ↑ "Events occurring on Wednesday, January 1, 1941". WW2 Timelines. 2011. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- 1 2 Davidson, Edward; Manning, Dale (1999). Chronology of World War Two. London: Cassell & Co. p. 56. ISBN 0-304-35309-4.
- ↑ "Player Slugs Spectator at Hockey Game". Chicago Daily Tribune (Chicago: Chicago Daily Tribune). January 2, 1941. p. 1.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 "1941". World War II Database. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- ↑ "Irish Protest to Germans on Bomb Attacks". Chicago Daily Tribune (Chicago: Chicago Daily Tribune). January 4, 1941. p. 1.
- ↑ Burke, Christopher (1998). Paul Renner: The Art of Typography. London: Hyphen Press. p. 165. ISBN 9781568981581.
- 1 2 "1941 Gallup poll results". ibiblio. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- 1 2 Mercer, Derrik, ed. (1989). Chronicle of the 20th Century. London: Chronicle Communications Ltd. pp. 544–545. ISBN 9-780582-039193.
- ↑ Forczyk, Robert (2010). Fw 200 Condor Vs Atlantic Convoy, 1941-43. Osprey Publishing. p. 29. ISBN 9781846039171.
- 1 2 "Events occurring on Tuesday, January 7, 1941". WW2 Timelines. 2011. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- 1 2 3 "1941". MusicAndHistory. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- ↑ Brown, David (2013). The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean: Vol.II: November 1940-December 1941. Routledge. p. 47. ISBN 9781136341205.
- ↑ Buell, Thomas B. (2002). The Second World War: Europe and the Mediterranean. Square One Publishers. p. 105. ISBN 9780757001604.
- ↑ "HMS Illustrious Bombed by the Luftwaffe". World War II Today. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- ↑ "Aid Bill Opens U. S. Yards to Refit the British Fleet". Brooklyn Eagle (Brooklyn). January 10, 1941. p. 1.
- ↑ Matthäus, Jürgen (2013). Jewish Responses to Persecution: Volume III, 1941-1942. Lanham, Maryland: AltaMira Press. p. 522. ISBN 9780759122598.
- ↑ "Events occurring on Sunday, January 12, 1941". WW2 Timelines. 2011. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- ↑ "Big U.S. Liner Goes Aground; 750 on Board". Chicago Daily Tribune (Chicago: Chicago Daily Tribune). January 13, 1941. p. 1.
- ↑ "Was war am 12. Januar 1941". chroniknet. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- ↑ Broucek, Peter (1983). Ein General im Zwielicht. Böhlau. p. 638. ISBN 9783205087434.
- ↑ "Was war am 13. Januar 1941". chroniknet. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- ↑ "Final Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania" (PDF). United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. November 11, 2004. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- ↑ "The V-Campaign". Virtual Radiomuseum. Archived from the original on March 12, 2005. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- ↑ McCabe, Scott (January 14, 2014). "Crime History, Jan. 14, 1941: ‘Mad Dog’ brothers kill two in Manhattan gun battle". D.C. Crime Stories. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- ↑ "16 January 1941: Illustrious Blitz". Malta: War Diary. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- ↑ "Was war am 17. Januar 1941". chroniknet. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- ↑ "Madison Square Garden". New York Architecture. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- ↑ "Events occurring on Saturday, January 18, 1941". WW2 Timelines. 2011. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- ↑ "Events occurring on Sunday, January 19, 1941". WW2 Timelines. 2011. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- 1 2 "Chronology 1941". indiana.edu. 2002. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- ↑ "Events occurring on Tuesday, January 21, 1941". WW2 Timelines. 2011. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- ↑ Chapman, James. "Daily Worker". Censorship: A World Encyclopedia. Ed. Derek Jones. London: Routledge, 2015. p. 643-644. ISBN 9781136798641.
- ↑ "Was war am 21. Januar 1941". chroniknet. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- ↑ "Feller to Get $30,000; Record for Pitcher". Chicago Daily Tribune (Chicago: Chicago Daily Tribune). January 22, 1941. p. 21.
- ↑ Yust, Walter, ed. (1942). 1942 Britannica Book of the Year. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. p. 1.
- ↑ "U.S. and Britain Can't Beat Hitler, Lindbergh Asserts". Brooklyn Eagle (Brooklyn). January 23, 1941. p. 1.
- ↑ "Events occurring on Friday, January 24, 1941". WW2 Timelines. 2011. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- ↑ Morgenstern, George (1947). Pearl Harbor. New York: Devin-Adair Company. p. 223.
- ↑ "U. S. Next if Nazis Win, Says Bullitt". Brooklyn Eagle (Brooklyn). January 25, 1941. p. 1.
- ↑ Chronology and Index of the Second World War, 1938-1945. Research Publications. 1990. p. 45. ISBN 9780887365683.
- ↑ "Empress of Australia Torpedoed, Sinking". The Stanford Daily: 1. January 28, 1941.
- ↑ "Was war am 27. Januar 1941". chroniknet. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- ↑ Beigbeder, Yves (2006). Judging War Crimes And Torture: French Justice And International Criminal Tribunals and Commissions (1940-2005). Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. pp. 140–141. ISBN 9789004153295.
- ↑ "British See Nazi Ruse in Story of Attack on Liner". Chicago Daily Tribune (Chicago: Chicago Daily Tribune). January 29, 1941. p. 3.
- ↑ "Was war am 29. Januar 1941". chroniknet. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- ↑ Schultz, Sigrid (January 31, 1941). "We'll Torpedo Aid to England, Hitler Asserts". Chicago Daily Tribune (Chicago: Chicago Daily Tribune). p. 4.
- ↑ "Was war am 30. Januar 1941". chroniknet. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
- ↑ "Joe Louis - Career Record". BoxRec. Retrieved December 31, 2015.