1941

From top to bottom, left to right: The Attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan brings the United States into World War II; Operation Barbarossa launches Nazi Germany’s massive invasion of the Soviet Union; the Babi Yar massacre sees over 33,000 Jews killed by Nazi Einsatzgruppen near Kyiv; the Siege of Leningrad begins, starting one of history’s deadliest sieges; the Invasion of Yugoslavia leads to rapid Axis occupation; Orson Welles’ film Citizen Kane premieres, revolutionizing cinema; the East African campaign ends with Allied victory over Italian forces; the Anglo-Iraqi War secures British control in Iraq; and the German invasion of Greece results in swift Axis occupation.
1941 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar1941
MCMXLI
Ab urbe condita2694
Armenian calendar1390
ԹՎ ՌՅՂ
Assyrian calendar6691
Baháʼí calendar97–98
Balinese saka calendar1862–1863
Bengali calendar1347–1348
Berber calendar2891
British Regnal year5 Geo. 6 – 6 Geo. 6
Buddhist calendar2485
Burmese calendar1303
Byzantine calendar7449–7450
Chinese calendar庚辰年 (Metal Dragon)
4638 or 4431
    — to —
辛巳年 (Metal Snake)
4639 or 4432
Coptic calendar1657–1658
Discordian calendar3107
Ethiopian calendar1933–1934
Hebrew calendar5701–5702
Hindu calendars
 - Vikram Samvat1997–1998
 - Shaka Samvat1862–1863
 - Kali Yuga5041–5042
Holocene calendar11941
Igbo calendar941–942
Iranian calendar1319–1320
Islamic calendar1359–1360
Japanese calendarShōwa 16
(昭和１６年)
Javanese calendar1871–1872
Juche calendar30
Julian calendarGregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar4274
Minguo calendarROC 30
民國30年
Nanakshahi calendar473
Thai solar calendar2484
Tibetan calendarལྕགས་ཕོ་འབྲུག་ལོ་
(male Iron-Dragon)
2067 or 1686 or 914
    — to —
ལྕགས་མོ་སྦྲུལ་ལོ་
(female Iron-Snake)
2068 or 1687 or 915
Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1941.

1941 (MCMXLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1941st year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 941st year of the 2nd millennium, the 41st year of the 20th century, and the 2nd year of the 1940s decade.

The Correlates of War project estimates this to be the deadliest year in human history in terms of conflict deaths, placing the death toll at 3.49 million. However, the Uppsala Conflict Data Program estimates that the subsequent year, 1942, was the deadliest such year. Death toll estimates for both 1941 and 1942 range from 2.28 to 7.71 million each.[1]

Events

Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.

January

February

  • February 3 – WWII: The Nazis forcibly restore Pierre Laval to the office of Prime Minister in occupied Vichy France.[6]
  • February 4 – WWII: The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.
  • February 5 – The Air Training Corps is formed in the United Kingdom.
  • February 5–April 1 – WWII: Battle of Keren – British and Free French Forces fight hard to capture the strategic town of Keren in Italian Eritrea.
  • February 6 – WWII: Benghazi falls to the British Western Desert Force. Lieutenant-General Erwin Rommel is appointed commander of Afrika Korps.
  • February 8 – WWII: The U.S. House of Representatives passes the Lend-Lease Act.[7]
  • 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."[8]
  • February 12
    • WWII: Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli.
    • Reserve Constable Albert Alexander, a patient at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, England, becomes the first person treated with penicillin intravenously, by Howard Florey's team. He reacts positively, but there is insufficient supply of the drug to reverse his terminal infection. A successful treatment is achieved during May.[9]
  • February 13 – Aircraft from British carrier HMS Formidable attack Massawa in Eritrea.
  • February 14 – WWII: Admiral Kichisaburō Nomura begins his duties as Japanese Ambassador to the United States.
  • February 19–22 – WWII: Three Nights' Blitz over Swansea, South Wales: Over these 3 nights of intensive bombing, which lasts a total of 13 hours and 48 minutes, Swansea's town centre is almost completely obliterated by the 896 high explosive bombs employed by the Luftwaffe; 397 casualties and 230 deaths are reported.
  • February 22 – WWII: British cruiser HMS Shropshire bombards Barawa, on the coast between Kismayo and Mogadishu.
  • February 23 – Glenn T. Seaborg and associates isolate and discover plutonium, at the University of California, Berkeley.
  • February 25 – WWII:
    • The occupied Netherlands starts the first popular uprising in Europe against the Axis powers, the "February strike" against German deportation of Jews in Amsterdam and surroundings.
    • British submarine HMS Upright attacks an Italian convoy, sinking the cruiser Armando Diaz.
  • February 27 – WWII: The New Zealand Division cruiser HMS Leander (1931) sinks Italian armed merchant raider Ramb I off the Maldives.

March

  • March 1
    • WWII: Bulgaria signs the Tripartite Pact, thus joining the Axis powers.
    • Arthur L. Bristol becomes Rear Admiral for the United States Navy's Support Force, Atlantic Fleet.
  • March 4 – WWII: Operation Claymore – British Commandos carry out a successful raid on the Lofoten Islands, off the north coast of Norway.
  • March 5 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, having been President of the United States for 8 years, 1 day, becomes the longest-serving president in American history.
  • March 11 – WWII: Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, signs the Lend-Lease Act (passed by the Senate on March 8) into law, providing for the U.S. to provide Lend-Lease aid to the Allies.[10]
  • March 15 – Berlin-based American journalist Richard C. Hottelet is arrested by the Gestapo on "suspicion of espionage", but eventually released in July as part of a prisoner exchange with the U.S.
  • March 16 – A group of U.S. warships arrive in Auckland, New Zealand, on a goodwill visit. On March 20, they arrive in Sydney, Australia.
  • March 17
  • March 22 – Washington state's Grand Coulee Dam begins to generate electricity.
  • March 24 – WWII: Rommel launches his first offensive in Cyrenaica.
  • March 25 – WWII: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia joins the Axis powers in Vienna.
  • March 27 – WWII:
    • Battle of Cape Matapan: Off the Peloponnese coast in the Mediterranean, British naval forces defeat those of Italy, sinking 5 warships (the battle ends on March 29).
    • Yugoslav coup d'état: An anti-Axis coup d'état in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia led by General Dušan Simović, Brigadier General Borivoje Mirković, Colonels Dragutin Savić and Stjepan Burazović, Colonel General Miodrag Lazić, Milorad Petrović and many other general officers (with British support) forces Prince Paul into exile; 17-year-old King Peter II assumes power following the coup and Simović is elected new Prime Minister of Yugoslavia.
    • Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa arrives in Honolulu to study the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, in preparation for a future attack.
  • March 30 – WWII:
    • All German, Italian and Danish ships anchored in United States waters are taken into "protective custody".
    • A German Lorenz cipher machine operator sends a 4,000-character message twice, allowing British mathematician Bill Tutte to decipher the machine's coding mechanism.[11]

April

  • April – The Valley of Geysers is discovered on the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia, by Tatyana Ustinova.
  • April 1 – A military coup d'état, launched by Rashid Ali Al-Gaylani, overthrows the pro-British regime in Iraq.
  • April 4 – WWII: Axis forces capture Benghazi.
  • April 6 – WWII: Germany, Italy and Hungary invade Yugoslavia and the Battle of Greece begins.[12][13]
  • April 9 – The U.S. acquires full military defense rights in Greenland.
  • April 10 – WWII:
  • April 12 – WWII: German troops enter Belgrade.
  • April 13 – The Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact is signed.[15]
  • April 15 – WWII: Axis forces reach Halfaya Pass, on the Libyan-Egyptian frontier.
  • April 17 – WWII: Yugoslavia capitulates after the joint Axis invasion of the country results in the bombing of Belgrade.[12]
  • April 18 – WWII: Greek Prime Minister Alexandros Koryzis commits suicide as German troops approach Athens.
  • April 19 – Bertolt Brecht's anti-war play Mother Courage and Her Children (German: Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder) receives its first theatrical production, at the Schauspielhaus Zürich.
  • April 21 – WWII: Greece capitulates to Germany. Commonwealth troops and some elements of the Greek Army withdraw to Crete.
  • April 23 – The America First Committee holds its first mass rally in New York City, with Charles Lindbergh as keynote speaker.
  • April 25 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, at his regular press conference, criticizes Charles Lindbergh by comparing him to the Copperheads of the Civil War period. In response, Lindbergh resigns his commission in the U.S. Army Air Corps Reserve on April 28.
  • April 27 – WWII: German troops enter Athens.
  • April 28 – World War II persecution of Serbs: Gudovac massacre – Members of the Croatian nationalist Ustashe movement kill around 190 Bjelovar Serbs in the village of Gudovac, in the Independent State of Croatia.
Ansel Adams photograph of the Hoover Dam in 1941.


May

  • May 1
    • The breakfast cereal Cheerios is introduced as CheeriOats by General Mills in the United States.
    • Orson Welles' film Citizen Kane premieres in New York City.
    • 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 2 – WWII: Anglo-Iraqi War: British combat operations against the rebel government of Rashid Ali in the Kingdom of Iraq begin.[16]
  • May 5 – WWII: Emperor Haile Selassie enters Addis Ababa, which has been liberated from Italian forces; this date is subsequently commemorated as Liberation Day in Ethiopia.
  • May 6 – At California's March Field, entertainer Bob Hope performs his first USO Show.
  • May 8 – WWII: The German auxiliary cruiser Pinguin is sunk by British cruiser HMS Cornwall (56) in the Indian Ocean; 555 are killed.
  • May 9 – WWII: 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
  • May 11/May 12 – WWII: The Ustaše massacre 260–373 Serb men in a Catholic church in Glina, Croatia, where the men have assembled to be received into the Catholic faith in exchange for their lives.
  • May 12 – Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin.
  • May 13 – WWII: Yugoslav General Draža Mihailović and a group of 80 soldiers and officers cross the Drina river in Bosnia and Herzegovina, arrive at Ravna Gora, in western Nazi-occupied Serbia and start fighting with German occupation troops.
  • May 15
    • The first British jet aircraft, the Gloster E.28/39, is flown.
    • Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak begins, as the New York Yankees' center fielder goes 1 for 4 against Chicago White Sox pitcher Eddie Smith in baseball.
  • May 19 – The Viet Minh is formed at Pác Bó in Vietnam, to overthrow French rule of the nation, as an alliance between the Indochina Communist party, led by Ho Chi Minh, and the Nationalist party. It will become the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War.
  • May 20 – WWII: The Battle of Crete begins, as Germany launches an airborne invasion of Crete, the first mainly airborne invasion in military history.
  • May 21 – German submarine U-69 sinks the U.S.-flagged SS Robin Moor off the west African coast, having allowed the passengers and crew to disembark.
  • May 24 – WWII:
  • May 26 – WWII: In the North Atlantic, Fairey Swordfish aircraft from the carrier HMS Ark Royal cripple the steering of German battleship Bismarck in an aerial torpedo attack.
  • May 27
  • May 29 – The Disney animators' strike begins, due to lack of recognition by Walt Disney of his animators' inequities of pay and privileges.
  • May 30 – WWII: Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas tear down the Nazi swastika on the Acropolis in Athens and replace it with the Greek flag.
  • May 31 – Anglo-Iraqi War: British troops complete the re-occupation of the Kingdom of Iraq, returning Prince 'Abd al-Ilah to power as regent for Faisal II.

June

  • June 1 – WWII: The Battle of Crete ends, as Crete surrenders to invading German forces.
  • June 4 – Guidelines for the Conduct of the Troops in Russia are issued by Nazi high-command through OKW. This order (a lesser known precursor to the Commisar Order) explicitly commands that Jews (in addition to Bolshevik partisans and Commisars) be killed. In a sense, this order – in combination with the Commissar Order about to be delivered, and Goring's instruction to Heydrich to look into logistics later in the month, that is mentioned at the beginning of the Wannsee Conference of the following year – inaugurates the European Holocaust of the Jews.
  • June 5
    • Second Sino-Japanese War: Four thousand Chongqing residents are asphyxiated in a bomb shelter during the Bombing of Chongqing.
    • Smederevo Fortress explosion: A Serbian ammunition depot explodes at Smederevo on the outskirts of Belgrade, Serbia, killing 2,500 and injuring over 4,500.
  • June 6 – WWII: The Commissar Order is issued by Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, requiring all Soviet political commissars identified in Operation Barbarossa among captured forces to receive summary execution.
  • June 8 – WWII: British and Free French forces invade Syria.
  • June 13 – TASS, the official Soviet news agency, denies reports of tension between Germany and the Soviet Union.
  • June 14
  • June 16
    • All German and Italian consulates in the United States are ordered closed, and their staffs to leave the country by July 10.
    • WWII: British Fleet Air Arm aircraft sink the Vichy French destroyer Chevalier Paul off Syria.
  • June 18 – The German–Turkish Treaty of Friendship is signed between Nazi Germany and Turkey, in Ankara.
  • June 20
  • June 22
    • WWII: Operation Barbarossa: Nazi Germany (with allies) invades the Soviet Union and declares war on it. 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." Italy and Romania declare war on the Soviet Union.
    • WWII: The First Sisak Partisan Brigade, the first anti-fascist armed unit in occupied Europe, is founded by Yugoslav partisans near Sisak, Croatia.
    • June Uprising in Lithuania: A Provisional Government of Lithuania is established by the Lithuanian Activist Front, in an attempt to liberate Lithuania from Soviet occupation.
    • Rapid escalation of the Holocaust in Lithuania: Between now and the end of the year, an estimated 190,000-195,000 out of 210,000 Lithuanian Jews will be massacred, killing an estimated 95% of the nation's Jewish population.[19]
    • Rapid Vienna beats Schalke 04, in the final of the German Fottballchampionship, after 0:3 with 4:3.
  • June 23 – WWII: Hungary and Slovakia declare war on the Soviet Union.
  • June 24
    • Rainiai massacre: Approximately 80 political prisoners are killed by the NKVD in Lithuania.
    • The Soviet Information Bureau, predecessor of RIA Novosti, is founded.
  • June 25 – WWII: Finland (as a co-belligerent with Germany) attacks the Soviet Union, starting the Continuation War.
  • June 25–29 – The Holocaust: Kaunas pogrom – Thousands of Jews are massacred in Lithuania by local partisans and invading German forces.[19]
  • June 28 – WWII: Albania declares war on the Soviet Union.
  • June 28–30 – The Holocaust: Iași pogrom – "At least 13,266" Romanian Jews are massacred by local governmental forces.[20]
  • June 29 – WWII: Hitler's second-in-command, Reichsmarshall Hermann Göring, is appointed as Hitler's successor in a written decree. The decree will come into effect, should Hitler die in the middle of the war. (The decree becomes void in April 1945, after Göring tries to assume power while Hitler is still alive, leading to Göring's expulsion from the Nazi Party.)

July

  • July – The British Army's Special Air Service is formed.
  • July 1
    • Commercial television is authorized by the Federal Communications Commission in the United States.
      • NBC Television begins commercial operation on WNBT, on Channel 1. The world's first legal TV commercial, for Bulova watches, occurs at 2:29 PM over WNBT, before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. The 10-second spot displays a picture of a clock superimposed on a map of the United States, accompanied by the voice-over "America runs on Bulova time."[21][22] As a one-off special, the first quiz show called "Uncle Bee" is telecast on WNBT's inaugural broadcast day, followed later the same day by Ralph Edwards hosting the second game show broadcast on U.S. television, Truth or Consequences, as simulcast on radio and TV and sponsored by Ivory Soap. Weekly broadcasts of the show commence in 1956, with Bob Barker.
      • CBS Television begins commercial operation on New York station WCBW (modern-day WCBS-TV), on Channel 2.
    • WWII:
      • German forces capture Riga.[23]
      • Germany and Italy recognize the Japanese-sponsored Chinese reorganized national government under Wang Jingwei as the legitimate government of China.
  • July 2 – WWII: The Empire of Japan calls up 1 million men for military service.
  • 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 – Massacre of Lviv professors: Polish scientists and writers are murdered by Nazi German troops in the occupied Polish city of Lwów.
  • July 5 – WWII:
    • Operation Barbarossa: German troops reach the Dnieper River.
    • British troopship SS Anselm is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-96 in the Atlantic Ocean, with the loss of around 250 out of about 1,310 on board.
  • July 5–31: Ecuadorian–Peruvian War is fought.
  • July 7
    • Uprising in Serbia: The Communist Party of Yugoslavia raises an uprising against the Nazi occupation, beginning when Žikica Jovanović Španac kills two gendarmes in the village of Bela Crkva,
    • WWII: American forces take over the defense of Iceland from the British.
  • July 10 – The Holocaust: Jedwabne pogrom: Local ethnic Poles massacre at least 340 Jewish residents of Jedwabne, in occupied Poland. The Jewish residents are locked in a barn and the barn set on fire[24]
  • July 11 – The Northern Rhodesian Labour Party holds its first congress in Nkana.[25]
  • July 13
    • WWII: An uprising in Montenegro against the Axis powers starts, the second popular uprising in Europe (the first being the "February strike" of February 25 (above) in the Netherlands).
    • Clemens August Graf von Galen, Catholic Bishop of Münster in Germany, preaches the first of 3 sermons against Nazi brutality.
  • July 14 – WWII: Vichy France signs armistice terms ending all fighting in Syria and Lebanon.
  • July 17 – Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak ends.
  • July 19
    • WWII: A BBC broadcast by "Colonel Britton" (Douglas Ritchie) calls on the people of occupied Europe to resist the Nazis, under the slogan "V for Victory".
    • The Tom and Jerry cartoon short The Midnight Snack is released; it is the second appearance for the duo, and the first in which they are officially named.
  • July 23 – WWII: Italian aircraft damage the British destroyer HMS Fearless which has to be sunk.
  • July 25 – Postal codes in Germany are introduced.
  • July 26 – WWII:
  • July 28–August 29 – The Holocaust: Pripyat Marshes massacres – Nazi German troops kill more than 17,000 Soviet citizens, chiefly Jewish civilians.[26]
  • July 29 – The Vichy Regime signs the Protocol Concerning Joint Defense and Joint Military Cooperation with the Empire of Japan, giving the Japanese a total of 8 airfields, allowing them greater troop presence, and the use of the Indochinese financial system, in return for continued French autonomy.
  • July 30 – WWII: Glina massacre of July–August 1941 – The Ustaše brutally kill 200 Serbs inside a Serbian Orthodox church in Glina, Croatia, with a total of 700–1,200 being killed in the area of the next few days.
  • July 31 – WWII: The Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring orders S.S. 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."[27]

August

  • August – The Political Warfare Executive is formed in the United Kingdom to disseminate propaganda to Germany and its occupied countries.
  • August 1 – The Willys MB U.S. Army Jeep is first produced.
  • August 5 – The Provisional Government of Lithuania is dissolved.
  • August 6 – Six-year-old Elaine Esposito goes to have an appendix operation in Florida and lapses into a coma, dying 37 years later, still comatose.
  • August 7 – WWII: British submarine HMS Severn sinks an Italian Marconi-class submarine.
  • August 9 – Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet on board ship at Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland. The Atlantic Charter (released August 14), setting goals for postwar international cooperation, is created as a result.
  • August 16
    • The Holocaust: Units of the Wehrmacht and the Einsatzgruppen (as part of Operation Barbarossa) start killing Jewish children, signalling the start of the Jewish Genocide.
    • HMS Mercury Royal Navy Signals School and Combined Signals School opens at Leydene, near Petersfield, Hampshire, England.
  • August 19 – The Tiraspol Agreement is signed between Germany and Romania.[28]
  • August 21 – In revenge for the execution two days earlier of French Resistance member Samuel Tyszelman, communist activist Pierre Georges (with others) shoots and kills a member of the German military in occupied Paris, initiating a cycle of assassinations and retribution that will claim hundreds of lives.[29]
  • August 25 – WWII: The Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran to secure the Persian Corridor and oilfields begins.
  • August 27 – WWII: Kamianets-Podilskyi massacre, 23,600 Jews are shot dead by Einsatzgruppen troops and local collaborators in Ukraine.
  • August 28 – WWII: Soviet evacuation of Tallinn – German troops capture Tallinn, Estonia from the Soviet Union, while attacks on the evacuating Soviet ships leave more than 12,000 dead in one of the bloodiest naval battles of the war. German forces will capture the entire Estonian territory by December 6.
  • August 29
    • WWII: The Government of National Salvation, a Serb puppet state of the Axis powers, is established by General Milan Nedić in Nazi-occupied Serbia in Belgrade, under military commander Heinrich Danckelmann; the regime includes 15 Ministers.
    • Robert Menzies resigns as Prime Minister of Australia, after losing the support of his party. He will not return to the Prime Ministership until 1949. Arthur Fadden, leader of the Country Party, consequently becomes Prime Minister, while former Prime Minister Billy Hughes replaces Menzies as UAP leader.
  • August 30
    • German troopship Bahia Laura is sunk by British submarine HMS Trident (N52); 450 are killed.
    • Germany and Romania sign another treaty, the Tighina Agreement.[28]
  • August 31
    • WWII (Uprising in Serbia): Battle of Loznica: Chetniks capture the town of Loznica in Nazi-occupied Serbia.
    • The Great Gildersleeve debuts on NBC Radio in the United States.

September

  • September
    • The word "Teenager" is first recorded in print as a singular conjoined noun, in Popular Science magazine (U.S.)[30]
    • WWII: The Royal Scots Greys, stationed in the Middle East, receive their first tanks, being the last of the cavalry regiments of the British Army to have abandoned horses for combat operations.[31]
  • September 3 – The Holocaust: SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch first uses the pesticide Zyklon B to execute Soviet prisoners of war en masse at Auschwitz concentration camp; eventually it will be used to kill about 1.2 million people.
  • September 6 – The Holocaust: The requirement to wear a yellow badge with the Star of David and the word "Jew" (Jude) inscribed, is extended to all Jews over the age of 6 in German-occupied areas.
  • September 8 – WWII: Siege of Leningrad – German forces begin a siege against the Soviet Union's second-largest city, Leningrad. Stalin orders the Volga Germans deported to Siberia.
  • September 11
    • WWII: Charles Lindbergh delivers his Des Moines speech at an America First Committee rally in Des Moines, Iowa, accusing "the British, the Jewish, and the Roosevelt administration" of leading the United States toward war. Widespread condemnation of Lindbergh follows.[32]
    • The Medvedev Forest massacre of political prisoners takes place, at the Oryol Prison in the Soviet Union.
    • Construction on the Pentagon begins in Washington, D.C.
  • September 12
    • WWII: The first snowfall is reported on the Russian front.
    • Franklin Roosevelt gives one of his fireside chats, on the USS Greer incident.
  • September 14 – The State of Vermont "declares war" on Germany, by defining the United States to be in "armed conflict", in order to extend a wartime bonus to Vermonters in the service.[33]
  • September 15 – The Estonian Self-Administration, headed by Hjalmar Mäe, is appointed by the German military administration.
  • September 16 – Rezā Shāh of Iran is forced to resign in favor of his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, under pressure from the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, concluding the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran.
  • September 16–30 – The Nikolaev massacre takes place in Mykolaiv (Soviet Union); 35,782 men, women and children, mostly Jews, are killed by Einsatzgruppe D and local collaborators.
  • September 22 – The town of Reshetylivka in the Soviet Union is occupied by German forces.
  • September 23 – The 1941 Texas hurricane makes landfall near Bay City, Texas, causing extensive damage and flooding in Galveston and Houston.
  • September 27
    • WWII: The National Liberation Front (Greece) (the main Greek Resistance movement) is established, and Georgios Siantos is appointed its first acting leader.
    • The first liberty ship, the SS Patrick Henry, is launched at Baltimore.
  • September 28 – WWII: The Drama Uprising against the Bulgarian occupation in northern Greece begins.
  • September 29 – WWII: The Moscow Conference begins; U.S. representative Averell Harriman and British representative Lord Beaverbrook meet with Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov, to arrange urgent assistance for Russia.
  • September 29–30 – The Holocaust: Babi Yar massacre – German troops, assisted by Ukrainian police and local collaborators, kill 33,771 Jews in Kyiv.

October

November

  • November 5 – WWII: The United States holds peace talks with Japan.
  • November 6 – WWII: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin addresses the Soviet Union for only the second time during his three-decade rule (the first time was earlier this year on July 2). He states that 350,000 Soviet troops have been killed in German attacks, but that the Germans have lost 4.5 million soldiers (a gross exaggeration), and that Soviet victory is near.[35][36]
  • November 7 – WWII: The Soviet hospital ship Armenia is sunk by German aircraft while evacuating refugees, wounded military and the staff of several Crimean hospitals. It is estimated that more than 5,000 die in the sinking.
  • November 10 – In a speech at the Mansion House, London, Winston Churchill promises "should the United States become involved in war with Japan, the British declaration will follow within the hour".
  • November 12 – WWII:
  • November 14
  • November 17 – WWII: Joseph Grew, the United States ambassador to Japan, cables to Washington, D.C., a warning that Japan may strike suddenly and unexpectedly.
  • November 18 – WWII: Operation Crusader, a British Eighth Army operation to relieve the Siege of Tobruk in North Africa, begins.
  • November 19 – WWII: Battle between HMAS Sydney and German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran – Both commerce raiding German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran and Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney sink following a battle off the coast of Western Australia. There are no survivors from the 645 Australian sailors aboard Sydney.[38]
  • November 21 – The live blues radio program King Biscuit Time is broadcast for the first time on KFFA in Helena, Arkansas; it will attain its 17,000th broadcast in 2014 making it the longest-running daily American radio broadcast.
  • November 22 – WWII: British heavy cruiser HMS Devonshire sinks commerce raiding German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis, ending the longest warship cruise of the war (622 days without in-port replenishment or repair).[39]
  • November 26 – WWII:
  • November 27
    • WWII: Germans reach their closest approach to Moscow. They are subsequently frozen by cold weather and stopped by attacks by the Soviets.
    • 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 30 and December 8 – Rumbula massacre: Nazi forces kill approximately 24,000 Latvian Jews and 1,000 German Jews outside of Riga.

December

  • December 1 – WWII:
  • December 2 – WWII: The code message "Climb Mount Niitaka" is transmitted to the Japanese task force, indicating that negotiations have broken down and that the attack on Pearl Harbor is to be carried out according to plan.
  • December 4 – The State of Jefferson is declared in Yreka, California, with a judge, John Childs, as governor.
  • December 5 – WWII: The United Kingdom declares war on Finland, Hungary and Romania.
  • December 6 – WWII:
    • Soviet counterattacks begin against German troops encircling Moscow. The Heer is subsequently pushed back over 200 mi (320 km).
    • British submarine HMS Perseus is mined off Cephalonia.
  • December 7 (December 8 – 3:18 a.m., Japan Standard Time) – WWII:
    • Attack on Pearl Harbor: Aircraft flying from Imperial Japanese Navy carriers launch a surprise attack on the United States fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, thus drawing the United States into World War II. The attack begins at 7:55 a.m. Hawaiian Standard Time, and is announced on radio stations in the U.S. at about 11:26 p.m. PST (19.26 GMT).
    • The Japanese declaration of war on the United States and the British Empire is published in Japanese evening newspapers, but not formally delivered to the U.S. until the following day. Canada declares war on Japan.
    • Adolf Hitler makes his Nacht und Nebel decree, declaring that all political prisoners and those involved in both German resistance to Nazism and resistance to Nazism throughout German-occupied Europe are to be apprehended by the Gestapo, Sicherheitsdienst and other security forces under Heinrich Himmler's control.
    • Tobruk's British and Commonwealth garrison is relieved after Axis forces under Rommel withdraw.
  • December 8
    • WWII: The Battle of Hong Kong begins shortly after 8:00 a.m. (local time), less than 8 hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when Japanese forces invade Hong Kong, which is defended by British, Canadian and local troops. The United Kingdom officially declares war on the Empire of Japan.
    • WWII: The Japanese invade the Shanghai International Settlement, to occupy the British and the American sectors, after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
    • WWII: The Japanese invasion of the Philippines begins 10 hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when Japanese forces invade Luzon and destroy U.S. aircraft on Clark Field.[40]
    • WWII: President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers his "Infamy Speech" to a Joint session of the United States Congress at 12:30 p.m. EST (17.30 GMT). Transmitted live over all four major national networks, it attracts the largest audience ever for an American radio broadcast, over 81% of homes.[41] Within an hour, Congress agrees to the President's request for a United States declaration of war upon Japan, and he signs it at 4:10 p.m.
    • WWII: Australia, New Zealand, The Netherlands, the Free French, Yugoslavia, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras also officially declare war on Japan, and the Republic of China declares war on the Axis powers.[40]
    • WWII: Japanese forces attack British Malaya and Thailand.[40]
    • WWII: The German advance on Moscow (Operation Typhoon) is suspended for the winter.[40]
    • The Holocaust: The Nazi German Chełmno extermination camp opens in occupied Poland, near the village of Chełmno nad Nerem (Kulmhof) and the first mass gassing of Jews begins here when the SS use gas vans to murder people from the Łódź Ghetto. Between December 1941–April 1943 and June 1944–January 1945, at least 153,000 Jews will be killed in the camp.
  • December 10 – WWII:
    • British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse are sunk by Japanese aircraft in the South China Sea north of Singapore.
    • The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea officially declares war on Japan.
  • December 11 – WWII:
    • Germany and Italy declare war on the United States. The U.S. responds in kind.
    • Mildred Gillars ("Axis Sally") delivers her first propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.
  • December 11–13 – WWII: Battle of Jitra: Japanese compel British troops to withdraw from their positions in Malaya.
  • December 12 – WWII:
    • Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States.
    • British India declares war on the Empire of Japan.
    • The United States seizes the French liner SS Normandie.
    • The Kimura Detachment of the Japanese Imperial forces occupies Legaspi, Albay, Philippines.
  • December 13
    • WWII: The United Kingdom, New Zealand and South Africa declare war on Bulgaria; Hungary declares war on the United States; and Honduras declares war on Germany and Italy.
    • WWII: The Battle of Cape Bon is fought off Cape Bon, Tunisia: Italian cruisers Alberico da Barbiano and Alberto di Giussano are sunk without loss to the Allies.
    • Sweden's low temperature record of −53 °C is set in a village within the Vilhelmina Municipality.
  • December 14 – WWII: The Independent State of Croatia declares war on the United States and the United Kingdom.
  • December 15 – WWII: At Drobytsky Yar, 15,000 Jews are shot dead by German troops.
  • December 19 – WWII:
    • Hitler becomes Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Nazi Army.
    • Raid on Alexandria: Italian Regia Marina divers on human torpedoes place limpet mines on ships of the British Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet in port at Alexandria, Egypt, disabling battleships Queen Elizabeth and Valiant.
    • Twelve days after the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor, the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland graduates its "Class of 1942" a semester early, so as to induct the graduating students without delay into the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps as officers, for immediate stationing in the war.[42]
  • December 21
  • December 22 – WWII: The Arcadia Conference opens in Washington, D.C., the first meeting on military strategy between the heads of government of the United Kingdom and the United States, following the latter's entry into the war.
  • December 23 – WWII: A second Japanese landing attempt on Wake Island is successful, and the American garrison surrenders, after a full night and morning of fighting.
  • December 24 – WWII:
    • British forces capture Benghazi.
    • Dutch submarine HNLMS K XVI is the first Allied ship to sink a Japanese warship, sinking the destroyer Sagiri near Sarawak; K XVI is herself torpedoed the following day by Japanese submarine I-66.
  • December 25 – WWII:
  • December 26 – WWII: Winston Churchill becomes the first British Prime Minister to address a joint session of the United States Congress.
  • December 27 – WWII: British Commandos raid the Norwegian port of Måløy on Vågsøy island, causing Hitler to reinforce the garrison and defenses, drawing vital troops away from other areas.

Date unknown

  • The Classic Comics series is launched in the United States, with a version of The Three Musketeers.
  • Chosun Tire and Rubber Manufacture, predecessor of South Korean tire brand Hankook, is founded in Seoul (at this time part of the Empire of Japan).[43]
  • Factory Canteen, predecessor of multinational foodservice company Compass Group, is founded in England by Jack Bateman.[44]

Births

Births
January · February · March · April · May · June · July · August · September · October · November · December

January

Abdiqasim Salad Hassan
Hayao Miyazaki
Joan Baez
Faye Dunaway
Plácido Domingo
Neil Diamond
Aaron Neville
Dick Cheney

February

Nick Nolte
Sérgio Mendes
Kim Jong-il
Paddy Ashdown

March

Richard Benjamin Harrison
Mike Love
Bernardo Bertolucci
Bruno Ganz
Richard Dawkins

April

Eric Braeden
Michael D. Higgins
Ryan O'Neal
Ann-Margret
Karl Barry Sharpless
  • April 2 – Dr. Demento (Barret Eugene Hansen), American radio disc jockey, novelty music collector
  • April 3
    • Jan Berry, American singer (Jan & Dean) (d. 2004)
    • Eric Braeden, German-born American actor
    • Jorma Hynninen, Finnish baritone
    • Philippé Wynne, American musician (d. 1984)
  • April 5
    • Michael Moriarty, American-Canadian actor
    • Dave Swarbrick, English folk musician (d. 2016)
  • April 6 – Phil Austin, American comedian (The Firesign Theater) (d. 2015)
  • April 7
    • Mussum, Brazilian actor and musician (d. 1994)
    • Cornelia Frances, British-born Australian actress (d. 2018)
    • Gorden Kaye, British actor ('Allo 'Allo!) (d. 2017)
    • ʻAkilisi Pōhiva, Tongan politician and activist, 15th Prime Minister of Tonga (d. 2019)
  • April 8 – Peggy Lennon, American singer (The Lennon Sisters)
  • April 9 – Kay Adams, American country singer
  • April 10
    • John Kurila, Scottish footballer (d. 2018)
    • Paul Theroux, American travel writer and novelist
  • April 11
    • Frederick Hauck, American astronaut (d. 2025)
    • Shirley Stelfox, English actress (d. 2015)
  • April 12 – Bobby Moore, English football player, World Cup winning captain (d. 1993)
  • April 13 – Michael Stuart Brown, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
  • April 14 – Pete Rose, American baseball player (d. 2024)
  • April 18 – Michael D. Higgins, 9th President of Ireland
  • April 19
    • Roberto Carlos, Brazilian singer-songwriter
    • Jürgen Kocka, German historian
  • April 20 – Ryan O'Neal, American actor (Love Story) (d. 2023)
  • April 21 – Eduardo Guedes, U.S., Portuguese film-maker (d. 2000)
  • April 22 – Amir Pnueli, Israeli computer scientist (d. 2009)
  • April 23
    • Arie den Hartog, Dutch road bicycle racer (d. 2018)
    • Paavo Lipponen, 59th Prime Minister of Finland
    • Ed Stewart, British disc jockey (d. 2016)
    • Ray Tomlinson, American computer programmer (d. 2016)
  • April 24
    • Richard Holbrooke, American diplomat (d. 2010)
    • John Williams, Australian guitarist
  • April 25
    • Princess Muna al-Hussein, Princess consort of Jordan
    • Bertrand Tavernier, French director, screenwriter, actor and producer (d. 2021)
    • Dorothy Shea, Australian librarian (d. 2024)[49]
  • April 26 – Claudine Auger, French actress (d. 2019)
  • April 28
    • Lucien Aimar, French cyclist
    • Ann-Margret, Swedish-born American actress, singer and dancer
    • Karl Barry Sharpless, American chemist, double Nobel Prize laureate
    • Iryna Zhylenko, Ukrainian poet (d. 2013)
  • April 29 – Nana Caymmi, Brazilian singer (d. 2025)[50]

May

Eric Burdon
Goh Chok Tong
Bob Dylan
Vladimir Voronin
William Nordhaus
  • May 3
    • Paul Ferris, English film composer, actor (d. 1995)
    • Kornel Morawiecki, Polish politician and theoretical physicist (d. 2019)
  • May 5
    • Anatoly Levchenko, Soviet cosmonaut (d. 1988)
    • Alexander Ragulin, Russian hockey player (d. 2004)
  • May 6
    • Peter Corrigan, Australian architect (d. 2016)
    • Ivica Osim, Bosnian football player, manager (zm. 2022)
  • May 8
    • James Mitchum, American actor
    • Yuri Voronov, Abkhazian politician, academic (murdered) (d. 1995)
  • May 9 – Howard Komives, American professional basketball player (d. 2009)
  • May 10
    • Taurean Blacque, American television and stage actor (d. 2022)
    • Chris Denning, English radio presenter and convicted sex offender (d. 2022)[51]
    • Aydın Güven Gürkan, Turkish academic, politician (d. 2006)
  • May 11 – Eric Burdon, British singer
  • May 13
  • May 14 – Jesús Gómez, Mexican equestrian (d. 2017)
  • May 16 – Eric Berntson, Canadian politician (d. 2018)
  • May 17 – Ben Nelson, American politician, senator and governor from Nebraska
  • May 18 – Miriam Margolyes, British-Australian actress
  • May 19
    • Peter C. Bjarkman, American baseball historian, author (d. 2018)
    • Bobby Burgess, American dancer, singer
    • Nora Ephron, American film producer, director, and screenwriter (d. 2012)
    • Jose Kaimlett, Indian Catholic priest, founder of the Heralds of Good News (d. 2018)
  • May 20 – Goh Chok Tong, 2nd Prime Minister of Singapore
  • May 21 – Bobby Cox, American baseball manager
  • May 22 – Menzies Campbell, British politician (d. 2025)
  • May 23
    • K. Raghavendra Rao, Indian film director, producer, screenwriter and choreographer
    • Rod Thorn, American basketball player, coach, and executive
  • May 24
    • Andrés García, Dominican-Mexican actor (d. 2023)
    • Bob Dylan, American poet, musician and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature
  • May 25 – Rudolf Adler, Czech filmmaker
  • May 26
    • Aldrich Ames, American CIA analyst and KGB agent (d. 2026)
    • John Kaufman, British sculptor (d. 2002)
  • May 27
    • Ira Berlin, American historian (d. 2018)
    • Teppo Hauta-aho, Finnish double bassist, composer (d. 2021)
  • May 29 – Doug Scott, English mountaineer (d. 2020)
  • May 31

June

Stacy Keach
Charlie Watts
George Pell
Václav Klaus
Liz Mohn
Eduardo Suplicy
Charles Whitman
Otto Sander
  • June 1
    • Wayne Kemp, American country music singer (d. 2015)
    • Jigjidiin Mönkhbat, Mongolian wrestler (d. 2018)
    • Alexander V. Zakharov, Soviet and Russian astronomer
  • June 2
  • June 5
    • Martha Argerich, Argentine pianist
    • Spalding Gray, American actor, screenwriter (d. 2004)
    • Robert Kraft, American businessman
  • June 6 – Alexander Cockburn, Irish-American political journalist and writer (d. 2012)
  • June 7
    • Tony Ray-Jones, British photographer (d. 1972)
    • Jaime Laredo, Bolivian-American violinist and conductor
  • June 8
    • Robert Bradford, Northern Irish politician (murdered in 1981)
    • Fuzzy Haskins, American musician
    • George Pell, Australian cardinal (d. 2023)
  • June 9 – Jon Lord, English composer, pianist and organist (d. 2012)
  • June 10
    • Jürgen Prochnow, German actor
    • Aida Vedishcheva, Soviet and Russian singer
  • June 12
    • Marv Albert, American sports announcer
    • Chick Corea, American jazz pianist (d. 2021)
    • Reg Presley, English musician (d. 2013)
  • June 13 – Esther Ofarim, Israeli singer
  • June 14
    • Roy Harper, English guitarist
    • John Edgar Wideman, African-American novelist, author and professor
  • June 15
  • June 17 – Roberta Maxwell, Canadian actress
  • June 19
  • June 20
    • Ulf Merbold, German astronaut and physicist
    • Albert Shesternyov, Soviet footballer (d. 1994)
  • June 21
    • Eduardo Suplicy, Brazilian left-wing politician, economist and professor
    • Valeri Zolotukhin, Soviet and Russian actor (d. 2013)
  • June 22
    • Ed Bradley, African-American journalist (60 Minutes) (d. 2006)
    • Michael Lerner, American actor (d. 2023)
  • June 23
    • Robert Hunter, American lyricist, singer-songwriter, translator and poet (d. 2019)
    • Madampu Kunjukuttan, Malayalam author (d. 2021)
    • Tsai Hsun-hsiung, Taiwanese politician
  • June 24
    • Erkin Koray, Turkish musician (d. 2023)
    • Julia Kristeva, Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic, psychoanalyst, feminist and novelist
    • Nelson López, Argentine football defender (d. 1980)
    • Graham McKenzie, Australian cricketer
    • Bill Reardon, American politician, educator
    • Charles Whitman, American mass murderer (d. 1966)
  • June 25
    • Denys Arcand, French-Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer
    • Miles Feinstein, American criminal law defense attorney, legal commentator
    • Eddie Large, British comedian (d. 2020)
    • Kenneth Walker, Australian cricketer
  • June 26
    • Gil Garrido, Panamanian baseball player
    • Nick Macarchuk, American basketball head coach
    • Tamara Moskvina, Russian competitive skater and pair skating coach
    • Thomas Yeh Sheng-nan, Taiwanese prelate
  • June 27
    • Jerry Allen, American football running back
    • Ian Black, British competitive swimmer
    • John Goold, Australian rules footballer (d. 2024)
    • James P. Hogan, British author (d. 2010)
    • Mike Honda, American politician and educator
    • Krzysztof Kieślowski, Polish film director (d. 1996)
    • Pavel Schenk, Czech volleyball player (d. 2025)
    • John Smyth, British barrister (d. 2018)
  • June 28
    • Ilana Adir, Israeli Olympic runner and long jumper
    • César Bejarano, Paraguayan fencer
    • Len Boehmer, American Major League Baseball player
    • Ruby Ann Darling, Bahamian politician
    • Joseph Goguen, American computer scientist (d. 2006)
    • David Johnston, 28th Governor General of Canada
    • Barbara Stolz, German gymnast
  • June 29
    • Chieko Baisho, Japanese actress, singer
    • John Boccabella, American baseball player
    • David A. Bramlett, United States Army four-star general
    • Stokely Carmichael (later Kwame Ture), Trinidadian-American civil rights activist (d. 1998)
    • Margitta Gummel, German Olympic gold medalist
    • Larry Stahl, American baseball player
  • June 30
    • Cyril Atanassoff, French-born Bulgarian ballet dancer
    • Roberto Castrillo, Cuban sports shooter
    • Mike Leander, English arranger, songwriter and record producer (d. 1996)
    • Otto Sander, German actor (d. 2013)
    • Nigel Walley, English golfer, tea-chest bass player

July

Epeli Nailatikau
Bill Oddie
Robert Forster
Lonnie Mack
Neelie Kroes
Diogo Freitas do Amaral
George Clinton
Sergio Mattarella
Darlene Love
Peter Cullen
Paul Anka
  • July 1
    • Alf Duval, Australian rower
    • Rod Gilbert, Canadian professional ice hockey forward (d. 2021)
    • Alfred G. Gilman, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2015)
    • Zimani Kadzamira, Malawian academic, civil servant and diplomat
    • Jaakko Kailajärvi, Finnish weightlifter
    • Ursula Koch, Swiss politician
    • Denis Michael Rohan, Australian citizen who, on August 21, 1969, set fire to the pulpit of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in Jerusalem (d. 1995)
    • Nicolae Saramandu, Romanian linguist and philologist[53]
    • Myron Scholes, Canadian-American financial economist
    • Twyla Tharp, American dancer, choreographer and author
  • July 2
    • Mogens Frey, Danish amateur cyclist
    • Chris Noel, American actress
    • Stéphane Venne, French-Canadian songwriter, composer (d. 2025)
  • July 3
    • Gloria Allred, American lawyer
    • Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Indian film director, screenwriter and producer
    • Hertha Haase, German swimmer
    • Liamine Zéroual, 4th President of Algeria
  • July 4
    • Jay Carty, American basketball player (d. 2017)
    • Sergio Oliva, Cuban bodybuilder (d. 2012)
    • Digger Phelps, American former college basketball coach
  • July 5
    • Lynley Dodd, New Zealand writer and illustrator
    • Antonio Escohotado, Spanish philosopher and writer (d. 2021)
    • Barbara Frischmuth, Austrian writer and translator (d. 2025)
    • Peggy Miley, American actress, writer
    • Epeli Nailatikau, Fijian chief, 4th President of Fiji
  • July 6
    • John DeCamp, American politician (d. 2017)
    • Randall Robinson, African-American lawyer, author and activist (d. 2023)
    • Harold Leighton Weller, American conductor
  • July 7
    • Vivian Barbot, Canadian-Haitian teacher, activist and politician
    • Marco Bollesan, Italian former rugby union player, coach and manager
    • Alan Durban, Welsh international footballer, manager
    • Louis Friedman, American astronautics engineer, space spokesperson
    • Michael Howard, Welsh politician
    • Bill Oddie, English writer, composer, musician and comedian
    • John Fru Ndi, Cameroonian politician (d. 2023)
    • Jim Rodford, English musician (d. 2018)
  • July 8
    • Dario Gradi, Italia amateur football player, coach and manager (d. 2021)
    • Thunderbolt Patterson, American professional wrestler
    • Ken Sanders, American Major League Baseball relief pitcher
  • July 9
    • Cirilo Bautista, Filipino poet, fictionist, critic and writer of nonfiction
    • Tom Black, American professional basketball player
    • Jan Lehane, Australian female tennis player
    • Hans-Gunnar Liljenwall, Swedish modern pentathlete
    • Takehide Nakatani Japanese lightweight judoka
  • July 10
    • Jackie Lane, British actress
    • Robert Pine, American actor
  • July 11
    • John Kaputin, Papua New Guinean politician
    • Clive Puzey, Southern Rhodesian racing driver
    • Jürgen Schmidt, German speed skater
    • Tommy Vance, British disc jockey (d. 2005)
    • Rosa Morena, Spanish flamenco-pop singer and actress (d. 2019)
  • July 12
    • John Lahr, American drama critic
    • Juha Väätäinen, Finnish athlete
    • Wu Bangguo, Chinese politician
    • Dick Rusteck, American left-handed pitcher
    • Benny Parsons, American race car driver (d. 2007)
  • July 13
    • Affonso Beato, Brazilian cinematographer
    • Robert Forster, American actor (d. 2019)
    • Zoila Martínez, Dominican lawyer, prosecutor and diplomat
    • Jacques Perrin, French actor and filmmaker (d. 2022)
  • July 14
    • Danuta Chudzianka, Polish stage actress
    • Maulana Karenga, African-American author, activist; founder of Kwanzaa
    • Dennis Kassian, Canadian professional ice hockey player
    • Andreas Khol, Austrian politician
  • July 15
    • Archie Clark, American professional basketball player
    • Vicente Guillot, Spanish footballer
    • Nikhil Kumar, Indian politician
  • July 16
    • Valeri Butenko, Soviet midfielder, football referee
    • Desmond Dekker, Jamaican singer and songwriter (d. 2006)
    • Ken Herock, American college, professional football player
    • Seijirō Kōyama, Japanese film director
    • Kálmán Mészöly, Hungarian football (soccer) player, coach
    • Lloyd Sisco, American football coach
    • Hans Wiegel, Dutch politician (d. 2025)
  • July 17
    • Namirembe Bitamazire, Ugandan academic, politician
    • Marina Oswald Porter, Russian-born widow of JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald
    • Morimichi Takagi, Japanese baseball player (d. 2020)
    • Rob van Empel, Dutch breaststroke swimmer
  • July 18
    • Winston Choo, Singaporean diplomat, civil servant and former general
    • Frank Farian, German record producer, songwriter (d. 2024)
    • Marcia Jones-Smoke, American sprint canoer
    • Lonnie Mack, American singer, guitarist (d. 2016)
    • Martha Reeves, African-American singer
    • Duncan Worsley, British cricketer
  • July 19
    • Carlos Alberto Álvarez, Argentine cyclist
    • Natalia Bessmertnova, Russian ballerina (d. 2008)
    • Vikki Carr, American singer
    • Neelie Kroes, Dutch politician
    • Vittorio Di Prima, Italian actor and voice actor (d. 2016)
  • July 20
    • Vladimir Lyakhov, Ukrainian-Soviet cosmonaut (d. 2018)
    • Frank Natterer, German mathematician
    • Vladimir Veber, Moldovan footballer
  • July 21
    • Diogo Freitas do Amaral, Portuguese politician, 110th Prime Minister of Portugal (d. 2019)
    • Ron Corry, Australian football (soccer) player, coach
    • Gary Waslewski, American baseball player
  • July 22 – George Clinton, African-American musician
  • July 23
  • July 25
    • Margarita Isabel, Mexican actress (d. 2017)
    • Nate Thurmond, African-American basketball player (d. 2016)
    • Emmett Till, African-American civil rights icon (d. 1955)
  • July 26 – Darlene Love, African-American singer, actress
  • July 28
    • Peter Cullen, Canadian voice actor
    • Riccardo Muti, Italian conductor
  • July 30 – Paul Anka, Canadian-American singer, songwriter

August

Martha Stewart
David Crosby
Ibrahim Babangida
Slobodan Milošević
  • August 2 – Ede Staal, Dutch singer-songwriter (d. 1986)
  • August 3
    • Martha Stewart, American television personality, media entrepreneur
    • Hage Geingob, 1st Prime Minister of Namibia, 3rd President of Namibia (d. 2024)
  • August 4
    • Martin Jarvis, English actor and voice actor
    • Ted Strickland, American politician
  • August 5 – Gil Garcetti, American politician
  • August 6 – Lyle Berman, American poker player
  • August 8
    • Earl Boen, American actor and voice actor (d. 2023)
    • George Tiller, American physician (d. 2009)
    • Anri Jergenia, 4th Prime Minister of Abkhazia (d. 2020)
  • August 9 – Shirlee Busbee, American novelist
  • August 12 – Deborah Walley, American actress (d. 2001)
  • August 14
    • Aïcha Chenna, Moroccan women's rights activist (d. 2022)
    • David Crosby, American musician (Crosby, Stills and Nash) (d. 2023)[54]
    • Connie Smith, American singer
  • August 15 – Nangolo Mbumba, 4th President of Namibia
  • August 16
    • Théoneste Bagosora, Rwandan army officer, alleged planner of the Rwandan genocide (d. 2021)
    • David Dickinson, British antiques expert, television presenter
    • Mark Mulvoy, American sports journalist and writer[55]
  • August 17
    • Ibrahim Babangida, President of Nigeria
    • Lothar Bisky, German politician (d. 2013)
    • Fritz Wepper, German actor (d. 2024)
  • August 20 – Slobodan Milošević, 3rd President of Yugoslavia and 1st President of Serbia (d. 2006)
  • August 21
    • Howard Lew Lewis, English comedian, actor (d. 2018)
    • Jackie DeShannon, American singer, songwriter ("What the World Needs Now")
  • August 26 – Ayşe Kulin, Turkish writer
  • August 27
  • August 28 – A. I. Katsina-Alu, Nigerian judge (d. 2018)
  • August 29 – Robin Leach, English television personality (d. 2018)

September

John Thompson
Bernie Sanders
Otis Redding
Ahmet Necdet Sezer
Linda McCartney

October

Chubby Checker
Eduardo Duhalde
Jesse Jackson
Paul Simon
Helen Reddy

November

Art Garfunkel
Tom Conti
Franco Nero
Pete Best

December

Beau Bridges
Kyu Sakamoto
Lee Myung-bak
Maurice White
Sir Alex Ferguson
  • December 1
    • Nigel Rodley, English international human rights lawyer (d. 2017)
    • Sean S. Cunningham, American filmmaker, director, producer, and writer
  • December 4
    • David Johnston, Australian newsreader
    • Leila Säälik, Estonian actress
  • December 6
    • Richard Speck, American mass murderer (d. 1991)
    • Wende Wagner, American actress (d. 1997)
  • December 8 – Geoff Hurst, English footballer
  • December 9
    • Beau Bridges, American actor
    • Dan Hicks, American singer, songwriter (d. 2016)
  • December 10
    • Tommy Rettig, American actor (d. 1996)
    • Peter Sarstedt, English singer, songwriter (d. 2017)
    • Kyu Sakamoto, Japanese singer, actor ("Sukiyaki") (d. 1985)
  • December 11 – Max Baucus, American politician and diplomat
  • December 12 – Vitaly Solomin, Soviet and Russian actor, director and screenwriter (d. 2002)
  • December 13 – John Davidson, American singer, actor
  • December 16
    • Poldy Bird, Argentine writer (d. 2018)
    • Vittorio Mezzogiorno, Italian actor (d. 1994)
  • December 19
    • Lee Myung-bak, 17th President of the Republic of Korea
    • Maurice White, African-American singer, songwriter, musician and record producer (d. 2016)
  • December 21
    • Lo Hoi-pang, Hong Kong-born Chinese actor
    • Jared Martin, American actor (d. 2017)
  • December 23
    • Ron Bushy, American rock musician (d. 2021)
    • Tim Hardin, American folk musician (d. 1980)
    • Mamnoon Hussain, 12th President of Pakistan (d. 2021)
  • December 24
    • Hans Eichel, German politician
    • Lex Hixon, American Sufi author, poet, and spiritual teacher (d. 1995)
  • December 27
    • Miles Aiken, American basketball player and coach
    • Younoussi Touré, 4th prime minister of Mali (d. 2022)
  • December 29 – Ray Thomas, English flautist, singer and songwriter (The Moody Blues) (d. 2018)
  • December 30 – Mel Renfro, American football player
  • December 31 – Sir Alex Ferguson, Scottish football manager (Manchester United)


Deaths

January

Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell
James Joyce

February

Frederick Banting
King Alfonso XIII of Spain

March

Gutzon Borglum
Virginia Woolf
  • March 3 – Bernard van Beek, Dutch painter (b. 1875)
  • March 4 – Ludwig Quidde, German activist, politician and Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1858)
  • March 6
    • Gutzon Borglum, American sculptor (Mount Rushmore) (b. 1867)
    • Francis Aveling, Canadian psychologist and Catholic priest (b. 1875)
  • March 8
    • Sherwood Anderson, American author (b. 1876)
    • Günther Prien, German submarine commander (b. 1908)[61]
  • March 13 – Geoffrey Allard, British WWII flying ace (b. 1912)
  • March 14 – C. R. M. F. Cruttwell, English historian (b. 1887)[62]
  • March 15 – Alexej von Jawlensky, Russian painter (b. 1864)
  • March 17 – Joachim Schepke, German submarine commander (killed in action) (b. 1912)
  • March 18 – Alexander Pfänder, German philosopher (b. 1870)
  • March 28
    • Kavasji Jamshedji Petigara, Indian police commissioner (b. 1877)
    • Virginia Woolf, English novelist (suicide) (b. 1882)
  • March 30 – Vasil Kutinchev, Bulgarian general (b. 1859)
  • March 31 – Lujo Bakotić, Serbian writer, publicist, lawyer, lexicographer and diplomat (b. 1867)

April

  • April 3 – Pál Teleki, 2-time Prime Minister of Hungary (b. 1879)
  • April 5 – Sir Nigel Gresley, English steam locomotive engineer (Flying Scotsman and Mallard) (b. 1876)
  • April 13 – Annie Jump Cannon, American astronomer (b. 1863)
  • April 16
    • Josiah Stamp, 1st Baron Stamp, British banker, civil servant, industrialist, economist and statistician (enemy action) (b. 1880)
    • Émile Bernard, French painter (b. 1868)
  • April 17 – Hans Driesch, German biologist, philosopher (b. 1867)
  • April 24
    • Karin Boye, Swedish poet and novelist (b. 1900)[63]
    • King Sisowath Monivong of Cambodia (b. 1875)
  • April 30 – Edwin S. Porter, American film director (b. 1870)

May

June

Hans Berger
Lou Gehrig
Wilhelm II
Louis Chevrolet

July

Rudolf Ramek
  • July 1
    • Mikhail Kaganovich, Soviet politician (b. 1888)
    • Francis Birtles, Australian adventurer, photographer, cyclist, and filmmaker (b. 1881)
  • July 3
    • Friedrich Akel, Estonian diplomat, politician (b. 1871)
    • Mijo Babić, deputy of Ante Pavelić and the first commander of all concentration camps in the Independent State of Croatia(b. 1903)
    • Wilhelm Balthasar, German Luftwaffe military aviator and wing commander (b. 1914)
  • July 4 – Antoni Łomnicki, Polish mathematician (b. 1881)
  • July 8 – Alexandru Bassarab, Romanian painter, engraver, and fascist politician (b. 1907)
  • July 9 – Božidar Adžija, Yugoslav politician and publicist (b. 1890)
  • July 10
    • Jelly Roll Morton, African-American jazz musician, composer (b. 1890)
    • Anandyn Amar, former Prime Minister of Mongolia (b. 1886)
    • Andriy Bandera, Ukrainian chaplain and politician (b. 1882)
  • July 11 – Arthur Evans, English archaeologist (b. 1851)
  • July 15 – Walter Ruttmann, German director (b. 1887)
  • July 20 – Lew Fields, American vaudeville performer (b. 1867)
  • July 22 – Dmitry Pavlov, Soviet general (executed) (b. 1897)
  • July 23 – José Quiñones Gonzales, Peruvian aviator (b. 1914)
  • July 24 – Rudolf Ramek, 5th Chancellor of Austria (b. 1881)
  • July 25 – Allan Forrest, American actor (b. 1885)
  • July 26
    • Henri Lebesgue, French mathematician (b. 1875)
    • Kazimierz Bartel, Polish mathematician, freemason, scholar, diplomat, and former Prime Minister of Poland (b. 1882)
  • July 27
    • Homer Galpin, American politician and lawyer (b 1871)
    • Vladimir Klimovskikh, Soviet general (b. 1885)
  • July 28 – Pyotr Akhlyustin, Red Army major general (b. 1896)
  • July 30
    • Hugo Celmiņš, Prime Minister of Latvia (b. 1877)
    • Mickey Welch, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1859)
    • Ölziitiin Badrakh, Mongolian politician (b.1895)

August

Rabindranath Tagore
Maximilian Kolbe

September

Hans Spemann

October

  • October 5 – Louis Brandeis, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1856)
  • October 8
    • Gus Kahn, German songwriter (b. 1886)
    • Valentine O'Hara, Irish author (b. 1875)
  • October 9 – Helen Morgan, American singer and actress (b. 1900)
  • October 15 – Eileen Andjelkovitch, British violinist, music educator, and musical director (b. 1896)
  • October 16
    • Sergei Efron, Russian poet and secret police operative (executed) (b. 1893)
    • Žanis Bahs, Latvian military general (b.1885)
  • October 18 – Manuel Teixeira Gomes, 7th President of Portugal (b. 1860)
  • October 25 – Robert Delaunay, French painter (b. 1885)
  • October 26
    • Arkady Gaidar, Russian soldier and children's story writer (killed in action) (b. 1904)
    • Victor Schertzinger, American composer, director (b. 1888)
  • October 28
    • 20 Soviet military officers and politicians executed in Kuybyshev:
      • Pavel Rychagov (b. 1911)
      • Grigori Shtern (b. 1900)
      • Yakov Smushkevich (b. 1902)
      • Filipp Goloshchekin (b. 1876)
      • Mikhail Kedrov (b. 1878)
      • Aleksandr Loktionov (b. 1893)
  • October 29
    • Károly Huszár, 25th Prime Minister of Hungary (b. 1882)
    • Alexander Afinogenov, Russian and Soviet playwright (b. 1904)

November

Chris Watson
Pedro Aguirre Cerda

December

Blessed Martyrs of Drina

Nobel Prizes

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Further reading

  • William K. Klingaman. 1941: Our Lives in a World on the Edge (1988) world perspective based on primary sources by a scholar.
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