Major Events
- Jan 6 US President Franklin Roosevelt makes his "Four Freedoms" speech (freedom of speech and worship; freedom from want and fear) during his US State of Union address [1] [2]
- Jan 7 New Fourth Army Incident: Chinese Kuomintang forces under orders from Chiang Kai-Shek fire on surrounded Communist New Fourth Army at Maolin, Anhui Province, killing or capturing 7,000 troops
- Jan 9 6,000 Jews murdered in a pogrom in Bucharest, Romania
- May 5 Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie returns to Addis Ababa
- May 6 Joseph Stalin becomes Premier of the Soviet Union, replacing his foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov
- May 9 British intelligence at Bletchley Park breaks German spy codes after capturing Enigma machines aboard the weather ship Muenchen
- May 24 German battleship Bismarck sinks the British battle cruiser HMS Hood; 1,416 die, 3 survive
- Jun 14 Estonia loses 11,000 inhabitants as a consequence of mass deportations into Siberia
- Jun 22 Operation Barbarossa: Nazi Germany and its allies invade the Soviet Union during WWII, the largest military operation in history
- Jul 14 6,000 Lithuanian Jews are exterminated at Viszalsyan Camp
- Jul 19 British PM Winston Churchill launches his "V for Victory" campaign
- Sep 1 Jews living in Germany are required to wear a yellow star of David
- Sep 8 WWII: Siege of Leningrad by German, Finnish, and eventually Spanish troops begins; battle lasted over 28 months, as Russia repels the invasion; well over a million lives
- Oct 9 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt approves an atomic program that would become the Manhattan Project
- Dec 7 Imperial Japanese Navy with 353 planes attack the US fleet at Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii, killing 2,403 people
- Dec 8 US and Britain declare war on Japan, US enters World War II
- Dec 8 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers his famous "Day of Infamy" speech to a joint session of Congress a day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor
- More 1941 Events
1941 in Film & TV
- May 1 "Citizen Kane", directed by Orson Welles and starring himself, Joseph Cotten and Dorothy Corningore, premieres at the Palace Theater in New York City
- Jul 1 Bulova Watch Co pays $9 for 1st ever network TV commercial
- Jul 19 Tom and Jerry first appear under their own names in cartoon "The Midnight Snack" by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
- Oct 3 "The Maltese Falcon" directed by John Huston and based on Dashiell Hammett's 1929 novel of the same name, starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor, premieres in New York City
- Oct 23 Walt Disney's animated film "Dumbo" released
- Oct 28 "How Green Was My Valley" based on the novel by Richard Llewellyn, directed by John Ford and starring Walter Pidgeon and Maureen O'Hara premieres in New York (Best Picture 1942)
1941 in Music
- Feb 15 Duke Ellington first records "Take the A Train"
1941 in Sport
- Apr 26 A tradition begins, 1st organ at a baseball stadium (Chicago Cubs)
- Sep 17 Cards' Stan Musial makes his major league debut, going 2-for-4
Did You Know?
Howard Florey and Norman Heatley meet for 1st time, 11 days later they successfully recreate penicillin
Dick Cheney
Aldrich Ames
Emmett Till
Ibrahim Babangida
Slobodan Milošević
Bernie Sanders
Faye Dunaway
Bernardo Bertolucci
Nora Ephron
Spalding Gray
Martha Stewart
Paul Simon
Neil Diamond
Bob Dylan
Charlie Watts
Otis Redding
Linda McCartney
Pete Best
Chuck McKinley
Pete Rose
Nate Thurmond
Bill Parcells
Dave Stockton
Alex FergusonMore People Born in 1941
Fun Fact About 1941
Konrad Zuse presents the Z3, the world's first working programmable, fully automatic computer, in Berlin
Robert Baden-Powell
James Joyce
Frederick Banting
Virginia Woolf
Lou Gehrig
Wilhelm IIMore 1941 Deaths
Articles About 1941
Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms
President Franklin Roosevelt delivered his Four Freedoms speech on this day. It would form the basis of the UN Declaration of Human Rights three years later.January 6
The Man Who Saved Elton John's Life
Long John Baldry was born on this day - a friend of stars from Rod Stewart to The Beatles and who, in 1969, famously took Elton John aside and saved his life.January 12
One-Man Mission of Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Hess parachuted into Scotland on this day planning to negotiate peace with the British – without the knowledge or approval of his boss, Adolf Hitler.May 10
Germany Invades the Soviet Union
German troops cross the border point between Nazi Germany and the Sovet Union on June 22, 1941June 22
'Infamy' as Japanese Attack Pearl Harbor
Japan launched its shock attack against the American Navy base at Pearl Harbor on this day – a date to “live in infamy,” according to the US President.December 7
Attack on Pearl Harbor
USS Arizona ablaze and sinking after the attack on Pearl HarborDecember 7
FDR’s Day of Infamy Speech
President Roosevelt delivers the "Day of Infamy" speech to a joint session of CongressDecember 8
The Taming of Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill made an emotional speech to the Canadian Parliament on this day, December 30, 1941. His photograph from that day is just as memorable.December 30
Famous Weddings in 1941
- Jan 11 Comedian Stan Laurel and actress Virginia Ruth Rogers remarry for the 2nd time
- Feb 4 American dancer and actress Vera-Ellen (19) weds fellow American dancer Robert Hightower; divorce in 1946
- Feb 22 Future CIA Director William J. Casey (27) weds Sophia Kurz
Famous Divorces in 1941
- Jun 14 American stage and screen actress Tallulah Bankhead (39) divorces American actor John Emery (36) in Reno, Nevada after less than 4 years of marriage
More 1941 Weddings
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Gary Cooper
Joan Fontaine
Adolf Hitler
Joseph Stalin
Winston Churchill