January 1941

[January 1], 1941 (Wednesday)

• 141 aircraft of the Royal Air Force bombed the Focke-Wulf aircraft production plant south of Bremen.
• British naval officers were encouraged to search all captured ships for encoding machines and related paperwork.
• 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.
• 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.

  [January 2], 1941 (Thursday)

• The first bombing of Dublin occurred when German bombs were dropped on the Terenure area of south Dublin.
• Llandaff Cathedral was damaged by German bombing during the worst night of the Cardiff Blitz.
• The United States announced plans to build 200 utilitarian freighters. These would come to be known as Liberty ships.
• German submarine U-66 was commissioned.

  [January 3], 1941 (Friday)

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

  [January 4], 1941 (Saturday)

• Allied forces reached Bardia and took many Italian troops prisoner.
• German actress Marlene Dietrich became a U.S. citizen.
• German submarine U-72 was commissioned.
• Bugs Bunny was identified by name for the first time, in the short cartoon Elmer's Pet Rabbit.
• Died: Henri Bergson, 81, French philosopher and Nobel laureate

  [January 5], 1941 (Sunday)

• The Battle of Bardia ended in Allied victory when the last remaining Italian forces surrendered.
• The musical play No For An Answer by Marc Blitzstein premiered at Mecca Temple in New York City.
• Born: Hayao Miyazaki, filmmaker, in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan
• Died: Amy Johnson, 37, English aviator

  [January 6], 1941 (Monday)

• U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt made the Four Freedoms speech during his State of the Union address. He proposed four fundamental freedoms that all the people of the world ought to enjoy: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear.
• In the Greco-Italian War, Greek forces launched an assault trying to take the strategically important Klisura Pass.
• Adolf Hitler subordinated I Wing of Kampfgeschwader 40 to the Kriegsmarine to support U-boat operations, obliging a request from Karl Dönitz. When Hermann Göring learned of the decision he pressed Hitler to reverse it, which eventually happened but led to the creation of the Fliegerführer Atlantik in its place.

  [January 7], 1941 (Tuesday)

• 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. 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.
• 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.
• Born: Iona Brown, violinist and conductor, in Salisbury, England ; John E. Walker, chemist and Nobel laureate, in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England

  [January 8], 1941 (Wednesday)

• The Royal Air Force bombed Naples. Italian battleship Giulio Cesare was damaged during the raid and had to go north for repairs.
• Franco-Thai War: The Royal Thai Air Force attacked French positions at Siem Reap and Battambang.
• Born: Graham Chapman, comedian, writer, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe, in Leicester, England
• Died: Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, 83, British Army officer and founder of the Scout Movement

  [January 9], 1941 (Thursday)

• 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.
• The Avro Lancaster had its first flight.
• Born: Joan Baez, folk musician and activist, on Staten Island, New York

  [January 10], 1941 (Friday)

• The British began Operation Excess, a series of supply convoys to Malta, Alexandria and Greece.
• The British aircraft carrier Illustrious was severely damaged by Stukas as it escorted a convoy to Malta.
• President Roosevelt submitted H.R. 1776, better known as the Lend-Lease bill, to Congress.
• The German civil administration in the Netherlands ordered the registration of all Jews in the country.
• 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.
• Died: Frank Bridge, 61, English composer, violinist and conductor; John Lavery, 84, Irish painter; Joe Penner, 36, American comedian

  [January 11], 1941 (Saturday)

• The Greeks completed the Capture of Klisura Pass.
• The British completed Operation Excess with all convoyed freighters reaching their destinations. However, the light cruiser HMS Southampton was bombed and sunk off Malta by the Luftwaffe.
• Hitler issued Directive No. 22, German Support for Battles in the Mediterranean Area.
• A 6.2 M_w earthquake in the Jazan Province of Saudi Arabia killed around 1,200.
• German-born chess champion Emanuel Lasker died due to illness in the middle of a match against Frank Marshall in New York City.
• Born: Dave Edwards, big-band saxophonist, in Opelika, Alabama ; Jimmy Velvit, rock and roll singer, in Coalgate, Oklahoma

  [January 12], 1941 (Sunday)

• British and Australian troops of XIII Corps surrounded the Italian-held strategic port of Tobruk and prepared an assault. Just a few months later the situation would be reversed in the 2nd Siege of Tobruk.
• The American luxury liner Manhattan ran aground north of Palm Beach, Florida with 750 people on board.
• The Constitution of the Moldavian SSR was adopted.
• Hermann Göring received the 15th-century Sterzinger Altar by Hans Multscher as a 48th birthday present from Benito Mussolini.
• Born: Long John Baldry, blues singer and voice actor, in East Haddon, Northamptonshire, England

  [January 13], 1941 (Monday)

• RAF bombers attacked Ostend, Belgium and the German submarine base at Lorient, France.
• The Luftwaffe bombed Plymouth and killed 26 people.
• Hitler met with Boris III of Bulgaria at the Berghof.
• The U.S. Supreme Court decided Sibbach v. Wilson & Co.
• Died: James Joyce, 58, Irish novelist and poet

  [January 14], 1941 (Tuesday)

• Romanian Conducător Ion Antonescu met with Hitler at Obersalzberg, where it was agreed that Antonescu would liquidate the Iron Guard.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Born: Faye Dunaway, actress, in Bascom, Florida; Milan Kučan, 1st President of Slovenia, in Križevci, Gornji Petrovci, Kingdom of Yugoslavia