July 1941

[July 1], 1941 (Tuesday)

• The Battle of Palmyra was fought in Syria, resulting in Allied victory.
• German and Finnish forces launched Operation Arctic Fox, aimed at capturing Salla.
• German forces captured Riga.
• was bombed in Brest harbour by the Royal Air Force and severely damaged.
• The Vichy government froze Soviet assets in France.
• The Massacre of Lviv professors began.
• Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees tied the 44-year old hitting streak record of Wee Willie Keeler by hitting safely in both games of a doubleheader against the Boston Red Sox, extending the streak to 44 consecutive games.
• Full U.S. commercial television service began from the NBC station WNBT in New York City. The first official paid television advertisement was for Bulova watches and cost the advertiser $9.
• German submarine U-131 was commissioned.
• Born: Alfred G. Gilman, pharmacologist, biochemist and Nobel laureate, in New Haven, Connecticut ; Rod Gilbert, ice hockey player, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada ; Myron Scholes, financial economist and Nobel laureate, in Timmins, Ontario, Canada; Nicolae Saramandu, Aromanian linguist and philologist in Romania

  [July 2], 1941 (Wednesday)

• The Germans and Romanians launched Operation München on the Eastern Front.
• The German heavy cruiser was damaged while docked in Brest, France during an Allied air raid.
• The arrival of SS Einsatzkommando 9 in Vilnius began the Ponary massacre, the systematic murder of up to 100,000 Jews and others over the following three years, many by Ypatingasis būrys and other Lithuanian collaborators.
• China broke off diplomatic relations with Germany and Italy.
• Joe DiMaggio hit a home run off Dick Newsome of the Boston Red Sox to extend his hitting streak to 45 consecutive games and take sole possession of the major league record.
• The biographical film Sergeant York about the life of Alvin C. York was released, starring Gary Cooper in the title role.
• The television show CBS Television Quiz premiered on the fledgling CBS Television network. It was the first live TV game show ever to be broadcast regularly.

  [July 3], 1941 (Thursday)

• The Battle of Białystok–Minsk ended in German victory. 290,000 Soviet troops with 2,500 tanks surrendered in the Białystok pocket.
• The Battle of Deir ez-Zor was fought in Syria, resulting in Allied victory.
• Italian General Pietro Gazzera surrendered to Belgian Congolese forces after his stronghold at Saio in the Ethiopian Highlands was surrounded.
• Joseph Stalin made a broadcast calling on the people of the Soviet Union to pursue a scorched earth policy and conduct guerrilla warfare against the invaders.
• was commissioned.
• Born: Gloria Allred, civil rights lawyer, in Philadelphia; Adoor Gopalakrishnan, filmmaker, in Pallickal, Adoor, British India
• Died: Friedrich Akel, 69, Estonian diplomat ; Otto Lancelle, 56, first German general killed in action in the invasion of the Soviet Union

  [July 4], 1941 (Friday)

• The Germans captured Ostrov in northern Russia and a bridge over the Dnieper at Rogatchev.
• U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt made an Independence Day broadcast warning that "the United States will never survive as a happy and fertile oasis of liberty surrounded by a cruel desert of dictatorship. And so it is that when we repeat the great pledge to our country and to our flag, it must be our deep conviction that we pledge as well our work, our will, and, if it be necessary, our very lives."
• The service comedy film Caught in the Draft starring Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour was released.
• Died: Antoni Łomnicki, 60, Polish mathematician

  [July 5], 1941 (Saturday)

• Romanian forces captured Chernivtsi, Ukraine as part of Operation München
• The Battle of Damour began in French Lebanon.
• The Ecuadorian–Peruvian War began.
• The British troopship Anselm was sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by the German submarine U-96 with the loss of 254 of the 1,316 aboard.
• Claude Auchinleck took over as Commander-in-Chief, Middle East.
• German submarines, and were commissioned.
• Born: Garry Kilworth, science fiction and fantasy author, in York, England

  [July 6], 1941 (Sunday)

• The First Battle of Smolensk began on the Eastern Front.
• The New York Yankees unveiled a centerfield monument to Lou Gehrig at Yankee Stadium.
• Born: Harold Leighton Weller, conductor and music educator, in Dayton, Ohio

  [July 7], 1941 (Monday)

• The 13th Panzer Division reached Berdychiv.
• The U.S. 1st Marine Brigade arrived in Iceland and relieved the British garrison there. President Roosevelt sent Congress a message explaining that the United States could not allow Germany to occupy Iceland because it would constitute a threat to Greenland, to shipping in the North Atlantic and to the steady flow of munitions to Britain which Congress had already freely approved as a matter of broad policy.
• Winston Churchill sent a letter to Stalin saying that there was "genuine admiration" in Britain for the "bravery and tenacity of the soldiers and the people" of the Soviet Union. Churchill also pledged, "We shall do everything to help you that time, geography and our growing resources allow." Stalin was unimpressed by the vagueness of the letter and responded by asking for a formal agreement, since he wanted to ensure that Britain would not stand aside while Germany and the Soviet Union destroyed each other.
• The Uprising in Serbia began when Žikica Jovanović Španac urged a crowd in the village of Bela Crkva to resistance, then shot two policemen and escaped.
• The uprising in eastern Herzegovina was suppressed after two weeks.
• On the fourth anniversary of the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Chiang Kai-shek sent a message to friendly nations asking for "close co-operation with one another" to fight the Axis because "the war in the Far East is no longer to be viewed as merely a conflict between two nations, for the European and Asiatic Wars have now become closely interrelated. Scarcely a single country remains unaffected because this predatory group of powers excludes no country from the scope of its design to dominate the world by force."
• Born: Michael Howard, politician, in Gorseinon, Wales; Bill Oddie, musician, ornithologist and member of The Goodies comedy troupe, in Rochdale, England

  [July 8], 1941 (Tuesday)

• German troops captured Pskov.
• American journalist Richard C. Hottelet was released from German custody in a prisoner exchange after spending almost four months in a Berlin jail on suspicion of espionage.
• German submarines U-86, U-161 and were commissioned.
• The American League beat the National League 7–5 in the ninth Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. Ted Williams hit a walk-off home run with two out in the bottom of the ninth to give the AL the victory.

  [July 9], 1941 (Wednesday)

• The Battle of Damour ended in Australian victory.
• The German 13th Panzer Division took the Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr.
• A brief discussion was held in the British House of Commons about the arrangement by the Nazis for P. G. Wodehouse to give weekly radio broadcasts from Germany to the United States. Foreign Affairs Secretary Anthony Eden said he would take into consideration the suggestion from Geoffrey Mander "to bring to the attention of Mr. Wodehouse and others the grave peril in which they place themselves by playing the Nazi game during the war."
• Born: Robert J. Frankel, horse trainer, in Brooklyn, New York

  [July 10], 1941 (Thursday)

• 13th Panzer Division reached the Irpin River, 10 miles from Kiev.
• The Finnish Army began the reconquest of Lake Ladoga.
• Stalin received a reply from Churchill accepting his request to work on reaching a formal agreement.
• German submarines and were commissioned.
• Died: Jelly Roll Morton, 50, American ragtime and early jazz pianist

  [July 11], 1941 (Friday)

• German forces captured Vitebsk.
• The British destroyer was bombed and subsequently scuttled off Sidi Barrani by a Junkers Ju 88 dive bomber piloted by Gerhard Stamp.
• Hitler issued Directive No. 32, Plans following defeat of the Soviet Union.
• The Office of the Coordinator of Information was created in the United States. William J. Donovan was made its first head.
• Born: Wayne Bickerton, songwriter, record producer and music business executive, in Rhyl, Denbighshire, Wales ; Tommy Vance, radio broadcaster, in Eynsham, Oxfordshire, England
• Died: Arthur Evans, 90, English archaeologist

  [July 12], 1941 (Saturday)

• The Battle of Beirut was fought, resulting in Allied victory.
• The Anglo-Soviet Agreement was signed in Moscow.
• XLI Panzer Corps reached the Plyussa River in northern Russia.
• Ettore Bastico replaced Italo Gariboldi as Commander-in-Chief of Axis forces in North Africa.
• Born: John Lahr, theater critic, in Los Angeles; Benny Parsons, race car driver and announcer, in Wilkes County, North Carolina

  [July 13], 1941 (Sunday)

• Soviet general Mikhail Kirponos began counterattacking against the Zhytomyr corridor.
• The first Spanish volunteers began leaving Spain for Germany.
• Clemens August Graf von Galen, Catholic Bishop of Münster in Germany, preached the first of 3 sermons against Nazi brutality.
• The D.C. Armory opened in Washington, D.C.
• Hollywood couple William Holden and Brenda Marshall were married at a resort near Las Vegas.
• Died: Eduard Norden, 72, German classical philologist and historian of religion

  [July 14], 1941 (Monday)

• The Armistice of Saint Jean d'Acre was signed, ending the Syria–Lebanon Campaign in Allied victory.
• The Soviet 11th Army counterattacked against the LVI Panzer Corps at Soltsy.
• 6th Panzer Division achieved a bridgehead over the Narva River.
• The British troopship Georgic was bombed in the Gulf of Suez with the loss of 26 lives and beached.
• Born: Maulana Karenga, scholar and activist, in Parsonsburg, Maryland