May 1941

[May 1], 1941 (Thursday)

• The Orson Welles-directed drama film Citizen Kane had its world premiere at the Palace Theatre in New York City.
• The week-long May Blitz of Liverpool began.
• Fighting in western Ethiopia between the Italian and Belgian Congolese colonial forces was halted for six weeks due to the rainy season.
• Gross-Rosen became an independent concentration camp.
• The British Government created the Ministry of War Transport and made Frederick Leathers its first head.
• The "Mad Dog" trial ended after twenty days when the jury found the Esposito brothers guilty of two counts of murder after just one minute of deliberation.
• German submarine U-568 was commissioned.
• A new breakfast cereal by General Mills named Cheerioats was introduced. Its name would be changed to Cheerios in 1945.
• Born: Magne Thomassen, speed skater, in Melhus, Norway
• USSR holds a military parade on Red Square in Moscow with German officials Ernst August Köstring and Hans Krebs invited as guests.

  [May 2], 1941 (Friday)

• The Anglo-Iraqi War began, starting with airstrikes centred around RAF Habbaniya.
• The Romanian government established the National Center for Romanianization, which was mainly tasked with expropriating Jewish properties and distributing them to Romanians.
• The British destroyer HMS Jersey struck a mine at Malta's Grand Harbour and sank.

  [May 3], 1941 (Saturday)

• Australian troops launched a counterattack at Tobruk, but it was repulsed by the Italians.
• The Province of Ljubljana was created when Italy annexed part of Slovenia including the city of Ljubljana.
• Whirlaway won the Kentucky Derby in a new Churchill Downs track record time of 2:01 2/5.
• German submarines U-205 and U-451 were commissioned.
• Born: Nona Gaprindashvili, chess player, in Zugdidi, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union

  [May 4], 1941 (Sunday)

• The Battle of Amba Alagi began in East Africa.
• The third raid of the Belfast Blitz occurred overnight.
• British troops occupied the airport and docks of Basra.
• Adolf Hitler made an address to the Reichstag reviewing the Balkan campaign and declaring that the German Reich and its allies were superior to any conceivable coalition in the world.
• Born: Nickolas Ashford, R&B singer and one-half of Ashford & Simpson, in Fairfield, South Carolina
• Died: William A. Welch, 72, American engineer and environmentalist

  [May 5], 1941 (Monday)

• Haile Selassie re-entered the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, exactly five years after it was occupied by Italian forces. May 5 is now celebrated in Ethiopia as Arbegnoch Qen, or Patriot's Day.
• The fourth and final raid of the Belfast Blitz took place overnight.
• Born: Alexander Ragulin, ice hockey player, in Moscow, USSR

  [May 6], 1941 (Tuesday)

• Iraqi troops withdrew from the plateau overlooking RAF Habbaniya after taking 1,000 casualties.
• Greenock Blitz: The Luftwaffe bombed the town of Greenock, Scotland for the first of two consecutive nights.
• A trade agreement was concluded between Japan and French Indochina.
• The Allies began Operation Tiger, a convoy maneuver from Gibraltar to Alexandria.
• Sanski Most Revolt: The Serbian population near Sanski Most in Axis-occupied Yugoslavia began an uprising against the repression of the Ustaše regime.
• Born: Ivica Osim, footballer and manager, in Sarajevo, Kingdom of Yugoslavia
• Died: Shūzō Kuki, 53, Japanese scholar and philosopher

  [May 7], 1941 (Wednesday)

• The Battle of South Shanxi began.
• Hull Blitz: German aircraft bombed the port city of Kingston upon Hull for the first of two consecutive nights.
• The British destroyer Hurricane was bombed and sunk during the Liverpool Blitz, but she would be repaired and returned to service in January 1942.
• The German weather ship München was captured near Iceland. Secret papers were found on board that improved the British understanding of the Enigma coding machines.
• Baseball star Hank Greenberg joined the U.S. Army.
• Born: Kinichi Hagimoto, comedian, in Tokyo, Japan
• Died: James George Frazer, 87, Scottish social anthropologist

  [May 8], 1941 (Thursday)

• Action of 8 May 1941: The German commerce raider Pinguin was sunk by the British heavy cruiser HMS Cornwall in the Indian Ocean off the Seychelles.
• British and Transjordanian forces began the Assault on Rutbah Fort.
• The Sanski Most Revolt was suppressed on its third day.
• The Nottingham Blitz took place overnight.
• German submarine U-569 was commissioned.
• Born: Mahmoud Ahmed, singer, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

  [May 9], 1941 (Friday)

• The Soviet Union declared that it would no longer recognize the diplomatic standing of Nazi-occupied Belgium, Norway and Yugoslavia.
• German submarine U-110 was captured in the Atlantic Ocean after being forced to surface by depth charges from British warships from convoy OB 318. The Royal Navy obtained the U-boat's code books and an entire Enigma machine.
• The Luftwaffe attempted to hit the Rolls-Royce aero engine factory in the East Midlands, but their bombs only managed to kill a few farm animals.
• The British cargo ship Empire Cloud was torpedoed and damaged on her maiden voyage by German submarine U-201 near Cape Farewell, Greenland with the loss of five crew. She would be towed, repaired and returned to service.
• Billie Holiday recorded the classic jazz song "God Bless the Child".
• Died: Fritz-Julius Lemp, 28, German U-boat commander

  [May 10], 1941 (Saturday)

• Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess flew a Messerschmitt Bf 110 to Scotland on a solo peace mission, parachuting into Eaglesham near his objective of Dungavel House after running out of fuel.
• The Luftwaffe mounted what would turn out to be the last major bombing raid on London, but one of the most devastating. Over 1,400 people were killed and 700 acres were set on fire, with the Houses of Parliament among the buildings damaged.
• The Strike of the 100,000 began in Nazi-occupied Belgium when workers went on strike for a wage increase.
• The cargo ship Empire Caribou from convoy OB 318 was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-556.
• The Italian auxiliary cruiser Ramb III was torpedoed and sunk at Benghazi Harbour by the British submarine HMS Triumph. The cruiser would be raised, repaired and returned to service.
• Whirlaway won the Preakness Stakes.
• Died: Cissy Fitzgerald, 68, English-American vaudeville performer

  [May 11], 1941 (Sunday)

• The Assault on Rutbah Fort ended in Allied victory.
• Hitler met with Vichy Vice-Premier François Darlan at the Berghof. Hitler agreed to release French World War I veterans from POW camps in exchange for the Vichy government compromising its neutrality by allowing German planes to land in French Syria and to help supply the Afrika Korps from French Tunisia.
• British and Free French forces began Operation Josephine B with the objective of destroying an electrical transformer station in Pessac.
• Born: Eric Burdon, singer-songwriter, in Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne, England
• Died: Peggy Shannon, 34, American actress

  [May 12], 1941 (Monday)

• The Nazi Party issued a press release on the subject of Rudolf Hess, claiming that he was "suffering from mental illness" and that the Führer had ordered the immediate arrest of those who helped Hess.
• Hitler abolished Rudolf Hess' post of Deputy Führer, transferred its duties to the new title of Chief of the Nazi Party Chancellery and appointed Martin Bormann to the job.
• British MPs met for the first time in their new temporary home, the House of Lords.
• Operation Tiger was completed successfully.
• The British gunboat HMS Ladybird was bombed and sunk at Tobruk by Luftwaffe aircraft.
• German submarine U-128 was commissioned.
• Died: Ruth Stonehouse, 48, American actress and film director

  [May 13], 1941 (Tuesday)

• The Royal Air Force bombed Heligoland.
• British cargo ship SS Somersby was torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by German submarine U-111.
• OKW chief Wilhelm Keitel signed Barbarossa Decree.
• Vic Ghezzi won the PGA Championship.
• Born: Senta Berger, actress, in Vienna, Austria; Ritchie Valens, singer, songwriter and guitarist, in Pacoima, Los Angeles, California
• Born: Jody Conradt, American women's basketball coach and University of Texas at Austin athletic director, in Goldthwaite, Texas, U.S.

  [May 14], 1941 (Wednesday)

• Bulgaria annexed part of Greek Macedonia and Greek Thrace.
• The first mass round-up of Jews in Paris took place. More than 3,700 foreign Jews were arrested when they reported to a gymnasium for police examination of their status. They were sent to the internment camps of Pithiviers and Beaune-la-Rolande.
• German submarine U-82 was commissioned.
• The comic book superhero Plastic Man made his first appearance in Police Comics issue #1.
• Died: Maurice Bavaud, 25, Swiss citizen who attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1938 ; Minnie Vautrin, 54, American missionary

  [May 15], 1941 (Thursday)

• The British launched Operation Brevity, a limited offensive in the Egyptian and Libyan border area.
• The British attempted to keep the Nazis guessing as to what Rudolf Hess had told them by having Labour Minister Ernest Bevin say in the government's first official statement on the matter: "I do not believe that Hitler did not know that Hess was coming to England. From my point of view Hess is a murderer. He is no man I would ever negotiate with and I don't change even for diplomatic reasons. I am not going to be deceived."
• The Greek destroyer was bombed and sunk in Souda Bay by Luftwaffe aircraft.
• Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak began inauspiciously with an RBI single off Eddie Smith in the bottom of the first inning, the New York Yankees' only run of the game as they lost to the Chicago White Sox 13–1.
• Born: Robert Kowalski, logician and computer scientist, in Bridgeport, Connecticut
• Died: Ulrich Grauert, 52, German Luftwaffe general