Historical Events for Year 1942

Months in Year 1942: January February March April May June July August September October November December

Events 1 - 150 of 658

Jan 1st - Rose Bowl played in NC due to Japanese threat-Oregon 20, Duke 16
Jan 1st - US & 25 other countries sign a united declaration against the Axis
Jan 2nd - 28 nations, at war with Axis, pledge no separate peace
Jan 2nd - German troops in Bardia surrender
Jan 2nd - Japanese troops occupy Manila Philippines
Jan 2nd - The United States Navy opens a blimp base at Lakehurst, New Jersey.
Jan 3rd - American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command forms
Jan 4th - NFL Pro Bowl: Chi Bears beats NFL All-Stars 35-24
Jan 4th - Premier Churchill & General Marshall fly to Florida
Jan 4th - Rogers Hornsby is 14th player selected to the Hall of Fame
Jan 5th - 55 German tanks reach North-Africa
Jan 6th - 1st around world flight (Pan Am "Pacific Clipper")
Jan 6th - Bob Feller, enlists in Navy & reports for duty to Norfolk Virginia
Jan 6th - Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to schedule a flight around the world.
Jan 7th - WW II siege of Bataan starts
Jan 9th - Joe Louis KOs Buddy Baer in 1 for heavyweight boxing title
Jan 9th - US Joint Chiefs of Staff created
Jan 10th - Japan invades North-Celebes, Neth Indies
Jan 11th - -23°F (-31°C), Kingston, Rhode Island (state record)
Jan 11th - Japan conquers Kuala Lumpur, Malaya
Jan 12th - British troops reconquer Sollum
Jan 12th - Dutch troops on Tarakan surrender
Jan 12th - National War Labor Board created
Jan 13th - Allied Conference for war trials
Jan 13th - German U-boats begin harassing shipping on US east coast
Ford Motor Company Founder Henry Ford Jan 13th - Henry Ford patents a method of constructing plastic auto bodies
Jan 13th - Interallied war trial conference publishes St James Declaration
Jan 13th - World War II: First use of aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.
Jan 14th - Japanese troops land at oil center Balikpapan in Borneo
Jan 15th - Cubs, drop plans to install lights at Wrigley due to WW II
Jan 15th - FDR asks commissioner to continue baseball during WW II
Jan 16th - William Knudsen becomes 1st civilian appointed a general in US army
Jan 18th - Nazi's arrest Frans Goedhart & Wiardi Beckman
Jan 19th - Japanese forces invade Burma
Jan 19th - Titus Brandsma arrested by German occupiers
Jan 20th - Japanese air raid on Rabaul New Britain
Jan 20th - Japanese invade Burma
Jan 20th - Nazi officials hold notorious Wannsee conference in Berlin deciding on "final solution" calling for extermination of Europe's Jews
Jan 21st - Bronx magistrate rules all pinball machines illegal
Jan 21st - Count Basie records "One O'Clock Jump"
Jan 21st - Japanese air raid on Rabaul New Britain
Jan 21st - Tito's partisans occupy Foca
Jan 22nd - Japanese air raid on Rabaul, New Britain
Jan 22nd - Sietze de Groot wins 8th Dutch 11 city skate (8:44:06)
Jan 23rd - Japanese troops occupy Rabaul New Britain
Jan 23rd - Tank battle at Adzjedabia, African corps vs British army
Jan 24th - Musical "Star & Garter," premieres in NYC
Jan 25th - Lt General Rommels African corps reaches Msus
Jan 26th - 1st US force in Europe during WW II go ashore in Northern Ireland
Jan 26th - Italian supreme command demands dismissal of German marshal Rommel
Jan 27th - -19°F (-27.4°C), Netherland's coldest day since 1850
Jan 28th - General Timoshenko's troops move into Ukraine
Jan 28th - German troops occupy Benghazi Libya
Jan 29th - 1st broadcast of Roy Plomley's "Desert Island Discs" on BBC
Jan 29th - German & Italian troops occupy Banghazi
Jan 29th - Peru & Ecuador sign Protocol of Rio (boundary determiniation)
Jan 30th - Japanese troops land on Ambon
Jan 31st - 62 U boats sunk this month (327,000 ton)
Feb 1st - 2nd Norwegian government of Quisling forms
Feb 2nd - LA Times urges security measures against Japanese-Americans
Feb 2nd - US auto factories switch from commercial to war production
Feb 3rd - 1st Japanese air raid on Java
Feb 3rd - Baseball owners agree to permit each club up to 14 night games in 1942
Feb 4th - Clinton Pierce becomes 1st US general wounded in action in WW II
Feb 5th - "Woman of the Year," starring Hepburn & Tracy opens at Radio City
Feb 5th - Braves get Tommy Holmes from Yanks for Buddy Hassett & Gene Moore
Feb 7th - 1st indoor 15' pole vault (Cornelius Warmerdam 15' 3/8")
Feb 8th - Stravinsky's "Danses Concertantes," premieres in Los Angeles
Feb 8th - Congress advises FDR that, Americans of Japanese descent should be locked up en masse so they wouldn't oppose the US war effort
Feb 9th - Daylight Savings War Time goes into effect in US
Feb 9th - Japanese troops land near Makassar, South Celebes
Feb 9th - Philadelphia "Phillies" change nickname (temporarily) to "Phils"
Feb 10th - Glenn Miller awarded 1st ever gold record for selling 1 million copies of "Chattanooga Choo Choo"
Feb 11th - "Archie" comic book debuts
Feb 12th - 3 German battle cruisers escape via Channel to Brest N Germany
Feb 13th - Hitler's Operation Sealion (invasion of England) cancelled
Feb 14th - Japanese parachutists land near oil center Palembang Sumatra
Feb 14th - Rotterdam's Maas tunnel opens
Feb 14th - Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore.
Feb 15th - German U-boat shells at Antillian oil refinery
Feb 15th - Japanese troops march into Palembang, South Sumatra
Feb 15th - Singapore surrenders to Japanese
Feb 16th - German submarines attack Aruba oil refinery
Feb 18th - Japanese troop land on Bali
Feb 19th - About 150 Japanese warplanes attacked the Australian city of Darwin
Feb 19th - Bill Longson beats Managoff & Sandor Szabo, to become wrestling champ
Feb 19th - Dutch actors protest obligatory membership of Culture Chamber
Feb 19th - FDR orders detention & internment of all west-coast Japanese-Americans
Feb 19th - Japanese troop land on Timor
Feb 19th - Tommy Dorsey & his orchestra recorded "I'll Take Tallulah"
Feb 19th - NY Yankees annouce 5,000 uniformed soldiers admitted free at each of their upcoming home games
Feb 20th - Lt E H O'Hare single-handedly shoots down 5 Japanese heavy bombers
Feb 20th - Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace.
Feb 21st - US female Figure Skating championship won by Jane Vaughn
Feb 21st - US male Figure Skating championship won by Bobby Specht
32nd US President Franklin Roosevelt Feb 22nd - World War II: President Franklin Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defenses collapse
Feb 23rd - Japanese sub fires on oil refinery in Ellwood, Calif
Feb 24th - Voice of America begins broadcasting (in German)
Feb 24th - The "Battle of Los Angeles" takes place, lasting until the next day.
Feb 26th - German battle cruiser Gneisenau deactivated by bomb
Feb 26th - Radio Orange calls for March 1 day of prayer in Dutch Indies
Feb 26th - WW II Navy flier Don Mason sends message "Sighted sub sank same"
Feb 26th - Werner Heisenberger informs nazis about uranium project "Wunderwaffen"
Feb 27th - 1st transport of French Jews to nazi-Germany
Feb 27th - Battle of Java Sea began 13 US warships sunk-2 Japanese
Feb 27th - J S Hey discovers radio emissions from Sun
Feb 28th - 1st weapon drop on Netherlands
Feb 28th - Japanese land in Java, last Allied bastion in Dutch East Indies
Feb 28th - Race riot, Sojourner Truth Homes, Detroit
Mar 1st - 3 day Battle of Java Sea ends, US suffers a major naval defeat
Mar 1st - Baseball decides that players in milt can't play when on furlough
Mar 1st - J Milton Cage Jr's "Imaginary Landscape No 3," premieres in Chicago
Mar 1st - Japanese troops occupy Kalidjati airport in Java
Mar 1st - Suriname camp for NSB people opens to save Jews
Mar 1st - Tito establishes 2nd Proletarit Brigade in Bosnia
Mar 2nd - 14th Academy Awards - "How Green was My Valley," Cooper & Fontaine win
Mar 2nd - Admiral Helfrich departs Java for Ceylon
Mar 3rd - 1st combat flight for Canada's British-built Avro Lancaster military plane
Mar 5th - Bosnia Tito establishes 3rd Proletarit Brigade in Bosnia
Mar 5th - Dmitri Shostakovitch' 7th Symphony, premieres in Siberia
Mar 5th - Japanese troop march into Batavia
Mar 7th - 15 Mk-VB Spitfires reach Malta
Mar 7th - 1st cadets graduated from flying school at Tuskegee
Mar 8th - Japanese forces captures Rangoon Burma
Mar 8th - KNIL, Dutch colonial army on Java, surrenders to Japanese armies
Mar 9th - Construction of the Alaska Highway began
Mar 11th - 1st deportation train leaves Paris for Auschewitz Concentration Camp
Mar 11th - Gen MacArthur leaves Corregidor (Bataan) for Australia
Mar 11th - Japanese troop land on North-Sumatra
Mar 12th - British troops vacate the Andamanen in Gulf of Bengal
Mar 13th - Julia Flikke, Nurse Corps, becomes 1st woman colonel in US army
Mar 17th - Belzec Concentration Camp opens-30,000 Lublin Polish Jews transported
Mar 17th - Gen Doug MacArthur arrives in Australia to become supreme commander
Mar 18th - Illegal Free Netherlands announces boycott of theaters
Mar 18th - 2 black players, Jackie Robinson & Nate Moreland, request a tryout with the Chicago White Sox, they are allowed to work out
Mar 19th - FDR orders men between 45 & 64 to register for non military duty
Mar 19th - Thoroughbred Racing Association of US formed in Chicago
Mar 20th - Convoy PQ13 departs Reykjavik Iceland to Russia
Mar 20th - Gen MacArthur vows, "I shall return"
Mar 20th - Major German assault on Malta
Mar 21st - Convoy QP9 departs Great Britain to Murmansk
Mar 21st - Heavy German assault on Malta
Mar 22nd - Heavy German assault on Malta
Mar 23rd - 2,500 Jews of Lublin massacred or deported
Mar 23rd - Japanese forces occupy Andaman Islands in Indian Ocean
Mar 23rd - US move native-born of Japanese ancestry into detention centers
Mar 25th - 700 Jews of Polish Lvov-district reach Belzec Concentration camp
Mar 26th - 1st "Eichmann transport" to Auschwitz & Birkenau Camps
Mar 26th - 1st 700 Jews from Polish Lvov-district reach concentration camp Belzec
Mar 26th - 20 tons of gelignite in a stone quarry at Easton Pa, kills 21