1941 USA

The following chronology lists some important moments in the United States of America during the year 1941. By this time, Americans had come across the Great Depression and were living through the 2nd World War. People were making an effort to economize as much as possible because of the drastic worldwide happenings. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was President in his third term leading the American government. He was the thirty-second President in which, he served from 1933 till 1945 four terms in office. This was a year when no Nobel Awards were attributed to any personality or organization. The worldwide background was dark with terrorism flourishing around the context of the population. All the detailed events are a result of an intense internet research. The chronology is organized by months from January till December of 1941. Such study pretends to present what was happening during that year. As a result, it is expected the understanding of social, political, economical and cultural features that occurred during that year.

January 2: The Andrew Sisters record Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy for Decca Records. The song was a success during the 2nd WW. Also in 1941, Lena Horne records for the first time the classic, Stormy Weather for Victor Records. The Andrew Sisters and Lena Horne were entertainers for the troops during the 2nd WW.

January 6: Franklin D. Roosevelt addresses Congress with the Four Freedoms speech.

January 23: The national hero Charles Lindberg serves testimonial before The House Committee on Foreign Affairs, he recommended the United States to negotiate a neutrality pact with Germany.

January 27: Representatives of the Chief Military of Great Britain and of the United States join together secretly to define strategies of the North American participation in the 2nd WW.

February 4: Roy Plunkett receives a US patent for Tetrafluoroethylene Polymers. The patent was assigned to Plunkett's employer, Kinetic Chemicals, Inc., of Wilmington, Delaware and describes the polymer to be highly resistant to corrosive influences and oxidation. Dr. Roy J. Plunkett, the scientist whose accidental invention of Teflon changed the way Americans cook

March 11: President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act. This was a program that allowed the United States to supply the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, France and Allied nations with a big amount of war material.

April 7: U.S. Naval Operating Base establishes in Bermuda.

April 9: Agreement relating to the Defense of Greenland was signed by the U.S. Secretary of State and the Danish Minister to the U.S.

April 10: USS Niblack (DD-424) depth charges a German submarine off of Iceland in what is believed to be the first act of war between Germany and the U.S. Roosevelt declares the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden to no longer be combat areas and open to U.S. shipping.

May 6: Pepper, a North American senator defends that Americans should occupy Azores and Cape Verdean.

May 12: U.S. Secretary of State presents with Japanese a peace proposal by Ambassador Nomura.

May 27: Roosevelt presents the necessity to occupy the Atlantic islands of Portugal.

May 24: Bob Dylan, American singer-music composer, author, poet and disc jokey was born.

June 14: United States freezes German and Italian assets in America.

June 16: U.S. State Department request all German consulates in the American territory to be closed.

June 19: Germany and Italy request closure of American consulates.

June 21: U.S. State Department requests all Italian consulates in American territory to be closed.

July 7: Roosevelt informs congress that American troops will occupy Iceland in accordance with an executive agreement with that country.
U.S. Navy takes all steps to maintain communications between the U.S. and Iceland.

July 17: General Francisco Franco presents a speech in which he defends the German national-socialism and the Italian fascism, attacking the demo-liberal regimes that were Great Britain and the United States.
U.S. establishes Naval Air Station and Naval Operating Base at Argentina, Newfoundland.

July 19: U.S. Naval Task Force is organized to support the defense of Iceland and escort convoys between Iceland and the United States.

July 26: The United States freezes all Japanese assets because of their aggressive attitude towards the colonial and neo-colonial interests.

July 28: Japan freezes U.S. assets.

Aug 1: The United States announces an oil embargo against aggressor states.

August 14: Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter. Both countries agree on the right of all people to choose the form of government under which they will live. The Atlantic Charter served as a foundation stone for the later establishment of the United Nations, setting several principles for the nations of the world, including the renunciation of all aggression, right to self-government, access to raw materials, freedom from want and fear, freedom of the seas, and disarmament of aggressor nations.

August 18: Roosevelt announces that the United States is ferrying combat aircraft to the British in the Near East.

September 7: German air attack in the Gulf of Suez sinks the U.S. merchant ship, Steel Seafarer.

September 11: U.S. Navy orders to attack any vessel threatening U.S. shipping or ships under American escort.

September 17: Eastbound British trans-Atlantic convoy was escorted for the first time by U.S. Navy.

September 26: U.S. Navy orders protection of all ships engaged in commerce in American defensive water by patrolling, covering, escorting and by reporting or destroying any German or Italian naval forces encountered.

October: The United States deposes Arnulfo Árias from Panama.
Árias was a leader of a dictatorial government with a fascist ideology. The new President of Panama, Adolfo de la Guardiã, compromises himself to restore a democratic regime.

October 1: Three day conference between U.S., Britain and Russia on aid to Russia concluded in Moscow.

October 3: The film, The Maltese Falcon, produced by Warner Brothers premiers in New York City.

October 17: U.S. Navy orders all American merchantment in Asiatic waters to be put in friendly ports.

October 19: A German U-boat torpedoes and sinks the U.S. merchant ship USS Lehigh off of West Africa.

October 23: The animated feature film, Dumbo is first released by RKO Productions.

October 31: The destroyer, USS Ruben James (DD-245) sinks after being torpedoed off of western Iceland. First U.S. Naval vessel lost to enemy action in World War II.

November: Conclusion of the reparations of the Presidents’ faces on the Mount Rushmore.

November 1: Department of the Navy is given jurisdiction over the Coast Guard for the duration of the national emergency.

November 10: First American escorted troop convoy, with more than 20,000 British troops, departs Halifax for the Far East.

November 17: Special Japanese envoy, Subaro Kurusu, meets with the Secretary of State in Washington. A Joint Resolution amends the Neutrality Act of 1939 to allow merchant ships to be armed and enter war zones.

November 21: Lend-Lease extended to Iceland.

November 23: Under an agreement with the Netherlands, the United States occupies Surinam, Dutch Guiana to protect bauxite mines.

November 26: Final proposals for readjustments of American-Japanese relations.

November 30: American proposals for settling Far Eastern crisis rejected by Japanese Foreign Minister Tojo.

December 2: First Naval Armed Guard crew received by U.S. merchant ship Dunboyne.

December 3: Sagadahoc, a U.S. merchant vessel, is torpedoed and sunk in southern Atlantic.

December 6: President Franklin Roosevelt makes a final appeal to the Emperor of Japan for peace. There is no reply. Late this same day, the U.S. code-breaking service begins intercepting a 14-part Japanese message and deciphers the first 13 parts, passing them on to the President and Secretary of State. The Americans believe a Japanese attack is imminent, most likely somewhere in Southeast Asia.

December 7: The last part of the Japanese message, stating that diplomatic relations with the United States are to be broken off, reaches Washington in the morning and is decoded at approximately 9 a.m. About an hour later, another Japanese message is intercepted. It instructs the Japanese embassy to deliver the main message to the Americans at 1 p.m. The Americans realize this time corresponds with early morning time in Pearl Harbor, which are several hours behind. The U.S. War Department then sends out an alert but uses a commercial telegraph because radio contact with Hawaii is temporarily broken. Delays prevent the alert from arriving at headquarters in Oahu until noontime (Hawaii Time) four hours after the attack has already begun.

December 7: Islands of Hawaii, near Oahu - The Japanese attacks force under the command of Admiral Nagumo, consisting of six carriers with 423 planes. At 6 a.m., the first attack wave of 183 Japanese planes takes off from the carriers located 230 miles north of Oahu and heads for the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
Pearl Harbor - At 7:02 a.m., two Army operators at Oahu's northern shore radar station detects the Japanese air attack approaching and contacts a junior officer who disregards their reports, thinking they are American B-17 planes which are expected from the U.S. west coast.
Near Oahu - At 7:15 a.m., a second attack wave of 167 planes takes off from the Japanese carriers and heads for Pearl Harbor.
Pearl Harbor is not on high alert. Senior commanders think, based on available intelligence, there was no reason to believe an attack is imminent. Aircraft are therefore, left parked wingtip to wingtip on airfields, anti-aircraft guns are unmanned with many ammunition boxes kept locked in accordance with peacetime regulations. There also were no torpedo nets protecting the fleet anchorage. And since it is Sunday morning, many officers and crewmen were leisurely ashore.
At 7:53 a.m., the first Japanese assault wave, with 51 'Val' dive bombers, 40 'Kate' torpedo bombers, 50 high level bombers and 43 'Zero' fighters, commences the attack with flight commander, Mitsuo Fuchida, sounding the battle cry: "Tora! Tora! Tora!” (Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!).
The Americans were taken completely by surprise. The first attack wave target airfields and battleships. The second wave target other ships and shipyard facilities. The air raid lasts until 9:45 a.m. Eight battleships are damaged, with five sunk. Three light cruisers, three destroyers and three smaller vessels are lost along with 188 aircraft. The Japanese lose 27 planes and five midget submarines which attempted to penetrate the inner harbor and launch torpedoes.
Escaping damage from the attack are the prime targets, the three U.S. Pacific Fleet aircraft carriers, Lexington, Enterprise and Saratoga, which were not in the port. Also escaping damage are the base fuel tanks.
The casualty list includes 2,335 servicemen and 68 civilians killed, with 1,178 wounded. Included are 1,104 men aboard the Battleship USS Arizona killed after a 1,760-pound air bomb penetrated into the forward magazine causing catastrophic explosions.
In Washington, various delays prevent the Japanese diplomats from presenting their war message to Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, until 2:30 p.m. (Washington Time) just as the first reports of the air raid at Pearl Harbor are being read by Hull.
News of the "sneak attack" is broadcast to the American public via radio bulletins, with many popular Sunday afternoon entertainment programs being interrupted. The news sends a shockwave across the nation and results in a tremendous influx of young volunteers into the U.S. armed forces. The attack also unites the nation behind the President and effectively ends isolationist sentiment in the country.

December 8: The United States and Britain declare war on Japan with President Roosevelt calling December 7, a date which will live in infamy.

December 11: Germany and Italy declare war on the United States. The European and Southeast Asian wars have now become a global conflict with the Axis powers; Japan, Germany and Italy united against America, Britain, France, and their Allies.

December 12: Naval Air Transport Service is established.

December 17: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz becomes the new commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

December 22: U.S. troops under Brig. General J.F. Barnes arrive at Brisbane, Australia. Roosevelt and Churchill open discussions in Washington that lead to the establishment of Combined Chiefs of Staff. Japanese land in Lingayen Gulf area in the Philippines. Japanese patrol boats 32 and 33 are destroyed by Marine gunfire and deliberately run ashore at Wake Island.

December 23: American-British War Council, composed of Roosevelt, Churchill and Navy, military and civilian advisors meets for first time.

It is not surprising how the effects of World War 2 hit the United States of America during 1941. The world was in crisis and all societies were experiencing unstable moments. A simple chocolate like the famous M&M’s was related to the war. These Peanut Chocolate Candies were first introduced precisely in 1941 to American soldiers. Moreover, fashion wear was not considered a profitable business. People were going through a period of economization and did not invest on clothes. Mostly the fabricants were interested on the production of uniforms. Funny to say that besides the lack of production of daily wear, nylon stockings became very popular within women, practically replacing the traditional silk stocking. Nevertheless, good things came out as a reflection of the worldwide mess.
Cinema, for example turned into a highly productive industry. It was in 1941 that the Annual Academy Oscar Awards celebrated its 14th Anniversary. John Ford won Oscar for Best Directing with his film, How Green Was My Valley, winning likewise Best Motion Picture. Also, lots of famous European Artists escaped to the United States ending up expanding their works in American territory. Max Ernst serves as an example, a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet held prisoner in France, when the WW2 began, but in 1941 managed to escape to the United States. He was considered to be one of the chief representatives of Dadaism and Surrealism, side-by-side with A. Breton that also arrived to New York that same year. If we consider that Sport victories are in a certain way a nations’ pride, then we should refer some relevant champions in American Sports. In 1941, North American Cornelius Warmerdam hit world records in Pole vault and Lester Sterrs in a Los Angeles competition, also tops world records. In the same way, the New York Yankees win the world championship in baseball.
To sum up, all events during 1941 in the chronology presented are in some way related with the 2nd WW. Plenty of political affairs were happening around the country, while bombs broke the world apart. Pearl Harbor was a relevant issue in the United States, which metaphorically conducted the country to join the World War. Curiosity was that by 1941, employment had risen since the Great Depression, in other words there was a growing labor in all nations’ manufacturing centers, accelerating the Great Migration of African-American workers from the Southern states as well as, farmers and workers from rural areas and small towns. Domestic issues were no longer Roosevelt’s most urgent concern. The society was changing throughout the war, not only in the United States, but all around the world.