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Home: On this Day: 1942

Famous birthdays, deaths and events of 1942


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Birthdays


Deaths
  • January 6 - Emma Calvé, French soprano (b. 1858)
  • January 6 - Henri de Baillet-Latour, Belgian International Olympic Committee president (b. 1876)
  • January 8 - Joseph Franklin Rutherford, American religious publisher (b. 1869)
  • January 14 - Porfirio Barba-Jacob, Colombian writer (b. 1883)
  • January 16 - Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught
  • January 16 - Carole Lombard, American actress (b. 1908)
  • January 17 - Walther von Reichenau, German field marshal (b. 1884)
  • January 26 - Felix Hausdorff, German mathematician (b. 1868)
  • January 27 - Kaarel Eenpalu, Estonian Prime Minister (b. 1888)
  • January 31 - Henry Larkin, American baseball player (b. 1860)
  • January 31 - Rolf Wenkhaus, German actor (b. 1917)
  • February 2 - Daniil Kharms, Russian playwright (b. 1905)
  • February 7 - Ivan Bilibin, Russian illustrator (b. 1876)
  • February 13 - Epitácio Pessoa, Brazilian president (b. 1865)
  • February 14 - Adnan Bin Saidi, Officer of the Malay Regiment killed in the defense of Singapore (b. 1915)
  • February 18 - Albert Payson Terhune, American author (b. 1872)
  • February 19 - Frank Abbandando, American gangster (executed) (b. 1910)
  • February 22 - Stefan Zweig, Austrian writer (b. 1881)
  • February 28 - Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral (b. 1889)
  • March 1 - George S. Rentz, Navy Chaplain (b. 1882)
  • March 8 - José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban chess player (b. 1888)
  • March 10 - William Henry Bragg, English physicist
  • March 12 - Robert Bosch, German industrialist (b. 1861)
  • March 19 - Clinton Hart Merriam, American zoologist (b. 1855)
  • March 26 - Jimmy Burke, American baseball player (b. 1874)
  • March 28 - Miguel Hernández, Spanish poet
  • April 8 - Kostas Skarvelis, Greek songwriter (b. 1880)
  • April 15 - Robert Musil, Austrian novelist (b. 1880)
  • April 17 - Jean Perrin, French physicist
  • April 18 - Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, American socialite (b. 1875)
  • April 24 - Karin Boye, Swedish author (b. 1900)
  • April 24 - Lucy Maud Montgomery, Canadian author (b. 1874)
  • May 3 - Thorvald Stauning, Prime Minister of Denmark (b. 1873)
  • May 5 - Qemal Stafa, Albanian politician (b. 1920)
  • May 7 - Felix Weingartner, Yugoslavian conductor (b. 1863)
  • May 29 - John Barrymore, American actor (b. 1882)
  • June 4 - Reinhard Heydrich, German SS senior officer and Nazi official
  • June 7 - Alan Blumlein, English electronics engineer (b. 1903)
  • June 17 - Charles Fitzpatrick, Canadian politician (b. 1853)
  • July 3 - Louis Franchet d'Espèrey, French general (b. 1856)
  • July 15 - Wenceslao Vinzons, Filipino politician and resistance leader (bayoneted to death) (b. 1910)
  • July 23 - Adam Czerniakow, Polish engineer (suicide) (b. 1880)
  • July 23 - Andy Ducat, Former England cricketer and footballer (b. 1886)
  • July 26 - Roberto Arlt, Argentinian writer (b. 1900)
  • July 28 - William Matthew Flinders Petrie, English Egyptologist (b. 1853)
  • August 3 - Richard Willstätter, German chemist
  • August 9 - Edith Stein, (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) (executed) (b. 1891)
  • August 18 - Rafaela Ottiano, Italian-born American actress (b. 1888)
  • August 22 - Michel Fokine, Russian choreographer and dancer (b. 1880)
  • August 25 - George Edward Alexander Windsor, Duke of Kent (b. 1902)
  • September 2 - Tom Williams, Irish republican (b. 1924)
  • September 5 - François de Labouchère, French aviator of World War II
  • September 14 - E.S. Gosney, American eugenicist (b. 1855)
  • September 19 - Condé Nast, American publisher (b. 1873)
  • September 30 - Hans-Joachim Marseille, German fighter pilot (b. 1919)
  • October 1 - Ants Piip, Estonian Prime Minister (b. 1884)
  • October 8 - Sergei Chaplygin, Soviet engineer (b. 1869)
  • October 18 - Mikhail Nesterov, Russian painter (b. 1862)
  • October 23 - Ralph Rainger, American composer (b. 1901)
  • October 27 - Helmuth Hubener, Youth Political Activist against the Hitler regime (b. 1925)
  • November 1 - Hugo Distler, German composer (b. 1908)
  • November 5 - George M. Cohan, American musician
  • November 9 - Edna May Oliver, American actress (b. 1883)
  • November 17 - Ben Reitman, American anarchist
  • November 19 - Bruno Schulz, Polish writer and painter (shot) (b. 1892)
  • November 21 - Leopold Graf Berchtold, Austro-Hungarian foreign minister (b. 1863)
  • December 13 - Wlodimir Ledochowski, Polish-Austrian director of the Society of Jesus (b. 1866)
  • December 22 - Franz Boas, German anthropologist (b. 1858)
  • December 24 - François Darlan, vice-premier of Vichy France (b. 1881)

Events
  • January 1 - The Declaration by the United Nations is signed by twenty-six nations.
  • January 2 - The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) convicts 33 members of a German spy ring headed by Fritz Joubert Duquesne in the largest espionage case in United States history -- the Duquesne Spy Ring.
  • January 2 - World War II: Manila is captured by Japanese forces.
  • January 2 - The United States Navy opens a blimp base at Lakehurst, New Jersey.
  • January 6 - Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to schedule a flight around the world.
  • January 7 - World War II: The siege of the Bataan Peninsula begins.
  • January 11 - Japan declares war on the Netherlands and invades the Netherlands East Indies.
  • January 11 - The Japanese capture Kuala Lumpur.
  • January 12 - President Franklin Roosevelt creates the National War Labor Board.
  • January 13 - Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car.
  • January 13 - World War II: First use of aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.
  • January 14 - Operation Ke, the successful Japanese operation to evacuate their forces from Guadalcanal during the Guadalcanal campaign, begins.
  • January 19 - World War II: Japanese forces invade Burma.
  • January 20 - World War II: Nazis at the Wannsee conference in Berlin agree on the "final solution to the Jewish problem".
  • January 25 - World War II: Thailand declares war on the United States and United Kingdom.
  • January 26 - World War II: The first United States forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.
  • February 1 - World War II: Vidkun Quisling is appointed Premier of Norway by the Nazi occupiers.
  • February 7 - Imperial Japanese naval forces complete the evacuation of Imperial Japanese Army troops from Guadalcanal during Operation Ke, ending Japanese attempts to retake the island from Allied forces in the Guadalcanal Campaign.
  • February 9 - World War II: Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss American military strategy in the war.
  • February 9 - Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States.
  • February 9 - Allied forces declare Guadalcanal secure, ending the Guadalcanal Campaign as a significant strategic victory for Allied forces fighting Imperial Japan in the Pacific War.
  • February 11 - The Battle of Bukit Timah is fought in Singapore during World War II.
  • February 14 - Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore.
  • February 15 - World War II: The Fall of Singapore. Following an assault by Japanese forces, the British General Arthur Percival surrenders. About 80,000 Indian, United Kingdom and Australian soldiers become prisoners of war, the largest surrender of British-led military personnel in history. The Sook Ching massacre begins.
  • February 19 - World War II: nearly 250 Japanese warplanes attack the northern Australian city of Darwin killing 243 people.
  • February 19 - World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the executive order 9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese-Americans to Japanese internment camps.
  • February 20 - Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace.
  • February 22 - World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defenses collapses.
  • February 24 - The "Battle of Los Angeles" takes place, lasting until the next day.
  • February 27 - World War II: During the Battle of the Java Sea, an allied (ABDA) strike force is defeated by a Japanese task force in the Java Sea in the Dutch East Indies
  • February 28 - The heavy cruiser USS Houston (CA-30) is sunk in the Battle of Sunda Strait with 693 crew members killed.
  • March 3 - World War II: Ten Japanese warplanes raid the town of Broome, Western Australia killing more than 100 people.
  • March 8 - World War II: The Dutch surrender to Japanese forces on Java.
  • March 8 - World War II: Japan captures Rangoon, Burma.
  • March 8 - World War II: British bombers begin a new style of air raid, using incendiary bombs to light the way for a nighttime attack on the Krupp armament works in Essen. The long series of attacks reduce the city to ruins.
  • March 11 - World War II: General Douglas MacArthur abandons Corregidor.
  • March 14 - John Bumstead and Orvan Hess became the first in the world to successfully treat a patient, Anne Miller, using penicillin.
  • March 16 - History of Rocketry: The first V-2 rocket test launch (exploded at liftoff).
  • March 17 - Holocaust: The first Jews from the Lviv Ghetto (western Ukraine) are gassed at the Belzec death camp (eastern Poland).
  • March 20 - World War II: In Zgierz, Poland, 100 Poles are taken from a labor camp and shot by the Germans.
  • March 20 - Holocaust: in Rohatyn, western Ukraine, the German SS murder 3,000 Jews, including 600 children, annihilating 70% of Rohatyn's Jewish ghetto.
  • March 20 - World War II: General Douglas MacArthur, at Terowie, South Australia, makes his famous speech regarding the fall of the Philippines, in which he says: "I came out of Bataan and I shall return".
  • March 22 - World War II: In the Mediterranean Sea, Britain's Royal Navy confronts Italy's Regia Marina in the Second Battle of Sirte.
  • March 23 - World War II: In the Indian Ocean, Japanese forces capture the Andaman Islands.
  • March 26 - World War II: In Poland, Auschwitz receives its first female prisoners.
  • March 28 - World War II: In occupied France, British naval forces raid the German-occupied port of St. Nazaire.
  • March 29 - The Bombing of Lübeck in World War II was the first major success for the RAF Bomber Command against Germany and a German city.
  • March 31 - Holocaust in Ivano-Frankivsk (then called Stanislawow), western Ukraine. German Gestapo organize the first deportation of 5.000 Jews from Stanislawow ghetto to Belzec death camp. It was one of the biggest transports to Belzec in the first phase of the camp.
  • April 3 - World War II: Japanese forces begin an assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula.
  • April 5 - World War II: The Japanese Navy attacks Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Royal Navy Cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island.
  • April 8 - World War II: Siege of Leningrad
  • April 8 - World War II: The Japanese take Bataan in the Philippines.
  • April 9 - World War II: The Battle of Bataan/Bataan Death March
  • April 15 - George Cross is awarded to "to the island fortress of Malta
  • April 17 - POW French General Henri Giraud escapes from his castle prison in Festung Königstein.
  • April 18 - World War II: The Doolittle Raid on Japan. Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and Nagoya bombed.
  • April 18 - Pierre Laval becomes Prime Minister of Vichy France.
  • April 21 - World War II: The most famous (and first international) Aggie Muster is held on the Philippine island of Corregidor, by Brigadier General George F. Moore (with 25 fellow Aggies who were under his command), while 1.8 million pounds of shells pounded the island over a 5 hour attack.
  • April 23 - World War II: Baedeker Blitz – German bombers hit Exeter, Bath and York in retaliation for the British raid on Lübeck.
  • May 3 - World War II: Japanese naval troops invade Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands during the first part of Operation Mo that results in the Battle of the Coral Sea between Japanese forces and forces from the United States and Australia.
  • May 4 - World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea begins with an attack by aircraft from the United States aircraft carrier Yorktown on Japanese naval forces at Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands. The Japanese forces had invaded Tulagi the day before.
  • May 6 - World War II: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.
  • May 7 - During the Battle of the Coral Sea, United States Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attack and sink the Japanese Imperial Navy light aircraft carrier Shōhō. The battle marks the first time in the naval history that two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between warring ships.
  • May 8 - World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end with Japanese Imperial Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attacking and sinking the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Lexington. The battle marks the first time in the naval history that two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between warring ships.
  • May 8 - World War II: Gunners of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands rebel in the Cocos Islands Mutiny. Their mutiny is crushed and three of them are executed, the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War.
  • May 9 - World War II: Belgrade becomes the first Axis-conquered city to murder or eliminate its Jewish population, largely with the help of Serbian collaborators.
  • May 9 - Holocaust: The SS murder 588 Jewish residents of the Podolian town of Zinkiv (Khmelnytska oblast, Ukraine).
  • May 10 - World War II: The Thai Phayap Army invades the Shan States during the Burma Campaign.
  • May 11 - William Faulkner's collections of short stories, Go Down, Moses, is published.
  • May 12 - World War II: Second Battle of Kharkov – in the eastern Ukraine, the Soviet Army initiates a major offensive. During the battle the Soviets capture the city of Kharkov from the German Army, only to be encircled and destroyed.
  • May 12 - Holocaust: 1,500 Jews are sent to gas chambers in Auschwitz.
  • May 15 - World War II: in the United States, a bill creating the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) is signed into law.
  • May 22 - Mexico enters World War II on the side of the Allies.
  • May 22 - The Steel Workers Organizing Committee disbands, and a new trade union, the United Steelworkers, is formed.
  • May 22 - World War II: Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox enlists in the United States Marine Corps as a flight instructor.
  • May 26 - World War II: The Battle of Bir Hakeim takes place.
  • May 27 - World War II: In Operation Anthropoid Reinhard Heydrich is assassinated in Prague.
  • May 28 - World War II: in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Nazis in Czechoslovakia kill over 1800 people.
  • May 29 - Bing Crosby, the Ken Darby Singers and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra record Irving Berlin's "White Christmas", the best-selling Christmas album in history, for Decca Records in Los Angeles.
  • May 30 - World War II: 1000 British bombers launch a 90-minute attack on Cologne, Germany.
  • May 31 - World War II: Imperial Japanese Navy midget submarines begin a series of attacks on Sydney, Australia.
  • June 1 - World War II: the Warsaw paper Liberty Brigade publishes the first news of the concentration camps.
  • June 4 - World War II: Reinhard Heydrich is assassinated by Czechoslovak paratrooper in Prague (Operation Anthropoid).
  • June 4 - World War II: The Battle of Midway begins. Japanese Admiral Chuichi Nagumo orders a strike on Midway Island by much of the Imperial Japanese navy.
  • June 7 - World War II: The Battle of Midway ends.
  • June 7 - World War II: Japanese soldiers occupy the American islands of Attu and Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska.
  • June 8 - World War II: Japanese imperial submarines I-21 and I-24 shell the Australian cities of Sydney and Newcastle.
  • June 10 - World War II: Nazis burn the Czech village of Lidice in reprisal for the killing of Reinhard Heydrich.
  • June 11 - World War II: The United States agrees to send Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union.
  • June 12 - Holocaust: future essayist Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.
  • June 13 - The United States opens its Office of War Information.
  • June 14 - Anne Frank begins to keep a diary.
  • June 21 - World War II: Tobruk falls to Italian and German forces.
  • June 21 - World War II: A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at nearby Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by the Japanese against the United States mainland.
  • June 22 - Erwin Rommel is promoted to Field Marshal after the capture of Tobruk.
  • June 23 - World War II: The first selections for the gas chamber at Auschwitz take place on a train load of Jews from Paris.
  • June 23 - World War II: Germany's latest fighter, a Focke-Wulf FW190 is captured intact when it mistakenly lands at RAF Pembrey in Wales.
  • July 1 - World War II: First Battle of El Alamein.
  • July 1 - Australian Federal Government becomes sole collector of Income Tax (State Income Tax Abolished).
  • July 6 - Anne Frank and her family went into hiding in the "Secret Annexe" above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse.
  • July 10 - The diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and the Soviet Union are established.
  • July 16 - Holocaust: Rafle du Vel'd'Hiv: the Vichy France government orders French police officers to round up 13,000-20,000 Jews and imprison them in the Winter Velodrome.
  • July 18 - World War II: the Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me-262 using only its jet engines for the first time.
  • July 19 - World War II: Battle of the Atlantic
  • July 20 - World War II: The first unit of the Women's Army Corps begins training in Des Moines, Iowa.
  • July 22 - The United States government begins compulsory civilian gasoline rationing due to the wartime demands.
  • July 22 - Holocaust: the systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto begins.
  • July 23 - The Holocaust: The Treblinka extermination camp is opened.
  • July 23 - World War II: Operation Edelweiss begins.
  • July 28 - World War II: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin issues Order No. 227 in response to alarming German advances into Russia. Under the order all those who retreat or otherwise leave their positions without orders to do so will be immediately executed.
  • August 6 - Queen Wilhelmina becomes the first reigning queen to address a joint session of the United States Congress.
  • August 7 - World War II: the Battle of Guadalcanal begins
  • August 8 - World War II: in Washington, DC, six German would-be saboteurs (Operation Pastorius) are executed.
  • August 8 - The Quit India resolution was passed by the Bombay session of the AICC, leading to the start of a civil disobedience movement across India.
  • August 9 - Indian leader, Mahatma Gandhi is arrested in Bombay by British forces, launching the Quit India Movement.
  • August 9 - World War II: Battle of Savo Island
  • August 15 - World War II: Operation Pedestal
  • August 16 - World War II: The two-person crew of the U.S. naval blimp L-8 disappears without a trace on a routine anti-submarine patrol over the Pacific Ocean. The blimp drifts without her crew and crash-lands in Daly City, California.
  • August 17 - U.S. Marines raid the Japanese-held Pacific island of Makin (Butaritari).
  • August 19 - World War II: Operation Jubilee
  • August 21 - World War II: the Battle of Stalingrad begins.
  • August 21 - World War II: a Nazi flag is installed atop the Mount Elbrus.
  • August 21 - World War II: Allied forces involved in the Guadalcanal campaign defeated an attack by Imperial Japanese Army soldiers in the Battle of the Tenaru.
  • August 22 - World War II: Brazil declares war on Germany and Italy.
  • August 23 - World War II: Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad.
  • August 23 - World War II: The last cavalry charge in history takes place at Izbushensky.
  • August 24 - World War II: The Battle of the Eastern Solomons. Japanese aircraft carrier Ryūjō is sunk and US carrier Enterprise heavily damaged.
  • August 25 - World War II: Battle of Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea.
  • August 25 - World War II: second day of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. A Japanese naval transport convoy headed towards Guadalcanal is turned-back by an Allied air attack, losing one destroyer and one transport sunk, and one light cruiser heavily damaged.
  • August 26 - Holocaust in Chortkiv, western Ukraine: At 2.30 am the German Schutzpolizei starts driving Jews out of their houses, divides them into groups of 120, packs them in freight cars and deports 2000 to Belzec death camp. 500 of the sick and children murdered on the spot.
  • August 30 - World War II: Battle of Alam Halfa begins.
  • August 31 - In Ternopil, western Ukraine, at 4.30 am, German SS organise the first deportation of Jews from Ternopil ghetto to death camp in Belzec, about 5,000 Jews were deported to face death in Belzec. When the Germans captured Ternopil, about 18,000 Jews lived in the city.
  • September 3 - World War II: Uprising of the Jewish ghetto in Lakhva occurs.
  • September 5 - World War II: Japanese high command orders withdrawal at Milne Bay, first Japanese defeat in the Pacific War.
  • September 7 - Holocaust: 8,700 Jews of Kolomyia (western Ukraine) sent by German Gestapo to death camp in Belzec.
  • September 7 - First flight of the Consolidated B-32 Dominator.
  • September 9 - World War II: A Japanese floatplane drops an incendiary bomb on Oregon.
  • September 10 - World War II: The British Army carries out an amphibious landing on Madagascar to re-launch Allied offensive operations in the Madagascar Campaign.
  • September 12 - World War II: RMS Laconia, carrying civilians, Allied soldiers and Italian POWs is torpedoed off the coast of West Africa and sinks.
  • September 12 - World War II: First day of the Battle of Edson's Ridge during the Guadalcanal campaign. U.S. Marines protecting Henderson Field on Guadalcanal are attacked by Imperial Japanese Army forces.
  • September 13 - World War II: Second day of the Battle of Edson's Ridge in the Guadalcanal campaign. U.S. Marines successfully defeated attacks by the Imperial Japanese Army with heavy losses for the Japanese forces.
  • September 15 - World War II: The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Wasp is torpedoed at Guadalcanal.
  • September 18 - The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is authorized.
  • September 19 - Holocaust in Brody, western Ukraine: About 2,500 Brody Jews are deported by the German Gestapo to the extermination camp in Belzec.
  • September 20 - Holocaust in Letychiv, Ukraine. In the course of two days German SS murders at least 3,000 Jews.
  • September 21 - On Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, Nazis sent over 1.000 Jews of Pidhaytsi (west Ukraine) to Belzec extermination camp.
  • September 21 - On the end of Yom Kippur, the Germans ordered Konstantynów Jews (Poland) to permanently evacuate Konstantynów and move to the Ghetto
  • September 21 - In Dunaivtsi, Ukraine, Nazis murder 2588 Jews.
  • September 21 - The B-29 Superfortress makes its maiden flight.
  • September 23 - World War II: First day of the September Matanikau action on Guadalcanal as United States Marine Corps forces attack Imperial Japanese Army units along the Matanikau River.
  • September 27 - Glenn Miller and his Orchestra perform for the last time before Miller enters the US Army.
  • September 27 - Last day of the September Matanikau action on Guadalcanal as United States Marine Corps troops barely escape after being surrounded by Japanese forces near the Matanikau River.
  • October 1 - USS Grouper torpedoes Lisbon Maru not knowing she was carrying British PoWs from Hong Kong
  • October 1 - First flight of the Bell XP-59 "Aircomet".
  • October 3 - Spaceflight: The first successful launch of a V-2 /A4-rocket from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany. It is the first man-made object to reach space.
  • October 7 - World War II: The October Matanikau action on Guadalcanal begins as United States Marine Corps forces attack Imperial Japanese Army units along the Matanikau River.
  • October 9 - Statute of Westminster 1931 formalises Australian autonomy.
  • October 9 - The last day of the October Matanikau action on Guadalcanal as United States Marine Corps forces withdraw back across the Matanikau River after destroying most of the Imperial Japanese Army's 4th Infantry Regiment.
  • October 10 - The Soviet Union establishes diplomatic relations with Australia.
  • October 11 - World War II: Battle of Cape Esperance
  • October 12 - World War II: Japanese ships retreat after their defeat in the Battle of Cape Esperance with the Japanese commander, Aritomo Gotō dying from wounds suffered in the battle and two Japanese destroyers sunk by Allied air attack.
  • October 14 - A German U-boat sinks the ferry SS Caribou, killing 137.
  • October 23 - World War II: The Second Battle of El Alamein starts
  • October 23 - All 12 passengers and crewmen aboard an American Airlines DC-3 airliner are killed when it is struck by a U.S. Army Air Forces bomber near Palm Springs, California. Amongst the victims is award-winning composer and songwriter Ralph Rainger ("Thanks for the Memory", "Love in Bloom", "Blue Hawaii").
  • October 23 - The Battle for Henderson Field begins during the Guadalcanal Campaign and ends on October 26.
  • October 26 - World War II: In the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands during the Guadalcanal Campaign, one U.S. aircraft carrier, Hornet, was sunk and another aircraft carrier, Enterprise, is heavily damaged.
  • October 28 - The Alaska Highway (Alcan Highway) is completed through Canada to Fairbanks, Alaska.
  • October 28 - Holocaust: 2,000 Jewish children and 6,000 Jewish adults from Kraków are deported by Germans to Belzec death camp.
  • October 28 - Holocaust: SS directive orders all Jewish children's mittens and stockings to be sent from the death camps to SS families.
  • October 29 - Holocaust: In the United Kingdom, leading clergymen and political figures hold a public meeting to register outrage over Nazi Germany's persecution of Jews.
  • November 1 - Matanikau Offensive begins during the Guadalcanal Campaign and ends on November 4.
  • November 3 - World War II: Second Battle of El Alamein ends
  • November 3 - World War II: The Koli Point action begins during the Guadalcanal Campaign and ends on November 12.
  • November 4 - World War II: Second Battle of El Alamein
  • November 5 - The Second Battle of El Alamein is won by the British in El Alamein, Egypt.
  • November 6 - World War II: Carlson's patrol during the Guadalcanal Campaign begins.
  • November 8 - World War II: Operation Torch
  • November 8 - World War II: French resistance coup in Algiers, in which 400 civilian French patriots neutralize Vichyist XIXth Army Corps after 15 hours of fighting, and arrest several Vichyst generals, allowing the immediate success of Operation Torch in Algiers.
  • November 10 - World War II: Germany invades Vichy France following French Admiral François Darlan's agreement to an armistice with the Allies in North Africa.
  • November 11 - World War II: Nazi Germany completed their occupation of France.
  • November 12 - World War II: The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal between Japanese and American forces begins near Guadalcanal, which would last for three days.
  • November 13 - World War II: Naval Battle of Guadalcanal
  • November 15 - World War II: First flight of the Heinkel He 219.
  • November 15 - World War II: The Battle of Guadalcanal ends in a decisive Allied victory.
  • November 18 - Holocaust: German SS carry out selection of Jewish ghetto in Lviv, western Ukraine, arresting 5.000 "unproductive Jews". All get deported to the Belzec death camp.
  • November 19 - World War II: Battle of Stalingrad
  • November 21 - The completion of the Alaska Highway (also known as the Alcan Highway) is celebrated (however, the highway was not usable by general vehicles until 1943).
  • November 22 - World War II: Battle of Stalingrad
  • November 26 - Holocaust: Shoah: 572 Norwegian Jews are deported to Auschwitz on the cargo vessel Donau. This was the first step on the journey to the death camp Auschwitz. Altogether the total number of Jews deported from Norway was 767. 25 of the deported survived.
  • November 26 - World War II: Yugoslav Partisans convene the first meeting of the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia at Bihać in northwestern Bosnia.
  • November 27 - World War II: At Toulon, the French navy scuttles its ships and submarines to keep them out of Nazi hands.
  • November 28 - In Boston, Massachusetts, a fire in the Cocoanut Grove nightclub kills 491 people.
  • November 30 - World War II Guadalcanal Campaign: Battle of Tassafaronga — A smaller squadron of Japanese destroyers led by Raizo Tanaka defeats a US cruiser force under Carleton H. Wright.
  • December 2 - Manhattan Project: A team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.
  • December 4 - Holocaust: In Warsaw, Zofia Kossak-Szczucka and Wanda Filipowicz set up the Żegota organization.
  • December 4 - Carlson's patrol during the Guadalcanal Campaign ends.
  • December 8 - Holocaust: in Ternopil, Ukraine, the German SS organizes the deportation of the last 1,400 Ternopil Jews to the death camp in Belzec. The chief of the Gestapo, SS-Sturmbannführer Heinrich Müller, bore overall responsibility for the mass murder of the Jews of Ternopil and Berezhany county.
  • December 12 - A fire in a hostel in St. John's, Newfoundland kills 100 people.
  • December 15 - The Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse begins during the Guadalcanal campaign.
  • December 16 - Holocaust: Porajmos
  • December 20 - World War II: Bombing of Calcutta by the Japanese.
  • December 22 - World War II: Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon.
  • December 24 - World War II: French monarchist, Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle, assassinates Vichy French Admiral François Darlan in Algiers.
  • December 27 - The Union of Pioneers of Yugoslavia is founded.


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This page uses material from the Wikipedia article "1942".