istoryworld
All Events
Adolf Eichmann, in an official letter about policy in relation to the Jews, uses the phrase 'the final solution'
The British aircraft carrier Ark Royal is sunk by a U-boat in the Mediterranean
Enigma is now being decoded fast enough at Bletchley to give the Allies advance warning of German plans
The German advance is held just short of Moscow as winter arrives
In three adapted vans at Chelmno, in western Poland, the Germans begin using poison gas to kill Jews
Without warning, 400 Japanese planes attack and destroy US warships at anchor in Pearl Harbor
Within hours of Pearl Harbor, Japanese aircraft attack the Philippines and destroy half the available US planes
Japanese planes sink the British battleship Prince of Wales and the battle cruiser Repulse off the coast of Malaya
Bulgaria signs the Anti-Comintern Pact and joins the war on Germany's side
Italian frogmen enter the harbour at Alexandria and cripple two British battleships
Hong Kong surrenders to an invading Japanese force
Burmese politician Aung San raises a Burma Independence Army in Thailand to support the imminent Japanese invasion of his country
Harold Macmillan moves to the Colonial Office, as under-secretary
Churchill gives Harold Macmillan an unusual job, negotiating on behalf of the British government in north Africa and reporting directly to Churchill
Regina Jonas, the first woman to be ordained a rabbi, ministers tirelessly for two years in the Theresienstadt concentration camp until she herself is murdered
Yitzhak Shamir becomes leader of the terrorist Stern gang in Palestine
A report by UK economist William Beveridge proposes a wide-ranging social security programme for postwar Britain
Dmitry Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony, mainly written during the siege of Leningrad, has its premiere in Kuybishev
Leslie Howard directs and stars in The First of the Few, about the creator of the Spitfire, with music by William Walton
US choreographer Merce Cunningham begins a long creative partnership with the composer John Cage
Aaron Copland's ballet Rodeo has choreography by Agnes de Mille
David Lean and Noel Coward create a classic wartime film, In Which We Serve about the crew of a naval destroyer
A Jewish girl in Amsterdam, Anne Frank, is given a diary for her thirteenth birthday
Mahatma Gandhi launches the Quit India Movement, calling on a large crowd in Bombay to 'do or die' in the struggle to expel the British
Algerian nationalist Ferhat Abbas produces a manifesto demanding independence from France
