1942
This article is about the year. For the 1984 Capcom arcade game, see 1942 (video game).1942 (
MCMXLII) was a
common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar).
January
*
January 1 -
World War II: The term "
United Nations" is first officially used to describe the Allied pact.
*
January 2 -
World War II:
Manila is captured by
Japanese forces. The Japanese Admiral stays in
Solvec (owned by Charles Henry de Silva), Philippines.
*
January 7 -
World War II: Siege of the
Bataan Peninsula begins
*
January 11 -
World War II:
Japan declares war on the
Netherlands and invades the
Netherlands East Indies.
*
January 11 -
World War II: The
Japanese capture
Kuala Lumpur.
*
January 19 -
World War II:
Japanese forces invade
Burma.
*
January 20 -
World War II:
Nazis at the
Wannsee conference in
Berlin decide that the "
final solution to the
Jewish problem" is relocation, and later extermination.
*
January 23 -
World War II: The
Battle of Rabaul begins.
*
January 25 -
World War II:
Thailand declares war on the
United States and
United Kingdom*
January 26 -
World War II: The first American forces arrive in
Europe landing in
Northern Ireland.
*
January 31 -
World War II: The last organised Allied forces leave
Malaya, ending the 54-day
battle.
February
*
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 11 -
Operation Cerberus - Flotilla of
Kriegsmarine ships dash from
Brest through the
English Channel to northern ports; British fail to sink any one of them
*
February 15 -
World War II:
Singapore surrenders to
Japanese forces.
*
February 19 -
World War II: 242
Japanese warplanes attack Darwin,
Australia.
*
February 19 -
World War II:
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs
executive order 9066 allowing the
United States military to define areas as exclusionary zones. These zones affect the
Japanese on the West Coast, and
Germans and
Italians primarily on the East Coast.
*
February 20 - Lieutenant
Edward O'Hare becomes America's first
World War II flying ace*
February 22 -
World War II:
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt orders General
Douglas MacArthur out of the
Philippines as American defense of the nation collapses.
*
February 23 -
Japanese
submarine I-17 fires sixteen high-explosive shells toward an oil
refinery near
Santa Barbara, California, causing little damage.
*
February 24 -
Propaganda: The
Voice of America begins broadcasting.
*
February 25 -
Princess Elizabeth registers for war service
*
February 26 - The worst
Coal dust explosion to date occurs in
Honkeiko,
China. It claims 1549 lives. The growth of the
coal mining industry was a major goal of
Mao Zedong's first Five-Year Plan
["Year by Year 1942" -- History Channel International].
*
February 27 -
World War II: the
USS Langley, the first
United States aircraft carrier, is sunk by
Japanese warplanes off
Java.
March-April
*
March 9 - The
Secretary of War reorganized the
United States Army into three major commands -
Army Ground Forces,
Army Air Forces, and
Services of Supply, later redesignated
Army Service Forces*
April 3 -
World War II:
Japanese forces begin an all-out assault on the
United States and
Filipino troops on the
Bataan Peninsula. Bataan fell on
April 9 and the
Bataan Death March began.
*
April 5 -
World War II:
Japanese Navy attacks
Colombo in
Ceylon (
Sri Lanka).
Royal Navy Cruisers HMS Cornwall and
HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island.
*
April 9 -
World War II: Japanese Navy launches air raid on
Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Royal Navy
Aircraft Carrier HMS Hermes and
Royal Australian Navy Destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk off the country's East Coast.
*
April 18 -
Tokyo, Japan is bombed by
B-25 Mitchells commanded by then-Lieutenant Colonel
James Doolittle.
*
April 27 -
World War II: A
national plebiscite is held in Canada on the issue of
conscription.
May
* May - first test of an undersea oil pipeline in
Operation Pluto*
May 5 -
World War II:
Operation Ironclad -
United Kingdom forces invades french colony of
Madagascar.
*
May 6 -
World War II: On
Corregidor, the last
American forces in the
Philippines surrender to the
Japanese.
*
May 8 -
World War II: The
Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end. This is the first time in the naval history where two enemy fleets fought without seeing each other's fleets.
*
May 8/
May 9 -
World War II: On the night of 8/9 May 1942, gunners of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands rebelled. Their mutiny was crushed and three of them were executed, the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War.
*
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 will capture the city of
Kharkov from the
German Army, only to be encircled and destroyed.
*
May 15 -
World War II: In the
United States, a bill creating the
Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) is signed into law.
*
May 20 - First African-American seamen taken into
US Navy*
May 27 -
World War II:
Operation Anthropoid - assassination of
Reinhard Heydrich in
PragueJune
*
June 1 -
World War II:
Mexico declares war on Germany, Italy and Japan.
*
June 4 -
World War II:
Reinhard Heydrich dies in Prague due to the assassination by Czechoslovak paratroopers (
Operation Anthropoid)
*
June 4-
June 7 -
World War II: The
Battle of Midway.
*
June 7 -
World War II- Japanese forces invade the
Aleutian Islands. This is the first invasion of American soil in 128 years.
*
June 9 -
World War II:
Nazis burn the Czech village of
Lidice as reprisal for the killing of
Reinhard Heydrich.
*
June 10 -
World War II: the Gestapo massacred 173 male residents of
Lidice,
Czechoslovakia in retaliation for the killing of a Nazi official.
*
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, a center for production of
propaganda.
July
*
July 1 -
July 27 -
World War II: the
First Battle of El Alamein*
July 3 -
Guadalcanal falls to the Japanese.
*
July 9 -
Holocaust:
Anne Frank's family goes into hiding in an attic above her father's office in an
Amsterdam warehouse.
*
July 13 -
World War II:
German U-Boats sink three more merchant ships in
Gulf of St. Lawrence.
*
July 16 -
Holocaust: On order from the
Vichy France government headed by
Pierre Laval, French
police officers round-up 13,000-20,000
Jews and imprison them in the
Winter Velodrome.
*
July 16 -
Georges Bégué and others escape from
Mauzac prison camp
*
July 18 -
World War II: The
Germans test fly the
Messerschmitt Me-262 using only its
jets for the first time.
*
July 19 -
World War II:
Battle of the Atlantic -
German Grand Admiral
Karl Dönitz orders the last
U-boats to withdraw from their
United States Atlantic coast positions in response to an effective American convoy system.
*
July 21 - Japanese establish beachhead on the north coast of
New Guinea in the Buna-Gona area; small Australian force begins rearguard action on the
Kokoda Track Campaign.
*
July 22 -
Holocaust: The systematic deportation of
Jews from the
Warsaw Ghetto begins.
*
July 31 - The
Oxford Committee of Famine Relief (OXFAM) founded
August-September
*
August 7 -
World War II:
Battle of Guadalcanal begins -
US Marines initiate the first American offensive of the war with a landing on
Guadalcanal in the
Solomon Islands.
*
August 8 -
World War II: In
Washington, DC, six
German would-be saboteurs are executed (two others were cooperative and received life imprisonment instead).
*
August 8 -
Quit India resolution was passed by the
Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), which led to the start of a historical civil disobidience movement across
India*
August 9 -
Indian leader,
Mohandas Gandhi is arrested in
Bombay by
British forces.
*
August 9 - FC Start, led by Nikolai Trusevich, play football against the German Luftwaffe team Flakelf in Nazi-occupied Kiev. Against all odds, they win 5-3. They are later arrested and tortured, and most are killed.
*
August 13-
14 night - In London instruments detect a massive burst of
cosmic rays*
August 16 -
Polish-Jewish teacher
Janusz Korczak follows a group of
Jewish children into
Treblinka death camp
*
August 19 -
World War II: The
Dieppe Raid - Allied forces raid
Dieppe, France.
*
August 22 -
World War II:
Brazil declared war on
Germany and
Italy.
*
August 25 -
World War II: Japanese
marines land at
Milne Bay.
*
August 30 -
Luxembourg is formally annexed to the German Reich.
*
September 3 -
Francisco Franco fires foreign minister
Serrano Súñer*
September 3 - An attempt by the Germans to liquidate the Jewish
ghetto in
Lakhva leads to an uprising.
*
September 5 -
World War II: Japanese forces suffer their first defeat on land at the
Battle of Milne Bay.
*
September 12 -
RMS Laconia, carrying civilians, Allied soldiers and Italian POWs is torpedoed off the coast of West Africa and sinks.
*
September 24 -
Andrée Borrel and
Lise de Baissac became the first female
SOE agents to be parachuted into occupied
France.
October
*
October 2 - British cruiser
Curacao collides with the liner
Queen Mary off the coast of
Donegal and sinks - 338 drowned
*
October 3 - First successful launch of
A-4 rocket from
Test Stand VII at
Peenemünde,
Germany. The rocket flew 147 kilometres wide and reached a height of 84.5 kilometres and was therefore the first man-made object reaching space.
*
October 9 - Statute of
Westminster Adoption Act formalizes
Australian autonomy.
*
October 11 -
World War II:
Battle of Cape Esperance - On the northwest coast of
Guadalcanal,
United States Navy ships intercept and defeat a
Japanese fleet on their way to reinforce troops on the island.
*
October 14 - A German
U-boat sinks the ferry
SS Caribou, killing 137.
*
October 16 -
Hurricane and
flooding in
Bombay - 40,000 dead
*
October 23 -
November 4 -
World War II: the
Second Battle of El Alamein*
October 28 - The
Alaska Highway is completed.
*
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
*
November 3 -
World War II:
Second Battle of El Alamein ends -
German forces under
Erwin Rommel are forced to retreat during the night.
*
November 8 -
World War II:
Operation Torch -
United States and
United Kingdom forces land in
French North Africa.
*
November 8 -
World War II:
French Resistance Coup in
Algiers, by which 400 French civil resistants neutralized the Vichyist XIXth Army Corps and the Vichyist generals (Juin, Darlan, etc.), so allowing the immediate success of Operation Torch in Algiers, and from there in the whole
French North Africa.
*
November 9 -
World War II: U.S serviceman
Edward Leonswki hanged at Melbourne's Pentridge Prison for the "Brown-Out" Murders of three women in May
*
November 10 -
World War II: In violation of a
1940 armistice,
Germany invades
Vichy France following French Admiral
François Darlan agreement to an armistice with the
Allies in
North Africa.
*
November 12 -
World War II:
Battle of Guadalcanal begins - A naval battle near
Guadalcanal starts between
Japanese and
American forces.
*
November 13 -
World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal - Aviators from the
USS Enterprise sink the
Japanese battleship
Hiei.
*
November 15 -
World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal ends - Although the
United States Navy suffered heavy losses, it was able to retain control of
Guadalcanal.
*
November 19 -
World War II:
Battle of Stalingrad -
Soviet Union forces under General
Georgy Zhukov launch the
Operation Uranus counterattacks at
Stalingrad, turning the tide of the battle in the USSR's favor.
*
November 21 - The completion of the
Alaska Highway (also known as the Alcan Highway) is celebrated (the "
highway" was not usable by general vehicles until
1943, however).
*
November 22 -
World War II:
Battle of Stalingrad - The situation for the
German attackers of
Stalingrad seems desperate during the
Soviet counter-attack
Operation Uranus and General
Friedrich Paulus sends
Adolf Hitler a
telegram saying that the
German Sixth Army is surrounded.
*
November 23 - German
U-boat sinks
SS Ben Lomond off the coast of Brazil. One crewman, Chinese second steward
Poon Lim, is separated from the others and spends 130 days adrift until he is rescued
April 3 1943*
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 night club kills 491 people.
*
November 28 - The large-scale German "pacification" of Zamojszczyzna region of
Poland begins.
December
*
December 2 -
Manhattan Project: Below the bleachers of Stagg Field at the
University of Chicago, a team led by
Enrico Fermi initiate the first self-sustaining
nuclear chain reaction (a coded message, "The Italian navigator has landed in the new world" was then sent to US President
Franklin D. Roosevelt).
*
December 4 -
Holocaust: In
Warsaw, two
Christian women,
Zofia Kossak and
Wanda Filipowicz risk their lives by setting up the
Council for the Assistance of the Jews.
*
December 7 - British commandos conduct
Operation Frankton a raid on shipping in
Bordeaux harbour.
*
December 24 - French
Admiral Darlan, the former
Vichy leader who had switched over to the Allies following the Torch landings, assassinated in
Algiers.
Undated
*
Catavi massacre -
Bolivian soldiers shoot miners
* Serial killer
Singing Strangler in
Melbourne*
Grand Coulee Dam finished in
Columbia River*
DDT first used as a
pesticideOngoing events
*
World War II (
1939-
1945)
*
Sino-Japanese War (
1937-
1945)
*
1942 in art*
1942 in film*
Mrs. Miniver*
Bambi*
Casablanca starring
Humphrey Bogart and
Ingrid Bergman*
Quattro passi fra le nuvole by
Alessandro Blasetti.
*
1942 in literature**
Mythology*
1942 in music**"White Christmas" -
Bing Crosby*
1942 in rail transport*
1942 in sports*
1942 in television**
April 13 - The
FCC minimum programming time required of TV stations is cut from 15 hours to four hours a week during the war.
Unknown date
*
Roger Angleton, American murderer (d.
1998)
*
Priscilla Davis, American socialite (d.
2001)
*
George Negus, Australian author, journalist, and television presenter.
January
*
January 1 -
Martin Frost, American politician
*
January 1 -
Gennadi Sarafanov, cosmonaut
*
January 2 -
Hugh Shelton, American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
*
January 3 -
John Thaw, English actor (d.
2002)
*
January 5 -
Maurizio Pollini, Italian pianist
*
January 5 -
Charlie Rose, American talk show host
*
January 7 -
Vasily Alexeev, Soviet weightlifter
*
January 8 -
Stephen Hawking, British physicist
*
January 8 -
Junichiro Koizumi,
Prime Minister of Japan*
January 8 -
Yvette Mimieux, American actress
*
January 8 -
George Passmore, English artist (
Gilbert and George)
*
January 14 -
Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal,
Chief Justice of India*
January 15 -
Charo, American singer and actress
*
January 17 -
Muhammad Ali, American boxer
*
January 17 -
Cus D'Amato, boxing manager (d.
1985)
*
January 17 -
Ulf Hoelscher, German violinist
*
January 17 -
Nancy Parsons, American actress (d.
2001)
*
January 19 -
Michael Crawford, singer and actor
*
January 25 -
Carl Eller, American football player
*
January 25 -
Eusébio, Portuguese footballer
*
January 31 -
Derek Jarman, English director and writer (d.
1994)
February
*
February 1 -
Terry Jones, Welsh actor and writer
*
February 2 -
Graham Nash, American (English-born) rock musician
*
February 5 -
Roger Staubach, American football player
*
February 9 -
Carole King, American singer and composer
*
February 12 -
Ehud Barak,
Prime Minister of Israel*
February 13 -
Peter Tork, American musician and actor
*
February 14 -
Andrew Robinson, American actor
*
February 19 -
Paul Krause, American football player
*
February 20 -
Phil Esposito, Canadian hockey player
*
February 21 -
Margarethe von Trotta, German actress, film director, and writer
*
February 24 -
Joseph Lieberman, American politician
*
February 27 -
Robert H. Grubbs, American chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
February 28 -
Brian Jones, English musician (
The Rolling Stones) (d.
1969)
March
*
March 2 -
John Irving, American author
*
March 2 -
Lou Reed, American singer and guitarist
*
March 4 -
Charles C. Krulak, U.S. Marine Corps commander
*
March 5 -
Felipe González Márquez, Spanish politician
*
March 7 -
Tammy Faye Bakker, American evangelist
*
March 7 -
Michael Eisner, American film studio executive
*
March 9 -
John Cale, Welsh composer and musician
*
March 13 -
Dave Cutler, American software engineer
*March 13 -
Scatman John, American musician (d.
1999)
*
March 16 -
James Soong, Taiwan politician
*
March 17 -
John Wayne Gacy, American serial killer (d.
1994)
*
March 23 -
Walter Rodney, Guyanese historian and political figure
*
March 25 -
Aretha Franklin, American singer
*
March 25 -
Richard O'Brien, English-born actor and writer
*
March 26 -
Erica Jong, American author
*
March 27 -
John E. Sulston, British chemist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine*
March 27 -
Michael York, English actor
*
March 28 -
Neil Kinnock, British statesman
*
March 28 -
Mike Newell, British film director
*
March 28 -
Conrad Schumann, East German border guard (d.
1998)
*
March 28 -
Jerry Sloan, American basketball coach
April
*
April 2 -
Hiroyuki Sakai, Japanese chef
*
April 3 -
Marsha Mason, American actress
*
April 3 -
Wayne Newton, American singer
*
April 4 -
Elizabeth Levy, American author
*
April 5 -
Peter Greenaway, Welsh filmmaker
*
April 5 -
Pascal Couchepin, Swiss Federal Councilor
*
April 6 -
Barry Levinson, American film producer and director
*
April 8 -
Roger Chapman, British rock singer (
Family,
Streetwalkers)
*
April 14 -
Valeriy Brumel, Russian athlete (d.
2003)
*
April 14 -
Valentin Lebedev, cosmonaut
*
April 15 -
Kenneth Lay, American businessman (d.
2006)
*
April 26 -
Bobby Rydell, American singer
*
April 26 -
Michael Kergin, Canadian diplomat
*
April 27 -
Jim Keltner, American drummer
May
*
May 2 -
Jacques Rogge, Belgian International Olympic Committee president
*
May 5 -
Tammy Wynette, American musician (d.
1998)
*
May 8 -
Terry Neill, Northern Irish footballer and football manager
*
May 9 -
John Ashcroft,
United States Attorney General*
May 12 -
Ian Dury, British musician (d.
2000)
*
May 17 -
Taj Mahal, American singer and guitarist
*
May 18 -
Albert Hammond, English-born musician and composer
*
May 18 -
Nobby Stiles, English footballer
*
May 19 -
Gary Kildall, American computer scientist (d.
1994)
*
May 22 -
Theodore Kaczynski, American bomber
*
May 22 -
Calvin Simon, American musician (
P Funk)
*
May 26 -
Levon Helm, American musician (
The Band)
*
May 28 -
Stanley B. Prusiner, American scientist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or MedicineJune
*
June 3 -
Curtis Mayfield, American musician (d.
1999)
*
June 10 -
Preston Manning, Canadian politician
*
June 12 -
Bert Sakmann, German physiologist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
June 17 -
Mohamed ElBaradei, Egyptian International Atomic Energy Agency director, recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize*
June 18 -
Roger Ebert, American film critic
*
June 18 -
Paul McCartney, English musician and composer (
The Beatles)
*
June 18 -
Hans Vonk, Dutch conductor
*
June 19 -
Ralna English, American singer
*
June 20 -
Brian Wilson, American singer (
The Beach Boys)
*
June 24 -
Mick Fleetwood, English drummer (
Fleetwood Mac)
*
June 24 -
Bruce Johnston, American musician (
The Beach Boys)
*
June 24 -
Michele Lee, American singer, dancer and actress
July
*
July 4 -
Floyd Little, American football player
*
July 4 -
Prince Michael of Kent*
July 7 -
Carmen Duncan, Welsh-born actress
*
July 10 -
Pyotr Klimuk, cosmonaut
*
July 10 -
Ronnie James Dio, American singer
*
July 13 -
Harrison Ford, American actor and producer
*
July 13 -
Roger McGuinn, American musician
*
July 15 -
Mil Mascaras, Mexican professional wrestler
*
July 17 -
Tim Brooke-Taylor, English radio and television personality
*
July 18 -
Adolf Ogi, member of the Swiss Federal Council
*
July 23 -
Myra Hindley, English murderer
*
July 24 -
Chris Sarandon, American actor
*
July 27 -
Dennis Ralston, American tennis player
*
July 29 -
Tony Sirico, American actor
August
*
August 1 -
Jerry Garcia, American musician (d.
1995)
*
August 2 -
Isabel Allende, Chilean writer
*
August 4 -
David Lange,
Prime Minister of New Zealand (d.
2005)
*
August 7 -
Garrison Keillor, American writer and radio host
*
August 19 -
Fred Dalton Thompson, U.S. Senator and actor
*
August 20 -
Isaac Hayes, American singer and actor
*
August 26 -
Dennis Turner, British politician
*
August 28 -
Sterling Morrison, American musician (d.
1995)
September
*
September 1 -
John Lange, American scientist
*
September 14 -
Bernard MacLaverty, Irish writer
*
September 17 -
Desmond Lynam, British TV presenter
*
September 19 -
Freda Payne, American singer and actress
*
September 22 -
David Stern, American commissioner of the National Basketball Association
*
September 28 -
Marshall Bell, American actor
*
September 29 -
Madeline Kahn, American actress (d.
1999)
*
September 29 -
Jean-Luc Ponty, French jazz violinist
*
September 30 -
Frankie Lymon, American singer (d.
1968)
October
*
October 10 -
Peter Coyote, American actor
*
October 11 -
Amitabh Bachchan, Indian actor
*
October 12 -
Melvin Franklin, American musician (d.
1995)
*
October 13 -
Jerry Jones, American football team owner
*
October 19 -
Andrew Vachss, American author and attorney
*
October 20 -
Earl Hindman, American actor (d.
2003)
*October 20 -
Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, German biologist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine*
October 21 -
Elvin Bishop, American musician
*
October 22 -
Annette Funicello, American actress
*
October 23 -
Michael Crichton, American author
*
October 26 -
Bob Hoskins, British actor
November
*
November 1 -
Larry Flynt, American publisher
*
November 1 -
Ralph Klein, Premier of Alberta
*
November 8 -
Angel Cordero Jr., Puerto Rican jockey
*
November 8 -
Fernando Sorrentino, Argentine writer
*
November 10 -
Robert F. Engle, American economist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
November 10 -
Hans-Rudolf Merz, Swiss Federal Councilor
*
November 13 -
John P. Hammond, American singer
*
November 15 -
Daniel Barenboim, Argentine-born pianist and conductor
*
November 17 -
Martin Scorsese, American film director
*
November 20 -
Joe Biden, U.S. Senator from Delaware
*
November 22 -
Francis K. Butagira, Ugandan Ambassador
*
November 27 -
Henry Carr, American athlete
*
November 27 -
Jimi Hendrix, American musician (d.
1970)
*
November 27 -
Manolo Blahnik, Spanish Shoe designer
*
November 28 -
Paul Warfield, American football player
*
November 29 -
Michael Craze, British actor (d.
1998)
*
November 29 -
Philippe Huttenlocher, Swiss baritone
December
*
December 4 -
Gemma Jones, British actress
*
December 6 -
Peter Handke, Austrian novelist
*
December 7 -
Peter Tomarken, American game show host (d.
2006)
*
December 9 -
Dick Butkus, American football player
*
December 11 -
Donna Mills, American actress
*
December 17 -
Paul Butterfield, American musician (d.
1987)
*
December 20 -
Bob Hayes, American athlete
*
December 21 -
Carla Thomas, American singer
*
December 29 -
Rajesh Khanna, Indian actor
*
December 31 -
Andy Summers, English Guitarist
Unknown date
*
Moammar Al Qadhafi, leader of Libya
January-April
*
January 6 -
Henri de Baillet-Latour, Belgian International Olympic Committee president (b.
1876)
*
January 14 -
Porfirio Barba-Jacob, Colombian poet and writer (b.
1883)
*
January 16 -
Carole Lombard, American actress (b.
1908)
*
January 26 -
Felix Hausdorff, German mathematician (suicide) (b.
1868)
*
February 14 -
Mirosław Ferić, Polish pilot of the No. 303 Squadron in Northolt (b.
1915)
*
February 19 -
Frank Abbandando, American gangster (executed) (b.
1910)
*
February 28 -
Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral (sinking ship) (b.
1889)
*
March 1 -
Cornelius Vanderbilt III, American military officer, inventor, and engineer (b.
1873)
*
March 8 -
José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban chess player (b.
1888)
*
March 10 -
William Henry Bragg, English physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1862)
*
March 21 -
J.S Woodsworth, Canadian politician (b.
1874)
*
April 15 -
Robert Musil, Austrian-born novelist (b.
1880)
*
April 17 -
Jean Baptiste Perrin, French physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1870)
*
April 18 -
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, American sculptor and socialite (b.
1875)
*
April 24 -
Dinanath Mangeshkar, Indian singer and composer (b.
1900)
May-December
*
May 3 -
Thorvald Stauning,
Prime Minister of Denmark (b.
1873)
*
May 7 -
Felix Weingartner, Yugoslavian conductor (b.
1863)
*
May 27 -
Chen Duxiu, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (b.
1879)
*
May 29 -
John Barrymore, American actor (b.
1882)
*
June 4 -
Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the Nazi Reich Main Security Office and Reich governor of Bohemia and Moravia (assassinated) (b.
1904)
*
June 7 -
Alan Blumlein, English electronics engineer (b.
1903)
*
June 30 -
William Henry Jackson, American photographer (b.
1843)
*
July 23 -
Adam Czerniakow, Polish engineer and senator (suicide) (b.
1880)
*
July 26 -
Roberto Arlt, Argentine writer (b.
1900)
*
July 28 -
William Matthew Flinders Petrie, English Egyptologist (b.
1853)
*
August 3 -
Richard Willstätter, German chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1872)
*
August 6 -
Jonathan Campbell, American film pioneer (b.
1875)
*
September 14 -
Ezra Seymour Gosney, American philanthropist and eugenicist (b.
1855)
*
November 1 -
Hugo Distler, German composer (b.
1908)
*
November 5 -
George M. Cohan, American songwriter and entertainer (b.
1878)
*
November 19 -
Bruno Schulz, Polish writer and painter (shot) (b.
1892)
*
November 21 -
Leopold Graf Berchtold, Austro-Hungarian foreign minister (b.
1863)
*
December 7 -
Orland Steen Loomis, Governor-elect of Wisconsin (b.
1893)
*
December 22 -
Franz Boas, German anthropologist (b.
1858)
*
Physics - not awarded
*
Chemistry - not awarded
*
Medicine - not awarded
*
Literature - not awarded
*
Peace - not awarded
*
1942 Coin Pictures
