General
Population: 2.35 Billion*
- Entertainment: Writers include Albert Camus, TS Eliot, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Sartre, Upton Sinclair, Thornton Wilder, CS Lewis (Screwtape Letters), Camus' "The Stranger"
Hopper's "Nighthawks" painted
Films include "Bambi" (Disney), "Holiday Inn" (Bing Crosby), Bogart and Ingrid Bergman start in Casablanca
Music includes Aaron Copland (Rodeo), Gian Carlo Menotti, Richard Strauss, Irving Berlin (White Christmas), Bing Crosby, Alveno Rey (Deep in the Heart of Texas), Jimmy Dorsey
- Science: Neo-Darwinian publications increase
Enrico Fermi splits the atom - first controlled atomic chain reaction
- Sports: Pole vault record at 3.77 meters
Joe Louis retains boxing title
- Technology: First electronic digital computer built
Jenry J Kaiser develops techniques for building 10k ton ships in four days
AC Hartley invents device for clearing fog from airfields (FIDO)
Max Muller of Junkers develops turbo-prop engine
Werner von Braun's rocket breaks sound barrier
First electronic brain (automatic computer) developed in US
Magnetic recording tape invented
Jacques Coustrau and Emile Gagnan invent the aqua-lung
- WWII: the 26 allies pledge not to make separate peace treaties with the enemies – the term United Nations achieves world-wide prominence
- Deaths: Admiral Darlan assassinated, John Barrymore, William Flinders Petrie (ENG), English artist Philip Wilson Steer
Africa
- General: Allied successes in north - N Africa invaded by US and British under Eisenhower
Rommel retreats and loses Tobruk and Benghazi
400k American troops land in French North Africa<
Montgomery Commander of Eighth Army in Africa/li>
- Egypt: Battle of El Alamein results in British victory over Germans under Rommel
Falciparun malaria outbreak
- Libya: Allies take Tripoli
- Tunisia: Allies take Tunis
Americas
- Argentina: Juan Perón leads revolt against government and rises in power
Asia
- General: Japan takes Indonesia, Indo-China, Malay, Philippines, New Guinea, Singapore, Burma, Kuala Lumpur, Java and Tangoon
Japanese occupy Bataan and force march (Bataan Death March) of American and Philippine Prisoners
MacArthur appointed commander-in-Chief of the Far East
- Bangladesh: Cyclone
- Burma: British and Indian troops advance
British retreat from Burma and many die from ill-treatment and along Burma railroad
- East Indies: Dutch surrender the East Indies
- India: Fear of being taken by Japan
Cyclone in Bengal India kills 40,000
Famine
Gandhi demands independence for India and is arrested
- Japan: Japanese in Mandalay and Corregidor
Tokyo bombed by Major General Doolittle
- Java: Japanese troops win Battle of Java Sea
- Manchuria: Worst colliery (coal mine) explosion in history in Honkeiko Manchuria as 1549 die
- Papua New Guinea: Battle of the Coral Sea halts Japanese attack on Port Moresby
- Philippines: Corregidor surrenders to Japanese
- Singapore: British forces in Singapore surrender to Japan
Europe
- General: US bombing raids over Europe begin
- Czechoslovakia: Czech patriots assassinate Gestapo leader Heydrich and Nazis burn village of Lidice in Bohemia in retaliation
- France: US bombers destroy Lille railyards in N France
British raid St. Nazaire and bomb Lubeck and Cologne
Germans occupy Vichy France
French navy scuttled in Toulon
- Germany: Hitler adopts "final solution" policy of exterminating Jews
Jet aircraft in combat
Germans work on V-2 rocket
Formation of concentration camps
- Great Britain: 111 trampled in the blitz during air raid warning in London
British liner Laconia sinks killing 2276
Tommy Handley's show the most popular BBC feature
Churchill reconstructs ministry
Wartime "National Loaf" introduced
Mildenhall Treasure a hoard of Roman silverware discovered in Suffolk
32 men died when the British cruiser HMS Trinidad torpedoed herself
Beveridge Report in Britain lays foundations of welfare state
Second Front demonstrations in London
Germans sink HMS Eagle and HMS Manchester
Gilbert Murray founds Oxfam at Oxford against famine
- Greece: Famine and disease
- Italy: Fascist government surrenders but clings to power in north where Mussolini sets up separate government
Official (south) government declares war on Germany
- Malta: Malta awarded the George Cross from Britain - adopted into flag
- Norway: Quisling becomes Premier
- Soviet Union: Soviets stop Germans at Stalingrad after Germans lose 200,000 troops
German counter-attack near Kharkov
Germans attack Caucasus mountains - Germans forced to surrender
Middle East
- Lebanon: Independence from France
- Turkey: 6.9 Quake
Pacific
- General: Japanese capture Pacific islands
Battle of Midway - US ends Japanese expansion, with Japanese carriers destroyed at Midway
US wins Battle of the Coral Sea
- Australia: Japan threatens to invade
Death of American Eddie Leonski - Serial killer who committed crimes in Australia
- Marshall Islands: US Marines invade Guadalcanal