1870) for main events of World War Two in Europe
8/12/1941. Britain and the USA declared war on Japan. Costa Rica, El Salvador, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic also declared war on Japan, and China declared war on all the Axis powers. Britain declared war on Finland, Rumania, and Hungary. Siam (Thailand) agreed to the passage of Japanese forces through its territory to attack British Malaya.
7/12/1941. Japanese attack on the USA fleet in Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. Pearl Harbour was taken entirely by surprise and within 2 hours 360 Japanese warplanes had destroyed 5 battleships, 14 smaller craft, and 200 aircraft. 2,400 people, many of them civilians, were killed. However the Japanese failed to find and destroy America’s all-important aircraft carriers, both of which were away on manoeuvres. The Japanese force then turned west to strike the British in the East Indies, Australia, and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). The US Congress met to declare war in emergency session on 8/12/1941,
much to the relief of Britain.
6/12/1941. Roosevelt appealed to Hirohito to avoid a war with the USA.
1/12/1941. The Japanese Emperor ratified the decision to go to war with the USA.
3/11/1941. President Roosevelt was warned by the US Ambasador to Tokyo of a possible Japanese attack on the USA.
11/10/1941, The Japanese Government approved plans for an attack on Pearl Harbour.
8/10/1941. The US civil rights leader and Baptist minister Jesse Jackson was born in Greenville, North Carolina.
26/9/1941, The US proclaimed an embargo on steel and scrap iron exports to Japan, with effect from 16/10/1941.
9/9/1941, Churchill met Roosevelt in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland.
26/7/1941, Britain and the USA froze Japanese assets.
11/4/1941, Former US President Herbert Hoover said the USA must stay out of the war in Europe.
10/4/1941. The USA sent troops to Greenland to protect arms supply lines from the USA to Britain.
22/3/1941, The Grand Coulee Dam, on the Columbia River, Washington State, began operating.
11/3/1941. In the USA, the Lend Lease Bill became law. In May 1940 Churchill had asked President Roosevelt for both arms and financial assistance in the war, which the USA was not to enter as a combatant until Pearl Harbour on 7/12/1941. Roosevelt was sympathetic to the British cause but had three obstacles to face. 1) Congress was isolationist, and Roosevelt did not wish to do anything to jeopardise his re-election prospects before November 1940. 2) The neutrality Act had to be amended to allow Britain and France to purchase arms for cash; this was done in November 1939. 3) The Johnson Act, 1934, forbade loans to any country defaulting on its loans, and Britain had still not paid back money it borrowed during World War One. In May 1940 Roosevelt authorised Congress to release from ordnance stores 500,000 WW1 rifles and 900 75mm field guns. In September 1940 Roosevelt provided Britain with 50 old destroyers in return for 99 year leases on British islands in the Caribbean and Newfoundland. In December 1940 Churchill requested American protection of Atlantic convoys and financial assistance to purchase further American arms. Roosevelt was advised that Britain had less than US$2 billion to meet arms purchases of US$ 5billion. Roosevelt coined the term ‘lend lease’, on the analogy of a neighbour who lends his hose if the house is on fire.
6/3/1941. Gutzon Borglum, American sculptor noted for his work on the Mount Rushmore heads of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt, died.
6/1/1941. Roosevelt sent the Lend Lease Bill to Congress. Congress agreed the Bill on 11/3/1941.
4/1/1941. The German-born actress Marlene Dietrich became a US citizen.
17/12/1940, US President Franklin Roosevelt proposed ‘Lend Lease’ for Britain.
7/11/1940. Britain, the USA, and Australia agreed on the defence of the Pacific.
16/10/1940, The first lottery to select US citizens for the military draft began; 158 were drawn this day.
27/9/1940. Imperial Japan signed a 10-year military and economic alliance with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. This was greatly disturbing to both