Events 
 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 5 – Amy Johnson disappears in flight over River Thames estuary – assumed drowned.
 January 6 – Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to have a flight go around the world.
 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 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 16 – Airplane crashes near Las Vegas. Dead include Carole Lombard and her mother.
 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 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.
 July 6 - The family of Anne Frank goes into hiding at the secret annex in Amsterdam.
 October 23 - World War II: Battle of El Alamein

Births 
 January 8 - Stephen Hawking, British physicist (d. 2018)
 January 17 – Muhammad Ali, American boxer (d. 2016)
 January 25 - Eusebio, Portuguese footballer
 January 27 - Stewart Raffill, British writer and director
 February 2 - Graham Nash, British singer-songwriter and guitarist (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
 February 12 – Huey Newton, Black Panther
 February 13 - Peter Tork, American keyboardist (The Monkees) (d. 2019)
 February 21 - Margarethe von Trotta, German movie director
 February 28 - Dino Zoff, Italian footballer
 March 5 - Felipe Gonzalez, former Prime Minister of Spain
 March 8 – Jan Vyčítal, Czech musician
 March 17 - John Wayne Gacy, American serial killer (d. 1994; executed)
 March 24 - Stephen Yardley, British actor (Howards' Way)
 March 25 - Aretha Franklin, American singer (d. 2018)
 April 1 - Philip Margo, American singer (The Tokens)
 April 16 - Frank Williams, British Formula One team principal
 April 20 - Arto Paasilinna, Finnish writer
 April 24 - Barbra Streisand, American singer
 May 22 - Theodore Kaczynski, American serial bomber (unabomber)
 June 1 - Eric Nagler, Canadian children’s musician
 June 7 - Muammar Gaddafi, Libyan leader (d. 2011)
 June 18 – Roger Ebert, American movie critic (d. 2013)
 June 18 – Sir Paul McCartney, British musician (The Beatles)
 July 6 - Izora Armstead, American singer (The Weather Girls) (d. 2004)
 July 13 - Harrison Ford, American actor
 August 1 - Michael Martchenko, Canadian illustrator
 August 2 - Isabel Allende, Chilean novelist
 August 7 – B.J. Thomas, singer
 August 27 - Daryl Dragon, American songwriter (Captain & Tennille) (d. 2019)
 September 29 - Madeline Kahn, American actress (d. 1999)
 October 31 – David Ogden Stiers, American actor
 November 7 – Johnny Rivers, American musician
 November 27 – Jimi Hendrix, American musician (The Jimi Hendrix Experience) (d. 1970)
 December 23 - Quentin Bryce, Governor-General of Australia
 December 26 - Gray Davis, former Governor of California
 December 30 – Michael Nesmith, musician and member of the Monkees
 December 30 – Janko Prunk, Slovenian historian

People who were born in this year but their day of birth is unknown
Ningali Cullen - Australian activist

Deaths 
 January 6 – Henri de Baillet-Latour, Belgian International Olympic Committee president (b. 1876)
 January 14 – Porfirio Barba-Jacob, Colombian poet and writer (born 1883)
 January 16 – Carole Lombard, actress
 January 26 – Felix Hausdorff, German mathematician (born 1868)
 February 19 – Frank Abbandando, Mafia hitman (executed)
 February 28 – Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral
 March 1 – Cornelius Vanderbilt III, military officer, inventor, engineer
 March 8 – José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban chess player
 April 15 – Robert Musil, Austrian novelist
 April 18 – Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, sculptor and socialite
 May 3 – Thorvald Stauning, Prime Minister of Denmark
 May 7 – Felix Weingartner, Yugoslavian conductor (born 1863)
 May 29 – John Barrymore, actor (born 1882)
 July 13 - Irving Cutler, Airman Aboard a B-24 Bombing Bengazi Libya
 July 23 – Adam Czerniakow, Polish Jew (suicide)
 August 3 – Richard Willstätter, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1872)
 August 6 – Jonathan Campbell, movie pioneer (born 1875)
 August 25 – Prince Edward, Duke of Kent
 November 1 – Hugo Distler, German composer (born 1908)
 November 5 – George M. Cohan, American songwriter and entertainer
 November 19 – Bruno Schulz, Polish writer and painter (shot) (born 1892)
 December 22 – Franz Boas, German anthropologist (born 1858)
 December 25 - Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan British Indian statesman (born 1892)

Movies released 
 Casablanca

References