1942

Events from the year 1942 in the United States.
==Incumbents==
===Federal Government===
* President: Franklin D. Roosevelt (D-NY)
* Vice President: Henry A. Wallace (D-IA)
* Chief Justice: Harlan F. Stone (NY)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Sam Rayburn (D-TX)
* Senate Majority Leader: Alben W. Barkley (D-KY)
* Congress: 77th
==Events==
===January===
* January 1
** Sales of new cars are banned to save steel.
** World War II: The United States and Philippines troops fight the Battle of Bataan.
** World War II: Solomon Islands campaign begins.
* January 10 – World War II: The last German air-raid on the English port of Liverpool destroys the home of William Patrick Hitler, Adolf Hitler's nephew. William Hitler is in the United States and later joins the navy to fight against his uncle.
* January 14 – World War II: Operation Drumbeat: German submarine U-123 under the command of Reinhard Hardegen sinks a Norwegian tanker within sight of Long Island before entering New York Harbor and sinking a British tanker off Sandy Hook as she leaves heading south along the East Coast.
* January 16 – Film actress Carole Lombard and her mother are among all 22 aboard TWA Flight 3 & are killed when the Douglas DC-3 plane crashes into Potosi Mountain near Las Vegas in Nevada while she is returning from a tour to promote the sale of war bonds.
* January 19
** World War II: Japanese forces invade Burma.
** The United States VIII Bomber Command, later to become the Eighth Air Force, is established in Savannah, Georgia.
* 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.
===February===
* February 2 – World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an executive order directing the internment of Japanese Americans and the seizure of their property.
* February 7 – President Roosevelt signs an Executive Order creating the War Shipping Administration (WSA).
* February 8
** World War II: Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss American military strategy in the war.
** Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States.
* February 9 – World War II: The ocean liner SS Normandie catches fire while being converted into the troopship USS Lafayette at pier 88 in New York City. In the early hours of February 10 she capsizes.
* February 18 – World War II: More than 200 American sailors die in Newfoundland when the USS Truxtun runs aground near Chambers Cove and the USS Pollux runs aground at Lawn Point.
* February 19 – 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 Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defense of the nation collapses.
* February 23 – World War II: The Japanese submarine I-17 fires 17 high-explosive shells toward an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California, causing little damage.
* February 24 – The Voice of America begins broadcasting.
* February 25 – Battle of Los Angeles: Over 1,400 AA shells are fired at an unidentified, slow-moving object in the skies over Los Angeles. The appearance of the object triggers an immediate wartime blackout over most of Southern California, with thousands of air raid wardens being deployed throughout the city. In total there are 6 deaths. Despite the several hour barrage no planes are downed.
* February 26 – The 14th Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Bob Hope is held at Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, with John Ford's How Green Was My Valley winning Outstanding Motion Picture along with four other awards, including a third Best Director win for Ford. The two aforementioned awards are currently considered controversial due to the retroactive high regard placed on Orson Welles' also-nominated Citizen Kane.
* February 27 – World War II: Battle of the Java Sea.
===March===
* March 1 – Construction begins on the Badger Army Ammunition Plant (the largest in the United States during WWII).
* March 9 – World War II: Executive order 9082 (February 28, 1942) reorganizes the United States Army into three major commands: Army Ground Forces, Army Air Forces, and Services of Supply, later redesignated Army Service Forces.
===April===
* April 3 – World War II: Japanese forces begin an all-out assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula.
===May===
* May 4 – World War II: Battle of the Coral Sea begins.
* May 6 – World War II: On Corregidor, the last American and Filipino forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.
* May 8
** World War II: Battle of the Coral Sea ends.
** World War II: Philippines campaign ends.
* May 14 – Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait is performed for the first time by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
* 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 – The first African-American seamen are taken into the United States Navy.
===June===
* June 3
** World War II: Aleutian Islands campaign begins.
** World War II: Battle of Dutch Harbor begins.
* June 4
** World War II: Battle of Dutch Harbor ends.
** World War II: Battle of Midway begins: The United States Navy defeats an Imperial Japanese Navy attack against Midway Atoll.
* June 6 – World War II: Japanese occupation of Kiska begins.
* June 7
** World War II: Battle of Midway ends.
** World War II: Aleutian Islands Campaign: Japanese forces invade the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.
** World War II: Japanese occupation of Attu begins.
* June 13
** The United States opens its Office of War Information, a propaganda center.
** Office of Strategic Services (OSS) is created.
* June 21 – World War II: Bombardment of Fort Stevens: Fort Stevens, Oregon is fired upon by a Japanese submarine.
===July===
* July 4 – World War II in the European Theater of Operations: US Eighth Air Force flies its first inauspicious mission in Europe using borrowed British planes; six aircraft went out, only three came back.
* 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 30 – World War II: A bill creating the United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve is signed into law.
===August===
* August 1 – World War II: Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign begins.
* August 7 – World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal begins: USMC 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 13 – Walt Disney's fifth feature film, Bambi, is released. Although the initial box office gross is lackluster (due to the loss of most of the European film market during World War II), it eventually becomes a financial success through various reissues over the next several decades. Due to continued financial losses, Disney spent the majority of the rest of the 1940s producing a string of package films, with Bambi being the last singular project he would release until Cinderella eight years later.
* August 15 – World War II: The American tanker SS Ohio reaches Malta as part of the convoy of Operation Pedestal.
* August 16 – The U.S. Navy blimp L-8 (Flight 101) comes ashore near San Francisco, eventually coming down in Daly City (the crew is missing).
* August 19 – World War II: Dieppe Raid.
===October===
* October 5 – The St. Louis Cardinals defeat the New York Yankees, 4 games to 1, to win their 4th World Series Title.
* 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 23
** Award-winning composer and Hollywood songwriter Ralph Rainger ("Thanks for the Memory") is among 12 people killed in the mid-air collision between an American Airlines DC-3 airliner and a U.S. Army bomber near Palm Springs, California.
** World War II: Second Battle of El Alamein begins.
* October 26 – World War II: Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands: Two Japanese aircraft carriers are heavily damaged and one U.S. carrier is sunk.
* October 28 – The Alaska Highway is completed.
===November===
* November 8 – Operation Torch begins: United States and United Kingdom forces land in French North Africa.
* November 9 – World War II: U.S. serviceman Edward Leonski is hanged at Melbourne's Pentridge Prison for the "Brown-Out" murders of three women in May.
* November 11 – World War II: Second Battle of El Alamein ends.
* November 12 – World War II: Battle of Guadalcanal: A naval battle near Guadalcanal starts between Japanese and American forces.
* November 13 – Battle of Guadalcanal: Aviators from the USS Enterprise sink the Japanese battleship Hiei.
* November 15 – The Battle of Guadalcanal ends: Although the United States Navy suffers heavy losses, it retains control of Guadalcanal.
* November 16 – Operation Torch ends.
* November 17 – World War II: Tunisian campaign begins.
* November 21 – The completion of the Alaska Highway (also known as the Alcan Highway) is celebrated (however, the "highway" is not usable by general vehicles until 1943).
* November 23 – A bill creating the United States Coast Guard Women's Reserve (SPARS) is signed into law.
* November 26 – The movie Casablanca premieres at the Hollywood Theater in New York City.
* November 28 – In Boston, Massachusetts, a fire in the Cocoanut Grove night club kills 491 people.
* November 29 – Coffee rationing begins in the United States.
===December===
* December 1 – Gasoline rationing begins in the United States.
* December 2 – Manhattan Project: Below the bleachers of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, a team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction (a coded message, "The Italian navigator has landed in the new world" is then sent to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt).
* December 22 – In Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, an avalanche kills 26, including Vulcan Crucible Steel Co heir-apparent Samuel A. Stafford Sr., when two 100 ton boulders fall on a bus filled with wartime steel workers on their way home.
==Memoriam==
* January 3 – Charles Mann Hamilton, politician (aged 67; Miami Beach, FL, USA)
* January 4
** Mel Sheppard, Olympic track athlete (aged 58; Queens, NY, USA)
** Otis Skinner, stage actor (aged 83; New York City, NY, USA)
* January 6 – John Bernard Flannagan, sculptor, suicide (aged 46; New York City, NY, USA)
* January 16 – Carole Lombard, film actress, air crash (aged 33; Mount Potosi, NV, USA)
* January 18 – James P. Parker, U.S. Navy commodore (aged 86; Annapolis, MD, USA)
* January 18 – Mason Patrick, Chief of United States Air Service, American Expeditionary Forces 1918 (aged 78; Washington, DC, USA)
* February 9 – Anna Elizabeth Klumpke, portrait and genre painter (aged 85; San Francisco, CA, USA)
* February 12 – Grant Wood, painter (aged 50; Iowa City, IA, USA)
* February 18 – Albert Payson Terhune, journalist and author (aged 69; Pompton Lakes, NJ, USA)
* March 16 – Rachel Field, author and poet (aged 47; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* March 26 – Carolyn Wells, prolific novelist and poet (aged 80; New York City, NY, USA)
* April 18 – Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, founder of the Whitney Museum of American Art (aged 67; Manhattan, NY, USA)
* April 27 – Arthur L. Bristol, U.S. Navy admiral (aged 55; Argentina, NL, Canada)
* May 20 – Evans Woollen, lawyer, banker, political figure, and college football coach (aged 77; Indianapolis, IN, USA)
* May 29 – John Barrymore, actor (aged 60; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* June 4
** William R. Abercrombie, U.S. Navy officer and aviator (aged 86; Spokane, WA, USA)
** Edgar R. Bassett, U.S. Navy officer (aged 28; Pacific Ocean)
** Robert Boyd Brazier, U.S. Navy aviation radioman, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (aged 25; Pacific Ocean)
** John Clarence Butler, U.S. Navy officer, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (aged 21; Pacific Ocean)
** Harold John Ellison, U.S. Navy officer (aged 25; Pacific Ocean)
** Eugene A. Greene, U.S. Navy officer, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (aged 27; Pacific Ocean)
** John William Haas, U.S. Navy pilot, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (aged 34; Pacific Ocean)
** Patrick H. Hart, U.S. Navy officer, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (aged 27; Pacific Ocean)
** Lofton R. Henderson, U.S. Marine Corps aviator and commanding officer of Marine Scout Bomber Squadron 241 (VMSB-241) (aged 39; Pacific Ocean)
** Ernest Lenard Hilbert, U.S. Navy aviator, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (aged 21; Pacific Ocean)
** Curtis W. Howard, U.S. Navy officer, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (aged 25; Pacific Ocean)
** Charles Kleinsmith, U.S. Navy Chief Petty officer and sailor, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (aged 37; Pacific Ocean)
** Eugene E. Lindsey, U.S. Navy officer, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (aged 36; Pacific Ocean)
** Lance Edward Massey, U.S. Navy pilot, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (aged 32; Pacific Ocean)
** Walter Harold Mosley, U.S. Navy officer, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (aged 25; Pacific Ocean)
** Carl A. Osberg, U.S. Navy pilot, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (aged 22; Pacific Ocean)
** Floyd B. Parks, U.S. Marine Corps officer, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (aged 31; Pacific Ocean)
** Oswald A. Powers, U.S. Navy officer, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (aged 26; Pacific Ocean)
** David John Roche, U.S. Navy officer, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (aged 23; Pacific Ocean)
** Richard Wayne Suesens, U.S. Navy officer, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (aged 27; Pacific Ocean)
** John C. Waldron, U.S. Navy aviator and commander of Torpedo Squadron 8 (aged 41; Pacific Ocean)
** Frederick T. Weber, U.S. Navy aviator, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (aged 26; Pacific Ocean)
** Osborne B. Wiseman, U.S. Navy aviator, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (aged 27; Pacific Ocean)
* June 5
** Samuel Adams, U.S. Navy officer, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (aged 30; Pacific Ocean)
** Virginia Lee Corbin, silent film actress (aged 31; Chicago, IL, USA)
** Royal R. Ingersoll II, U.S. Navy officer, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (aged 28; Pacific Ocean)
* June 19 – Frank Irons, Olympic field athlete (aged 56; Palatine, IL, USA)
* June 23 – William Couper, sculptor (aged 88; Easton, MD, USA)
* June 30 – William Henry Jackson, explorer and photographer (aged 99; New York City, NY, USA)
* July 30 – Jimmy Blanton, African American jazz double bassist (aged 23; Duarte, CA, USA)
* August 7
** Louis J. Carpellotti, U.S. marine, killed in action (aged 24; Tulagi, Solomon Islands)
** Charles E. Ford, film director and producer (aged 43; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* September 7 – Cecilia Beaux, portrait painter (aged 87; Gloucester, MA, USA)
* October 5 – Dorothea Klumpke, astronomer (aged 81; San Francisco, CA, USA)
* November 4 – Eleanor Stackhouse Atkinson, novelist and textbook and children's writer (aged 79; Manhasset, NY, USA)
* December 5 – Richard Tucker, film actor (aged 58; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* December 6 – Amos Rusie, baseball player (aged 71; Seattle, WA, USA)
* December 7 – Orland Steen Loomis, Governor of Wisconsin (aged 49; Madison, WI, USA)
* December 8 – Albert Kahn, architect (aged 73; Detroit, MI, USA)
* December 12 – Helen Westley, character actress (aged 67; Middlebush, NJ, USA)
* December 13 – Robert Robinson Taylor, first accredited African American architect (aged 74; Tuskegee, AL, USA)
* December 21 – Franz Boas, anthropologist (aged 84; New York City, NY, USA)
* December 27 – William G. Morgan, inventor of volleyball (aged 72; Lockport, NY, USA)
* December 28 – James B. Cranfill, religious figure and prohibitionist (aged 84; Dallas, TX, USA)
==External links==
* 1942 in the United States
Category:United States History: Volume 17