1941

Events
January 6 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms Speech in the State of the Union Address.
January 10 - Lend-Lease is introduced into the United States Congress.
January 19 - British troops attack Italian-held Eritrea.
January 21 - World War II: Australian and British forces attack Tobruk, Libya.
January 22 - World War II: British troops capture Tobruk from the Italians.
January 23 - Charles Lindbergh testifies before the United States Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.
April 6 - World War II: The German army attacked Yugoslavia.
April 10 - Croatia declares itself independent of Yugoslavia.
June 22 - Nazi German invasion to the Soviet Union. The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union begins.
September 11 - Building of The Pentagon starts.
December 5 - Soviet counteroffensive near Moscow begins.
December 7 - The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Following this, the U.S. enters World War II.
Births
January 3 - Van Dyke Parks, musician, composer
January 5 - Miyazaki Hayao, Japanese movie maker
January 5 - Grady Thomas, singer (P-Funk)
January 8 - Graham Chapman, British comedian (d. 1989)
January 9 - Joan Baez, American singer
January 14 - Faye Dunaway, American actress
January 14 - Milan Kucan, Slovene politician, statesman
January 15 - Captain Beefheart, American singer (d. 2010)
January 18 - David Ruffin, singer (died 1991)
January 21 - Richie Havens, American musician (d. 2013)
January 21 - Placido Domingo, Spanish opera singer
January 26 - Henry Jaglom, director
January 26 - Scott Glenn, actor
January 30 - Dick Cheney, former Vice President of the United States
January 31 - Eugene Terre'Blanche, South African far-right politician (d. 2010)
January 31 - Richard Gephardt, American politician
February 5 - Kaspar Villiger, former member of the Swiss Federal Council
February 8 - Nick Nolte, actor
February 10 - Michael Apted, director
February 11 - Glenn Randall Jr, stuntman
February 11 - Jeremy Mackenzie, general
February 13 - Sigmar Polke, German painter (d. 2010)
February 16 - Kim Jong-il, North Korean supreme commander. (died 2011)
February 17 - Julia McKenzie, actress
February 17 - Gene Pitney, American singer (d. 2006)
February 20 - Buffy Sainte-Marie, singer
February 27 - Paddy Ashdown, British politician
March 3 - Jutta Hoffmann, actress
March 4 - Adrian Lyne, director
March 6 - Willie Stargell, Baseball Hall of Famer (died 2001)
March 14 - Wolfgang Petersen, director, Das Boot
March 15 - Mike Love, musician ("The Beach Boys")
March 16 - Bernardo Bertolucci, movie director
March 18 - Wilson Pickett, American singer (d. 2006)
March 26 - Richard Dawkins, British scientist
March 30 - Wasim Sajjad, former President of Pakistan
April 6 - Hans W. Geissendorfer, German movie director
April 8 - Vivienne Westwood, English fashion designer
April 14 - Pete Rose, American baseball player
April 18 - Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland
April 23 - Paavo Lipponen, Prime Minister of Finland
April 24 - Richard Holbrooke, American diplomat (d. 2010)
May 13 - Ritchie Valens, singer (died 1959)
May 13 - Senta Berger, actress
May 15 - K.T. Oslin, country musician
May 19 - Nora Ephron, American screenwriter (d. 2012)
May 24 - Bob Dylan, American poet and musician
June 5 - Martha Argerich, Argentinian pianist
June 5 - Spalding Gray, actor, screenwriter, and monologue artist (died 2004)
June 9 - Jon Lord, British musician (Deep Purple) (d. 2012)
June 15 - Harry Nilsson, American singer-songwriter (d. 1994)
June 27 - Krzysztof Kieslowski, movie director
July 14 - Maulana Karenga, writer and activist
August 14 - David Crosby, American singer-songwriter and musician (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
August 22 - Bill Parcells, NFL coach
September 8 - Bernie Sanders, American politician
September 9 - Otis Redding, musician (died 1967)
September 9 - Dennis Ritchie, American computer scientist (d. 2011)
September 19 - Cass Elliott, singer (The Mamas & the Papas) (died 1974)
September 28 - Edmund Stoiber, German politician
October 4 - Anne Rice, horror/fantasy writer
October 5 - Eduardo Duhalde former President of Argentina
October 8 - Jesse Jackson, American pastor and civil rights leader
October 13 - Paul Simon, American musician (Simon & Garfunkel)
November 5 - Art Garfunkel, American musician (Simon & Garfunkel)
November 7 - Angelo Scola, Italian archbishop and cardinal
November 29 - Bill Freehan, baseball player
December 18 - His Royal Highness Prince William of Gloucester
December 23 - Nigel Anthony, English actor
December 31 - Alex Ferguson, Scottish football manager
Deaths
January 5 - Amy Johnson, aviator
January 8 - Lord Robert Baden-Powell, founder of Scouting
January 10 - Joe Penner, comedian, actor
January 13 - James Joyce, writer
February 11 - Rudolf Hilferding, German economist, Minister of Finance
February 28 - King Alfonso XIII of Spain
March 6 - Gutzon Borglum, sculptor
March 8 - Sherwood Anderson, writer
March 15 - Alexej von Jawlensky, Russian impressionist painter
March 28 - Virginia Woolf, writer
June 2 - Lou Gehrig, baseball legend (born 1903)
June 6 - Louis Chevrolet, automobile builder
July 10 - Jelly Roll Morton - jazz musician & composer (b. 1890)
July 11 - Arthur Evans, archaeologist
July 26 - Henri Lebesgue, mathematician
August 31 - Marina Tsvetaeva, Russian poet (suicide)
August 7 - Rabindranath Tagore, writer
September 13 - Elias Disney, American farmer and father of Walt Disney.
November 18 - Chris Watson, third Prime Minister of Australia
December 3 - Christian Sinding, composer
Nobel Prizes
Physics - not awarded
Chemistry - not awarded
Medicine - not awarded
Literature - not awarded
Peace - not awarded
Movies released
Citizen Kane