RETURN TO INDEX
Top Song(s)
• Glenn Miller - Chattanooga Choo Choo
• Sammy Kaye - Daddy
• Jimmy Dorsey - Green Eyes
• Artie Shaw - Stardust
• Billie Holiday - God Bless the Child
Top Film(s)
• Citizen Kane
• The Maltese Falcon
• Sullivan's Travels
• The Lady Eve
• Ball of Fire
Best Selling Book(s)
• Curious George - H.A. Rey
• Make Way for Ducklings - Robert McCloskey
• Little Town on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Paddle-to-the-Sea - Holling Clancy Holling
• Mildred Pierce - James M. Cain
Famous Deaths
• January 8 - Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, English soldier; founder of the Scouts
• February 15 – Pavel Blonsky, Russian Soviet psychologist, philosopher, and founder of Soviet paedology
• April 5 – Sir Nigel Gresley, English steam locomotive engineer (Flying Scotsman and Mallard)
• May 23 – Herbert Austin, English automobile designer and builder who founded Austin Motor Company
• May 29 – Charles Alderton, American pharmacist and the inventor of Dr Pepper
• July 1 - Francis Birtles, Australian adventurer, photographer, cyclist, and filmmaker
• August 1r4 - Paul Sabatier, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• September 14 – Alicia Amherst, English horticulturist, botanist, and author
• November 23 - Henrietta Vinton Davis, American elocutionist, dramatist, impersonator and public speaker
• December 6 – Louis Bertrand, French novelist, historian and essayist
Medical/Science/Technology
• John William Field develops Field stain to detect malarial parasites.
• Chemical element 94, plutonium, is first synthesized.
• Folic acid is first isolated via extraction from spinach leaves.
• John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford E. Berry develop the Atanasoff–Berry Computer.
• Albert Alexander, a sepsis patient, becomes the first person treated with penicillin intravenously.
• Birmingham Accident Hospital opens as the world's first trauma center in Birmingham, England.
• British scientist G. I. Taylor predicts the blast effects from an atomic bomb.
• Artificial nuclear transmutation of mercury into gold by fast neutrons is reported.
• First flight of the Gloster E.28/39, the first British jet aircraft.
• First calutron operated.
Political Events
• January 6 - During his State of the Union address, President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt presents his Four Freedoms
• January 10 – The Lend-Lease Act is introduced into the United States Congress.
• January 13 – All persons born in Puerto Rico since this day are declared U.S. citizens by birth, through U.S. federal law.
• January 20 – Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes swears in President Franklin D. Roosevelt for his third term.
• February 8 – The U.S. House of Representatives passes the Lend-Lease law.
• March 17 – National Gallery of Art is officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• April 9 – The U.S. acquires full military defense rights in Greenland.
• April 25 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, at his regular press conference, criticizes Charles Lindbergh.
• May 27 – World War II: President Roosevelt proclaims an "unlimited national emergency."
• June 14 – Executive Order 8785 is signed freezing all German and Italian assets in the United States are frozen.
National Events
• January 4 – The short subject Elmer's Pet Rabbit is released, marking the second appearance of Bugs Bunny.
• February 4 – The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.
• February 27 – The 13th Academy Awards, hosted by Bob Hope, are presented at Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.
• March 22 – Washington state's Grand Coulee Dam begins to generate electricity.
• March 30 – All German, Italian and Danish ships anchored in United States waters are taken into "protective custody".
• April 23 – The America First Committee holds its first mass rally in New York City, with Charles Lindbergh as keynote speaker.
• May 6 – At California's March Field, entertainer Bob Hope performs his first USO Show.
• July 1 - Mammoth Cave National Park is authorized by Congress.
• August 1 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt bans the export of U.S. aviation fuel except to Britain and allies.
• September 27 – The first liberty ship, the SS Patrick Henry, is launched at Baltimore.
Worldwide Events
• January 19 – WWII: British troops attack Italian-held Eritrea in Africa.
• February 5 – The Air Training Corps is formed in the United Kingdom.
• March 5 – Franklin D. Roosevelt, becomes the longest-serving president in American history.
• May 1 - The breakfast cereal Cheerios is introduced as CheeriOats by General Mills in the United States.
• May 10 - The British House of Commons is damaged by the Luftwaffe in an air raid on London.
• May 21 – German submarine U-69 sinks the U.S.-flagged SS Robin Moor off the west African coast.
• June 1 – The Battle of Crete ends, as Crete surrenders to invading German forces.
• July 1 - Commercial television is authorized by the Federal Communications Commission in the United States.
• August 9 – Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet on board ship at Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland.
• November 5 – The United States holds peace talks with Japan.