1941
Pan-African Chronology
PAN suffered a split in 1941. A group of Executive Committee members met on August 13, 1941 and voted to demote Méndez from his post as party chairman. Effectively two groups emerged that claimed to be the legitimate PAN, the group led by Méndez and another led by Anibal Eduarte, Ignacio Suarez Peña (chairman) and Ismael Arribio. I. Bello served as general secretary of the Méndez faction. On August 15, 1941 Méndez reported to police that properties at the PAN office had been stolen by the Suarez Peña faction. The Suarez Peña group responded by appealing to the Electoral Court that they be recognized as the genuine PAN. The Suarez Peña faction held a party assembly on August 23, 1941. 49 persons signed the declaration of the assembly.
January 16
*The Department of War announced the formation of the first Army Air Corps squadron for African Americans on January 16, one day after a Howard University student, Yancey Williams, filed suit against the Secretary of War to force consideration of his application to be a flying cadet in the Army Air Corps.
January 20
*Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie returned to his country on January 20, 1941, and made his state entry into Addis Ababa on May 5 in the back of an Alfa Romeo motor car. It was five years to the day since the Italians had entered the city. The country remained under British administration, however, until January 31, 1942, when London recognized Ethiopia as a sovereign state.
February 15
*Duke Ellington's orchestra recorded "Take the 'A' Train".
April 28
*The Supreme Court ruled in a case brought by African American Congressman Arthur L. Mitchell that separate railroad car facilities must be substantially equal.
May
May
*Around 8,000 men of the Force Publique, the colonial army of the Belgian Congo, under Major-General August-Edouard Gilliaert, successfully cut off the retreat of General Pietro Gazzera's Italians at Saio, in the Ethiopian Highlands after marching over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from their bases in western Congo. The troops suffered from malaria and other tropical diseases, but successfully defeated the Italians in a number of engagements. Gilliaert subsequently accepted the surrender of Gazzera and 7,000 Italian troops after a number of small engagements. Over the course of the campaign in Abyssinia, the Force Publique received the surrender of nine Italian generals, 370 high-ranking officers and 15,000 Italian colonial troops before the end of 1941. The Congolese forces in Abyssinia suffered about 500 fatalities.
May 4
*Nicholas Ashford was born in Fairfield, South Carolina. In collaboration with his wife, Valerie Simpson, he would become a hit songwriter ("Ain't No Mountain High Enough") and performer.
June 14
*John Edgar Wideman, author of the novels Hurry Home and Philadelphia Fire, was born in Washington, D. C.
June 18
*Tuskegee scientist George Washington Carver was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree by the University of Rochester.
*President Roosevelt held an urgent meeting with A. Philip Randolph, head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and other African American spokespersons, urging them to call off a march against employment discrimination and segregation in the national defense program scheduled for July 1. Randolph refused, and pledged that 100,000 African Americans would march.
June 22
*Ed Bradley, Emmy-winning co-anchor of CBS's news program 60 Minutes, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
June 25
*President Roosevelt issued an Executive Order forbidding racial and religious discrimination in defense industries and government training programs. A. Philip Randolph then called off the march on Washington.
June 29
*Stokely Carmichael, a Trinidadian American civil rights activist, was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
July 10
*Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, a pianist and composer who claimed to have invented jazz, died in Los Angeles.
July 19
*President Roosevelt established a Fair Employment Practices Committee to monitor discrimination against African Americans in defense industries.
August 6
*The first in a series of serious racial disturbances involving African American soldiers, and European American and African American soldiers and civilians, occurred aboard a bus in North Carolina.
August 14
*In Newfoundland, Canada, President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill issued the Atlantic Charter, a joint statement that defined Allied goals for a post-war world and which set the foundations for the independence -- the self-determination -- of colonies and subjugated people around the world.
September 9
*Musician Otis Redding was born in Macon, Georgia (September 9).
September 22
*Chester Lovelle Talton, the first African American Episcopal bishop in the West (Los Angeles), was born in El Dorado, Arkansas.
October 3
*Ernest Evans, who would gain rock 'n' roll fame as "Chubby Checker" -- the "Father of the Twist", was born in Spring Gulley, South Carolina.
October 8
*Civil rights activist and presidential candidate Jesse Jackson was born in Greenville, South Carolina. He would found People United to Save Humanity (PUSH) and form the Rainbow Coalition.
November 30
*By November 30, there were 97,725 African Americans in the regular Army.
December
*In December, General George C. Marshall wrote to Secretary of War Stimson: "The settlement of vexing racial problems cannot be permitted to complicate the tremendous task of the War Department, and thereby jeopardize discipline and morale."
*In the Belgian Congo, black mine workers at various sites in Katanga Province, including Jadotville and Elisabethville, went on strike, demanding that their pay be increased to compensate for rising living costs.
December 7
*The Japanese attached Pearl Harbor. President Roosevelt prepared to ask for a declaration of war. On the USS Arizona, Doris (Doris) Miller, a twenty-two year old Navy messman with no weapons training, downed four Japanese fighter planes during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Miller used a machine gun to down the planes after having moved his captain from the bridge to a place of greater safety. The next year (1942), Admiral Chester W. Nimitz presented the Navy Cross to Miller. Continuing to serve as a messman, Miller, a native of Waco, Texas, was listed as missing in action, and was presumed killed in action in the Pacific, in 1943.
December 19
*Maurice White, a visionary musician who founded Earth, Wind & Fire, was born in Memphis, Tennessee.
December 19
*Maurice White, a visionary musician who founded Earth, Wind & Fire, was born in Memphis, Tennessee.
The United States
The outbreak of the Second World War in Europe, like its predecessor, encouraged a new wave of African American emigration to the North. As the nation entered a state of defense-readiness, African Americans sought to obtain a share of the increasing number of jobs in defense industries. Again, they met a good deal of frustration resulting from discrimination. Finally, after African Americans threatened to stage a massive protest march in Washington, D. C., President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order forbidding discrimination in defense related industries. Once the United States entered the world war, hundreds of thousands of African Americans served with distinction. This service, along with the growing African American populations in the urban centers, a rise in the literacy rate among African Americans, and increasing economic opportunities, appeared to foster a new determination to end racial discrimination in American life. The NAACP, bolstered by the records of African American servicemen, an increased membership, a new corp of brilliant young lawyers, and steady financial support from European American philanthropists, led the way toward freedom.
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Awards
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Awards
*Tuskegee scientist George Washington Carver was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree by the University of Rochester (June 18).
Civil Rights
*On June 18, President Roosevelt held an urgent meeting with A. Philip Randolph, head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and other African American spokespersons, urging them to call off a march against employment discrimination and segregation in the national defense program scheduled for July 1. Randolph refused, and pledged that 100,000 African Americans would march.
*A four week boycott by African American patrons forced New York City bus companies to begin hiring African American drivers and mechanics.
*On June 25, President Roosevelt issued an Executive Order forbidding racial and religious discrimination in defense industries and government training programs. A. Philip Randolph then called off the march on Washington.
*President Roosevelt established a Fair Employment Practices Committee to monitor discrimination against African Americans in defense industries (July 19).
African Americans hailed the Committee and the preceding Executive Order 8802 of June 25 as revolutionary developments, perhaps the most significant executive action affecting African Americans since the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation. However, African Americans were soon disappointed when discrimination continued in spite of the Committee. The Committee became entangled in bureaucratic inefficiency and politics, and faced opposition in the South.
*A four week boycott by African American patrons forced New York City bus companies to begin hiring African American drivers and mechanics.
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The Labor Movement
*A. Philip Randolph's anti-discrimination resolutions were repeatedly rejected by the AFL National Convention. The AFL leadership explained that it sympathized with the problem but could not interfere with the autonomy of its member unions.
*When a Wright aviation hired two unskilled African American workers, all its European American workers went out on strike.
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The Law
*The United States Supreme Court ruled that railroad accommodations must be "substantially equal" in quantity and quality for both African Americans and European Americans (April 28).
In the case of Mitchell v. United States, the Supreme Court held that the Interstate Commerce Act required Pullman companies to provide equal accommodations for African Americans. Congressman Arthur Mitchell, an African American, had brought suit against the Pullman Company.
In the case of Mitchell v. United States, the Supreme Court held that the Interstate Commerce Act required Pullman companies to provide equal accommodations for African Americans. Congressman Arthur Mitchell, an African American, had brought suit against the Pullman Company.
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Literature
*Blood on the Forge by the African American writer William Attaway was published. The novel is a family chronicle, much superior to Turpin's O Canaan. Attaway focuses on the disintegration of the African American's rural values and traditions under the pressure of the urban factory, the crowded tenement, and the restricted ghetto. According to Robert Bone, in his Negro Novel in America, the book is one of the best proletarian novels of the 1930's.
*Sterling Brown published Negro Caravan, a major anthology of African American writing.
*Sterling Brown published Negro Caravan, a major anthology of African American writing.
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Medicine
*After having established a pioneer blood bank operation at New York City's Presbyterian Hospital, Charles R. Drew was named professor of surgery at Howard University. He established donor banks in many states to collect blood for the United States Armed Forces.
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The Military
*The Department of War announced the formation of the first Army Air Corps squadron for African Americans on January 16, one day after a Howard University student, Yancey Williams, filed suit against the Secretary of War to force consideration of his application to be a flying cadet in the Army Air Corps.
*A. Philip Randolph threatened to organize a mass march on Washington, D. C., protesting discrimination in the military and in the defense industry. After government pressure failed to change Randolph's plans, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, banning federal discrimination, and the march was cancelled (June 25).
*The first in a series of serious racial disturbances involving African American soldiers, and European American and African American soldiers and civilians, occurred aboard a bus in North Carolina (August 6).
*A. Philip Randolph threatened to organize a mass march on Washington, D. C., protesting discrimination in the military and in the defense industry. After government pressure failed to change Randolph's plans, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802, banning federal discrimination, and the march was cancelled (June 25).
*The first in a series of serious racial disturbances involving African American soldiers, and European American and African American soldiers and civilians, occurred aboard a bus in North Carolina (August 6).
*On the USS Arizona, Dorie Miller, a Navy messman with no weapons training downed four Japanese fighter planes during the attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7). He was later awarded the Navy Cross. Continuing to serve as a messman, Miller was killed in action in the Pacific in 1943.
African Americans in the Navy were allowed to serve only as mess attendants and stewards. However, several noncombatant African Americans, such as Dorie Miller, demonstrated such heroism under fire that they were awarded the Navy Cross or the Bronze Star medal.
*African American soldiers training in the South were subjected to discriminatory treatment throughout the entire World War II period. In Alexandria, Louisiana, 28 African Americans were shot down by European American civilians and officers; race riots broke out in the Mobile Naval Yard; Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Camp Davis; and other Army camps.
*The 99th Pursuit Squadron, the first all-African American unit of the army air corps, was formed in Tuskegee, Alabama. It would fly more than 500 missions during one year of World War II, before being joined with the 332nd Fighter Group.
In late 1941, the United States Army established a school for African American pilots at Tuskegee, Alabama. Some African Americans opposed the establishment of segregated Air Force facilities, but most others seemed to view the move as a forward step, since no training schools had hitherto existed. While the pilots began their work at Tuskegee, ground crews were prepared at Chanute Field in Illinois. By the end of the year, the 99th Pursuit Squadron was ready for action. About 600 African American pilots received their wings during World War II.
In late 1941, the United States Army established a school for African American pilots at Tuskegee, Alabama. Some African Americans opposed the establishment of segregated Air Force facilities, but most others seemed to view the move as a forward step, since no training schools had hitherto existed. While the pilots began their work at Tuskegee, ground crews were prepared at Chanute Field in Illinois. By the end of the year, the 99th Pursuit Squadron was ready for action. About 600 African American pilots received their wings during World War II.
*At Freeman Field, Indiana, over 100 African American military officers were locked in the stockade after entering a "whites-only" officers' club.
*A study revealed five times as many African American draftees as European Americans were rejected. It also showed that 12.3% of the African Americans were rejected for lack of 4th grade reading ability, compared with 1.1% of the European Americans.
*By November 30, there were 97,725 African Americans in the regular Army.
During World War II, African American anti-aircraft units fought in Burma, the Ryukyus, Normandy, Italy and North Africa. African American engineer troops helped to build the Ledo Road in Burma, the Stilwell Road in China, and the Alcan Highway in Alaska and Canada. African American transport units were found supplying all battle fronts.
*In December, General George C. Marshall wrote to Secretary of War Stimson: "The settlement of vexing racial problems cannot be permitted to complicate the tremendous task of the War Department, and thereby jeopardize discipline and morale."
In the period of World War II (1941-45), 3 million African American men registered for service. Of these, 701,678 served in the Army, 165,000 in the Navy, 5,000 in the Coast Guard, 17,000 in the Marines, and 4,000 African American women served as WAVES and WACS. A half million African American men and women served overseas, primarily in Europe and North Africa. The cumulative percentages of African Americans in the Armed Services were: Army: officers 0.7%, enlisted personnel 10.3%; Navy: officers, less than 0.5%, enlisted personnel 4.8%; Marines: no data available.
*A study revealed five times as many African American draftees as European Americans were rejected. It also showed that 12.3% of the African Americans were rejected for lack of 4th grade reading ability, compared with 1.1% of the European Americans.
*By November 30, there were 97,725 African Americans in the regular Army.
During World War II, African American anti-aircraft units fought in Burma, the Ryukyus, Normandy, Italy and North Africa. African American engineer troops helped to build the Ledo Road in Burma, the Stilwell Road in China, and the Alcan Highway in Alaska and Canada. African American transport units were found supplying all battle fronts.
*In December, General George C. Marshall wrote to Secretary of War Stimson: "The settlement of vexing racial problems cannot be permitted to complicate the tremendous task of the War Department, and thereby jeopardize discipline and morale."
In the period of World War II (1941-45), 3 million African American men registered for service. Of these, 701,678 served in the Army, 165,000 in the Navy, 5,000 in the Coast Guard, 17,000 in the Marines, and 4,000 African American women served as WAVES and WACS. A half million African American men and women served overseas, primarily in Europe and North Africa. The cumulative percentages of African Americans in the Armed Services were: Army: officers 0.7%, enlisted personnel 10.3%; Navy: officers, less than 0.5%, enlisted personnel 4.8%; Marines: no data available.
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Music
*Duke Ellington's orchestra recorded "Take the 'A' Train" (February 15).
The 1915 publication of the composition "Jelly Roll Blues" by Jelly Roll Morton (Ferdinand Joseph La Menthe, 1885(?)-1941) was the first published jazz arrangement. Morton was the first true jazz composer and the first to notate his jazz arrangements. Born in Gulfport, Mississippi, he soon becmae immersed in the music world of New Orleans.
*DeFord Bailey was fired from his position with the Grand Ole Opry.
DeFord Bailey, Sr. (1899-1982), a harmonica player, became the first African American musician to perform on the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, on December 26, 1924. Originally called the "The Barn Dance", the show's name was changed to "The Grand Ole Opry" in the autumn of 1927. Bailey was perhaps the first African American heard on nationwide radio. The next year, he was the first African American to have a recording session in Nashville, Tennessee. Bailey recorded eight sides for RCA. Known for his train sounds, Bailey was one of the most influential harmonica players in blues and country music, and one of the most popular performers in the first fifteen years of the Opry, the longest running radio show in the country. Bailey was fired in 1941 as a by-result of the dispute between ASCAP and the newly formed BMI over payment for music played on the radio. In 1991, a memorial marker was erected near Bailey's birthsite in Wilson County, Tennessee.
*Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, a pianist and composer who claimed to have invented jazz, died in Los Angeles (July 10).
The 1915 publication of the composition "Jelly Roll Blues" by Jelly Roll Morton (Ferdinand Joseph La Menthe, 1885(?)-1941) was the first published jazz arrangement. Morton was the first true jazz composer and the first to notate his jazz arrangements. Born in Gulfport, Mississippi, he soon becmae immersed in the music world of New Orleans.
*DeFord Bailey was fired from his position with the Grand Ole Opry.
DeFord Bailey, Sr. (1899-1982), a harmonica player, became the first African American musician to perform on the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee, on December 26, 1924. Originally called the "The Barn Dance", the show's name was changed to "The Grand Ole Opry" in the autumn of 1927. Bailey was perhaps the first African American heard on nationwide radio. The next year, he was the first African American to have a recording session in Nashville, Tennessee. Bailey recorded eight sides for RCA. Known for his train sounds, Bailey was one of the most influential harmonica players in blues and country music, and one of the most popular performers in the first fifteen years of the Opry, the longest running radio show in the country. Bailey was fired in 1941 as a by-result of the dispute between ASCAP and the newly formed BMI over payment for music played on the radio. In 1991, a memorial marker was erected near Bailey's birthsite in Wilson County, Tennessee.
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The NAACP
*The NAACP gave its approval and support to A. Philip Randolph's plan for a march of 100,000 African Americans on Washington, D. C. The NAACP gave both money and services of its staff to coordinate the march. The goal was to open jobs for African Americans, especially in defense plants, that were generally not hiring African Americans except as janitors. On June 25, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 forbidding employment discrimination in government and defense industries. The march, set for July 1, was called off. This Presidential directive established the Fair Employment Practices Commission to implement it. The Communist Party had opposed A. Philip Randolph's march, believing that such a march would be against the interests of the American war effort.
*The NAACP made its strongest alliance with industrial labor unions to date by working with the striking United Auto Workers to secure equal rights for African Americans at the Ford Motor Company.
*Immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the NAACP called on all African Americans to give wholehearted support to the war effort.
*The NAACP protested a War Department policy that European American men needed a score of 15 on the Army Intelligence Test, while African Americans were required to score 39 to be admitted to the service.
*The NAACP made its strongest alliance with industrial labor unions to date by working with the striking United Auto Workers to secure equal rights for African Americans at the Ford Motor Company.
*Immediately after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the NAACP called on all African Americans to give wholehearted support to the war effort.
*The NAACP protested a War Department policy that European American men needed a score of 15 on the Army Intelligence Test, while African Americans were required to score 39 to be admitted to the service.
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The New Deal
*The WPA employed 237,000 African Americans, who represented 16% of its total employees.
*By this year, the United States Housing Authority had contracted for the construction of 176,000 dwelling units, 53,000 or 30.2% of which were for African Americans. The average income of USHA tenants was $832, which meant the exclusion of low-income African Americans.
*Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia proposed the abolition of the FSA in the interest of the war, but proposed the maintenance of the more discriminatory AAA benefits. In 1942, the FSA budget was curtailed.
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Notable Births
*Nicholas Ashford was born in Fairfield, South Carolina. In collaboration with his wife, Valerie Simpson, he would become a hit songwriter ("Ain't No Mountain High Enough") and performer (May 4).
*Stokely Carmichael, a Trinidadian American civil rights activist, was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago (June 29).
Stokely Carmichael was born in Trinidad. He came to the United States in 1953. He graduated from the Bronx High School of Science, and then Howard University where he was active in student affairs. One of the early civil rights workers in the civil rights movement of the early 1960's, Carmichael became a field worker for SNCC. He was arrested 27 times in Mississippi and Alabama. In 1966, he popularized the term Black Power and led part of the civil rights movement to a more militant attitude. In 1967, Carmichael relinquished leadership of SNCC to travel to Cuba and North Vietnam.
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*Ernest Evans, who would gain rock 'n' roll fame as "Chubby Checker" -- the "Father of the Twist", was born in Spring Gulley, South Carolina (October 3).
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William Herbert Gray III (August 20, 1941 – July 1, 2013) was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who represented Pennsylvania's 2nd Congressional District from 1979 to 1991. He also served as Chairman of the House Committee on the Budget from 1985 to 1989 and as House Majority Whip from 1989 to 1991. He resigned from Congress in September of that year to become president and chief executive officer of the United Negro College Fund, a position he held until 2004.
Gray was the fourth highest-ranking member of the House at the time of his resignation. He later was co-founder of the government lobbying and advisory firm, Gray Loeffler LLC, headquartered in Washington D.C.
Gray was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but grew up in St. Augustine, Florida, where his father was president of Florida Normal (later Florida Memorial) College, and in North Philadelphia where he graduated from Simon Gratz High School. He attended Franklin and Marshall College, where he received a bachelor's degree in 1963. He went on to obtain a master's in divinity from Drew Theological Seminary in 1966 and a similar degree from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1970. Gray received a L.H.D. from Bates College in 1994.
In 1972, Gray succeeded his father as the senior minister at Bright Hope Baptist Church in Philadelphia. He was elected as a Democrat to represent Philadelphia in the United States House of Representatives in 1978. He represented Pennsylvania's 2nd Congressional District in the House of Representatives from 1978 until his resignation on September 11, 1991. He was the first African-American to chair the House Budget Committee and also the first to serve as the Majority Whip (1989–1991). As chairman of the Committee on Budget, Gray introduced H.R. 1460, an anti-Apartheid bill that prohibited loans and new investment in South Africa and enforced sanctions on imports and exports with South Africa. This bill was an instrumental precursor to the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 (H.R. 4868).
Gray resigned from Congress in 1991 to serve as President of the United Negro College Fund from 1991 to 2004. The move was considered a complete surprise and prompted questions as to why he had done so. There was widespread speculation that he had been the subject of an investigation into alleged campaign finance irregularities and a grand jury investigation into his church's financial dealings. He was reported to have struck a deal with Republican Dick Thornburgh, the United States Attorney General and former Governor of Pennsylvania, that he would not run in the United States Senate special election in Pennsylvania and, in return, Thornburgh would would drop the investigation into him. Thornburgh went on to run in the special election in November 1991 but lost in an upset to Democrat Harris Wofford.
Gray served as a special adviser to President Clinton and the Secretary of State for Haitian affairs in 1994. He was named to the Politics PA list of "Pennsylvania's Top Political Activists."
Outside of politics he was also a businessman who has been a Director at Dell from 2000. Gray was a director of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Prudential Financial, Inc., Rockwell International Corporation, Visteon Corporation and Pfizer. He retired from Bright Hope Baptist Church in 2007 and was succeeded by Kevin R. Johnson, former Assistant Pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York.
Gray was married to the former Andrea Dash. They have three sons, William IV, Justin and Andrew. Gray was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. Gray died on July 1, 2013 in London, while attending the Wimbledon tennis tournament with his son Andrew. Gray's death came suddenly and no cause of death has been given. He was 71.
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*Civil rights activist and presidential candidate Jesse Jackson was born in Greenville, South Carolina (October 8). He would found People United to Save Humanity (PUSH) and form the Rainbow Coalition.
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*Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, a pianist and composer who claimed to have invented jazz, died in Los Angeles (July 10).
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Hugh Price (1941 – )
Hugh Price at March in Columbia, SC protesting Confederate Flag flying at State Capitol, 2000
Courtesy National Urban Leagues Archives, Fair use imageHugh Bernard Price, civil rights activist and president of the National Urban League, was born on November 22, 1941 in Washington, DC. Raised in a middle-class home by his parents, Charlotte Schuster and Kline Price, Price became aware of racial struggles and the importance of activism as a child. He began his schooling in a segregated elementary school and graduated from an integrated high school. His parents were involved in the early litigation which would lead to Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954.
Price graduated with a BA from Amherst College in 1963 and married Marilyn Lloyd that same year. He entered law school at Yale in New Haven, graduating in 1966. New Haven became Price’s home, as he became an attorney with the New Haven Legal Assistance Association in 1966, and then with Cogen, Holt and Associates in 1970. In both positions Price focused on supporting low-income clients. Although never directly involved with the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Price spent much of his life working to improve the lives of impoverished urban blacks.
In 1977, Price moved to New York City, where he was hired as an editorial writer for the New York Times. His editorials focused primarily on issues concerning race and poverty. In 1982, Price became the senior vice president and director of the production for WNET-TV in New York City. Six years later, in 1988, he became vice president of the Rockefeller Foundation, which funded projects to better communities and lives of disadvantaged people. Price worked heavily with the Special Initiatives and Explorations grant fund to improve the welfare of people of color through school reform and equal opportunity projects. His experience at the Rockefeller Foundation led the National Urban League to recruit him as president.
In 1994, when Price became president and CEO of the National Urban League, the 84-year-old organization was on the decline. Price played a crucial role in reviving the League, making it, once again, a leading organization in social justice activism. Up until Price’s presidency, the League had focused primarily on preparing rural African Americans for life in the cities. Recognizing that the great migration of southern blacks to northern cities was over, Price reoriented the goals of the organization. He focused on three principle initiatives: education and youth development programs, economic empowerment, and inclusionary programs. These initiatives, in turn, promoted the League’s new priority, addressing intergenerational urban poverty and the growing urban underclass. While at the League, Price also created related programs, most notably the Campaign for African American Achievement and the Institute of Opportunity and Equality. Hugh Price left the National Urban League in 2003 and retired in 2005. Price is a member of Sigma Pi Phi and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternities.
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*Musician Otis Redding was born in Macon, Georgia (September 9).
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*Chester Lovelle Talton, the first African American Episcopal bishop in the West (Los Angeles), was born in El Dorado, Arkansas (September 22).
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*Maurice White, a visionary musician who founded Earth, Wind & Fire, was born in Memphis, Tennessee (December 19).
Maurice White (b. December 19, 1941, Memphis, Tennessee — d. February 4, 2016, Los Angeles, California) was the visionary founder, songwriter, percussionist, and front man of the seminal pop, soul, and jazz-fusion band Earth, Wind & Fire. White grew up in Memphis and was a member of his high school’s drum corps. He then moved to Chicago and studied at Roosevelt University's Chicago Musical College (now Chicago College of Performing Arts). He began playing drums in local nightclubs and soon became a session drummer for Chess Records. White played (1966–69) with the trio led by jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis prior to forming a band, initially called the Salty Peppers, and moving to Los Angeles. The group, renamed Earth, Wind & Fire, signed with Warner Bros. Records and within two years released three albums that showcased its signature blend of jazz, funk, and soul music but gained little commercial notice. After a lineup change and a new record label deal, Earth, Wind & Fire had a hit single in 1974 with “Mighty Mighty,” from its third record for Columbia,Open Our Eyes. With That’s the Way of the World (1975), which yielded the smash hits “Shining Star” and “Reasons,” the band broke through to superstardom. The infectious music appealed to all demographic groups, and the group went on to produce 16 Top 40 singles, 11 gold albums (8 of them platinum) and win 6 Grammy Awards. White was awarded a 1978 Grammy for his arrangement of Earth, Wind & Fire’s cover of the Beatles' song “Got to Get You into My Life.” In addition to producing many of his own band’s albums, White produced recordings for such other artists as Barbra Streisand, El DeBarge, and Jennifer Holliday. Though ill health (Parkinson's disease) forced him to stop touring with the band in 1994, White remained its guiding spirit. Earth, Wind & Fire was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, and White was a 2010 inductee into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
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*John Edgar Wideman, author of the novels Hurry Home and Philadelphia Fire, was born in Washington, D. C. (June 14).
Notable Deaths
*There were four recorded lynchings of African Americans in 1941.
*Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, a pianist and composer who claimed to have invented jazz, died in Los Angeles (July 10).
*Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, a pianist and composer who claimed to have invented jazz, died in Los Angeles (July 10).
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Performing Arts
*The American Negro Theater, founded by Abram Hill and Frederick O'Neal (later president of Actors' Equity), produced plays by Abram Hill, Owen Dodson and other young African American dramatists. Its most successful production was Anna Lucasta, an adaptation of a European American play, and brought the company to Broadway, thus dissolving it in Harlem in 1944.
*Operatic coach Mary Caldwell Dawson and coloratura Lillian Evanti established the National Negro Opera Company in Pittsburgh.
*Operatic coach Mary Caldwell Dawson and coloratura Lillian Evanti established the National Negro Opera Company in Pittsburgh.
*A dramatic version of Richard Wright's novel Native Son opened on Broadway.
Canada Lee, a successful amateur and professional African American boxer who had turned to acting as a career, appeared as Bigger Thomas in the stage version of Native Son. Lee's other most notable appearances include the movie Cry the Beloved Country (1952), Lifeboat (1944), and Anna Lucasta, which played on Broadway in 1944.
*At New York's Carnegie Hall, the Cafe Society concert featured jazz performers Albert "Jug" Ammons, Hazel Scott, Art Tatum, and Lena Horne in her debut performance.
*Natural Man by Theodore Browne became the first play produced by the American Negro Theatre in Harlem.
*Dean Dixon conducted the New York Philharmonic.
Dean Dixon, at 26, conducted the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. He had already worked with the Symphony Orchestra. He had already worked with the Symphony Orchestra he had founded in Harlem and with the NBC Summer Symphony.
*Dorothy Maynor, Marian Anderson, and Paul Robeson, African American singers, were among the 10 most highly paid concert artists in the United States.
Dean Dixon, at 26, conducted the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. He had already worked with the Symphony Orchestra. He had already worked with the Symphony Orchestra he had founded in Harlem and with the NBC Summer Symphony.
*Dorothy Maynor, Marian Anderson, and Paul Robeson, African American singers, were among the 10 most highly paid concert artists in the United States.
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Politics
*Robert Weaver was appointed director of Integration of Negroes into the National Defense Program in the Office of Production Management.
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Sports
*Chalky Wright, an African American prize fighter, became featherweight boxing champion.
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Visual Arts
*The groundbreaking exhibit "American Negro Art: 19th and 20th Century" opened at New York's Downtown Gallery.
*Fortune magazine published 26 of Jacob Lawrence's panels for his Migrants series.
*Charles White painted his mural Five Great American Negroes for the Chicago Public Library.
White was a native Chicagoan who studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. After graduation, he joined the Federal Arts Project of the Works Progress Administration, and produced one of the WPA's best know murals entitled Five Great American Negroes. The mural, which features Sojourner Truth, Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass, George Washington Carver and Marian Anderson was originally installed in the George Cleveland Hall Library on Michigan Boulevard in Chicago. This historic library is located just one block from the Rosenwald Apartments and was built on land donated by Julius Rosenwald to the Chicago Public Library.
White was a native Chicagoan who studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. After graduation, he joined the Federal Arts Project of the Works Progress Administration, and produced one of the WPA's best know murals entitled Five Great American Negroes. The mural, which features Sojourner Truth, Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass, George Washington Carver and Marian Anderson was originally installed in the George Cleveland Hall Library on Michigan Boulevard in Chicago. This historic library is located just one block from the Rosenwald Apartments and was built on land donated by Julius Rosenwald to the Chicago Public Library.
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The Americas
Canada
*President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill issued the Atlantic Charter (August 14).
The Atlantic Charter was a pivotal policy statement issued on August 14, 1941, that, early in World War II, defined the Allied goals for the post-war world. The leaders of the United Kingdom and the United States drafted the work and all the Allies of World War II later confirmed it. The Charter stated the ideal goals of the war: no territorial aggrandizement; no territorial changes made against the wishes of the people; self-determination; restoration of self-government to those deprived of it; reduction of trade restrictions; global cooperation to secure better economic and social conditions for all; freedom from fear and want; freedom of the seas; and abandonment of the use of force, as well as disarmament of aggressor nations. In the Declaration by United Nations of January 1, 1942, the Allies pledged adherence to this charter's principles.
The Atlantic Charter set goals for the post-war world and inspired many of the international agreements that shaped the world thereafter. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the post-war independence of European colonies, and much more were derived from the Atlantic Charter.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt drafted the Atlantic Charter at the Atlantic Conference (codenamed Riviera) in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. They issued it as a joint declaration on August 14, 1941, although the United States would not officially enter the War until four-months later. The policy was issued as a statement; as such there was no formal, legal document entitled "The Atlantic Charter". The "statement" detailed the goals and aims of the Allied powers concerning the war and the post-war world.
Many of the ideas of the Charter came from an ideology of Anglo-American internationalism that sought British and American cooperation for the cause of international security. Roosevelt's attempts to tie Britain to concrete war aims and Churchill's desperation to bind the United States to the war effort helped provide motivations for the meeting which produced the Atlantic Charter. It was assumed at the time that Britain and America would have an equal role to play in any post-war international organization that would be based on the principles of the Atlantic Charter.
Churchill and Roosevelt began communicating in 1939 but this was their first of their 11 wartime meetings. Both men traveled in secret; Roosevelt was supposedly on a ten-day fishing trip. On August 9, 1941, the British battleship HMS Prince of Wales sailed into Placentia Bay, with Churchill on board, and met the American heavy cruiser USS Augusta where Roosevelt and his staff were waiting. On first meeting, Churchill and Roosevelt were silent for a moment until Churchill said "At long last, Mr. President", to which Roosevelt replied "Glad to have you aboard, Mr. Churchill". Churchill then delivered to the President a letter from King George VI and made an official statement which, despite two attempts, a sound-film crew present failed to record.
The Atlantic Charter made clear that America was supporting Britain in the war. Both America and Britain wanted to present their unity, regarding their mutual principles and hopes for the post-war world and the policies they agreed to follow once the Nazis had been defeated. A fundamental aim was to focus on the peace that would follow, and not specific American involvement and war strategy, although American involvement appeared increasingly likely.
The eight principal points of the Charter were:
- no territorial gains were to be sought by the United States or the United Kingdom;
- territorial adjustments must be in accord with the wishes of the peoples concerned;
- all people had a right to self-determination;
- trade barriers were to be lowered;
- there was to be global economic cooperation and advancement of social welfare;
- the participants would work for a world free of want and fear;
- the participants would work for freedom of the seas; and
- there was to be disarmament of aggressor nations, and a post-war common disarmament.
Although Clause Three clearly states that all peoples have the right to decide their form of government, it fails to say what changes are necessary in both social and economic terms, so as to achieve freedom and peace.
Clause Four, with respect to international trade, consciously emphasized that both "victor [and] vanquished" would be given market access "on equal terms". This was a repudiation of the punitive trade relations that were established within Europe post-World War I, as exemplified by the Paris Economy Pact.
Only two clauses expressly discuss national, social, and economic conditions necessary post-war, despite the significance of such conditions.
When it was released to the public, the Charter was titled "Joint Declaration by the President and the Prime Minister" and was generally known as the "Joint Declaration". The Labour Party newspaper Daily Herald coined the name Atlantic Charter, Churchill used it in Parliament on August 24, 1941, and the statement name Atlantic Charter has since been generally adopted.
No signed version ever existed. The document was threshed out through several drafts and the final agreed text was telegraphed to London and Washington. President Roosevelt gave Congress the Charter's content on August 21, 1941. He said later, "There isn't any copy of the Atlantic Charter, so far as I know. I haven't got one. The British haven't got one. The nearest thing you will get is the [message of the] radio operator on Augusta and Prince of Wales. That's the nearest thing you will come to it ... There was no formal document."
The British War Cabinet replied with its approval and a similar acceptance was telegraphed from Washington. During this process, an error crept into the London text, but this was subsequently corrected. The account in Churchill's The Second World War concludes "A number of verbal alterations were agreed, and the document was then in its final shape", and makes no mention of any signing or ceremony. In Churchill's account of the Yalta Conference he quotes Roosevelt saying of the unwritten British constitution that "it was like the Atlantic Charter - the document did not exist, yet all the world knew about it. Among his papers he had found one copy signed by himself and me, but strange to say both signatures were in his own handwriting."
The Allied nations and leading organizations quickly and widely endorsed the Charter. At the subsequent meeting of the Inter-Allied Council in London on September 24, 1941, the governments in exile of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Yugoslavia, as well as the Soviet Union, and representatives of the Free French Forces, unanimously adopted adherence to the common principles of policy set forth in the Atlantic Charter.
On January 1, 1942, a larger group of nations, who adhered to the principles of the Atlantic Charter, issued a joint Declaration by United Nations stressing their solidarity in the defense against Hitlerism.
On January 1, 1942, a larger group of nations, who adhered to the principles of the Atlantic Charter, issued a joint Declaration by United Nations stressing their solidarity in the defense against Hitlerism.
The Axis powers interpreted these diplomatic agreements as a potential alliance against them. In Tokyo, the Atlantic Charter rallied support for the militarists in the Japanese government, who pushed for a more aggressive approach against the U.S. and Britain.
The British dropped millions of flysheets over Germany to allay fears of a punitive peace that would destroy the German state. The text cited the Charter as the authoritative statement of the joint commitment of Great Britain and the United States "not to admit any economical discrimination of those defeated" and promised that "Germany and the other states can again achieve enduring peace and prosperity."
The most striking feature of the discussion was that an agreement had been made between a range of countries that held diverse opinions, who were accepting that internal policies were relevant to the international problem. The agreement proved to be one of the first steps towards the formation of the United Nations.
The problems came not from Germany and Japan, but from those of the allies that had empires and which resisted self-determination — especially the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the Netherlands. Initially it appears that Roosevelt and Churchill had agreed that the third point of the Charter was not going to apply to Africa and Asia. However, Roosevelt's speechwriter Robert E. Sherwood noted that "it was not long before the people of India, Burma, Malaya, and Indonesia were beginning to ask if the Atlantic Charter extended also to the Pacific and to Asia in general." With a war that could only be won with the help of these allies, Roosevelt's solution was to put some pressure on Britain but to postpone until after the war the issue of self-determination of the colonies.
Public opinion in Britain and the Commonwealth was delighted with the principles of the meetings but disappointed that the United States was not entering the war. Churchill admitted that he had hoped the United States would finally decide to commit itself.
The acknowledgement that all peoples had a right to self-determination gave hope to independence leaders in British colonies.
The Americans were insistent that the charter was to acknowledge that the war was being fought to ensure self-determination. The British were forced to agree to these aims but in a September 1941 speech, Churchill stated that the Charter was only meant to apply to states under German occupation, and certainly not to the peoples who formed part of the British Empire.
Churchill rejected its universal applicability when it came to the self-determination of subject nations such as British India. In 1942, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi wrote to President Roosevelt: "I venture to think that the Allied declaration that the Allies are fighting to make the world safe for the freedom of the individual and for democracy sounds hollow so long as India and for that matter Africa are exploited by Great Britain..." Roosevelt repeatedly brought the need for Indian independence to Churchill's attention, but was repeatedly rebuffed. However, Gandhi refused to help either the British or the American war effort against Germany and Japan in any way, leaving Roosevelt no choice but to back Churchill. India was already contributing significantly to the war effort, sending over 2.5 million men (the largest volunteer force in the world at the time) to fight for the Allies, mostly in West Asia and North Africa.
Churchill was unhappy with the inclusion of references to peoples' right to "self-determination" and stated that he considered the Charter an "interim and partial statement of war aims designed to reassure all countries of our righteous purpose and not the complete structure which we should build after the victory." Additionally, an office of the Polish Government in Exile wrote to warn Wladyslaw Sikorski that if the Charter was implemented with regards to national self-determination, it would make the desired Polish annexation of Danzig, East Prussia and parts of German Silesia impossible, which led the Poles to approach Britain asking for a flexible interpretation of the Charter.
During the war, Churchill argued for an interpretation of the charter in order to allow the Soviet Union to continue to control the Baltic states, an interpretation rejected by the United States until March 1944. Lord Beaverbrook warned that the Atlantic Charter "would be a menace to our [Britain's] own safety as well as to that of the Soviet Union." The United States refused to recognize the Soviet takeover of the Baltics, but did not press the issue against Stalin when he was fighting the Germans. Roosevelt planned to raise the Baltic issue after the war, but he died in April 1945, before fighting had ended in Europe.
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Martinique
*The Surrealist journal Tropiques, featuring the work of Césaire along with Suzanne Césaire, Rene Menil, Lucie Thesee, Aristide Maugee and others, was first published.
Anti-colonial revolutionary writers in the Negritude movement of Martinique, a French colony at the time, took up Surrealism as a revolutionary method - a critique of European culture and a radical subjective. This linked with other Surrealists and was very important for the subsequent development of Surrealism as a revolutionary praxis.
Trinidad
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*Activist Stokely Carmichael, later known as Kwame Toure, was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad (June 29). He would coin the expression "Black Power" in 1966 .
PAN suffered a split in 1941. A group of Executive Committee members met on August 13, 1941 and voted to demote Méndez from his post as party chairman. Effectively two groups emerged that claimed to be the legitimate PAN, the group led by Méndez and another led by Anibal Eduarte, Ignacio Suarez Peña (chairman) and Ismael Arribio. I. Bello served as general secretary of the Méndez faction. On August 15, 1941 Méndez reported to police that properties at the PAN office had been stolen by the Suarez Peña faction. The Suarez Peña group responded by appealing to the Electoral Court that they be recognized as the genuine PAN. The Suarez Peña faction held a party assembly on August 23, 1941. 49 persons signed the declaration of the assembly.
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Europe
France
*In 1941, Josephine Baker and her entourage went to the French colonies in North Africa.
The stated reason for Baker's trip to the French colonies was Baker's health (since she was recovering from another case of pneumonia) but the real reason was to continue helping the Resistance. From a base in Morocco, she made tours of Spain. She pinned notes with the information she gathered inside her underwear (counting on her celebrity to avoid a strip search). She befriended the Pasha of Marrakesh, whose support helped her through a miscarriage (the last of several). After the miscarriage, she developed an infection so severe it required a hysterectomy. The infection spread and she developed peritonitis and then septicemia. After her recovery (which she continued to fall in and out of), she started touring to entertain British, French, and American soldiers in North Africa. The Free French had no organized entertainment network for their troops, so Baker and her friends managed for the most part on their own. They allowed no civilians and charged no admission.
Asia
China
*In 1941, while waiting for a possible appointment as the Chinese representative to the League of Nations, Eugene Chen, the former Foreign Minister, was captured by the Japanese and put under house arrest. Later he was taken to Shanghai where the Japanese worked hard on him trying to persuade him to take the position of foreign minister in Wang Jingwei’s puppet government, but without success.
Africa
Nnamdi Azikiwe
Nnamdi Azikiwe became active in the Nigerian Youth Movement (NYM), the first genuinely nationalist organization in Nigeria. However, in 1941 he backed Samuel Akinsanya to be NYM candidate for a vacant seat in the Legislative Council, but the executive committee selected Ernest Ikoli instead. Azikiwe resigned from the NYM accusing the NYM mostly Yoruba leadership of discrimination against the Ijebu-Yoruba members, Ibos and some Ijebu members with him and thus splitting the NYM along ethnic lines.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
*In May 1941, around 8,000 men of the Force Publique, under Major-General August-Edouard Gilliaert, successfully cut off the retreat of General Pietro Gazzera's Italians at Saio, in the Ethiopian Highlands after marching over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from their bases in western Congo. The troops suffered from malaria and other tropical diseases, but successfully defeated the Italians in a number of engagements. Gilliaert subsequently accepted the surrender of Gazzera and 7,000 Italian troops after a number of small engagements. Over the course of the campaign in Abyssinia, the Force Publique received the surrender of nine Italian generals, 370 high-ranking officers and 15,000 Italian colonial troops before the end of 1941. The Congolese forces in Abyssinia suffered about 500 fatalities.
*In December 1941, black mine workers at various sites in Katanga Province, including Jadotville and Elisabethville, went on strike, demanding that their pay be increased to compensate for rising living costs.
*In December 1941, black mine workers at various sites in Katanga Province, including Jadotville and Elisabethville, went on strike, demanding that their pay be increased to compensate for rising living costs.
The demands made by the colonial government on Congolese workers during the war provoked strikes and riots from the workforce. Whites in the colony were allowed to form trade unions for the first time during the war, and their demands for better pay and working conditions were often emulated by black workers. In October 1941, white workers in the colony unsuccessfully attempted a general strike across the colony.
In December 1941, black mine workers at various sites in Katanga Province, including Jadotville and Elisabethville, went on strike, demanding that their pay be increased from 1.50 francs to 2 francs to compensate for rising living costs. The strike started on December 3,, and by the next day 1,400 workers had downed tools. All UMHK sites were affected by 9 December. The strike was also fuelled by other grievances against the colonial order and segregation.
From the start, the colonial authorities attempted to persuade the strikers to disperse and go back to work. When they refused, they were fired on. In Jadotville, 15 strikers were shot dead by the military. In Élisabethville, the strikers, including their leader Léonard Mpoyi, were invited to negotiations at the town's stadium, where they were offered various concessions, including a 30% pay raise.
When the workers refused, the Governor of Katanga, Amour Maron, shot Mpoyi, killing him. The Governor then ordered his soldiers to fire on the other strikers in the stadium. Between 60 and 70 strikers were killed during the protest, although the official estimate was around 30. The miners returned to work on December 10.
Numerous smaller strikes occurred in the Congo later in the war, though not on the same scale as in 1941. In 1944 strikes broke out in Katanga and Kasai, provoked by the conscription of workers for the mines and deteriorating working conditions. In 1945, riots and strikes occurred among the black dockworkers in the port city of Matadi.
Ethiopia
*Haile Selassie returned to his country on January 20, 1941, and made his state entry into Addis Ababa on May 5 in the back of an Alfa Romeo motor car. It was five years to the day since the Italians had entered the city. The country remained under British administration, however, until January 31, 1942, when London recognized Ethiopia as a sovereign state.
Mengistu Haile Mariam, President of Ethiopia, was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Mengistu Haile Mariam (Amharic: መንግስቱ ኃይለ ማርያም?, pronounced [mənɡɨstu haɪlə marjam]; born 27 May 1941) is an Ethiopian politician who was the most prominent officer of the Derg, the Communist military junta that governed Ethiopia from 1974 to 1987, and the President of the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia from 1987 to 1991. Mengistu is an ethnic Amhara on his mother's side and ethnic Oromo on his father's side. Effectively a dictator, his rule is remembered for the following historical events. The removal of 3000 year old monarchy, land redistribution, the Ethiopian Red Terror of 1977–1978,[3] the Somalian-Ethiopian war of 1977-1978, the 1984 famine. The Ethiopian Red Terror was a period of great political upheaval in Ethiopia that started when the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Partyknown as EHAPA ( by it's Ethiopian acronym) ignored the invitation by Dergue to join the union of socialist parties and instead made an assassination attempt on Mengistu Hailemariam (the Chairman of Dergue) in September 1976. That assassination attempt failed but it was followed by death of many Dergue supporters and ordinary citizens. The Red Terror was a fight for power and dominance between ERRP and MESON (from its Amharic acronym). The killings from both sides were brutal since it happened when the country was under the threat of Somalian invasion and war. Internal rebellion was not well tolerated.
Mengistu left for Zimbabwe in May 1991 after the National Shengo dissolved itself and called for a transitional government. His departure brought an abrupt end to the Ethiopian Civil War . Mengistu Hailemariam still lives in Harare, Zimbabwe and remains there despite an Ethiopian court verdict finding him guilty in absentia of genocide.[4] Estimates of the number of deaths for which he was responsible range from 500,000 to over 2,000,000.[5][6]
South Africa
*The African Mineworkers' Union was formed.
In 1941, a miners' conference was called by the Transvaal Provincial Committee of the African National Congress. The conference was supported by Paramount Chief of Zululand and trade unions.
It was here that the African Mine Workers' Union came into being and elected a committee under the presidency of J. B. Marks, who also became President of the Transvaal African National Congress.
At first the union was not recognized by the Chamber of Mines, but after sustained pressure for better wages and conditions, the prime minister, Field Marshal Jan Smuts, announced some piecemeal wage increases and improvements in conditions while at the same time issuing War Measure No. 1425—banning gatherings of more than twenty people on mining property without permission.
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General Historical Events
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March 27
*Revolution broke out in Yugoslavia.
April 6
*German troops invaded Greece and Yugoslavia. The Croats supported the Germans and the hundreds of thousands of Serbs who were killed died mostly at the hands of Croat irregulars.
May 10
*Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess flew alone to Scotland on a mission that has never been understood. The British imprisoned him.
*The German battleship Bismarck left the port of Gdynia for the Atlantic.
May 24
*The German battleship Bismarck sank the British battleship Hood. Only three out of the crew of 1,421 survived. The Bismarck was subsequently sunk by a British squadron. 1,200 of her crew died.
May 31
*British troops arrived in Iraq to forestall an Axis takeover.
June
*British troops moved into Syria and Lebanon, again to prevent the Germans from taking over.
June 22
*In a major escalation of the war, the German army invaded Soviet Russia, advancing rapidly mainly because Stalin's purges had left the Russian military high command depleted. The Germans were able to reach Leningrad easily and laid siege to the city.
Operation Barbarossa (German: Unternehmen Barbarossa) was the code name for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II, which began on June 22, 1941. The operation was driven by Adolf Hitler's ideological desire to conquer the Soviet territories as outlined in his 1925 manifesto Mein Kampf ("My Struggle").
In the two years leading up to the invasion, the two countries signed political and economic pacts for strategic purposes. Still, on December 18, 1940, Hitler authorized an invasion of the Soviet Union for a start date of May 15, 1941, but this was not met. Instead, the invasion began on June 22, 1941. Over the course of the operation, about four million soldiers of the Axis powers invaded the Soviet Union along a 2,900-kilometer (1,800 mi) front, the largest invasion force in the history of warfare. In addition to troops, the Germans employed some 600,000 motor vehicles and between 600–700,000 horses. It marked the beginning of the rapid escalation of the war, both geographically and in the formation of the Allied coalition.
Operationally, the Germans won resounding victories and occupied some of the most important economic areas of the Soviet Union, mainly in Ukraine, both inflicting and sustaining heavy casualties. Despite their successes, the German offensive stalled on the outskirts of Moscow and was subsequently pushed back by a Soviet counteroffensive. The Red Army repelled the Wehrmacht's strongest blows and forced Germany into a war of attrition for which it was unprepared. The Germans would never again mount a simultaneous offensive along the entire strategic Soviet-Axis front. The failure of the operation drove Hitler to demand further operations inside the USSR, all of which eventually failed, such as Operation Nordlicht, Case Blue, and Operation Citadel.
The failure of Operation Barbarossa was a turning point in the fortunes of the Third Reich. Most importantly, the operation opened up the Eastern Front, to which more forces were committed than in any other theater of war in world history. The Eastern Front became the site of some of the largest battles, most horrific atrocities, and highest casualties for Soviets and Germans alike, all of which influenced the course of both World War II and the subsequent history of the 20th century. The German forces captured millions of Soviet prisoners who were not granted protections stipulated in the Geneva Conventions. Most of them never returned alive. Germany deliberately starved the prisoners to death as part of a "Hunger Plan" that aimed to reduce the population of Eastern Europe and then re-populate it with ethnic Germans.
August
*Soviet and British troops invaded Iran.
September 16
*The Shah of Iran abdicated in favor of his 21 year old son, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, who was pro-Allies.
September 29
*At Babi Yar, outside of Kiev, the Nazi invasion force slaughtered up to 96,000 Ukrainians. The magnitude of this massacre was made possible by the utilization of Hiram Maxim's machine gun.
December
*The British helped the Ethiopians to drive the Italians out of Ethiopia and regain their independence.
December 7
*Japanese fighter planes led by Mitsuo Fuchida raided Pearl Harbor, the United States base in Hawaii, sinking five battleships at anchor and killing 2,344 men.
Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States declared war on Japan and, later, on Germany and Italy, bringing the United States into World War II.
December 8
*The United States declared war on Japan after the Pearl Harbor attack, which was an undeclared act of war.
December 9
*The Japanese sank two British warships, the Repulse and the Prince of Wales, off the coast of Malaya.
December 11
*Germany declared war on the United States.
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