 |
| 06/01/1941 |
In his annual message
to Congress, President Roosevelt announces the "Five Freedoms". |
| 08/01/1941 |
US budget includes $17,500,000,000
defence appropriation. |
| 10/01/1941 |
Roosevelt introduces his 'Lend Lease'
bill to the House of Representatives as House Resolution 1776
(H.R. 1776), after recognising that neither Britain or China
could continue paying indefinitely for material supplied. This
allowed the fighting allies to pay the USA back in kind, but
after the war. He likened this to 'lending a neighbour a garden
hose to put out a fire'. |
| 21/01/1941 |
The USA informs the Soviet Union that
the "moral embargo" imposed on it after its 1939
attack on Finland no longer applies. |
| 29/01/1941 |
In Washington, the US and British
military leaders begin secret staff talks regarding co-ordination
of a common war policy against Germany. |
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| 01/02/1941 |
The US Navy is reorganised in to the
Atlantic, Pacific and Asiatic fleets and ordered to gradually
bring ship crews up to war establishment. |
08/02/1941
|
The House of Representatives
passes H.R. 1776 by a vote of 260 to 165. |
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| 08/03/1941 |
The US Senate passes the
'Lend Lease' bill by 60 votes to 31. |
| 11/03/1941 |
The US House of Representatives passes
the 'Lend Lease' Bill by 317 votes to 71, where upon it is
immediately signed by President Roosevelt. Initial priority
for war supplies was to be given to Britain and Greece. |
| 15/03/1941 |
Roosevelt broadcasts to the nation
announcing ‘the end of compromise with tyranny’. |
| 29/03/1941 |
After 2 months and 14 separate meetings,
the US and British staff conference ends with a basic framework
for US-British co-operation should the USA be drawn in to the
war. Most importantly an agreement was made that Germany should
be defeated first. |
| 31/03/1941 |
A US scientific/military team arrives
in the Danish colony of Greenland, to consider the establishment
of military bases there. |
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| 11/04/1941 |
Roosevelt extends the Pan-American
security zone in the Atlantic from 60°W to 26°W. |
| 12/04/1941 |
US troops land in Greenland. |
| 25/04/1941 |
Roosevelt announces an
indefinite extension of US Atlantic patrols. |
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| 06/05/1941 |
US Secretary for War advocates
US Navy protection for British supply convoys. |
| 11/05/1941 |
Japan makes proposals to the USA in
order to improve relations. They demand that the USA stop supplying
war materials to China and that they normalise trade relations.
These are rejected by the USA, although both sides agree to
continue talks. |
| 15/05/1941 |
Roosevelt tells Vichy France to ‘choose
between Germany and US’. |
| 25/05/1941 |
German Navy Chief, Admiral Raeder
warns that US convoying of British war supplies would be considered
an act of war. |
| 27/05/1941 |
President Roosevelt declares unlimited
national emergency; calls upon all Americans to resist Hitlerism. |
| 28/05/1941 |
Roosevelt says Neutrality Act to be
repealed. |
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| 05/06/1941 |
US House Appropriations
committee introduces largest Army expenditure bill since the
First World War at S10,000 million. |
| 14/06/1941 |
President Roosevelt orders
the freezing of all German and Italian assets, as well as those
of occupied countries. |
| 16/06/1941 |
The US State Department orders the
closing by the 10th July of all German consular offices and
tourist agencies in the United States. Italians closed down
on 19th June. |
| 20/06/1941 |
President Roosevelt, in a message
to Congress, denounces the sinking of the American merchant
ship Robin Moor by U-69 as 'an act of piracy'. |
| 23/06/1941 |
US Under-Secretary of State, backs
Churchill’s aid-for-Russia policy. |
| 28/06/1941 |
Vannevar Bush is named as director
of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD),
which has just been created by President Roosevelt. |
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| 04/07/1941 |
In and Independence Day
broadcast, Roosevelt warns the American public that the USA
'will never survive as a happy and prosperous oasis in the
middle of a desert of dictatorship'. |
| 15/07/1941 |
A US airbase is established
at Argentia in Newfoundland. |
| 26/07/1941 |
America freezes all Japanese
assets in the US. |
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| 01/08/1941 |
Roosevelt stops US oil
supplies to the ‘aggressors’. |
| 02/08/1941 |
US and USSR agree on US aid. |
| 06/08/1941 |
The Japanese foreign minister, Admiral
Nomura, proposes to the USA a meeting between Roosevelt and
Prime Minister Konoye. |
| 07/08/1941 |
US Senate extends National Service
to 18 months. |
| 09/08/1941 |
Prime Minister Winston Churchill,
on board HMS Prince of Wales arrives in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland
to meet with President Roosevelt for the Atlantic Conference. |
| 12/08/1941 |
Churchill and Roosevelt sign the Atlantic
Charter, an eight-point declaration of peace aims. |
| 17/08/1941 |
The USA reply's to Admiral Nomura's
proposals of the 6th August, rejecting any high level meeting
until the present differences between Japan and the USA have
been resolved. |
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| 04/09/1941 |
As a result of U652's
attack on the US destroyer Greer, President Roosevelt warns
German and Italian vessels that from now on, if they enter
the Pan-American security zone, they do so at there own risk. |
| 16/09/1941 |
The US announce that it will provide
escort for ships carrying Lend-Lease material up to 26°W,
which meant that clashes with U-boats would become more likely. |
| 17/09/1941 |
The US allocates $100,000,000
to the Soviet Union for the purchase of war materials. |
| 27/09/1941 |
The first liberty ship, the 'Patrick
Henry' is launched at Baltimore naval dockyard. |
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| 08/10/1941 |
In a letter to Stalin,
President Roosevelt promises U.S. military aid to the Soviet
Union. |
| 09/10/1941 |
President Roosevelt in a message to
Congress urges the repeal of Section 6 of the Neutrality Act
which would allow the arming of U.S. merchant ships against "the
modern pirates of the sea", the U-boats. |
| 16/10/1941 |
Admiral Harold R Stark, US chief of
Naval Operations warns of potential hostilities between Japan
and the USSR and possibly between Japan and the USA. |
| 17/10/1941 |
US House representatives allow merchantmen
to be armed. |
| 27/10/1941 |
Roosevelt claims ‘America has
been attacked. The shooting has started’, when referring
to German naval aggression during his Navy Day broadcast. |
| 28/10/1941 |
President Roosevelt approves the appropriation
by Congress of an additional $6 billion in Lend-Lease aid to
Britain and the Soviet Union. |
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| 06/11/1941 |
US gives Russia $1,000m interest free
loan. |
| 13/11/1941 |
President Roosevelt announces
the arming of American merchant vessels carrying Lend-Lease
cargo to Britain. The US Congress and Senate, vote by a small
majority to repeal the 1939 Neutrality Act. |
| 15/11/1941 |
A Japanese special negotiator arrives
in Washington. |
| 26/11/1941 |
U.S. secretary of state puts his final
proposal to the Japanese. |
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| 01/12/1941 |
US-Japanese talks continue,
Roosevelt curtails holiday. |
| 04/12/1941 |
The Japanese Embassy in Washington
begins to leave, destroying code books and personal files in
the process. |
| 06/12/1941 |
President Roosevelt sends a last minute
plea to the Japanese Emperor for peace. |
| 07/12/1941 |
The US begins mobilisation. |
| 08/12/1941 |
President Roosevelt addresses the
U.S. Congress, saying that December 7 is "a date that
will live in infamy." After a vote of 82-0 in the U.S.
Senate, and 388-1 in the House, in favor of declaring war on
Japan, Roosevelt signs the declaration of war. |
| 11/12/1941 |
In response to Germany and Italy's
declaration of war, the US reciprocates and declares war on
both Germany and Italy. Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic
and Nicaragua also declare war on Germany and Italy. |
| 12/12/1941 |
US declares war on Hungary, Romania
and Bulgaria after receiving those country's declarations of
war against the US. |
| 15/12/1941 |
US Secretary of the Navy tells Congress
that 2,729 were killed during the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbour. |
| 19/12/1941 |
Colombia severs diplomatic relations
with Germany and Italy. |
| 22/12/1941 |
Prime Minister Churchill arrives at
the White House as the guest of President Roosevelt for the
Washington Conference. |
| 23/12/1941 |
Concerned about the safety
of the founding documents of the United States in wartime Washington,
the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are removed
from their display space at the National Archives and are transported
in a special sealed container to temporary storage at the U.S.
Gold Depository at Ft. Knox, Kentucky. On Oct. 1, 1944, with
the danger to the mainland United States passed, the documents
are returned to public display in Washington. |
| 26/12/1941 |
Churchill addresses Joint Session
of Congress and receives a rousing ovation, but says allied
offensive must wait until 1943. |
