 |
| 01/01/1942 |
The ‘United Nations’ of
26 allied countries, sign a UN Declaration in Washington of
co-operation and no separate peace. |
| 06/01/1942 |
Roosevelt announces that
US forces are to be based in UK. |
| 07/01/1942 |
Roosevelt’s first War Budget
includes $13,250 million of defence expenditure. |
| 14/01/1942 |
At the so called Arcadia Conference
held in Washington, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister
Churchill agree to concentrate the Allied war effort on the
European theatre. President Roosevelt also orders that all
aliens are to register with the government. This is the beginning
of a plan to move Japanese-Americans into internment camps
in the belief that these people might aid the enemy. |
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02/02/1942
|
Congress appropriates
$26.5 billion for the U.S. Navy, bringing total U.S. war costs
since June of 1940 to more than $115 billion. |
| 19/02/1942 |
Executive Order 9066 is signed by
President Roosevelt, authorizing the transfer of more than
100,000 German, Italian and Japanese-Americans living in coastal
Pacific areas to concentration camps in various inland states
(and
including
inland areas of California). Those interned lose an estimated
400 million dollars in property, as their homes and possessions
are taken from them. |
| 23/02/1942 |
A Japanese submarine shells the Californian
coast. |
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| 13/03/1942 |
Three German spies in
New York get a total of 117 years imprisonment. |
| 25/03/1942 |
In one of the greatest "trading
with the enemy" scandals of the war, U.S. Assistant Attorney
General Thurman Arnold announces that William Stamps Farish
Sr. has pled "no contest" to charges of criminal
conspiracy with the Nazis. Arnold discloses that Standard Oil
of New Jersey (later Exxon) of which Farish is president and
CEO has agreed to stop hiding patents from the U.S. for synthetic
rubber, which the company has in its possession. Missouri Sen.
Harry Truman later roasts Farish in front of his committee
investigating home front wrongdoing, an event that raises Truman's
profile and makes him a plausible running mate for FDR in 1944.
The exposure of the scandal is widely believed to have contributed
to Farish's sudden death from a heart attack in November of
1942. |
| 30/03/1942 |
The Pacific War Council is set up
in Washington, with representatives from Britain, Australia,
Canada, China, New Zealand, Netherlands, Philippines and the
the US. |
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| 10/04/1942 |
The Soviet Ambassador to the USA gives
a speech in Philadelphia demanding an immediate second front
in Europe. |
| 28/04/1942 |
Coastal "dimouts" go
into effect along a fifteen-mile strip on the Eastern Seaboard,
in response to German U-boat activity of the U.S. Atlantic
coast. |
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| 14/05/1942 |
The U.S. Congress establishes
The Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC), under the direction
of Oveta Culp Hobby, editor of the Houston Post. |
| 15/05/1942 |
Gasoline rationing goes into effect
in the Eastern United States. |
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| 01/06/1942 |
Mexico declares war on
Germany, Italy and Japan. |
| 05/06/1942 |
USA warns Japan that she
will retaliate in kind if gas is used. |
| 13/06/1942 |
President Roosevelt authorizes the
creation of the U.S. Office on War Information (OWI). The first
director is Elmer Holmes Davis, a CBS commentator and novelist. |
| 14/06/1942 |
Two German U-boats land teams of saboteurs
on Long Island and near Jacksonville, Florida. However, all
are captured with days and six are executed after a trial. |
| 19/06/1942 |
Churchill and Roosevelt meet to discuss
the number of conflicting offensive plans which might be launched
against Germany in 1942. The main ones were 'Rutter', a 24-hour
cross Channel raid on Dieppe. 'Sledgehammer' using six division
to establish a lodgement on the French coast at Cherbourg and
'Jupiter' which called for a lodgement in northern Norway.
Discussion were also had on the up and coming operation 'Gymnast',
which was the proposed Anglo-American landing in French North
Africa later in the year. |
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| 13/07/1942 |
President Roosevelt orders
the establishment of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services),
with Colonel Donovan as director. |
| 21/07/1942 |
US losses since the war began are
reported at 44,143 killed, wounded and missing. |
| 24/07/1942 |
Roosevelt agrees with Churchill that
operation 'Gymnast' should proceed, whilst operation 'Sledgehammer'
should be cancelled. |
| 30/07/1942 |
The Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency
Services (WAVES) is authorized by the U.S. Congress. |
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| 03/08/1942 |
The FBI arrests 89 ‘dangerous
aliens’ in USA. |
| 21/08/1942 |
Roosevelt says the perpetrators
of barbarism in occupied countries ‘will have to stand
in courts of law, in the very countries which they are now
oppressing and answer for their acts’. |
| 22/08/1942 |
Under heavy pressure from the US,
Brazil declares war on Germany and Italy. |
| 28/08/1942 |
A Japanese seaplane catapulted from
submarine I-25 and drops firebombs on forests in Oregon, USA. |
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| 07/09/1942 |
Roosevelt threatens to
override Congress unless they take action to curb inflation. |
| 09/09/1942 |
Japanese bomb Oregon forests with
incendiaries for second time. |
| 16/09/1942 |
The Women's Airforce Service
Pilots (WASPS) are established in the U.S.. The armed forces
will be supplied with more than 1000 auxiliary pilots through
this organization. |
| 23/09/1942 |
Wendell Willkie, 1940 Republican
presidential candidate, confers with Stalin and calls for a
second front at the earliest possible moment. |
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| 06/10/1942 |
The setting up of a UN
commission to investigate war crimes is announced in Washington. |
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| 10/11/1942 |
President Roosevelt announces the
breaking-off of diplomatic relations with Vichy France. |
11/11/1942
|
The United States extends
Lend-Lease aid to the Free French Forces under General de Gaulle. |
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| 01/12/1942 |
Coffee joins the list
of rationed items in the US. |
| 02/12/1942 |
The first controlled,
self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction is realized by Professor
Fermi and a team of scientists working under the name of the "Manhattan
Engineering District." |
| 07/12/1942 |
The US Navy launches the Battleship
New Jersey and 11 other ships on the anniversary of Pearl Harbour. |
