Events from the year 1942 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government President: Franklin D. Roosevelt (D-New York) Vice President: Henry A. Wallace (D-Iowa) Chief Justice: Harlan F. Stone (New York) Speaker of the House of Representatives: Sam Rayburn (D-Texas) Senate Majority Leader: Alben W. Barkley (D-Kentucky) Congress: 77th
State governments Governors and lieutenant governors Governors
Lieutenant governors
Events
January January 1 Sales of new cars are banned to save steel. WWII: The United States and Philippines troops fight the Battle of Bataan. January 10 – WWII: The last German air-raid on the English port of Liverpool destroys the home of William Patrick Hitler, Adolf Hitler's nephew. William Hitler is in the United States and later joins the navy to fight against his uncle. January 14–15 – WWII: Operation Drumbeat – German submarine U-123 under the command of Reinhard Hardegen sinks a Norwegian tanker within sight of Long Island before entering New York Harbor and sinking a British tanker off Sandy Hook as she leaves heading south along the East Coast. January 16 – Film actress Carole Lombard and her mother are among all 22 aboard TWA Flight 3 & are killed when the Douglas DC-3 plane crashes into Potosi Mountain near Las Vegas in Nevada while she is returning from a tour to promote the sale of war bonds. January 19 WWII: Japanese forces invade Burma. The United States VIII Bomber Command, later to become the Eighth Air Force, is established in Savannah, Georgia. January 25 – WWII: Thailand declares war on the United States and United Kingdom. January 26 – WWII: The first American forces arrive in Europe, landing in Northern Ireland.
February
February 2 – WWII: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an executive order directing the internment of Italian, German, and Japanese Americans and orders the seizure of their properties. February 7 – President Roosevelt signs an Executive Order creating the War Shipping Administration (WSA). February 8 WWII: Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss American military strategy in the war. Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States. February 9 – WWII: The ocean liner catches fire while being converted into the troopship USS Lafayette at pier 88 in New York City. In the early hours of February 10 she capsizes. February 18 – WWII: More than 200 American sailors die in Newfoundland when the runs aground near Chambers Cove and the runs aground at Lawn Point. February 19 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs executive order 9066 allowing the United States military to define areas as exclusionary zones. These zones affect the Japanese on the West Coast, and Germans and Italians primarily on the East Coast. February 20 – Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace. February 22 – WWII: President Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defense of the nation collapses. February 23 – WWII: The Japanese submarine I-17 fires 17 high-explosive shells toward an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California, causing little damage. February 24 – The Voice of America begins broadcasting. February 25 – Battle of Los Angeles: Over 1,400 AA shells are fired at an unidentified, slow-moving object in the skies over Los Angeles. The appearance of the object triggers an immediate wartime blackout over most of Southern California, with thousands of air raid wardens being deployed throughout the city. In total there are 6 deaths. Despite the several hour barrage no planes are downed. February 26 – The 14th Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Bob Hope is held at Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, with John Ford's How Green Was My Valley winning Outstanding Motion Picture along with four other awards, including a third Best Director win for Ford. The two aforementioned awards are currently considered controversial due to the retroactive high regard placed on Orson Welles' also-nominated Citizen Kane.
March March – Construction begins on the Badger Army Ammunition Plant (the largest in the United States during WWII). March 9 – WWII: Executive order 9082 (February 28, 1942) reorganizes the United States Army into three major commands: Army Ground Forces, Army Air Forces, and Services of Supply, later redesignated Army Service Forces. March 27 – Capitol Records, the first record label on the United States' West Coast of note, is founded by Jonny Mercer, Buddy DeSylvia, and Glenn E. Wallichis.
April April 3 – WWII: Japanese forces begin an all-out assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula.
May May 6 – WWII: On Corregidor, the last American and Filipino forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese. May 14 – Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait is performed for the first time by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. May 15 – WWII: In the United States, a bill creating the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) is signed into law. May 20 – The first African-American seamen are taken into the United States Navy.
June June 4–7 – WWII: Battle of Midway – The United States Navy defeats an Imperial Japanese Navy attack against Midway Atoll. June 7 – WWII: Aleutian Islands Campaign – Japanese forces invade the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. June 13 The United States opens its Office of War Information, a propaganda center. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) is created. June 21 – WWII: Bombardment of Fort Stevens – Fort Stevens, Oregon is fired upon by a Japanese submarine.
July July 4 – WWII in the European Theater of Operations: US Eighth Air Force flies its first inauspicious mission in Europe using borrowed British planes; six aircraft went out, only three came back. July 19 – WWII – Battle of the Atlantic: German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz orders the last U-boats to withdraw from their United States Atlantic coast positions, in response to an effective American convoy system. July 30 – WWII: A bill creating the United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve is signed into law.
August
August 7 – WWII: Battle of Guadalcanal begins – The United States Marine Corps initiates the first American offensive of the war with a landing on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. August 8 – WWII: In Washington, D.C., six German would-be saboteurs are executed (two others are cooperative and receive life imprisonment instead). August 13 – Walt Disney's fifth feature film, Bambi, is released. Although the initial box office gross is lackluster (due to the loss of most of the European film market during World War II), it eventually becomes a financial success through various reissues over the next several decades. Due to continued financial losses, Disney spends the majority of the rest of the 1940s producing a string of package films, with Bambi being the last singular project he will release until Cinderella eight years later. August 15 – WWII: The American tanker SS Ohio reaches Malta as part of the convoy of Operation Pedestal. August 16 – The U.S. Navy blimp L-8 (Flight 101) comes ashore near San Francisco, eventually coming down in Daly City (the crew is missing).
September September 9 – WWII: A Japanese floatplane drops incendiary devices at Mount Emily, near Brookings, Oregon, in the first of two "Lookout Air Raids", the first bombing of the continental United States. September 15 – The Women's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) is established. September 21 – Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber prototype first flies, from Boeing Field, Seattle. September 27 – WWII: Both the commerce raiding German auxiliary cruiser Stier and American Liberty ship sink following a gun battle in the South Atlantic. Hilfskreuzer Stier is the only commerce raider to be sunk by a defensively equipped merchant ship.
October
October 5 – The St. Louis Cardinals defeat the New York Yankees, 4 games to 1, to win their 4th World Series Title. October 11 – WWII – Battle of Cape Esperance: On the northwest coast of Guadalcanal, United States Navy ships intercept and defeat a Japanese fleet on their way to reinforce troops on the island. October 23 – Award-winning composer and Hollywood songwriter Ralph Rainger ("Thanks for the Memory") is among 12 people killed in the mid-air collision between an American Airlines DC-3 airliner and a U.S. Army bomber near Palm Springs, California. October 26 – WWII – Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands: Two Japanese aircraft carriers are heavily damaged and one U.S. carrier is sunk. October 28 – The Alaska Highway is completed.
November
November 8 – Operation Torch – United States and United Kingdom forces land in French North Africa. November 9 – WWII: U.S. serviceman Edward Leonski is hanged at Melbourne's Pentridge Prison for the "Brown-Out" murders of three women in May. November 12 – WWII – Battle of Guadalcanal: A naval battle near Guadalcanal starts between Japanese and American forces. November 13 – Battle of Guadalcanal: Aviators from the sink the Japanese battleship Hiei. November 15 – The Battle of Guadalcanal ends: Although the United States Navy suffers heavy losses, it retains control of Guadalcanal. November 21 – The completion of the Alaska Highway (also known as the Alcan Highway) is celebrated (however, the "highway" is not usable by general vehicles until 1943). November 23 – A bill creating the United States Coast Guard Women's Reserve (SPARS) is signed into law. November 26 – The movie Casablanca premieres at the Hollywood Theater in New York City. November 28 – In Boston, Massachusetts, a fire in the Cocoanut Grove night club kills 491 people. November 29 – Coffee rationing begins in the United States.
December December 1 – Gasoline rationing begins in the United States. December 2 – Manhattan Project: Below the bleachers of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, a team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction (a coded message, "The Italian navigator has landed in the new world" is then sent to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt). December 22 – In Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, an avalanche kills 26, including Vulcan Crucible Steel Co heir-apparent Samuel A. Stafford Sr., when two 100 ton boulders fall on a bus filled with wartime steel workers on their way home.
Ongoing World War II, U.S. involvement (1941–1945)
Unknown The Bernard Family Hall of North American Mammals opens in the American Museum of Natural History, with 10 dioramas
Births
January
January 1 Billy Lothridge, American football player (d. 1996) Country Joe McDonald, American musician (The "Fish" Cheer/I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag) (d. 2026) January 2 Dennis Hastert, American politician (d. 2026) Hugh Shelton, American military leader, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff January 3 – Donna Axum, American beauty pageant winner and model (d. 2018) January 4 – Jim Downing, American race car driver and inventor January 5 – Charlie Rose, American television anchor and talk show host January 7 Jim Lefebvre, American baseball player and manager Danny Steinmann, director and screenwriter (d. 2012) January 9 John Dunning, author (d. 2023) Judy Malloy, poet and author January 11 Clarence Clemons, African-American saxophonist (d. 2011) Leo Cullum, soldier, pilot, and cartoonist (d. 2010) George Mira, American football player (d. 2025) January 17 – Muhammad Ali, born Cassius Clay, African-American boxer, activist, and philanthropist (d. 2016) January 18 – Ruby Winters, American singer (d. 2016) January 20 – Linda Moulton Howe, American journalist and producer January 24 Melvin Fitting, American logician Gary Hart, American wrestler and manager (d. 2008) January 25 – Carl Eller, American football player January 27 John Witherspoon, American actor and comedian (d. 2019) Steve Wynn, American businessman and art collector