TheDeclaration by United Nations was agreed upon during theArcadia Conference in Washington, D.C. Representatives of 26 Allied nations pledged to employ their "full resources" until victory was won and not to make any separate peace agreements with Axis powers.
Thefourth National Football League All-Star Game was held at thePolo Grounds in New York City. TheChicago Bears defeated an all-star team 35–24. The game was originally scheduled to be held in Los Angeles where the first three all-star games were held, but it was moved to New York due to wartime travel restrictions.
U.S. PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt gave theState of the Union Address to Congress. "In fulfilling my duty to report upon the State of the Union, I am proud to say to you that the spirit of the American people was never higher than it is today—the Union was never more closely knit together—this country was never more deeply determined to face the solemn tasks before it", the president began. "The response of the American people has been instantaneous, and it will be sustained until our security is assured ... We have not been stunned. We have not been terrified or confused. This very reassembling of the Seventy-seventh Congress today is proof of that; for the mood of quiet, grim resolution which here prevails bodes ill for those who conspired and collaborated to murder world peace. That mood is stronger than any mere desire for revenge. It expresses the will of the American people to make very certain that the world will never so suffer again."[11]
Japanese troops landed atBrunei Bay in British Borneo.[12]
U.S. PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt presented Congress with the biggest budget ever seen up to that time. It called for the expenditure of $77 billion over the next 18 months, $56 billion of which was for the war effort.[14] The plan called for the production of 125,000 aircraft, 75,000 tanks, 35,000 guns and 8 million tons of shipping by the end of 1943.[15]
Adolf Hitler hadGeneraloberstErich Hoepner sacked for ordering his forces to pull back on the Eastern Front without approval. Hitler not only had Hoepner removed from command but deprived him of his pension and the right to wear his uniform as well.[16]
German submarinesU-604 andU-660 were commissioned.
Born:
Stephen Hawking, theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author, inOxford, England (d. 2018);
AdmiralIsoroku Yamamoto made a statement toTaketora Ogata that may have been the basis for the apocryphalsleeping giant quote attributed to him when he said, "A military man can scarcely pride himself on having 'smitten a sleeping enemy'; it is more a matter of shame, simply, for the one smitten. I would rather you made your appraisal after seeing what the enemy does, since it is certain that, angered and outraged, he will soon launch a determined counterattack."[17]
The American cargo ship USATLiberty was torpedoed by Japanese submarineI-166 and beached on the island ofBali.
The British cargo steamshipCyclops was torpedoed and sunk off the coast ofNova Scotia by German submarineU-123. It was the first attack of theKriegsmarine'sOperation Drumbeat aiming to destroy Allied shipping in the Western Atlantic.
In combat in theBattle of Bataan, 2nd Lt.Alexander R. Nininger was killed as he led his Philippine Scouts unit and attacked Japanese positions. A 1941 graduate ofWest Point, "Sandy" Nininger would posthumously receive the firstMedal of Honor of World War II.
The Roosevelt Administration created aNational War Labor Board to prevent strikes and reconcile wages with control over inflation and the war economy.[24]
Joe Louis reported for duty atCamp Upton. A large contingent of reporters turned up to make photographs and newsreel film of the boxing champion in uniform.[20]
Representatives of Alliedgovernments in exile signed the declaration onPunishment for War Crimes in London declaring that one of their principal war aims would be to ensure that those responsible forwar crimes would be brought to justice.[25]
In the United States, theSikorsky R-4 helicopter had its first flight.
Heinkel test pilot Helmut Schenck became the first person to escape from an aircraft using anejection seat when his control surfaces iced up and became inoperative.
British forces conductedOperation Postmaster on the Spanish island ofFernando Po. Two tugs and the Italian merchant vesselDuchessa d'Aosta were captured and sailed away.
German submarine U-123 surfaced so close toNew York Harbor that the rides atConey Island could be seen silhouetted against the evening sky. CaptainReinhard Hardegen expected the U.S. east coast to beblacked out after more than a month at war and was surprised to see the glow in the sky from Manhattan's millions of lights.[26]
Field MarshalWilhelm Ritter von Leeb insisted he either be relieved of command or given freedom to direct his forces as he wanted. Hitler chose the former.[13]
President Roosevelt sent a letter to baseball commissionerKenesaw Mountain Landis saying that baseball should continue in wartime. "I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going", Roosevelt wrote. "There will be fewer people unemployed and everybody will work longer hours and harder than ever before. And that means that they ought to have a chance for recreation and for taking their minds off their work even more than before."[27]
President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9024, creating theWar Production Board.
British Prime MinisterWinston Churchill became the first world leader to cross the Atlantic Ocean by plane, following the end of theArcadia Conference First in Washington with U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt. Churchill had arrived in arrived inWashington, D.C. on December 22 after crossing in the shipHMS Duke of York.
An Axis convoy docked atTripoli providing Rommel with 55 new panzers, 20 armoured cars, and a large quantity of fuel, food and ammunition. Rommel immediately began planning a new offensive.[3]
Senior Nazi officials met at theWannsee Conference to agree on the implementation of theFinal Solution, whereby Jews in German-occupied territories would be deported to Poland and systematically murdered in extermination camps.
Sonderkommando Blaich: OneHeinkel He 111 medium bomber raided theFree French-controlledFort Lamy inFrench Equatorial Africa. The plane bombed the fort unchallenged but then ran low on fuel and had to make an emergency landing, leaving the crew stranded some 120 miles from their airstrip in southern Libya until aJunkers Ju 52 transport aircraft arrived a week later with fuel.
The American submarineUSS S-26 was accidentally rammed and sunk in theGulf of Panama by the submarine chaserUSS Sturdy. 46 men were lost.
A committee assigned by President Roosevelt on December 18, 1941 to investigate the Pearl Harbor attack issued its report, putting the blame on AdmiralHusband E. Kimmel and Lieutenant GeneralWalter Short for failing to coordinate their defenses appropriately or taking measures reasonably required in the light of the warnings they had been given. Both men would receive death threats as a result of the report.[38]
Hermann Göring visited Italy for high-level talks lasting through February 5.[29]
Japanese submarine I-73 was torpedoed and sunk 240 miles west ofMidway Atoll by theUSS Gudgeon. This marked the first time in the war that a United States Navy submarine sank an enemy warship.
The British oil tankerHarpa struck a mine and sank in theSingapore Strait with the loss of 39 out of 40 crew.
The ninthPan-American Conference adjourned after the representatives of 21 countries signed an agreement to sever diplomatic, financial and commercial relations with theAxis powers.[44]
Brazil andParaguay broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, Italy and Japan.[10]
Rommel retookBenghazi by noon.[3] Just as he entered the city, he received a message fromBenito Mussolini suggesting that he should launch an offensive to take Benghazi. Rommel sent back a curt response: "Benghazi already taken." 1,000 men of the4th Indian Division were still trapped in the city and surrendered when it fell.[48]
Adolf Hitler made a speech in theBerlin Sportpalast on the ninth anniversary of the Nazis coming to power. He declared, "We are fully aware that this war can end only either in the extermination of the Teutonic peoples or in the disappearance of Jewry from Europe." Hitler predicted that "the outcome of this war will be the annihilation of Jewry."[49]
The Irish government claimed that its neutrality was being violated by the American troop presence in Northern Ireland. An official statement declared that the United States had recognized a "Quisling government" in Northern Ireland by sending troops there and that the British were making a new attempt to force Ireland into the war on the side of the Allies.[50]
^abcdefMitcham, Samuel W. (2008).The Rise of the Wehrmacht: Vol. 1. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Security International. pp. 553–554.ISBN978-0-275-99641-3.
^Lingeman, Richard J. (2002).Sinclair Lewis: Rebel from Main Street. Borealis Books. p. 460.ISBN978-0-87351-541-2.
^Yenne, Bill (2014).The Imperial Japanese Army: The Invincible Years 1941–42. Osprey Publishing. p. 124.ISBN978-1-78200-932-0.
^abcMercer, Derrik, ed. (1989).Chronicle of the 20th Century. London: Chronicle Communications Ltd. p. 561.ISBN978-0-582-03919-3.
^abMegargee, Geoffrey P. (2006).War of Annihilation: Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front, 1941. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 140.ISBN978-0-7425-4482-6.
^"56 Billions for War!".Brooklyn Eagle. Brooklyn. January 7, 1942. p. 1.
^Weinberg, Gerhard L. (1995).Germany, Hitler, and World War II: Essays in Modern German and World History. Cambridge University Press. p. 65.ISBN978-0-521-56626-1.
