| From the New Deal to Pearl Harbor |
| 1933 | January 5 | Former President Calvin Coolidge dies at his home in Northampton, Massachusetts. |
| January 30 | The Lone Ranger show premiers on radio. |
| February 6 | The 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution takes effect. Henceforth Presidential and Congressional terms of office begin in January rather than March. |
| February 15 | President Elect Roosevelt survives an assassination attempt by anarchist Guiseppi Zangara. A bystander deflects the assassin's arm but Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak who is riding in Roosevelt 's car is mortally wounded by a stray shot. |
| March 4 | Franklin Delano Roosevelt is sworn in as the 33rd President of the United States. "This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is itself ..." |
| March 4 | Francis Perkins is sworn in as Secretary of Labor becoming the first woman cabinet secretary. |
| March 6 | Roosevelt declares a nationwide Bank Holiday to stem panic withdrawals by depositors who fear the new administration is about devalue the dollar and to allow auditors time to assess the solvency of country's banking institutions. Banks began reopening a week later but 4000 are declared insolvent and remained closed. |
| March 31 | The Civilian Conservation Corps is established to provide employment for men between the ages of 17 and 33 on projects to preserve the nation's forests, parks and range land. |
| April 7 | The Volstead Act is amended to allow sale of beer with less than 3.2% alcohol and wine. |
| May 18 | The Tennessee Valley Authority is established to build and market power from hydro-electric projects and spur economic growth in impoverished areas of seven southeastern states. |
| May 20 | Charlie Chan premiers on NBC radio. |
| May 27 | The Century of Progress Exposition opens in Chicago. The fair draws 39 million visitors and turns a small profit. |
| June 6 | The first drive-in movie theater opens in Camden, New Jersey. |
| July 7 | The first All Star baseball game between the American and National Leagues is held in conjunction with the Chicago World's Fair. The American League stars win 4 to 2. |
| October 4 | Esquire Magazine publishes its first issue. |
| November 7 | Republican congressman Fiorello H. LaGuardia is elected mayor of New York City on a reform platform. |
| | Pennsylvania votes to exempt sporting contests from Sunday closing laws. |
| November 16 | The Roosevelt administration extends diplomatic recognition to the Soviet Union. |
| December 5 | The 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution repeals the 18th Amendment. Prohibition ends. |
| December 10 | Thomas Hunt Morgan of the California Institute of Technology, is awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine, "for his discoveries concerning the role played by the chromosome in heredity..." |
| Notable Books | The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas - Gertrude Stein |
| | God's Little Acre - Erskine Caldwell |
| Notable Films | A Farewell to Arms - Helen Hayes, Gary Cooper |
| | 42nd Street - Warner Baxter, Ruby Keeler, Ginger Rodgers |
| | King Kong - Fay Wray |
| | Pulitzer Prize for Drama |
| | Both Your Houses - Maxwell Anderson |
| 1934 | January 1 | The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is created to insure bank accounts up to $2500. |
| | A federal prison opens on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. |
| January 26 | The Apollo Theater opens in New York City's Harlem district. |
| March 22 | Congress passes an act granting independence to the Philippine Islands effective July 4, 1944. |
| March 26 | The first Masters Golf Tournament is won by Horton Smith. |
| June 6 | The Securities and Exchange Commission is created by act of Congress to police the stock exchanges and financial brokerage houses. Joseph P. Kennedy is appointed commissioner. |
| June 15 | Great Smoky Mountains National Park is established by Act of Congress. |
| July 22 | FBI agents kill gangster John Dillenger outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago. |
| September 9 | SS Morro Castle en route to New York from Havana catches fire 60 miles off the coast of New Jersey at 2 a.m. 134 passengers and crew are killed. |
| September 30 | Babe Ruth plays his last game in a New York Yankees uniform. |
| November 5 | Anything Goes (music by Cole Porter, starring Ethel Merman and Vivian Vance) premiers at the Alvin Theater, Broadway, New York. |
| November 20 | The Children's Hour by Lillian Hellman premiers on Broadway. |
| December 10 | Harold C. Urey is awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, "for his discovery of heavy hydrogen..." |
| | George H. Whipple of the University of Rochester and George R. Minot & William P. Murphy of Harvard University share the Nobel Prize for Medicine, "for their discoveries concerning liver therapy in cases of anemia..." |
| Notable Films | It Happened One Night - Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Frank Capra - director |
| | The Thin Man - William Powell, Myrna Loy |
| | Cleopatra - Claudette Colbert, Cecil B. DeMille - director |
| Notable Recordings | Love in Bloom - Bing Crosby |
| 1935 | February 13 | A jury in Flemington, New Jersey convicts Bruno Richard Hauptman of the kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby. |
| March 20 | Your Hit Parade premiers on radio. |
| April 1 | Albert Einstein delivers an address on the dangers of Nazism at a Carnegie Hall benefit for Jewish refugees from Germany. |
| April 8 | Congress passes legislation creating the Works Progress Administration. |
| May 24 | A major league baseball game is played at night for the first time at Crosley Field, Cincinnati, Ohio between the Reds and the Philadelphia Phillies. |
| May 27 | The United States Supreme Court declares the National Industrial Recovery Act unconstitutional. |
| June | Omaha wins the Belmont Stakes to complete a sweep of horse racing's Triple Crown. |
| July | The National Labor Relations Act authored by Senator Robert F. Wagner of New York is enacted. The Act guarantees the right of workers to form unions and bargain collectively. |
| August 14 | President Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act providing pensions for workers at age 65. |
| August 15 | Humorist Will Rodgers and aviator Wiley Post are killed in a plane crash at Barrow, Alaska. |
| September 2 | A hurricane makes landfall in the Florida Keys killing 423 people. |
| September 8 | Senator Huey P. Long of Louisiana is assassinated by Carl Weiss. Long had planned to challenge Roosevelt for the presidency in 1936. Long's "Share the Wealth" platform called for a guaranteed income and limits on accumulation of wealth. |
| September 20 | President Roosevelt dedicates Boulder Dam (later renamed Hoover Dam) on the Colorado River. The 726 foot high structure cost $48,890,995. Ninety-Six workers died constructing it. |
| September 30 | The Adventures of Dick Tracy on premier on the Mutual Broadcasting System. |
| October | The United States Supreme Court Building designed by Cass Gilbert is completed. |
| October 10 | George and Ira Gershwin's Porgy and Bess premiers on Broadway. |
| November 5 | Parker Brothers introduces the board game Monopoly |
| November 22 | The first flight of Pan American Airways China Clipper from San Francisco to Manila via Honolulu, Midway Island, Wake Island and Guam is completed in 59 hrs 48 min. |
| Notable Books | Winterset - Maxwell Anderson |
| | Tortilla Flat - John Steinbeck |
| Notable Films | Mutiny on the Bounty - Charles Laughton, Clark Gable |
| | The Informer - Victor McLaghlen, John Ford - director |
| | The Lives of the Bengal Lancers - Gary Cooper, Franchot Tone |
| | Top Hat - Fred Astaire, Ginger Rodgers |
| Notable Recordings | I'm Getting Sentimental Over You - Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra |
| 1936 | January 31 | The Green Hornet show premiers on radio. |
| March 20 | T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral premiers on Broadway. |
| April 29 | Arturo Toscanini conducts his farewell concert at Carnegie Hall. |
| June 19 | German boxer Max Schmeling hands Joe Louis, aka "the Brown Bomber", his first professional defeat scoring a technical knock out in the 12th round. |
| June 27 | Franklin Delano Roosevelt is nominated for a 2nd term as President. |
| August | Ohio State University runner, Jesse Owens, wins gold medals in the 100 meter dash, 200 meter dash, broadjump and 400 meter relays at the Berlin Olympics. |
| November 3 | President Roosevelt is re-elected in landslide victory over Kansas Governor Alfred M. Landon. Roosevelt wins a record 523 electoral votes and carries every state save Maine and Vermont. |
| November 23 | Life magazine’s first issue with Margaret Bourke-White's cover photo of Fort Peck Dam on the Missouri River appears on newsstands. |
| December 10 | Carl D. Anderson of the California Institute of Technology is awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics, "for his discovery of the positron..." |
| | Eugene O'Neill is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, "for the power, honesty and deep felt emotions of his dramatic works..." |
| December 14 | George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart's You Can't Take It With You opens at New York's Booth Theater |
| Notable Books | It Can't Happen Here - Sinclair Lewis |
| | Drums Along the Mohawk - Walter D. Edmonds |
| | The Shadow over Innsmouth - H.P. Lovecraft |
| Notable Films | The Great Ziegfeld - Luise Rainer |
| | San Francisco - Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald, Spencer Tracy |
| | My Man Godfrey - William Powell, Carole Lombard |
| | Modern Times - Charlie Chaplin, Paulette Goddard |
| Notable Recordings | Back in the Saddle Again - Gene Autry |
| | Indian Love Call - Nelson Eddy & Jeanette MacDonald |
| | Pulitzer Prize for Drama |
| | Idiot's Delight - Robert Sherwood |
| 1937 | January 19 | Howard Hughes sets the transcontinental speed record by flying from Los Angeles to New York in 7 hours 28 minutes 25 seconds. |
| February 5 | President Roosevelt proposes increasing the number of Supreme Court justices from 9 to 15. |
| February 11 | A “sitdown strike” by automobile workers ends after a 44 day occupation of General Motors assembly plants in Flint, Michigan. The company agrees to recognize the United Automobile Workers Union. |
| March 2 | United States Steel signs a contract with the Steelworker's Organizing Committee, recognizes the union as bargaining agent, grants a wage increase and a 40 hour work week. |
| April 14 | Rodgers and Hart's Babes in Arms opens at New York's Schubert Theater. |
| May 1 | President Roosevelt signs the Neutrality Act. |
| May 6 | German airship LZ-129 Hindenburg bursts into flames during a landing attempt at Lakehurst Naval Air Station, New Jersey killing 48 of 97 passengers and crew. |
| May 23 | John D. Rockefeller dies in Florida at age 98. |
| May 28 | The Golden Gate Bridge spanning the entrance to San Francisco Bay opens to traffic. The 1280 m suspension span designed by Joseph Strauss cost $35 million. |
| May 30 | Chicago police kill 10 demonstrators attempting to march on a Republic Steel Company plant. The company was one of several small steel producers that refused to follow the lead of U.S. Steel in recognizing the Steel Worker's Organizing Committee. |
| June | War Admiral wins the Belmont Stakes to complete a sweep of horse racing's Triple Crown. |
| June 22 | Joe Louis knocks out James Braddock in the 8th round of their heavyweight championship bout in Chicago. Louis becomes the first African American heavyweight boxing champion since Jack Johnson lost the title in 1915. |
| July 1 | Composer George Gershwin dies of a brain tumor at age 38. |
| July 2 | Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappear between Lae, New Guinea and Howland Island after completing 22,000 miles of planned round the world flight that began in Oakland, California. |
| July 22 | The U.S. Senate rejects Roosevelt's proposal to enlarge the Supreme Court. |
| July 24 | The State of Alabama drops charges against 5 of the 9 Scottsboro Boys (black men accused of raping 2 white girls six years earlier) after losing two appeals in the U.S. Supreme Court. |
| September 28 | President Roosevelt dedicates Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River. The 150 foot high dam took five years to construct, produces 526 mw of electricity and improves navigation. The Works Progress Administration financed the project's $88 million cost. |
| December 10 | Clinton J. Davisson of Bell Laboratories is awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics, "for his experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals..." |
| December 12 | Japanese dive bombers sink the USS Panay in the Yangtze River near Nanking, China killing 2 and wounding 48 crewmembers. |
| Notable Books | Northwest Passage - Kenneth Roberts |
| | To Have and Have Not - Ernest Hemingway |
| Notable Films | The Life of Emile Zola - Paul Muni |
| | Lost Horizon - Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt, John Howard, Frank Capra - director |
| | Captain's Courageous - Spencer Tracy, Freddie Bartholomew, Lionel Barrymore |
| | Notable Theatrical Drama |
| | One O'clock Jump - Count Basie |
| | The Lady is a Tramp, I Wish I Were in Love Again, My Funny Valentine - Richard Rodgers |
| | Sing Sing Sing - Benny Goodman & His Orchestra |
| Notable Recordings | Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck |
| | I'd Rather Be Right - Rodgers & Hart |
| 1938 | January 3 | President Roosevelt establishes the March of Dimes to raise funds for polio research. |
| January 28 | The first mechanized ski lift (a rope tow powered by a Model-T engine) installed on Clinton Gilbert's Woodstock, Vermont farm. |
| February 4 | Thorton Wilder's Our Town opens on Broadway. The drama gets poor reviews from the critics but later wins a Pulitzer Prize. |
| May 13 | Seabiscuit beats 4 to 1 favorite and 1937 Triple Crown Champion War Admiral by 4 lengths in the second running of the Pimlico Special. |
| June 14 | The Fair Labor Standards Act establishes a minimum wage of 25 cents per hour for industrial workers. |
| June 22 | 70,043 patrons crowd into Yankee Stadium for the Schmeling - Louis heavyweight rematch, Louis knocks out the German 2 minutes 24 seconds into the 1st round. |
| June 29 | Olympic National Park is established by Act of Congress. |
| July 17 | Douglas Corrigan is denied permission to make a transatlantic crossing in the 1929 Curtis Robin he bought off a scrap heap for $310. Corrigan takes off from Floyd Bennett Field; Brooklyn, New York after telling authorities he intends to return to Long Beach, CA. |
| July 18 | "Wrong Way" Corrigan lands in Dublin, Ireland after a 28 hour 13 minute flight. "I just got in from New York . Where am I?" |
| September 21 | A hurricane makes landfall on the New York and New England coast killing 600 people. |
| September 24 | Tennis star Don Budge wins the U.S. Open at Forest Hills completing a sweep of the Year's U.S., British, French and Australian open tournaments. |
| October 30 | Orson Wells' radio production of H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds terrifies thousands who believe the report of a Martian invasion in New Jersey. |
| December 31 | A Boeing 307 makes the first flight of a pressurized airliner. |
| Notable Films | The Adventures of Robin Hood - Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone |
| | Jezebel - Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, William Wyler - director |
| | Boys Town - Spencer Tracy, Mickey Rooney |
| | Angels with Dirty Faces - James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart |
| | Algiers - Charles Boyer, Hedy Lamarr |
| Notable Recordings | Begin the Bequine - Artie Shaw & His Orchestra |
| | Thanks for the Memory - Bob Hope |
| | A Tisket A Tasket - Ella Fitzgerald |
| | When the Saints Go Marching In - Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra |
| | Ain't Misbehavin' - Fats Waller |
| 1939 | February 15 | Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes starring Tahlluah Bankhead premiers on Broadway. |
| February 18 | The Golden Gate International Exposition marking the completion of the Golden Gate and San Francisco Bay Bridges opens on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay. |
| March 28 | The Philadelphia Story starring Katherine Hepburn premiers on Broadway. |
| April 9 | Marian Anderson gives a concert for 75,000 people gathered at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The Daughters of the American Revolution had refused the African-American contralto the use of Constitution Hall. |
| April 30 | The New York World's Fair, The World of Tomorrow, opens. General Motors Futurama (a look at the city of 1960) designed by Norman Bel Geddes becomes the fair's most popular exhibit. |
| May 2 | New York Yankees 1st baseman Lou Gehrig removes himself from the lineup after playing 2,130 consecutive games over 14 seasons. Gehrig is diagnosed with amytropic lateral sclerosis a fatal disease that forces him into retirement. |
| May 20 | Pan American World Airways' Yankee Clipper begins regular flights between New York and Europe. |
| June 7 | King George VI and Queen Elizabeth begin a five day visit to the United States. |
| June 30 | Frank Sinatra debuts as lead singer with the Harry James Band. |
| July 4 | Lou Gehrig Day at Yankee Stadium - Gehrig tells the sellout crowd that "That I might have gotten a bad break... today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth." |
| August 2 | Albert Einstein writes President Roosevelt urging him to investigate recent discoveries relating to atomic energy. |
| | President Roosevelt signs the Hatch Act barring the participation of civil servants in political campaigns. |
| August 6 | The Dinah Shore Show premiers on NBC radio. |
| September 8 | President Roosevelt declares a limited state of national emergency. |
| September 30 | Captain Midnight premiers on the Mutual Broadcasting System. |
| October 16 | Kaufman and Hart's The Man Who Came to Dinner starring Monty Wooley opens at the Music Box in New York. |
| October 25 | William Saroyan's The Time of Your Life wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Saroyan refuses to accept and denounces the award as "wealth patronizing art". |
| November 1 | The last of 14 skyscrapers in Rockefeller Center, the largest pre-World War II business and entertainment complex built in America, is completed. It was the largest privately financed construction project of the 1930s, employed 75,000 workers and took 8 years to complete. |
| November 8 | Life with Father begins an 8 year run at New York's Empire Theater. |
| December 10 | Ernest Orlando Wilson of the University of California is awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics, "for his discovery and development of the cyclotron..." |
| | Pearl S. Buck is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China..." |
| Notable Books | The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck |
| | The Yearling - Majorie K. Rawlings |
| | All This and Heaven Too - Rachel Field |
| Notable Films | Gone With the Wind - Clark Gable, Vivian Leigh |
| | Mr. Smith Goes to Washington - James Stewart, Jean Arthur Claude Raines, Frank Capra - director |
| | Stagecoach - John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Andy Devine, John Carradine, John Ford – director The Wizard of Oz - Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Bet Lahr, Jack Haley |
| Notable Recordings | God Bless America - Kate Smith |
| | Moonlight Serenade - Glenn Miller & His Orchestra |
| | All or Nothing at All - Frank Sinatra & the Harry James Band |
| | Over the Rainbow - Judy Garland |
| | Jeepers Creepers - Louis Armstrong & His Orchestra |
| | Beer Barrel Polka - The Andrews Sisters |
| | Cherokee - Charlie Barnet & His Orchestra |
| | That Old Gang of Mine, I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now - Perry Como |
| 1940 | January 7 | Gene Autry's Melody Ranch radio show premiers. |
| January 31 | The U.S. Government issues the first monthly Social Security check for $22.54 to Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vermont. |
| February 1 | Frank Sinatra replaces Jack Leonard as lead signer of the Tommy Dorsey Band. |
| February 7 | Walt Disney's Pinocchio premiers at New York's Center Theater. |
| February 12 | The Adventures of Superman premier on radio. |
| February 29 | Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African-American to win an Academy Award (Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy in Gone With the Wind). |
| March | Kings Canyon National Park is established by Act of Congress. |
| April 1 | The Census Bureau reports number of United States inhabitants is 130,962,661. |
| April 3 | Isle Royale National Park is established by Act of Congress. |
| June 29 | President Roosevelt signs a bill requiring registration and fingerprinting of all aliens. |
| July 3 | Abbot & Costello debut on NBC radio. |
| July 27 | Bugs Bunny debuts in the Warner Brothers cartoon A Wild Hare. |
| August 19 | The Civil Aeronautics Board awards honorary pilot's license #1 to Orville Wright. |
| September 16 | President Roosevelt signs the Selective Service Act, the first peacetime conscription in United States history. |
| October 1 | America's first superhighway, a 160 mile section of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, opens to traffic. Driving time between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg is reduced by 3 hours. Planners predict that 1.3 million vehicles a year will use the road but 2.4 million vehicles pay the toll in the highway's first and only pre-war year of operation. |
| October 29 | Secretary of War Henry Stimson draws numbers for America's first peacetime draft. |
| November 5 | President Roosevelt is elected to an unprecedented third term. The President receives 27,243,466 popular and 449 electoral votes to Republican challenger Wendell Wilkie's 22,304,755 popular and 82 electoral votes. |
| November 7 | A 42 mph wind sends the 2800 foot main span of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge crashing into Puget Sound. Aerodynamic testing of suspension bridge designs becomes standard procedure after the collapse of "Galloping Gertie". |
| November 12 | The first general purpose vehicle "Jeep" is built by Willys-Overland Motors of Toledo. |
| December | Arsenic and Old Lace starring Boris Karloff begins road rehersals in Baltimore. |
| December 5 | Rodgers and Hart's Pal Joey starring Gene Kelly and Van Johnson premiers on Broadway. |
| December 21 | The SS Charles Pratt an American oil tanker sunk by a German U-boat off the west coast of Africa. |
| Notable Books | You Can't Go Home Again - Thomas Wolfe |
| | The Time of Your Life - William Saroyan |
| Notable Films | The Grapes of Wrath - Henry Fonda, John Carradine, John Ford - director |
| | Rebecca - Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Alfred Hitchcock – director The Philadelphia Story - Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, James Stewart |
| | The Great Dictator - Charlie Chaplin |
| Notable Recordings | Tuxedo Junction, Pennsylvania 6-5000 - Glenn Miller & His Orchestra |
| | When You Wish Upon A Star - Frances Langford |
| | Stardust - Hoagie Carmicheal |
| | Moonlight & Roses - Lanny Ross |
| 1941 | January 23 | Charles Lindbergh testifies against the Lend Lease Bill in a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. |
| February 6 | Lindbergh reiterates his opposition to Lend Lease in testimony before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, "I'm against appeasement, but I am more opposed to an unnecessary war. I'm opposed to buying time by spending British blood. I oppose aid to England that would weaken us or carry us into war. I don't believe the United States can or should police the world. ... I don't believe the Germans think they can come over here, but if they tried, I believe in war to the uttermost." |
| February 11 | Wendell Wilkie testifies in behalf of the Lend Lease Bill in an appearance before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. Wilkie tells the senators that the United States should send all its bombers save those needed for training and five to ten destroyers a month to Britain. |
| March 6 | The State Department orders closure of Italian consulates in Newark and Detroit. |
| March 7 | The Lend Lease Bill passes the United States Senate by a vote of 60 to 31. |
| March 11 | The House of Representatives passes the Lend Lease bill by a vote of 317 to 71. President Roosevelt signs the measure into law. |
| | The American freighter Cold Harbor arrives in Marseilles with 1500 tons of relief supplies for French children in the unoccupied zone. |
| March 17 | President Roosevelt presides over the opening of the National Gallery of Art. |
| March 22 | First generator at Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River becomes operational. |
| March 30 | The Coast Guard seizes 28 Italian, 2 German and 35 Danish ships in anchored in American ports following reports that crews are sabotaging the ship's engines. |
| April 9 | USS North Carolina launched at New York Naval Shipyard, Brooklyn, New York. |
| April 10 | The Danish Minister to the United States, Hendrik Kauffman signs an agreement granting the United States rights to maintain and operate landing fields, seaplane facilities, radio and meteorology stations in Greenland. King Christian renounces the agreement and the Minister is recalled. |
| April 17 | The first successful helicopter flight is demonstrated by Igor Sikorsky at Stratford, Connecticut. |
| | The Office of Price Administration is established to administer rationing programs. |
| April 23 | Charles Lindbergh addresses a crowd of 30,000 gathered in New York City for an America First Committee rally. "The British Government has one last desperate play remaining; they hope that they may be able to persuade us to send another American Expeditionary Force to Europe and share with England militarily, as well as financially, the fiasco of this war. We in this country have a right to think of the welfare of America first, just as the people in England thought first of their own country when they encouraged the smaller nations of Europe to fight against hopeless odds." |
| April 25 | President Roosevelt tells a press conference that Lindbergh is a defeatist and an appeaser. |
| April 28 | Lindbergh resigns his commission as a Colonel in the U.S. Army Air Corps Reserve. |
| May 2 | The Federal Communications Commission announces agreement to allow start of regularly scheduled programming by commercial television stations effective July 1st. |
| May 6 | Bob Hope gives his first USO performance at March Field, California. |
| May 21 | Roosevelt declares an unlimited state of national emergency. |
| | The SS Robin Moor an American freighter is torpedoed by German submarine 950 miles off the coast of Brazil. |
| June | Whirlaway wins the Belmont Stakes to complete a sweep of horse racing's Triple Crown. |
| June 2 | Lou Gehrig, former New York Yankee 1st baseman, dies of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. |
| June 9 | The U.S. Army takes control of strikebound North American Aviation Company. |
| June 14 | The United States freezes assets of Germany, Italy and all occupied countries. |
| June 15 | Italy freezes American assets in that country. |
| June 16 | The State Department orders closure of all German consulates, tourist and news agencies in the United States by July 10th. |
| June 19 | Germany and Italy order closure of United States Consulates those countries. |
| June 20 | President Roosevelt issues executive order banning export of petroleum products from east coast ports except to the British Empire, western hemisphere countries, Iceland or Greenland. |
| | Ford Motor Company agrees to a contract with the United Auto Workers Union covering all its plants in the United States. |
| June 21 | The State Department orders closure of Italian consulates in the United States. |
| June 23 | The United States bans the departure of Italian nationals. |
| June 24 | President Roosevelt pledges to extend American aid to the Soviet Union. |
| | The Treasury Department releases $39 million in frozen Soviet assets. |
| | Italy requires exit visas for United States citizens. |
| July 1 | The United States air base on Bermuda is commissioned. |
| | Mammoth Cave National Park is established by Act of Congress. |
| July 3 | Harlan Fiske Stone of New York is sworn in as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. |
| July 7 | President Roosevelt informs Congress that United States troops have occupied Iceland at the request of the Icelandic Government. |
| July 11 | Robert H. Jackson, future Nuremburg Trial judge, is sworn in as associate justice of the Supreme Court. |
| July 17 | New York Yankee Joe Dimaggio's record consecutive game hitting streak ends at 56. |
| | A presidential proclamation bars trade with 1800 Latin American firms deemed to be agents of Germany or Italy. |
| | The SS Sessa an American owned ship registered in Panama sunk by a German submarine between New York and Iceland. |
| July 21 | American troops are stationed at 2 bases in British Guiana. |
| | Transit through the Panama Canal is restricted for repair work. |
| July 25 | President Roosevelt orders Japanese assets in the United States frozen. |
| July 26 | Japan freezes American assets in that country. |
| | President Roosevelt places the Philippine armed forces under American command. |
| | General MacArthur is recalled to serve as commander of American and Philippine forces in the Far East. |
| July 30 | The United States extends recognition to the Czech Government in Exile headed by Eduard Benes in London. |
| August 4 | Japanese shipping to the United States is suspended. |
| September 4 | A German submarine fires torpedoes on American destroyer USS Greer. The Greer, en route to Iceland, responds with depth charges. |
| September 5 | An American freighter Steel Seafarer is sunk in the Red Sea at entrance to Gulf of Suez by Axis bombers. |
| September 6 | German news reports claim that the USS Greer fired first. |
| September 11 | President Roosevelt broadcasts a warning to the Axis, "But let this warning be clear. From now on If German or Italian vessels of war enter the waters, the protection of which is necessary for American defense, they do so at their own peril." |
| | Lindbergh speaking to an America First rally in Des Moines, Iowa proclaims that, "The three most important groups which have been pressing this country towards war are the British, the Jewish and the Roosevelt administration." He professed understanding of Jewish desires to defeat Hitler but went on to say, "Their greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government." |
| | The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers begins construction of the Pentagon Building in Arlington, Virginia. |
| September 12 | The SS Montara en route from Wilmington, North Carolina to Iceland with a cargo of lumber sunk off Greenland. |
| September 13 | The U.S. Navy begins minesweeping operations in New York harbor. |
| September 15 | Navy Secretary Frank Knox tells the American Legion convention in Milwaukee, "Beginning tomorrow the American Navy will provide protection as adequate as we can make it for ships of every flag carrying Lend Lease supplies between the American continent and the waters adjacent to Iceland. These ships are ordered to capture or destroy by every means at their disposal Axis controlled submarines or surface raiders encountered in these waters. That is our answer to Mr. Hitler's declaration that he will try to sink every ship his vessels encounter on the routes leading from the United States to British ports." |
| September 19 | The Pink Star a freighter owned by the U.S. Maritime Commission and registered in Panama is sunk by a German submarine off Greenland. |
| September 22 | An American owned ship flying the Panamanian flag torpedoed and sunk off Iceland. |
| September 27 | An American owned tanker, the I. C. White, registered in Panama is sunk in the South Atlantic between Curacao and Capetown, South Africa. |
| September 28 | Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox finishes the baseball season with a .406 batting average a percentage of success not since matched. |
| October | Mount Rushmore Memorial (60 foot high busts of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt carved by Gutzon Borglum into the South Dakota granite mountain) is completed after 14 years work. |
| October 1 | The United States extends $100 million in Lend Lease credits to Brazil. |
| October 3 | Lindbergh speaking Fort Wayne, Indiana expresses fears that Roosevelt intends to suspend the 1942 Congressional elections. |
| October 11 | The U.S. Navy seizes and destroys German weather report transmitter in Greenland. |
| October 16 | An American freighter SS Bold Venture is sunk in the Atlantic 500 miles south of Iceland. |
| October 17 | An American destroyer, USS Kearny, depth charges a submarine attacking a convoy 350 miles south of Iceland. Three torpedoes strike the destroyer killing 11 crewmen. |
| October 30 | Lindbergh and Montana Senator Burton Wheeler address 20,000 at an America First Rally held in New York City's Madison Square Garden. |
| October 31 | American destroyer, USS Reuben James, is torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine west of Iceland 100 of 145 officers and men on board are killed. |
| November 4 | An American tanker USS Salinas is torpedoed off Iceland. |
| | British Ambassador, Lord Halifax, is attacked by egg and tomato throwing demonstrators as he enters the chancery of Detroit Archbishop Edward Mooney. |
| November 6 | President Roosevelt pledges $1 Billion in Lend Lease aid to the Soviet Union. |
| November 7 | The U. S. Senate votes 50 to 37 to amend Neutrality Act to permit American merchant ships to arm and cross combat zones to deliver supplies to belligerents. |
| November 13 | The U.S. House of Representatives approves changes to Neutrality Act by a vote of 312 to 194. |
| November 24 | United States and Brazilian troops are stationed in Dutch Guiana (Surinam). |
| December 7 | Japanese aircraft launched from six carriers attack American naval and airbases on Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands. American loses including 2,403 military and civilian dead, 1,178 military and civilian wounded, 21 ships sunk or damaged (including 8 battleships) and 188 aircraft destroyed. USS Arizona sinks with 1,177 crewmembers trapped on board (worst single loss in the history of the United States Navy). |
| December 8 | President Roosevelt addresses a joint session of Congress and requests a declaration of war. "Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan ... I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire." |
| | Congress passes a joint resolution declaring war on Japan - Representative Jeanette Rankin (Republican - Montana) casts the lone dissenting vote. |
| | Japan attacks American bases on Guam, Midway Island, Wake Island and the Philippines. |
| December 10 | Guam surrenders to the Japanese. Japan renames the island Omiya Jima and occupies it for the next 31 months. |
| December 11 | Germany and Italy declare war on the United States of America. |
| December 12 | Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia declare war on the United States of America. |
| December 14 | Croatia declares war on the United States of America. |
| December 17 | Admiral Husband Kimmel is relieved as Commander in Chief U.S. Pacific Fleet. |
| December 23 | Wake Island surrenders to the Japanese after sustaining 167 American military and civilian casualties. 1500 American Marines, Sailors and civilian construction workers are taken prisoner. |
| December 31 | Admiral Chester W. Nimitz takes command of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. |
| Notable Books | Berlin Diary - William L. Shirer |
| | Saratoga Trunk - Edna Ferber |
| | Let Us Now Praise Famous Men - James Agee & Walker Evans |
| Notable Films | The Maltese Falcon - Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, Mary Astor, Sydney Greenstreet, John Huston - director |
| | Citizen Kane - Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten |
| | Sergeant York - Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan |
| | How Green Was My Valley - Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Roddy MacDowell, John Ford - director |
| | Fantasia - Walt Disney |
| Notable Recordings | Take the A Train - Duke Ellington & His Orchestra |
| | Chattanooga Choo Choo - Glenn Miller & His Orchestra |
| | St. Louis Blues - Lena Horne |
