What happened in 1941

World5

• JanAugust – 10,072 men, women and children with mental and physical disabilities are asphyxiated with carbon monoxide in a gas chamber, at Hadamar killing centre in Germany, in the first phase of mass-murder under the Aktion T4 program here.
• Apr 13The Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact is signed.
• Jul 5Operation Barbarossa: German troops reach the Dnieper River.
• Aug 25WWII: The Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran to secure the Persian Corridor and oilfields begins.
• Aug 29WWII: The Government of National Salvation, a Serb puppet state of the Axis powers, is established by General Milan Nedić in Nazi-occupied Serbia in Belgrade, under military commander Heinrich Danckelmann; the regime includes 15 Ministers.

Japan1

• DecThe Japanese declaration of war on the United States and the British Empire is published in Japanese evening newspapers, but not formally delivered to the U.S. until the following day. Canada declares war on Japan.

North America16

• Jan 4The short subject Elmer's Pet Rabbit is released, marking the second appearance of Bugs Bunny, and also the first to have his name on a title card.
• Jan 6During his State of the Union address, President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt presents his Four Freedoms, as fundamental global human rights.
• Jan 15John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford Berry describe the workings of the Atanasoff–Berry computer in print.
• Feb 4WWII: The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.
• Mar 17In Washington, D.C., the National Gallery of Art is officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• Mar 22Washington state's Grand Coulee Dam begins to generate electricity.
• May 1Orson Welles' first film Citizen Kane premieres in New York City; it will be frequently cited as the best film ever made.
• May 6At California's March Field, entertainer Bob Hope performs his first USO Show.
• Jun 20The United States Army Air Corps becomes the United States Army Air Forces, with the earlier name reserved solely for the new USAAF's logistics and training elements.
• Jun 20Walt Disney's live-action/animated feature The Reluctant Dragon is released.
• Aug 1The Willys MB U.S. Army Jeep is first produced.
• Aug 9Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet on board ship at Naval Station Argentia, Newfoundland. The Atlantic Charter (released August 14), setting goals for postwar international cooperation, is created as a result.
• Dec 1Fiorello La Guardia, Mayor of New York City and Director of the Office of Civilian Defense, signs Administrative Order 9, creating the Civil Air Patrol under the authority of the United States Army Air Forces.
• Dec 22WWII: The Arcadia Conference opens in Washington, D.C., the first meeting on military strategy between the heads of government of the United Kingdom and the United States, following the latter's entry into the war.
• DecAttack on Pearl Harbor: Aircraft flying from Imperial Japanese Navy carriers launch a surprise attack on the United States fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, thus drawing the United States into World War II. The attack begins at 7:55 a.m. Hawaiian Standard Time, and is announced on radio stations in the U.S. at about 11:26 p.m. PST (19.26 GMT).

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Europe51

• Feb 25The occupied Netherlands starts the first popular uprising in Europe against the Axis powers, the "February strike" against German deportation of Jews in Amsterdam and surroundings.
• Mar 1WWII: Bulgaria signs the Tripartite Pact, thus joining the Axis powers.
• Mar 25WWII: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia joins the Axis powers in Vienna.
• Mar 27Battle of Cape Matapan: Off the Peloponnese coast in the Mediterranean, British naval forces defeat those of Italy, sinking 5 warships (the battle ends on March 29).
• Apr 10The Independent State of Croatia, a puppet state of the Axis powers, is established with Ustashe leader Ante Pavelić as head (Poglavnik) of the government.
• May 20WWII: The Battle of Crete begins, as Germany launches an airborne invasion of Crete, the first mainly airborne invasion in military history.
• Jun 1WWII: The Battle of Crete ends, as the island surrenders to invading German forces.
• Jun 6WWII: The Commissar Order is issued by Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, requiring all Soviet political commissars identified in Operation Barbarossa among captured forces to receive summary execution.
• Jun 22WWII: Operation Barbarossa: Nazi Germany (with allies) invades the Soviet Union and declares war on it. Winston Churchill promises all possible British assistance to the Soviet Union in a worldwide broadcast: "Any man or state who fights against Nazidom will have our aid. Any man or state who marches with Hitler is our foe." Italy and Romania declare war on the Soviet Union.
• Jul 10The Holocaust: Jedwabne pogrom: Local ethnic Poles massacre at least 340 Jewish residents of Jedwabne, in occupied Poland. The Jewish residents are locked in a barn and the barn set on fire.
• Jul 31WWII: The Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring orders S.S. General Reinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired Final Solution of the Jewish question."
• Aug 21In revenge for the execution two days earlier of French Resistance member Samuel Tyszelman, communist activist Pierre Georges (with others) shoots and kills a member of the German military in occupied Paris, initiating a cycle of assassinations and retribution that will claim hundreds of lives.
• Sep 29The Holocaust: Babi Yar massacre – German troops, assisted by Ukrainian police and local collaborators, kill 33,771 Jews in Kyiv.
• Oct 11WWII: Armed insurgents from the People's Liberation Army of Macedonia attack Axis-occupied zones in the city of Prilep, beginning the National Liberation War of Macedonia.
• Nov 14The Holocaust: In Slonim (Byelorussian SSR), German forces engaged in Operation Barbarossa murder 9,000 Jews.

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USSR / Russia8

• Jun 4Guidelines for the Conduct of the Troops in Russia are issued by Nazi high-command through OKW. This order (a lesser known precursor to the Commisar Order) explicitly commands that Jews (in addition to Bolshevik partisans and Commisars) be killed. In a sense, this order – in combination with the Commissar Order about to be delivered, and Goring's instruction to Heydrich to look into logistics later in the month, that is mentioned at the beginning of the Wannsee Conference of the following year – inaugurates the European Holocaust of the Jews.
• Jun 24The Soviet Information Bureau, predecessor of RIA Novosti, is founded.
• Jun 25WWII: Finland (as a co-belligerent with Germany) attacks the Soviet Union, starting the Continuation War.
• Jul 28The Holocaust: Pripyat Marshes massacres – Nazi German troops kill more than 17,000 Soviet citizens, chiefly Jewish civilians.
• Sep 8WWII: Siege of Leningrad – German forces begin a siege against the Soviet Union's second-largest city, Leningrad. Stalin orders the Volga Germans deported to Siberia.
• Sep 11The Medvedev Forest massacre, committed by the NKVD, of political prisoners takes place, at the Oryol Prison in the Soviet Union.
• Oct 2WWII: Operation Typhoon begins, as Germany launches an all-out offensive against Moscow.
• Nov 12As the Battle of Moscow begins, temperatures around Moscow drop to −12 °C, and the Soviet Union launches ski troops for the first time, against the freezing German forces near the city.

Asia5

• Jan 28Subhas Chandra Bose, the chief of the separatist Indian National Army, reaches Kabul, Afghanistan by successfully evading the British authorities in British India.
• May 19The Viet Minh is formed at Pác Bó in Vietnam, to overthrow French rule of the nation, as an alliance between the Indochina Communist party, led by Ho Chi Minh, and the Nationalist party. It will become the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War.
• Dec 8WWII: The Battle of Hong Kong begins shortly after 8:00 a.m. (local time), less than 8 hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when Japanese forces invade Hong Kong, which is defended by British, Canadian and local troops. The United Kingdom officially declares war on the Empire of Japan.
• Dec 25The Battle of Hong Kong ends after 17 days, with the surrender of the British Crown colony to the Japanese.
• Chosun Tire and Rubber Manufacture, predecessor of South Korean tire brand Hankook, is founded in Seoul (at this time part of the Empire of Japan).

Middle East7

• Apr 1A military coup d'état, launched by Rashid Ali Al-Gaylani, overthrows the pro-British regime in Iraq.
• May 2WWII: Anglo-Iraqi War – British combat operations against the rebel government of Rashid Ali in the Kingdom of Iraq begin.
• May 31Anglo-Iraqi War: British troops complete the re-occupation of the Kingdom of Iraq, returning Prince 'Abd al-Ilah to power as regent for Faisal II.
• Jun 8WWII: British and Free French forces invade Syria.
• Sep 16Rezā Shāh of Iran is forced to resign in favor of his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, under pressure from the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, concluding the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran.
• Oct 2Tudeh Party of Iran is founded.
• Dec 19Raid on Alexandria: Italian Regia Marina divers on human torpedoes place limpet mines on ships of the British Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet in port at Alexandria, Egypt, disabling battleships Queen Elizabeth and Valiant.

Latin America1

• Jul 5Ecuadorian–Peruvian War is fought. Peru retains captured disputed territory of Ecuador.

Africa4

• Jan 5WWII: Battle of Bardia in Libya: Australian and British troops defeat Italian forces, the first battle of the war in which an Australian Army formation takes part.
• Feb 5WWII: Battle of Keren – British and Free French Forces fight hard to capture the strategic town of Keren in Italian Eritrea.
• Feb 6WWII: Benghazi falls to the British Western Desert Force. Lieutenant-General Erwin Rommel is appointed commander of Afrika Korps.
• Dec 13WWII: The Battle of Cape Bon is fought off Cape Bon, Tunisia: Italian cruisers Alberico da Barbiano and Alberto di Giussano are sunk without loss to the Allies.

Oceania2

• Oct 1The New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy becomes the Royal New Zealand Navy.
• Dec 8WWII: Australia, New Zealand, The Netherlands, the Free French, Yugoslavia, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras also officially declare war on Japan, and the Republic of China declares war on the Axis powers.