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Emmitt Till

Emmitt till

Emmett Louis "Bobo" Till (July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955) was an African-American teenager from Chicago, Illinois who was brutally lynched in a region of Mississippi known as the Mississippi Delta near the small town of Drew in Sunflower County. His murder was one of the key events which energized the nascent American Civil Rights Movement. Although the main suspects for the crime were acquitted, a federal investigation into his murder was initiated in 2004.

Events

Emmett Till was the son of Mamie Carthan Till (Bradley, Mobley) and Louis Till. His mother was born to John and Alma Carthan in the small Delta town of Money. When she was two years old, her family moved to Illinois. Emmett's mother largely raised him on her own; she and Louis had separated in 1942. Emmett Till's father was drafted into the United States Army in 1943 during World War II, and was executed by the U.S. Army for raping two Italian women and murdering a third. In 1955, when Till was 14 years old, he was sent for a summer stay with his great uncle, Moses Wright, who lived in Money, Mississippi (a small town eight miles north of Greenwood). Prior to his journey into the Delta, Emmett's mother cautioned him to "mind his manners" with white people. She told her boy not to fool with white people in Mississippi, "If you have to get on your knees and bow when a white person goes past, do it willingly." Till's mother understood that in Mississippi race relations were a lot different than in Chicago. In Mississippi, over 500 blacks had been lynched since 1882, and racially motivated murders were still not unfamiliar, especially in the Delta where Till was going to visit. Racial tensions were also on the rise after the United States Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education to end segregation in schools. Till arrived on August 21; on August 24, he joined other teenagers as they went to Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market to get some refreshments. The teens were children of sharecroppers and had been picking cotton all day. The market was owned by Roy and Carolyn Bryant, and mostly catered to the local sharecropper population. While in the store, Till allegedly whistled at, or openly flirted with, Carolyn Bryant and this action greatly angered her husband when he returned home several days later from an out of town trip. There was no doubt that something had happened between Till and Carolyn Bryant when he and his cousin went inside the small Money grocery store owned by the Bryants. Carolyn Bryant later asserted that Till had grabbed her at the waist and asked her for a date. She said the young man also used “unprintable” words. He had a slight stutter and some have conjectured that Bryant might have misinterpreted what Till said. Others say that he could have been mildly retarded and any unexpected behavior on his part might easily have been misconstrued. Several black youths, all under 16, were reported to have been with Till in the store and according to one newspaper account, forced him to leave the store for being “rowdy.” By the time twenty-nine-year-old Roy Bryant returned to Money from a road trip three days after his wife’s encounter with Till, it seemed that everyone in Tallahatchie County knew about the incident, every conceivable version, and Bryant decided that he and his half-brother, J. W. Milam, 40, would meet around 2:00 a.m. on Sunday to "teach the boy a lesson."

Lynching

At about 2:30 AM on August 28, Roy Bryant and his half brother, J.W. Milam, kidnapped Till, once physically afflicted by polio, from his uncle's house in the small cotton town of Money, Mississippi. He was driven away to a weathered plantation shed in neighboring Sunflower County, where they brutally beat him, gouged out an eye, then shot him with a .45 caliber pistol before tying a seventy-five pound cotton gin fan around Till's neck with barbed wire. This was to weigh down his body, which was dropped into the Tallahatchie River near Glendora, another small cotton town. Tallahatchie River A witness heard Till's screams for hours until the two men finally ended Emmett Till’s life. Though others were clearly involved, the brothers were soon under suspicion for the boy's disappearance and were arrested August 29 after spending the night with relatives living in Rulville, only several miles away from where the murder actually took place. Both men first admitted they had taken the boy from his great-uncle's home but claimed they turned him loose the same night. Word got out that Till was missing and soon NAACP civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, the state field secretary; and Amzie Moore, head of the Bolivar County chapter, became involved, disguising themselves as cotton pickers and going into the cotton fields in search of any information that would help find the young Delta visitor. After collecting laborers’ stories first hand, Amzie Moore, a Delta civil rights veteran years since before World War II, observed it was apparent that “more than 2,000 families” were murdered and lynched over the years, with their bodies thrown into the Delta’s swamps and bayous (a much larger figure than the officially estimated "500" bodies). Some believed that relatives of Till were hiding him out of fear for the youth’s safety. Or that he had been sent back to Chicago where he would be safe. Regardless, witnesses told the Sheriff that Mrs. Bryant identified Till as “the one” after which the group drove away with Till. Bryant and Milam claimed they later found out Till was not “the one” who allegedly insulted Mrs. Bryant, and swore to Sheriff George Smith they had released the young Chicago visitor. They would later recant and confess, after the trial ended. In an editorial on Friday, September 2, Greenville journalist Hodding Carter, Jr. asserted that "people who are guilty of this savage crime should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," a brave suggestion for any Mississippi newspaper editor to make and remain out of harm's way, Carter included. After a Tutwiler mortuary assistant worked all night to prepare the body as best he could, Mamie Till brought Till's body back to Chicago. The Chicago funeral home offered to clean up the body for viewing, but Mamie declined, choosing to leave his coffin open. She wanted people to see how badly Till's body had been disfigured. News photographs of Till's mutilated corpse circulated around the country, notably appearing in Jet, drawing intense public reaction. Some reports indicate up to 50,000 people viewed the body. Emmett Till was buried September 6 in Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois. The same day, Bryant and Milam were indicted in Mississippi by a grand jury. An investigation involving unprecedented cooperation between local law enforcement, the NAACP, and local reporters was cut short. On September 19, the trial began; on September 23 the jury, made up of 12 white males, acquitted both defendants. Deliberations took just 67 minutes; one juror said they took a "soda break" to stretch the time to over an hour. The hasty acquittal outraged people throughout the United States and Europe, and energized the nascent civil rights movement. In a 1956 article in Look magazine for which they were paid, J.W. Milam admitted that he and his brother had killed Till. They did not fear being tried again for the same crime because of the double jeopardy right. Milam claimed that initially, their intention was to scare Till into line by pistol-whipping him and threatening to throw him off of a cliff. Milam claimed that regardless of what they did to Till, he never showed any fear, never seemed to believe they would really kill him, and maintained a completely unrepentant, insolent and defiant attitude toward them concerning his actions. Thus, the brothers felt they were left with no choice but to fully make an example of Till. A year later, the magazine returned to the story, indicating that Milam and Bryant had been shunned by the community, and that their stores were closed due to lack of business. Milam died of cancer in 1980, and Bryant died of cancer in 1990. Mamie (as Mamie Till Mobley) outlived them, dying at age 81 on January 6, 2003. That same year her autobiography "Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America" (One World Books, co-written with Christopher Benson) was published. National media attention surrounding the young man’s death, the trial and the inevitable acquittal of Till’s killers, would have a broad effect on civil rights that no one could have imagined or predicted in becoming a key factor in the explosive year that launched the modern Civil Rights Movement.

Popular culture

The murder of Emmett Till was felt deeply by African-Americans, civil rights activists and many others. Artistic works drawing on the incident include the first play by eventual Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, a poem by Langston Hughes, and a song by Bob Dylan called "The Death of Emmett Till." The James Baldwin play "Blues for Mister Charlie" is also loosely based on the case. Recent fictionalized accounts include two award-winning novels: Bebe Moore Campbell's Your Blues Ain't Like Mine (1992) and Lewis Nordan's Wolf Whistle (1993). The 2003 rap song "Through the Wire" by Kanye West uses the image of Till's mutilated face as a simile for West's physical appearance after a near-fatal car accident, demonstrating that after fifty years the murder is still firmly entrenched in the public memory. In 2005, the play The State of Mississippi and the Face of Emmett Till premiered in the south for the first time at Dillard University in New Orleans. The show, written by David Barr, was performed again in October (as The Face Of Emmett Till) with a different cast at Coppin State University.

Federal investigation

In 1996, Keith Beauchamp started background research for a feature film he planned to make about Till's murder, and discovered that as many as 15 individuals may have been involved. While conducting interviews he also encountered eyewitnesses who had never spoken out publicly before. As a result he decided to produce a documentary instead, and spent the next nine years creating The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till. The film led to calls by the NAACP and others for the case to be reopened. On May 10, 2004, the United States Department of Justice announced that it was reopening the case to determine whether anyone other than Milam and Bryant were involved. Although the statute of limitations prevented charges being pursued under federal law, they could be pursued before the state court, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and officials in Mississippi worked jointly on the investigation. As no autopsy had been performed on Till's body, it was exhumed from the suburban Chicago cemetery where it was buried on May 31, 2005, and the Cook County coroner then conducted the autopsy. The body was reburied by relatives on June 4. On August 26, 2005 the Jackson Clarion-Ledger in Mississippi announced that the exhumed body had been positively identified as that of Emmett Till. Possible defendants in the reopening of the case include Carolyn Donham, ex-wife of Roy Bryant, and Henry Lee Loggins, the now 82-year-old former plantation worker who is currently living in an Ohio nursing home. In August 2005, a 38-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 49 north from Tutwiler, Mississippi to Greenwood, Mississippi was renamed in honor of Till.

See also


- Eyes on the Prize
- The Scottsboro Boys

References


- [http://www.emmetttillmurder.com The Emmett Till Murder]
- [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/ The Murder of Emmett Till.] American Experience - Transcript and additional materials for PBS film. Accessed May 10, 2004.
- Maria Newman (May 10, 2004). [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/10/national/10CND-TILL.html?ex=1084852800&en=94feeb3c6f280f5b&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE U.S. to Reopen Investigation of Emmett Till's Murder in 1955.] The New York Times. Accessed May 10, 2004.
- [http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/04/crimes.lynching.reut/index.html Lynching victim's body reburied], CNN.com June 4, 2005
- Gary Younge, The Guardian, 6 June 2005, [http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1499919,00.html "Justice at last?"]
- Stephen Whitfield, A Death in the Delta (1988 book)
- Keith Beauchamp, "The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till" (2004 documentary)
- M. Susan Orr-Klopfer, The Emmett Till Book (2005) ISBN 1-4116-3843-3
- M. Susan Orr-Klopfer, Where Rebels Roost: Mississippi Civil Rights Revisited (2005) ISBN 1-4116-4102-7
- [http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20050826-20480200-bc-us-till.xml Body identified as Emmett Till], sciencedaily.com press release, August 26, 2005.

External links


- [http://www.watson.org/~lisa/blackhistory/early-civilrights/emmett.html Early Civil Rights Struggles: The Murder of Emmett Till]
- [http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/famous/emmett_till/ Crime Library: Mississippi Madness: The Story of Emmett Till]
- [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1969702 NPR pieces on the Emmett Till murder]
- [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/sfeature/sf_look_confession.html "The Shocking Story of Approved Killing in Mississippi"] by William Bradford Huie, Look Magazine, 1956
- [http://www.looksmart.com/eus1/eus317836/eus317911/eus53828/eus71848/eus285836/eus917410/eus537042/eus10129032/r?l& LookSmart - Emmett Till] directory category
- [http://dmoz.org/Society/Ethnicity/African/African-American/History/Till,_Emmett/ Open Directory Project - Emmett Till] directory category
- [http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/History/U_S__History/By_Time_Period/20th_Century/Civil_Rights_Movement/People/Till__Emmett__1941_1955_/ Yahoo! - Emmett Till] directory category
- [http://www.graveyards.com/IL/Cook/burroak/till.html Emmett Till's grave at Burr Oak Cemetery]
- [http://emmett-till.com Emmett-Till blog] Category:Racially motivated violence in the United States Till, Emmett Till, Emmett Till, Emmett Till, Emmett Till, Emmett Till, Emmett

July 25

July 25 is the 206th day (207th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 159 days remaining.

Events


- 306 - Constantine I proclaimed Roman emperor by his troops.
- 1261 - The city of Constantinople is recaptured by Nicaean forces under the command of Michael VIII Palaeologus, thus re-establishing the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines also succeed in capturing Thessalonica and the rest of the Latin Empire.
- 1547 - Henry II (France) crowned
- 1567 - Don Diego de Losada founds the city of Santiago de Leon de Caracas, modern-day Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela.
- 1593 - Henry IV of France publicly converts from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism.
- 1722 - Three Years War begins along Maine and Massachusetts border.
- 1758 - French and Indian War: The island battery at Fortress Louisbourg in Nova Scotia is silenced and all French warships are destroyed or taken.
- 1759 - French and Indian War: In Canada, British forces capture Fort Niagara from French, who subsequently abandon Fort Rouillé.
- 1797 - Horatio Nelson loses more than 300 men and his right arm during the failed conquest attempt of Tenerife Island (Spain).
- 1799 - At Aboukir in Egypt, Napoleon I of France defeats 10,000 Ottomans under Mustafa Pasha.
- 1814 - War of 1812: Battle of Lundy's Lane - Reinforcements arrive near Niagara for General Riall's British and Canadian force, and bloody, all-night battle with Jacob Brown's Americans commences at 18.00; Americans retreat to Fort Erie.
- 1853 - Joaquin Murietta, famous Californio bandit known as "Robin Hood of El Dorado", is killed.
- 1861 - American Civil War: The Crittenden-Johnson Resolution is passed by the U.S. Congress stating that the war is being fought to preserve the Union and not to end slavery.
- 1866 - The U.S. Congress passes legislation authorizing the rank of General of the Army (now called "5-star general") Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant becomes the first to have this rank.
- 1868 - Wyoming becomes a United States territory.
- 1869 - The Japanese daimyō begin returning their land holdings to the emperor as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms. (Traditional Japanese Date: June 17, 1869)
- 1894 - The First Sino-Japanese War begins when the Japanese fire upon a Chinese warship.
- 1897 - Writer Jack London sails to join the Klondike Gold Rush where he will write his first successful stories.
- 1898 - The United States invasion of Puerto Rico begins with U.S. troops landing at Guánica Bay.
- 1907 - Korea becomes a protectorate of Japan.
- 1908 - Ajinomoto is born. Kikunae Ikeda of the Tokyo Imperial University discovers that a key ingredient in Konbu soup stock is monosodium glutamate (MSG) and patents a process for manufacturing it.
- 1909 - Louis Bleriot makes the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air machine (Calais to Dover in 37 minutes).
- 1917 - Sir Thomas Whyte introduces the first income tax in Canada as a "temporary" measure (lowest bracket is 4% and highest is 25%).
- 1920 - Telecommunications: first transatlantic two-way radio broadcast.
- 1934 - Nazis assassinate Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in a failed coup attempt.
- 1943 - World War II: Benito Mussolini is forced out of office by his own Italian Grand Council and is replaced by Pietro Badoglio.
- 1944 - World War II: Operation Spring - One of the bloodiest days for Canadians during the war: 18,444 casualties, including 5,021 killed.
- 1946 - Nuclear testing: In the first underwater test of the atomic bomb, the surplus USS Saratoga is sunk near Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean when the United States detonates the "Baker Day" device.
- 1946 - At Club 500 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis stage their first show as a comedy team.
- 1952 - Puerto Rico becomes a self-governing commonwealth of the United States.
- 1956 - 45 miles south of Nantucket Island, the Italian ocean liner SS Andrea Doria sinks after colliding with the SS Stockholm in heavy fog, killing 51.
- 1958 - The African Regroupment Party (PRA) holds its first congress in Cotonou.
- 1965 - Newport Folk Festival: Bob Dylan goes electric.
- 1969 - Vietnam War: US President Richard Nixon declares the Nixon Doctrine stating that the United States now expects its Asian allies to take care of their own military defense. This was the start of the "Vietnamization" of the war.
- 1973 - Soviet Mars 5 space probe launched.
- 1976 - The first performance of the Philip Glass opera Einstein on the Beach
- 1977 - A supposed thunderbird is reported attacking a boy named Marlon Lowe.
- 1978 - The first so-called test-tube baby, Louise Brown, is born.
- 1984 - Salyut 7 Cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk.
- 1989 - Rock/Hip-hop trio The Beastie Boys release the classic Paul's Boutique.
- 1990 - Comedian Roseanne Barr grabs her crotch and spits on the ground when performing the U.S. national anthem at a San Diego Padres game.
- 1994 - Israel and Jordan sign the Washington Declaration which formally ends the state of war that has existed between the nations since 1948.
- 1997 - K.R. Narayanan is sworn-in as India's 10th president and the first member of the Dalits caste to hold this office.
- 1998 - The United States Navy commissions the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and puts her into service.
- 1999 - Lance Armstrong wins first Tour de France.
- 2000 - An Air France Concorde supersonic passenger jet crashes just after takeoff from Paris killing all 109 aboard and 5 on the ground.
- 2004 - Lance Armstrong makes history, winning his 6th consecutive Tour de France.

Births


- 1109 - King Afonso I of Portugal (d. 1185)
- 1336 - Albert, Count of Holland (d. 1404)
- 1404 - Philip I, Duke of Brabant (d. 1430)
- 1421 - Henry Percy, 3rd Earl of Northumberland, English politician (d. 1461)
- 1562 - Kato Kiyomasa, Japanese warlord and samurai (d. 1611)
- 1653 - Agostino Steffani, Italian diplomat and composer (d. 1728)
- 1658 - Archibald Campbell, 1st Duke of Argyll, Scottish privy councillor (d. 1703)
- 1799 - David Douglas, Scottish botanist, plant collector, explorer (d. 1834)
- 1839 - Francis Garnier, French explorer (d. 1873)
- 1844 - Thomas Eakins, American artist (d. 1916)
- 1848 - Arthur Balfour, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1930)
- 1867 - Max Dauthendey, German writer (d. 1918)
- 1870 - Maxfield Parrish, American illustrator (d. 1966)
- 1883 - Alfredo Casella, Italian composer (d. 1947)
- 1884 - Davidson Black, Canadian anthropologist (d. 1934)
- 1886 - Bror von Blixen-Finecke, Danish big-game hunter (d. 1946)
- 1894 - Walter Brennan, American actor (d. 1974)
- 1901 - Lila Lee, American actress (d. 1973)
- 1902 - Eric Hoffer, American philosopher (d. 1983)
- 1905 - Elias Canetti, Bulgarian-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1994)
- 1906 - Johnny Hodges, American saxophonist (d. 1970)
- 1907 - Varlam Shalamov, Russian writer (d. 1982)
- 1908 - Bill Bowes, English cricketer (d. 1987)
- 1920 - Rosalind Franklin, English scientist (d. 1958)
- 1923 - Estelle Getty, American actress
- 1928 - Keter Betts, American jazz bassist (d. 2005)
- 1929 - Somnath Chatterjee, Indian politician
- 1930 - Maureen Forrester, Canadian contralto
- 1935 - Barbara Harris, American actress
- 1937 - Colin Renfrew, English archeologist
- 1946 - Rita Marley, Jamaican-Cuban singer
- 1954 - Walter Payton, American football player (d. 1999)
- 1955 - Iman Abdulmajid, Somali model
- 1960 - Alain Robidoux, Canadian snooker player
- 1965 - Illeana Douglas, American actress
- 1967 - Matt LeBlanc, American actor
- 1967 - Chuck Paugh, American record company owner
- 1973 - Dani Filth, English singer (Cradle of Filth)
- 1973 - Kevin Phillips, English footballer
- 1977 - Kenny Thomas, American basketball player
- 1978 - Louise Brown, first test tube baby
- 1978 - Gerard Warren, American football player
- 1979 - Amy Adams, American singer
- 1982 - Brad Renfro, American actor
- 1987 - Michael Welch, American actor
- 1990 - Andy Evenchick, Amateur swimmer

Deaths


- 306 - Constantius Chlorus, Roman Emperor (b. 250)
- 1409 - King Martin I of Sicily
- 1492 - Pope Innocent VIII (b. 1432)
- 1616 - Andreas Libavius, German physician and chemist (b. 1550)
- 1643 - Robert Pierrepont, 1st Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull, English statesman (b. 1584)
- 1676 - François Hédelin, abbé d'Aubignac, French writer (b. 1604)
- 1681 - Urian Oakes, English-born President of Harvard University (b. 1631)
- 1790 - Johann Bernhard Basedow, German education reformer (b. 1723)
- 1790 - William Livingston, Governor of New Jersey (b. 1723)
- 1791 - Isaac Low, American Continental Congressman (b. 1735)
- 1794 - André Chénier, French writer (b. 1762)
- 1826 - Kondraty Fyodorovich Ryleyev, Russian poet and revolutionary (b. 1795)
- 1834 - Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English poet (b. 1772)
- 1842 - Dominique Jean Larrey, French surgeon (b. 1766)
- 1843 - Charles Macintosh, Scottish chemist and inventor (b. 1766)
- 1853 - Joaquin Murieta, California outlaw
- 1861 - Jonas Furrer, Swiss Federal Councilor (b. 1805)
- 1887 - John Taylor, American religious leader (b. 1808)
- 1934 - François Coty, French perfume manufacturer (b. 1874)
- 1934 - Engelbert Dollfuss, Chancellor of Austria (assassinated) (b. 1892)
- 1934 - Nestor Makhno, Ukrainian anarchist (b. 1889)
- 1963 - Ugo Cerletti, Italian neurologist (b. 1877
- 1971 - Leroy Robertson, American composer (b. 1896)
- 1973 - Louis Stephen St. Laurent, twelfth Prime Minister of Canada (b. 1882)
- 1980 - Vladimir Vysotsky, Russian poet, singer, and actor (b. 1938)
- 1988 - Judith Barsi, American actress (b. 1978)
- 1997 - Ben Hogan, American golfer (b. 1912)
- 2003 - Ludwig Bölkow, German aeronautical engineer (b. 1912)
- 2003 - John Schlesinger, British film director (b. 1926)
- 2005 - Albert Mangelsdorff, German jazz trombonist (b. 1928)

Holidays and observances


- Roman festivals - Furinalia
- Galiza - National Day (Dia da Patria Galega).
- Saint James the Great - patron saint of Spain.
- Costa Rica - Anniversary of the Annexation of Guanacaste Province
- Cuba - Eve of Revolution Day
- Puerto Rico - Constitution Day (1952)
- Tunisia - Republic Day (1957)
- Virgin Islands - Hurricane Supplication Day
- Inca - festival in honor of Ilyap'a
- Ebernoe Horn Fair, Sussex, England

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/25 BBC: On This Day] ---- July 24 - July 26 - June 25 - August 25 -- listing of all days ko:7월 25일 ms:25 Julai ja:7月25日 simple:July 25 th:25 กรกฎาคม

1941

:For the movie, see 1941 (film) 1941 (MCMXLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January-February


- January 6 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms Speech in the State of the Union Address.
- January 10 - Lend-Lease is introduced into the U.S. Congress.
- January 19 - British troops attack Italian-held Eritrea.
- January 21 - World War II: Australian and British forces attack Tobruk, Libya.
- January 22 - World War II: British troops capture Tobruk from the Italians.
- January 23 - Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.
- February 3 - World War II: The Nazis forcibly restore Pierre Laval to office in occupied Vichy, France.
- February 4 - World War II: The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.
- February 11 - World War II: Lieutenant-General Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli.
- February 19 - The start of the "three nights' Blitz" over Swansea, South Wales. Over these three nights of intensive bombing, which lasted a total of 13 hours and 48 minutes, Swansea town centre was almost completely obliterated by the 896 High Explosive bombs employed by the Luftwaffe. A total of 397 casualties and 230 deaths were reported. The Three nights Blitz ended in the early hours of February 22.

March


- March 1 - World War II: Bulgaria signs the Tripartite Pact thus joining the Axis powers.
- March 1 - W47NV begins operations in Nashville, Tennessee becoming the first FM radio station.
- March 1 - Arthur L. Bristol becomes Rear Admiral for the U.S. Navy's Support Force, Atlantic Fleet
- March 11 - World War II: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act into law, allowing American-built war supplies to be shipped to the Allies on loan.
- March 17 - In Washington, DC, the National Gallery of Art is officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
- March 17 - British Minister of Labour, Ernest Bevin, calls for women to fill vital jobs
- March 22 - Washington's Grand Coulee Dam begins to generate electricity.
- March 25 - World War II: Kingdom of Yugoslavia in Vienna joins the Axis powers
- March 27 - World War II: Attack on Pearl Harbor - Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa arrives in Honolulu, Hawaii and begins to study the United States fleet at Pearl Harbor.
- March 29 - World War II: Battle of Cape Matapan - Off the Peloponnesus coast in the Mediterranean, British naval forces defeat those of Italy sinking five warships. Battle started on March 27.

April


- April 6 - World War II: Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece.
- April 17 - World War II: Yugoslav Royal Army capitulates.
- April 21 - World War II: Greece capitulates. British troops withdraw to Crete.
- April 27 - World War II: German troops enter Athens.
- April - Russia and Japan sign a neutrality pact.

May

neutrality pact
- May 1 - Breakfast cereal Cheerios is introduced as CheeriOats by General Mills
- May 1 - Orson Welles' film, Citizen Kane, premieres in New York City
- May 5 - Emperor Haile Selassie enters Addis Ababa, which had been liberated from Italian forces; this date has been since commemorated as Liberation Day in Ethiopia.
- May 6 - At California's March Field, Bob Hope performs his first USO Show.
- May 9 - World War II: The German submarine U-110 is captured by the British Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma cryptography machine which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded German messages.
- May 10 - World War II: The United Kingdom's House of Commons is damaged by the Luftwaffe in an air raid.
- May 10 - World War II: Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland claiming to be on a peace mission.
- May 20 - World War II: Battle of Crete - Germany launches airborne invasion of Crete.
- May 21 - World War II: 950 miles off the coast of Brazil, the freighter SS Robin Moor becomes the first United States ship sunk by a German U-boat.
- May 24 - World War II: In the North Atlantic, the German battleship Bismarck sinks the HMS Hood killing all but three crewman on what was the pride of the Royal Navy.
- May 26 - World War II: In the North Atlantic, Fairey Swordfish aircraft from the carrier HMS Ark Royal fatally cripple the German battleship Bismarck in torpedo attack.
- May 27 - World War II: President Roosevelt proclaims an "unlimited national emergency."
- May 27 - World War II: German battleship Bismarck is sunk in North Atlantic killing 2,300.

June


- June 1 - World War II: Allies evacuate Crete.
- June 8 - World War II: Allies invade Syria and Lebanon.
- June 9 - World War II: Finland initiate mobilization and put some units under German command.
- June 14 - Mass deportations by Soviet Union authorities take place in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
- June 22 - World War II: Germany attacks the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa
- June 25 - World War II: Finland attacked by the Soviet Union seeks the opportunity of revenge in the Continuation War.

July-August


- July 4 - Mass murder of Polish scientists and writers, committed by German troops in captured Polish city of Lwów.
- July 5 - World War II: German troops reach the Dnipro River.
- July 5-19 - War between Peru and Ecuador
- July 7 - World War II: American forces land in Iceland to forestall an invasion by the Nazis.
- July 13 - World War II - Montenegro starts the first popular uprising in Europe against the Axis Powers.
- July 26 - World War II: In response to the Japanese occupation of French Indo-China, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the seizure of all Japanese assets in the United States.
- July 31 - Holocaust: Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring, orders SS 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."
- August - Formation of the Political Warfare Executive in the United Kingdom
- August 1 - The first jeep is produced
- August 6 - 6-year-old Elaine Esposito goes to an appendix operation in Florida and lapses into a coma. She dies 1978, still in coma.
- August 18 - Adolf Hitler orders a temporary halt to Nazi Germany's systematic euthanasia of mentally ill and handicapped due to protests. However, graduates of the T-4 Euthanasia Program were then transferred to concentration camps, where they continued in their trade.

September-October


- September 6 - Holocaust: The requirement to wear the Star of David with the word "Jew" inscribed, is extended to all Jews over the age of 6 in German-occupied areas.
- September 8 - World War II: Siege of Leningrad begins - German forces begin a siege against the Soviet Union's second-largest city, Leningrad. Stalin orders the Volga Deutsche deported to Siberia.
- September 16 - Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran is forced to resign in favor of his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran under pressure from the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union.
- October 2 - World War II: Operation Typhoon - Germany begins an all-out offensive against Moscow.
- October 8 - World War II: In their invasion of the Soviet Union, Germany reaches the Sea of Azov with the capture of Mariupol.
- October 21 - World War II: Germans rampage in Yugoslavia, killing thousands of civilians
- October 24 - Franz von Werra disappears during a flight over North Sea
- October 30 - World War II: Franklin Delano Roosevelt approves US$1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union.
- October 31 - After 14 years of work, drilling is completed on Mount Rushmore.
- October 31 - World War II: The destroyer USS Reuben James is torpedoed by a German U-boat near Iceland, killing more than 100 United States Navy sailors.

November

United States Navy
- November 6 - World War II: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin addresses the Soviet Union for only the second time during his three-decade rule (the first time was earlier that year on July 2). He states that even though 350,000 troops were killed in German attacks so far, that the Germans have lost 4.5 million soldiers (a gross exaggeration) and that Soviet victory was near.
- November 12 - World War II: Battle of Moscow: 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.
- November 13 - World War II: The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal is hit by German U-boat U-81
- November 14 - World War II: HMS Ark Royal capsizes and sinks, having been torpedoed by U 81.
- November 17 - World War II: Attack on Pearl Harbor - Joseph Grew, the United States ambassador to Japan, cables the State Department that Japan had plans to launch an attack against Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (his cable was ignored).
- November 19 - World War II: The Australian war cruiser HMAS Sydney sinks off the coast of Western Australia, killing 645 sailors.
- November 21 - The radio program King Biscuit Time is broadcast for the first time (it would later become the longest running daily radio broadcast in history and the most famous live blues radio program).
- November 24 - World War II: The United States grants Lend-Lease to the Free French.
- November 26 - US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States (this partly reversed a 1939 action by Roosevelt that changed the celebration of Thanksgiving to the third Thursday of November).
- November 26 - World War II: The Hull note ultimatum is delivered to Japan by the United States.
- November 26 - World War II: Attack on Pearl Harbor - A fleet of six aircraft carriers commanded by Japanese Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo leaves Hitokapu Bay for Pearl Harbor under strict radio silence.
- November 27 - A group of young men stop traffic on highway US 99 south of Yreka, California, handing out fliers proclaiming the establishment of the State of Jefferson.
- November 27 - World War II: Battle of Moscow - Germans reach their closest approach to Moscow. They are subsequently frozen by cold weather and attacks by the Soviets.

December


- December 1 - World War II: Former mayor of New York City, Fiorello LaGuardia, and the director of the Office of Civilian Defense, sign an order creating the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) as the civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force (in April 1943 the CAP was placed under the jurisdiction of the United States Army Air Force).
- December 4 - State of Jefferson declared in Yreka, California, with judge John Childs as a governor
- December 7, December 6 (in Japan standard time) - Japanese Navy launches a surprise attack consisting of two full regiments on the United States fleet at Pearl Harbor, thus drawing the United States into World War II.
- December 8 - World War II: The United States officially declares war on Japan.
- December 11 - World War II: Germany declares war on the United States.
- December 12 - Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States. India declares war on Japan. United States seizes French ship Normandie.
- December 13 - Sweden's low temperature record with -53° C was set in a village within Vilhelmina Municipality.
- December 25 - World War II: British and Canadians are defeated by the Japanese at Hong Kong.
- December 27 - World War II: British Commandos raid the Norwegian port of Vaagso, causing Hitler to reinforce the garrison and defenses
- December 28 - World War II: starts the Operation Anthropoid (the assassination of Heydrich in Prague).

Unknown dates


- John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford E. Berry developed the Atanasoff Berry Computer.
- Ives and Stilwell prove that ions radiate at frequencies affected by their motion.
- In Sweden, Victor Hasselblad forms the Hasselblad camera company.
- The Pinnacle Commune, a Rastafarian community, is destroyed by Jamaican authorities
- Indochina Communist party, led by Ho Chi Minh, combines with Nationalist party to form the Vietminh.
- Meet John Doe is brought out

Ongoing events


- Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) (which may or may not be a part of World War II, depending on who's telling the tale)
- World War II (1939-1945)

Births

January


- January 3 - Van Dyke Parks, American composer, producer, and musician
- January 5 - Miyazaki Hayao, Japanese film maker
- January 7 - Iona Brown, British violinist and conductor (d. 2004)
- January 7 - John E. Walker, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- January 8 - Graham Chapman, British comedian (d. 1989)
- January 9 - Joan Baez, American singer and activitist
- January 14 - Faye Dunaway, American actress
- January 14 - Milan Kučan, Slovenian politician and statesman
- January 15 - Captain Beefheart, American singer
- January 18 - David Ruffin, American singer (d. 1991)
- January 21 - Plácido Domingo, Spanish-born tenor
- January 21 - Richie Havens, American musician
- January 26 - Scott Glenn, American actor
- January 26 - Henry Jaglom, English director
- January 30 - Dick Cheney, Vice President of the United States
- January 31 - Dick Gephardt, American politician

February


- February 5 - Kaspar Villiger, Swiss Federal Councilor
- February 6 - Howard Phillips, founding member of the United States Constitution Party
- February 8 - Nick Nolte, American actor
- February 10 - Michael Apted, English director
- February 13 - Sigmar Polke, German painter
- February 16 - Kim Jong-il, leader of North Korea and self-proclaimed raghead
- February 17 - Gene Pitney, American singer
- February 19 - David Gross, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- February 20 - Buffy Sainte-Marie, American singer
- February 26 - Tony Ray-Jones, British photographer (d. 1972)
- February 27 - Paddy Ashdown, British politician

March-May


- March 4 - Adrian Lyne, English director
- March 5 - Nona Gaprindashvili, Georgian chess player
- March 6 - Willie Stargell, baseball player (d. 2001)
- March 14 - Wolfgang Petersen, German film director
- March 15 - Mike Love, American musician (The Beach Boys)
- March 16 - Robert Guéï, military ruler of Côte d'Ivoire (d. 2002)
- March 18 - Wilson Pickett, American singer
- March 26 - Richard Dawkins, British scientist
- March 28 - Jim Turner, American football player
- March 29 - Joseph Hooton Taylor, Jr., American astrophysicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- March 30 - Wasim Sajjad, President of Pakistan
- April 3 - Philippe Wynne, American musician (d. 1984)
- April 13 - Michael Stuart Brown, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- April 14 - Pete Rose, baseball player
- April 23 - Paavo Lipponen, Prime Minister of Finland
- April 23 - Ed Stewart, English disc jockey
- April 24 - John Williams, Australian guitarist
- April 27 - Lee Roy Jordan, American football player
- April 28 - Ann-Margret, Swedish-born actress and singer
- April 28 - K. Barry Sharpless, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- May 5 - Alexander Ragulin, Russian hockey player (d. 2004)
- May 13 - Senta Berger, Swedish actress
- May 13 - Ritchie Valens, American singer (d. 1959)
- May 15 - K.T. Oslin, American musician
- May 19 - Nora Ephron, American film, producer, director, and screenwriter
- May 22 - Paul Winfield, American actor (d. 2004)
- May 24 - Bob Dylan, American poet and musician
- May 31 - Louis J. Ignarro, American pharmacologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

June


- June 5 - Martha Argerich, Argentine pianist
- June 5 - Spalding Gray, American actor and screenwriter (d. 2004)
- June 6 - Neal Adams, American comic book artist
- June 8 - Fuzzy Haskins, American musician (P-Funk)
- June 10 - Mickey Jones, American actor and musician
- June 24 - Bill Reardon, American politician and educator
- June 27 - Krzysztof Kieślowski, Polish film director (d. 1996)

July


- July 1 - Alfred G. Gilman, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- July 1 - Myron Scholes, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- July 11 - Tommy Vance, English disc jockey (d. 2005)
- July 14 - Maulana Karenga, American author and activist
- July 14 - Andreas Khol, Austrian politician
- July 19 - Vikki Carr, American singer
- July 28 - Riccardo Muti, Italian conductor
- July 31 - Amarsinh Chaudhary, Indian politician

August-September


- August 3 - Martha Stewart, American television and magazine personality
- August 22 - Bill Parcells, American football coach
- August 28 - Joseph Shabalala, South African musician (Ladysmith Black Mambazo)
- September 2 - David Bale, South African-born activist (b. 2003)
- September 4 - Sushilkumar Shinde, Indian politician
- September 9 - Otis Redding, American musician (d. 1967)
- September 9 - Dennis Ritchie, American computer scientist
- September 10 - Christopher Hogwood, English conductor
- September 10 - Gunpei Yokoi, Japanese computer game producer
- September 15 - George Saimes, American football player
- September 17 - Bob Matsui, U.S. Senator from Hawaii (d. 2005)
- September 19 - Cass Elliott, American singer (d. 1974)

October-November


- October 4 - Anne Rice, American writer
- October 5 - Eduardo Duhalde, President of Argentina
- October 16 - Tim McCarver, baseball commentator
- October 20 - Anneke Wills, British actress
- October 30 - Theodor W. Hänsch, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- November 6 - Doug Sahm, American musician (d. 1999)
- November 18 - David Hemmings, English actor (d. 2003)
- November 26 - G. Alan Marlatt, American psychologist
- November 27 - Eddie Rabbitt, American musician (d. 1998)
- November 29 - Bill Freehan, baseball player

December


- December 9 - Beau Bridges, American actor
- December 10 - Colin Kelly, American airman
- December 13 - John Davidson, American singer and actor
- December 18 - Prince William of Gloucester
- December 23 - Tim Hardin, American musician
- December 24 - John Levene, British actor
- December 30 - Mel Renfro, American football player

Unknown dates


- Thom Bell, American record producer
- T S Krishnamurthy, Chief Election Commissioner of India
- Peter Sarstedt, English singer and songwriter
- Beatrice Tinsley, English astronomer

Deaths


- January 4 - Henri Bergson, French philiosopher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (b. 1859)
- January 5 - Amy Johnson, English aviator (b. 1903)
- January 8 - Lord Robert Baden-Powell, English soldier and founder of Scouting (b. 1847)
- January 10 - Frank Bridge, English composer (b. 1879)
- January 10 - Joe Penner, American comedian and actor
- January 13 - James Joyce, Irish writer (b. 1882)
- February 9 - Aaron S. Watkins, American temperance movement leader (b. 1863)
- February 11 - Rudolf Hilferding, German economist and Minister of Finance (b. 1877)
- February 21 - Frederick Banting, Canadian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1891)
- February 27 - William D. Byron, U.S. Congressman (b. 1895)
- February 28 - King Alfonso XIII of Spain (b. 1886)
- March 6 - Gutzon Borglum, American sculptor (b. 1867)
- March 8 - Sherwood Anderson, American author (b. 1876)
- March 15 - Alexej von Jawlensky, Russian painter (b. 1864)
- March 28 - Virginia Woolf, English writer (b. 1882)
- April 13 - Annie Jump Cannon, American astronomer (b. 1863)
- May 16 - Minnie Vautrin, American missionary and heroine of the Nanjing Massacre (b. 1887)
- June 2 - Lou Gehrig, baseball player (b. 1903)
- June 6 - Louis Chevrolet, Swiss-born automobile builder and race car driver (b. 1878)
- June 29 - Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Polish pianist, composer, and third Prime Minister of Poland (b. 1860)
- July 4 - Antoni Łomnicki, Polish mathematician (b. 1881)
- July 10 - Jelly Roll Morton, American jazz musician and composer (b. 1890)
- July 11 - Arthur Evans, English archaeologist (b. 1851)
- July 26 - Henri Lebesgue, French mathematician (b. 1875)
- August 7 - Rabindranath Tagore, Indian author, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1861)
- August 13 - James Stuart Blackton, American film producer (b. 1875)
- August 14 - Paul Sabatier, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1854)
- August 31 - Marina Tsvetaeva, Russian poet (suicide) (b. 1892)
- September 12 - Hans Spemann, German embryologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1869)
- October 26 - Arkady Gaidar, Soviet children's writer (killed in combat) (b. 1904)
- November 18 - Walther Nernst, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1864)
- November 18 - Chris Watson, third Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1867)
- December 3 - Christian Sinding, Norwegian composer (b. 1856)
- December 30 - El Lissitzky, Russian artist and architect (b. 1890)

Fiction


- Sometime in this year, events of the Doctor Who episodes The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances take place.
- Sometime in this year, in the movie Citizen Kane, Charles Foster Kane dies.

Nobel Prizes


- Physics - not awarded
- Chemistry - not awarded
- Medicine - not awarded
- Literature - not awarded
- Peace - not awarded Category:1941 Category:1940s ko:1941년 ms:1941 ja:1941年 simple:1941 th:พ.ศ. 2484

August 28

August 28 is the 240th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (241st in leap years), with 125 days remaining.

Events


- 475 - The Pannonian general Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his capital of Ravenna and appoints Romulus Augustus in his place.
- 489 - Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths defeats Odoacer at the Battle of Isonzo, forcing his way into Italy.
- 1521 - The Turks occupy Belgrade
- 1542 - Reinforced with at least 600 arquebusiers and cavalry, Imam Ahmad Gragn attacks the Portuguese camp in the Battle of Wofla. The Portuguese are scattered, their leader Christovão da Gama captured and afterwards executed.
- 1565 - St. Augustine, Florida, established. It is the oldest surviving European settlement in the United States.
- 1609 - Henry Hudson discovers Delaware Bay.
- 1619 - Ferdinand II is elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
- 1830 - The Tom Thumb presages the first railway service in the United States.
- 1845 - Scientific American magazine publishes its first issue
- 1849 - After a month-long siege, Venice, which had declared itself independent, surrenders to Austria.
- 1850 - Richard Wagner's opera Lohengrin premieres in Weimar, Germany.
- 1862 - Second Battle of Bull Run, also known as the battle of Second Manassas
- 1867 - The United States occupies Midway Island.
- 1879 - Cetshwayo, last king of the Zulus, is captured by the British.
- 1884 - First known photograph of a tornado is made.
- 1898 - Caleb Bradham renames his carbonated soft drink "Pepsi-Cola".
- 1913 - Queen Wilhelmina opens the Peace Palace in The Hague.
- 1914 - The British fleet beats the German fleet in the Battle of Heligoland Bight.
- 1916 - Germany declares war on Romania.
- 1916 - Italy declares war on Germany.
- 1917 - Ten suffragists are arrested when picketing the White House.
- 1937 - Toyota Motors becomes an independent company
- 1943 - In Denmark, a general strike against the Nazi occupation is started.
- 1944 - Marseille and Toulon are liberated.
- 1953 - Nippon Television broadcasts Japan's first television show, including its first TV advertisement.
- 1955 - Black Mississippian Emmett Till is murdered, allegedly for whistling to a white woman and calling her baby.
- 1963 - During a 200,000-person civil rights rally in at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his famous I have a dream speech.
- 1964 - The Philadelphia race riot began.
- 1968 - Riots in Chicago, Illinois, during the Democratic National Convention
- 1971 - The dollar is allowed to float against the yen for the first time.
- 1972 - During the Olympic Games in Munich, Mark Spitz gets his first of seven gold medals in swimming events.
- 1975 - Missionary Armand Doll is imprisoned in Mozambique by Marxist extremists.
- 1979 - An IRA bomb explodes on the Great Market in Brussels.
- 1981 - The National Centers for Disease Control announce a high incidence of Pneumocystis and Kaposi's sarcoma in gay men. Soon, these will be recognized as symptoms of an immune disorder, which will be called AIDS.
- 1986 - Stage of siege declared in Bolivia.
- 1986 - US Navy officer Jerry A. Whitworth is sentenced to 365 years imprisonment for espionage for the Soviet Union.
- 1988 - At an air show in Ramstein, West Germany, three stunt fighters collide; 69 people die.
- 1990 - Iraq declares Kuwait to be its newest province.
- 1990 - The Plainfield Tornado: An F5 tornado hits in Plainfield, Illinois, and Joliet, Illinois, killing 28 people.
- 1991 - A drunk motorman speeds into the Union Square station on the No. 4 line in New York City. The train derails on the curve, killing six passengers and injuring dozens.
- 1993 - A dam breaks in Qinghai, China. 223 die.
- 1993 - 76 die in an airplane crash in Tajikistan.
- 1993 - Ong Teng Cheong elected president of Singapore
- 1994 - First Japanese gay pride march.
- 1995 - A mortar shell kills 38 people in Sarajevo, Bosnia.
- 1996 - Britain's Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales, are div