Events Date 1942 December | History by KabAstro

Nuclear Chain Reaction

Dec 2 World’s 1st self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction occurs in Chicago Pile-1 (world's 1st nuclear reactor) at the University of Chicago, overseen by Enrico Fermi and Leó Szilárd

Works Progress Administration

Dec 4 FDR orders dismantling of Works Progress Administration

Dec 4 First US citizenship granted to an alien on foreign soil (James Hoey)
Dec 4 Holocaust: In Warsaw, Zofia Kossak-Szczucka and Wanda Filipowicz set up the Żegota organization
Dec 4 US bombers strike Italian mainland for first time in WW II
Dec 5 CFL Grey Cup, Varsity Stadium, Toronto: Toronto RCAF Hurricanes beat Winnipeg RCAF Bombers, 8-5
Dec 5 Seyss-Inquart orders students in nazi-Germany to work
Dec 5 West Indies chocolate/coffee drop above Netherland

Dutch Commonwealth Begins

Dec 6 Queen Wilhelmina announces Dutch Commonwealth

Queen of the Netherlands Wilhelmina of the Netherlands

Dec 6 RAF bombs Philips factory (150 die)
Dec 7 USS New Jersey launched, built by Philadelphia Naval Shipyard - US's most decorated warship (decommissioned 1991)
Dec 8 8th Heisman Trophy Award: Frank Sinkwich, Georgia (HB)

Hitler Appoints Mussert

Dec 10 Adolf Hitler names Anton Mussert "leader of the Dutch people"

Early Report of the Holocaust

Dec 10 An early report of the Holocaust prepared by the Polish government-in-exile, using information obtained by Witold Pilecki, is addressed to UN member states

Polish Resistance Fighter Witold Pilecki

Dec 10 North Africa: 5th German panzer army forms under col-gen von Arnim
Dec 11 Australian Dutch guerrilla troops evacuated to Timor near Australia
Dec 12 A fire in a hostel in St. John's, Newfoundland, kills 100 people
Dec 12 German offensive in South Western Stalingrad
Dec 13 National Football League Championship, Griffith Stadium, Washington, D.C.: Washington Redskins upset Chicago Bears, 14-6
Dec 13 Seyss-Inquart allows Dutch Nazi Anton Mussert to call himself Leader
Dec 15 Massachusetts issues 1st US vehicular license plate tabs
Dec 16 Hitler orders combat against partisans in Russia and the Balkans
Dec 17 Allies in London sentence German war criminals
Dec 19 Robert Stroud, convicted murdered, transferred to Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, where he becomes known as "Birdman of Alcatraz"
Dec 20 1st Japanese bombing of Calcutta
Dec 21 US Supreme court declares Nevada separation legal
Dec 22 World War II: Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon
Dec 23 Allies air attack on Den Helder, Netherlands
Dec 24 First powered flight of V-1 'buzz bomb', Peenemunde, Germany
Dec 24 Red army occupies German airports at Tasjinskaja & Morozowsk
Dec 25 Admiral Dalans murderer of Bosinier de la Chapelle, sentenced to death
Dec 25 British Colonel S W Bailey reaches Mihailovics headquarter
Dec 25 Soviet artillery and tank battle on German armies at Stalingrad
Dec 27 1st Japanese women camp (Ambarawa) goes into use
Dec 27 5th NFL All Star Game, Shribe Park, Philadelphia: NFL All-Stars beat Washington Redskins, 17-14
Dec 27 The Union of Pioneers of Yugoslavia is founded.
Dec 28 Oberkommando Wehrmacht orders strategist flight out of Kaukasus
Dec 28 Robert Sullivan becomes 1st pilot to fly Atlantic 100 times