Events Date 1942 February | History by KabAstro

Quisling Government Forms

Feb 1 Second Norwegian government of Vidkun Quisling forms

Prime Minister of Norway and Nazi Collaborator Vidkun Quisling

Feb 2 LA Times urges security measures against Japanese-Americans
Feb 2 US auto factories switch from commercial to war production
Feb 3 1st Japanese air raid on Java
Feb 3 Baseball owners agree to permit each club up to 14 night games in 1942
Feb 4 Clinton Pierce becomes 1st US general wounded in action in WW II

"Woman of the Year"

Feb 5 "Woman of the Year" film directed by George Stevens, starring Katherine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy opens at Radio City Music Hall, NYC

Feb 5 Braves get Tommy Holmes from Yanks for Buddy Hassett and Gene Moore
Feb 7 1st indoor 15' pole vault (Cornelius Warmerdam 15' 3/8")

Internment of Japanese Americans

Feb 8 Congress advises FDR that, Americans of Japanese descent should be locked up en masse so they wouldn't oppose the US war effort

Danses Concertantes

Feb 8 Igor Stravinsky's orchestral piece "Danses Concertantes" premieres in Los Angeles, California

Feb 8 Japanese armored barges cross Strait of Johore to attack Singapore (WWII)

Hitler Appoints Speer

Feb 8 Nazi architect Albert Speer appointed Minister of Armaments by Adolf Hitler after death of Fritz Todt in a plane crash

Nazi Minister of Armaments and War Production Albert Speer

Feb 9 Daylight Savings War Time goes into effect in US
Feb 9 Japanese troops land near Makassar, South Celebes
Feb 9 Philadelphia "Phillies" change nickname (temporarily) to "Phils"

Fused Silica

Feb 10 American chemist James Franklin Hyde is granted a patent for fused silica - a glass production breakthrough

First Gold Record

Feb 10 Glenn Miller and his Orchestra awarded the 1st ever gold record for selling 1 million copies of "Chattanooga Choo Choo"

The 1st ever gold record was awarded to "Chattanooga Choo Choo" by the Glenn Miller Orchestra - this one was presented to the group's drummer, Tex Beneke

Feb 11 "Archie" comic book debuts
Feb 12 German battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen escape from Brest to Germany in a dash up the English Channel

Event of Interest

Feb 13 Operation Sealion, Nazi Germany’s invasion of England, is cancelled by Adolf Hitler

Feb 14 Japanese parachutists land near oil center Palembang, Sumatra
Feb 14 Rotterdam's Maas tunnel opens
Feb 14 The Polish resistance movement, the Home Army, is formed and will eventually become the largest resistance movement in occupied Europe
Feb 14 World War II: Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore.
Feb 15 German U-boat shells Antillian oil refinery
Feb 15 Japanese troops march into Palembang, South Sumatra
Feb 15 World War II: British ruled Singapore surrenders to the Japanese
Feb 16 Bangka Island massacre: Japanese soldiers machine-gun 22 Australian Army nurses and 60 Australian and British soldiers and crew members from two sunken ships. Only one nurse and two soldiers survive.
Feb 16 German submarines attack Aruba oil refinery
Feb 18 Japanese troop land on Bali
Feb 19 An estimated 150 Japanese warplanes attack the Australian city of Darwin
Feb 19 Bill Longson beats Managoff & Sandor Szabo, to become wrestling champ
Feb 19 Dutch actors protest obligatory membership of Culture Chamber
Feb 19 FDR orders detention & internment of all west-coast Japanese-Americans
Feb 19 Japanese troops land on Timor
Feb 19 NY Yankees announce 5,000 uniformed soldiers admitted free at each of their upcoming home games

Music History

Feb 19 Tommy Dorsey & his orchestra record "I'll Take Tallulah"

Jazz Trombonist and Big Band Leader Tommy Dorsey

Feb 20 Lt E H O'Hare single-handedly shoots down 5 Japanese heavy bombers, becomes America's first World War II flying ace
Feb 21 US male Figure Skating championship won by Bobby Specht

'I Shall Return'

Feb 22 World War II: President Franklin Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defenses collapse

A statue in the Philippines commemorating the promised return of American commander Douglas MacArthur in World War II

Feb 23 Japanese submarine fires on oil refinery in Ellwood, California

Feb 24 The "Battle of Los Angeles" takes place, a series of anti-aircraft engagements over the city in response to a rumored but false Japanese attack. It would last until the morning of the following day.

Anti-aircraft guns and spotlights comb the sky above Los Angeles during the rumored Japanese attack

Feb 24 Voice of America begins broadcasting (in German)
Feb 26 German battle cruiser Gneisenau deactivated by bomb
Feb 26 Radio Orange calls for March 1 day of prayer in Dutch Indies

Event of Interest

Feb 26 Werner Heisenberg, a principal scientist in the German nuclear weapons program, delivers a lecture to Nazi officials about extracting energy from nuclear fission

Theoretical Physicist and Pioneer of Quantum Mechanics Werner Heisenberg

Feb 27 1st transport of French Jews to nazi-Germany
Feb 27 Battle of Java Sea began: 13 US warships sunk and 2 Japanese
Feb 27 Radio emissions from the Sun first detected by English physicist and radio astronomer James Stanley Hey, working on WWII radar anti-jamming methods
Feb 28 1st weapon drop on Netherlands
Feb 28 Japanese land in Java, last Allied bastion in Dutch East Indies
Feb 28 Race riot at Sojourner Truth Homes, a housing project in Detroit, Michigan
Feb 28 World War II: German submarine U-578 torpedoes US Navy destroyer USS Jacob Jones (DD130) off Cape May, New Jersey, killing all but 11 of 113 man crew