On This Day

Historical Events in October 1941

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Oct 1 Dmitri Shostakovich evacuated by plane to Moscow

Composer Dmitri Shostakovich
Composer
Dmitri Shostakovich
  • Oct 1 H Martin/R Blane's musical "Best Foot Forward" premieres in NYC
  • Oct 2 6 Paris synagogues are bombed by Gestapo
  • Oct 2 Germans launch attack on Moscow

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Oct 3 Adolf Hitler says Russia is "already broken and will never rise again" in a broadcast to the German people

Dictator of Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler
Dictator of Nazi Germany
Adolf Hitler
  • Oct 3 All elderly Jewish men of Kerenchug Ukraine, are killed by SS
  • Oct 3 Nazis blow up 6 synagoges in Paris

Film release premierFilm Premier

Oct 3 "The Maltese Falcon" directed by John Huston and based off Dashiell Hammett's 1929 novel of the same name, starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor, premieres in New York City

Actress Mary Astor
Actress
Mary Astor
Actor Humphrey Bogart
Actor
Humphrey Bogart
  • Oct 5 Brooklyn Dodgers catcher Mickey Owens drops a 3rd strike and Tom Hendrick reaches 1st safely for Yankees for a famous Baseball World Series error; would have been last out, instead Yankees score 4 and win 7-4; win series, 4-1
  • Oct 6 German army occupies Briansk, USSR
  • Oct 6 NY Yankees beat Dodgers 4 games to 1, in 38th World Series
  • Oct 7 German army occupies Viarma, USSR
  • Oct 8 Building at Concentration Camp Birkenau begins

USAManhattan Project

Oct 9 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt approves an atomic program that would become the Manhattan Project

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'Calutron Girls' monitoring a mass spectrometer during the Manhattan Project. Gladys Owens, in the foreground, did not know what she was involved with until seeing this picture on a tour fifty years later.
'Calutron Girls' monitoring a mass spectrometer during the Manhattan Project. Gladys Owens, in the foreground, did not know what she was involved with until seeing this picture on a tour fifty years later.
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  • Oct 9 Coup in Panama declares Ricardo Adolfo de la Guardia Arango the new president.
  • Oct 10 RAF bombs Piraeus to prevent German heavy armor advancing

  • Oct 11 1st NSB-battalion departures to Eastern front
  • Oct 12 Soviet government moves from Moscow to Volga as Nazis forces close in on Moscow
  • Oct 13 Nazis kill 11,000 Jewish children and old people
  • Oct 14 1st mass deportation of Kowno, Lodz, Minsk & Riga
  • Oct 15 1st mass deportation of German Jews to Eastern Europe

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Oct 15 Hideki Tojo appointed Prime Minister of Imperial Japan

Prime Minister of Japan during WW II Hideki Tojo
Prime Minister of Japan during WW II
Hideki Tojo
  • Oct 15 Jews caught outside Nazi Ghetto walls in occupied Poland could be put to death
  • Oct 16 "Gordo" comic strip (by Gus Arriola) 1st appears in newspapers
  • Oct 16 Germany advances within 60 miles (96 K) of Moscow
  • Oct 16 Romanian Legionnaires enter Odessa, Russia
  • Oct 17 USS Kearney becomes the 1st US destroyer torpedoed in World War II, while the country is still officially neutral
  • Oct 18 Soviet spy Richard Sorge arrested in Tokyo
  • Oct 19 1st woman jockey in North America, Anna Lee Wiley in Mexico
  • Oct 20 Nazi occupiers murder 500 inhabitants of Kragujevac Serbia

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Oct 22 Maxwell Anderson's "Candle in the Wind" premieres in NYC

Playwright and Dramatist Maxwell Anderson
Playwright and Dramatist
Maxwell Anderson

Film release premierFilm Release

Oct 23 Walt Disney's animated film "Dumbo" released

Animator Walt Disney
Animator
Walt Disney
  • Oct 25 16,000 Jews massacred in Odessa Ukraine
  • Oct 25 Germany attacks Moscow

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Oct 25 Winston Churchill routes "Forces South" to SE Asia

Soldier, Author and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill
Soldier, Author and British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill

Event of interestEvent of Interest

Oct 26 Second meeting of partisans Tito & Draza Mihailovic in Yugoslavia

President of Yugoslavia and Revolutionary Josip Broz Tito
President of Yugoslavia and Revolutionary
Josip Broz Tito
  • Oct 27 Chicago Daily Tribune editorialize there will not be war with Japan

Film release premierFilm Premier

Oct 28 "How Green Was My Valley" based on the novel by Richard Llewellyn, directed by John Ford and starring Walter Pidgeon and Maureen O'Hara premieres in New York (Best Picture 1942)

Film director John Ford
Film director
John Ford

Music releaseMusic Premiere

Oct 29 Cole Porter's musical "Let's Face It" premieres in New York City

Composer and Lyricist Cole Porter
Composer and Lyricist
Cole Porter
  • Oct 31 Mount Rushmore Monument is completed in South Dakota, designed by Gutzon Borglum
  • Oct 31 Prior to US joining WWII, German submarine U-552 torpedoes US destroyer Reuben James near Iceland
  • Oct 31 Clothing factory fire in Huddersfield, England kills 49

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