VG

Roosevelt orders an embargo on high-octane gasoline and crude oil to Japan.

To stop the sinking of American convoys in the Atlantic, it was decided to transfer from Pearl Harbor the battleships Missouri, Idaho, New Mexico, the aircraft carrier Yorktown, 4 cruisers, 17 destroyers, 3 tankers, etc.: even before launching the attack, Yamamoto lost a quarter of

Finland. The Winter War with the Soviets ended only a year ago, and now planes bearing the red star are bombing Finnish cities again. Finland and the Soviet Union are back at war for the third time in less than a quarter of a century.

The Wehrmacht sent 3.3 million soldiers to Russia; by the end of 1943 there had been 3 million losses in prisoners, dead and wounded.

A German U-Boat, U-203, chases the American warship USS Texas for 140 miles between Greenland and Iceland, repeatedly attempting to line up and fire torpedoes at it. This is just one of a series of near-misses between the Germans and the Americans during a period

Samarkand, USSR. Professor Gerasimov, sent from Moscow, and his assistants open Tamerlane’s tomb. They do so at night to avoid the reaction of the people, who fear great disaster if the great conqueror’s sleep is disturbed. The next day, Nazi Germany invades the USSR. Examining

Hayla Sellase Ethiopian president

The Bismark is sunk in the North Atlantic; the Royal Navy has to fire 2876 cannon shots against the Bismark crippled the day before by the RAF: the German casualties will be 2100, only 104 survivors are rescued by the British

A flock of Swordfish (old wood and canvas biplanes) taking off from the Ark Royal torpedoed the rudder and guidance system of the Bismark, paralyzing her.

Hitler issues Directive No. 30: a plan to support the Arab liberation movement.

Hitler sacrifices the 7th Parachute Division in an attempted air assault on Crete

11,000 DC-3s are built in the USA and 2,000 under license in the USSR.

The great Russian mathematician Nikolai Kolmogorov discovered that, in the context of turbulence, the rotation speed of a vortex is proportional to the cube root of its diameter. This has cosmological consequences: after the first 300,000 years, the speed of sound decreases significantly, and some

The first radio map of the sky is completed

First use of radar to observe local weather

Rudolph Hess (unbeknownst to the German General Staff) parachuted into the residence of the Duke of Hamilton in Scotland to negotiate peace; that same day, London was heavily bombed and Hess was taken prisoner. At the Nuremberg trials, he was sentenced to life imprisonment and

Enigma and related documents are captured aboard U110 by HMS Bradley and HMS Aubretia

The Axis armies, after Yugoslavia, poured into Greece, the British resisted for a long time but then took refuge in the ports of southern Greece.

United States. The number of televisions in the nation is 7,000, of which 5,000 are in New York alone. This number will rise to 44,000 in 1947, 940,000 in 1949, and a staggering 20 million in 1953.

Belgrade is methodically bombarded by the Luftwaffe with orthogonal trajectories. Civilians are machine-gunned in the streets, and by the end of the day, 25,000 people are dead and countless wounded.

Endicott, New York. IBM builds the Mark I to the specifications of Harvard PhD student Howard Aiken. It takes 6 seconds to perform a multiplication. It uses levers driven by electric motors instead of relays.

Konrad Zuse created the Z3, the first functioning general-purpose programmable digital computer. He proposed it to the Wehrmacht, requiring two years of development to perfect it. The invention was rejected because “Germany would have already won the war by then.” His prototype was destroyed during

Libya. The British are driven out of all of Cyrenaica and recross the Egyptian border. Only a large contingent of Australian soldiers remains entrenched in Tobruk.

Libya. British General O’Connor’s unescorted van turns off a sign the Italians have misdirected, and the British are captured by an Italian patrol. The Italian-German advance continues, and British morale is at rock bottom.

Rommel’s reconquest of Benghazi at the head of a mixed Italian-German force was made possible by Rommel’s disobedience to orders from Berlin. They had ordered him to halt, but he, by pressing ahead, caught the British by surprise, having deciphered the Enigma message from Berlin

Libya. A joint Italian-German force reconquers Benghazi.

Milutin Milankovic writes an important scientific book on the ice ages caused by the shift in the Earth’s axis, based on articles he wrote in the 1930s. He delivers the manuscript, which will have considerable, though not immediate, influence to a publishing house in Belgrade,

The Battle of Cape Matapan was portrayed by the British, even after the war, as a clever move by Admiral Cunningham, who in his memoirs would portray himself as a new Nelson. In reality, the British knew exactly what the Royal Navy’s orders were and

Battle of Cape Matapan. Thanks to interceptions of the Italian Enigma code and the use of radar, the British surprise the Italian fleet off the coast of Greece and sink three cruisers and two destroyers, with over 2,000 sailors aboard, while capturing more than 1,000

The Reichsmarine passes, via Enigma (intercepted by Ultra), a communiqué to the Royal Navy that sounds like an ultimatum: the situation in the Mediterranean is more favorable to the Italians than ever before, and the situation is propitious for an intervention in the Crete area.

Libya. With all of Cyrenaica in British hands, Salvatore Castagna also surrenders with his two hundred soldiers. He had resisted under siege in the Giarabub oasis since December 1940, until his ammunition ran out.

Roosevelt believed that with the collapse of Great Britain, the entire moral code of the West and the rule of law would disappear, and signed the Lend-Lease Agreement to help the British.

Mars introduces the famous M&M’s chocolate candies in the United States

Teatro Adriano in Rome. Benito Mussolini states: “It’s more likely that the United States will be invaded, before Axis soldiers, by the little-known, but apparently very bellicose, inhabitants of the planet Mars, who will descend from outer space on unimaginable flying fortresses.” (Guzzanti’s “Fascists on

Libya. Erwin Rommel arrives by plane in Tripoli with the first men of the Afrika Korps.

Libya. Beda Fomm. Twenty thousand Italians, 216 guns, and 120 tanks fall into British hands. Graziani’s Cyrenaica Army is destroyed forever. At this point, the British pause, because Ultra has intercepted Enigma messages revealing that the Wehrmacht is about to intervene in Greece to support

DuPont patents Teflon, which will immediately be used to coat the inside of pipes for the Manhattan Project experiments.

Philosopher Erich Fromm wrote Escape from Freedom, in which he attempts to explain the rise of fascism. He argues that every increase in freedom is also an increase in loneliness: the initial connection with others is lost, and a sense of insecurity, helplessness, doubt, loneliness,

Libya. The British occupy Ajdabia and El Agheila, 340 kilometers south of Benghazi. All of Cyrenaica is in British hands. Only Salvatore Castagna and two hundred soldiers resist until March 23, 1941 (from December 1940) in the Giarabub oasis.

The Mellon family’s Gulf is the world’s leading oil company.

Mauthausen, Austria. Mauthausen was classified by Himmler as a “level III camp” (i.e., the most rigorous), meaning the extermination of prisoners, whether through labor or not. By the end of the year, the camp system held nearly 16,000 prisoners; approximately 8,500 were concentrated in Gusen.

Yamamoto, disgusted by the seething nationalists, wrote: “If hostilities were to break out between Japan and the United States, it would not be enough to capture Guam and the Philippines, or even Hawaii and San Francisco. To ensure victory, we would have to march on

Libya. The British attack Tobruk, which falls the following day.

Malta. German planes sink the cruiser Southampton and seriously damage the aircraft carrier Illustrious.

Libya. The British will launch an attack with Matilda tanks against Bardia. After three days of fierce fighting, the Italian defense surrenders. O’Connor will then immediately launch the tanks inland to isolate Tobruk, which will indeed fall on January 21st.

Soviet Union. More than 1.5 million Poles taken prisoner by the Red Army were deported to the Gulags: 760,000 would soon die in Russia, mostly children, who accounted for a third of those deported. Another 22,000 were murdered with the express intent of completely eliminating

Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Executive Order 8802: there shall be no discrimination of workers in defense industry…” opens doors to blacks in the military

Franklin Delano Roosevelt confirmed for the third term in the White House

The first German military units arrive in Italy. It is the result of the agreement between Mussolini and Hitler. The former renounces his parallel war and requests the help of his German ally, who requests intervention in Greece and Libya, and demands complete freedom to

Devastating air raid on London. On the evening of December 29, 1940, the Germans attacked London with a devastating air raid. Hundreds of fires started by the rain of bombs threatened London, but firefighters fought undaunted by the explosions, saving much of the city from

Emilio Segre’ and Enrico Fermi discuss the possible use of a controlled reaction with Uranium 238 (element 92) to first obtain an isotope of Neptunium 239 (element 93) and then, by radioactive decay (2.3 days), an isotope of Plutonium 239 (element 94). Plutonium could then

Glenn Seaborg synthesizes plutonium, although it is not isolated until 1942.

The U.S. Army and Navy attack Japanese codes, attempting to decipher them. Frank Rowlett, a former mathematics professor, succeeds.

At Sidi Barani (Libya) the English captured 40,000 Italians, 73 tanks, 237 guns and 1,000 vehicles; later the Italians lost Bardia, Tobruk, Derna

The Japanese introduce a new code to encrypt their navy messages. The Americans call it J-25B. Unfortunately for the Japanese, they continue to use the old code, which the Americans had already cracked, so the new one is also cracked almost immediately.

400 Luftwaffe Heinke HE111s destroy Coventry

Ultra intercepts Enigma messages that indicate the Luftwaffe’s current target is not London, but Coventry. At first, it’s thought to be a decryption error, but it turns out to be correct. Save Coventry or save Ultra? Churchill interrupts a Cabinet meeting, retreats to his study,

Much of the Italian fleet was destroyed by the British at Taranto. Twenty slow-moving biplane torpedo bombers, launched from the aircraft carrier Illustrious, disabled the battleships Duilio, Littorio, and Cavour, which were in Taranto harbor engaged in operations against Greece. The action reassured the depressed

Benito Mussolini gives the order to invade Greece from Albania, Greece being in fact the last English ally on the continent.

Libya. The spearhead of the Italian forces reaches Sidi el-Barrani, the first conquest in Egypt. Fascism heavily promotes this, but in reality there has been almost no fighting so far.

Libya. Italian forces move to attack the British in Egypt. They leave the green Gebel of Cyrenaica behind them to venture into the Marmaris Desert. In front is the 23rd Army Corps led by General Annibale Bergonzoli, extremely popular among the soldiers and nicknamed “Electric

Benito Mussolini gives the order to invade Egypt from Libya

Mexico City. Ramon Mercader, an agent of Stalin’s Red Aid, kills Leon Trotsky. After associating with him and pretending to share his views, he manages to meet him alone, then strikes him repeatedly in the head with a steel axe. Trotsky, though seriously injured, manages

Bletchley Park. The first “Bombe,” featuring the Diagonal Board designed by Gordon Welchman to reduce false alarms, enters service. Finally, the British can attack not only the Kriegsmarine Enigma (navy) but also the Heer (German Army) or Luftwaffe Enigma.

The Signal Intelligence Service under William Friedman cracked the Purple cipher used to communicate with Japanese diplomats from the homeland; the decryption system was called Magic; Friedman suffered a nervous breakdown in December 1940 from overwork over the previous 20 months.

Some Luftwaffe bombers, having lost their route, dropped their load of bombs on London before returning; the accidental episode will unleash a chain of retaliations that will lead to the bombing of civilians throughout Germany, England and then Japan.

Battle of Cape Spada between the Italian Navy and the Royal Navy

Battle of Punta Stilo between the Italian Navy and the Royal Navy

United States. The Export Control Act is passed, with which the United States, at the instigation of President F.D. Roosevelt, seeks both to procure resources and raw materials, in a climate of growing war conflict and international tension, and to cut Japan off from those

Mers-el-Kébir, Algeria. Admiral Somerville faces the most difficult task ever assigned to the Royal Navy. The attack was carried out by the United Kingdom as part of Operation Catapult, a week before the handover of full powers to Philippe Pétain. France and the United Kingdom

Enrico Fermi’s patent number 2206634 on the slow neutron technique was accepted in the United States. The inventors were Fermi, Amaldi, Pontecorvo, Rasetti, and Segrè, while D’Agostino and Trabacchi had been promised shares of any profits if the patent was accepted. The patent would go

The Soviets, following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact with the Nazis, and after having requested and obtained permission to establish military bases in the Baltic countries, militarily occupied Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, formed pro-Soviet political parties, deported tens of thousands of people and the entire ruling political

The Germans encrypt messages with Enigma and the English decrypt them with Ultra: Godel and Turing actively participate in the English project

The Battle of Britain begins: the RAF loses 1,173 aircraft (including 538 Hurricanes and 342 Spitfires) and 510 pilots and gunners, while the Luftwaffe loses 1,733 aircraft and 3,368 pilots and gunners killed or captured. Hurricanes account for 55% of the losses, Spitfires for 33%.

Libya. Colony governor Italo Balbo, after insistently requesting an order for action against Egypt, where British forces were significantly inferior (40,000 British, albeit with superior planes and tanks, compared to 221,000 Italians). The order arrived on June 28, but Balbo had died half an hour

Libya. Two armies are deployed, under the leadership of the colony’s charismatic governor, Marshal and air hero Italo Balbo: the Fifth Army, led by General Gariboldi, on the Tunisian border, and the Tenth Army, led by General Mario Berti, on the Egyptian border.

France. The terms of an armistice are reached (actually, a full-blown French surrender). Germany, through the Wehrmacht, has direct control of much of France, including Paris, and the entire north and west of the country. Petain, with Vichy as his capital, is given control of

The heavy water that the French had procured a few months earlier in Norway was sent to England, while 8 tons of uranium oxide were hidden for the duration of the war in an abandoned mine in Morocco.

In a famous 2-minute speech on the BBC, Winston Churchill declared that “we have become the sole champions now in arms to defend the world cause, we shall fight on until the curse of Hitler is lifted from the brows of mankind”

The Wehrmacht enters Paris