HistoryData

What Happened in 1942

35 historical events, 39 notable births, and 4 notable deaths in 1942.

Major Events

January 1942

general

Wannsee Conference — 1942 meeting of senior officials and functionaries of National Socialist organisations and ministries in Berlin to organise and coordinate the deportation of the entire Jewish population of Europe to the East for extermination

war

Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia — massacre of Poles by Ukrainian nationalists during World War II

politics

Declaration by United Nations — treaty

war

Solomon Islands Campaign — 1942 major campaign of the Pacific War of World War II

sports

1942 South American Championship — Football tournament edition

general

Sonderkommando — work units of German Nazi death camp prisoners forced to dispose of corpses

war

Battles of Rzhev — 1942 series of Soviet Operations in World War II

war

Battle of Savo Island — 1942 battle

culture

1942 in film — overview of the events of 1942 in film

war

Ecuadorian–Peruvian War — South American border war fought between 5–31 July 1941 between Ecuador and Peru

general

Esposizione Universale di Roma — project for the 1942 Rome Universal Exposition

war

Battle of Voronezh — 1942 battle

November 1942

war

Operation Torch — 1942 Allied landing operations in French North Africa during World War II

general

Case Blue — German summer offensive of 1942 in southern Russia

war

Battle of Tassafaronga — 1942 naval battle between US Navy and Imperial Japanese Navy warships during the Guadalcanal campaign

general

Scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon — 1942 destruction of the French naval fleet by Vichy France

war

Kokoda Track campaign — part of the Pacific War of World War II

August 1942

war

Dieppe Raid — 1942 landing operation in World War II

general

The Death Match — 1942 association football match in Kyiv

war

Battle of the Tenaru — 1942 battle of World War II

April 1942

war

Doolittle Raid — first air raid on the Japanese mainland conducted by the U.S. military on April 18, 1942

war

Bataan Death March — forced transfer of American and Filipino prisoners of war by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1942

December 1942

war

Operation Mars — offensive operation part of the Battles of Rzhev, during World War II

war

Battle of the Barents Sea — 1942 battle between warships of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine and British ships escorting convoy JW 51B to Kola Inlet in the USSR

February 1942

war

14th Academy Awards — American Motion Picture Academy film award ceremony

war

Battle of the Java Sea — 1942 naval battle on the Pacific campaign of WWII, in present-day western Indonesia

war

Channel Dash — 1942 German naval operation during the Second World War

war

Battle of Los Angeles — anti-air shelling during WWII in Los Angeles, CA, against apparently nothing

war

Bombing of Darwin — Japanese attack on Darwin, Australia during World War II

May 1942

war

Operation Anthropoid — 1942 military operation

war

Demyansk Pocket — military operation from 8 February – 20 May 1942

war

Japanese conquest of Burma — military operation during World War Two

March 1942

general

St Nazaire Raid — 1942 marine operation during ww2

June 1942

general

Lidice massacre — complete destruction of village and massacre of its population as a Nazi reprisal