Top News Stories from 1941

World Events

• Germany attacks the Balkans and Russia.
• Japanese surprise attack on U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor brings U.S. into World War II; U.S. and Britain declare war on Japan.
• The first U.S. Lend-Lease shipment of food sent to Britain.

U.S. Events

• Roosevelt enunciates "four freedoms" in his Jan. 6 message to Congress.
• Congress passes the Lend-Lease Act, giving President the power to sell, lend, and lease war supplies to other nations.

Economics

Sports

World Series

Stanley Cup

Kentucky Derby Champion

NCAA Basketball Championship

NCAA Football Champions

Entertainment

Events

• In Citizen Kane, Orson Welles subordinates all previous technological and cinematic accomplishments to his own essentially cinematic vision. Using newly developed film stocks and a wider, faster lens, Welles pushes the boundaries of montage and mise-en-scène, as well as sound, redefining the medium.
• Actress Greta Garbo retires at age 36.
• Edward Hopper completes the painting Nighthawks.

Science

• Glenn Seaborg and Edwin McMillan isolate plutonium, a fuel preferable to uranium for nuclear reactors.
• RCA demonstrates a new simplified electron microscope that magnifies up to 100,000 times.

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