50 Fun Facts About 1942

Which physicist, born in Oxford on 8 January, arrived exactly 300 years to the day after Galileo died?

Stephen Hawking was born into a family of physicians, and both his parents had studied at Oxford despite the family's limited means. He went up to University College, Oxford, at 17 and coxed for the Boat Club.

Which college football game left Pasadena for Durham, North Carolina on 1 January, over fears of a Japanese attack?

The Rose Bowl was played at the Blue Devils' home stadium after they invited the game and Oregon State east, and the visitors won 20–16. The hosts also released 140 tickets to Black fans after a local newspaper protested.

Which film star, with the composer George Antheil, won a US patent on 11 August for frequency-hopping torpedo guidance?

Hedy Lamarr filed under her legal name, Hedy Kiesler Markey, and the idea reached operational systems only in 1962, three years after the patent expired. Frequency hopping went on to underpin spread-spectrum radio.

Which actress, Clark Gable's wife, died on 16 January when her plane home from a war-bond tour hit a Nevada mountain?

Carole Lombard's TWA flight hit Potosi Mountain near Las Vegas after the beacons that guided night flights had been switched off for fear of Japanese bombers. Gable, inconsolable, joined the Army Air Forces soon afterwards.

Which BBC radio programme, devised by Roy Plomley, began on 29 January with comedian Vic Oliver as its first guest?

Desert Island Discs cast away Vic Oliver, who happened to be Winston Churchill's son-in-law, and the format still asks each guest for eight records, a book and a luxury. It went out first on the BBC Forces Programme.

Which NHL team lost the first three games of the Stanley Cup Final to Detroit and then won the next four?

The Toronto Maple Leafs remain the only NHL team to win a Stanley Cup Final from 3–0 down, and they were the first in North American sport to overturn such a deficit in any playoff series.

Which boxer, born in Louisville on 17 January, was given a birth name honouring a slave-owner turned abolitionist?

Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; his father had been named after the 19th-century Republican politician and abolitionist Cassius Marcellus Clay, a slave owner who changed sides. He began boxing at 12.

What did Anne Frank receive for her 13th birthday on 12 June, weeks before her family went into hiding?

An autograph book bound in checkered cloth, with a small lock on the front, became the diary; the family went into hiding on 6 July, ten days earlier than planned, after Margot was called up for a work camp.

Which Edward Hopper painting of a late-night diner, finished on 21 January, sold to a Chicago museum for $3,000?

Nighthawks was entered in Hopper's ledger in his own hand as 'Night Hawks'; the Art Institute of Chicago bought it on 13 May for $3,000, roughly $59,000 at 2025 prices.

Whose December blueprint for social insurance named Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness as 'giants'?

William Beveridge's wife-to-be, the mathematician Janet Philip, did the research and publicity for it; the Trades Union Congress backed it within a fortnight and the insurance companies attacked it before the month was out.

Which everyday item went on the ration in Britain in February, with one coupon buying a four-ounce bar?

Soap of every kind was rationed, and one coupon bought a four-ounce bar of hard soap, three ounces of toilet soap or six ounces of soap powder; bread, by contrast, was never rationed until after the war.

Which Beatle was born on 18 June at Walton Hospital in Liverpool, where his mother had qualified as a nurse?

Paul McCartney's mother rode a bicycle to her patients and died when he was 14, a loss that later bonded him with John Lennon, whose own mother died in 1958. His father Jim led a jazz band.

Which guitarist, born in Seattle on 27 November as Johnny Allen, was renamed James Marshall four years later?

Jimi Hendrix's parents changed his name in 1946 in honour of his father Al and Al's late brother Leon Marshall; he was the eldest of his mother Lucille's children. Seattle made 27 November 1992 Jimi Hendrix Day.

Which future US president was born on 20 November at St Mary's Hospital in Scranton, Pennsylvania?

Joe Biden's family moved in with his mother's parents in Scranton after his father's business setbacks, before settling in Delaware; he became the 46th president in 2021.

Which comedian, born on 24 November 'on the linoleum, three floors up' in Glasgow, was a shipyard welder before comedy?

Billy Connolly was a boilermaker's welder in the Glasgow yards in the early 1960s and gave it up at the end of the decade to sing folk; he was knighted in 2017 for services to entertainment and charity.

Which World Cup winner, born in Collyhurst on 18 May, jigged round Wembley in 1966 with the trophy and his false teeth?

Nobby Stiles's jig was broadcast everywhere, and thirty years on Baddiel and Skinner's 'Three Lions' closed its list of English football memories with '...Nobby dancing'. He grew up in a working-class district of north Manchester.

Which besieged Mediterranean base received the George Cross from King George VI in a letter dated 15 April?

Malta's governor replied 'By God's help Malta will not weaken but will endure until victory is won', and the George Cross was added to Malta's flag in 1943, where it remains today. It is one of only three collective awards of the medal.

Which brother of George VI died on 25 August when his Sunderland flying boat crashed on a Caithness hillside?

The Duke of Kent, fourth son of George V, was one of 14 killed on Eagle's Rock near Dunbeath during a non-operational flight to Iceland; the Sunderland's rear gunner, Flight Sergeant Andrew Jack, was the sole survivor.

Which French port did 5,000 Canadians attack in Operation Jubilee on 19 August, suffering 68 per cent casualties?

Dieppe's raid was over in under ten hours; 3,367 of the Canadians were killed, wounded or captured, and the hard lessons about assaulting a defended port shaped the D-Day landings two years later.

Which Australian city was bombed on 19 February by four of the Japanese carriers that had struck Pearl Harbor?

Darwin took a heavier weight of bombs than Pearl Harbor had, though far fewer died, and it was the first of about 100 Japanese air raids on northern Australia; all four carriers were sunk at Midway in June.

What did Gandhi call the campaign he launched at Bombay's Gowalia Tank Maidan on 8 August with the cry 'Do or Die'?

Quit India was launched at the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee after the Cripps Mission had failed to win Indian support for the British war effort, and it demanded an end to British rule.

Which Latin American country declared war on Germany and Italy on 22 August after U-boats sank 18 of its merchant ships?

Brazil's expeditionary force, sent to Italy in 1944, called itself the Smoking Snakes, because sceptics had said a snake was likelier to smoke a pipe than the force was to reach the front.

Beneath the stands of which disused University of Chicago football ground did Fermi's pile go critical on 2 December?

Stagg Field's west stands hid a rackets court where Chicago Pile-1 produced the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction; the coded report sent afterwards read 'The Italian navigator has landed in the new world'.

Which four-engined RAF bomber, developed from the troublesome Manchester, flew its first mission on 2 March?

The Avro Lancaster's debut by No. 44 Squadron was laying mines in the Heligoland Bight, after a planned strike on the battleship Tirpitz was put off by bad weather; Roy Chadwick's design swapped two Vultures for four Rolls-Royce Merlins.

Which Warner Bros. bird first appeared, pink and naked, in Bob Clampett's short 'A Tale of Two Kitties'?

Tweety's first foes, Babbit and Catstello, were based on Abbott and Costello, and the bird began as an aggressive wild nestling before softening into the yellow canary of 46 golden-age cartoons.

Which William Wyler film about an English family at war did Roosevelt order rushed into cinemas as propaganda?

Mrs. Miniver was the year's highest-grossing film and the first centred on the Second World War to win Best Picture, one of its six Oscars. Goebbels wrote that its propaganda had 'up to now only been dreamed of'.

Which gangster-film star won the Best Actor Oscar playing the song-and-dance man George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy?

James Cagney's sister Jeanne played Cohan's sister and his brother was the associate producer; the film took three of its eight Oscar nominations and Cagney later reprised the role.

Which Enid Blyton series began with Julian, Dick, Anne and George exploring a wreck off Kirrin with Timmy the dog?

The Famous Five's first adventure, published that year, had the cousins find a map of Kirrin Castle aboard the wreck of George's great-great-great-grandfather's ship. Their usual Polzeath holiday had fallen through.

Which writer first set out his Three Laws of Robotics in 'Runaround', published in Astounding Science-Fiction in March?

Isaac Asimov's laws had been implied in earlier stories, but all three appeared together for the first time in 'Runaround', which was later collected in I, Robot in 1950.

Which Vera Lynn song was written by two Americans, one apparently unaware that its bird does not occur in Britain?

The White Cliffs of Dover was composed in 1941 with a lyric by Nat Burton, and in America it was first recorded by the Glenn Miller Orchestra before Kay Kyser's version overtook it in the charts in January.

Whose Seventh Symphony was played in besieged Leningrad on 9 August by musicians kept going on extra rations?

Dmitri Shostakovich's symphony was broadcast over loudspeakers across the city and towards the German lines as psychological warfare; the Leningrad Radio Orchestra under Karl Eliasberg was the only symphonic ensemble left.

Which left fielder, a year after hitting .406, won the Triple Crown yet lost the MVP vote to New York's Joe Gordon?

Ted Williams felt he deserved 'a little more consideration' for the Triple Crown and blamed his trouble with the press; he did win the MVP twice, and retired a six-time batting champion and two-time Triple Crown winner.

Which guidebook series named the Luftwaffe's spring raids on Exeter, Bath, Norwich, York and Canterbury?

The Baedeker raids took their name from a German spokesman's vow to bomb every building in Britain marked with three stars in the guide, in retaliation for the RAF's destruction of Lübeck; Bath's Assembly Rooms were gutted.

In which Bette Davis film does Paul Henreid light two cigarettes at once and pass one to her?

Now, Voyager's stars long claimed the cigarette moment came out of rehearsals, but Casey Robinson's script drafts show he wrote it; Davis also insisted on re-testing Henreid without the brilliantined hair that made him look like Valentino.

Which Pledge of Allegiance gesture did Congress replace on 22 December with the right hand over the heart?

The Bellamy salute, an arm extended towards the flag since 1892, had come to look uncomfortably like the fascist salutes of Italy and Germany; Congress amended the Flag Code it had only passed that June.

Which charity was founded by Quakers, activists and academics to get food through the blockade to occupied Greece?

Oxfam began as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, founded at 17 Broad Street by Quakers, social activists and Oxford academics who first met in the Old Library of the University Church; it was registered under UK law in 1943.

Where did Churchill tell the Lord Mayor's luncheon on 10 November that El Alamein was 'the end of the beginning'?

The Mansion House speech followed General Alexander's suggestion that Churchill 'Ring out the bells'; he warned that the victory was 'not the end' and 'not even the beginning of the end'.

Which port's Normandie dry dock did the explosive-packed destroyer HMS Campbeltown ram on 28 March?

St Nazaire's raid, called 'the greatest raid of all', earned 89 decorations including the Victoria Cross for Beattie, Newman and Ryder; Campbeltown's charges went off at noon, killing some 40 German officers and civilians touring the wreck.

Which liner, carrying some 10,000 American troops, sliced the escorting cruiser HMS Curacoa in two on 2 October?

RMS Queen Mary kept zig-zagging while Curacoa's captain held a straight mean course, each expecting the other to give way; 337 of the cruiser's men were lost off the coast of Ireland.

What slogan did Stalin's Order No. 227 of 28 July carry, alongside the creation of penal battalions?

'Not one step back!' ordered each front to form penal battalions for officers accused of indiscipline and send them to the most dangerous sectors; 422,700 Red Army personnel were sentenced to such units by 1945.

Which bandleader's 'Der Fuehrer's Face' followed every 'Heil' with a derisive raspberry and was a huge late-year hit?

Spike Jones cut it just days before the musicians' union recording ban, which kept him out of the studio for over two years; he had earlier drummed on Bing Crosby's first recording of 'White Christmas'.

Which Val Lewton horror film originated the 'bus', a jump-scare trick its editor said he created by accident?

Cat People's editor Mark Robson cut a menacing silence against the sudden hiss of a bus's air brakes, a device Lewton reused in later films; Simone Simon starred as the woman who fears her own transformation.

Which Austrian author, once a resident of Bath, died with his wife Lotte in Petrópolis, near Rio, on 22 February?

Stefan Zweig and Lotte were found the next day, dead of a barbiturate overdose, after he had grown despairing at Europe's future; the couple had moved to Petrópolis in August 1941.

Which Arctic convoy was ordered to scatter on 4 July to evade the Tirpitz, losing 24 of its 35 merchant ships?

PQ 17's scatter order came from the Admiralty in London, which believed the battleship was at sea; the escorts were pulled away and the lone merchantmen were picked off by U-boats and aircraft on the way to Arkhangelsk.

Which cruiser, sunk in the Barents Sea in May with 4.5 tons of Soviet gold aboard, had the bullion salvaged in 1981?

HMS Edinburgh's 465 ingots were part-payment by the USSR for war supplies; Keith Jessop's consortium brought up 431 bars in 1981 and 29 more in 1986, in the first commercial use of helium-reclaim diving.

Which English engineer, a pioneer of stereo sound, died on 7 June when a Halifax testing H2S radar crashed?

Alan Blumlein, 38, was on a secret Telecommunications Research Establishment trial of the airborne H2S set; everyone aboard died at Welsh Bicknor, and stereo was one of his many inventions in recording and television.

Which Swedish runner set a mile world record in July and became the first man under 14 minutes for 5,000 metres?

Gunder Hägg's 4:06.2 mile was equalled by his rival Arne Andersson within the month; between them the two Swedes, racing in a neutral country, dragged the record down towards four minutes while the rest of the world was at war.

Which German sabotage mission landed eight agents by U-boat in New York and Florida in June, ending with six executions?

Operation Pastorius unravelled when its leader George Dasch phoned the FBI and gave his name as 'Franz Pastorius'; the first party had buried its explosives in the sand at Amagansett and taken the railway into Manhattan.

Which pioneering Egyptologist died in Jerusalem on 29 July, having bequeathed his head to the Royal College of Surgeons?

Flinders Petrie's body lies in the Protestant Cemetery on Mount Zion while his head went to London; a popular legend has Lady Petrie carrying it home in a hat box after the war.

Which Liberty ship was launched on 12 November just 4 days, 15 hours and 29 minutes after her keel was laid?

SS Robert E. Peary's record came from a race between shipyards to see which could build a Liberty ship fastest; she was delivered three days later, 7 days, 14 hours and 32 minutes after the keel went down.