1942

For other uses, see 1942 (disambiguation).

Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Contents (full)

1 Events of 1942

- Jan. ^. Feb. ^. March ^. April

- May ^. June ^. July ^. Aug.

- Sept. ^. Oct. ^. Nov. ^. Dec.

- Undated ^. Ongoing

2 Births

3 Deaths

4 Nobel prizes

5 Ship events

6 See also - Notes - External links

Events of 1942

(Below, many events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.)

January

January 2 - WWII: Manila is captured by Japanese forces. The Japanese Admiral stays in Solvec (owned by Charles Henry de Silva), Philippines.
January 7 - WWII: Siege of the Bataan Peninsula begins.
January 10 - WWII: The last German air-raid on Liverpool. This raid destroyed the home of William Patrick Hitler, Adolf Hitler's nephew. After his house was destroyed William Hitler went to the USA and joined the navy to fight against his uncle.
January 11 - WWII: **Japan declares war on the Netherlands and invades the Netherlands East Indies.
- WWII: The Japanese capture Kuala Lumpur.
January 19 - WWII: Japanese forces invade Burma.
January 20 - WWII: Nazis at the Wannsee conference in Berlin decide that the "final solution to the Jewish problem" is relocation, and later extermination.
January 23 - WWII: The Battle of Rabaul begins.
January 25 - WWII: Thailand declares war on the United States and United Kingdom.
January 26 - WWII: The first American forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.
January 31 - WWII: The last organised Allied forces leave Malaya, ending the 54-day campaign.

February

February 2 - WWII: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs an executive order directing the internment of Japanese Americans and the seizure of their property.
February 8 - António Óscar Carmona is elected president of Portugal.
- WWII: Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss American military strategy in the war.
- Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States.
February 11 - Operation Cerberus - Flotilla of Kriegsmarine ships dash from Brest through the English Channel to northern ports; British fail to sink any one of them.
February 15 - WWII: Singapore surrenders to Japanese forces.
February 19 - WWII:
- 242 Japanese warplanes attack Darwin, Australia.
- President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs executive order 9066 allowing the United States military to define areas as exclusionary zones. These zones affect the Japanese on the West Coast, and Germans and Italians primarily on the East Coast.
February 20 - Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace.
February 22 - WWII: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defense of the nation collapses.
February 23 - The Japanese submarine I-17 fires sixteen high-explosive shells toward an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California, causing little damage.
February 24 - Propaganda: The Voice of America begins broadcasting.
February 25 - Princess Elizabeth registers for war service.
February 26 - The worst Coal dust explosion to date occurs in , China. It claims 1549 lives. The growth of the coal mining industry was a major goal of Mao Zedong's first Five-Year Plan.^[1]
February 27 - WWII: During the Battle of the Java Sea an allied (ABDA) task force under Dutch command, trying to stem a Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies is defeated by a Japanese task force in the Java Sea.

March

March - Construction began what would be the largest army ammunition plant in the United States during WWII; the Badger Army Ammunition Plant
March 9 - Executive Order 9082 (February 28, 1942) reorganized the United States Army into three major commands - Army Ground Forces, Army Air Forces, and Services of Supply, later redesignated Army Service Forces.
March 28 - British Commandos raided St Nazaire on the coast of Western France.

The Japanese aircraft carrier, Hiryu under attack by US aircraft at the Battle of Midway.

April

April 3 - WWII: Japanese forces begin an all-out assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula. Bataan fell on April 9 and the Bataan Death March began.
April 5 - WWII: Japanese Navy attacks Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Royal Navy Cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island.
April 9 - WWII: Japanese Navy launches air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Royal Navy Aircraft Carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy Destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk off the country's East Coast.
April 13 - The FCC minimum programming time required of TV stations is cut from 15 hours to four hours a week during the war.
April 15 - WWII:King George VI awards the George Cross to Malta, "To honour her brave people I award the George Cross to the Island Fortress of Malta, to bear witness to a heroism and a devotion that will long be famous in history." From January 1 to July 24, 1942, there was only one 24-hour period during which no bombs fell on this tiny island.
April 18 - Tokyo, Japan is bombed by B-25 Mitchells commanded by then-Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle.
April 27 - WWII: A national plebiscite is held in Canada on the issue of conscription.
April 29 - WWII: Explosion at a chemical factory in Tessenderlo, Belgium leaves 200 dead and 1,000 injured.

May

May - First test of an undersea oil pipeline in Operation Pluto.
May 5 - WWII: Operation Ironclad - United Kingdom forces invades French colony of Madagascar.
May 6 - WWII: On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.
May 8 - WWII: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end. This is the first time in the naval history where two enemy fleets fought without seeing each other's fleets.
May 8/May 9 - WWII: On the night of 8/9 May 1942, gunners of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands rebelled. Their mutiny was crushed and three of them were executed, the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War.
May 12 - WWII: Second Battle of Kharkov - In the eastern Ukraine, the Soviet Army initiates a major offensive. During the battle the Soviets will capture the city of Kharkov from the German Army, only to be encircled and destroyed.
May 15 - WWII: In the United States, a bill creating the (WAAC) is signed into law.
May 20 - First African-American seamen taken into US Navy.
May 21 - WWII: Mexico declares war against Nazi Germany after the sinking of the Mexican tanker Faja de Oro by the German U-boat, U-160, off Key West.
May 27 - WWII: Operation Anthropoid - attempted assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague.
May 31 - June 1- WWII: Attack on Sydney Harbour - Japanese midget submarines infiltrate Sydney Harbour in an attempt to attack Allied warships.

June

June 1 - WWII: Mexico declares war on Germany, Italy and Japan.
June 4 - WWII: Reinhard Heydrich succumbs to wounds sustained on May 27 from Czechoslovakian paratroopers acting in Operation Anthropoid
June 4-June 7 - WWII: The Battle of Midway.
June 7 - WWII: Japanese forces invade the Aleutian Islands. This is the first invasion of American soil in 128 years.
June 8 - WWII: Attack on Sydney Harbour: Australian cities of Sydney and Newcastle are shelled by Japanese submarines. The eastern suburbs of both cities are damaged and the east coast is blacked-out.
June 9 - WWII: Nazis burn the Czech village of Lidice as reprisal for the killing of Reinhard Heydrich.
June 10 - WWII: the Gestapo massacre 173 male residents of Lidice, Czechoslovakia in retaliation for the killing of a Nazi official.
June 12 - Holocaust: Future essayist Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday.
June 13 - The United States opens its Office of War Information, a center for production of propaganda.

July

July 1 - July 27 - WWII: the First Battle of El Alamein.
July 3 - Guadalcanal falls to the Japanese.
July 6 - Holocaust: Anne Frank's family goes into hiding in an attic above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse.
July 13 - WWII: German U-Boats sink three more merchant ships in Gulf of St. Lawrence.
July 16
- Holocaust: On order from the Vichy France government headed by Pierre Laval, French police officers round-up 13,000-20,000 Jews and imprison them in the Winter Velodrome.
- Georges Bégué and others escape from Mauzac prison camp.
July 18 - WWII: The Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me-262 using only its jets for the first time.
July 19 - WWII: Battle of the Atlantic - German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz orders the last U-boats to withdraw from their United States Atlantic coast positions in response to an effective American convoy system.
July 21 - Japanese establish beachhead on the north coast of New Guinea in the Buna-Gona area; small Australian force begins rearguard action on the Kokoda Track Campaign.
July 22 - Holocaust: The systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto begins.
July 29 - The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR institutes the Order of Suvorov, the Order of Kutuzov, and reinstates the Order of Alexander Nevsky.
July 31 - The Oxford Committee of Famine Relief (OXFAM) founded.

August

August 7 - WWII: Battle of Guadalcanal begins - US Marines initiate the first American offensive of the war with a landing on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.
August 8
- WWII: In Washington, DC, six German would-be saboteurs are executed (two others were cooperative and received life imprisonment instead).
- Quit India resolution is passed by the Bombay session of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), which led to the start of a historical civil disobedience movement across India.
August 9
- Indian leader, Mohandas Gandhi is arrested in Bombay by British forces.
- Start, led by the goalkeeper Nikolai Trusevich, play football against the German Luftwaffe team Flakelf in Nazi-occupied Kiev. Against all odds, they win 5-3. Eight of them are later arrested and tortured, and at least four are killed.
August 13 - 14 night - In London instruments detect a massive burst of cosmic rays.
August 15 - WWII: SS Ohio, an American tanker, reaches Malta as part of the convoy of Operation Pedestal.
August 16 - Polish-Jewish teacher Janusz Korczak follows a group of Jewish children into Treblinka death camp.
August 19 - WWII: The Dieppe Raid - Allied forces raid Dieppe, France. Fred Thompson Born.
August 22 - WWII: Brazil declared war on Germany and Italy.
August 25 - WWII: Japanese marines land at Milne Bay.
August 30 - Luxembourg is formally annexed to the German Reich.
August 31 - General strike launched in Luxembourg to protest against forced conscription.

September

September 3
- Francisco Franco fires foreign minister .
- An attempt by the Germans to liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Lakhva leads to an uprising.
September 5 - WWII: Japanese forces suffer their first defeat on land at the Battle of Milne Bay.
September 12 - RMS Laconia, carrying civilians, Allied soldiers and Italian POWs is torpedoed off the coast of West Africa and sinks.
September 24 - Andrée Borrel and became the first female SOE agents to be parachuted into occupied France.

October

October 2 - British cruiser Curacao collides with the liner Queen Mary off the coast of Donegal and sinks - 338 drowned.
October 3 - First successful launch of A-4 rocket from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany. The rocket flew 147 kilometres wide and reached a height of 84.5 kilometres and was therefore the first man-made object reaching space.
October 9 - Statute of formalizes Australian autonomy.
October 11 - WWII: Battle of Cape Esperance - On the northwest coast of Guadalcanal, United States Navy ships intercept and defeat a Japanese fleet on their way to reinforce troops on the island.
October 14 - A German U-boat sinks the ferry SS Caribou, killing 137.
October 16 - Hurricane and flooding in Bombay - 40,000 dead.
October 23 - Award-winning composer and Hollywood songwriter Ralph Rainger ("Thanks for the Memory") is among the 12 people killed in the mid-air collision between an American Airlines DC-3 airliner and a U.S. Army bomber near Palm Springs, California.
October 23 - November 4 - WWII: the Second Battle of El Alamein.
October 26 - WWII: Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands - Two Japanese aircraft carriers are heavily damaged and one US carrier is sunk.
October 28 - The Alaska Highway is completed.
October 29 - Holocaust: In the United Kingdom, leading clergymen and political figures hold a public meeting to register outrage over Nazi Germany's persecution of Jews.

November

November 2 - USAF forces, including B-24 Liberator's fly toward . The squad intercepts many Luftwaffe patrols off the coast of Oran. The US Force won the air battle.
November 3 - WWII: Second Battle of El Alamein ends - German forces under Erwin Rommel are forced to retreat during the night.
November 8 - WWII:
- Operation Torch - United States and United Kingdom forces land in French North Africa.
- in Algiers, by which 400 French civil resistants neutralize the Vichyist XIXth Army Corps and the Vichyist generals (Juin, Darlan, etc.), so allowing the immediate success of Operation Torch in Algiers, and ultimately the whole of French North Africa.
November 9 - WWII: U.S serviceman Edward Leonski hanged at Melbourne's Pentridge Prison for the "Brown-Out" Murders of three women in May.
November 10 - WWII: In violation of a 1940 armistice, Germany invades Vichy France following French Admiral François Darlan agreement to an armistice with the Allies in North Africa.
November 12 - WWII: Battle of Guadalcanal begins - A naval battle near Guadalcanal starts between Japanese and American forces.
November 13 - WWII: Battle of Guadalcanal - Aviators from the USS Enterprise sink the Japanese battleship Hiei.
November 15 - WWII: Battle of Guadalcanal ends - Although the United States Navy suffered heavy losses, it was able to retain control of Guadalcanal.
November 19 - WWII: Battle of Stalingrad - Soviet Union forces under General Georgy Zhukov launch the Operation Uranus counter-attacks at Stalingrad, turning the tide of the battle in the USSR's favor.
November 21 - The completion of the Alaska Highway (also known as the Alcan Highway) is celebrated (the "highway" was not usable by general vehicles until 1943, however).
November 22 - WWII: Battle of Stalingrad - The situation for the German attackers of Stalingrad seems desperate during the Soviet counter-attack Operation Uranus and General Friedrich Paulus sends Adolf Hitler a telegram saying that the German Sixth Army is surrounded.
November 23 - German U-boat sinks SS Ben Lomond off the coast of Brazil. One crewman, Chinese second steward Poon Lim, is separated from the others and spends 130 days adrift until he is rescued April 3, 1943.
November 26 - The movie Casablanca premièred at the Hollywood Theater in New York City.
November 27 - WWII: At Toulon, the French navy scuttles its ships and submarines to keep them out of Nazi hands.
November 28
- In Boston, Massachusetts, a fire in the Cocoanut Grove night club kills 491 people.
- The large-scale German "pacification" of Zamojszczyzna region of Poland begins.

December

December 1 - Gasoline rationing begins in the United States.
December 2 - Manhattan Project: Below the bleachers of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, a team led by Enrico Fermi initiate the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction (a coded message, "The Italian navigator has landed in the new world" was then sent to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt).
December 4 - Holocaust: In Warsaw, two women, Zofia Kossak and risk their lives by setting up the .
December 7 - British commandos conduct Operation Frankton a raid on shipping in Bordeaux harbour.
December 24 - French Admiral Darlan, the former Vichy leader who had switched over to the Allies following the Torch landings, assassinated in Algiers.

Undated

Grand Coulee Dam finished in Columbia River.
DDT first used as a pesticide.
C.S. Lewis publishes The Screwtape Letters.
Lions became extinct in Iran by this date.

Ongoing

World War II (1939-1945)
Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)

Births

January-February

January 1
- Martin Frost, American politician
- Gennadi Sarafanov, cosmonaut
January 2 - Hugh Shelton, American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
January 3 - John Thaw, English actor (d. 2002)
January 5
- Maurizio Pollini, Italian pianist
- Charlie Rose, American talk show host
- Jan Leeming, Former BBC newsreader
January 7 - Vasily Alexeev, Soviet weightlifter
January 8
- Stephen Hawking, British physicist
- Junichiro Koizumi, Prime Minister of Japan
- Yvette Mimieux, American actress
- George Passmore, English artist (Gilbert and George)
January 11 - Clarence Clemons, American musician
January 14 - Yogesh Kumar Sabharwal, Chief Justice of India
January 15 - Charo, American singer and actress
January 17
- Muhammad Ali, American boxer
- Cus D'Amato, boxing manager (d. 1985)
- Ulf Hoelscher, German violinist
- Nancy Parsons, American actress (d. 2001)
January 19 - Michael Crawford, English singer and actor
January 25 - Carl Eller, American football player
January 25 - Eusébio, Portuguese footballer
January 31
- Derek Jarman, English director and writer (d. 1994)
- Daniela Bianchi, Italian actress
February 1 - Terry Jones, Welsh actor and writer
February 2 - Graham Nash, American (English-born) rock musician
February 5 - Roger Staubach, American football player
February 9 - Carole King, American singer and composer
February 12 - Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel
February 13 - Peter Tork, American musician and actor
February 14
- Michael Bloomberg, American businessman, philanthropist, and the founder of Bloomberg L.P., Mayor of New York City
- Andrew Robinson, American actor
February 15 - Sherry Jackson, American actress
February 16 - Kim Jong-il, leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
February 19 - Paul Krause, American football player
February 20 - Phil Esposito, Canadian hockey player
February 21 - Margarethe von Trotta, German actress, film director, and writer
February 24 - Joseph Lieberman, American politician
February 27 - Robert H. Grubbs, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
February 28 - Brian Jones, English musician (The Rolling Stones) (d. 1969)

March-April

March 2
- John Irving, American author
- Lou Reed, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Velvet Underground)
March 4
- Charles C. Krulak, U.S. Marine Corps commander
- Gloria Gaither, American gospel songwriter
March 5 - Felipe González Márquez, Spanish politician
March 7
- Tammy Faye Bakker, American evangelist, singer and television personality (d. 2007)
- Michael Eisner, American film studio executive
March 9 - John Cale, Welsh composer and musician (Velvet Underground)
March 12 - Jimmy Wynn, American baseball player, 1963-1977
March 13 - Dave Cutler, American software engineer
March 13 - Scatman John, American musician (d. 1999)
March 16 - James Soong, Taiwan politician
March 17 - John Wayne Gacy, American serial killer (d. 1994)
March 23 - Walter Rodney, Guyanese historian and political figure
March 25
- Aretha Franklin, American singer
- Richard O'Brien, English-born actor and writer
March 26 - Erica Jong, American author
March 27
- John E. Sulston, British chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- Michael York, English actor
- Michael Jackson, English writer (d. 2007)
March 28
- Neil Kinnock, British statesman
- Mike Newell, British film director
- Conrad Schumann, East German border guard (d. 1998)
- Jerry Sloan, American basketball coach
March 29 - Scott Wilson, American actor
April 1 - Annie Nightingale, British DJ (Radio 1)
April 2
- Hiroyuki Sakai, Japanese chef
- Leon Russell, American singer, songwriter, pianist, and guitarist
April 3
- Marsha Mason, American actress
- Wayne Newton, American singer
April 4 - Elizabeth Levy, American author
April 5
- Peter Greenaway, Welsh film-maker
- Pascal Couchepin, Swiss Federal Councilor
April 6 - Barry Levinson, American film producer and director
April 8 - Roger Chapman, British rock singer (Family, Streetwalkers)
April 14
- Valeriy Brumel, Russian athlete (d. 2003)
- Valentin Lebedev, cosmonaut
April 15
- Kenneth Lay, American businessman (d. 2006)
- Julie Sommars, American actress
April 17
- David Bradley, British actor
- Buster Williams, American jazz bassist
April 23 - Sandra Dee, American actress (d. 2005)
April 24 - Barbra Streisand, American singer, theatre and film actress, composer
April 26
- Bobby Rydell, American singer
- Michael Kergin, Canadian diplomat
- Claudine Auger, French actress
April 27 - Jim Keltner, American drummer

May-June

May 2 - Jacques Rogge, Belgian International Olympic Committee president
May 5 - Tammy Wynette, American musician (d. 1998)
May 8 - Terry Neill, Northern Irish footballer and football manager
May 9 - John Ashcroft, United States Attorney General
May 10 - Youssouf Sambo Bâ, Burkinabé politician
May 12 - Ian Dury, British musician (d. 2000)
May 17 - Taj Mahal, American singer and guitarist
May 18
- Albert Hammond, English-born musician and composer
- Nobby Stiles, English footballer
May 19 - Gary Kildall, American computer scientist (d. 1994)
May 20 - David Proval, American actor
May 22
- Theodore Kaczynski, American bomber
- Calvin Simon, American musician (P Funk)
May 23 - Gabriel Liiceanu, Romanian philosopher
May 26 - Levon Helm, American musician (The Band)
May 28 - Stanley B. Prusiner, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
June 2 - Eduard Malofeyev, Russian football coach and former international player
June 3
- Curtis Mayfield, American musician (d. 1999)
- Frank McRae, American actor
June 10
- Gordon Burns, British journalist and TV presenter
- Preston Manning, Canadian politician
June 12 - Bert Sakmann, German physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate
June 17
- Mohamed ElBaradei, Egyptian International Atomic Energy Agency director, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- Roger Steffens, Reggae archivist, actor, author, Bob Marley biographer
June 18
- Roger Ebert, American film critic and television personality
- Paul McCartney, English musician and composer (The Beatles)
- Hans Vonk, Dutch conductor
June 19
- Michael Broggie, Disney historian and author
- Ralna English, American singer
June 20 - Brian Wilson, American singer (The Beach Boys)
June 24
- Mick Fleetwood, English drummer (Fleetwood Mac)
- Michele Lee, American actress, singer and dancer
June 27 - Bruce Johnston, American musician (The Beach Boys)
June 28 - David Miner, musician and record producer

July-August

July 4
- Karolyn Grimes, American child actress
- Floyd Little, American football player
- Prince Michael of Kent
July 7 - Carmen Duncan, Welsh-born actress
July 8 - Janice Pennington, American model and playboy playmate
July 9 - Richard Roundtree, African-American actor
July 10
- Pyotr Klimuk, cosmonaut
- Ronnie James Dio, American singer
July 13
- Harrison Ford, American actor and producer
- Roger McGuinn, American musician (The Byrds)
July 15 - Mil Mascaras, Mexican professional wrestler
July 18 - Adolf Ogi, member of the Swiss Federal Council
July 23 - Myra Hindley, English murderer
July 24 - Chris Sarandon, American actor
July 27 - Dennis Ralston, American tennis player
July 28 - Kaari Utrio, Finnish writer
July 29 - Tony Sirico, American actor
August 1 - Jerry Garcia, American musician (d. 1995), (Grateful Dead)
August 2 - Isabel Allende, Chilean writer
August 4 - David Lange, Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 2005)
August 7 - Garrison Keillor, American writer and radio host
August 17 - Roshan Seth, British Indian actor
August 18 - Judith Keppel, First person to win £1,000,000 on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
August 19 - Fred Dalton Thompson, U.S. Senator and actor
August 20 - Isaac Hayes, American singer and actor
August 26 - Dennis Turner (Lord Bilston), British politician
August 28 - Sterling Morrison, American musician (d. 1995)

September-October

September 1 - John Lange, American scientist
September 3 - John Shrapnel, English actor
September 14 - Bernard MacLaverty, Irish writer
September 17 - Desmond Lynam, British TV presenter
September 19 - Freda Payne, American singer and actress
September 22 - David Stern, American commissioner of the National Basketball Association
September 28 - Marshall Bell, American actor
September 29
- Madeline Kahn, American actress (d. 1999)
- Ian McShane, English actor
- Jean-Luc Ponty, French jazz violinist
September 30 - Frankie Lymon, American singer (d. 1968)
October 6
- Britt Ekland, Swedish actress
- Fred Travalena, American comedian and impressionist
October 11 - Amitabh Bachchan, Indian actor
October 12 - Melvin Franklin, American musician (d. 1995)
October 13 - Jerry Jones, American football team owner
October 14 - Evelio Javier, Filipino politician, lawyer, and civil servant (d. 1986)
October 15
- Penny Marshall, American actress, producer and director
- Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami, American Hindu guru and pontiff of Kauai's Hindu monastery on Kauai, Hawaii, USA.
October 19 - Andrew Vachss, American author and attorney
October 20
- Earl Hindman, American actor (d. 2003)
- Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, German biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
October 21 - Elvin Bishop, American musician
October 22 - Annette Funicello, American actress
October 23 - Michael Crichton, American author
October 26
- Bob Hoskins, British actor
- Chelcie Ross, American actor
October 29 - Bob Ross, American painter and television presenter (d. 1995)
October 31 - David Ogden Stiers, American voice-over artist

November-December

November 1
- Larry Flynt, American publisher
- Ralph Klein, Premier of Alberta
November 2 - Stefanie Powers, American actress
November 8
- Angel Cordero Jr., Puerto Rican jockey
- Fernando Sorrentino, Argentine writer
November 10
- Robert F. Engle, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- Hans-Rudolf Merz, Swiss Federal Councilor
November 13 - John P. Hammond, American singer
November 15 - Daniel Barenboim, Argentine-born pianist and conductor
November 17 - Martin Scorsese, American film director
November 18
- Linda Evans, American actress
- Susan Sullivan, American actress
November 20 - Joe Biden, U.S. Senator from Delaware
November 22 - Francis K. Butagira, Ugandan ambassador
November 24 - Billy Connolly, Scottish comedian
November 26 - Khalil Kalfat, Egyptian intellectual and writer
November 27
- Henry Carr, American athlete
- Jimi Hendrix, American musician (d. 1970)
- Manolo Blahnik, Spanish shoe designer
November 28 - Paul Warfield, American football player
November 29 - Michael Craze, British actor (d. 1998)
November 29 - Philippe Huttenlocher, Swiss baritone
December 4 - Gemma Jones, British actress
December 6 - Peter Handke, Austrian novelist
December 7 - Peter Tomarken, American game show host (d. 2006)
December 9 - Dick Butkus, American football player
December 11 - Donna Mills, American actress
December 17 - Paul Butterfield, American musician (d. 1987)
December 20 - Bob Hayes, American athlete
December 21 - Carla Thomas, American singer
December 23 - Jorma Kaukonen, American musician (Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna)
December 27 - Charmian Carr, American actress
December 29 - Rajesh Khanna, Indian actor
December 30
- Betty Aberlin, American actress
- Allan Gotthelf, American philosopher
December 31 - Andy Summers, English guitarist
date unknown
- Roger Angleton, American murderer (d. 1998)
- George Negus, Australian author, journalist, and television presenter.
probable - Muammar al-Gaddafi, leader of Libya

Deaths

January-June

January 6 - Henri de Baillet-Latour, Belgian International Olympic Committee president (b. 1876)
January 14 - Porfirio Barba-Jacob, Colombian poet and writer (b. 1883)
January 16
- Carole Lombard, American actress (air crash) (b. 1908)
- Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, second youngest son of Queen Victoria (b. 1850)
January 26 - Felix Hausdorff, German mathematician (suicide) (b. 1868)
February 14 - Mirosław Ferić, Polish pilot of the No. 303 Squadron in Northolt (b. 1915)
February 19 - Frank Abbandando, American gangster (executed) (b. 1910)
February 22 - Stefan Zweig, Austrian writer (suicide with wife) (b. 1881)
February 28 - Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral (sinking ship) (b. 1889)
March 1 - Cornelius Vanderbilt III, American military officer, inventor, and engineer (b. 1873)
March 8 - José Raúl Capablanca, Cuban chess player (b. 1888)
March 10 - William Henry Bragg, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1862)
March 21 - J.S Woodsworth, Canadian politician (b. 1874)
April 15 - Robert Musil, Austrian-born novelist (b. 1880)
April 16 - Princess Alexandra of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, granddaughter of Queen Victoria
April 17 - Jean Baptiste Perrin, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1870)
April 18 - Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, American sculptor and socialite (b. 1875)
April 24 - Deenanath Mangeshkar, Indian singer and composer (b. 1900)
May 3 - Thorvald Stauning, Prime Minister of Denmark (b. 1873)
May 7 - Felix Weingartner, Yugoslavian conductor (b. 1863)
May 27 - Chen Duxiu, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (b. 1879)
May 29 - John Barrymore, American actor (b. 1882)
May 29 - Akiko Yosano, Japanese author, poet (b. 1878)
June 4 - Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the Nazi Reich Main Security Office and Reich governor of Bohemia and Moravia (assassinated) (b. 1904)
June 7 - Alan Blumlein, English electronics engineer (b. 1903)
June 30 - William Henry Jackson, American photographer (b. 1843)

July-December

July 23 - Adam Czerniakow, Polish engineer and senator (suicide) (b. 1880)
July 26 - Roberto Arlt, Argentine writer (b. 1900)
July 28 - William Matthew Flinders Petrie, English Egyptologist (b. 1853)
August 3 - Richard Willstätter, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1872)
August 25- Prince George, Duke of Kent, fourth eldest son of King George V
September 14 - Ezra Seymour Gosney, American philanthropist and eugenicist (b. 1855)
September 29 - Gene Stack, first player from a major league roster to be drafted during WWII and also the first to die in service (b. 1920)
October 23 - Ralph Rainger, American composer and Hollywood songwriter (b. 1901)
November 1 - Hugo Distler, German composer (b. 1908)
November 5 - George M. Cohan, American songwriter and entertainer (b. 1878)
November 12 - Laura Hope Crews, stage & film actress (aunt PittyPat), (b. 1879)
November 19 - Bruno Schulz, Polish writer and painter (shot) (b. 1892)
November 21 - Leopold Graf Berchtold, Austro-Hungarian foreign minister (b. 1863)
December 7 - Orland Steen Loomis, Governor-elect of Wisconsin (b. 1893)
December 22 - Franz Boas, German anthropologist (b. 1858)

Nobel prizes

Physics - not awarded
Chemistry - not awarded
Medicine - not awarded
Literature - not awarded
Peace - not awarded