1941 ( MCMXLI ) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar , the 1941st year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 941st year of the 2nd millennium , the 41st year of the 20th century , and the 2nd year of the 1940s decade.

Events [ change | change source ]

• January 6 ? Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms Speech in the State of the Union Address.
• January 10 ? Lend-Lease is introduced into the United States Congress .
• January 19 ? British troops attack Italian -held Eritrea .
• January 21 ? World War II : Australian and British forces attack Tobruk , Libya .
• January 22 ? World War II: British troops capture Tobruk from the Italians.
• January 23 ? Charles Lindbergh testifies before the United States Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler .
• April 6 ? World War II : The German army attacked Yugoslavia .
• April 10 ? Croatia declares itself independent of Yugoslavia .
• June 22 - Nazi German invasion to the Soviet Union . The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union begins.
• September 11 ? Building of The Pentagon starts.
• December 5 - Soviet counteroffensive near Moscow begins.
• December 7 ? The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor . Following this, the U.S. enters World War II .

Births [ change | change source ]

• January 3 ? Van Dyke Parks , musician, composer
• January 5 ? Miyazaki Hayao , Japanese movie maker
• January 5 ? Grady Thomas , singer ( P-Funk )
• January 8 ? Graham Chapman , British comedian (d. 1989 )
• January 9 ? Joan Baez , American singer
• January 14 ? Faye Dunaway , American actress
• January 14 ? Milan Ku?an , Slovene politician , statesman
• January 15 ? Captain Beefheart , American singer (d. 2010 )
• January 18 ? David Ruffin , singer (died 1991 )
• January 21 ? Richie Havens , American musician (d. 2013 )
• January 21 ? Placido Domingo , Spanish opera singer
• January 26 ? Henry Jaglom , director
• January 26 ? Scott Glenn , actor
• January 30 ? Dick Cheney , former Vice President of the United States
• January 31 - Eugene Terre'Blanche , South African far-right politician (d. 2010 )
• January 31 ? Richard Gephardt , American politician
• February 5 ? Kaspar Villiger , former member of the Swiss Federal Council
• February 8 ? Nick Nolte , actor
• February 10 ? Michael Apted , director
• February 11 ? Glenn Randall Jr , stuntman
• February 11 ? Jeremy Mackenzie , general
• February 13 ? Sigmar Polke , German painter (d. 2010 )
• February 16 - Kim Jong-il , North Korean supreme commander. (died 2011 )
• February 17 ? Julia McKenzie , actress
• February 17 ? Gene Pitney , American singer (d. 2006 )
• February 20 ? Buffy Sainte-Marie , singer
• February 27 ? Paddy Ashdown , British politician
• March 3 ? Jutta Hoffmann , actress
• March 4 ? Adrian Lyne , director
• March 6 ? Willie Stargell , Baseball Hall of Famer (died 2001 )
• March 14 ? Wolfgang Petersen , director, Das Boot
• March 15 ? Mike Love , musician (" The Beach Boys ")
• March 16 ? Bernardo Bertolucci , movie director
• March 18 ? Wilson Pickett , American singer (d. 2006 )
• March 26 ? Richard Dawkins , British scientist
• March 30 ? Wasim Sajjad , former President of Pakistan
• April 6 ? Hans W. Geissendorfer , German movie director
• April 8 ? Vivienne Westwood , English fashion designer
• April 14 ? Pete Rose , American baseball player
• April 18 - Michael D. Higgins , President of Ireland
• April 23 ? Paavo Lipponen , Prime Minister of Finland
• April 24 - Richard Holbrooke , American diplomat (d. 2010 )
• May 13 ? Ritchie Valens , singer (died 1959 )
• May 13 ? Senta Berger , actress
• May 15 ? K.T. Oslin , country musician
• May 19 ? Nora Ephron , American screenwriter (d. 2012 )
• May 24 ? Bob Dylan , American poet and musician
• June 5 ? Martha Argerich , Argentinian pianist
• June 5 ? Spalding Gray , actor, screenwriter, and monologue artist (died 2004 )
• June 9 - Jon Lord , British musician ( Deep Purple ) (d. 2012 )
• June 15 - Harry Nilsson , American singer-songwriter (d. 1994 )
• June 27 ? Krzysztof Kieslowski , movie director
• July 14 ? Maulana Karenga , writer and activist
• August 14 - David Crosby , American singer-songwriter and musician ( Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young )
• August 22 ? Bill Parcells , NFL coach
• September 8 - Bernie Sanders , American politician
• September 9 ? Otis Redding , musician (died 1967 )
• September 9 ? Dennis Ritchie , American computer scientist (d. 2011 )
• September 19 ? Cass Elliott , singer ( The Mamas & the Papas ) (died 1974 )
• September 28 - Edmund Stoiber , German politician
• October 4 ? Anne Rice , horror/fantasy writer
• October 5 ? Eduardo Duhalde former President of Argentina
• October 8 - Jesse Jackson , American pastor and civil rights leader
• October 13 ? Paul Simon , American musician ( Simon & Garfunkel )
• November 5 - Art Garfunkel , American musician ( Simon & Garfunkel )
• November 7 - Angelo Scola , Italian archbishop and cardinal
• November 29 ? Bill Freehan , baseball player
• December 18 - His Royal Highness Prince William of Gloucester
• December 23 - Nigel Anthony , English actor
• December 31 - Alex Ferguson , Scottish football manager

Deaths [ change | change source ]

• January 5 ? Amy Johnson , aviator
• January 8 ? Lord Robert Baden-Powell , founder of Scouting
• January 10 ? Joe Penner , comedian, actor
• January 13 ? James Joyce , writer
• February 11 ? Rudolf Hilferding , German economist, Minister of Finance
• February 28 ? King Alfonso XIII of Spain
• March 6 ? Gutzon Borglum , sculptor
• March 8 ? Sherwood Anderson , writer
• March 15 ? Alexej von Jawlensky , Russian impressionist painter
• March 28 ? Virginia Woolf , writer
• June 2 ? Lou Gehrig , baseball legend (born 1903 )
• June 6 ? Louis Chevrolet , automobile builder
• July 10 ? Jelly Roll Morton ? jazz musician & composer (b. 1890 )
• July 11 ? Arthur Evans , archaeologist
• July 26 ? Henri Lebesgue , mathematician
• August 31 ? Marina Tsvetaeva , Russian poet (suicide)
• August 7 ? Rabindranath Tagore , writer
• September 13 ? Elias Disney , American farmer and father of Walt Disney .
• November 18 ? Chris Watson , third Prime Minister of Australia
• December 3 ? Christian Sinding , composer

Nobel Prizes [ change | change source ]

• Physics ? not awarded
• Chemistry ? not awarded
• Medicine ? not awarded
• Literature ? not awarded
• Peace ? not awarded

Movies released [ change | change source ]

• Citizen Kane