1941

• April 6 – German troops invaded Greece and Yugoslavia.

• April 13 – Japan and Russia signed a non-aggression pact.

• April 17 – Yugoslavia surrendered to the Axis and Marshall Tito began to organize guerrilla forces.

• June 22 – Germany invaded the Soviet Union.

• July 13 – England and the Soviet Union signed a mutual aid agreement.

• August 25 – British and Soviet troops occupied Iran.

• October – German forces threatened the outskirts of Moscow and Leningrad.

• November 17 – Admiral Yamamoto and elements of the Combined Fleet steamed out of Saeki Bay, Japan.

• November 29 – Governor Ford told a convention of Native American leaders in Havre that their treatment by the Federal government had been “shameful.”

• December 3 – Sen. Burton K. Wheeler leaked the top-secret “Victory Program” to a newspaper reporter.

• December 4 – The Japanese fleet changed course towards Pearl Harbor.

• December 6 – The British declared war on Finland, Hungary, and Rumania.

• December 8 – Montana Congresswoman Jeannette Rankin cast the only dissenting vote on a declaration of war.

• December 11 – Germany & Italy declared war on the U.S.

• December 12 – The sound of a train collision in Great Falls was mistaken for an air raid.

• December 13 – A Soviet offensive at Moscow caused 85,000 German casualties. British forces in North Africa attacked Germans west of Tobruk.

• Dec. 15 – President Roosevelt addressed the nation on the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Bill of Rights.

• Dec. 18 – The first Japanese detainees arrived at Fort Missoula.

Montana History Calendar 1942

Read More about this period

Thanks to all of those Veterans out there for your service!

With Veterans Day once again upon us, I was reminded of what was happening during World War II, as fighting raged across the globe seventy years ago this week. Veterans Day of course dates back to the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I on November 11, 1918, and was extended in 1945 to honor all veterans. Twenty-three years after President Woodrow Wilson declared it a  holiday to commemorate “the war to end all wars,” World War II affected nearly every person on earth. U.S. soldiers had invaded North Africa on November 8, 1948. Four days later British soldiers defeated the German Afrika Korps at Tobruk, Libya. Armed with a sophisticated radar, the U.S.S. Helena fired the first shots of the First Battle of Guadalcanal just after midnight of August 13, in an attempt to prevent the Japanese Navy from landing reinforcements on the island.

Western Montana events honoring Veterans Day can be found here.

Among the other traditional events during Veterans Day, the Rocky Mountain of Museum History will be hosting a showing of “Forgotten Soldiers,” about the soldiers who fought at Bataan, and survived the Death March, prison camps, and the “Hell Ships.” Check it out at 3:30 p.m.on November 11, 2012 at the Roxy Theater in Missoula. For more information call 406-549-5346.