THE AMERICAS-1941

The Americas!

06/01/1941 In his annual message to Congress, President Roosevelt announces the "Five Freedoms". 08/01/1941 US budget includes $17,500,000,000 defence appropriation. 10/01/1941 Roosevelt introduces his 'Lend Lease' bill to the House of Representatives as House Resolution 1776 (H.R. 1776), after recognising that neither Britain or China could continue paying indefinitely for material supplied. This allowed the fighting allies to pay the USA back in kind, but after the war. He likened this to 'lending a neighbour a garden hose to put out a fire'. 21/01/1941 The USA informs the Soviet Union that the "moral embargo" imposed on it after its 1939 attack on Finland no longer applies. 29/01/1941 In Washington, the US and British military leaders begin secret staff talks regarding co-ordination of a common war policy against Germany. 01/02/1941 The US Navy is reorganised in to the Atlantic, Pacific and Asiatic fleets and ordered to gradually bring ship crews up to war establishment. 08/02/1941 The House of Representatives passes H.R. 1776 by a vote of 260 to 165. 08/03/1941 The US Senate passes the 'Lend Lease' bill by 60 votes to 31. 11/03/1941 The US House of Representatives passes the 'Lend Lease' Bill by 317 votes to 71, where upon it is immediately signed by President Roosevelt. Initial priority for war supplies was to be given to Britain and Greece. 15/03/1941 Roosevelt broadcasts to the nation announcing ‘the end of compromise with tyranny’. 29/03/1941 After 2 months and 14 separate meetings, the US and British staff conference ends with a basic framework for US-British co-operation should the USA be drawn in to the war. Most importantly an agreement was made that Germany should be defeated first. 31/03/1941 A US scientific/military team arrives in the Danish colony of Greenland, to consider the establishment of military bases there. 11/04/1941 Roosevelt extends the Pan-American security zone in the Atlantic from 60°W to 26°W. 12/04/1941 US troops land in Greenland. 25/04/1941 Roosevelt announces an indefinite extension of US Atlantic patrols. 06/05/1941 US Secretary for War advocates US Navy protection for British supply convoys. 11/05/1941 Japan makes proposals to the USA in order to improve relations. They demand that the USA stop supplying war materials to China and that they normalise trade relations. These are rejected by the USA, although both sides agree to continue talks. 15/05/1941 Roosevelt tells Vichy France to ‘choose between Germany and US’. 25/05/1941 German Navy Chief, Admiral Raeder warns that US convoying of British war supplies would be considered an act of war. 27/05/1941 President Roosevelt declares unlimited national emergency; calls upon all Americans to resist Hitlerism. 28/05/1941 Roosevelt says Neutrality Act to be repealed. 05/06/1941 US House Appropriations committee introduces largest Army expenditure bill since the First World War at S10,000 million. 14/06/1941 President Roosevelt orders the freezing of all German and Italian assets, as well as those of occupied countries. 16/06/1941 The US State Department orders the closing by the 10th July of all German consular offices and tourist agencies in the United States. Italians closed down on 19th June. 20/06/1941 President Roosevelt, in a message to Congress, denounces the sinking of the American merchant ship Robin Moor by U-69 as 'an act of piracy'. 23/06/1941 US Under-Secretary of State, backs Churchill’s aid-for-Russia policy. 28/06/1941 Vannevar Bush is named as director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), which has just been created by President Roosevelt. 04/07/1941 In and Independence Day broadcast, Roosevelt warns the American public that the USA 'will never survive as a happy and prosperous oasis in the middle of a desert of dictatorship'. 15/07/1941 A US airbase is established at Argentia in Newfoundland. 26/07/1941 America freezes all Japanese assets in the US. 01/08/1941 Roosevelt stops US oil supplies to the ‘aggressors’. 02/08/1941 US and USSR agree on US aid. 06/08/1941 The Japanese foreign minister, Admiral Nomura, proposes to the USA a meeting between Roosevelt and Prime Minister Konoye. 07/08/1941 US Senate extends National Service to 18 months. 09/08/1941 Prime Minister Winston Churchill, on board HMS Prince of Wales arrives in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland to meet with President Roosevelt for the Atlantic Conference. 12/08/1941 Churchill and Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter, an eight-point declaration of peace aims. 17/08/1941 The USA reply's to Admiral Nomura's proposals of the 6th August, rejecting any high level meeting until the present differences between Japan and the USA have been resolved. 04/09/1941 As a result of U652's attack on the US destroyer Greer, President Roosevelt warns German and Italian vessels that from now on, if they enter the Pan-American security zone, they do so at there own risk. 16/09/1941 The US announce that it will provide escort for ships carrying Lend-Lease material up to 26°W, which meant that clashes with U-boats would become more likely. 17/09/1941 The US allocates $100,000,000 to the Soviet Union for the purchase of war materials. 27/09/1941 The first liberty ship, the 'Patrick Henry' is launched at Baltimore naval dockyard. 08/10/1941 In a letter to Stalin, President Roosevelt promises U.S. military aid to the Soviet Union. 09/10/1941 President Roosevelt in a message to Congress urges the repeal of Section 6 of the Neutrality Act which would allow the arming of U.S. merchant ships against "the modern pirates of the sea", the U-boats. 16/10/1941 Admiral Harold R Stark, US chief of Naval Operations warns of potential hostilities between Japan and the USSR and possibly between Japan and the USA. 17/10/1941 US House representatives allow merchantmen to be armed. 27/10/1941 Roosevelt claims ‘America has been attacked. The shooting has started’, when referring to German naval aggression during his Navy Day broadcast. 28/10/1941 President Roosevelt approves the appropriation by Congress of an additional $6 billion in Lend-Lease aid to Britain and the Soviet Union. 06/11/1941 US gives Russia $1,000m interest free loan. 13/11/1941 President Roosevelt announces the arming of American merchant vessels carrying Lend-Lease cargo to Britain. The US Congress and Senate, vote by a small majority to repeal the 1939 Neutrality Act. 15/11/1941 A Japanese special negotiator arrives in Washington. 26/11/1941 U.S. secretary of state puts his final proposal to the Japanese. 01/12/1941 US-Japanese talks continue, Roosevelt curtails holiday. 04/12/1941 The Japanese Embassy in Washington begins to leave, destroying code books and personal files in the process. 06/12/1941 President Roosevelt sends a last minute plea to the Japanese Emperor for peace. 07/12/1941 The US begins mobilisation. 08/12/1941 President Roosevelt addresses the U.S. Congress, saying that December 7 is "a date that will live in infamy." After a vote of 82-0 in the U.S. Senate, and 388-1 in the House, in favor of declaring war on Japan, Roosevelt signs the declaration of war. 11/12/1941 In response to Germany and Italy's declaration of war, the US reciprocates and declares war on both Germany and Italy. Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua also declare war on Germany and Italy. 12/12/1941 US declares war on Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria after receiving those country's declarations of war against the US. 15/12/1941 US Secretary of the Navy tells Congress that 2,729 were killed during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. 19/12/1941 Colombia severs diplomatic relations with Germany and Italy. 22/12/1941 Prime Minister Churchill arrives at the White House as the guest of President Roosevelt for the Washington Conference. 23/12/1941 Concerned about the safety of the founding documents of the United States in wartime Washington, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are removed from their display space at the National Archives and are transported in a special sealed container to temporary storage at the U.S. Gold Depository at Ft. Knox, Kentucky. On Oct. 1, 1944, with the danger to the mainland United States passed, the documents are returned to public display in Washington. 26/12/1941 Churchill addresses Joint Session of Congress and receives a rousing ovation, but says allied offensive must wait until 1943.