List of events
Infantryman wearing a Brodie helmet , kneeling in front of M3 Half-track , holds an M1 Garand rifle. Fort Knox , June 1942.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt , 1942
Events from the year 1942 in the United States .
February 2: An executive order directs Japanese American internment
August 7: Battle of Guadalcanal begins
August 7 – WWII : Battle of Guadalcanal begins – The United States Marine Corps initiates the first American offensive of the war with a landing on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands .
August 8 – WWII : In Washington, D.C. , six German would-be saboteurs are executed (two others are cooperative and receive life imprisonment instead).
August 13 – Walt Disney 's fifth feature film, Bambi , is released. Although the initial box office gross is lackluster (due to the loss of most of the European film market during World War II ), it eventually becomes a financial success through various reissues over the next several decades. Due to continued financial losses, Disney spends the majority of the rest of the 1940s producing a string of package films , with Bambi being the last singular project he will release until Cinderella eight years later.
August 15 – WWII : The American tanker SS Ohio reaches Malta as part of the convoy of Operation Pedestal .
August 16 – The U.S. Navy blimp L-8 (Flight 101) comes ashore near San Francisco, eventually coming down in Daly City (the crew is missing).
October 28: The Alaska Highway is completed.
American Troops near Algiers during Operation Torch
Charlie Rose
Muhammad Ali
January 1
January 2
January 3 – Donna Axum , American beauty pageant winner and model (d. 2018 )
January 4 – Jim Downing , race car driver and inventor
January 5 – Charlie Rose , American television anchor and talk show host
January 7
January 9
January 11
January 17 – Muhammad Ali , born Cassius Clay, African-American boxer, activist, and philanthropist (d. 2016 )
January 18 – Ruby Winters , American singer (d. 2016 )
January 20 – Linda Moulton Howe , American journalist and producer
January 24
January 25 – Carl Eller , American football player
January 27
January 30 – Marty Balin , American singer, songwriter, and musician (d. 2018 )
Carole King
Peter Tork
February 2 – Ed Bogas , American musician and composer
February 5 – Roger Staubach , American football player
February 8
February 9 – Carole King , American singer and composer
February 10
February 11
February 12 – Larry L. Taylor , American Medal of Honor recipient (d. 2024 )[ 7]
February 13
February 14 – Michael Bloomberg , American businessman
February 15 – Sherry Jackson , American actress
February 19 – Paul Krause , American football player
February 20 – Mitch McConnell , American politician, United States Senator (R-KY )
February 24 – Joe Lieberman , American politician, Senator for Connecticut (1989–2013) (d. 2024 )[ 8]
February 25 – Karen Grassle , American actress
February 27 – Robert H. Grubbs , American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2021 )
Lou Reed
Aretha Franklin
Scott Wilson
March 2
March 5 – Mike Resnick , American science fiction author (d. 2020 )
March 7
March 8 – Dick Allen , American baseball player (d. 2020 )
March 10 – Bob Berry , American football player (d. 2023 )
March 12 – Jimmy Wynn , American baseball player (d. 2020 )
March 13
March 15 – The Iron Sheik , Iranian-American wrestler (d. 2023 )
March 17 – John Wayne Gacy , American serial killer (d. 1994 )
March 20
March 21
March 22 – Patricia A. Goldman , American women's rights activist (d. 2023 )
March 25 – Aretha Franklin , African-American singer, songwriter, actress, and civil rights activist (d. 2018 )
March 26
March 28
March 29
Leon Russell
Sandra Dee
Barbra Streisand
April 1
April 2 – Leon Russell , singer-songwriter, keyboard player and guitarist (d. 2016 )
April 3
April 5 – Peter Magowan , American businessman (d. 2019 )
April 6 – Barry Levinson , American film producer and director
April 8 – Douglas Trumbull , American film director (d. 2022 )
April 15 – Kenneth Lay , American businessman (d. 2006 )
April 17 – Buster Williams , American jazz bassist
April 18 – Seymour Stein , American entrepreneur and music executive (d. 2023 )
April 21 – Brendan Malone , American basketball coach (d. 2023 )
April 23 – Sandra Dee , American actress (d. 2005 )
April 24
April 25 – Jon Kyl , U.S. Senator from Arizona from 1995 to 2013
April 26 – Bobby Rydell , American singer (d. 2022 )
April 27
Tammy Wynette
Taj Mahal
Ted Kaczynski
May 1
May 5 – Tammy Wynette , American country singer (d. 1998 )
May 6 – David Friesen , bassist
May 9
May 10
May 14 – Byron Dorgan , American politician
May 15
May 17 – Taj Mahal , African-American singer and guitarist
May 19 – Gary Kildall , American computer scientist and microcomputer entrepreneur (d. 1994 )
May 20 – Carlos Hathcock , American Marine sniper (d. 1999 )
May 21 – Robert C. Springer , American astronaut and test pilot
May 22
May 27
Priscilla McLean , American composer, performer, video artist, writer, and music reviewer
Lee Baca , American law enforcement official and convicted felon
May 28 – Stanley B. Prusiner , American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
May 29 – Kevin Conway , American actor and director (d. 2020 )
May 31 – Happy Hairston , American basketball player (d. 2001 )
Curtis Mayfield
Roger Ebert
Brian Wilson
Richard Roundtree
Harrison Ford
July 1 – Andraé Crouch , American gospel singer (d. 2015 )
July 3
July 4
July 5 – Louise Shaffer , American actress, script writer, and author
July 7 – Thomas D. Pollard , American educator, cell biologist and biophysicist
July 8 – Phil Gramm , American politician
July 9 – Richard Roundtree , African-American actor (d. 2023 )
July 10
July 12 – Steve Young , American country music singer-songwriter (d. 2016 )
July 13
July 16 – John Purdin , American baseball player (d. 2010 )
July 18 – Bobby Susser , American songwriter and producer (d. 2020 )
July 19 – Frederick Kantor , American physicist (d. 2020 )
July 24 – Chris Sarandon , American actor
July 27 – Dennis Ralston , American tennis player (d. 2020 )
July 28
July 29 – Tony Sirico , American actor (d. 2022 )
Jerry Garcia
Fred Thompson
August 1 – Jerry Garcia , American musician (d. 1995 )
August 4
August 7
August 9
August 10 – Speedy Duncan , American football player (d. 2021 )[ 9]
August 11 – Otis Taylor , American football player (d. 2023 )[ 10]
August 13
August 16 – Barbara George , American singer-songwriter (d. 2006 )
August 19 – Fred Thompson , American politician and actor (d. 2015 )
August 20 – Isaac Hayes , African-American singer and actor (d. 2008 )
August 23 – Nancy Richey , American tennis player
August 24 – Max Cleland , American politician (d. 2021 )
August 27 – Daryl Dragon , American musician (d. 2019 )
August 29 – Sterling Morrison , American musician (d. 1995 )
Al Jardine
Madeline Kahn
Judy Sheindlin
Michael Crichton
October 1 – Jerry Martini , American musician
October 6
October 7
October 10 – Janis Hansen , American singer and author (d. 2017 )
October 13
October 18 – Eli Noyes , American animator (d. 2024 )[ 12]
October 19 – Andrew Vachss , American author and attorney
October 20 – Earl Hindman , American actor (d. 2003 )
October 21
October 22
October 23 – Michael Crichton , American author (d. 2008 )
October 24
October 25 – Gloria Katz , American screenwriter and film producer (d. 2018 )
October 29
James Orange , African-American pastor and civil rights activist (d. 2008 )
Bob Ross , American painter, art instructor and television host (d. 1995 )
October 31 – David Ogden Stiers , American actor and voice-over artist (d. 2018 )
Martin Scorsese
Joe Biden
Bob Einstein
Harry Chapin
December 1 – John Clauser , American quantum physicist, Nobel Prize laureate[ 18]
December 4
December 6 – Chelsea Brown , American actress (d. 2017 )
December 7
December 8 – Bob Love , African-American basketball player (d. 2024 )[ 20]
December 9 – Dick Butkus , American football player (d. 2023 )
December 13 – Betty-Jean Maycock , American gymnast[ 21]
December 15
December 17 – Paul Butterfield , American musician (d. 1987 )
December 19 – Gene Okerlund , American wrestling announcer (d. 2019 )
December 20
December 21 – Carla Thomas , American singer
December 27
December 29 – Gifford Pinchot III , American management consultant
December 30
January 3 – Charles Mann Hamilton , politician (b. 1874 )
January 4
January 6 – John Bernard Flannagan , sculptor, suicide (b. 1895 )
January 16 – Carole Lombard , film actress, air crash (b. 1908 )
January 18 – James P. Parker , U.S. Navy commodore (b. 1855 )
January 18 – Mason Patrick , Chief of United States Air Service, American Expeditionary Forces 1918 (b. 1863 )
February 9 – Anna Elizabeth Klumpke , portrait and genre painter (b. 1856 )
February 12 – Grant Wood , painter (b. 1892 )
February 18 – Albert Payson Terhune , journalist and author (b. 1872 )
March 16 – Rachel Field , author and poet (born 1894 )[ 25]
March 26 – Carolyn Wells , prolific novelist and poet (b. 1862 )[ 26]
April 18 – Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney , founder of the Whitney Museum of American Art (b. 1875 )
April 27 – Arthur L. Bristol , U.S. Navy admiral (b. 1886 )
May 29 – John Barrymore , actor (b. 1882 )
June 4 – killed in action at the Battle of Midway
William Abercrombie , U.S. Navy officer and aviator (b. 1914 )
Edgar R. Bassett , U.S. Navy officer (b. 1914)
Robert Boyd Brazier , US Navy aviation radioman, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (b. 1916 )
John Clarence Butler , US Navy officer, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (b. 1921 )
Harold John Ellison , U.S. Navy officer (b. 1917 )
Eugene A. Greene , US Navy officer, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (b. 1921 )
John William Haas , US Navy pilot, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (b. 1907 )
Patrick H. Hart , US Navy officer, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (b. 1915 )
Lofton R. Henderson , U.S. Marine Corps aviator and commanding officer of Marine Scout Bomber Squadron 241 (VMSB-241) (b. 1903 )
Ernest Lenard Hilbert , US Navy aviator, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (b. 1920 )
Curtis W. Howard , US Navy officer, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (b. 1917 )
Charles Kleinsmith , US Navy Chief Petty officer and sailor, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (b. 1904 )
Eugene E. Lindsey , US Navy officer, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (b. 1905 )
Lance Edward Massey , US Navy pilot, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (b. 1909 )
Walter Harold Mosley , US Navy officer, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (b. 1916 )
Carl A. Osberg , US Navy pilot, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (b. 1920 )
Floyd B. Parks , US Marine Corps officer, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (b. 1911 )
Oswald A. Powers , US Navy officer, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (b. 1915 )
David John Roche , US Navy officer, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (b. 1918 )
Richard Wayne Suesens , US Navy officer, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (b. 1915 )
John C. Waldron , U.S. Navy aviator and commander of Torpedo Squadron 8 (b. 1900 )
Frederick T. Weber , US Navy aviator, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (b. 1916 )
Osborne B. Wiseman , US Navy aviator, killed in action at the Battle of Midway (b. 1915 )
June 5
June 19 – Frank Irons , Olympic field athlete (b. 1886 )
June 23 – William Couper , sculptor (b. 1853 )
June 30 – William Henry Jackson , explorer and photographer (b. 1843 )
July 30 – Jimmy Blanton , African American jazz double bassist (b. 1918 )
August 3 – James Cruze , actor and director (b. 1884 )
August 7
August 30 – John Willard , playwright and actor (b. 1885 )
September 7 – Cecilia Beaux , portrait painter (b. 1855 )
October 5 – Dorothea Klumpke , astronomer (b. 1861 )
November 4 – Eleanor Stackhouse Atkinson , novelist and textbook and children's writer (b. 1863 )
November 30 – Anthony M. Rud , writer (b. 1893 )
December 5 – Richard Tucker , film actor (b. 1884 )
December 6 – Amos Rusie , baseball player (b. 1871 )
December 7 – Orland Steen Loomis , Governor of Wisconsin (b. 1893 )
December 8 – Albert Kahn , architect (b. 1869 in Germany )
December 12
December 13 – Robert Robinson Taylor , first accredited African American architect (b. 1868 )
December 21 – Franz Boas , anthropologist (b. 1858 in Germany)
December 27 – William G. Morgan , inventor of volleyball (b. 1870 )
^ Glass, Andrew (January 25, 2016). "Thailand declares war on United States and Britain, Jan. 25, 1942" . Politico . Retrieved September 25, 2023 .
^ "8th Air Force during WWII in the ETO: Facts, statistics, history and useful information" . Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2009-10-24 .
^ Bowers, Peter M. (1989). Boeing Aircraft since 1916 . London: Putnam. p. 322. ISBN 0-85177-804-6 .
^ Muggenthaler, August Karl (1977). German Raiders of WWII . Prentice-Hall. pp. 241–242. ISBN 0-13-354027-8 .
^ Points, Wednesday Breakfast Links |; says, Figures (2012-11-29). "Coffee Rationed" . The National WWII Museum Blog . Retrieved 2020-06-16 .
^ "Biography of Henry Hugh Shelton" . Associated Press ; The Dispatch . 1994-09-21. Retrieved 27 October 2011 .
^ Captain Larry L. Taylor
^ "Joseph Lieberman | American politician" . Encyclopedia Britannica . Retrieved 2 July 2020 .
^ Former Washington cornerback Leslie 'Speedy' Duncan dies at 79
^ Sandomir, Richard (March 10, 2023). "Otis Taylor, Star Receiver for the Kansas City Chiefs, Dies at 80" . The New York Times . Retrieved March 11, 2023 .
^ Jerry Grote, catcher for 1969 New York Mets, dies at 81
^ Eli Noyes, Pioneer in Clay and Sand Stop Animation, Dies at 81
^ "Maggie Blye, actress – obituary" . The Telegraph . May 19, 2016. Retrieved 29 June 2016 .
^ Hustler founder and free-speech activist Larry Flynt dies aged 78
^ Yolanda López, artist who elevated Latina life, dies at 78
^ Ty Fahner, former Illinois Attorney General and Mayer Brown law firm chair, dies at 81
^ Michael Malone, wide-ranging novelist and TV writer, dies at 79
^ "The Nobel Prize in Physics 2022" . Nobel Prize (Press release). The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences . 2022-10-04. Retrieved 2022-10-06 .
^ Former Broncos quarterback Steve Tensi dies at 81
^ Bob Love, Chicago Bulls basketball legend, dies at 81
^ "Olympedia – Betty Jean Maycock" . www.olympedia.org . Retrieved 31 August 2021 .
^ Undersized Ken Bowman, who played big in Super Bowl I and the Ice Bowl, dies
^ "Bob Hayes" . IOC . Retrieved 27 November 2020 .
^ "Johnson, Michael P., 1942-" . Library of Congress . Retrieved 23 November 2015 .
^ Fordyce, Rachel (1978). "Field, Rachel (Lyman)". In Kirkpatrick, D.L. (ed.). Twentieth-century Children's Writers . London: Macmillan. p. 445. ISBN 978-0-33323-414-3 .
^ "Carolyn Wells | American writer" . Encyclopedia Britannica . Retrieved 22 January 2020 .