In 1941, Joe the Hero made his big speech. To read about him >>
January 31
The Germans occupying Stalingrad surrender to the Russians.
February 9
Japanese forces withdraw from Guadalcanal after six months of fighting the Americans there.
February 13
The Yankees' Joe DiMaggio joins the army.
May 2
Striking coal workers go back to work after being denounced by FDR.
June 22
29 die in Detroit race riots.
July 13
Hitler's tanks are badly defeated at Kursk, Russia.
September 12
Allies go ashore in Italy.
November 24
American marines seize control of Gilbert Islands in the Tarawa Atoll.
December 31
U.S. air onslaught against German factories in Berlin.
5/2/40
Joe the hero's big
speech
11/16/40
Jane the hero's last
stand
In Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart is a cynical American nightclub owner who finds himself helping Czech rebels escape the Nazis.
In Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt, a young woman wonders whether her Uncle Charlie is a murderer of widows.
Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is about a girl in a Brooklyn tenement searching for meaning.
The Andrews Sisters' songs "Pistol-Packing Mama" and "Shoo-Shoo Baby" entertain GIs.
Aaron Copland's patriotic Rodeo
Bluesman "Leadbelly" Ledbetter plays at festivals and hootenannies in New York.
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