The 20th century, year after year

1901 | 1902 | 1903 | 1904 | 1905

1906 | 1907 | 1908 | 1909 | 1910

1 911 | 1912 | 1913 | 1914 | 1915

1916 | 1917 | 1918 | 1919 | 1920

1921 | 1922 | 1923 | 1924 | 1925

1926 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 | 1930

1931 | 1932 | 1933 | 1934 | 1935

1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 | 1940

1941

On January 1, leaders of 26 states signed the Declaration of the United Nations setting forth the war aims of the Allied powers. On the Eastern front, there was now a semblance or relative military parity between the Soviet and German forces. Ignoring his military experts' advice, Josef Stalin ordered a sweeping offensive on all fronts with an eye to rout the enemy before the end of the year. Nine Soviet fronts charged forward along a nearly 2,000 kilometer-long line, but Stalin's hopes were dashed after the German high command sent in reinforcements from Western Europe and managed to stabilize the situation. Awaiting a repeat of the 1941 German offensive on Moscow, Stalin had built up a strong military muscle there, including tanks and aviation, but Hitler's main interest was now in the south where he planned to rout the Soviet troops, seize the Caucasus and win access to the Volga river. By the year's end, those plans had largely been realized resulting in the biggest ever Battle of Stalingrad. We'll talk about this in more detail in our next program.

Across the world, Hitler's ally, Japan, had launched a major advance and by springtime its troops had reached the Indian border. In Malaya, the Japanese landed three divisions on Singapore island and, just a week later, obtained the surrender of that seemingly impregnable British fortress. The next to fall were Indonesia and the Philippines. The Japanese then landed in New Guinea and were now looming ominously over Australia…

If any one action can be called the turning point of the war, it is probably the Battle of Midway fought in the Pacific in June, 1942. A Japanese naval force tried to stealthily move close to Midway Island and seize it only to see its plans revealed by the Americans who quickly sent in reinforcements. In the battle that ensued four first-line Japanese carriers went down. Appalled by the loss of their carriers, the Japanese began a general retirement abandoning whatever plans they had to gain overall control of the Pacific.

In October, General Bernard Low Montgomery launched a major British offensive in North Africa. At El Alamein the British routed the German and Italian troops who never fully recovered from the thrashing they got there and started falling back all the way to the west. In November, the US troops led by General Dwight Eisenhower landed in Morocco and, having to fight on two fronts, the German and Italian forces fell back to Tunisia and, shortly after, laid down their arms.

In 1942, the Nobel prizewinning Italian physicist Enrico Fermi obtained the first-ever controlled chain reaction using graphite as a replacement for neutrons and uranium to fuel the reaction.

The year 1942 saw the birth of two outstanding athletes. In Russia it was the world and Olympic high jump champion Valery Brumel whose world record of 228 centimeters held for many years. He was elected the world's athlete of the year for a whopping three times and was the proud winner of the Helms Prize and the Columbus' Golden Caravel award. In the United States, the newborn was Cassius Clay who later changed his name to Mohammed Ali and who was destined to become one of the greatest boxers of all time. Still an amateur, he became an Olympic champion at the age of 18 and, moving into the professional league, he won two world heavyweight titles.

It's hard to believe it when they say that Paul MacCartney is already going on sixty, but it's true. The best-known member of the Fab Four, Paul MacCartney was born in 1942 in England. After The Beatles parted ways, this very talented singer-songwriter at various times teamed up with Michael Jackson and Elvis Costello and partnered with composer and singer Carl Davies to write his first classical piece, the Liverpool Oratorio.

In America, 1942 became the birth year of another great musician, the guitar wizard, Jimi Hendrix, the man who gave a new dimension to the technique of electric guitar playing and was a great influence on rock and jazz musicians everywhere.

The Libyan leader Moammar Khaddafi also came to this word in 1942. At age 27 he led a military coup that ousted King Idris and has since become a symbol of North African expansionism, always ready to lend a helping hand to revolutionaries everywhere. Small wonder that Mr.Khaddafi still remains an avowed disciple of China's late communist leader, Mao Zedong .

THE 20th CENTURY:YEAR AFTER YEAR series of historical programs is prepared by Vladimir Zhamkin.

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