istoryworld
Events relating to europe
A week or two after reaching Leningrad a Germany army establishes a siege that will last 900 days
Adolf Eichmann, in an official letter about policy in relation to the Jews, uses the phrase 'the final solution'
The British aircraft carrier Ark Royal is sunk by a U-boat in the Mediterranean
Enigma is now being decoded fast enough at Bletchley to give the Allies advance warning of German plans
The German advance is held just short of Moscow as winter arrives
In three adapted vans at Chelmno, in western Poland, the Germans begin using poison gas to kill Jews
Bulgaria signs the Anti-Comintern Pact and joins the war on Germany's side
Regina Jonas, the first woman to be ordained a rabbi, ministers tirelessly for two years in the Theresienstadt concentration camp until she herself is murdered
A report by UK economist William Beveridge proposes a wide-ranging social security programme for postwar Britain
Dmitry Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony, mainly written during the siege of Leningrad, has its premiere in Kuybishev
Leslie Howard directs and stars in The First of the Few, about the creator of the Spitfire, with music by William Walton
David Lean and Noel Coward create a classic wartime film, In Which We Serve about the crew of a naval destroyer
A Jewish girl in Amsterdam, Anne Frank, is given a diary for her thirteenth birthday
Mahatma Gandhi launches the Quit India Movement, calling on a large crowd in Bombay to 'do or die' in the struggle to expel the British
Algerian nationalist Ferhat Abbas produces a manifesto demanding independence from France
French author Albert Camus creates an early anti-hero in his novel The Outsider (L'Étranger)
Mahatma Gandhi and nearly all the leaders of India's Congress party are arrested and will remain in prison until the end of the war
French author Marguerite Duras makes her name with her partly autobiographical novel The Sea Wall
French music student Pierre Boulez joins a harmony class taught by Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatoire
Italian director Luchino Visconti's first film, Obsession, brings neorealism to the cinema
US poet Ezra Pound, in Italy during the war, broadcasts Fascist propaganda aimed at the United States
A rich hoard of Roman silver is unearthed near Mildenhall, in Suffolk
English children's author Enid Blyton introduces the Famous Five in Five on a Treasure Island
Arthur Harris is put in charge of British Bomber Command, and is later much criticized for his ruthless approach
Vidkun Quisling, founder of the Norwegian Fascist party, is appointed president of German-occupied Norway
