Timeline February 1942

Events in February 1942 15

• 1881 – 1942 Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) Died 22 February 1942, aged 60 Stefan Zweig was an Austrian novelist, biographer and one of the most widely translated writers of his day. After fleeing Nazism he settled in Brazil, where he and his wife Lotte took their own lives in Petrópolis. His memoir The World of Yesterday was published after his death.
• 1891 – 1942 Grant Wood (1891-1942) Died 12 February 1942, aged 50 Grant Wood was an American painter and a leader of the Regionalist movement, which depicted the rural Midwest. His 1930 painting American Gothic is among the most recognised images in American art. He died of pancreatic cancer in Iowa City.
• 1905 – 1942 Daniil Kharms (1905-1942) Died 2 February 1942, aged 36 Daniil Kharms was a Russian avant-garde poet and writer of absurdist prose, and a founder of the OBERIU group. He was arrested by the NKVD in 1941 and died in a prison psychiatric ward during the Siege of Leningrad. His work was largely unpublished in the Soviet Union until the late 1980s.
• 1942 – 2020 Terry Jones (1942-2020) Died 21 January 2020, aged 77 Terry Jones was a Welsh writer, director and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe, directing films including Monty Python's Life of Brian. He died on 21 January 2020 after a long illness with a rare form of dementia.
• 1942 Fall of Singapore British Commonwealth garrison surrenders to Japan Japanese forces under General Tomoyuki Yamashita crossed the Johor Strait on 8 February and took Singapore within a week. Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival surrendered on 15 February, and about 80,000 British, Indian and Australian troops became prisoners. Winston Churchill called it the worst disaster in British military history.
• 1942 – present Carole King Singer-songwriter American songwriter who with Gerry Goffin wrote hits for the Shirelles, Little Eva and Aretha Franklin, then made Tapestry, one of the best-selling albums ever.
• 1942 Carole King born in Manhattan Carol Joan Klein Grows up in Brooklyn, playing piano from the age of four.
• 1942 – 2019 Peter Tork (1942-2019) Died 21 February 2019, aged 77 Peter Tork was an American musician best known as the bassist and keyboardist for the 1960s pop group the Monkees. The band, formed for a television series, went on to become a genuine commercial and cultural phenomenon. He died at his home in Connecticut.
• 1942 – 1989 Huey Newton (1942-1989) Died 22 August 1989, aged 47 Huey Newton co-founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in 1966, becoming a central figure in the Black Power movement. He advocated armed community patrols and social programs while facing repeated legal prosecution. He was shot and killed in Oakland, California.
• 1942 Bombing of Darwin Japanese air raids strike northern Australia Japanese carrier aircraft and land-based bombers attacked the port of Darwin in two raids, sinking ships in the harbour and destroying aircraft. At least 235 people were killed. It was the largest single attack ever made on Australia.
• 1942 Executive Order 9066 Roosevelt authorises the removal of Japanese Americans President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an order allowing the military to exclude people from designated areas of the United States. It was used to force about 120,000 people of Japanese descent, most of them US citizens, from the West Coast into internment camps. The US government formally apologised in 1988.
• 1942 – 2024 Joseph Lieberman (1942-2024) Died 27 March 2024, aged 82 American senator who in 2000 was the first Jewish candidate on a major party presidential ticket.
• 1942 Sinking of the Struma Refugee ship torpedoed in the Black Sea The Struma, an overcrowded ship carrying Jewish refugees from Romania, was towed out of Istanbul after being held there for weeks. A Soviet submarine torpedoed it the next day, and nearly 800 people died. There was a single survivor.
• 1942 Battle of the Java Sea Japanese navy destroys an Allied squadron A combined American, British, Dutch and Australian naval force under Rear Admiral Karel Doorman tried to intercept a Japanese invasion convoy bound for Java. The Allies lost two cruisers and several destroyers, and Doorman was killed. The defeat left Java open to invasion.
• 1942 – 1969 Brian Jones (1942-1969) Founder of the Rolling Stones English multi-instrumentalist who founded the Rolling Stones. Pushed out of the band in June 1969, he drowned in his swimming pool at Cotchford Farm weeks later, aged 27.