Full U.S. commercial television service began from the NBC station WNBT in New York City. The first official paid television advertisement was for Bulova watches and cost the advertiser $9.[5]
China broke off diplomatic relations with Germany and Italy.[9]
Joe DiMaggio hit a home run off Dick Newsome of the Boston Red Sox to extend his hitting streak to 45 consecutive games and take sole possession of the major league record.[4][10]
The television show CBS Television Quiz premiered on the fledgling CBS Television network. It was the first live TV game show ever to be broadcast regularly.
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt made an Independence Day broadcast warning that "the United States will never survive as a happy and fertile oasis of liberty surrounded by a cruel desert of dictatorship. And so it is that when we repeat the great pledge to our country and to our flag, it must be our deep conviction that we pledge as well our work, our will, and, if it be necessary, our very lives."[14]
The U.S. 1st Marine Brigade arrived in Iceland and relieved the British garrison there.[7] President Roosevelt sent Congress a message explaining that the United States could not allow Germany to occupy Iceland because it would constitute a threat to Greenland, to shipping in the North Atlantic and to the steady flow of munitions to Britain which Congress had already freely approved as a matter of broad policy.[17]
Winston Churchill sent a letter to Stalin saying that there was "genuine admiration" in Britain for the "bravery and tenacity of the soldiers and the people" of the Soviet Union. Churchill also pledged, "We shall do everything to help you that time, geography and our growing resources allow."[18] Stalin was unimpressed by the vagueness of the letter and responded by asking for a formal agreement, since he wanted to ensure that Britain would not stand aside while Germany and the Soviet Union destroyed each other.[19]
On the fourth anniversary of the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Chiang Kai-shek sent a message to friendly nations asking for "close co-operation with one another" to fight the Axis because "the war in the Far East is no longer to be viewed as merely a conflict between two nations, for the European and Asiatic Wars have now become closely interrelated. Scarcely a single country remains unaffected because this predatory group of powers excludes no country from the scope of its design to dominate the world by force."[21]
American journalist Richard C. Hottelet was released from German custody in a prisoner exchange after spending almost four months in a Berlin jail on suspicion of espionage.[22]
German submarines U-86, U-161 and U-656 were commissioned.
A brief discussion was held in the British House of Commons about the arrangement by the Nazis for P. G. Wodehouse to give weekly radio broadcasts from Germany to the United States. Foreign Affairs Secretary Anthony Eden said he would take into consideration the suggestion from Geoffrey Mander "to bring to the attention of Mr. Wodehouse and others the grave peril in which they place themselves by playing the Nazi game during the war."[23]
Stalin wrote to Churchill again saying, "It seems to me that the military position of the Soviet Union, as well as that of Great Britain, would be considerably improved if there could be established a front against Hitler in the West- Northern France, and in the North- the Arctic."[34]
Just after midnight a message from Churchill was read over the air by a mysterious "Col. V. Britton" (actually BBC news editor Douglas Ritchie) calling upon the people of Nazi-occupied Europe to mobilize under the V for Victory campaign. Citizens of occupied Europe within the broadcast's range were urged to chalk letter V's in public places and tap out the Morse Code version of the letter – three dots and a dash – to make known their confidence in Allied victory.[36]
Churchill wrote back to Stalin explaining that opening a new front in the west was at present out of the question. "To attempt a landing in force would be to encounter a bloody repulse, and petty raids would only lead to fiascos doing far more harm than good to both of us", Churchill wrote. "You must remember that we have been fighting alone for more than a year, and that, though our resources are growing, and will grow fast from now on, we are at the utmost strain both at home and in the Middle East by land and air, and also that the Battle of the Atlantic, on which our life depends, and the movement of all our convoys in the teeth of the U-boat and Focke-Wulf blockade, strains our naval resources, great though they may be, to the utmost limit." Churchill did agree to conduct air and sea operations in the north to attack enemy shipping.[34]
The Luftwaffe bombed Moscow for the first time.[37]
President Roosevelt asked Congress to declare a full or limited national emergency as a means of retaining more members of reserve components of the U.S. Armed Forces, including the National Guard.[38]
Japan and Vichy France agreed to a mutual defense pact.[28]
12,000 houses were flooded in Tokyo after nearly two weeks of heavy rain.[40]
The only footage that exists of the girl Anne Frank was taken, while observing a girlfriend on the day of her wedding. It was taken on Merwedeplain 37, south Amsterdam. Holland.
Some 700 employees of the Alcan aluminum company went on strike in Arvida, Quebec, Canada. Since the industry had been classified as essential to the war effort, the strike was illegal.[41]
German submarines U-454 and U-580 were commissioned.
An executive order by President Roosevelt froze Japanese assets in the United States. At Chiang Kai-shek's request, the order was extended to Chinese assets as well.[42]
Britain followed the United States in imposing economic sanctions on Japan and freezing all Japanese assets in areas under their control.[28] Japan retaliated by freezing all U.S. and British assets in return.[44]
Frustrated by the need for provincial approval to deploy troops to end the Arvida strike, Canadian Munitions and Supply Minister C. D. Howe submitted his resignation to Prime Minister King. At a subsequent cabinet meeting Howe agreed to withdraw his resignation on the condition that he be granted powers to deal with such emergency situations.[45]
German submarines U-116 and U-134 were commissioned.
Japan and Vichy France pledged military co-operation for joint defense of French Indochina.[48]
The Arvida strike ended when the Canadian government amended the Defence of Canada Regulations to allow the Minister of National Defence to call out troops to deal with labour disputes without requiring permission from municipal or provincial authorities. A subsequent royal commission concluded that while the strike was illegal, it was caused by workers' frustrations over salaries and working conditions rather than subversives as Munitions and Supply Minister C. D. Howe had claimed.[41][45]
Photographs of the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich as a firefighter were taken in Leningrad. The photographs were published around the world as a symbol of Soviet determination.[28]
Hermann Göring authorized Reinhard Heydrich to prepare the implementation of "a total solution of the Jewish Question in the area of German influence in Europe."[49]
^ abcdef"1941". World War II Database. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
^Snyder, Timothy (2003). The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569–1999. Yale University Press. pp. 84–89. ISBN0-300-10586-X.
^ abcdefghijklmKirchubel, Robert (2013). Operation Barbarossa: The German Invasion of Soviet Russia. Botley, Oxfordshire: Osprey Publishing. p. 9. ISBN978-1-78200-408-0.
^Solomon, Burt (1997). The Baseball Timeline: The Day-By-Day History of Baseball, from Valley Forge to the Present Day. Avon Books. p. 412. ISBN978-0-380-78291-8.
^Brown, Anthony Cave; MacDonald, Charles Brown (1981). On a Field of Red: The Communist International and the Coming of World War II. G.P. Putnam's Sons. p. 585.
^ abMercer, Derrik, ed. (1989). Chronicle of the 20th Century. London: Chronicle Communications Ltd. p. 552. ISBN978-0-582-03919-3.
^ abFudge, Judy; Tucker, Eric (2004). Labour Before the Law: The Regulation of Workers' Collective Action in Canada, 1900–1948. University of Toronto Press. pp. 251–252. ISBN978-0-8020-3793-0.
^Wettstein, Adrian E. "Urban Warfare Doctrine on the Eastern Front." Nazi Policy on the Eastern Front, 1941: Total War, Genocide, and Radicalization. Eds. Alex J. Kay, Jeff Rutherford, and David Stahel. Rochester, New York: University of Rochester Press, 2012. p. 52. ISBN978-1-58046-407-9.
^"USSE Smely". uboat.net. Retrieved December 31, 2015.