Most popular radio shows :
The Red Skelton Show ; Inter Sanctum ; The Great Gildersleave ; Duffy's Tavern ; The Thin Man.
Movies : - Best Picture : How Green Was My Valley ;
Best Director : John Ford .
Best Actor : Gary Cooper, Sergeant York ;
Best Actress : Joan Fontaine, Suspicion .
Supporting Actor : Donald Crisp , How Green Was My Valley ;
Supporting Actress : Mary Astor, The Great Lie.
Popular Pictures : Citizen Kane - Orsen Welles ; The Maltese Falcon - Humphrey Bogart.
Gone with the Wind ; Cheers for Miss Bishop ; Fantasia ; The Wizard of Oz
Top Movie Names : Mickey Rooney ; Clark Gable ; Abbott and
Costello ; Bob Hope ; Betty Davis ; James Cagney ; Judy Garland.
Songs : Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered ; Deep in the Heart of Texas ;
There, I've Said It Again ; Racing with the Moon ; By the Light of the Silvery Moon ;
Chattanooga Choo Choo ; I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire ;
I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good.
Bands : Stan Kenton ; Benny Goodman ; Glenn Miller.
Singers : Frank Sinatra ; Bing Crosby
Broadway : Arsenic and Old Lace
Pulitzer Prize in Journalism :
St Louis Post-Dispatch for city smoke nuisance.
Pulitzer Prize for Drama : There Shall be No Night - Robert Sherwood.
Best Sellers : Fiction - For Whom the Bell Tolls ;
How Green Was My Valley ;
Non-fiction - I Married Adventure ; Berlin Diary.
Poets : Edna St. Vincent Millay ; e e cummings
Economics
Federal spending : $13.65 billion
Federal debt : $57.5 billion , (2000= $5,606 billion)
Consumer Price Index : 14.7
Minimum wage : 25 cents
Unemployment : 9.9%
Cost of a first-class stamp : 3 cents
SPORTS
World Series : NY Yankees vs. Brooklyn Dodgers (4-1)
Stanley Cup : Boston Bruins vs. Detroit Red Wings (4-0)
Wimbledon : Men : Not held . Women : Not held
Kentucky Derby Champion : Whirlaway (Triple Crown!)
NCAA Basketball Championship : Wisconsin vs. Washington St. (39-34)
NCAA Football Champions : Minnesota (8-0-0)
Grand Slam : Men - Bobby Riggs ; Women - Sarah Palfrey Cook
The Masters : Craig Wood
Heavyweight : Joe Louis
Indianapolis : Floyd Davis , Mauri Rose
Joe DiMaggio safely hit in 56 consecutive baseball games.
Lou Gehrig (1903-1941) died. Baseball player.
ENTERTAINMENT
In Citizen Kane, Orson Wells. Using newly developed film stocks and a wider,
faster lens, he pushes the boundaries of montage and mise-en-scène,
as well as sound, redefining the medium.
Actress Greta Garbo retires at age 36.
Paderewski (1860-1941) died.
AWARDS
Pulitzer Prize, Drama : There Shall Be No Night, Robert E. Sherwood
Oscar Nominations Outstanding Motion Picture: Blossoms in the Dust (MGM) Citizen Kane (Mercury; RKO Radio) Here Comes Mr. Jordan (Columbia) Hold Back the Dawn (Paramount) How Green Was My Valley (Twentieth Century-Fox) The Little Foxes (Goldwyn; RKO Radio) The Maltese Falcon (Warner Bros.) One Foot in Heaven (Warner Bros.) Sergeant York (Warner Bros.) Suspicion (RKO Radio) Best Actor: Gary Cooper, Sergeant York Cary Grant, Penny Serenade Walter Huston, All That Money Can Buy Robert Montgomery, Here Comes Mr. Jordan Orson Welles, Citizen Kane Best Actress: Bette Davis, The Little Foxes Joan Fontaine, Suspicion Olivia de Havilland, Hold Back the Dawn Greer Garson, Blossoms in the Dust Barbara Stanwyck, Ball of Fire Actor in a Supporting Role: Walter Brennan, Sergeant York Charles Coburn, The Devil and Miss Jones Donald Crisp, How Green Was My Valley James Gleason, Here Comes Mr. Jordan Sydney Greenstreet, The Maltese Falcon Actress in a Supporting Role: Sarah Allgood, How Green Was My Valley Mary Astor, The Great Lie Patricia Collinge, The Little Foxes Teresa Wright, The Little Foxes Margaret Wycherly, Sergeant York Directing: John Ford for How Green Was My Valley Alexander Hall for Here Comes Mr. Jordan Howard Hawks for Sergeant York Orson Welles for Citizen Kane William Wyler for The Little Foxes
| Census | 1940 | 2000 |
|---|---|---|
| Population: | 131,669,275 | 281,421,906. |
| Farms: | 6,102,000. | 2,172,000. |
| Farm population: | 30,547,000 ; 23.2% | 4,801,000 ; 1.9% (1990) |
| Home Ownership: | 43.6% | 67.4% |
| Immigration: | 528,431 ; 7.4% of growth | 7,605,066 ; 37.0% |
| EPA Emissions: | ||
| Carbon monoxide: | 94MM tons . | 97MM |
| Sulfur dioxide : | 20MM tons . | 19MM |
| Public Education: | $2,261 MM | $325,976 MM |
| Life Expectancy: | Male 65 ; Female 70 | Male 74 ; Female 80 |
| Infant Mortality: | 47 /K | 7 /K |
| Alcohol Use: | 1.56 gallons per capita | 2.2 |
| Cigarettes: | 1,976 per capita | 2,103 |
| Newspapers: | 1,878 | 1,480 |
| Road Mileage: | 3,287,000 paved about 13%. | 3,932,000 paved 62.4%. |
December 1941.
1 . State of emergency proclaimed in Singapore and Malay States.
7 . Pearl Harbor.
8 . FDR speech, "A Date that Will Live in Infamy."
8 . Chicago Tribune says US battle fleet on its way to Japan.
(Actually, the battle fleet was sitting on the bottom of Pearl Harbor.
10 . Two Japanese battleships reported sunk in invasion of Philippines.
(Actually, no Japanese warships larger than a destroyer were lost in
the first 5 months of the war.)
11 . Germany-Italy and USA declare war against each other.
13 . Japanese invasion of Philippines thrown back. (Actually
80,000 Japanese troops were landed over a two week period against 10,000
American troops.
15 . Naval Secretary Knox reports 2 battleships and 3 destroyers lost
at Pearl Harbor. (Actually, 5 battleships were sunk and 3 damaged.
17 . MacAurthur reports Philippine situation well in hand.
20 . Japan's new Zero fighter said to closely resemble Brewster Buffalo.
(Actually, the Zero is superior to all existing world fighters including the Buffalo and its successor, the Grumman Wildcat.)
22 . It is revealed that PM Churchill and Chiefs of Staff are in Washington.
23 . Union no-strike pledge.
25 . North Platte Canteen opens - serves sandwiches and coffee to 6,000,000
in uniform -- until April 1, 1946
By year-end San Francisco had its tenth alert, 7th blackout.
Sometime 1941.
NBC and CBS granted TV licenses in NYC to use commercials.