Following a hockey game between the Chicago Black Hawks and Detroit Red Wings at Chicago Stadium, Jimmy Orlando of the Red Wings exchanged harsh words with a spectator in the stands, then threw a punch over the rail that knocked the fan unconscious. Hundreds of angry fans surged onto the ice and some tried to go after Orlando, but ushers held them back. By the time police arrived to arrest Orlando he was nowhere to be found.[4]
Martin Bormann promulgated a Nazi decree banning gothic typefaces in all printing and proclaiming roman type as the new standard. The order sought to make Nazi communications more understandable in occupied France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Norway, where roman type was used.[8]
The results of a Gallup poll were published asking Americans, "Do you think our country's future safety depends on England winning this war?" 68% said yes, 26% said no and 6% expressed no opinion.[9]
Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto presented Minister of the Navy Koshirō Oikawa with his ideas for a war against the United States in a memorandum titled Gumbi ni kansuru shiken (Views on Preparations for War). Yamamato proposed a crippling first strike on American forces in the first few hours of the war, something that could best be accomplished by an air attack on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor.[12]
The New Fourth Army incident occurred in China when 80,000 forces of the Kuomintang attacked the Communist New Fourth Army in Maolin, Anhui Province, ending the co-operation of the two factions to fight the Japanese instead of each other.
A special committee of the Canadian government recommended that Japanese Canadians not be allowed to volunteer for the armed forces on the grounds of strong public opinion against them.[12]
Hitler held a conference with his generals to discuss plans to attack the Soviet Union. Hitler said that German success in Russia would encourage Japan to attack the United States, thus keeping the Americans too occupied to get involved in the war in Europe.[15]
The British aircraft carrier Illustrious was severely damaged by Stukas as it escorted a convoy to Malta.[16]
President Roosevelt submitted H.R. 1776, better known as the Lend-Lease bill, to Congress.[17]
The German civil administration in the Netherlands ordered the registration of all Jews in the country.[18]
The results of a Gallup poll were published asking Americans, "Which of these two things do you think it is more important for the United States to try to do — to keep out of the war ourselves, or to help England win, even at the risk of getting into the war?" 60% said help England, 40% said keep out. A separate question asked, "If you were asked to vote on the question of the United States entering the war against Germany and Italy, how would you vote — to go into the war, or to stay out of the war?" 88% said stay out, 12% said go in.[9]
Died:Frank Bridge, 61, English composer, violinist and conductor; John Lavery, 84, Irish painter; Joe Penner, 36, American comedian (heart failure)
The British completed Operation Excess with all convoyed freighters reaching their destinations. However, the light cruiser HMS Southampton was bombed and sunk off Malta by the Luftwaffe.
Hitler issued Directive No. 22, German Support for Battles in the Mediterranean Area.
A 6.2 Mw earthquake in the Jazan Province of Saudi Arabia killed around 1,200.[19]
German-born chess champion Emanuel Lasker died due to illness in the middle of a match against Frank Marshall in New York City.
British and Australian troops of XIII Corps surrounded the Italian-held strategic port of Tobruk and prepared an assault. Just a few months later the situation would be reversed in the 2nd Siege of Tobruk.[20]
British Commander-in-Chief Middle East Archibald Wavell met Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas and General Alexander Papagos in Athens. Papagos requested nine British divisions plus air support, but Wavell replied that he could only offer two or three. Papagos declined the offer.[6]
The British government announced new price controls to thwart food profiteering. Price freezes were announced for more than 20 food items including coffee, rice, biscuits and jelly.[10]
Former Belgian Justice Minister Victor de Laveleye suggested in a BBC radio broadcast that Belgians use a V sign as a symbol of resistance, since the French and Flemish words for "victory" both started with the letter V. Within weeks the "V for victory" sign began appearing on walls in Belgium, northern France and Holland.[26]
German auxiliary cruiser Pinguin captured 14 ships of a Norwegian whaling fleet in a single operation.
In New York City, brothers Anthony and William Esposito held up a man in a Fifth Avenue office building, shot him dead and then led police in a daytime chase through Manhattan. Both men were eventually apprehended, but not before a police officer was slain and a cab driver wounded in the throat. The trial would become one of the most famous insanity defense cases in history.[27]
Quartet for the End of Time by Olivier Messiaen was given its first performance in the POW camp Stalag VIII-A at Gorlitz, Germany (now Zgorzelec, Poland).[28]
The Germans bombed Malta for the first time, killing 50 people, destroying 200 buildings and damaging the capital city of Valletta.[13] The British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious was hit and damaged again in Grand Harbour.[30]
Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov warned Germany against deploying troops in Bulgaria by stating that the Soviet Union considered Bulgaria a security zone.[31]
23,190 people packed Madison Square Garden to watch Fritzie Zivic successfully defend the world welterweight boxing title against Henry Armstrong. The attendance is an all-time record for any of the different versions of the Garden.
Subhash Chandra Bose's arrest and subsequent release set the scene for his escape to Germany, via Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. A few days before his escape, he sought solitude and, on this pretext, avoided meeting British guards and grew a beard. Late night 16 January 1941, the night of his escape, he dressed as a Pathan (brown long coat, a black fez-type coat and broad pyjamas) to avoid being identified. Subhash Chandra Bose escaped from under British surveillance from his Elgin Road house in Calcutta on the night of 17 January 1941, accompanied by his nephew Sisir Kumar Bose, later reaching Gomoh Railway Station (now Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Gomoh Station) in the then state of Bihar (now Jharkhand), India.
The British destroyer HMS Castleton was damaged by German bombing while undergoing repairs at Portsmouth.[6]
A diplomatic incident occurred at the German consulate in San Francisco when the office displayed the Reich flag in recognition of the German national holiday (commemorating the anniversary of the country's unification in 1871). At noon the flag was hauled down and an angry crowd tore it to pieces.[32]
The exiled Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie re-entered his country behind the advancing British and Commonwealth troops.[6]
Benito Mussolini met with Hitler at the Berghof for a two-day conference. It was agreed that Germany would help the Italians in North Africa but not on the Greco-Albanian front.[6]
Charles Lindbergh came before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee to oppose the Roosevelt Administration's Lend-Lease bill. Lindbergh testified that he would prefer to see "neither side win" in the war and hoped to see a "negotiated peace," and also expressed his belief that American entry into the war on Britain's side would still not be enough to defeat Germany without some kind of internal collapse.[44]
January 23, 1941: Groundbreaking for the NACA’s Aircraft Engine Research Laboratory
Panjiayu tragedy: The Imperial Japanese Army conducted a massacre of the Chinese village of Panjiayu, Hebei, in accordance with the orders from General Yasuji Okamura that all Chinese villages suspected of harboring communist guerilla fighters were to be wiped out.[6]
William C. Bullitt told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that invasion of the Western Hemisphere by the Axis powers would be almost certain if the British Navy was eliminated and the Panama Canal blockaded before the United States was prepared. Bullitt said that "for our own self-preservation" the United States should ensure that Britain was not defeated.[51]
A report circulated claiming that the converted troopship RMS Empress of Australia had been torpedoed and was sinking 200 miles off Dakar.[53]
Allied shipping docked in the harbor of Tobruk for the first time.[6]
A conference on economic co-operation between the countries of South America opened in Montevideo. The conference lasted until February 6.[54]
Constitutional Act No. 7 was passed in Vichy France, requiring state secretaries, high dignitaries and high officials to swear allegiance to the Chief of State. Article 3 stated that if any of them should prove "unfaithful to his obligations", the Chief of State was empowered to impose penalties that included loss of political rights and detention in a fortress.[55]
Hitler gave a speech before 18,000 people at the Berlin Sportpalast on the eighth anniversary of the Nazis' coming to power. Hitler declared that any ship carrying aid to England within the range of German U-boats would be torpedoed, and also warned the United States that if anyone on the American continent tried to interfere in the European conflict, Germany's war aims would quickly change.[62]
^Beigbeder, Yves (2006). Judging War Crimes And Torture: French Justice And International Criminal Tribunals and Commissions (1940–2005). Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. pp. 140–141. ISBN978-90-04-15329-5.
