Timeline May 1942

Events in May 1942 10

• 1878 – 1942 Akiko Yosano (1878-1942) Died 29 May 1942, aged 63 Akiko Yosano was a Japanese poet, feminist and social reformer. Her 1901 tanka collection Midaregami (Tangled Hair) caused a sensation with its frank sensuality. She also produced a modern Japanese translation of The Tale of Genji.
• 1882 – 1942 John Barrymore (1882-1942) Died 29 May 1942, aged 60 John Barrymore was an American actor famed for his stage Hamlet and for films including Grand Hotel and Twentieth Century. A member of the Barrymore acting family, he was known as "The Great Profile". He died in Los Angeles.
• 1884 – 1942 Bronisław Malinowski (1884-1942) Died 16 May 1942, aged 58 Bronisław Malinowski was a Polish-born anthropologist who established participant-observation fieldwork as the core method of social anthropology. His research in the Trobriand Islands produced Argonauts of the Western Pacific. He died in New Haven, Connecticut.
• 1942 Battle of the Coral Sea First naval battle fought entirely by aircraft carriers American and Australian naval forces met a Japanese fleet sent to support an invasion of Port Moresby. The opposing ships never came within sight of each other, and all the fighting was done by carrier aircraft. The result was a tactical draw but a strategic Allied success, because the invasion was called off.
• 1942 – 1998 Tammy Wynette (1942-1998) Died 6 April 1998, aged 55 Tammy Wynette, the country singer known as the First Lady of Country Music for hits including "Stand by Your Man," died of a blood clot at her Nashville home on 6 April 1998. She had sold tens of millions of records over a three-decade career.
• 1942 Fall of Corregidor Last US stronghold in the Philippines surrenders After weeks of bombardment, Japanese troops landed on the island fortress of Corregidor in Manila Bay. General Jonathan Wainwright surrendered all US forces in the Philippines. About 11,000 defenders were taken prisoner.
• 1942 – 2000 Ian Dury (1942-2000) Died 27 March 2000, aged 57 Ian Dury was an English singer and lyricist who, with his band the Blockheads, brought wit and music-hall swagger to the punk and new wave era. Songs such as "Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick" showcased his wordplay. Left disabled by childhood polio, he was also an advocate for disabled people. He died of cancer.
• 1942 Second Battle of Kharkov Soviet offensive ends in encirclement A Soviet offensive to retake Kharkov ran into a German counter-attack that trapped several Soviet armies at the Izium salient. The Red Army lost more than 250,000 men. The defeat opened the way for the German summer drive toward Stalingrad and the Caucasus.
• 1942 Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich Czechoslovak parachutists attack the Reich Protector Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš, trained in Britain for Operation Anthropoid, ambushed Heydrich's car in Prague on 27 May. Heydrich died of his wounds on 4 June. He was the most senior Nazi official assassinated during the war.
• 1942 Thousand-bomber raid on Cologne RAF launches its first 1,000-bomber attack RAF Bomber Command sent more than 1,000 aircraft against Cologne in Operation Millennium. The raid destroyed thousands of buildings and killed several hundred people. Arthur Harris used it to show what large-scale area bombing could do.