WHAT ALL HAPPENED FEBRUARY TO OCTOBER 1942
Find out what all happened February to October 1942

Walt Disney's 5th full-length animated film, Bambi, was released to theaters. (13. August 1942)

World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea begins with an attack by aircraft from the United States aircraft carrier USS Yorktown on Japanese naval forces at Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands. The Japanese forces had invaded Tulagi the day before. (4. May 1942)

World War II: first Battle of El Alamein. (1. July 1942)

The George Cross is awarded to "to the island fortress of Malta – its people and defenders" by King George VI. (15. April 1942)

World War II: Battle of Midway. U.S. Navy dive bombers sink the Japanese cruiser Mikuma and four Japanese carriers. (6. June 1942)

The Holocaust: August Frank, a higher official of the SS concentration camp administration department, issues a memorandum containing a great deal of operational detail in how Jews should be "evacuated". (26. September 1942)

William Faulkner's collections of short stories, Go Down, Moses, is published. (11. May 1942)

World War II: Operation Pedestal — The SS Ohio reaches the island of Malta barely afloat carrying vital fuel supplies for the island's defenses. (15. August 1942)

World War II: Japanese forces invade Christmas Island, then a British possession. (31. March 1942)

World War II: Swiss Police Instruction of September 25, 1942 – this instruction denied entry into Switzerland to Jewish refugees. (25. September 1942)

The Soviet Union establishes diplomatic relations with Australia. (10. October 1942)

Erwin Rommel is promoted to Field Marshal after the capture of Tobruk. (22. June 1942)

World War II: The first female prisoners arrive at Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. (26. March 1942)

World War II: The Matanikau action on Guadalcanal begins U.S. Marines attack Japanese units along the Matanikau River. (23. September 1942)

The Bombing of Lübeck in World War II is the first major success for the RAF Bomber Command against Germany and a German city. (29. March 1942)

World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as the Japanese victory becomes inevitable. (22. February 1942)

World War II: The Imperial Japanese Army begins the systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among the Chinese in Singapore. (18. February 1942)

Bing Crosby, the Ken Darby Singers and the John Scott Trotter Orchestra record Irving Berlin's "White Christmas", the best-selling Christmas single in history. (29. May 1942)

World War II: Second Battle of El Alamein: – At El Alamein in northern Egypt, the British Eighth Army under Field Marshal Montgomery begins a critical offensive to expel the Axis armies from Egypt. (23. October 1942)

Spaceflight: The first successful launch of a V-2 /A4-rocket from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany. It is the first man-made object to reach space. (3. October 1942)