WHAT ALL HAPPENED FEBRUARY TO AUGUST 1942
Find out what all happened February to August 1942

The Australian Federal Government becomes the sole collector of income tax in Australia as the State Income Tax is abolished. (1. July 1942)

Benxihu Colliery accident in Manchukuo leaves 1549 Chinese miners dead. (26. April 1942)

World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end with Japanese Imperial Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attacking and sinking the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Lexington. The battle marks the first time in the naval history that two enemy fleets fight without visual contact between warring ships. (8. May 1942)

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

World War II: 1000 British bombers launch a 90-minute attack on Cologne, Germany. (30. May 1942)

The United States government begins compulsory civilian gasoline rationing due to the wartime demands. (22. July 1942)

World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the executive order 9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese-Americans to internment camps. (19. February 1942)

World War II: Germany's latest fighter, a Focke-Wulf Fw 190, is captured intact when it mistakenly lands at RAF Pembrey in Wales. (23. June 1942)

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

World War II: the Battle of Alam Halfa begins. (30. August 1942)

Mexico enters World War II on the side of the Allies. (22. May 1942)

World War II: In the aftermath of the Battle of the Coral Sea, Task Force 16 heads to Pearl Harbor. (19. May 1942)

World War II: The Battle of Bataan/Bataan Death March – United States forces surrender on the Bataan Peninsula. The Japanese Navy launches an air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy Destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk off the island's east coast. (9. April 1942)

World War II: the Battle of Guadalcanal begins – United States Marines initiate the first American offensive of the war with landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands. (7. August 1942)

World War II: Japan begins the Aleutian Islands Campaign by bombing Unalaska Island. (3. June 1942)

The Steel Workers Organizing Committee disbands, and a new trade union, the United Steelworkers, is formed. (22. May 1942)

World War II: second day of the Battle of the Eastern Solomons. A Japanese naval transport convoy headed towards Guadalcanal is turned-back by an Allied air attack, losing one destroyer and one transport sunk, and one light cruiser heavily damaged. (25. August 1942)

World War II: A Japanese submarine surfaces near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at nearby Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by Japan against the United States mainland. (21. June 1942)

World War II: The Battle of Midway begins. The Japanese Admiral Chuichi Nagumo orders a strike on Midway Island by much of the Imperial Japanese navy. (4. June 1942)

The first flight of the Grumman F6F Hellcat. (26. June 1942)