| 8th January 1941 | Lord Robert Baden-Powell, English soldier and founder of the Boy Scouts (b. 1847) dies. |
| 22nd January 1941 | British troops capture Tobruk from the Italians in the Second World War. This is seen as a major victory and an essential part of taking control of the desert that provides access into Libya and Egypt. |
| 27th January 1941 | U.S. Ambassador Joseph C. Grew informs the Whitehouse of an imminent rumoured attack upon Pearl Harbour in Hawaii. |
| 9th February 1941 | Winston Churchill, in a worldwide broadcast, pleads with the United States to show its support by sending arms to the British: "Give us the tools, and we will finish the job." |
| 19th February 1941 | Swansea is stunned by three nights of intensive bombing, which last a total of thirteen hours and forty-eight minutes. Swansea's town centre is almost completely obliterated by the German Air Force attack. A total of 397 casualties and 230 deaths are reported. |
| 17th March 1941 | British Minister of Labour, Ernest Bevin, calls for women to fill vital jobs that have been left untended by the men going to war. |
| 10th April 1941 | The U.S. destroyer ‘Niblack‘ drops depth charges on a German U-Boat, while picking up survivors from a sunken Dutch freighter. This is the first "shot in anger" fired by America against Germany. |
| 5th May 1941 | Emperor Haile Selassie enters Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, which had been liberated from Italian forces; this date has been since commemorated as Liberation Day in Ethiopia. |
| 10th May 1941 | The British House of Commons is damaged by the Luftwaffe in an air raid. |
| 27th May 1941 | The German battleship ‘Bismarck’ is sunk in the North Atlantic, killing 2,300 people. |
| 22nd June 1941 | Winston Churchill promises all possible British assistance to the Soviet Union in a worldwide broadcast: "Any man or state who fights against ‘Nazidom’ will have our aid. Any man or state who marches with Hitler is our foe." |
| July 1941 | The British army's Special Air Service is formed. |
| 6th September 1941 | The requirement to wear the Star of David with the word "Jew" inscribed, is extended to all Jews over the age of six-years-old in German-occupied areas. |
| 10th November 1941 | In a speech at the Mansion House in London, Winston Churchill promises, "should the United States become involved in war with Japan, the British declaration will follow within the hour." |
| 26th November 1941 | Attack on Pearl Harbour: A fleet of six aircraft carriers, commanded by Japanese Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, leaves Hitokapu Bay for Pearl Harbour under strict radio silence. |
| 7th December 1941 | The Japanese Navy launches a surprise attack on the United States’ fleet at Pearl Harbour, thus drawing the United States into the Second World War. |
| 26th December 1941 | Winston Churchill becomes the first British Prime Minister to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress. |