E. B. Tylor ( 2 October 1832 – 2 January 1917 ) and James George Frazer ( 1 January 1854 – 7 May 1941 ) are generally considered the antecedents to modern social anthropology in Britain.

* Herbert Austin ( 1866 – 1941 ), British founder of the Austin Motor Company

* John Arnold Austin ( 1905 – 1941 ), American sailor

* 1941 – World War II: Nazi Germany launches Operation 25 ( the invasion of Kingdom of Yugoslavia ) and Operation Marita ( the invasion of Greece ).

* 1941 – Phil Austin, American comedian

* 1941 – Hans W. Geissendörfer, German director

* 1941 – Don " The Snake " Prudhomme, American drag racer

* 1941 – Gheorghe Zamfir, Romanian musician

* 1871 – Ioannis Metaxas, Greek general and dictator ( d. 1941 )

* 1941 – Bobby Moore, English footballer ( d. 1993 )

* 1941 – Stavros Dimas, Greek politician

* 1941 – Johnny Farina, American musician and composer ( Santo & Johnny )

* 1941 – Cesária Évora, Cape Verdean singer ( d. 2011 )

* 1941 – János Konrád, Hungarian water polo player and swimmer

* 1941 – Harrison Page, American actor

* 1908 – Lajos Vajda, Hungarian painter ( d. 1941 )

* 1941 – Lyle Berman, American poker player

* 1941 – Ray Culp, American baseball player

* 1941 – Way Bandy, American make-up artist ( d. 1986 )

* 1941 – Shirlee Busbee, American novelist

* 1941 – Erin Fleming, Canadian actress ( d. 2003 )

* 1902 – Helen Morgan, American actress ( d. 1941 )

* 1941 – Doris Coley, American singer ( The Shirelles ) ( d. 2000 )

* 1941 – Jules A. Hoffmann, French biologist, Nobel Prize laureate

* 1941 – Tallinn, the Capital of Estonia is occupied by Nazi Germany following an occupation by the Soviet Union.

* 1941 – World War II: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany.

* 1941 – World War II: The Battle of Smolensk concludes with Germany capturing about 300, 000 Soviet Red Army prisoners.

In response to suspected biological warfare development in Nazi Germany, the U. S., U. K., and Canada initiated a biological warfare development program in 1941 that resulted in the weaponization of anthrax, brucellosis, and botulism toxin.

Relations further deteriorated when, in January 1948, the U. S. State Department also published a collection of documents titled Nazi-Soviet Relations, 1939 – 1941: Documents from the Archives of The German Foreign Office, which contained documents recovered from the Foreign Office of Nazi Germany revealing Soviet conversations with Germany regarding the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, including its secret protocol dividing eastern Europe, the 1939 German-Soviet Commercial Agreement, and discussions of the Soviet Union potentially becoming the fourth Axis Power.

The Serbian-Croatian Cvetković-Maček government that came to power, distanced Yugoslavia's former allies of France and the United Kingdom, and moved closer to Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in the period of 1935 – 1941.

In 1941, Cuba declared war on Italy, Germany, and Japan.

However, Japan reacted by an attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, and the United States was at war with Japan, Germany, and Italy.

* 1941 – World War II: Germany and Italy declare war on the United States, following the Americans ' declaration of war on Japan in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

* 1941 – World War II: The Republic of China, Cuba, Guatemala, the Republic of Korea, and the Philippine Commonwealth, declare war on Germany and Japan.

Finland and Nazi Germany were " co-belligerents " against Soviet Union during Continuation War ( 1941 – 44 ), but a separate peace with Soviet Union led to the Finnish-German Lapland War ( 1944 – 45 ).

In March 1941, Roosevelt, with Congressional approval, provided Lend-Lease aid to the countries fighting against Nazi Germany with Britain.

With very strong national support, he made war on Japan and Germany after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, calling it a " date which will live in infamy ".

Finland's foreign politics before this deal had been varied: independence from Imperial Russia with support of Imperial Germany in 1917 ; participation in the Russian Civil War ( without official declaration of war ) alongside the Triple Entente 1918 – 1920 ; a non-ratified alliance with Poland in 1922 ; association with the neutralist and democratic Scandinavian countries in the 1930s ended by the Winter War ( 1939 ); and finally in 1940, a rapprochement with Nazi Germany, the only power able to protect Finland against the expansionist Soviet Union, leading to the Continuation War in 1941.

In addition, thousands of political prisoners throughout Germany — and from 1941, throughout the occupied territories under the Night and Fog Decree — simply disappeared while in Gestapo custody.

Meanwhile, Japan ( allied to Germany and Italy since September 1940 ) attacked the British in Southeast Asia and the United States in Hawaii on 7 December 1941 ; Germany then completed its over-extension by declaring war on the United States.

* 1941: Germany invades the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.

Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 – weeks behind schedule – but swept forward until it reached the gates of Moscow.

The Albanian communists supported the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, and did not participate in the antifascist struggle until Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.

Germany violated the pact by invading the Soviet Union in 1941, opening the bloodiest theatre of war in history, the Eastern Front.

In an effort to demonstrate peaceful intentions toward Germany, on 13 April 1941, Stalin oversaw the signing of a neutrality pact with Axis power Japan.