Thursday, January 1, 1942. Birth of the United Nations, an Automobile Manufacturing Hiatus.

President Roosevelt had declared New Year's Day, 1942, a National Day of Prayer.  He and Winston Churchill attended church together.

It was otherwise a working day for both men, on a day that's traditionally a holiday.

Boy Scouts with United Nations poster in 1943.

On that day, the Arcadia Conference produced the Declaration of the United Nations.

Signing of the declaration.

It stated:

A JOINT DECLARATION BY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND, THE UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS, CHINA, AUSTRALIA, BELGIUM, CANADA, COSTA RICA, CUBA, CZECHOSLOVAKIA, DOMICAN REPUBLIC, EL SALVADOR, GREECE, GUATELMALA, HAITI, HONDURAS, INDIA, LUXEMBOURG, NETHERLANDS, NEW ZEALAND, NICARAGUA, NORWAY, PANAMA, POLAND, SOUTH AFRICA, YUGOSLAVIA
The Governments signatory hereto,
Having subscribed to a common program of purposes and principles embodied in the Joint Declaration of the President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister of Great Britain dated August 14, 1941, known as the Atlantic Charter,
Being convinced that complete victory over their enemies is essential to defend life, liberty, independence and religious freedom, and to preserve human rights and justice in their own lands as well as in other lands, and that they are now engaged in a common struggle against savage and brutal forces seeking to subjugate the world,
Declare:
(1) Each Government pledges itself to employ its full resources, military or economic, against those members of the Tripartite Pact and its adherents with which such government is at war.
(2) Each Government pledges itself to cooperate with the Governments signatory hereto and not to make a separate armistice or peace with the enemies.
The foregoing declaration may be adhered to by other nations which are, or which may be, rendering material assistance and contributions in the struggle for victory over Hitlerism.

More nations would join in the document, which was effectively the creation of the United Nations, as the war went on.

While the UN has had a rocky history since World War Two, its origin was remarkable and does suggest that most of the world's nations can unite for a crisis.

On the same day, a significant event happened in terms of the US war effort and life on the home front, as discussed here on our companion blog Today In Wyoming's History: January 1. New Year's Day:

1942 The U.S. Office of Production Management prohibited sales of new cars and trucks to civilians.

The reason was simple enough, the war industry had gone over to war manufacturing, and not just of vehicles, but armaments and other war materials as well.

There actually are 1942 model vehicles, as they came out in 1941.  Detroit actually had produced about 1,000,000 combined 1942 models before this day, about 1/4 of the number of vehicles they produced as 1941 models.  Production of civilian automobiles would not resume, however, until the summer of 1945, and the 1946 models were actually the 1942 models.

The cessation of civilian vehicles, while predictable, did catch people off guard.  In truth, vehicles made prior to the late 20th Century really didn't last very long, something that is hard for people today to really appreciate.  For this reason, vehicles that were even a decade, or less, old at the time, were in fact old.  The cessation of production meant that for many Americans who had just come out of the Great Depression the needed to replace a vehicle was converted into a need to keep an old one running.

Interestingly civilian manufacturers at the same time worried that their conversion into war industries would mean that they'd be forgotten and lose market share following the war.  This was true of manufacturers in every sector, not just the automobile sector.

Manufactureers took different approches in the war, with some simply seeking to recall brand loyalty or even inspire longing.

But providing examples of what they were building was also extremely common.

The very late 1940s had seen an evolution in car design, with vehicles becoming more rounded.  The war itself, however, would introduce all the major manufacturers to off-road vehicles in a new way, something that impacted various manufacturers in different ways, and which is something that they didn't at first quite know what to do with in terms of their post-war production.  Indeed, Willys, as late as 1943, was still emphasizing that post-war it would be making cars again.

Ultimately two manufacturers, Dodge and Willys, would come to embrace their wartime vehicles, with Willys not only realizing that its post-war future was with the Jeep, but with it also seeking to capitalize on that during the war itself.

Indeed, Willys would start advertising for civilian sales of the Jeep before it could make civilian sales, emphasizing its off-road capabilities, although often in ways that didn't really match what would become its post-war market.  At first, for example, it was often shown pulling a plow.

It would also, however, feature such items as a letter from a girl asking for Jeep advertisement illustrations.

It might be noted, interestingly enough, German manufacturers, perhaps with the same concerns, also advertised in German journals during the war.

Their advertisements tended to be very martial, not too surprisingly.

In terms of illustrated magazines, Vogue magazine declared it a "New Year, New Vistas, New Fashions".

That would be true in all sorts of ways. . . save for civilian automobiles.

The usual football bowl games were played, although the Rose Bowl was played in Durham, North Carolina, out of a fear that the Japanese would attack.

Closer to Home.

Again, I don't know for sure what my parents would have done on this day, but for Catholics it the Solemnity of Mary, a Holy Day of Obligation.  If they hadn't gone to Mass the night prior, in their respective localities, they would have today.

My father, living in Scotsbluff, Nebraska at the time, may very well have gone duck and goose hunting with his father later in the day.  At any rate, he and they probably would have listened to one of the football games that were broadcast on the radio.