10 March? – Lifting of (partial) marriage bar on women working at the BBC.[2]
April
April – The American Broadcasting Station in Europe (ABSIE) is established, transmitting from Britain in English, German, French, Dutch, Danish, and Norwegian to resistance movements in mainland Europe.
May
No events.
June
June – Utility radio ("War-time Civilian Receiver"), produced by the radio industry under government direction, is available for sale.[3]
5 June – One day before D-Day, the BBC transmits coded messages (including the second line of a poem by Paul Verlaine and Hubert Gregg's "I'm Going to Get Lit Up When the Lights Go Up in London")[4] from Britain to underground resistance fighters in France warning that the invasion of mainland Europe is about to begin.[5][6]
6 June – D-Day: The 08:00 BBC news bulletin announces that paratroops have landed in France (reporter Guy Byam is among them).[7] 17 BBC reporters are embedded with the invasion forces.[7] At 09:32 John Snagge begins reading announcements of the landings "on the northern coast of France", broadcasting over BBC transmitters to home and overseas audiences[8] and introducing a message from General Eisenhower.[7] At 13:00, the first eyewitness report, recorded on a bomber, is broadcast.[8] The King speaks to the nation at 21:00.[8] Reports of the landings are carried by around 725 of the 914 broadcasting stations in the United States.[6]
20 September – Yehudi Menuhin gives the first British performance of Béla Bartók's Violin Concerto from Bedford, in the opening concert of a tour with the B.B.C. Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult.
October
No events.
November
No events.
December
31 December – A live BBC broadcast of a service from St Paul's Cathedral, London, includes the background sound of a V-2 rocket.[13]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.