Clues:
Spike Jones’ “Der Fuehrer’s Face” is a best-selling single; noted civil rights activist FDR orders the internment of Japanese-Americans; Cassius Clay & Country Joe McDonald are born; Carole Lombard & Grant Wood die; Mexico declares war on Germany, Italy and Japan; no Nobel Prizes are awarded; gasoline rationing beings in the U.S.; and the Battle of Stalingrad begins.