The U.S. declared war against Bulgaria, Hungary,and Rumania on 5 June 1942, but in what order?

Factual Questions
1

This is something I’ve been wondering about for years: Which country was the last one that the U.S. declared war against? It’s of no particular practical consequence, but as a trivia buff, I want to know.

The three candidates are Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania (then spelled Rumania). Three separate congressional joint resolutions were passed and all three were signed by President Roosevelt on 5 June 1942. I presume that the last one signed by FDR is the one I’m looking for. I think that’s probably Romania, but I want to be sure.

The three resolutions are listed in Statutes at Large v. 56 (extremely large PDF file here) in alphabetic order: Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania.

Bulgaria is chapter 323, House Joint Resolution 319, Public Law 563
Hungary is chapter 324, House Joint Resolution 320, Public Law 564
Rumania is chapter 325, House Joint Resolution 321, Public Law 565

I’m not sure what these numbers imply, if anything, about the order in which these resolutions came into force.

I’m reminded to the admission of North Dakota and South Dakota to the union. President Harrison signed both resolutions on the same day and nobody knows which he signed first. The North Dakota resolution is listed first in Statutes at Large, so ND is considered to be the 39th state, making SD the 40th.

2

News accounts from the NY Times say that the resolution against Bulgaria was the first introduced in the House. The next two weren’t detailed as to order.

The next day, in the Senate, the order was explicitly detailed as Bulgaria, Rumania, Hungary.

I can’t find anything in the news about the order in which Roosevelt signed, but, since you’re into trivia, he signed the papers at 4:40 Eastern War Time. :smiley:

Interestingly, to me, are pictures in the news showing VP Henry Wallace signing the declarations. It never occurred to me that they were signed by both the Pres. and the VP.

3

Signing in his capacity as President of the Senate, to verify that the Senate had passed the resolutions.