March 1940

[March 1], 1940 (Friday)

• In Germany, the second stop of U.S. Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles' fact-finding mission, he met with Joachim von Ribbentrop and listened to him speak almost non-stop for two hours. Welles came away thinking that Ribbentrop had a "completely closed mind" that was "also a very stupid mind."
• The novel Native Son by Richard Wright was published in the United States.
• The adventure film Strange Cargo starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable was released.
• Born: Nuala O'Faolain, journalist and writer, in Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland
• Died: Sherman H. Dudley, 67–70?, African-American vaudeville performer; A. H. Tammsaare, 62, Estonian writer

  [March 2], 1940 (Saturday)

• The British cargo liner Domala was bombed off the Isle of Wight by a Heinkel He 111 with the loss of 108 of the 291 people aboard.
• Sumner Welles went to the Chancellory and met Adolf Hitler, who claimed to want peace but insisted that Britain was determined to destroy Germany. Welles' impression of Hitler was that he appeared to be calm and in excellent health and that "while his eyes were tired, they were clear."
• Hungarians volunteering to fight in the Winter War arrived in Finland after three weeks of travel. They immediately began training with the Finnish Army but would not complete training before the end of Winter War.
• Cambridge won an unofficial Boat Race at Henley-on-Thames.
• The character of Elmer Fudd first appeared in the Warner Bros. animated short Elmer's Candid Camera.

  [March 3], 1940 (Sunday)

• A bomb exploded in the Luleå offices of the Swedish communist newspaper Norrskensflamman, killing five.
• Sumner Welles met Hermann Göring at Carinhall. Like Hitler, Göring blamed the war on Britain and France. Welles found Göring to be as cold and ruthless as the other Nazi leaders but thought he was at least capable of taking a broader view of international relations.
• Italy sent a note to Britain protesting the British blockade of German coal shipments to Italy.
• Born: Germán Castro Caycedo, journalist and writer, in Zipaquirá, Colombia ; Owen Spencer-Thomas, television and radio journalist, in Braughing, Hertfordshire, England

  [March 4], 1940 (Monday)

• The Home Office announced that women would not be asked to work more than 60 hours a week in British factories, and youth under 16 would not be required to work more than 48. In World War I, women were frequently working as many as 70 hours a week.
• Died: Hamlin Garland, 79, American writer

  [March 5], 1940 (Tuesday)

• A Finnish delegation departed for Moscow to begin negotiations for a peace settlement.
• Joseph Stalin authorized the Katyn massacre.
• In the English Channel, the Royal Navy seized seven Italian ships leaving Germany loaded with coal.
• Died: Maxine Elliott, 72, American actress and businesswoman; Cai Yuanpei, 72, Chinese educator and philosopher

  [March 6], 1940 (Wednesday)

• British MPs protested the Land Transfers Regulations, but a motion of censure brought against the government was defeated.
• Simo Häyhä was finally hit by an explosive round in an anti-sniper campaign run by the Soviets, putting him into an 11-day coma.
• Detective Comics #38 was published, featuring the first appearance of Batman's sidekick, Robin.
• Born: Willie Stargell, baseball player, in Earlsboro, Oklahoma

  [March 7], 1940 (Thursday)

• Sumner Welles visited Paris and met with President Albert François Lebrun. Welles found Lebrun friendly, but was annoyed that he spent much of the meeting rambling on about details of his life that Welles did not find to be "in the slightest degree significant." Welles was then taken to see Prime Minister Édouard Daladier, who stressed that restoration of independence for the Poles and Czechs was a primary objective of any peace settlement. Although Daladier said he deeply distrusted Hitler, he also said he would not rule out dealing with the present German regime.
• The RMS Queen Elizabeth completed her secret maiden voyage from England to New York.
• Ray Steele beat Bronko Nagurski in St. Louis to win the National Wrestling Association World Heavyweight Championship.
• Born: Rudi Dutschke, spokesperson of the German student movement, in Schönefeld, Germany

  [March 8], 1940 (Friday)

• Soviet troops pushed into the suburbs of Viipuri while Moscow rejected a Finnish plea for an immediate ceasefire.
• Sumner Welles had separate meetings with Jules Jeanneney and Édouard Herriot, who were both adamant that France would have to continue the war until Germany was defeated.
• Died: Princess Masako Takeda, 51, tenth child of Emperor Meiji of Japan

  [March 9], 1940 (Saturday)

• The Finns evacuated their last toeholds in the Gulf of Viipuri.
• Britain released the captured Italian coal ships and announced that Italy would be allowed to continue to import German coal, but only via overland routes.
• Born: Raúl Juliá, actor, in San Juan, Puerto Rico

  [March 10], 1940 (Sunday)

• Joachim von Ribbentrop arrived in Rome for a two-day meeting with Benito Mussolini. It was agreed that Mussolini would have a face-to-face meeting with Hitler soon to discuss Italy entering the war.
• Sumner Welles flew to London and met with Lord Halifax.
• Hitler gave a speech at the Berlin Zeughaus on Heroes' Memorial Day.
• Born:
• *Chuck Norris, martial artist and actor, in Ryan, Oklahoma
• *David Rabe, American playwright, in Dubuque, Iowa
• *Dean Torrence, one-half of the rock and roll duo Jan and Dean, in Los Angeles

  [March 11], 1940 (Monday)

• The French battleship Bretagne and cruiser Algérie departed Toulon with 147 tons worth of gold, bound for Canada where the French gold reserves would be kept for safekeeping.
• German submarine U-31 was sunk in the Jade Bight by British aircraft, the first time a U-boat was sunk from the air. U-31 was later raised by the Germans, repaired and returned to service.
• Sumner Welles had tea with King George VI, who made clear his hope that no peace negotiations would take place until the Nazi regime was destroyed. Welles then spoke with Neville Chamberlain, who reiterated the points from his Birmingham speech of February 24.
• German submarine U-101 was commissioned.
• Died: John Monk Saunders, 42, American novelist, screenwriter and film director

  [March 12], 1940 (Tuesday)

• The Moscow Peace Treaty ending the Winter War was signed. Russia received of Finnish territory.
• Sumner Welles met Winston Churchill. In Welles' account of the meeting he wrote that "Mr. Churchill was sitting in front of the fire, smoking a 24-inch cigar, and drinking a whiskey and soda. It was quite obvious that he had consumed a good many whiskeys before I arrived." For almost two hours Welles listened to Churchill deliver "a cascade of oratory, brilliant and always effective, interlarded with considerable wit."
• The Republican Party presidential primaries began in New Hampshire.
• German submarine U-99, one of the most successful U-boats of the war, was commissioned.
• Born: Al Jarreau, jazz singer, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

  [March 13], 1940 (Wednesday)

• Hostilities between the Soviet Union and Finland ceased at 11 a.m. The three-month long Battle of Kollaa ended in Finnish victory, though the war was lost.
• Field Marshal Mannerheim addressed the Finnish Army: "Peace has been concluded between our country and the Soviet Union, an exacting peace which has ceded to Russia nearly every battlefield on which you have shed your blood on behalf of everything we hold dear and sacred. You did not want war. You loved peace, work and progress; but you were forced into a struggle in which you have done great deeds, deeds that will shine for centuries in the pages of history."
• Indian nationalist Udham Singh assassinated Sir Michael O'Dwyer at Caxton Hall in London.
• Born: Candi Staton, soul and gospel singer, in Hanceville, Alabama
• Died: Ira Flagstead, 46, American baseball player

  [March 14], 1940 (Thursday)

• Evacuation of Finnish Karelia: The more than 450,000 Finns displaced by the Moscow Peace Treaty began to cross Finland's new border. Some burned their homes to the ground to leave as little behind for the Russians as possible.
• Hermann Göring asked Germans to collect metal objects and donate them to the state as a present to Adolf Hitler for his 51st birthday.
• The comedy film Road to Singapore, starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour was released. It was the first in the series of the popular Road to... movies.

  [March 15], 1940 (Friday)

• Finnish Parliament ratified the Moscow Peace Treaty, 145 to 3.
• Carol II of Romania granted an amnesty to members of the Iron Guard in exchange for their allegiance.
• Born: Phil Lesh, bass guitarist for the Grateful Dead, in Berkeley, California

  [March 16], 1940 (Saturday)

• The Battle of Wuyuan began.
• A British civilian was killed in a German air raid for the first time in the war when fourteen Junkers Ju 88 bombers attacked the British fleet at Scapa Flow.
• The foreign ministers of the Baltic states held a conference in Riga. They agreed to share information in order to prevent the Soviet Union from playing them off against each other.
• Sumner Welles, now back in Rome, met with King Victor Emmanuel III in the morning and then Mussolini again that evening. Welles thought that Mussolini seemed to be in better spirits than he was at their first meeting.
• Born: Bernardo Bertolucci, film director and screenwriter, in Parma, Italy ; Jan Pronk, politician and diplomat, in Scheveningen, Netherlands; James Wong, Cantopop lyricist, in Panyu, Guangzhou, China
• Died: Selma Lagerlöf, 81, Swedish author and Nobel laureate in literature