September 1940

[September 1], 1940 (Sunday)

• The Italians captured Buna, Kenya.
• Biggin Hill aerodrome in Kent was heavily damaged by a German bombing raid.
• The New England hurricane reached peak intensity as it passed by Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The storm did $4 million in damage and resulted in 7 fatalities.
• Died: Lillian Wald, 73, American nurse, humanitarian and author

  [September 2], 1940 (Monday)

• U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull and British Ambassador Lord Lothian exchanged notes concluding an agreement to trade old American destroyers for 99-year leases on British bases.
• Josef František scored his first kill, a Bf 109E.
• Byron Nelson won the PGA Championship.

  [September 3], 1940 (Tuesday)

• Adolf Hitler fixed the date of Operation Sea Lion for September 21.
• Vichy France ordered the internment of anyone who posed a threat to national security. Communists were targeted in particular.
• Born:
• *Eduardo Galeano, journalist, writer and novelist, in Montevideo, Uruguay
• *Joseph C. Strasser, admiral, in New Jersey

  [September 4], 1940 (Wednesday)

• Hitler told a crowd at a rally in Berlin: "When the British air force drops two or three or four thousand kilograms of bombs, then we will in one night drop 150, 230, 300 or 400 thousand kilograms - we will raze their cities to the ground."
• With Romania in a state of near-revolution due to public anger at the Second Vienna Award, King Carol II summoned Ion Antonescu to the palace and asked him to form a government. Discussions were held with representatives of the political parties but no result was reached.
• The America First Committee was established by Yale Law School student R. Douglas Stuart, Jr. with the objective of keeping the United States out of the war.
• German submarine U-142 was commissioned.
• Died: George William de Carteret, 70 or 71, Jersey journalist and writer; Hans Zinsser, 61, American physician, bacteriologist and writer

  [September 5], 1940 (Thursday)

• King Carol II reluctantly agreed to give full powers to Ion Antonescu, but the mood of the country remained volatile. With gunfire ringing out near the Royal Palace, Antonescu visited Carol again that evening and demanded that the king abdicate.
• Oil storage tanks at Thameshaven were among the day's targets of German bombers. Fires broke out at Thameshaven that could be seen from London.
• Born: Raquel Welch, actress and singer, in Chicago
• Died: Charles de Broqueville, 79, 20th Prime Minister of Belgium

  [September 6], 1940 (Friday)

• The unpopular King Carol II of Romania abdicated in favour of son Michael.
• Ion Antonescu became the leader of Romania. On September 14 he would take for himself the title of Conducător.
• The Germans bombed Grantham, the headquarters of No. 5 Group RAF. Grantham would be bombed eleven more times through the end of the year and for a while had the distinction of being the most frequently bombed town in all of England.

  [September 7], 1940 (Saturday)

• The Blitz began when the Luftwaffe shifted its focus from bombing British airfields and aircraft factories to conducting terror raids on London and other major cities in response to British bombing of Berlin. This proved to be a mistake, as it would give RAF Fighter Command much-needed time to regroup.
• The Treaty of Craiova was signed between Bulgaria and Romania.
• The President of Paraguay, José Félix Estigarribia, dies in a plane crash.
• Édouard Daladier, Paul Reynaud and Maurice Gamelin were arrested without charge and interned in the Château de Chazeron.
• Born: Abdurrahman Wahid, 4th President of Indonesia, in Jombang, East Java, Dutch East Indies

  [September 8], 1940 (Sunday)

• Italian Field Marshal Rodolfo Graziani agreed to begin an offensive against the British in North Africa the following day, after Benito Mussolini threatened to dismiss him if he did not.
• Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar was crowned Maharaja of the Kingdom of Mysore.

  [September 9], 1940 (Monday)

• The Italian invasion of Egypt began.
• The Italian Air Force bombed Tel Aviv in Mandatory Palestine, killing 137.
• 93 were killed in the Treznea massacre that took place in Treznea, Sălaj during the handover of Northern Transylvania from Romania to Hungary.

  [September 10], 1940 (Tuesday)

• A German bomb exploded at Buckingham Palace for the first time.
• The Corpo Aereo Italiano was formed to participate in the Battle of Britain.
• German submarine U-105 was commissioned.
• Born: David Mann, graphic artist, in Kansas City, Missouri
• Died: Yamaya Tanin, 74, Japanese admiral

  [September 11], 1940 (Wednesday)

• The Nederlandsche SS was formed.
• Winston Churchill gave a radio address saying that a German invasion of Britain could not be delayed for much longer if it was to be tried at all, so "we must regard the next week or so as a very important week for us in our history. It ranks with the days when the Spanish Armada was approaching the Channel and Drake was finishing his game of bowls, or when Nelson stood between us and Napoleon's Grand Army at Boulogne. We have read about all this in the history books, but what is happening now is on a far greater scale and of far more consequence to the life and future of the world and its civilization than those brave old days of the past. Every man and woman will therefore prepare himself and herself to do his duty whatever it may be, with special pride and care."
• Born: Brian De Palma, film director and screenwriter, in Newark, New Jersey; Ajit Singh, economist, in Lahore, British India
• Died: Issy Smith, 49, Australian-born British soldier and recipient of the Victoria Cross

  [September 12], 1940 (Thursday)

• Prehistoric cave paintings were discovered in the Lascaux Cave near Montignac, France. The paintings are mostly of animals and are some of the finest examples of art from the Upper Paleolithic age.
• U.S. Ambassador to Tokyo Joseph Grew warned Secretary of State Hull that Japan might treat an American embargo on oil exports as sanctions and retaliate.
• An explosion at the Hercules Powder Company plant in Kenvil, New Jersey killed 51 people.
• Born: Linda Gray, actress, model, director and producer, in Santa Monica, California; Skip Hinnant, actor and comedian, on Chincoteague Island, Virginia; Mickey Lolich, baseball player, in Portland, Oregon

  [September 13], 1940 (Friday)

• Italian forces captured Fort Capuzzo in Libya and Sallum in Egypt.
• Born: Óscar Arias, President of Costa Rica and Nobel laureate, in Heredia, Costa Rica

  [September 14], 1940 (Saturday)

• Hitler postponed Operation Sea Lion to September 27.
• The RAF conducted a particularly heavy bombing raid on Antwerp.
• 158 ethnic Romanians were killed in the Ip massacre in Northern Transylvania.
• German submarine U-96 was commissioned.
• Born: Larry Brown, basketball coach, in Brooklyn, New York
• Born: Ventseslav Konstantinov, Bulgarian writer and translator

  [September 15], 1940 (Sunday)

• The large-scale air battle known as Battle of Britain Day was fought. Believing the RAF was near its breaking point, the Luftwaffe mounted an all-out offensive, sending two huge waves of about 250 bombers each to bomb London and surrounding areas. The RAF managed to scatter many of the German bomber formations and shoot down 61 planes while losing 31 in return, inflicting a clear and decisive defeat on the Germans.
• Canada introduced conscription for men between the ages of 21 and 24.
• Hitler sent a letter to Francisco Franco asking for Germany to be granted naval bases in the Canary Islands and other places. Franco would reject the request a week later by asking for an excessive amount of compensation in return.
• Lieutenant Colonel Bernhard von Lossberg prepared the Lossberg study on the planned German invasion of the Soviet Union.
• General elections were held in Sweden. The Swedish Social Democratic Party remained the country's largest party, receiving more than half the vote.
• Died: Glenn Frank, 52, American journalist and President of the University of Wisconsin-Madison

  [September 16], 1940 (Monday)

• Italian forces captured Sidi Barrani. The Italian Tenth Army halted and took up defensive positions around the port so supplies could be moved up.
• RAF planes from the carrier Illustrious attacked Benghazi and sank four Italian ships.
• The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 was enacted in the United States, the first peacetime conscription in American history.

  [September 17], 1940 (Tuesday)

• Hitler postponed Operation Sea Lion indefinitely.
• Heinrich Himmler ruled that all Polish workers must wear a yellow badge marked with the letter "P" to distinguish themselves from Germans.

  [September 18], 1940 (Wednesday)

• The British passenger ship City of Benares was torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by German submarine U-48
• Chongqing University of Technology was established in China.
• The Cincinnati Reds clinched their second straight National League pennant with a 4–3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies in 13 innings.
• German submarine U-143 was commissioned.
• Born: Frankie Avalon, actor and singer, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Died: James Baldwin-Webb, 45 or 46, British Army officer and politician

  [September 19], 1940 (Thursday)

• The Royal Air Force bombed German invasion barges in ports along the French coast. After the attack, Hitler ordered the barges dispersed.
• 1924 Democratic presidential candidate John W. Davis delivered a speech to a U.S. Senate sub-committee proposing an amendment to the Constitution that would limit the President to serving one term lasting six years with no possibility of re-election. "We think we do better if we employ our servants in the executive branch for fixed and certain terms," Davis explained. "We want them to realize that what they do they must do within the allotted span of their official lives... Six years is long enough in which to do all the good one man is likely to accomplish, if he thinks first of his country and not of himself."