1940
Ten thousand Japanese troops launched a counter-attack in Eastern Shanxi Province in China in an attempt to relieve the nearly-surrounded Japanese Thirty Sixth Division.
The Soviet offensive in Finland was halted by several - unexpected - Finnish victories.
The pro-Nazi English socialite Unity Mitford, who was in Germany when the war began and shot herself in an unsuccessful suicide attempt on 3 September 1939, arrived at the English port of Folkestone under heavy police guard and was brought ashore on a stretcher. Her father, Lord Redesdale, told a reporter that his daughter was very ill.
Hermann Göring was appointed head of the German war economy. Walther Funk was made Executive Vice President for the economy. The Polish government-in-exile reached an agreement with French authorities to establish Polish military units in France.
Olga Georges-Picot born in Shanghai. John Patrick Byrne born in Paisley.
Rationing of basic foodstuffs - including butter, bacon, ham and sugar - was established in the UK.
The first episode of Norman Edwards' Curiouser & Curiouser broadcast on The Home Service.
The Sergei Prokofiev ballet Romeo & Juliet made its Russian debut at the Korov Theatre in Leningrad amid wartime blackout conditions.
Joe May's The Invisible Man Returns - starring Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Vincent Price - premiered.
Clemence Dane's Will Shakespeare starring Robert Donat broadcast on The Home Service.
John Michael Frederick Castle born in Croydon. Janine Catherine Glass born in Bombay.
Captured Nazi documents revealed Hitler's plans for the invasion of Scandinavia and a postponement of the invasion of France and the Low Countries until the spring, when the weather would be more compatible for an invasion.
Howard Hawks's His Girl Friday - starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell - premiered. Anthony John Holland born in Shoeburyness. George Formby's 'The Lancashire Romeo'/'Imagine Me In The Maginot Line' released.
Michael Reid born in Hackney.
The first episode of PG Wodehouse's Ukridge broadcast on The Home Service. Winston Churchill gave an address on BBC radio referred to as 'The House of Many Mansions' speech, with neutral nations its primary subject. Churchill explained that there was 'no chance of a speedy end' to the war 'except through united action' and asked listeners to consider what would happen if neutral nations 'were with one spontaneous impulse to do their duty in accordance with the Covenant of the League, and were to stand together with the British and French Empires against aggression and wrong?' Churchill concluded: 'The day will come when the joybells will ring again throughout Europe and when victorious nations, masters not only of their foes but of themselves, will plan and build in justice, in tradition and in freedom a house of many mansions where there will be room for all.' London recorded a temperature of twelve degrees Fahrenheit - the city's coldest day since 1881.
John Vincent Hurt born in Chesterfield.
Henrik Ege's Hocus-Bogus broadcast on The Home Service. Britain lowered the speed limit at night in populated areas to twenty miles per hour due to the sharp increase in the rate of car accidents during blackouts. War Minister Oliver Stanley announced in the House of Commons that kilts would not be issued to members of Scottish regiments except to pipers and drummers, for reasons connected to the possible use of poison gas by the enemy.
Reinhard Heydrich was appointed by Göring for the 'solution' to 'the Jewish Question. John Ford's The Grapes Of Wrath premiered in New York.
Jill Esmond was granted a divorce from her husband, Laurence Olivier. Vivien Leigh was named as co-respondent and Olivier did not contest the proceedings.
The Carroll Levis film Discoveries - notable for the first performance of 'There'll Always Be An England' by boy soprano Glyn Davies - released. David John White born in Edmonton, Middlesex. David Hargreaves born in New Mills, Derbyshire.
A German plane crashed on English soil for the first time in the war when a Heinkel He 111 was shot down near Whitby. Flight Lieutenant Peter Townsend of Forty Three Squadron was credited with the crucial shot.
Oswald Mitchell's Jailbirds - starring Harry Terry, Albert Burdon and Shaun Glenville - premiered.
The Careless Talk Costs Lives campaign began in Britain, aimed at preventing war gossip. James Joseph Tarbuck born in Liverpool.
Disney's Pinocchio premiered in New York. Gary James Bond born in Liss, Hampshire.
George Stevens's Vigil In The Night - starring Carole Lombard - premiered.
Tom and Jerry made their debut in Puss Gets The Boot, under their original names of Jasper and Jinx.
German submarine U-33 was sunk in the Firth of Clyde by the minesweeper Gleaner. Twenty five of the crew perished but seventeen survived, one of whom had three Enigma machine rotors in his pockets. These were sent to Alan Turing at the Government Code and Cyper School for study. Ralph Bates born in Bristol.
The Manstein Plan was tested again in a war game at Mayen. Heinz Guderian concluded that the plan was viable, but Franz Halder did not share Guderian's confidence that panzers could cross the Meuse on their own without waiting for infantry support.
Oswald Mitchell's Pack Up Your Troubles - starring Reginald Purdell. Wylie Watson and Patricia Roc - premiered.
The destroyer HMS Cossack forcibly removed over three hundred British POWs from the German transport Altmark in neutral Norwegian territorial waters, sparking The Altmark Incident. In Egypt, the British Army created the Seventh Armoured Division, later to be famous as The Desert Rats. Alfred J Goulding's A Chump At Oxford - starring Laurel and Hardy and featuring an early role for Peter Cushing - premiered.
Gene Francis Alan Pitney born in Hartford, Connecticut. Josephine Mary Robinson born in Cleethorpes. James Laurenson born in Marton, New Zealand.
The destroyer HMS Daring was sunk by the German submarine U-23 East of the Orkey Islands while escorting Allied convoy HN12. The Finns destroyed a pocket of Soviet troops North of Lake Ladoga. The BBC's Forces Programme began. Highlights of the opening day included commentary on a football game between Ther French Army and The British Army by Raymond Glendenning, from Lille and A Variety Concert - with Eric Barker, Rupert Hazell and Elsie Day and Jack Warner - from the Playhouse, Feltham. Barry Stanton born in Manchester. George Formby's 'Grandad’s Flannelette Nightshirt'/'Mister Wu's A Window Cleaner Now' released.
William Robinson born in Detroit.
James Peter Greaves born in Manor Park, London.
Concentration Camps Inspectorate head Richard Glücks recommended a location for a 'quarantine camp' in Poland. The site was a former Austro-Hungarian cavalry barracks near the town of Oświęcim, known in German as Auschwitz. Peter Robert McEnery born in Walsall.
The Kriegsmarine launched Operation Wikinger, targeting British fishing vessels suspected of reporting the movements of German warships. En route, the destroyer flotilla was mistakenly bombed by a Heinkel, sinking the Leberecht Maass. The Max Schultz hit a naval mine attempting a rescue effort. The new five-year old Dalai Lama was enthroned in Tibet. Judy Valerie Cornwell born in Hammersmith.
The Lord Mayor of London gave a lunch at the Guildhall to officers and ratings of the Exeter and Ajax to celebrate their victory at the Battle of the River Plate. Peter Henry Fonda born in New York. Doctor Ehrlich's Magic Bullet - starring Edward G Robinson - and King Vidor's Northwest Passage - starring Spencer Tracy - premiered.
Peter Ellstrom Deuel born in Rochester, New York. Denis Law born in Aberdeen. Adrian Brunel's The Girl Who Forgot - starring Elizabeth Allan, Ralph Michael, Enid Stamp-Taylor and Basil Radford - premiered.
Robin Phillips born in Haslemere, Surrey.
The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles, hosted by Bob Hope. Gone With the Wind won eight Oscars including Best Picture. The Los Angeles Times published the names of the winners in its late edition, so most of the attendees already knew the results ahead of time. The Academy responded by starting a tradition the following year in which the winners were not revealed until the ceremony itself when sealed envelopes were opened. Victor De Kowa's Casanova Heiratet - starring Karl Schönböck, Lizzi Waldmüller, Fita Benkhoff, Irene von Meyendorff and Richard Romanowsky - premiered.
George King's Crimes At The Dark House - starring Tod Slaughter and Sylvia Marriott - premiered.
Bukka White recorded 'Parchman Farm Blues' and 'District Attorney Blues' in Chicago for Okeh Records. Richard Brooke bgorn in London.
Christopher John David Wray born in Scarborough.
Meat rationing began in Britain. Maurice Elvey's Sons Of The Sea - starring Leslie Banks, Kay Walsh, Mackenzie Ward and Cecil Parker - premiered.
The Moscow Peace Treaty ending The Winter War was signed. Russia received sixteen thousand square miles of Finnish territory.
Christopher Michael Gable born in London.
The Road to Singapore, starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour was released.
Norman Tauorg's Young Tom Edison - starring Mickey Rooney, Fay Bainter and George Bancroft - premiered.
Hitler and Mussolini met at The Brenner Pass on the Austrian border. Benito Mussolini agreed with Hitler that Italy would enter the war 'at an opportune moment.' Lynette Rumble born in Townsville, Queensland.
Paul Reynaud became Prime Minister of France following Daladier's resignation the previous day. Woody Guthrie was recorded for the first time, in an interview with Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress during which he also performed some original and traditional songs.
Charles Vidor's My Son, My Son! - starring Madelaine Carroll, Brian Aherne and Louis Hayward and Gregory La Cava's Primrose Path - starring Ginger Rogers, Joel McCrea, Marjorie Rambeau and Joan Carroll - premiered.
James Edmund Caan born in New York.
Lieutenant Colonel Mad Jack Churchill of the Manchester Regiment and some of his men ambushed a German patrol at L'Épinette (near Richebourg, Pas-de-Calais). Churchill gave the signal to attack by raising his claymore which he always carried into battle as, without it, he felt 'improperly dressed.' A commonly told story is that Churchill - a skilled archer who had won second place at the previous year's World Archery Competition in Oslo - killed a German sergeant using a longbow during this action, in doing so becoming the last soldier known to have successfully downed an enemy in such a manner. However Churchill later said that, actually, his bows had been crushed by a lorry earlier in the campaign. After evacuation from Dunkirk, Churchill (no relation), subsequently volunteered for the Commandos, saw action in Norway, Italy, Yugoslavia and Burma and was captured an held as a prisoner of war in Sachsenhausen.
The Anglo-French Supreme War Council met in London and agreed that neither Britain nor France would make a separate peace with Germany. The Council also agreed upon Operation Wilfred, a plan to lay mines in Norwegian coastal waters in the hopes of provoking a German response that would legitimise Allied 'assistance' to Norway.
Václav Binovec's Madla Zpívá Evropě - starring Zdenka Sulanová and Ladislav Bohác - premiered.
Britain undertook secret reconnaissance flights to photograph targeted areas inside the Soviet Union in preparation for Operation Pike, utilising high-altitude, high-speed stereoscopic photography pioneered by Sidney Cotton.
The BBC broadcast what appeared to be a speech by Adolf Hitler, in which the Führer reminded the audience that Columbus had discovered America with the help of German science and technology and therefore Germany had a right 'to have some part in the achievement which this voyage of discovery was to result in.' This meant that all Americans of Czech and Polish descent were 'entitled to come under the protection of Germany' and that Hitler would 'enforce that right, not only theoretically but practically.' Once the German Protectorate was extended to the United States, the Statue of Liberty would be removed to alleviate traffic congestion and the White House would be renamed the Brown House. CBS contacted the BBC in something of a panic trying to learn more about the origin of the broadcast, not realising that it was April Fools' Day. The voice of Hitler had been impersonated by the actor Martin Miller.
Penelope Anne Constance Hatfield born in Sutton, Surrey.
The Ministerial Defence Committee, with the First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill as its chair, replaced Lord Chatfield's ministerial position of Minister for Coordination of Defence. Vickery Turner born in Sunbury-On-Thames.
Neville Chamberlain gave a speech to the Conservative Party in London stating he was confident of victory and that Hitler had 'missed the bus' by not taking advantage of Germany's military superiority over Britain at the beginning of the war.
Bogskar won the Grand National at Aintree. One Million BC starring Victor Mature was released.
The British destroyer Glowworm was sunk by the German cruiser Admiral Hipper in the Norwegian Sea. Despite being hopelessly outgunned, the Glowworm managed to ram the Admiral Hipper and inflict considerable damage before sinking. Captain Gerard Broadmead Roope earned the first Victoria Cross of the war for his conduct, but it was only bestowed after the war when the Admiral Hipper's log describing the battle was read by the Royal Navy.
The British campaign in Norway commenced following Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of neutral Denmark and Norway. The German heavy cruiser Blücher was sunk at the Battle of Drøbak Sound.
Germans set up a puppet Norwegian government under Vidkun Quisling, former Minister of Defence.
The first Battle of Narvik. British destroyers and aircraft successfully made a surprise attack against a larger German naval force. Winston Churchill made a speech to the House of Commons announcing that the strategically important Faroe Islands belonging to Denmark were now being occupied by Britain. 'We shall shield the Faroe Islands from all the severities of war and establish ourselves there conveniently by sea and air until the moment comes when they will be handed back to the Crown and people of a Denmark liberated from the foul thraldom in which they have been plunged by the German aggression,' Churchill said. The musical revue New Faces - featuring Eric Maschwitz and Manning Sherwin's 'A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square' - opened at the Comedy Theatre in London. The cast including Judy Campbell, Bill Fraser and Charles Hawtrey. Sheila Mary Dunn born in Wolverhampton.
Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca - starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine - and Doctor Cyclops premiered. Herbert Jeffrey Hancock born in Chicago.
RAF Bomber Command mounted aerial mine-laying operations for the first time when fifteen Handley Page Hampdens were deployed to lay sea mines off Denmark.
Norway's King Haakon VII made a radio address telling his people that British soldiers were on their way and should be given any assistance possible. Royal Marines landed at Namsos, the first British troops to land in Norway. Julie Frances Christie born in Chabua, India.
James Caffrey born in Belfast. Maurice Elvey's The Spider - starring Diana Churchill, Derrick De Marney, Jean Gillie, Edward Lexy and Cecil Parker - premiered.
Ronald William Wycherley born in Liverpool.
John Cromwell's Abe Lincolm In Illinois - starring Raymond Massey - premiered.
Alfredo James Pacino born in Manhattan.
Giovanni Giorgio Moroder born in Urtijëi, Italy.
Germany finally declared war on Norway. Joachim von Ribbentrop took to the airwaves shortly after and claimed that the Germans had captured documents from the Lillehammer sector revealing a British and French plan to occupy Norway with Norwegian complicity. That same day Samuel Hoare made a radio address of his own in which he called Ribbentrop's assertion 'despicable.'
Allied destroyers were dispatched from Scapa Flow to evacuate to the British troops from Namsos. The Royal Navy submarine Unity was sunk in an accidental collision with the Norwegian ship Atle Jarl off Tynemouth.
The Allies began evacuating Norwegian ports. Orson Welles' Citizen Kane premiered.
Maurice Elvey's For Freedom - starring Will Fyffe, Anthony Hulme and Guy Middleton - premiered.
Michael Edward Lindsay-Hogg born in New York.
A massive German armoured motorised column was spotted driving west through the Ardennes, but the Belgian Army did not respond.
The House of Commons began a contentious debate on the conduct of the war. Sir Roger Keyes appeared dressed in full military uniform with six rows of medals and described, in detail, the government's mishandling of the Norwegian campaign. Leo Amery uttered the famous words: 'Somehow or other we must get into the Government men who can match our enemies in fighting spirit, in daring, in resolution and in thirst for victory.' He continued: 'I will quote certain other words. I do it with great reluctance, because I am speaking of those who are old friends and associates of mine, but they are words which, I think, are applicable to the present situation. This is what [Oliver] Cromwell said to the Long Parliament when he thought it was no longer fit to conduct the affairs of the nation: "You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!"'
The Norway Debate continued in Parliament. David Lloyd George said that since Chamberlain had asked the nation for sacrifice, 'I say solemnly that the Prime Minister should give an example of sacrifice, because there is nothing which can contribute more to victory in this war than that he should sacrifice the seals of office.' Chamberlain survived a motion of no confidence by a vote of two hundred and eighty one to two hundred, but the number of absentions from within his own party caused the level of support for his government to appear very weak.
Chamberlain resigned as Prime Minister, replaced by Winston Churchill and a coalition war ministry. At the outset, Churchill formed a five-man War Cabinet which included Chamberlain as Lord President of the Council, Clement Attlee as Lord Privy Seal, Viscount Halifax as Foreign Secretary and Arthur Greenwood as a minister without portfolio. The cabinet changed in size as the war progressed but there were significant additions later in 1940 when it was increased to eight after Churchill, Attlee and Greenwood were joined by Ernest Bevin as Minister of Labour and National Service, Anthony Eden as Foreign Secretary – replacing Halifax, who was sent to Washington DC as ambassador to the United States, Lord Beaverbrook as Minister of Aircraft Production, Sir Kingsley Wood as Chancellor and Sir John Anderson as Lord President of the Council – replacing Chamberlain who died in November. The massive German offensive against the Western Front began with the invasion of Luxembourg, Belgium, The Netherlands and France. The Battle for The Hague became the first - failed - paratrooper attack in history as the Dutch quickly defeated the invaders.
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressubrger's Contraband - starring Conrad Veidt and Valerie Hobson - premiered.
Churchill made his 'I have nothing to offer you but blood, toil, tears, and sweat' speech to the House of Commons. Queen Wilhelmina of The Netherlands and her government were evacuated to London using HMS Hereward following the German invasion of the Low Countries.
The creation of the Local Defence Volunteers (subsequently the Home Guard) was announced by the Secretary of State for War, Anthony Eden. Lord Beaverbrook became Minister of Aircraft Production in Chruchill's war cabinet and Ernest Bevin Minister of Labour. The Rotterdam Blitz led to German victory in the Battle for Rotterdam, causing many civilian deaths and tremendous damage. French artillery and anti-tank guns hit Erwin Rommel's tank near the Belgian village of Onhaye. The tank slid down a slope and rolled on its side, but Rommel escaped serious injury.
In a response to the Rotterdam Blitz, the first large-scale RAF strategic bombing of World War II targeted Gelsenkirchen, followed by Hamburg, Bremen, Cologne, Essen, Duisburg, Düsseldorf and Hanover during the next days. The Battle of Sedan ended in German victory. All of the bridges across the Meuse were captured, allowing the Wehrmacht to pour across the river and advance toward the English Channel unimpeded.
Michael Curtiz's Virginia City - starring Errol Flynn, Miriam Hopkins, Randolph Scot and Humphrey Bogart - premiered.
The Battle of Montcornet was fought when the 4e Division Cuirassée under Colonel Charles de Gaulle attacked the Germans at the strategic village of Montcornet. The French successfully drove off the Germans but were then counterattacked by Stukas and had to withdraw to avoid being encircled. All-American Comics issue sixteen was published, featuring the first appearance of The Green Lantern. My Favourite Wife - starring Irene Dunne, Cary Grant and Randolph Scott - and Mervyn LeRoy's Waterloo Bridge - starring Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor - premiered.
Raymond Stanley Lonnen born in Bournemouth.
Amiens was besieged by German troops; General Rommel's Panza forces surrounded Arras and other German forces reached Noyelles on the Channel. British Expeditionary Force Commander General Lord Gort ordered a withdrawal toward port cities including Dunkirk. James McManus born in Bristol.
Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, was extremely jailed for his naughty scallywag fascist ways; he and his wife, Diana, would spend the next three years in The Slammer. Mosley andthe MP Archibald Maule Ramsay were among a number of Britons arrested under Defence Regulation 18B, allowing for the internment of people suspected of being Nazi sympathisers. The Right Club's Anna Wolkoff and US embassy ipher clerk Tyler Kent were also arrested and charged with violating the Official Secrets Act. Unbeknownst to Wolkoff, The Right Club had already been infiltrated by MI5, firstly by Marjorie Mackie and then by Helene De Muncke as well as by Joan Miller, who had worked as an office girl for Elizabeth Arden. Through those women, controlled by head of M Section Maxwell Knight, MI5 was kept fully informed of and was able even to influence the activities of the group. In February, Wolkoff met Kent, who revealed some of the documents that he had stolen from the embassy, most notably a series of sensitive communications between Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt. In April, Wolkoff borrowed some of the documents to have them copied. She then approached De Muncke and asked if she could pass a coded letter to William Joyce through a contact De Munke claimed to have at the Italian embassy. As Wolkoff was put into the police car, her arrest was witnessed by her neighbour, eleven-year-old Len Deighton.
Anthony Esmond Sheridan McGinnity born in Norwich.
The Battle of Boulogne and the Siege of Calais began. Britain passed The Emergency Powers (Defence) Act putting banks, munitions production, wages, profits and work conditions under the control of the state.
Keep It Dark - starring Joyce Grenfell and Dick Francis - broadcast.
In agreement with a request from Gerd von Rundstedt, Hitler ordered Paul von Kleist to halt his panzer advance only eighteen miles from Dunkirk, not wanting to risk the tanks getting bogged down in the Flanders marshes. This decision would prove to be a crucial mistake by the German leadership. On Empire Day, King George VI addressed his subjects by radio, saying, 'The decisive struggle is now upon us ... Let no one be mistaken; it is not mere territorial conquest that our enemies are seeking. It is the overthrow, complete and final, of this Empire and of everything for which it stands, and after that the conquest of the world. And if their will prevails they will bring to its accomplishment all the hatred and cruelty which they have already displayed.' Sam Wood's adaptation of Our Town - starring William Holden - premiered.
Introduced by his wife, Joan, to MI5 officer Captain Hubert Stringer, the novelist and First World War veteran Dennis Wheatley was asked to think up ideas for resistance to a Nazi invasion of Britain. Between May 1940 and August 1941 Wheatley was to write a total of twenty War Papers on a variety of subjects - from invasion and resistance to invasion to grand strategy, to maintaining the independence of Turkey, the possible creation of a Jewish army and the ideal shape of a post-war Europe - and reached a very select audience. As early as July 1940 Air Marshall Sir Lawrence Darvall told Whealtey that all three of the Chiefs-of-Staff had read his paper on Invasion. Their eyes had been caught by the fact that Wheatley had not come up with an idea to build a Maginot line around London, but with simple and effective solutions. In mid-1941 Wheatley learned that the King and the Prime Minister were also on his circulation list.
The Dunkirk evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force, Operation Dynamo, began. Hitler ordered a halt to the advance of Germans toward the Allied beachhead and allowed Hermann Göring to use the Luftwaffe to attack the beaches. Sir John Dill replaced Edmund Ironside as Chief of the General Staff.
The British destroyers Grafton, Grenade and Wakeful were sunk during the Dunkirk evacuation. The Germans captured Lille, Ostend and Ypres.
Poor weather over Dunkirk allowed the British to conduct the day's evacuations with reduced fear of German air attacks. This day was the high point of the evacuation, with a total of over sixty eight thousand rescued, including this blogger's father. The Anglo-French Supreme War Council had another meeting in Paris. Reynaud argued with Churchill over the disparity in numbers between the British and French troops being evacuated.
War Secretary Anthony Eden gave a radio address on the Dunkirk evacuation reporting that four-fifths of the British Expeditionary Force had been saved. 'The British Expeditionary Force still exists, not as a handful of fugitives, but as a body of seasoned veterans,' Eden said. 'We have had great losses in equipment. But our men have gained immeasurably in experience of warfare and in self-confidence. The vital weapon of any army is its spirit. Ours has been tried and tempered in the furnace. It has not been found wanting. It is this refusal to accept defeat, that is the guarantee of final victory.'
The last of three hundred thousand British, French and Commonwealth troops were evacuated from France as Churchill made his 'We shall fight on the beaches' speech to the House of Commons. David Collings born in Brighton.
JB Priestley broadcast his first Sunday evening Postscript, An Excursion To Hell, on The Home Service after the evening news, marking the role of 'the little ships' in the Dunkirk evacuation.
Thomas Jones Woodward born in Treforest, Pontypridd. Ronald Alfred Pickup born in Chester.
Italy declared war on France and Great Britain. Norway surrendered. King Haakon VII and his cabinet escaped to London to form a government in exile.
The Germans entered Paris unopposed.
The French fortress at Verdun, which famously never surrendered in World War I, capitulated to the Germans.
Philippe Pétain became Premier of France upon the resignation of Reynaud's government. Only one hour after becoming the head of government, Pétain asked his Foreign Minister Paul Baudouin to pass a note to the Spanish ambassador asking Spain to request 'the conditions Chancellor Hitler would require to put a halt to military operations and sign an armistice.' JB Priestly'sPostscript included the memorable lines: 'I wish we could send all of our children out of this island, every boy and girl of them across the sea to the wide Dominions and turn Britain into the greatest fortress the world has know. This done, we could fight and fight these Nazis until we broke their black hearts.' Carole Ann Lillian Higgins born in Ilford.
The troopship RMS Lancastria was sunk by German air attack off the port of Saint-Nazaire during Operation Ariel with over four thousand fatalities. It was the greatest loss of life in the sinking of any British ship in history. Churchill ordered that news be kept secret from the British public.
Churchill made his 'this was their finest hour' speech to the House of Commons, declaring 'the Battle of France is over. the Battle of Britain is about to begin.' General Charles de Gaulle, de facto leader of the Free French Forces, made his first broadcast on Radio Londres rallying French Resistance. Erwin Rommel's Seventh Panzer Division entered Cherbourg but found that most of the Allied personnel had already evacuated. Half an hour later Rommel visited the Port Admiral's office and accepted the city's surrender.
Peace negotiations between France and Germany began at the Glade of the Armistice in the Forest of Compiègne, using the same rail carriage that the Armistice of 11 November 1918 was signed in. Adolf Hitler personally attended the negotiations at first, but left early as a show of disrespect to the French. A point of contention was the size of the zone that the Germans were to occupy, so the war dragged on for another day.
Terence Nelhams-Wright born in Acton. The first episode of Music While You Work broadcast on The Forces Programme. Adolf Hitler took a train to Paris and visited sites including the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and Napoleon's tomb at Les Invalides. Stuart Fergusson Victor Sutcliffe born in Edinburgh.
Operation Collar, the first British commando raid of the war, on the Northern French department of Pas-de-Calais began.
Frank McDonald's Grand Old Opry - starring Leon Weaver, Frank Weaver, June Weaver, Lois Ranson, Henry Kolker, Loretta Weaver, Purnell Pratt and Claire Carleton - premiered.
British authorities arrested Diana Mitford, wife of Oswald Mosley and banged her Nazi ass up in Holloway. The police had already arrested her husband under Defence Regulation 18B a month earlier, but they waited to arrest her since she had just given birth to their son, Max.
German forces landed in Guernsey marking the start of the five-year occupation of the Channel Islands.
Philippe Pétain's government moved to Vichy. The collaborationist state run from there came to be known as Vichy France. Michael Curtiz's The Sea Hawk - starring Errol Flynn - premiered.
Hitler ordered preparation of plans for the German invasion of Britain, code-named Operation Sea Lion.
The British attacked and destroyed the French navy off Mers-el-Kébir, Algeria, fearing that the ships would fall into German hands.
The Duke of Windsor (tainted by suspicion of his pro-Nazism) was named governor of the Bahamas, in theory putting him some distance from any potential controversy. Although that only lasted until the murder of Sir Harry Oakes in very suspicious circumstances in 1943. Constable Jack William Avery, a war reserve police officer, was murdered in Hyde Park. Avery was stabbed in the groin by Frank Stephen Cobbett, after Avery approached him having been advised by a member of the public that Cobbett was 'acting suspiciously.' Cobbett, of no fixed address, was originally sentenced to death, but after an appeal served fifteen years. Anatole Litvak's All This & Heaven Too - starring Bette Davis and Charles Boyer and Pen Tennyson's Convoy - starring Clive Brook and John Clements - premiered.
Guilty Men was published by Victor Gollancz's Left Book Club which was heavily critical of the policy of appeasement employed by successive British governments against Hitler's naughty ways. Officially credited to 'Cato', the book was actually the work of three authors, Evening Standard editor (and future Labour cabinet minister) Michael Foot, former Liberal MP Frank Owen and Conservative Peter Howard. Several major book wholesalers, WH Smith and Wyman's and the largest book distributor, Simpkin Marshall, refused to handle the book. It was sold on news-stands and street barrows and went through twelve editions in July 1940 alone selling two hundred thousand copies in a few weeks The authors earned no money from the book as their literary agent, Ralph Pinker, absconded with their royalties.
Richard Starkey born in Dingle, Liverpool.
The Luftwaffe carried out a series of raids on channel shipping. The British Union of Fascists was banned.
Patrick Stewart born in Mirfield, West Yorkshire. Italian forces crossed the border from Ethiopia into Kenya and attacked the British garrison of Moyale.
Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor born in Buxton.
RAF Bomber Command conducted night raids on the Krupp armament works at Essen as well as Bremen and Hamm. The Boys From Syracuse premiered.
Carol Reed's Night Train To Munich - starring Margaret Lockwood, Rex Harrison, Basil Radford and Naughton Wayne - and Pride & Prejudice - starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier - premiered. Linda Virginia Bathurst born in Sydney. Hamish Ian Mackintosh born in Inverness.
Billboard magazine began publishing a top ten list of the best-selling records in the United States. The first official number one single was 'I'll Never Smile Again' by Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra. Raoul Walsh's The Drive By Night - starring George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart - premiered.
Brigit Forsyth born in Edinburgh.
A conference was held at the Berghof between Hitler, Keitel, Jodl, Raeder, Brauchitsch, Halder and Puttkamer. Raeder reported that the navy would not be ready for Operation Sea Lion until mid-September, if then, so discussion turned to attacking the Soviet Union instead. Hitler believed that defeating Russia would make Germany unbeatable and force Britain to come to terms, so an invasion of the Soviet Union was set for spring 1941. The British began Operation Hurry, with the goal of ferrying fourteen aircraft to Malta for the garrison's defence. Louise Elizabeth Pajo born in Hastings, New Zealand.
June Palmer born in London.
Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez born in Dayton, Ohio.
Operation Hurry, the first of the Malta Convoys, was accomplished. Italian forces under General Guglielmo Nasi invaded and occupied British Somaliland during the East African Campaign.
Michael Scheuer born in Paddington.
Boom Town - starring Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert and Hedy Lamarr - premiered.
Bernard John Holley born in Eastcote, Middlesex.
JB Priestley's Johnson Over Jordan starring Ralph Richardson and Celia Johnson broadcast.
The Luftwaffe expanded its targets to include British airfields. Bf 110s and Stuka dive-bombers attacked radar installations along the coastlines of Kent, Sussex and the Isle of Wight, damaging five stations and putting one out of action for eleven days. It became a crime in the United Kingdom to waste food.
The start of the Battle of Britain, known as Black Thursday. The Luftwaffe threw the bulk of their planes from all three air fleets at the UK. Luftflotten Five operating from Scandinavia, met disaster. By sending some eight hundred planes in a massive attack on the South, the Germans had expected to find the North East coast defenceless. But, a force of one hundred bombers, escorted by thirty ME-110 fighters, was surprised by seven squadrons of Hurricanes and Spitfires as it approached Tyneside and was severely mauled. Thirty four German planes, mostly bombers, were shot down without loss to the defenders.
Alice In The Groove broadcast on The Forces Programme. Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent - starring Joel McCrea and George Sanders - premiered. Bruce Beresford born in Sydney.
Preston Sturges's The Great McGinty - starring Brian Donlevy - premiered.
In the Battle of Britain the air battle known as The Hardest Day was fought. The Luftwaffe made an all-out effort to destroy RAF Fighter Command. The air battles that took place on this day were amongst the largest aerial engagements in history to that time. Both sides suffered heavy losses. In the air, the British shot down twice as many Luftwaffe aircraft as they lost. However, many RAF aircraft were destroyed on the ground, equalising the total losses of both sides. Barry Justice born in Lucknow.
Churchill paid tribute in Parliament to the Royal Air Force fighter crews currently battling the Luftwaffe in the skies over Britain: 'Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.' Leon Trotsky, living in exile in Mexico City, was stabbed with an ice axe by a Soviet agent. He died from his wounds the following day.
German aircraft mistakenly bombed a church in Cripplegate, accidentally dictating the future shape of the Battle of Britain. The Germans dropped bombs on the financial heart of London and Oxford Street in the West End, probably unintentionally as the bomber pilots had likely made a navigational error and did not know they were over the city. A team of pathologists at Oxford University including Howard Florey, Ernst Chain and Norman Heatley published laboratory results in The Lancet describing methods for the production of penicillin and the effects of its chemotherapeutic action on lab mice.
Churchill ordered the bombing of Berlin in retaliation for the previous night's bombing of Cripplegate. John Carney born in London.
Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini dictated the so-called Second Vienna Award which forced Romania to hand over the Northern Transylvania (including the entire Maramureș and part of Crișana) to Hungary.
Judee Morton born in Detriot. Maurice Elvey's Under Your Hat - starring Jack Hulbert, Cicely Courtneidge, Austin Trevor, Leonora Corbett and Glynis Johns - premiered.
Hitler postponed the invasion of Britain, as the Luftwaffe failed to break the British aerial defences. However, fears of a forthcoming invasion continued to haunt Britain for the next year at least. Pauline Collins born in Exmouth.
Jo Raquel Tejada born in Chicago.
The Blitz began, the first of fifty seven consecutive nights of strategic bombing on London.
During the Western Desert Campaign, Italian colonial forces in Libya under General Mario Berti launched the invasion of Egypt.
A German bomb exploded at Buckingham Palace for the first time.
Brian Russell De Palma born in Newark, New Jersey. George Formby's 'I'm The Ukulele Man'/'On The Beat' released.
Operation Ruthless, a plan aimed at obtaining details of the Enigma codes used by the German Navy, was instigated by a memo written by Ian Fleming to Rear Admiral Godfrey. The idea was to 'obtain' a Nazi bomber, man it with a German-speaking crew dressed in Luftwaffe uniforms and crash it into the English Channel. The crew would then attack their German rescuers and bring their boat and Enigma machine back to England. Much to the annoyance of Alan Turing and Peter Twinn at Bletchley Park, the mission was never carried out. According to Fleming's niece, Lucy, an official of the Royal Air Force had pointed out that if they were to drop a Heinkel in the English Channel, it would probably sink rather quickly.
Gregory Ratoff's Public Deb Number One - starring George Murphy, Brenda Joyce and Ralph Bellamy - premiered.
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 two hundred and fifty bombers each to bomb London and the surrounding areas. The RAF managed to scatter many of the German formations and shoot down sixty one planes while losing thirty one in return, inflicting a clear and decisive defeat on the Germans.
The Italian invasion of Egypt came to a halt when approximately five Italian divisions set up defensively in a series of armed camps after advancing sixty miles to Sidi Barrani. The Italians never approached the main British positions at Mersa Matruh. RAF planes from the carrier Illustrious attacked Benghazi and sank four Italian ships.
SS-Brigadeführer Doctor Franz Six was designated to a position in London where he would implement the post-invasion arrests and actions against institutions following Operation Sealion. But, on the same day, Hitler postponed the invasion indefinitely.
Caroline Frances John born in York.
The Universal Horror movie The Mummy's Hand and William Wyler's The Westerner - starring Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan - premiered.
The British government officially approved the use of the London Underground as an air-raid shelter, long after civilians had started using it as one anyway. City For Conquest starring James Cagney, Ann Sheridan and Arthur Kennedy was released.
King George gave a radio address from an underground air-raid shelter at Buckingham Palace. The King declared that Britain would be victorious with the aid of 'our friends in the Americas.' He also announced the creation of the George Cross and George Medal, new civilian awards for heroism.
The Tripartite Pact was signed in Berlin by Germany, Italy and Japan, promising mutual aid. An informal name, 'Axis', soon emerged. Henry Koster's Spring Parade - starring Deanna Durban - premiered.
Busby Berkeley's Strike Up The Band - starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland - premiered.
Sheila Fearn born in Leicester.
Harry Alan Towers' 'gramophone biography' Paul Robeson broadcast on The Forces Programme.
John Ford's The Long Voyage Home - starring John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell and Ian Hunter - premiered.
John Winston Lennon born in Liverpool.
Down Argentine Way starring Carmen Miranda and Betty Grable released.
The Battle of Cape Passero was fought, resulting in British victory.
Fourteen-year old Princess Elizabeth made her first public speech, a radio address to the children of the British Commonwealth. Her ten-year-old sister Princess Margaret joined in at the end.
Harry Rodger Webb born in Lucknow, India. The Balham station disaster, a German bomb pierced thirty two feet underground killing sixty six civilians. Christopher Timothy born in Bala, Merionethshire.
Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator premiered.
Mitchell Leisen's Arise My Love - starring Claudette Colbert and Ray Milland - premiered.
Sándor Szlatinay's Sok Hühó Emmiért - starring Zita Szeleczky, Pál Jávor and Gyula Csortos - premiered.
Talitha Dina Pol born in Mojokerto, Java. Jack Hively's Laddie - starring Tim Holt, Virginia Gilmore, Martha O'Driscoll and Joan Carroll - premiered.
Michael John Gambon born in Dublin. Churchill made his Gather Strength For The Morning speech to the French people. 'Good night, then. Sleep to gather strength for the morning, for the morning will come. Brightly will it shine on the brave and true; kindly upon all who suffer for the cause; glorious upon the tombs of heroes - thus will shine the dawn. Vive la France!' Maurice Elvey's Room For Two - starring Frances Day, Vic Oliver, Greta Gynt and Basil Radford - premiered.
Geraldine Judith Schoenmann born in Staines.
Cecil B DeMille's North West Mounted Police - starring Gary Cooper, Madeleine Carroll, Paulette Goddard and Lynne Overman - premiered. Ernest Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls& published. Geoffrey Boycott born in Fitzwilliam. Manfred Sepse Lubowitz born in Johannesburg.
Hitler met Franco at Hendaye, near the Spanish-French border; little was accomplished, least of all Hitler's hopes to convince Franco to enter the war on the Axis side. Edson Arantes do Nascimento born in Três Corações, Brazil.
The Royal Air Force bombed Hamburg and Berlin. They Knew What They Wanted - starring Carole Lombard and Charles Laughton - premiered.
Lewis Seiler's Tugboat Annie Sails Again - starring Marjorie Rambeau, Alan Hale, Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan - premiered.
The British occupied Crete and began to mine the waters around Greece. Angela McDonagh born in Gerrards Cross. Jack Shepherd born in Leeds.
Yvonne Daphne Antrobus born in Cheltenham. Raynor Alan Francis Barron born in London.
One of the most extraordinary aviation incidents of the war took place. Greek Air Force pilot Marinos Mitralexis, after running out of ammunition, rammed an Italian bomber. Mitralexis then landed his plane and captured the Italian crew who had parachuted to safety. Walter Forde's Saloon Bar - starring Gordon Harker, Elizabeth Allan and Mervyn Johns - premiered.
The United States presidential election was held. Franklin Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term as President, carrying thirty eight of forty eight states.
Anna Wolkoff was tried in camera at the Old Bailey, with Sir William Jowitt as prosecutor. Wolkoff was sentenced to ten years for 'attempting to assist the enemy.' Her co-conspirator, Tyler Kent, an American citizen, was sentenced to seven years.
The Mark of Zorro - starring Tyrone Power and Basil Rathbone - premiered.
Humphrey Jennings and Harry Witt's documentary London Can Take It! premiered.
David Edward Sutch born in Hampstead.
Molotov met Hitler and Ribbentrop in Berlin. The main topic of discussion was defining the world spheres of influence between Germany, Italy, Japan and the Soviet Union. Judith Anne Arthy born in Brisbane.
Disney's Fantasia premiered in New York.
The centre of Coventry was largely destroyed by five hundred Luftwaffe bombers.
Abbott and Costello made their screen debut in One Night In The Tropics.
Churchill ordered some British troops in North Africa to be sent to Greece, despite concerns by his military leaders that they were needed in the current campaign against the Italians in Libya. The RAF bombed Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen and other cities in retaliation for the Coventry bombing. Robert Sherman born in Redwood City, California.
Clifford William Cumberbatch Simons born in Swansea.
Less than a week after the blitz of Coventry, further heavy air raids took place. Birmingham, West Bromwich, Dudley and Tipton were all bombed. Over the following five weeks, Southampton, Bristol, Plymouth, Sheffield, Hull, Newcastle, Sunderland, Liverpool, Manchester, Swansea, Belfast. Glasgow and many other British towns and cities also suffered heavy bombing.
Malcolm John Rebennack born in New Orleans.
All Star Comics issue three was published, marking the debut of the first team of superheroes, the Justice Society of America. Terrence Vance Gilliam born in Minneapolis. William Wyler's The Letter - starring Bette Davis - premiered.
Alan Lake born in Stoke-On-Trent.
The de Havilland Mosquito and the Martin B-26 Marauder both made their first flights.
David Michael Gordon Graham born in Hinkley, Leicestershire.
ENSA Underground - featuring a live performance by George Formy - broadcast on The Forces Programme. Lee Jun-Fan born in San Francisco. John Alderton born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire.
The Germans bombed Liverpool and killed one hundred and sixty six civilians when a parachute mine caused a blast of boiling water and gas in an underground shelter.
Joseph P Kennedy, the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom, was asked to resign by President Roosevelt after he gave a newspaper interview expressing the view that 'Democracy is finished in England.'
Connie Booth born in Indianapolis.
The Thief Of Bagdad - starring Conrad Veidt, Sabu and June Duprez - premiered.
The Home Services' The Writer In The Witness-Box featured 'a discussion between George Orwell and Desmond Hawkins on proletarian literature.' British and Indian troops of the Western Desert Force launched Operation Compass, an offensive against Italian forces. Field Marshal Pietro Badoglio was scapegoated for the Italian military reverses in Greece and made to resign as Chief of Staff of the Italian Army. He was replaced by Ugo Cavallero. Marcel Varnel's Neutral Port - starring Will Fyffe, Leslie Banks, Yyvonne Arnaud and Phyllis Calvert - premiered.
Anthony Stephen Adams born in Anglesey. George Formby's 'Letting The New Year In'/'Bless 'Em All (The Service Song)' released.
King Vidor's Comrade X - starring Clark Gable and Hedy Lamarr - premiered.
Plutonium was first isolated and produced at the University of California, Berkeley.
The first area bombardment of a German city was conducted by the Royal Air Force when one hundred and thirty bombers attacked Mannheim during the night, starting large fires on both banks of the Rhine.
Hitler issued a directive to begin planning for Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. And, in one single stroke of the pen, effectively decided the ultimate outcome of the war.
Two Spitfire fighters of Sixty Six Squadron attacked Le Touquet in France, strafing targets of opportunity such as power transformers. This tactic, codenamed Rhubarb, marked a shift in RAF tactics to a more offensive role.
Frank Vincent Zappa born in Baltimore.
Dandy's Christmas Party and Blue Eyes broadcast on The Home Service.
Rutland Boughton's Bethlehem broadcast.
Christmas Under Fire broadcast.
Radio Vaudville and Five Hundred Thousand Dogs Went To Town broadcast on The Home Service. Deanna broadcast on The Forces Programme. George Cukor's The Philadelphia Story - starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart and Ruth Hussey - premiered.
The Invisible Woman - starring Virginia Bruce and John Barrymore - and Kitty Foyle - starring Ginger Rogers - premiered.
Alistair Cooke's American Commentary broadcast.
Heavy bombing in London caused the Second Great Fire of London. Guildhall was among many buildings badly damaged or destroyed. There were one hundred and sixty deaths and hundreds of casualties. A famous photograph, St Paul's Survives, taken from the roof of the Daily Scum Mail building by Herbert Mason showed the dome of St Paul's Cathedral rising above clouds of smoke. President Roosevelt used the phrase 'Arsenal of Democracy' during a radio address promising to help the United Kingdom fight Nazi Germany by providing them with war supplies.
Arthur Watkyn's thriller Hawkmoor Farm broadcast.
An adaptation of PG Wodehouse's Pig-hoo-o-o-o-ey! and Helter-Shelter broadcast. RAF bombers attacked Vlorë on the Greco-Italian front, Rotterdam and IJmuiden in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands and the German cities of Emmerich am Rhein and Cologne.
Ten thousand Japanese troops launched a counter-attack in Eastern Shanxi Province in China in an attempt to relieve the nearly-surrounded Japanese Thirty Sixth Division.
The Soviet offensive in Finland was halted by several - unexpected - Finnish victories.
The pro-Nazi English socialite Unity Mitford, who was in Germany when the war began and shot herself in an unsuccessful suicide attempt on 3 September 1939, arrived at the English port of Folkestone under heavy police guard and was brought ashore on a stretcher. Her father, Lord Redesdale, told a reporter that his daughter was very ill.
Hermann Göring was appointed head of the German war economy. Walther Funk was made Executive Vice President for the economy. The Polish government-in-exile reached an agreement with French authorities to establish Polish military units in France.
Olga Georges-Picot born in Shanghai. John Patrick Byrne born in Paisley.
Rationing of basic foodstuffs - including butter, bacon, ham and sugar - was established in the UK. The first episode of Norman Edwards' Curiouser & Curiouser broadcast on The Home Service.
The Sergei Prokofiev ballet Romeo & Juliet made its Russian debut at the Korov Theatre in Leningrad amid wartime blackout conditions.
Joe May's The Invisible Man Returns - starring Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Vincent Price - premiered.
Clemence Dane's Will Shakespeare starring Robert Donat broadcast on The Home Service.
John Michael Frederick Castle born in Croydon. Janine Catherine Glass born in Bombay.
Captured Nazi documents revealed Hitler's plans for the invasion of Scandinavia and a postponement of the invasion of France and the Low Countries until the spring, when the weather would be more compatible for an invasion.
Howard Hawks's His Girl Friday - starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell - premiered. Anthony John Holland born in Shoeburyness. George Formby's 'The Lancashire Romeo'/'Imagine Me In The Maginot Line' released.
Michael Reid born in Hackney.
The first episode of PG Wodehouse's Ukridge broadcast on The Home Service. Winston Churchill gave an address on BBC radio referred to as 'The House of Many Mansions' speech, with neutral nations its primary subject. Churchill explained that there was 'no chance of a speedy end' to the war 'except through united action' and asked listeners to consider what would happen if neutral nations 'were with one spontaneous impulse to do their duty in accordance with the Covenant of the League, and were to stand together with the British and French Empires against aggression and wrong?' Churchill concluded: 'The day will come when the joybells will ring again throughout Europe and when victorious nations, masters not only of their foes but of themselves, will plan and build in justice, in tradition and in freedom a house of many mansions where there will be room for all.' London recorded a temperature of twelve degrees Fahrenheit - the city's coldest day since 1881.
John Vincent Hurt born in Chesterfield.
Henrik Ege's Hocus-Bogus broadcast on The Home Service. Britain lowered the speed limit at night in populated areas to twenty miles per hour due to the sharp increase in the rate of car accidents during blackouts. War Minister Oliver Stanley announced in the House of Commons that kilts would not be issued to members of Scottish regiments except to pipers and drummers, for reasons connected to the possible use of poison gas by the enemy.
Reinhard Heydrich was appointed by Göring for the 'solution' to 'the Jewish Question. John Ford's The Grapes Of Wrath premiered in New York.
Jill Esmond was granted a divorce from her husband, Laurence Olivier. Vivien Leigh was named as co-respondent and Olivier did not contest the proceedings.
The Carroll Levis film Discoveries - notable for the first performance of 'There'll Always Be An England' by boy soprano Glyn Davies - released. David John White born in Edmonton, Middlesex. David Hargreaves born in New Mills, Derbyshire.
A German plane crashed on English soil for the first time in the war when a Heinkel He 111 was shot down near Whitby. Flight Lieutenant Peter Townsend of Forty Three Squadron was credited with the crucial shot.
Oswald Mitchell's Jailbirds - starring Harry Terry, Albert Burdon and Shaun Glenville - premiered.
The Careless Talk Costs Lives campaign began in Britain, aimed at preventing war gossip. James Joseph Tarbuck born in Liverpool.
Disney's Pinocchio premiered in New York. Gary James Bond born in Liss, Hampshire.
George Stevens's Vigil In The Night - starring Carole Lombard - premiered.
Tom and Jerry made their debut in Puss Gets The Boot, under their original names of Jasper and Jinx.
German submarine U-33 was sunk in the Firth of Clyde by the minesweeper Gleaner. Twenty five of the crew perished but seventeen survived, one of whom had three Enigma machine rotors in his pockets. These were sent to Alan Turing at the Government Code and Cyper School for study. Ralph Bates born in Bristol.
The Manstein Plan was tested again in a war game at Mayen. Heinz Guderian concluded that the plan was viable, but Franz Halder did not share Guderian's confidence that panzers could cross the Meuse on their own without waiting for infantry support.
The destroyer HMS Cossack forcibly removed over three hundred British POWs from the German transport Altmark in neutral Norwegian territorial waters, sparking The Altmark Incident. In Egypt, the British Army created the Seventh Armoured Division, later to be famous as The Desert Rats. Alfred J Goulding's A Chump At Oxford - starring Laurel and Hardy and featuring an early role for Peter Cushing - premiered.
Gene Francis Alan Pitney born in Hartford, Connecticut. Josephine Mary Robinson born in Cleethorpes. James Laurenson born in Marton, New Zealand.
The destroyer HMS Daring was sunk by the German submarine U-23 East of the Orkey Islands while escorting Allied convoy HN12. The Finns destroyed a pocket of Soviet troops North of Lake Ladoga. The BBC's Forces Programme began. Highlights of the opening day included commentary on a football game between Ther French Army and The British Army by Raymond Glendenning, from Lille and A Variety Concert - with Eric Barker, Rupert Hazell and Elsie Day and Jack Warner - from the Playhouse, Feltham. Barry Stanton born in Manchester. George Formby's 'Grandad’s Flannelette Nightshirt'/'Mister Wu's A Window Cleaner Now' released.
William Robinson born in Detroit.
James Peter Greaves born in Manor Park, London.
Concentration Camps Inspectorate head Richard Glücks recommended a location for a 'quarantine camp' in Poland. The site was a former Austro-Hungarian cavalry barracks near the town of Oświęcim, known in German as Auschwitz. Peter Robert McEnery born in Walsall.
The Kriegsmarine launched Operation Wikinger, targeting British fishing vessels suspected of reporting the movements of German warships. En route, the destroyer flotilla was mistakenly bombed by a Heinkel, sinking the Leberecht Maass. The Max Schultz hit a naval mine attempting a rescue effort. The new five-year old Dalai Lama was enthroned in Tibet. Judy Valerie Cornwell born in Hammersmith.
The Lord Mayor of London gave a lunch at the Guildhall to officers and ratings of the Exeter and Ajax to celebrate their victory at the Battle of the River Plate. Peter Henry Fonda born in New York. Doctor Ehrlich's Magic Bullet - starring Edward G Robinson - and King Vidor's Northwest Passage - starring Spencer Tracy - premiered.
Peter Ellstrom Deuel born in Rochester, New York. Denis Law born in Aberdeen. Adrian Brunel's The Girl Who Forgot - starring Elizabeth Allan, Ralph Michael, Enid Stamp-Taylor and Basil Radford - premiered.
Robin Phillips born in Haslemere, Surrey.
The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles, hosted by Bob Hope. Gone With the Wind won eight Oscars including Best Picture. The Los Angeles Times published the names of the winners in its late edition, so most of the attendees already knew the results ahead of time. The Academy responded by starting a tradition the following year in which the winners were not revealed until the ceremony itself when sealed envelopes were opened. Victor De Kowa's Casanova Heiratet - starring Karl Schönböck, Lizzi Waldmüller, Fita Benkhoff, Irene von Meyendorff and Richard Romanowsky - premiered.
George King's Crimes At The Dark House - starring Tod Slaughter and Sylvia Marriott - premiered.
Bukka White recorded 'Parchman Farm Blues' and 'District Attorney Blues' in Chicago for Okeh Records. Richard Brooke bgorn in London.
Christopher John David Wray born in Scarborough.
Meat rationing began in Britain. Maurice Elvey's Sons Of The Sea - starring Leslie Banks, Kay Walsh, Mackenzie Ward and Cecil Parker - premiered.
The Moscow Peace Treaty ending The Winter War was signed. Russia received sixteen thousand square miles of Finnish territory.
Christopher Michael Gable born in London.
The Road to Singapore, starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour was released.
Norman Tauorg's Young Tom Edison - starring Mickey Rooney, Fay Bainter and George Bancroft - premiered.
Hitler and Mussolini met at The Brenner Pass on the Austrian border. Benito Mussolini agreed with Hitler that Italy would enter the war 'at an opportune moment.' Lynette Rumble born in Townsville, Queensland.
Paul Reynaud became Prime Minister of France following Daladier's resignation the previous day. Woody Guthrie was recorded for the first time, in an interview with Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress during which he also performed some original and traditional songs.
Charles Vidor's My Son, My Son! - starring Madelaine Carroll, Brian Aherne and Louis Hayward and Gregory La Cava's Primrose Path - starring Ginger Rogers, Joel McCrea, Marjorie Rambeau and Joan Carroll - premiered.
James Edmund Caan born in New York.
Lieutenant Colonel Mad Jack Churchill of the Manchester Regiment and some of his men ambushed a German patrol at L'Épinette (near Richebourg, Pas-de-Calais). Churchill gave the signal to attack by raising his claymore which he always carried into battle as, without it, he felt 'improperly dressed.' A commonly told story is that Churchill - a skilled archer who had won second place at the previous year's World Archery Competition in Oslo - killed a German sergeant using a longbow during this action, in doing so becoming the last soldier known to have successfully downed an enemy in such a manner. However Churchill later said that, actually, his bows had been crushed by a lorry earlier in the campaign. After evacuation from Dunkirk, Churchill (no relation), subsequently volunteered for the Commandos, saw action in Norway, Italy, Yugoslavia and Burma and was captured an held as a prisoner of war in Sachsenhausen.
The Anglo-French Supreme War Council met in London and agreed that neither Britain nor France would make a separate peace with Germany. The Council also agreed upon Operation Wilfred, a plan to lay mines in Norwegian coastal waters in the hopes of provoking a German response that would legitimise Allied 'assistance' to Norway.
Václav Binovec's Madla Zpívá Evropě - starring Zdenka Sulanová and Ladislav Bohác - premiered.
Britain undertook secret reconnaissance flights to photograph targeted areas inside the Soviet Union in preparation for Operation Pike, utilising high-altitude, high-speed stereoscopic photography pioneered by Sidney Cotton.
The BBC broadcast what appeared to be a speech by Adolf Hitler, in which the Führer reminded the audience that Columbus had discovered America with the help of German science and technology and therefore Germany had a right 'to have some part in the achievement which this voyage of discovery was to result in.' This meant that all Americans of Czech and Polish descent were 'entitled to come under the protection of Germany' and that Hitler would 'enforce that right, not only theoretically but practically.' Once the German Protectorate was extended to the United States, the Statue of Liberty would be removed to alleviate traffic congestion and the White House would be renamed the Brown House. CBS contacted the BBC in something of a panic trying to learn more about the origin of the broadcast, not realising that it was April Fools' Day. The voice of Hitler had been impersonated by the actor Martin Miller.
Penelope Anne Constance Hatfield born in Sutton, Surrey.
The Ministerial Defence Committee, with the First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill as its chair, replaced Lord Chatfield's ministerial position of Minister for Coordination of Defence. Vickery Turner born in Sunbury-On-Thames.Neville Chamberlain gave a speech to the Conservative Party in London stating he was confident of victory and that Hitler had 'missed the bus' by not taking advantage of Germany's military superiority over Britain at the beginning of the war.
Bogskar won the Grand National at Aintree. One Million BC starring Victor Mature was released.
The British destroyer Glowworm was sunk by the German cruiser Admiral Hipper in the Norwegian Sea. Despite being hopelessly outgunned, the Glowworm managed to ram the Admiral Hipper and inflict considerable damage before sinking. Captain Gerard Broadmead Roope earned the first Victoria Cross of the war for his conduct, but it was only bestowed after the war when the Admiral Hipper's log describing the battle was read by the Royal Navy.
The British campaign in Norway commenced following Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of neutral Denmark and Norway. The German heavy cruiser Blücher was sunk at the Battle of Drøbak Sound.
Germans set up a puppet Norwegian government under Vidkun Quisling, former Minister of Defence.
The first Battle of Narvik. British destroyers and aircraft successfully made a surprise attack against a larger German naval force. Winston Churchill made a speech to the House of Commons announcing that the strategically important Faroe Islands belonging to Denmark were now being occupied by Britain. 'We shall shield the Faroe Islands from all the severities of war and establish ourselves there conveniently by sea and air until the moment comes when they will be handed back to the Crown and people of a Denmark liberated from the foul thraldom in which they have been plunged by the German aggression,' Churchill said. The musical revue New Faces - featuring Eric Maschwitz and Manning Sherwin's 'A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square' - opened at the Comedy Theatre in London. The cast including Judy Campbell, Bill Fraser and Charles Hawtrey. Sheila Mary Dunn born in Wolverhampton.
Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca - starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine - and Doctor Cyclops premiered. Herbert Jeffrey Hancock born in Chicago.
RAF Bomber Command mounted aerial mine-laying operations for the first time when fifteen Handley Page Hampdens were deployed to lay sea mines off Denmark.
Norway's King Haakon VII made a radio address telling his people that British soldiers were on their way and should be given any assistance possible. Royal Marines landed at Namsos, the first British troops to land in Norway. Julie Frances Christie born in Chabua, India.
James Caffrey born in Belfast. Maurice Elvey's The Spider - starring Diana Churchill, Derrick De Marney, Jean Gillie, Edward Lexy and Cecil Parker - premiered.
Ronald William Wycherley born in Liverpool.
John Cromwell's Abe Lincolm In Illinois - starring Raymond Massey - premiered.
Alfredo James Pacino born in Manhattan.
Giovanni Giorgio Moroder born in Urtijëi, Italy.
Germany finally declared war on Norway. Joachim von Ribbentrop took to the airwaves shortly after and claimed that the Germans had captured documents from the Lillehammer sector revealing a British and French plan to occupy Norway with Norwegian complicity. That same day Samuel Hoare made a radio address of his own in which he called Ribbentrop's assertion 'despicable.'
Allied destroyers were dispatched from Scapa Flow to evacuate to the British troops from Namsos. The Royal Navy submarine Unity was sunk in an accidental collision with the Norwegian ship Atle Jarl off Tynemouth.
The Allies began evacuating Norwegian ports. Orson Welles' Citizen Kane premiered.
Maurice Elvey's For Freedom - starring Will Fyffe, Anthony Hulme and Guy Middleton - premiered.
Michael Edward Lindsay-Hogg born in New York.
A massive German armoured motorised column was spotted driving west through the Ardennes, but the Belgian Army did not respond.
The House of Commons began a contentious debate on the conduct of the war. Sir Roger Keyes appeared dressed in full military uniform with six rows of medals and described, in detail, the government's mishandling of the Norwegian campaign. Leo Amery uttered the famous words: 'Somehow or other we must get into the Government men who can match our enemies in fighting spirit, in daring, in resolution and in thirst for victory.' He continued: 'I will quote certain other words. I do it with great reluctance, because I am speaking of those who are old friends and associates of mine, but they are words which, I think, are applicable to the present situation. This is what [Oliver] Cromwell said to the Long Parliament when he thought it was no longer fit to conduct the affairs of the nation: "You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!"'
The Norway Debate continued in Parliament. David Lloyd George said that since Chamberlain had asked the nation for sacrifice, 'I say solemnly that the Prime Minister should give an example of sacrifice, because there is nothing which can contribute more to victory in this war than that he should sacrifice the seals of office.' Chamberlain survived a motion of no confidence by a vote of two hundred and eighty one to two hundred, but the number of absentions from within his own party caused the level of support for his government to appear very weak.
Chamberlain resigned as Prime Minister, replaced by Winston Churchill and a coalition war ministry. At the outset, Churchill formed a five-man War Cabinet which included Chamberlain as Lord President of the Council, Clement Attlee as Lord Privy Seal, Viscount Halifax as Foreign Secretary and Arthur Greenwood as a minister without portfolio. The cabinet changed in size as the war progressed but there were significant additions later in 1940 when it was increased to eight after Churchill, Attlee and Greenwood were joined by Ernest Bevin as Minister of Labour and National Service, Anthony Eden as Foreign Secretary – replacing Halifax, who was sent to Washington DC as ambassador to the United States, Lord Beaverbrook as Minister of Aircraft Production, Sir Kingsley Wood as Chancellor and Sir John Anderson as Lord President of the Council – replacing Chamberlain who died in November. The massive German offensive against the Western Front began with the invasion of Luxembourg, Belgium, The Netherlands and France. The Battle for The Hague became the first - failed - paratrooper attack in history as the Dutch quickly defeated the invaders.
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressubrger's Contraband - starring Conrad Veidt and Valerie Hobson - premiered.
Churchill made his 'I have nothing to offer you but blood, toil, tears, and sweat' speech to the House of Commons. Queen Wilhelmina of The Netherlands and her government were evacuated to London using HMS Hereward following the German invasion of the Low Countries.
The creation of the Local Defence Volunteers (subsequently the Home Guard) was announced by the Secretary of State for War, Anthony Eden. Lord Beaverbrook became Minister of Aircraft Production in Chruchill's war cabinet and Ernest Bevin Minister of Labour. The Rotterdam Blitz led to German victory in the Battle for Rotterdam, causing many civilian deaths and tremendous damage. French artillery and anti-tank guns hit Erwin Rommel's tank near the Belgian village of Onhaye. The tank slid down a slope and rolled on its side, but Rommel escaped serious injury.
In a response to the Rotterdam Blitz, the first large-scale RAF strategic bombing of World War II targeted Gelsenkirchen, followed by Hamburg, Bremen, Cologne, Essen, Duisburg, Düsseldorf and Hanover during the next days. The Battle of Sedan ended in German victory. All of the bridges across the Meuse were captured, allowing the Wehrmacht to pour across the river and advance toward the English Channel unimpeded.
Michael Curtiz's Virginia City - starring Errol Flynn, Miriam Hopkins, Randolph Scot and Humphrey Bogart - premiered.
The Battle of Montcornet was fought when the 4e Division Cuirassée under Colonel Charles de Gaulle attacked the Germans at the strategic village of Montcornet. The French successfully drove off the Germans but were then counterattacked by Stukas and had to withdraw to avoid being encircled. All-American Comics issue sixteen was published, featuring the first appearance of The Green Lantern. My Favourite Wife - starring Irene Dunne, Cary Grant and Randolph Scott - and Mervyn LeRoy's Waterloo Bridge - starring Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor - premiered.
Raymond Stanley Lonnen born in Bournemouth.
Amiens was besieged by German troops; General Rommel's Panza forces surrounded Arras and other German forces reached Noyelles on the Channel. British Expeditionary Force Commander General Lord Gort ordered a withdrawal toward port cities including Dunkirk. James McManus born in Bristol.
Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, was extremely jailed for his naughty scallywag fascist ways; he and his wife, Diana, would spend the next three years in The Slammer. Mosley andthe MP Archibald Maule Ramsay were among a number of Britons arrested under Defence Regulation 18B, allowing for the internment of people suspected of being Nazi sympathisers. The Right Club's Anna Wolkoff and US embassy ipher clerk Tyler Kent were also arrested and charged with violating the Official Secrets Act. Unbeknownst to Wolkoff, The Right Club had already been infiltrated by MI5, firstly by Marjorie Mackie and then by Helene De Muncke as well as by Joan Miller, who had worked as an office girl for Elizabeth Arden. Through those women, controlled by head of M Section Maxwell Knight, MI5 was kept fully informed of and was able even to influence the activities of the group. In February, Wolkoff met Kent, who revealed some of the documents that he had stolen from the embassy, most notably a series of sensitive communications between Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt. In April, Wolkoff borrowed some of the documents to have them copied. She then approached De Muncke and asked if she could pass a coded letter to William Joyce through a contact De Munke claimed to have at the Italian embassy. As Wolkoff was put into the police car, her arrest was witnessed by her neighbour, eleven-year-old Len Deighton.
Anthony Esmond Sheridan McGinnity born in Norwich.
The Battle of Boulogne and the Siege of Calais began. Britain passed The Emergency Powers (Defence) Act putting banks, munitions production, wages, profits and work conditions under the control of the state.
Keep It Dark - starring Joyce Grenfell and Dick Francis - broadcast.
In agreement with a request from Gerd von Rundstedt, Hitler ordered Paul von Kleist to halt his panzer advance only eighteen miles from Dunkirk, not wanting to risk the tanks getting bogged down in the Flanders marshes. This decision would prove to be a crucial mistake by the German leadership. On Empire Day, King George VI addressed his subjects by radio, saying, 'The decisive struggle is now upon us ... Let no one be mistaken; it is not mere territorial conquest that our enemies are seeking. It is the overthrow, complete and final, of this Empire and of everything for which it stands, and after that the conquest of the world. And if their will prevails they will bring to its accomplishment all the hatred and cruelty which they have already displayed.' Sam Wood's adaptation of Our Town - starring William Holden - premiered.
Introduced by his wife, Joan, to MI5 officer Captain Hubert Stringer, the novelist and First World War veteran Dennis Wheatley was asked to think up ideas for resistance to a Nazi invasion of Britain. Between May 1940 and August 1941 Wheatley was to write a total of twenty War Papers on a variety of subjects - from invasion and resistance to invasion to grand strategy, to maintaining the independence of Turkey, the possible creation of a Jewish army and the ideal shape of a post-war Europe - and reached a very select audience. As early as July 1940 Air Marshall Sir Lawrence Darvall told Whealtey that all three of the Chiefs-of-Staff had read his paper on Invasion. Their eyes had been caught by the fact that Wheatley had not come up with an idea to build a Maginot line around London, but with simple and effective solutions. In mid-1941 Wheatley learned that the King and the Prime Minister were also on his circulation list.
The Dunkirk evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force, Operation Dynamo, began. Hitler ordered a halt to the advance of Germans toward the Allied beachhead and allowed Hermann Göring to use the Luftwaffe to attack the beaches. Sir John Dill replaced Edmund Ironside as Chief of the General Staff.
The British destroyers Grafton, Grenade and Wakeful were sunk during the Dunkirk evacuation. The Germans captured Lille, Ostend and Ypres.
Poor weather over Dunkirk allowed the British to conduct the day's evacuations with reduced fear of German air attacks. This day was the high point of the evacuation, with a total of over sixty eight thousand rescued, including this blogger's father. The Anglo-French Supreme War Council had another meeting in Paris. Reynaud argued with Churchill over the disparity in numbers between the British and French troops being evacuated.
War Secretary Anthony Eden gave a radio address on the Dunkirk evacuation reporting that four-fifths of the British Expeditionary Force had been saved. 'The British Expeditionary Force still exists, not as a handful of fugitives, but as a body of seasoned veterans,' Eden said. 'We have had great losses in equipment. But our men have gained immeasurably in experience of warfare and in self-confidence. The vital weapon of any army is its spirit. Ours has been tried and tempered in the furnace. It has not been found wanting. It is this refusal to accept defeat, that is the guarantee of final victory.'
The last of three hundred thousand British, French and Commonwealth troops were evacuated from France as Churchill made his 'We shall fight on the beaches' speech to the House of Commons. David Collings born in Brighton.
JB Priestley broadcast his first Sunday evening Postscript, An Excursion To Hell, on The Home Service after the evening news, marking the role of 'the little ships' in the Dunkirk evacuation.Thomas Jones Woodward born in Treforest, Pontypridd. Ronald Alfred Pickup born in Chester.
Italy declared war on France and Great Britain. Norway surrendered. King Haakon VII and his cabinet escaped to London to form a government in exile.
The Germans entered Paris unopposed.
The French fortress at Verdun, which famously never surrendered in World War I, capitulated to the Germans.
Philippe Pétain became Premier of France upon the resignation of Reynaud's government. Only one hour after becoming the head of government, Pétain asked his Foreign Minister Paul Baudouin to pass a note to the Spanish ambassador asking Spain to request 'the conditions Chancellor Hitler would require to put a halt to military operations and sign an armistice.' JB Priestly'sPostscript included the memorable lines: 'I wish we could send all of our children out of this island, every boy and girl of them across the sea to the wide Dominions and turn Britain into the greatest fortress the world has know. This done, we could fight and fight these Nazis until we broke their black hearts.' Carole Ann Lillian Higgins born in Ilford.
The troopship RMS Lancastria was sunk by German air attack off the port of Saint-Nazaire during Operation Ariel with over four thousand fatalities. It was the greatest loss of life in the sinking of any British ship in history. Churchill ordered that news be kept secret from the British public.
Churchill made his 'this was their finest hour' speech to the House of Commons, declaring 'the Battle of France is over. the Battle of Britain is about to begin.' General Charles de Gaulle, de facto leader of the Free French Forces, made his first broadcast on Radio Londres rallying French Resistance. Erwin Rommel's Seventh Panzer Division entered Cherbourg but found that most of the Allied personnel had already evacuated. Half an hour later Rommel visited the Port Admiral's office and accepted the city's surrender.
Peace negotiations between France and Germany began at the Glade of the Armistice in the Forest of Compiègne, using the same rail carriage that the Armistice of 11 November 1918 was signed in. Adolf Hitler personally attended the negotiations at first, but left early as a show of disrespect to the French. A point of contention was the size of the zone that the Germans were to occupy, so the war dragged on for another day.
Terence Nelhams-Wright born in Acton. The first episode of Music While You Work broadcast on The Forces Programme. Adolf Hitler took a train to Paris and visited sites including the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and Napoleon's tomb at Les Invalides. Stuart Fergusson Victor Sutcliffe born in Edinburgh.
Operation Collar, the first British commando raid of the war, on the Northern French department of Pas-de-Calais began.
Frank McDonald's Grand Old Opry - starring Leon Weaver, Frank Weaver, June Weaver, Lois Ranson, Henry Kolker, Loretta Weaver, Purnell Pratt and Claire Carleton - premiered.
British authorities arrested Diana Mitford, wife of Oswald Mosley and banged her Nazi ass up in Holloway. The police had already arrested her husband under Defence Regulation 18B a month earlier, but they waited to arrest her since she had just given birth to their son, Max.
German forces landed in Guernsey marking the start of the five-year occupation of the Channel Islands.
Philippe Pétain's government moved to Vichy. The collaborationist state run from there came to be known as Vichy France. Michael Curtiz's The Sea Hawk - starring Errol Flynn - premiered.
Hitler ordered preparation of plans for the German invasion of Britain, code-named Operation Sea Lion.
The British attacked and destroyed the French navy off Mers-el-Kébir, Algeria, fearing that the ships would fall into German hands.
The Duke of Windsor (tainted by suspicion of his pro-Nazism) was named governor of the Bahamas, in theory putting him some distance from any potential controversy. Although that only lasted until the murder of Sir Harry Oakes in very suspicious circumstances in 1943. Constable Jack William Avery, a war reserve police officer, was murdered in Hyde Park. Avery was stabbed in the groin by Frank Stephen Cobbett, after Avery approached him having been advised by a member of the public that Cobbett was 'acting suspiciously.' Cobbett, of no fixed address, was originally sentenced to death, but after an appeal served fifteen years. Anatole Litvak's All This & Heaven Too - starring Bette Davis and Charles Boyer and Pen Tennyson's Convoy - starring Clive Brook and John Clements - premiered.
Guilty Men was published by Victor Gollancz's Left Book Club which was heavily critical of the policy of appeasement employed by successive British governments against Hitler's naughty ways. Officially credited to 'Cato', the book was actually the work of three authors, Evening Standard editor (and future Labour cabinet minister) Michael Foot, former Liberal MP Frank Owen and Conservative Peter Howard. Several major book wholesalers, WH Smith and Wyman's and the largest book distributor, Simpkin Marshall, refused to handle the book. It was sold on news-stands and street barrows and went through twelve editions in July 1940 alone selling two hundred thousand copies in a few weeks The authors earned no money from the book as their literary agent, Ralph Pinker, absconded with their royalties.
Richard Starkey born in Dingle, Liverpool.
The Luftwaffe carried out a series of raids on channel shipping. The British Union of Fascists was banned.Patrick Stewart born in Mirfield, West Yorkshire. Italian forces crossed the border from Ethiopia into Kenya and attacked the British garrison of Moyale.
Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor born in Buxton.
RAF Bomber Command conducted night raids on the Krupp armament works at Essen as well as Bremen and Hamm. The Boys From Syracuse premiered.
Carol Reed's Night Train To Munich - starring Margaret Lockwood, Rex Harrison, Basil Radford and Naughton Wayne - and Pride & Prejudice - starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier - premiered. Linda Virginia Bathurst born in Sydney. Hamish Ian Mackintosh born in Inverness.
Billboard magazine began publishing a top ten list of the best-selling records in the United States. The first official number one single was 'I'll Never Smile Again' by Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra. Raoul Walsh's The Drive By Night - starring George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart - premiered.
Brigit Forsyth born in Edinburgh.
A conference was held at the Berghof between Hitler, Keitel, Jodl, Raeder, Brauchitsch, Halder and Puttkamer. Raeder reported that the navy would not be ready for Operation Sea Lion until mid-September, if then, so discussion turned to attacking the Soviet Union instead. Hitler believed that defeating Russia would make Germany unbeatable and force Britain to come to terms, so an invasion of the Soviet Union was set for spring 1941. The British began Operation Hurry, with the goal of ferrying fourteen aircraft to Malta for the garrison's defence. Louise Elizabeth Pajo born in Hastings, New Zealand.
June Palmer born in London.
Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez born in Dayton, Ohio.
Operation Hurry, the first of the Malta Convoys, was accomplished. Italian forces under General Guglielmo Nasi invaded and occupied British Somaliland during the East African Campaign.
Michael Scheuer born in Paddington.
Boom Town - starring Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert and Hedy Lamarr - premiered.
Bernard John Holley born in Eastcote, Middlesex.
JB Priestley's Johnson Over Jordan starring Ralph Richardson and Celia Johnson broadcast.
The Luftwaffe expanded its targets to include British airfields. Bf 110s and Stuka dive-bombers attacked radar installations along the coastlines of Kent, Sussex and the Isle of Wight, damaging five stations and putting one out of action for eleven days. It became a crime in the United Kingdom to waste food.
The start of the Battle of Britain, known as Black Thursday. The Luftwaffe threw the bulk of their planes from all three air fleets at the UK. Luftflotten Five operating from Scandinavia, met disaster. By sending some eight hundred planes in a massive attack on the South, the Germans had expected to find the North East coast defenceless. But, a force of one hundred bombers, escorted by thirty ME-110 fighters, was surprised by seven squadrons of Hurricanes and Spitfires as it approached Tyneside and was severely mauled. Thirty four German planes, mostly bombers, were shot down without loss to the defenders.
Alice In The Groove broadcast on The Forces Programme. Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent - starring Joel McCrea and George Sanders - premiered. Bruce Beresford born in Sydney.
Preston Sturges's The Great McGinty - starring Brian Donlevy - premiered.
In the Battle of Britain the air battle known as The Hardest Day was fought. The Luftwaffe made an all-out effort to destroy RAF Fighter Command. The air battles that took place on this day were amongst the largest aerial engagements in history to that time. Both sides suffered heavy losses. In the air, the British shot down twice as many Luftwaffe aircraft as they lost. However, many RAF aircraft were destroyed on the ground, equalising the total losses of both sides. Barry Justice born in Lucknow.
Churchill paid tribute in Parliament to the Royal Air Force fighter crews currently battling the Luftwaffe in the skies over Britain: 'Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.' Leon Trotsky, living in exile in Mexico City, was stabbed with an ice axe by a Soviet agent. He died from his wounds the following day.
German aircraft mistakenly bombed a church in Cripplegate, accidentally dictating the future shape of the Battle of Britain. The Germans dropped bombs on the financial heart of London and Oxford Street in the West End, probably unintentionally as the bomber pilots had likely made a navigational error and did not know they were over the city. A team of pathologists at Oxford University including Howard Florey, Ernst Chain and Norman Heatley published laboratory results in The Lancet describing methods for the production of penicillin and the effects of its chemotherapeutic action on lab mice.
Churchill ordered the bombing of Berlin in retaliation for the previous night's bombing of Cripplegate. John Carney born in London.
Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini dictated the so-called Second Vienna Award which forced Romania to hand over the Northern Transylvania (including the entire Maramureș and part of Crișana) to Hungary.
Judee Morton born in Detriot. Maurice Elvey's Under Your Hat - starring Jack Hulbert, Cicely Courtneidge, Austin Trevor, Leonora Corbett and Glynis Johns - premiered.
Hitler postponed the invasion of Britain, as the Luftwaffe failed to break the British aerial defences. However, fears of a forthcoming invasion continued to haunt Britain for the next year at least. Pauline Collins born in Exmouth.
Jo Raquel Tejada born in Chicago.
The Blitz began, the first of fifty seven consecutive nights of strategic bombing on London.
During the Western Desert Campaign, Italian colonial forces in Libya under General Mario Berti launched the invasion of Egypt.
A German bomb exploded at Buckingham Palace for the first time.
Brian Russell De Palma born in Newark, New Jersey. George Formby's 'I'm The Ukulele Man'/'On The Beat' released.
Operation Ruthless, a plan aimed at obtaining details of the Enigma codes used by the German Navy, was instigated by a memo written by Ian Fleming to Rear Admiral Godfrey. The idea was to 'obtain' a Nazi bomber, man it with a German-speaking crew dressed in Luftwaffe uniforms and crash it into the English Channel. The crew would then attack their German rescuers and bring their boat and Enigma machine back to England. Much to the annoyance of Alan Turing and Peter Twinn at Bletchley Park, the mission was never carried out. According to Fleming's niece, Lucy, an official of the Royal Air Force had pointed out that if they were to drop a Heinkel in the English Channel, it would probably sink rather quickly.
Gregory Ratoff's Public Deb Number One - starring George Murphy, Brenda Joyce and Ralph Bellamy - premiered.
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 two hundred and fifty bombers each to bomb London and the surrounding areas. The RAF managed to scatter many of the German formations and shoot down sixty one planes while losing thirty one in return, inflicting a clear and decisive defeat on the Germans.
The Italian invasion of Egypt came to a halt when approximately five Italian divisions set up defensively in a series of armed camps after advancing sixty miles to Sidi Barrani. The Italians never approached the main British positions at Mersa Matruh. RAF planes from the carrier Illustrious attacked Benghazi and sank four Italian ships.
SS-Brigadeführer Doctor Franz Six was designated to a position in London where he would implement the post-invasion arrests and actions against institutions following Operation Sealion. But, on the same day, Hitler postponed the invasion indefinitely.
Caroline Frances John born in York.
The Universal Horror movie The Mummy's Hand and William Wyler's The Westerner - starring Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan - premiered.
The British government officially approved the use of the London Underground as an air-raid shelter, long after civilians had started using it as one anyway. City For Conquest starring James Cagney, Ann Sheridan and Arthur Kennedy was released.
King George gave a radio address from an underground air-raid shelter at Buckingham Palace. The King declared that Britain would be victorious with the aid of 'our friends in the Americas.' He also announced the creation of the George Cross and George Medal, new civilian awards for heroism.
The Tripartite Pact was signed in Berlin by Germany, Italy and Japan, promising mutual aid. An informal name, 'Axis', soon emerged. Henry Koster's Spring Parade - starring Deanna Durban - premiered.
Busby Berkeley's Strike Up The Band - starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland - premiered.
Sheila Fearn born in Leicester.
Harry Alan Towers' 'gramophone biography' Paul Robeson broadcast on The Forces Programme.
John Ford's The Long Voyage Home - starring John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell and Ian Hunter - premiered.
John Winston Lennon born in Liverpool.
Down Argentine Way starring Carmen Miranda and Betty Grable released.
Fourteen-year old Princess Elizabeth made her first public speech, a radio address to the children of the British Commonwealth. Her ten-year-old sister Princess Margaret joined in at the end.
Harry Rodger Webb born in Lucknow, India. The Balham station disaster, a German bomb pierced thirty two feet underground killing sixty six civilians. Christopher Timothy born in Bala, Merionethshire.
Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator premiered.
Mitchell Leisen's Arise My Love - starring Claudette Colbert and Ray Milland - premiered.
Sándor Szlatinay's Sok Hühó Emmiért - starring Zita Szeleczky, Pál Jávor and Gyula Csortos - premiered.
Talitha Dina Pol born in Mojokerto, Java. Jack Hively's Laddie - starring Tim Holt, Virginia Gilmore, Martha O'Driscoll and Joan Carroll - premiered.
Michael John Gambon born in Dublin. Churchill made his Gather Strength For The Morning speech to the French people. 'Good night, then. Sleep to gather strength for the morning, for the morning will come. Brightly will it shine on the brave and true; kindly upon all who suffer for the cause; glorious upon the tombs of heroes - thus will shine the dawn. Vive la France!' Maurice Elvey's Room For Two - starring Frances Day, Vic Oliver, Greta Gynt and Basil Radford - premiered.
Geraldine Judith Schoenmann born in Staines.
Cecil B DeMille's North West Mounted Police - starring Gary Cooper, Madeleine Carroll, Paulette Goddard and Lynne Overman - premiered. Ernest Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls& published. Geoffrey Boycott born in Fitzwilliam. Manfred Sepse Lubowitz born in Johannesburg.
Hitler met Franco at Hendaye, near the Spanish-French border; little was accomplished, least of all Hitler's hopes to convince Franco to enter the war on the Axis side. Edson Arantes do Nascimento born in Três Corações, Brazil.
The Royal Air Force bombed Hamburg and Berlin. They Knew What They Wanted - starring Carole Lombard and Charles Laughton - premiered.
Lewis Seiler's Tugboat Annie Sails Again - starring Marjorie Rambeau, Alan Hale, Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan - premiered.
The British occupied Crete and began to mine the waters around Greece. Angela McDonagh born in Gerrards Cross. Jack Shepherd born in Leeds.
Yvonne Daphne Antrobus born in Cheltenham. Raynor Alan Francis Barron born in London.
One of the most extraordinary aviation incidents of the war took place. Greek Air Force pilot Marinos Mitralexis, after running out of ammunition, rammed an Italian bomber. Mitralexis then landed his plane and captured the Italian crew who had parachuted to safety. Walter Forde's Saloon Bar - starring Gordon Harker, Elizabeth Allan and Mervyn Johns - premiered.
The United States presidential election was held. Franklin Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term as President, carrying thirty eight of forty eight states.
Anna Wolkoff was tried in camera at the Old Bailey, with Sir William Jowitt as prosecutor. Wolkoff was sentenced to ten years for 'attempting to assist the enemy.' Her co-conspirator, Tyler Kent, an American citizen, was sentenced to seven years.
The Mark of Zorro - starring Tyrone Power and Basil Rathbone - premiered.
Humphrey Jennings and Harry Witt's documentary London Can Take It! premiered.
David Edward Sutch born in Hampstead.
Disney's Fantasia premiered in New York.
The centre of Coventry was largely destroyed by five hundred Luftwaffe bombers.
Abbott and Costello made their screen debut in One Night In The Tropics.
Churchill ordered some British troops in North Africa to be sent to Greece, despite concerns by his military leaders that they were needed in the current campaign against the Italians in Libya. The RAF bombed Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen and other cities in retaliation for the Coventry bombing. Robert Sherman born in Redwood City, California.
Clifford William Cumberbatch Simons born in Swansea.
Less than a week after the blitz of Coventry, further heavy air raids took place. Birmingham, West Bromwich, Dudley and Tipton were all bombed. Over the following five weeks, Southampton, Bristol, Plymouth, Sheffield, Hull, Newcastle, Sunderland, Liverpool, Manchester, Swansea, Belfast. Glasgow and many other British towns and cities also suffered heavy bombing.
Malcolm John Rebennack born in New Orleans.
All Star Comics issue three was published, marking the debut of the first team of superheroes, the Justice Society of America. Terrence Vance Gilliam born in Minneapolis. William Wyler's The Letter - starring Bette Davis - premiered.
Alan Lake born in Stoke-On-Trent.
The de Havilland Mosquito and the Martin B-26 Marauder both made their first flights.
David Michael Gordon Graham born in Hinkley, Leicestershire.
ENSA Underground - featuring a live performance by George Formy - broadcast on The Forces Programme. Lee Jun-Fan born in San Francisco. John Alderton born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire.
The Germans bombed Liverpool and killed one hundred and sixty six civilians when a parachute mine caused a blast of boiling water and gas in an underground shelter.
Joseph P Kennedy, the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom, was asked to resign by President Roosevelt after he gave a newspaper interview expressing the view that 'Democracy is finished in England.'
Connie Booth born in Indianapolis.
The Thief Of Bagdad - starring Conrad Veidt, Sabu and June Duprez - premiered.
The Home Services' The Writer In The Witness-Box featured 'a discussion between George Orwell and Desmond Hawkins on proletarian literature.' British and Indian troops of the Western Desert Force launched Operation Compass, an offensive against Italian forces. Field Marshal Pietro Badoglio was scapegoated for the Italian military reverses in Greece and made to resign as Chief of Staff of the Italian Army. He was replaced by Ugo Cavallero. Marcel Varnel's Neutral Port - starring Will Fyffe, Leslie Banks, Yyvonne Arnaud and Phyllis Calvert - premiered.
Anthony Stephen Adams born in Anglesey. George Formby's 'Letting The New Year In'/'Bless 'Em All (The Service Song)' released.
King Vidor's Comrade X - starring Clark Gable and Hedy Lamarr - premiered.
Plutonium was first isolated and produced at the University of California, Berkeley.
The first area bombardment of a German city was conducted by the Royal Air Force when one hundred and thirty bombers attacked Mannheim during the night, starting large fires on both banks of the Rhine.
Hitler issued a directive to begin planning for Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. And, in one single stroke of the pen, effectively decided the ultimate outcome of the war.
Two Spitfire fighters of Sixty Six Squadron attacked Le Touquet in France, strafing targets of opportunity such as power transformers. This tactic, codenamed Rhubarb, marked a shift in RAF tactics to a more offensive role.
Frank Vincent Zappa born in Baltimore. Dandy's Christmas Party and Blue Eyes broadcast on The Home Service.
Rutland Boughton's Bethlehem broadcast.
Christmas Under Fire broadcast.
Radio Vaudville and Five Hundred Thousand Dogs Went To Town broadcast on The Home Service. Deanna broadcast on The Forces Programme. George Cukor's The Philadelphia Story - starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart and Ruth Hussey - premiered.
The Invisible Woman - starring Virginia Bruce and John Barrymore - and Kitty Foyle - starring Ginger Rogers - premiered.
Alistair Cooke's American Commentary broadcast.
Heavy bombing in London caused the Second Great Fire of London. Guildhall was among many buildings badly damaged or destroyed. There were one hundred and sixty deaths and hundreds of casualties. A famous photograph, St Paul's Survives, taken from the roof of the Daily Scum Mail building by Herbert Mason showed the dome of St Paul's Cathedral rising above clouds of smoke. President Roosevelt used the phrase 'Arsenal of Democracy' during a radio address promising to help the United Kingdom fight Nazi Germany by providing them with war supplies.
Arthur Watkyn's thriller Hawkmoor Farm broadcast.
An adaptation of PG Wodehouse's Pig-hoo-o-o-o-ey! and Helter-Shelter broadcast. RAF bombers attacked Vlorë on the Greco-Italian front, Rotterdam and IJmuiden in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands and the German cities of Emmerich am Rhein and Cologne.
