1926 (WEDNESDAY)
SWITZERLAND: Germany enters the League of Nations by a unanimous vote. Meanwhile, Spain gives notice of withdrawal from the League.
UNITED KINGDOM: The US freighter SS Saccarappa, which had been detained by the British since 3 September, is released after her cargo of phosphates and cotton are deemed contraband and unloaded.
In a BBC radio broadcast in London, Jan Masaryk, son of late Czech president Thomas Masaryk, announces that Eduard Benes, the late Czech president, has declared the Czech people to be at war with Germany.
U-48 sank SS Winkleigh. U-34 sank SS Kennebec. U-29 sank SS Regent Tiger.
NETHERLANDS: Minelayer HNLMS Willem van Ewijck sunk near Terchelling when she runs into her own mine barrage.
GERMANY:The first person to be executed under yesterday's decree is Johann Heinen of Dessau, "for refusing to take part in defensive work."
Units of the French 4th and 5th armies have advanced into Germany, capturing two villages and are poised to cut off the industrial city of Saarbrucken. The Germans have pulled back towards their Siegfried line fortifications. Though heavy artillery fire and some aerial reconnaissance has been reported, nothing like a general offensive is under way. The Germans are puzzled. France has deployed 85 fully armed divisions against the Germans 34 divisions. 20 of them are reserve units. The German Panzers are all in Poland.
In response to Polish pleas for help, General Maurice Gamelin France's C-in-C, says he is doing everything he can; though he admitted to the British the Saar operation is only "a little test".
POLAND: Units of the German 10th Army are heavily engaged around Radom, Poland. Units of the German 14th Army reach the River San around Przemysl. Guderian's Panzer Corps attacks east along the line of the River Bug.
At 17:15 the 4th Panzer Division reaches the suburbs of a Warsaw crowded with thousands of refugees. The Germans begin shelling and a six hour long air raid against the eastern suburb of Praga, across the Vistula, is carried out, causing raging fires.
CANADA: Prime Minister Mr. MacKenzie King, declares that conscription for overseas service will not be necessary and repeats his pledge that it would not be introduced in Canada by his administration.
U.S.A.: In Washington, DC, US President Franklin D Roosevelt proclaims a "limited national emergency" and directs measures for strengthening national defenses within the limits of peacetime authorizations.
Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles meets with the British Ambassador to the U.S., Lord Lothian, for an "off-the-record talk" (at the former's request) about the brief detention of the US passenger liner SS Santa Paula yesterday off Curacao, Netherlands West Indies. Welles informs Lord Lothian that the captain of the passenger ship had been asked "to give formal assurances whether there were any German passengers on board, the implication being that if the captain had not given such assurances, the officers of the RN cruiser would have boarded SS Santa Paula to search for German passengers and possibly might have taken some off." Welles tells the British ambassador that "any act by British cruisers affecting American ships in waters so close to the U.S. involving possible boarding of them and taking off of civilian passengers would create a very highly unfortunate impression upon American public opinion at this time and was something undesirable in itself, since if civilian passengers actually had been taken off, such act would be clearly counter to international law." Lord Lothian promises to "take the necessary steps to prevent occurrences of this kind from happening."
In baseball, the New York Yankees defeat the Boston Redsox 4-1 in 7 innings; the game is called because of lightning. In St. Louis, the Cleveland Indians defeat the St. Louis Browns 12-1 giving the Indians pitcher Bobby Feller his 20th win this year, the youngest modern-era player to win 20 games.
The British and French announce a long-range blockade of Germany.
NICARAGUA: President Anastasio Somoza declares the country will maintain strict neutrality.