1935 (FRIDAY)
UNITED STATES: Tycoon and film maker Howard Hughes sets a new land plane speed record of 352.388 miles per hour (567,1135 kilometers per hour) in his single-engine H-1 racer at Santa Anita, California. This beats the old record by almost 40 mph (64,4 km/h). Representatives of the National Aeronautics Association and the Internationale Federation Aeronautique, including Amelia Earhart Putnam and Hollywood stunt pilotd Hughes and his racer.
September 13th, 1939 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The Home Office opens an inquiry into black-out rules.
Navy suspends transfers to the Fleet Reserve after 20 years service and retains men on active duty.
Destroyer HMS Mayrant commissioned.
FRANCE:Paris: The stained glass windows of Notre-Dame are removed for safety.
Edouard Daladier, the French Prime Minister, sends the president of the republic, Albert Lebrun, the long awaited details of his war cabinet. The prime minister will retain the portfolios of war and national defence and in addition will take over foreign affairs. The former foreign minister, Georges Bonnet, goes to the ministry of justice. There are two new portfolios, those of Raoul Dautry as minister of armaments and Georges Pernot as minister of blockade, each with responsibilities specifically related to the war effort. Daladier has taken such trouble over putting his team together because he is keen to have a war cabinet that will enable France to put recent divisions behind it and fight the war in a spirit of national unity. The task may prove difficult; several members of the new cabinet were until recently convinced that France must at all costs stay out of the war.
POLAND:
The 11th Polish Infantry Division near Przemysl had been reduced to barely six battalions, each numbering not more than 300 men.
"The German planes raided us at frequent intervals. There was no shelter anywhere; nothing but the accursed plain. The soldiers rushed off the road trying to take cover in the furrows..."
U.S. Ambassador to Poland Anthony J. Drexel Biddle, Jr., reports on German bombardment in Poland.". . . in. my opinion the German forces are taking advantage of every opportunity, without regard to the danger to the civilian population which may be involved. It is also evident that the German bombers are releasing the bombs they carry even when they are in doubt as to the identity of their objectives."
The 98th Gebirgs. Regiment under the command of Oberstleunant Ferdinand Schorner capture Hill 374 and Zbolska Heights. (Gene Hanson)
CANADA: Patrol vessel HMCS Takla (ex fishing vessel) chartered at $240 per month.