1931 (THURSDAY)
GERMANY: With the German government's inability to pay its reparations obligations, Germany's creditors accepted a "stand-still" agreement, which temporarily avoided a default.
UNITED STATES: RCA Victor began demonstrating a very early version of the long-playing (LP), 33-1/3 RPM phonograph record. It would be another 17 years before RCA rival Columbia would begin mass producck McKillop)
September 17th, 1939 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM.: The US freighter SS Black Condor is detained by the British.BALTIC SEA: U-41 captured Finnish freighters Suomen Poika and Vega.
POLAND: Warsaw: St. John's Cathedral is bombed during mass; the dead are being buried in public parks as the cemetaries are full.
Just before dawn this morning the Red Army invaded Poland along the 800 mile length of the border. The Polish High Command has been taken by surprise and the Russians have brushed aside the border guards to advance virtually unopposed into Poland. The government is fleeing towards the Rumanian border. The Russians up until now have been complaining of Polish aircraft violating the Soviet frontier. Stalin claims that he sent in his army to "restore peace and order in Poland, which has been destroyed by the disintegration of the Polish state.... Russia and Germany will help the Poles establish new conditions for its political life."
Brest: Early today the citadel is captured by the Germans of the 76th Infantry Regiment under Colonel Gollnik, which had crossed over to the west bank of the Bug during the night. They captured it at the exact moment when the Polish garrison was about to attempt to break out westwards across the undamaged bridge over the Bug. (95)(Russ Folsom)
ESTONIA: The Polish submarine ORZEL escapes Tallinn, where it has been interned. The Soviet Union seizes this incident as an excuse that proves Estonia is not able to uphold its neutrality.
U.S.S.R.: Moscow: Russia promises to respect Finnish neutrality.
Soviet Foreign Minister Viachislav M. Molotov tells the Polish ambassador that "since the Polish Republic is no longer in existence" the Soviets are taking measures to protect inhabitants of Beylorussia and the western Ukraine.
ITALY: The government promises Greece not to take the initiative in resorting to any military action against her.
CANADA: Patrol vessel HMCS Capella I (ex-halibut boat) commissioned.
U.S.A.: Charles A. Lindbergh, the first man to fly nonstop across the Atlantic, makes his first anti-intervention speech on U.S. radio, arguing that Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin is as much to be feared as German Chancellor Adolf Hitler.
Frank Sinatra records the song "All or Nothing at All" with Harry James and his Orchestra on Columbia Records; the record was released in July 1940. The song failed to become a hit for Sinatra until 1943 -- after Ol' Blue Eyes had left Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra in 1942 and went solo.
In New York City, Alice Marble and Bobby Riggs win the U.S. tennis titles at Forest Hills.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: To the south-west of Ireland, HMS Courageous (50), one of the Royal Navy's oldest carriers is sunk by U-29. The 22,500 ton ship had just turned into the wind to recover aircraft when she was struck on the port side by two torpedoes. Damage control was unable to control flooding and the order to abandon was given five minutes after the torpedo hit. Courageous sank ten minutes later with 518 casualties and 742 survivors. Carriers are withdrawn from anti-U boat patrols as the lesson is learnt that the best chance of sinking U-boats is to attract them to well-defended convoys when the escorts can hunt them down. (Alex Gordon)(108)
U-53 sank SS Kafiristan.