1931 (MONDAY)
SWITZERLAND: China asks the withdrawal of Japanese troops before the next League of Nations Council meeting.
1935 (SATURDAY)
UNITED STATES: President Franklin D. Roosevelt embargoes the export of arms and munitions to Italy and Ethiopia.
1937 (TUESDAY)
SWITZERLAND: The League of Nations and the U.S. government condemn Japan's attack on China. As a result of this action, the Chinese could purchase military aircraft and import large quantities of munitions to support their war effort against the Japanese.
UNITED STATES: Contrary to the isolationist feelings in the United States, President Franklin Roosevelt calls for an international quarantine of aggressors as the only means to preserve global peace. There is a strong isolationist backlash against this policy as the president recognizes that he had outpaced public opinion. His speech, however, encourages a widespread American boycott against Japanese products.
1938 (WEDNESDAY)
CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Eduard Benes resigns as the president of Czechoslovakia and departs the country, eventually settling in the United States. President Benes had been the target of German attack throughout the Sudeten Crisis.
October 5th, 1939 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The Government issues new regulations regarding Summer Time. Summer Time which was established in 1922. The 1922 Act stated that the clock would be advanced one hour from 0200 hours Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on the day following the third Saturday in April (or, if that day is Easter Day, the day following the second Saturday) until 0200 hours GMT on the day following the third Saturday in September. This new regulations changes the end of Summer Time to the day after the third Saturday in November, i.e., 19 November 1939.
FRANCE: The U.S. freighter SS Exeter is detained by French authorities at Marseilles, France while the freighter SS City of Joliet, detained by the French since 14 September, is released.
GERMANY: The Nazi anti-Semitic weekly, Der Sturmer, publishes a "Hymn of Hate" calling England the "curse of the world".
U-83 is laid down.
POLAND: Warsaw: Hitler makes a tour of the conquered capital before returning to Berlin. During the day, Hitler takes the salute during the victory march through the rubble of Warsaw: "The German people are watching you with the greatest pride," Hitler told his soldiers. The German high command offered a banquet to celebrate the victory with Hitler as the honoured guest. Since Warsaw was unsafe, and guerrilla bands were still operating nearby, the banquet was held in an immense tent erected on the airfield. Inside the tent were buckets of champagne and mountains of stolen delicacies heaped on horseshoe tables for the benefit of the senior officers of the Polish campaign; it was understood that Hitler would take his usual vegetarian meal. As it was Hitler entered the tent, saw the heavily laden table and turned away abruptly, muttering that he never took food with his troops except at field kitchens.
The man who was in charge of this lavish affair was Gen. Johannes Blaskowitz, the commander who had actually taken the city. Hitler had not, in the past, been able to warm up to the man. Now when he saw the lavish tables of food laid out, he was noted as saying with false wonder something like, "What, are we at WAR, or not?" Then making the comment about eating with his troops, he went out to the field kitchens set up for the occupying soldiers, and had a small bowl of soup (or something like that).
The officer in charge of Hitler's escort was Erwin Rommel. (Peter Margaritis)
U.S.S.R.: Moscow: Latvia and the USSR sign a mutual assistance pact, giving the Soviets sea and air bases on the Baltic. This is the result of Stalin's free hand in the Baltic states granted by the German-Soviet Boundary and Friendship Treaty.
Stalin has also signed a Treaty of Mutual Assistance with Estonia giving the Soviets the right to occupy the naval bases of Narva, Baltiski, Haapsalu and Parnu. Talks have started with Lithuania on the last "Treaty of Mutual Assistance".
The Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov meets the Finnish Ambassador
Aarno Yrjö-Koskinen and invites Finland to send the Foreign Minister or a
special plenipotentiary to negotiate on 'concrete political issues'. The Finns decide to send Juho Kusto
Paasikivi (formerly the Finnish ambassador at Stockholm).
CANADA: HMCS Moby Dick is hired.
U.S.A.: Baseball!
* The Navy Department informs the U.S. passenger liner SS Iroquois of word received late yesterday concerning the plot to sink the ship as she nears the east coast. "As a purely precautionary measure," President Roosevelt announces this day, "a USCG vessel and severalUSNships from the [neutrality] patrol will meet the Iroquois at sea and will accompany her to an American port."
* Secretary of State Cordell Hull requests Chargé d'Affaires ad interim in Germany Alexander C. Kirk, to ascertain why German authorities have detained the Swedish motorship MS Korsholm (at Swinemünde), Estonian steamship SS Minna (at Kiel), and Norwegian steamship SS Brott (at Sivinemünde). All of the neutral merchantmen carry cargoes of wood pulp or wood pulp products consigned to various American firms. These are the first instances of cargoes bound for the United States held up for investigation by German authorities. While no U.S. ships are detained, cargoes bound for American concerns in neutral (Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, and Norwegian) merchant ships come under scrutiny by the Germans.
* In the Territory of Hawaii, the USN forms the Hawaiian Detachment and sends it to its new operating base, Pearl Harbor; the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) (flagship), two heavy cruiser divisions, two destroyer squadrons and a light cruiser flagship, a destroyer tender and a proportionate number of small auxiliaries make up the force.
* The British motion picture "The Spy in Black" is released today. Directed by Michael Powell, this action adventure film stars Conrad Veidt and Valerie Hobson. The plot has a German U-boat sent to the Orkney Isles in 1917 to sink the British fleet.
* In baseball, the second game of the 1939 World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and the New York Yankees is played in Yankee Stadium in New York City. The Yankees lead the series 1-0. The starting pitchers are Bucky Walters (27-11 for the season) for the Reds and Monte Pearson (12-5 on the season) for the Yankees. Pearson had a no-hitter until the 8th inning when catcher Ernie Lombardi hits a single. Yankee first baseman Babe Dahlgren hits a home run and a double and the Yankees win the game 4-0 and lead the series 2-0.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: The British Admiralty and French Ministry of Marine form eight "hunting groups" in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans to counter the threat posed by German armored ship Admiral Graf Spee. That same day, the object of that attention, Admiral Graf Spee, captures British freighter Newton Beech (4651 BRT) in the South Atlantic at 09°35'S, 06°30'W.U-32 damages SS MARWARRI.