1931 (SATURDAY)
SWITZERLAND: The League of Nations Council invokes Article 10 of the Covenant, to apply to the Manchurian situation "because Japan would not accept a draft resolution setting a definite date for troop withdrawal and explain "the fundamental principles governing normal relations" which she wished to discuss with China previously." Article 10 states, "The Members of the League undertake to respect and preserve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all Members of the League. In case of any such aggression or in case of any threat or danger of such aggression the Council shall advise upon the means by which this obligation shall be fulfilled."
1933 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Winston Churchill, addressing the House of Commons, gives an early warning on the shape of things to come by stating that Germany is well on the way to becoming the most heavily armed nation in the world. This prophetic statement is remarkable in that Germany is still bound by the Treaty of Versailles banning it from re-arming itself after the end of World War I. Germany did not officially declare formation of the Luftwaffe until March 1935.
UNITED STATES: Development of anti-blackout equipment is initiated with an authorization to the U.S. Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to develop and manufacture a special abdominal belt for use by pilots in dive bombing and other violent maneuvers.
1936 (SATURDAY)
GERMANY: The government recognizes the Italian annexation of Ethiopia.
UNITED KINGDOM: The government suggests plans for controlling all the channels by which war materials might reach Spain.
1938 (MONDAY)
GERMANY: Under the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, the city of Danzig, with the adjoining 731 square mile (1 893 square kilometer) territory, is established as a free state. German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Polish Ambassador Josef Lipski meet at Berchtesgaden. Ribbentrop invites Beck to visit Berlin and puts forward the following suggestions: (1) Danzig to be a German city. (2) Free port for Poland in Danzig with communications assured by extraterritorial railroad and highway through Danzig. (3) An Extraterritorial zone one kilometer (1,094 yards) wide for a railroad and highway across the Polish Corridor uniting the two portions of Germany carved out at Versailles. (4) Both nations to recognize and guarantee their frontiers. (5) An extension of the German-Polish treaty of Friendship. These proposals are standing and open until 10 August 1939, when Poland will reject them and declare "any intervention by the Reich Government (will be regarded as) an act of aggression.
The Royal Romanian Air Force loses several of its machines due to what are described as tragic accidents. At least two crashinto the Black Sea, the first going down and sinking, together with two of its crew, near the coastal town of Jurilovka. The second aircraft crashed in the same vicinity, ironically on a search and rescue mission for the first plane, three additional crewmen drowning while a fourth managed to swim to shore. A third aircraft was also lost around this time, although details are, for me, anyway, lacking. Adverse weather conditions (in the shape of a severe storm that struck Constanta with enough fury to damage and sink vessels in the harbour, leavinga hundred sailors missing, though ultimately only six were reported as dead)led to the loss of the first and may have impacted the other two aircraft as well. The aircraft in question all appear to have been Savoia-Marchetti S.62 flying boats. Bernad's book on the Romanian Air Force indicates that three such machines, part of the Flotila de Hidroaviate (Hydroaviation Flotilla) of the Royal Romanian Air Force were lost during maneuvers being conducted with the Marina Regala Romana (Royal Romanian Navy off of southern Moldavia in October 1938, with a total of ten crewmen losing their lives, including the Flotilla's commander, Capitan Comandor Aviator (Lieutenant Colonel) Constantin Negru. Source: (Assorted notes on file here at the fabled Archives, including those gleaned from Denes Bernad's Rumanian Air Force, Joba & Craciunoiu's Seaplanes Over The Black Sea, and copies of articles from The New York Times Newspaper. (Greg Kelley)
October 24th, 1939 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:Homefront: A boom in sales of wireless sets and gramophones is a sign of the way the blackout has transformed homelife in Britain. Sales have leapt by about 30%. The misery of travelling in the blackout (and the closing of theatres and cinemas after 6pm) has disrupted social life. Entertaining has virtually ceased, so people stay at home and listen to records or radio shows such as 'Band Wagon' or 'ITMA'. Families whose children were not evacuated are being drawn closer together. "There are many firesides where the family groups itself as it has not done since Victorian days" say the Daily Telegraph. "Some of us have begun to ponder what our ancestors did in the dark winter evenings to while away the hours before bedtime."
The U.S. freighter SS Wacosta is detained by British authorities; the freighter SS Iberville, detained by the British since 13 October, is released after cargo due to be discharged at Antwerp and Rotterdam, Holland, is seized as contraband. British authorities at Kirkwall remove 468 bags of U.S. mail destined for Gothenborg, Sweden and 18 for Helsinki, Finland, from the Finnish freighter SS Astrid Thorden.
BELGIUM: Allied forces agree that in the event of a German attack, to advance into Belgium to the Scheldt River.
FRANCE: Paris: Poland's gold reserves arrive, having travelled from Warsaw via Romania and Syria.
GERMANY: U-563, U-564, U-565, U-566, U-567, U-568, U-569, U-570, U-571, U-572, U-573, U-574 ordered.
U.S.S.R.: Soviet authorities intern the U.S. freighter SS City of Flint's German prize crew from armored ship Deutschland at Murmansk.
UNITED STATES: Women's nylon stockings are sold publicly for the first time, in Wilmington, Delaware, the home of DuPont Chemical Company.
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
U-19 sank SS Konstantinos Hadjipateras.
U-37 sank SS Ledbury, SS Menin Ridge and SS Tafna.
In the Caribbean Sea, British light cruiser HMS Orion (85) and the Canadian destroyer HMCS Saguenay (D 79) intercept the German tanker SS Emmy Friedrich (4372 BRT) in the Yucatan Strait between the western tip of Cuba and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. When the British light cruiser HMS Caradoc (D 60) also arrives on the scene the Germans scuttled their own ship to prevent her capture.