1922 (MONDAY)
UNITED STATES: Lieutenant Commander Godfrey deC. Chevalier, USN, flying an Aeromarine 39-B, makes the first aircraft landing aboard the USN aircraft Carrier USS Langley (CV-1) while underway off Cape Henry, Virginia. (Robert Wear)
1931 (MONDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The prototype of the de Havilland D.H. 82A Tiger Moth makes its first flight. The single-engine, open-cockpit Tiger Moth biplane is the aircraft used to train pilots of the RAF and Commonwealth Air Force. A total of 3,433 are built in the U.K. and another 2,949 are built in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. This aircraft remained in service with the RAF until 1951.
1936 (MONDAY)
GERMANY: Due to growing tensions with the British and French over military intervention in the Spanish Civil War, the Italians sign an alliance with Germany which serves as the foundation for Italian-German cooperation. This agreement marks the beginning of the Rome-Berlin Axis. The Italians extend a free hand to the Germans regarding the future of Austria and the German government recognizes Italy's conquest of Ethiopia.
October 26th, 1939 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The Auxiliary Military Pioneer Corps is formed as a fully combatant corps for light engineering tasks. In November 1940 it's title is changed to the Pioneer Corps.
U-24 laid a field of 9 mines in Hartlepool Bay, resulting in one ship sunk on 9 November.
Destroyer HMS Kashmir commissioned.
Corvettes HMS Anemone, Campanula, Crocus and Honeysuckle laid down.
U.S. freighter SS Black Eagle is detained by British authorities.
GERMANY: U-355, U-356, U-357, U-358 ordered.
POLAND: Hans Frank takes up his post as governor-general of the General government region of Poland. The General Government (in full General government for the occupied Polish areas), is the name given by Germany to the governing authority in Poland after its occupation by the Wehrmacht in September and October 1939. The term is also applied, though not strictly correctly, to the territory administered by the General Government. He issues his first proclamation: all Jewish men between 14 and 60 are to be "obliged to work" on official labour projects. Some organised into "work brigades", will travel each day to work in projects near the cities. Others are to be sent to special labour camps. As none of these camps exist the Jews will have to build themselves shelter in the harshest of conditions. It is not only the Jews who suffer, the Polish citizens of Torun have been told that they must "leave the pavement free" for Germans because "the street belongs to the conquerors not the conquered." They were also warned: "Whoever annoys or speaks to German women and girls will receive exemplary punishment. Polish women who speak to or annoy German nationals will be sent to brothels." Frank has set out his policy: "The Poles will become the slaves of the greater German Reich."
FINLAND: The second round of Fenno-Soviet negotiations has ended without result, and the Finnish negotiators Juho Paasikivi and Finance Minister Väinö Tanner return home to get new instructions. Finns offered to straighten the border in Karelian Isthmus in exchange for territory in Soviet northern Karelia. Even after the Soviets made certain concessions in their demands, it was still far more than the Finns were ready to consider.
GIBRALTAR: U.S. Consul at Gibraltar William E. Chapman confers informally with British naval authorities there concerning protracted delays in detention of American merchantmen.