1931 (WEDNESDAY)
MANCHURIA: The Japanese battle for the Nonni River Bridge during the next three days. It had been destroyed in a Chinese civil war and is important strategically and economically; Japanese protection has been sought by Japanese management during repairs.
1932 (FRIDAY)
GERMANY: Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler refuses to attempt to form a government on President Paul von Hindenberg's terms. The President has refused to grant presidential powers to a party leader.
UNITED STATES: The prototype Beech Model 17R Staggerwing, msn 1, registered 499N, makes its first flight at the Wichita, Kansas, Municipal Airport at 1230 hours local. A total of 781 Model 17s are built from 1932 to 1949. During World War II, 105 Staggerwings are built for the USAAF as the C-43 and 320 for the USN as the GB and JB; over 100 civilian Staggerwings are impressed (drafted) by the USAAF. In addition, the Model 17 served with a number of air forces around the world.
1935 (MONDAY)
GERMANY AND POLAND: The German and Polish governments sign an economic agreement to promote trade between the two countries.
1936 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED STATES: The Pan American Airways Martin 130 flying boat, msn 556, registered NC14714 and named "Hawaiian Clipper," completes the first regular passenger transpacific flight from Alameda, California, to Manila, the Philippine Islands, and return. The aircraft had left Alameda on 21 October.
1938 (FRIDAY)
JAPAN: The Foreign Office says the Nine Power Treaty of 1922 is obsolete because of their plans for a new order. (See below.)
UNITED STATES: U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull protests against the Japanese violation of Chinese integrity and reasserts American support for the Nine-Power Treaty of 1922. The British government supports the American position, but the protests fall on deaf ears in Tokyo. (See above.)
November 4th, 1939 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Rear Admiral Hugh Sinclair, the head of MI6, dies and is succeeded by Colonel Stewart Menzies.U-23 laid nine mines off Cromarthy Firth, but without result.
GERMANY: U-44 commissioned.
NORWAY: Oslo: A "German scientist who wishes you well" leaves a prototype proximity mine
fuse and a report with details of German weapons research on a British consulate
windowsill.
The Norwegian Admiralty reports that it has interned the German crew of the captured US
freighter 'City of Flint' after she docked at Haugesund, en route from Murmansk to
Germany.
POLAND: Today the Gestapo ordered Warsaw's Jews to move into an area of the city which will be designated as a ghetto. They have taken 24 hostages whom they will shoot if the Jews do not comply. The area will eventually be surrounded by barbed wire and placed under guard.
With the conquest of Poland, some two million Jews have come under Nazi rule. The victorious German soldiers have been taught since their schooldays to hate the Jews as the age-old "enemies of the German people."
It is no surprise, then that 5,000 Jews have already been killed and countless numbers terrorized in random attacks. More than a million live in, or have fled eastwards into the Soviet-occupied zone, but there is little hope for those trapped in the General Government area governed by Hans Frank.
Just three weeks after the invasion a senior SS official, Reinhardt Heydrich, outlined plans to clear Western Poland of Jews. They are to be moved east and "resettled" in labour camps and ghettoes.
Adolf Eichmann">Eichmann, a former emigration officer, has been put in charge of resettlement and the movement of Jews to Poland. He sent a transport of Czech Jews to Lublin last month; many fear that the Nazis intend to segregate their Jews in the General Government area's cramped conditions.
INDIAN OCEAN: The German commerce raider GRAF SPEE moves here from the South Atlantic. (Navynews)
AUSTRALIA: Boom Defense Vessel HMAS Koala launched.
U.S.A.: President Roosevelt today signed the new Neutrality Act repealing the embargo on the
export of arms to belligerent countries. His signature releases at least £44 million
of arms ordered by Britain and France before the embargo came into effect with the
declaration of war.
Between 300 and 400 aircraft are said to waiting in American ports for shipment to Britain
and France, and orders for at least another 2,500 have been held up.
Congress passed the Neutrality Act in 1935 and renewed it in 1936 and 1937. It was backed
by isolationists who believed that America was pressurised into war against its interests
in 1917 and who insist that it must remain neutral and keep out of any European conflict.
On 21 September the president went before Congress and asked it to repeal the law. The
Senate responded on 28 October and the House of Representatives followed.
The vote reflects a perceptible shift in American public opinion towards the Allies, due
mainly to stories of Nazi atrocities.
In theory, the embargo affected all belligerents, so its lifting could allow Germany, as
well as the Allies, to buy arms from American factories. In practice Britain and France
control the seas, so the lifting of the embargo is being hailed as a great victory for the
Allies.
Tanker (later escort carrier) USS Sangamon launched.
The 40th National Automobile Show opens in Chicago, Illinois, with a cutting-edge development in automotive comfort on display: air-conditioning. A Packard prototype features the expensive device, allowing the vehicle's occupants to travel in the comfort of a controlled environment even on the most hot and humid summer day. The innovation receives widespread acclaim at the auto show, but the expensive accessory will not be within the reach of the average American for several decades.