6 November 1939

UNITED STATES: Congressional elections are held today for seats in the 74th Congress that will convene in January 1935:

- In the Senate, the Democrats gain ten seats, the Republicans lose 11 and independents gain one; the Democrats still control the Senate with 69 of 96 seats.

- In the House of Representatives, the Democrats gain nine seats, the Republicans lose four and independents gain five. The Democrats still control the House with 322 of the 435 seats.

UNITED KINGDOM: Test pilot P.W.S. "George" Bullman flies the Hawker High-Speed Monoplane, RAF serial number K5083, for the first time. Later renamed the Hurricane it proves to be a major leap forward in capability when compared to the biplanes in service at the time.

SPAIN: Insurgent forces encircle Madrid and the Republican government moves to Valencia. Despite heavy fighting in the suburbs of the city and Nationalist air attack, Loyalist forces dig in and defend the capital. The Nationalist offensive grinds down, resulting in a siege of the city.

ITALY: Italy joins the German-Japanese Anti-Comintern pact. This original pact, signed by Germany and Japan on 25 November 1936, declared the hostility of the two countries to international communism. In case of an unprovoked attack by the Soviet Union against them, the two nations agreed to consult on what measures to take "to safeguard their common interests." It also stated that neither would make any political treaties with the Soviet Union. Germany also agreed to recognize the Japanese puppet regime in Manchuria. This expansion of the pact reflects a new coalition of revisionist states, united to upset the World War I peace treaties and the status quo.

JAPAN: U.S. Ambassador to Japan Joseph C. Grew sends the following message to Washington regarding Italy signing the Anti-Comintern pact: The threat to England is very real and immediately apparent upon reflection that with the addition of Japan to the Rome-Berlin axis the life-line of the British Empire is threatened from the North Sea through the Mediterranean and beyond Singapore."

Submarines HMS Upright and Usk laid down.

Destroyer HMS Khartoum commissioned.

NORTH SEA: U-21 encountered the British submarine HMS Sealion in the North Sea. The Sealion fired six torpedoes at U-21, but all missed.

GERMANY: U-65 launched.

NORWAY: Bergen: Captain Joseph H Gainard told today how his US cargo ship, City of Flint, was taken by the German battleship Deutschland. A party from the Deutschland came aboard on 9 October and declared the ship a prize of war. The Germans painted out all US insignia and headed for Murmansk in Russia, and then for Germany. But they were stopped by the Norwegian navy, and another German ship ordered them to Haugesund where the US ship was returned to her captain.

U.S.S.R.: Moscow: Molotov says Russia's aim is peace, and blames the war on forces of capitalism.

GIBRALTAR: U.S. freighter SS Exeter is detained by British authorities. She is released the same day after 700 bags of U.S. mail are removed from the ship. Freighter SS Exminster, detained at Gibraltar by the British since 1 November, is released without any confiscation of cargo.

JAPAN: U.S. Ambassador Joseph C. Grew gives an official protest against Japanese violations of the Open Door policy in China. In the fall of 1898, U.S. President William McKinley stated his desire for the creation of an "open door" that would allow all trading nations access to the Chinese market. In 1899, the U.S. sought a formal endorsement of the concept by circulating diplomatic notes among the major powers however, none of them would sign it and the U.S. simply announced that agreement had been reached. Only Russia and Japan voiced displeasure.