1931 (THURSDAY)
SWITZERLAND: The League of Nations Council notifies China and Japan that Council members propose to send observers to the Chinchow, China, area to establish a neutral zone.
1937 (FRIDAY)
GERMANY: Dr. Walther Funk replaces Hjalmar Schacht as Minister of Economic Affairs. This marked the end of liberal influence in financial policy and intensification of autarchy.
1938 (SATURDAY)
U.S.S.R.: The Polish government, exposed to German eastward expansion, seeks closer relations with the Soviet Union by renewing the Soviet-Polish Non-Aggression Pact. The Polish government makes an effort to build up a barrier of Baltic and Balkan states to help maintain the status quo in Eastern Europe.
November 26th, 1939 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:RAF Bomber Command: Leaflets and Reconnaissance - Wilhelmshaven. 102 Sqn. (Whitley Mk. IIIs out of Driffield, Yorkshire) Three aircraft. Weather appalling. One aircraft struck by lightning and badly damaged.
Reports of a raid over the North Sea by an unknown number of enemy a/c against British warships. There are no casualties.
NORTH SEA:
Ten die when the Polish liner 'Pilsudski', on charter to the Royal Navy, is
sunk after striking a German mine.
GERMANY: U-106 laid down.
FINLAND: The Government rejects a series of demands by the Soviet government, which are similar to concessions the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian governments granted the Soviet Union. In response, the Soviet government demands that the Finnish government end its troop mobilization along the Russo-Finnish frontier.
U.S.S.R.:
Moscow: Russia claims that Finland has fired artillery into Soviet territory, and demands
the withdrawal of Finnish troops from the Karelian Isthmus, near Leningrad.
Mikko Härmeinen adds: According to the official Soviet newsagency TASS the Finnish
artillery fired at Soviet territory nearby Mainila on Karelian Isthmus at 3.45 pm
(Moscow time) on 26 Nov 1939 killing four Red Army soldiers and wounding nine.
Only hours later the Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov presented the Finnish
Ambassador at Moscow Aarno Yrjö-Koskinen an ultimatum demanding that all Finnish
troops be withdrawn 20 to 25 kilometres (12 to 15 miles) away from the Fenno-Soviet
border to ensure the security of Leningrad.
It is beyond doubt that the 'Shots of Mainila' were actually fired. The Finnish border-guards noted that between 3.30 pm and 4.05 pm (Moscow time) the Soviet artillery fired five shots and mortars two. Today the Finnish and majority of Russian historians agree that the incident was a provocation arranged by Zhdanov on orders by Stalin. One Russian historian, however, recently argued that there actually was nearby a Finnish artillery battery that could have fired the shots (the Finnish position has always been that there were no Finnish artillery present nearby). He is supported by a certain Finnish historian who argues that this battery could have fired these shots on its own initiative. While I find this highly unlikely (and the Finnish historian in question is a very controversial figure in certain other respects, too), I agree with a friend of mine that if it's ever proved that it was Finnish artillery that fired, then we Finns could as well have an entry in the Guinness Book of Records as 'the Most Stupid Nation on Earth'.
On this same day (the 26th) the official Soviet newspaper Pravda has a very insulting article on the Finnish leadership headed "Scarecrow as the Prime Minister". In the article the Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Cajander is insulted in various imaginable ways. He is 'a slithering snake', 'little beast without sharp teeth', 'imperialist puppet' and 'clown standing on his head'. The Finnish people should get rid of leaders like him or suffer the fate of Poland.
CANADA: SS Prince Robert chartered to AMC duty and became HMCS Prince Robert.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: The two German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau suffer severe sea damage during a heavy storm in the Shetland-Bergen Narrows. Meanwhile, the German armored ship Admiral Graf Spee and tanker Altmark rendezvous in the South Atlantic.