January 14th, 1940(SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: 4 Grp. 51 Sqn. Two aircraft. 'Security Patrols' - Hornum - Borkum. Opposition light. Two enemy aircraft seen, but these did not attack. #BELGIUM: Belgian troops at the southwest border and in the Ardennes area are forbidden to fire on French or English troops.
GERMANY: The 'Wehrmacht High Command [OKW]' announced:
On the night of January 12, several enemy aircraft undertook reconnaissance flights over German territory. During the night an English aircraft tried to attack a North Frisian island; the bombs fells harmlessly into the sea.
U-432 is laid down.
POLAND: Warsaw: Deaths, mainly from starvation, in the Jewish ghetto are running at 70 a day.
SWEDEN: Soviet aircraft drop bombs near Lulea, Sweden and violate Norwegian airspace.
FINLAND: Mrs. Hella Wuolijoki, the Finnish peace envoy, meets Madame Alexandra Kollontay, the Soviet Ambassador at Stockholm. They have an unofficial talk and Kollontay agrees to send a message to Moscow exploring the possibility of peace.
EUROPE: Leave is cancelled for all Dutch, Belgian and BEF troops.
GIBRALTAR: The US freighter SS Narbo, detained at Gibraltar by British authorities the previous day, is released to continue her voyage to Italy, Yugoslavia, and Greece, but not before some items from her cargo are removed as contraband.
U.S.S.R..: Norway and Sweden issue diplomatic protests over the incidents involving Soviet aircraft engaged in the war against Finland.
JAPAN: The Japanese Prime Minister, General ABE Nobuyki, and all his Cabinet resign and Admiral YONAI Mitsumasa is chosen to form a new government.
U.S.A.: Eighteen members of the pro-Nazi 'Bund' organisation are arrested for conspiracy.
PANAMA: The British Minister in Panama, Charles Dodd, transmits the response of the British government to a note sent by the President of Panama on behalf of the 21 American Republics concerning the violation of American neutrality that occurred in the Battle of the River Plate. The British "reserve their full belligerent rights in order to fight the menace presented by German action and policy and to defend that conception of law and that way of life, which they believe to be as dear to the peoples and Governments of America as they are to the peoples and Governments of the British Commonwealth of Nations."
ANTARCTICA: USN auxiliary USS Bear (AG-29) reaches Bay of Whales. Along with Interior Department motorship USMS North Star, USS Bear will establish the two bases to be used in the U.S. Antarctic Service's 1939-1941 expedition under Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, USN (Retired).
ATLANTIC OCEAN: The German auxiliary cruiser HK Pinquin captures a Norwegian whale factory ship and 13 whalers.