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July 1940

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The following events occurred in July 1940:

July 1, 1940 (Monday)

July 2, 1940 (Tuesday)

  • U.S. Congress enacted the Export Control Act, granting the president authority to restrict the export of goods that had military applications such as machine parts, munitions and tools.[4]
  • The passenger ship Arandora Star was heading for Canada transporting German and Italian internees and prisoners of war when she was torpedoed and sunk west of Ireland by German submarine U-47. 865 lives were lost.
  • Born: Christopher Awdry, author, in Ampfield, England

July 3, 1940 (Wednesday)

July 4, 1940 (Thursday)

July 5, 1940 (Friday)

July 6, 1940 (Saturday)

July 7, 1940 (Sunday)

July 8, 1940 (Monday)

  • British torpedo bombers attacked the French battleship Richelieu at Dakar, inflicting damage but failing to sink their target.[3]
  • Sweden and Germany signed an agreement allowing the transit of German materiel to pass between Norway and ports in southern Sweden.[14]

July 9, 1940 (Tuesday)

July 10, 1940 (Wednesday)

July 11, 1940 (Thursday)

July 12, 1940 (Friday)

  • Pierre Laval was appointed Vice Premier of Vichy France and Marshal Pétain's successor.[9][19]

July 13, 1940 (Saturday)

July 14, 1940 (Sunday)

  • Rigged elections began in Soviet-occupied Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
  • Bastille Day in the unoccupied portion of France was observed solemnly with flags at half mast.[20]
  • General elections were held in Cuba. Fulgencio Batista was elected president.
  • Winston Churchill gave a radio address declaring that Britain would fight on alone, saying that "be the ordeal sharp or long, or both, we shall seek no terms, we shall tolerate no parley; we may show mercy-we shall ask for none."[21]

July 15, 1940 (Monday)

  • The 1940 Democratic National Convention opened in Chicago.
  • The first German air raid of the Brighton Blitz occurred.[22]
  • The results of the rigged elections in the Soviet-occupied Baltic states were announced, reporting a unanimous desire to join the Soviet Union.[23]
  • The British withdrew from Moyale.[12]
  • Alsace and Lorraine were effectively annexed by Germany. Although Germany had not formally re-annexed the old territory of Alsace-Lorraine from France in June's armistice treaty, the moving of the customs line between the two countries to the old pre-World War I frontiers effectively served as de facto annexation.[24]
  • Died: Robert Wadlow, 22, tallest person in recorded history (infection)

July 16, 1940 (Tuesday)

July 17, 1940 (Wednesday)

July 18, 1940 (Thursday)

July 19, 1940 (Friday)

  • The Field Marshal Ceremony was held at the Kroll Opera House in Berlin. Hermann Göring was promoted to Reichsmarschall.
  • Hitler made a speech to the Reichstag reviewing the course of the war and then warned, "Mr. Churchill, or perhaps others, for once believe me when I predict a great empire will be destroyed, an empire that it was never my intention to destroy or even to harm. I do realize that this struggle, if it continues, can end only with the complete annihilation of one or the other of the two adversaries. Mr. Churchill may believe this will be Germany. I know that it will be Britain." Hitler then appealed "once more to reason and common sense", saying, "I can see no reason why this war must go on." He said if Churchill brushed aside this appeal, "I shall have relieved my conscience in regard to the things to come."[29]
  • Roosevelt gave his acceptance speech to the Democratic National Convention. The president listed his reasons for running again and stated, "my conscience will not let me turn my back upon a call to service. The right to make that call rests with the people, through the American method of a free election. Only the people themselves can draft a President. If such a draft should be made upon me, I say to you, in the utmost simplicity, I will, with God's help, continue to serve with the best of my ability and with the fullness of my strength."[30]
  • The Battle of Cape Spada was fought in the Mediterranean Sea, resulting in Allied victory. The Italians lost their large[clarification needed] ship of the war, the light cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni.
  • General Sir Alan Brooke was made Commander-in-Chief, Home Forces.[1]
  • Dornier Do 17 bombers conducted a night raid on the Rolls-Royce aero engine factory at Glasgow.[28]
  • The United States enacted the Two-Ocean Navy Act.

July 20, 1940 (Saturday)

July 21, 1940 (Sunday)

July 22, 1940 (Monday)

July 23, 1940 (Tuesday)

July 24, 1940 (Wednesday)

  • The French passenger liner Meknés departed Southampton for Marseilles for repatriation of the 1,277 captured French Navy sailors aboard. The ship was torpedoed in the English Channel by the German torpedo boat S-27 despite the Meknés' displays of neutrality. Four British destroyers rescued the survivors but 416 perished.[6]
  • A federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted 24 members of the "I AM" Movement for mail fraud.[34]
  • German submarine U-139 was commissioned.
  • Born: Stanley Hauerwas, theologian, ethicist and public intellectual, in Dallas, Texas

July 25, 1940 (Thursday)

  • A British coal convoy took heavy losses from German dive bombers. The Admiralty ordered future convoys to take place at night as a result.[35]
  • Died: Julia Gulliver, 83, American philosopher, educator and college president

July 26, 1940 (Friday)

July 27, 1940 (Saturday)

  • The British destroyer Codrington was bombed and sunk in Dover by the Germans.[6]
  • This week's issue of Billboard magazine began publishing a top ten list of the best-selling retail records in the United States. The first official #1 single in Billboard history was "I'll Never Smile Again" by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra.[36]
  • According to Japan Foreign Affairs Ministry official report, Melville James Cox and ten other British citizens were arrested on suspicion of military espionage by Japanese military police in six Japanese cities. Two days later, Cox committed suicide jumping from a window of his prison in Tokyo.[37]
  • Bugs Bunny made his debut in the animated short, A Wild Hare.
  • Born: Pina Bausch, dancer and ballet director, in Solingen, Germany (d. 2009); Bharati Mukherjee, Indian-born American writer and professor emerita, in Calcutta, British India (d. 2017)

July 28, 1940 (Sunday)

July 29, 1940 (Monday)

  • German naval command issued a memo noting that the mid-September 1940 date for an invasion of Britain as demanded by Hitler was possible, but recommended a postponement to May 1941.[6]
  • Hitler told the military commander Alfred Jodl that the planned attack on the Soviet Union in the fall of 1940 was no longer logistically feasible and that it would be postponed to spring 1941.[41]
  • Born: Bernard Lafayette, civil rights leader, in Tampa, Florida

July 30, 1940 (Tuesday)

  • 21 nations of the Americas signed the Act of Havana, providing for an emergency establishment of a provisional administration "when islands or regions of the Americas now under the possession of non-American nations are in danger of becoming the subject of barter of territory or change of sovereignty."[6]
  • Died: Spencer S. Wood, 78, American admiral

July 31, 1940 (Wednesday)

  • A conference was held at the Berghof between Hitler, Keitel, Jodl, Raeder, Brauchitsch, Halder and Puttkamer. Raeder reported that the navy would not be ready for Operation Sea Lion until mid-September, if then, so discussion turned to attacking the Soviet Union instead. Hitler believed that defeating Russia would make Germany unbeatable and force Britain to come to terms, so an invasion of the Soviet Union was set for spring 1941.[41][42]
  • The British began the action codenamed Operation Hurry, with the goal of ferrying fourteen aircraft to Malta for the garrison's defence.
  • Vichy France imposed the death penalty for all French servicemen who joined a foreign army.[1]
  • Born: Roy Walker, television personality and comedian, in Belfast, Northern Ireland

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Mercer, Derrik, ed. (1989). Chronicle of the 20th Century. London: Chronicle Communications Ltd. pp. 535–536. ISBN 978-0-582-03919-3.
  2. ^ "The Bank Row Bombing". Cathness.Org. 1989. Retrieved 2020-06-27.
  3. ^ a b Davidson, Edward; Manning, Dale (1999). Chronology of World War Two. London: Cassell & Co. pp. 41–42. ISBN 0-304-35309-4.
  4. ^ Mineiro, Michael (2012). Space Technology Export Controls and International Cooperation in Outer Space. Springer. p. 44. ISBN 978-94-007-2567-6.
  5. ^ Berhe, Aregawi. "Revisiting resistance in Italian-occupied Ethiopia: The Patriots' Movement (1936–1941) and the redefinition of post-war Ethiopia." Rethinking Resistance: Revolt and Violence in African History. Ed. Gerrit Jan Abbink, Mirjam De Bruijin & Jaas Van Walraven. Leidein: Brill, 2003. p. 108. ISBN 978-90-04-12624-4.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "1940". World War II Database. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  7. ^ "The British Position". July 4, 1940. ibiblio. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  8. ^ "Sonja Henie Married to Topping, Wealthy Sportsman, in City". Chicago Daily Tribune. Chicago: Chicago Daily Tribune. July 5, 1940. p. 1.
  9. ^ a b c "Chronology 1940". indiana.edu. 2002. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  10. ^ Draper, Alfred (1979). Operation Fish: The Fight to Save the Gold of Britain, France and Norway from the Nazis. Don Mills: General Publishing. ISBN 9780773600683.
  11. ^ Breuer, William B. (2008). Top Secret Tales of World War II. Book Sales. p. 62. ISBN 9780785819516.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Chronology and Index of the Second World War, 1938–1945. Research Publications. 1990. pp. 27–29. ISBN 978-0-88736-568-3.
  13. ^ Evans, A. A.; Gibbons, David (2012). The Illustrated Timeline of World War II. Rosen Publishing. p. 39. ISBN 978-1-4488-4795-2.
  14. ^ "Events occurring on Monday, July 8, 1940". WW2 Timelines. 2011. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  15. ^ Dunn, Susan (2013). 1940: FDR, Willkie, Lindbergh, Hitler - the Election Amid the Storm. Yale University Press. p. 131. ISBN 978-0-300-19086-1.
  16. ^ "Overview". The Battle of Britain. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  17. ^ "Events occurring on Thursday, July 11, 1940". WW2 Timelines. 2011. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  18. ^ "Abyssinia". Hansard. July 11, 1940. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  19. ^ Brody, J. Kenneth (2010). The Trial of Pierre Laval: Defining Treason, Collaboration and Patriotism in World War II France. Transaction Publishers. p. 111. ISBN 978-1-4128-3939-6.
  20. ^ "France Mourns Loss of Liberty on Bastille Day". Chicago Daily Tribune. Chicago: Chicago Daily Tribune. July 15, 1940. p. 10.
  21. ^ Churchill, Winston (July 14, 1940). "War of the Unknown Warriors". ibiblio. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  22. ^ Arscott, David (2009). Brighton, A Very Peculiar History. Brighton: Salariya Book Company. ISBN 978-1-908759-29-0.
  23. ^ "Events occurring on Monday, July 15, 1940". WW2 Timelines. 2011. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  24. ^ Paxton, Robert O. (2001). Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order 1940–1944. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-231-12469-0.
  25. ^ Garbarini, Alexandra (2011). Jewish Responses to Persecution: Volume II, 1938–1940. Lanham, Maryland: AltaMira Press. p. 556. ISBN 978-0-7591-2039-6.
  26. ^ Rosbottom, Ronald C. (2014). When Paris Went Dark: The City of Light Under German Occupation, 1940–1944. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-316-21745-3.
  27. ^ "Wallace is F.D.R.'s Choice". Brooklyn Eagle. Brooklyn. July 18, 1940. p. 1.
  28. ^ a b Matanle, Ivor (1995). World War II. Colour Library Books Ltd. pp. 52–53. ISBN 1-85833-333-4.
  29. ^ "My Last Appeal to Great Britain". ibiblio. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  30. ^ "I Had Not Planned to Run Again". ibiblio. July 19, 1940. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  31. ^ Hosch, William L., ed. (2010). The Korean War and The Vietnam War: People, Politics, and Power. Britannica Educational Publishing. p. 148. ISBN 978-1-61530-047-1.
  32. ^ Buell, Thomas B. (2002). The Second World War: Europe and the Mediterranean. West Point Military Series. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-7570-0160-4.
  33. ^ Clavin, Patricia (2013). Securing the World Economy: The Reinvention of the League of Nations, 1920–1946. Oxford University Press. p. 263. ISBN 978-0-19-164868-7.
  34. ^ "U. S. Indicts 24 'I Am' Cultists in Mail Frauds". Chicago Daily Tribune. Chicago: Chicago Daily Tribune. July 25, 1940. p. 1.
  35. ^ "Week 47: 22-28 July 1940". Highland Active Service. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  36. ^ Trust, Gary (July 27, 2015). "Happy 75th Birthday, Billboard Charts!". Billboard. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  37. ^ [:ja:コックス事件] (Japanese language edition) Retrieved date on 25 December, 2019
  38. ^ Browning, Christopher R. (2004). The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939 - March 1942. Jerusalem: Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority. pp. 207–208. ISBN 978-0-8032-0392-1.
  39. ^ Wilson, James (2007). Propaganda Postcards of the Luftwaffe. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books. p. 188. ISBN 978-1-84415-491-3.
  40. ^ "Thursday July 25th - Wednesday July 31st 1940". Battle of Britain Historical Society. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
  41. ^ a b Weinberg, Gerhard L. (1954). Germany and the Soviet Union. E. J. Brill. pp. 112, 114.
  42. ^ Fischer, Klaus P. (2011). Hitler and America. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 126–127. ISBN 978-0-8122-0441-4.
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