December 1940

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1940
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The following events occurred in December 1940:

December 1, 1940 (Sunday)

December 2, 1940 (Monday)

  • The British armed merchant cruiser Forfar was sunk west of Scotland by the German submarine U-99.
  • The cargo ship Wihelmina was torpedoed and sunk in the North Atlantic by the German submarine U-94.
  • Died: Nikolai Koltsov, 68, Russian biologist; Bernard Revel, 55, Lithuanian-American Orthodox rabbi and scholar

December 3, 1940 (Tuesday)

December 4, 1940 (Wednesday)

December 5, 1940 (Thursday)

December 6, 1940 (Friday)

  • Field Marshal Pietro Badoglio was scapegoated for the Italian military reverses in Greece and made to resign as Chief of Staff of the Italian Army. He was replaced by Ugo Cavallero.[6]
  • Benito Mussolini called Dino Alfieri, the Italian ambassador to Berlin, and told him to request any immediate help the Germans could provide. Alfieri met with Joachim von Ribbentrop, who gave him a stern lecture about the Italian government ignoring Hitler's warning not to attack Greece.[6]
  • The Greeks occupied Sarandë.[7]
  • British submarine HMS Regulus was lost near Taranto, probably to a naval mine.
  • The comedy film Go West starring the Marx Brothers was released.

December 7, 1940 (Saturday)

December 8, 1940 (Sunday)

December 9, 1940 (Monday)

December 10, 1940 (Tuesday)

December 11, 1940 (Wednesday)

December 12, 1940 (Thursday)

December 13, 1940 (Friday)

December 14, 1940 (Saturday)

December 15, 1940 (Sunday)

December 16, 1940 (Monday)

December 17, 1940 (Tuesday)

  • The British captured Fort Capuzzo and Sallum near the Egypt-Libya border.[13]
  • The British destroyer Acheron sank after hitting a mine off the Isle of Wight.
  • U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a press conference in which he suggested leasing or selling of arms to Britain "on the general theory that it may still prove true that the best defense of Great Britain is the best defense of the United States, and therefore that these materials would be more useful to the defense of the United States if they were used in Great Britain, than if they were kept in storage here."[14]
  • Dorothy O'Grady was sentenced to death in England for spying.[15] Her appeal would reduce the sentence to 14 years in prison.

December 18, 1940 (Wednesday)

December 19, 1940 (Thursday)

December 20, 1940 (Friday)

December 21, 1940 (Saturday)

December 22, 1940 (Sunday)

December 23, 1940 (Monday)

  • Winston Churchill broadcast an appeal to the people of Italy, telling them to overthrow Mussolini for bringing them into a war against their wishes. "Surely the Italian army, which has fought so bravely on many occasions in the past but now evidently has no heart for the job, should take some care of the life and future of Italy?" Churchill asked. It is unlikely that many Italians heard the speech since they were forbidden from listening to foreign broadcasts.[20]
  • Born: Jorma Kaukonen, guitarist, in Washington, D.C.; Robert Labine, politician, in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada
  • Died: Eddie August Schneider, 29, American aviator (plane crash)

December 24, 1940 (Tuesday)

  • The Canadian Corps became effective in the United Kingdom.
  • An unofficial two-day Christmas truce began in the aerial war between Britain and Germany.[21]
  • The second of the two New Hampshire earthquakes struck.
  • Mahatma Gandhi wrote his second letter to Hitler, addressing him as "Dear Friend" and apprealing to him "in the name of humanity to stop the war. You will lose nothing by referring all the matters of dispute between you and Great Britain to an international tribunal of your joint choice. If you attain success in the war, it will not prove that you were in the right. It will only prove that your power of destruction was greater. Whereas an award by an impartial tribunal will show as far as it is humanly possible which party was in the right."[22]
  • Born: Janet Carroll, actress, in Chicago, Illinois (d. 2012)
  • Died: Billy Hill, 41, American songwriter

December 25, 1940 (Wednesday)

December 26, 1940 (Thursday)

December 27, 1940 (Friday)

December 28, 1940 (Saturday)

December 29, 1940 (Sunday)

  • President Roosevelt used the phrase "Arsenal of Democracy" during a radio address promising to help the United Kingdom fight Nazi Germany by providing them with war supplies.
  • Vichy France created a commission for Jewish affairs.[27]
  • The Italian troopship Sardegna was torpedoed and sunk by the Greek submarine Proteus, which was then rammed and sunk by the destroyer Antares.[28]
  • The reigning NFL champion Chicago Bears defeated an all-star team 28-14 in the National Football League All-Star Game at Gilmore Stadium in Los Angeles.
  • Superman co-creator Joe Shuster was arrested in Miami Beach, Florida for the "suspicious behavior" of looking into an automobile as if preparing to steal it. The following day he was sentenced to 30 days in prison until someone thought to give Shuster a pen and paper so he could prove his identity. Shuster drew a perfect illustration of Superman and the police let him go free.[29]

December 30, 1940 (Monday)

December 31, 1940 (Tuesday)

References

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