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.
Attack on Mers-el-Kébir: The British bombed the French Navy base in French Algeria to ensure that the Vichy French government would not turn the fleet over to the Germans.
Exiled Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie arrived in Khartoum from Britain to prepare for the reconquest of his country from the Italians with Britain's help.[5]
French bombers attacked Gibraltar. Although no damage was done, the British would evacuate women and children from the area later that month.[6]
Winston Churchill expressed "sincere sorrow" as he delivered a speech to the House of Commons explaining "the measures which we have felt bound to take in order to prevent the French Fleet from falling into German hands."[7]
The British House of Commons unanimously passed a £1 billion war credit.[12]
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt held a press conference in which he continued to skillfully dodge questions about whether or not he was seeking the Democratic nomination for a third term at next week's convention.[15]
The Battle of Britain began. In its opening phase the Luftwaffe attacked coastal targets and shipping convoys in the English Channel with the goal of reducing Britain's air defences and naval supply lines ahead of a general air offensive.[16]
The French National Assembly voted 569–80 to give plenary power to the Vichy government.[12]Philippe Pétain assumed authoritarian powers.[9]
Marshal Pétain abrogated Article 2 of the French Constitutional Laws of 1875 which provided for the position of a President elected by the National Assembly.[17]
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]
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)
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 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]
President Roosevelt used the Export Control Act to restrict the export of aviation gasoline and certain types of scrap metal to Japan without special license.[6]
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 a Japanese 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 by jumping from a window of his prison in Tokyo.[37]
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)
German fighter ace Werner Mölders was wounded in the legs by enemy fire during the Battle of Britain but managed to return to base at Wissant. Mölders spent the next month recovering in a hospital.[39][40]
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]
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]
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]
^Mineiro, Michael (2012). Space Technology Export Controls and International Cooperation in Outer Space. Springer. p. 44. ISBN978-94-007-2567-6.
^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. ISBN978-90-04-12624-4.
^ abcdefghijk"1940". World War II Database. Retrieved December 11, 2015.
^Draper, Alfred (1979). Operation Fish: The Fight to Save the Gold of Britain, France and Norway from the Nazis. Don Mills: General Publishing. ISBN9780773600683.
^Brody, J. Kenneth (2010). The Trial of Pierre Laval: Defining Treason, Collaboration and Patriotism in World War II France. Transaction Publishers. p. 111. ISBN978-1-4128-3939-6.
^Garbarini, Alexandra (2011). Jewish Responses to Persecution: Volume II, 1938–1940. Lanham, Maryland: AltaMira Press. p. 556. ISBN978-0-7591-2039-6.
^Rosbottom, Ronald C. (2014). When Paris Went Dark: The City of Light Under German Occupation, 1940–1944. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN978-0-316-21745-3.
^"Wallace is F.D.R.'s Choice". Brooklyn Eagle. Brooklyn. July 18, 1940. p. 1.
^ abMatanle, Ivor (1995). World War II. Colour Library Books Ltd. pp. 52–53. ISBN1-85833-333-4.
^Hosch, William L., ed. (2010). The Korean War and The Vietnam War: People, Politics, and Power. Britannica Educational Publishing. p. 148. ISBN978-1-61530-047-1.
^Buell, Thomas B. (2002). The Second World War: Europe and the Mediterranean. West Point Military Series. p. 102. ISBN978-0-7570-0160-4.
^Clavin, Patricia (2013). Securing the World Economy: The Reinvention of the League of Nations, 1920–1946. Oxford University Press. p. 263. ISBN978-0-19-164868-7.
^[:ja:コックス事件] (Japanese language edition) Retrieved date on 25 December 2019
^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. ISBN978-0-8032-0392-1.
^Wilson, James (2007). Propaganda Postcards of the Luftwaffe. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books. p. 188. ISBN978-1-84415-491-3.