- July 15
- First betatron placed in operation, Urbana, Illinois, USA. [1]
- July 18
- First successful helicopter flight, Stratford, Connecticut, USA. [1]
- July 19
- Samuel H Chang, American newspaper magnate, is murdered in Shanghai, China. [1]
- In the Reichstag, Adolf Hitler makes a peace offer to Great Britain. [10]
- July 20
- Billboard magazine publishes its first comprehensive singles record chart, combining the top sellers from all labels. The chart's first number-one record is "I'll Never Smile Again" by the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra with Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers. [1] [457]
- July 21
- The People's Assembly of Lithuania declares entry of country into the USSR. [10] [1367.578]
- July 23
- "Blitz" begins, all-night German air raid on London, England. [1]
- July 27
- Billboard magazine starts publishing bestseller charts. [1]
- July 31
- Adolf Hitler meets with Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl, Walther von Brauchitsch, and Franz Halder. Hitler announces his intention to launch an attack on Russia in the spring of 1941. [10]
- August 1
- British Duke Edward and duchess Wallis set sail from Lisbon, Portugal, to assume the governorship of the Bahamas in the West Indies. [129]
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- August 3
- The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic is officially incorporated into the Soviet Union. [10]
- August 7
- Largest amount paid for a postage stamp (US$45,000 for 1-cent 1856 British Guiana). [1]
- August 13
- Adolf Hitler's "Eagle Day" commences, with 1485 plane sorties against British ports and airfields, attempting to eliminate British air forces as an obstacle to invasion. [10]
- August 17
- US President Franklin Roosevelt and Canadian Prime Minister William King meet at Ogdensburg, New York for a conference on hemispheric defence. They announce a joint defence commission on North American defence. [1] [245.4]
- August 20
- British Prime Minister Winston Churchill says of the Royal Air Force, "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few". [1]
- Frank Jackson, agent of Josef Stalin, stabs Leon Trotsky with an ice pick in Mexico City. [1]
- August 21
- Leon Trotsky dies of wounds inflicted by an assailant the previous day. [1]
- August 27
- Caproni-Campini CC-2, experimental jet plane, maiden flight (Milan). [1]
- August 30
- Vienna Arbitration Award treaty between Romania and Hungary returns northern Transylvania to Hungary. [1005.71]
- September 2
- The US and Great Britain sign a deal in which the US will gain the lease of naval and air bases in Newfoundland, islands of Bermuda, Bahamas, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Trinidad, Antigua, and British Guiana, in exchange for fifty naval destroyers. [10]
- September 3
- First showing of high definition color TV. [1]
- September 4
- Adolf Hitler announces that British cities will be bombed night after night, in retaliation for their bombing of Berlin. [10]
- In Japan, a meeting is held of four principal ministers to establish guidelines for negotiating joining an alliance with Germany and Italy. They establish that Japan's sphere of influence would encompass China, Manchuria, former German-mandated islands, French Indochina and Pacific islands, Siam, British Malaya and Borneo, Netherlands East Indies, Burma, Australia, New Zealand, and possibly India. [10]
- September 7
- German Air Force blitzes London, England for first of 57 consecutive nights. [1] [1458.84]
- September 11
- George Stibitz pioneers the first remote operation of a computer. [5]
- September 12
- Cave paintings are discovered in Lascaux, France. [5]
- 49 die and 200 injured when Hercules Powder Company plant explodes (New Jersey, USA). [1]
- September 13
- The Italian 10th Army of over 200,000 men, commanded by Marshal Graziani, crosses the Libyan frontier into Egypt, to gain control of the Suez Canal. They venture fifty miles in, and set up defences at Sidi Barrani. This act begins the war in North Africa. [10]
- September 15
- Romanian General Ion Antonescu allows the Iron Guard to take over the government. [1191.325]
- Tide turns in Battle of Britain in war, RAF beats Luftwaffe. [1]
- September 17
- Adolf Hitler gives orders to postpone indefinitely invasion plans of Great Britain. The invasion fleet and troops are ordered dispersed from the area. [10]
- September 18
- Soviet Minister of Defence Marshal S.K. Timoshenko and Chief of General Staff K.A. Meretskov submit a war plan to Josef Stalin and Prime Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, proposing an attack on Germany north of the Pripet marshes, with a strong defence to the south, or vice-versa. [10]
- September 19
- German decree forbids gentile women to work in Jewish homes. [1]
- September 23
- Japanese forces march into northern French Indochina, taking Tonkin Province quickly. [10]
- British and Free French forces commence a joint operation under Charles de Gaulle to try to seize Dakar in French West Africa. [10]
- September 25
- Operation Menace ends at Dakar in French West Africa, as the occupation force withdraws at night. [10]
- Vidkun Quisling installed as prime minister of Norway. [392.34]
- September 27
- In Berlin, Germany, Japanese premier Prince Fumimaro Konoye and Italian and German officials sign the Tripartite Pact defensive alliance. Each nation pledges mutual support in the event of attack by a power not presently involved in the European or Chinese-Japanese conflict. The intent is to keep the United States out of the war. [10]
- October 2
- British liner Empress, loaded with refugees for Canada, is sunk. [1]
- October 4
- Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini confer at Brenner Pass in the Alps. [1]
- October 8
- German troops enter Romania to protect its oilfields. [10]
- October 11
- French Marshal Pétain announces his intention of collaborating with Germany. [10]
- October 16
- Warsaw Ghetto established. [1]
- October 24
- Adolf Hitler meets with Marshal Pétain at Montoire, France. Pétain agrees to collaborate against Britain, in return for compensation in Africa and a high place in the New Europe. [10]
- October 26
- The US P-51 Mustang makes its maiden flight. [5]
- October 28
- Italian President Benito Mussolini sends Greek government an ultimatum: allow Italian forces to occupy Greece or face war. [984.248]
- Italy launches an attack on Greece from Albania. [10] [995.39]
- October 31
- Deadline for Warsaw Jews to move into the Warsaw Ghetto. [1]
- November 7
- Tacoma Narrows (Galloping Gertie) Bridge collapses, Washington State, USA. [1]
- November 11
- (evening) British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious launches 21 Swordfish planes, attacking the Italian naval fleet at Taranto. Four major ships are sunk or put out of action. Two attacking aircraft are shot down. [10]
- November 12
- Blizzard strikes midwestern US, 154 die (69 on boat on Great Lakes). [1]
- November 13
- RKO Radio Pictures world premieres Disney's third animated feature film, Fantasia, at New York's Broadway Theater. The film introduces stereophonic sound to motion pictures via a special sound system called Fantasound. This is Mickey Mouse' feature film debut, in the segment The Sorcerer's Apprentice. [6]
- November 14
- 449 German planes bomb and destroy most of Coventry, England. 554 people killed. [1458.85]
- November
- Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin agree that the America should be excluded from Eurasia. [721.xiv]
- November 20
- Hungary signs the Tripartite Pact with Germany, Japan, and Italy. [10]
- November 23
- Romania joins the Tripartite Pact. [10]
- November 25
- Patria steamer sinks killing 200, outside of Haifa. [1]
- November 26
- Germans force 500,000 Warsaw Jews to live in walled ghetto. [1]
- December 6
- Gestapo arrest German resistance fighter/poster artist Helen Ernst. [1]
- Pietro Badoglio resigns as viceroy of Ethiopia. [1]
- December 7
- British counter offensive in North Africa under General O'Connor. [1]
- December 9
- British assault on Banghazi Libya. [1]
- British troops make first major offensive in North Africa (Libya) during World War II. [1]
- Illegal Jewish immigrants to Haifa are deported to Mauritius. [1]
- December 10
- British anti-offensive in Libya (Sidi Barrani). [1]
- December 11
- Russian General Zhukov warns of German assault. [1]
- December 12
- British troops conquer Sidi el-Barrani. [1]
- December 15
- British forces drive Italians out of Egypt, and invade Libya. [10]
- December 16
- British air raid on Mannheim. [1]
- December 17
- British troops occupy Sollum. [1]
- December 29
- Germany begins dropping incendiary bombs on London, England. [1]
- December (month)
- 37 German submarines sunk this month (213,000 ton). [1]
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