Timeline September 1940

Events in September 1940 10

• 1892 – 1940 Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) Died 26 September 1940, aged 48 German-Jewish philosopher and critic, author of "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction". He fled occupied France and killed himself in Portbou after Spanish officials threatened to return his group to France.
• 1940 Destroyers-for-bases deal The US gives Britain 50 destroyers for base rights On 2 September the United States agreed to transfer 50 old destroyers to the Royal Navy. In return it received 99-year leases on bases in British territories in the Caribbean and Newfoundland. The deal marked a clear move away from American neutrality.
• 1940 – 2023 Raquel Welch American Actress & Icon American actress and cultural icon who rose to international fame in the 1960s. Born Jo Raquel Tejada to a Bolivian father and American mother, she became one of the defining sex symbols of her era following her appearance in One Million Years B.C. (1966). She won a Golden Globe for The Three Musketeers and had a career spanning over fifty years.
• 1940 Raquel Welch born in Chicago Born Jo Raquel Tejada in Chicago, Illinois. Her father was a Bolivian aerospace engineer and her mother was of English ancestry. The family moved to San Diego when she was two.
• 1940 – 1941 The Blitz London bombed for 57 consecutive nights Germany began the Blitz on September 7, 1940, bombing London and other British cities. London was bombed for 57 consecutive nights. Over 43,000 civilians were killed but British morale held firm.
• 1940 Lascaux cave paintings discovered Teenagers find Palaeolithic art in the Dordogne On 12 September four teenagers found a cave near Montignac containing about 600 painted animals and many engravings. The paintings are about 17,000 years old. Lascaux became one of the most famous examples of prehistoric art.
• 1940 Italian invasion of Egypt Italy advances from Libya into Egypt On 13 September the Italian Tenth Army crossed from Libya into Egypt and advanced about 100 km to Sidi Barrani, where it stopped and dug in. The offensive opened the Western Desert campaign. British forces counter-attacked in December.
• 1940 Selective Training and Service Act The first US peacetime draft On 16 September Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the first peacetime conscription law in American history. Men aged 21 to 35 had to register for military service. More than 16 million men registered on the first registration day in October.
• 1940 Japanese invasion of French Indochina Japan moves into northern Indochina Japanese forces invaded northern French Indochina on 22 September and fought briefly with French colonial troops before a settlement. Japan wanted to cut supply routes to China. The move led the United States to embargo scrap iron and steel exports to Japan.
• 1940 Tripartite Pact signed Germany, Italy and Japan form the Axis alliance On 27 September Germany, Italy and Japan signed a pact in Berlin. They promised to help each other if any of them was attacked by a power not yet in the war, which in practice meant the United States. Hungary, Romania and Slovakia joined in November.