January 8, 1940: Outnumbered Finnish troops defeat the Soviet Red Army inBattle of Suomussalmi.January 29, 1940: Multiple train collision and fire kills 200 people in Japan
U.S. PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt gave the1940 State of the Union Address to Congress. "In previous messages to the Congress I have repeatedly warned that, whether we like it or not, the daily lives of American citizens will, of necessity, feel the shock of events on other continents. This is no longer mere theory; because it has been definitely proved to us by the facts of yesterday and today," the president said. He asked the Congress to approve increased national defense spending "based not on panic but on common sense" and "to levy sufficient additional taxes" to help pay for it.[3]
The pro-Nazi English socialiteUnity Mitford, who was in Germany when the war began, arrived at the English port ofFolkestone under heavy police guard and was brought ashore on a stretcher. Her fatherLord Redesdale told a reporter that his daughter was very ill.[4][5]
Hollywood actorsWilliam Powell andDiana Lewis were married on a ranch nearLas Vegas,Nevada. The marriage was a surprise to most people as few even knew they were a couple.[7]
German documents record an attack on this date by the German First Minesweeper Flotilla on an unidentified submarine nearHeligoland. Since the British submarineSeahorse was on patrol at the time but never returned, it is thought to have been sunk in this attack.[9][10]
The British submarineUndine was attacked and badly damaged near Heligoland by three German minesweepers. Early the next day the submarine was scuttled and the crew taken prisoner.[9]
Mechelen incident: A German aircraft with an officer on board carrying plans forFall Gelb, the German invasion of theLow Countries, crash-landed in neutral Belgium. The plans fell into the hands of Belgian intelligence.[1]
Hitler ordered that no one would be allowed to know more than he did about any secret matter.[8]
FBI agents arrested 17 members of theChristian Front for planning a vast plot to overthrow the U.S. government and establish a fascist dictatorship.[16] The charges were described as "a bit fantastic" by the Attorney General, Robert Jackson, and eventually dropped.
British Parliament met for the first time in the New Year.[18] Prime MinisterNeville Chamberlain made a speech on the general war situation which concluded, "At the moment there is a lull in the operations of war, but at any time that lull may be sharply broken, and events may occur within a few weeks or even a few hours which will reshape the history of the world. We, in this country, hope, as do the peoples of every nation, that the just and lasting peace which we are seeking will not be long delayed. On the other hand, it may well be that the war is about to enter upon a more acute phase. If that should prove to be the case, we are ready for it, and in common with our Allies we will spare no effort and no sacrifice that may be necessary to secure the victory on which we are determined."[19]
Europe was struck by acold wave. InFinland the mercury dipped as low as −45 degrees Celsius, while in England theRiver Thames froze up for the first time since 1888.[1][5]
Palmiry massacre: 255 Jews inWarsaw were arrested at random. Over the next week they would be taken to thePalmiry Forest outside the city and shot dead.[20]
By a vote of 44 to 10, the provincial legislature ofOntario passed a motion introduced by PremierMitchell Hepburn criticizing Canadian Prime MinisterWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King for making "so little effort to prosecute Canada's duty in the war in the vigorous manner in which the people of Canada desire to see."[21]
Winston Churchill gave an address over the radio referred to as the "House of Many Mansions" speech, with neutral nations its primary subject. Churchill explained that there was "no chance of a speedy end" to the war "except through united action", and asked listeners to consider what would happen if neutral nations "were with one spontaneous impulse to do their duty in accordance with theCovenant of the League, and were to stand together with the British and French Empires against aggression and wrong?" Churchill concluded, "The day will come when the joybells will ring again throughout Europe, and when victorious nations, masters not only of their foes but of themselves, will plan and build in justice, in tradition, and in freedom a house of many mansions where there will be room for all."[24]
London recorded a temperature of 12 degrees Fahrenheit - the city's coldest day since 1881.[25]
A temperature of −30.1 °C (−22.2 °F) was recorded in the Valley of theLesse inRochefort,Belgium - the country's coldest temperature ever.[26]
Pope Pius XII made a radio broadcast condemning Germany's actions in Poland.[13]
TheUnited States Treasury published a list of Americans who made salaries of more than $75,000 in 1938. The list revealed thatClaudette Colbert was the highest-paid star in Hollywood that year with a salary of $301,944, followed byWarner Baxter who made $279,807.[27]
Former South African Prime MinisterJ. B. M. Hertzog introduced a motion in theHouse of Assembly that "the time has arrived that the war with Germany should be ended and that peace be restored." The motion's wording was ambiguous as to whether it was advocating a general or a separate peace.[28]
Britain lowered the speed limit at night in populated areas to 20 miles per hour due to the sharp increase in the rate of auto accidents duringblackouts.[1]
Oliver Stanley announced in the House of Commons thatkilts would not be issued to members of Scottish regiments except to pipers and drummers, for reasons connected to the possible use of poison gas by the enemy.[29]
France announced a new decree providing sentences of up to two years in prison and fines up to 5,000 francs for "false assertions" presented as "personal opinions" that correspond to "enemy propaganda and which, expressed publicly, indicate the marked intention of their authors to injure national defense by attacking the morale of the army and population".[31]
The Nazis warned that listening to foreign radio was punishable by death.[5]
Charles de Gaulle issued a memo to his superiors stating, "We began the war with five million soldiers yet our aerial forces are only now being equipped and our armoured vehicles are too weak and too few in number."[8]
U-boat captains were permitted from now on to make submerged attacks without warning on certain merchant vessels (though not on Spanish, Russian, Japanese or American ships) east of Scotland, in theBristol Channel and in theEnglish Channel.[22]
Hertzog's peace resolution was defeated, 81 to 59.[13]
The German government demanded at least 1 million industrial and rural workers be provided fromNazi-occupied Poland to work assignments in the Reich.[34]
A new musical quiz show calledBeat the Band premiered onNBC Radio. The audience sent in riddles to thehouse band in which the answer was always the title of a song. Listeners earned $10 if their question was used and an additional $10 if their question stumped the band.[36]
French Prime MinisterÉdouard Daladier made a radio address to the people of France titled "The Nazis' Aim is Slavery". "For us, there is more to do than merely win the war," Daladier said. "We shall win it, but we must also win a victory far greater than that of arms. In this world of masters and slaves, which those madmen who rule at Berlin are seeking to forge, we must also save liberty and human dignity."[37]
Adolf Hitler gave a speech at theBerlin Sportpalast on the seventh anniversary of the Nazis taking power, his first formal address since narrowly avoiding the attempt on his life in November. The location of the speech was kept secret up until a few hours before it began. Hitler claimed that Britain and France "wanted war" and he vowed that they would "get their fight".[39]
Heinrich Himmler issued a statement clarifying his "procreation" order of last October 28. The "worst misunderstanding", Himmler wrote, was that the order encouragedSS men to approach the wives of serving soldiers.[40]
The German submarineU-15 sank in theNorth Sea in theHoofden after it was accidentally rammed by the German torpedo boatIltis.
The German submarineU-55 was depth charged, shelled and sunk off theShetland Islands by Allied convoyOA-80G.
Born:Mitch Murray, songwriter and record producer, inHove, England
Britain secretly approached neutralItaly about purchasing badly needed fighter planes for the war effort. Germany would ensure that no such deal would be made.[1]
Died:Candelaria of San José, 76, Venezuelan founder of the Hermanas Carmelitas de Madre Candelaria;René Schickele, 56, German-French writer, essayist and translator
^Mansergh, Nicholas (1968).Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs: Problems of Wartime Cooperation and Post-War Change, 1939–1952. Frank Cass and Company Limited. p. 33.
^Hanson, Patricia King, ed. (1993).The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States: Feature Films, 1931–1940. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. p. 822.ISBN0-520-07908-6.
^Macfarlane, Malcolm; Crossland, Ken (2009).Perry Como: A Biography and Complete Career Record. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 24.ISBN978-1-4766-0024-6.
^Whiticker, Alan J. (2009).Speeches that Reshaped the World. Sydney: New Holland Publishers.ISBN978-1-921655-63-0.
