10 January — World War II:
Mechelen Incident: A German plane carrying secret plans for the invasion of western Europe makes a forced landing in
Belgium, leading to mobilization of defense forces in the
Low Countries.
German invasion of Norway: German heavy cruiser
Blücher is sunk
by gunfire and torpedoes from the Norwegian coastal fortress
Oscarsborg in the
Oslofjord. Of the 2,202 German crew and troops on board, some 830 died (at least 320 of them crewmen). Most either drowned or burnt to death in the flaming oil slick surrounding the wreck.
20 April - on his 51st birthday,
Hitler orders the formation of a new
SS regiment, containing Norwegians and Danes as well as Germans.
21 June — World War II:
Vichy France and Germany sign an armistice at
Compiegne, in the same wagon-lit railroad car used by Marshal
Ferdinand Foch to accept the surrender of Germany in 1918.
14 July — World War II:
Winston Churchill, in a worldwide broadcast, proclaims the intention of Great Britain to fight alone against Germany whatever the outcome.
19 July — World War II:
Adolf Hitler promotes 12 generals to field marshal during the
1940 Field Marshal Ceremony following the swift victory over
France, and makes a peace appeal to
Britain in an address to the
Reichstag.
Lord Halifax, British foreign minister, flatly rejects peace terms in a broadcast reply on 22 July.
14 November — World War II: The city of
Coventry,
England is destroyed by 500 German
Luftwaffe bombers (150,000
fire bombs, 503 tons of high explosives, and 130 parachute mines level 60,000 of the city's 75,000 buildings; 568 people are killed).
16 November — World War II: In response to Germany levelling
Coventry 2 days before, the
Royal Air Force begins to bomb
Hamburg (by war's end, 50,000 Hamburg residents will have died from
Allied attacks).
29 December — World War II:
Luftwaffe carries out a massive incendiary bombing raid on London, UK, starting 1,500 fires. Many famous buildings, including the
Guildhall and Trinity House, are either damaged or destroyed.
^Longerich, Peter (2010). Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. p. 162.
ISBN978-0-19-280436-5.
^Hooton, E.R. (2007). Luftwaffe at War: Blitzkrieg in the West. London: Chevron/Ian Allan. p. 88.
ISBN978-1-85780-272-6.
^Roy Hemming (1994). Discovering Great Music: A New Listener's Guide to the Top Classical Composers and Their Best Recordings. Newmarket Press. p. 248.
ISBN9781557042101.