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| 11/05/1940 |
President Roosevelt expresses his dismay
to King Leopold of Belgium about the German invasion. |
| 30/05/1940 |
Roosevelt asks Congress
for considerable funds to strengthen the US Armed forces. |
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| 10/06/1940 |
President Roosevelt announces
a shift from neutrality to "non-belligerency," while
condemning Germany and Italy and promising material aid to both
Britain and France. |
| 15/06/1940 |
Roosevelt assures Reynaud that US aid
will be redoubled. |
| 28/06/1940 |
The Alien Registration Act (the Smith
Act) passed by the US Congress requires aliens to register and
be fingerprinted. The Act makes it illegal to advocate the overthrow
of the US government. |
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| 05/07/1940 |
President Roosevelt lays down ‘five
fundamentals of freedom’: freedom from fear, of information,
of religion, of expression, and from want. |
| 20/07/1940 |
President Roosevelt signs
the 'Two Ocean Navy Expansion Act'. This was the first step
in preparing America for war against either Germany or Japan,
or both. |
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| 02/08/1940 |
Montreal mayor Camillien
Houde publicly urges Quebecers to not sign up for national registration
for war duty. |
| 05/08/1940 |
U.S. and Vichy France reach Green-Slade-Robert
Agreement, an understanding on the status of French warships
and aircraft in the French West Indies. Montreal mayor Camillien
Houde is arrested, and charged under the Defence of Canada Regulations.
He is imprisoned at Camp Petawawa in Ontario until the end of
the war. |
| 13/08/1940 |
Roosevelt agrees to supply 50 First
World War destroyers to Britain in return for the lease of naval
bases in the Caribbean. Colonel E.L.M. Burns proposes developing
a Canadian parachute force. The idea is rejected by the Director
of Military Operations in headquarters. |
| 17/08/1940 |
Duke of Windsor sworn in as governor-general
of Bermuda. |
| 21/08/1940 |
Leon Trotsky is assassinated
by a Stalinist agent while in exile in Mexico City. |
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| 03/09/1940 |
The US Congress finally
agrees to the handing over of 50 old destroyers in return for
99 year leases of British Naval bases in Antigua, St. Lucia,
Trinidad, British Guiana the Bahamas, Jamaica and Argentia. |
| 12/09/1940 |
Canada's cabinet introduces Order
In Council P.C. 4751, giving Canadian authorities power to imprison
disobedient foreign seamen from non-Canadian ships in Canadian
ports. |
| 16/09/1940 |
President Roosevelt signs US Conscription
Bill. |
| 20/09/1940 |
The Canadian War Technical and Scientific
Development Committee approves a request by Frederick Banting
to begin bacterial warfare research. |
| 25/09/1940 |
The US cryptanalyst, Harry L Clark,
discovers the key to the Japanese top secret codes, allowing
the US to read Japanese diplomatic, naval and military to top
secret coded traffic. |
| 26/09/1940 |
US President Franklin Roosevelt imposes
an embargo on the export of aviation fuel, scrap iron, and steel
to Japan, citing American defence needs. |
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| 12/10/1940 |
President Roosevelt in
a fireside chat suggests the drafting of 18 and 19 year old
men. |
| 15/10/1940 |
16 million Americans already registered
for National Service. |
| 29/10/1940 |
Conscription begins in the U.S. It
is the first military draft to occur during peacetime in American
history. |
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| 05/11/1940 |
Roosevelt is elected as
President of USA for an unprecedented third term with 54 percent
of the popular vote. He defeats Republican Wendell L. Willke. |
| 12/11/1940 |
Colonel Burns again proposes a Canadian
parachute force to the Chief of General Staff. The idea is shelved,
and no action is taken. |
| 19/11/1940 |
The Canadian government approves initiation
of mass production of war bacteria. |
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| 23/12/1940 |
Lord Halifax appointed British ambassador
to Washington. |
| 29/12/1940 |
Roosevelt tells Americans:
"We must be the great arsenal of the democracies." |
