4: Roosevelt signs into law the amendments to the Neutrality Act: belligerents may buy arms from the United States, but on a strictly cash and carry basis, banning the use of American ships.

8: Hitler escapes a bomb blast in a Munich beerhall; British bombers coincidentally bomb Munich.

13: The first British destroyer lost in the war is HMS Blanche, sunk by a minefield laid by an u-boat close to the Thames Estuary.

14: The Polish government-in-exile moves to London.

16: The first British civilian casualty occurs when a German bomber kills James Isbister in an air raid on Orkney in Scotland.

23: The German battleships Gneisenau and the Scharnhorst sink the British armed merchant cruiser HMS Rawalpindi between Iceland and the Faroe Islands. About 270 crewmen die, while only 38 survive.

23: Polish Jews are ordered to wear Star of David armbands.