May 1940 Churchill had asked President Roosevelt for both arms and financial assistance in the war, which the USA was not to enter as a combatant until Pearl Harbour on 7/12/1941. Roosevelt was sympathetic to the British cause but had three obstacles to face. 1) Congress was isolationist, and Roosevelt did not wish to do anything to jeopardise his re-election prospects before November 1940. 2) The neutrality Act had to be amended to allow Britain and France to purchase arms for cash; this was done in November 1939. 3) The Johnson Act, 1934, forbade loans to any country defaulting on its loans, and Britain had still not paid back money it borrowed during World War One. In May 1940 Roosevelt authorised Congress to release from ordnance stores 500,000 WW1 rifles and 900 75mm field guns. In September 1940 Roosevelt provided Britain with 50 old destroyers in return for 99 year leases on British islands in the Caribbean and Newfoundland. In December 1940 Churchill requested American protection of Atlantic convoys and financial assistance to purchase further American arms. Roosevelt was advised that Britain had less than US$2 billion to meet arms purchases of US$ 5billion. Roosevelt coined the term ‘lend lease’, on the analogy of a neighbour who lends his hose if the house is on fire.
6/3/1941. Gutzon Borglum, American sculptor noted for his work on the Mount Rushmore heads of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt, died.
6/1/1941. Roosevelt sent the Lend Lease Bill to Congress. Congress agreed the Bill on 11/3/1941.
4/1/1941. The German-born actress Marlene Dietrich became a US citizen.
17/12/1940, US President Franklin Roosevelt proposed ‘Lend Lease’ for Britain.
7/11/1940. Britain, the USA, and Australia agreed on the defence of the Pacific.
16/10/1940, The first lottery to select US citizens for the military draft began; 158 were drawn this day.
27/9/1940. Imperial Japan signed a 10-year military and economic alliance with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. This was greatly disturbing to both the USSR and the USA; Japan and Russia had been enemies since the 1905 war, and Hitler’s alliance with Russia, signed in 1939, was looking more uncertain.. The USA now realised that entering the war on the side of the Allies would now entail a war in the Pacific.
20/7/1940. The first singles charts were published in the US journal Billboard.
15/5/1940. Nylon stockings went on sale for the first time, in America. In New York. Alone, 72,000 pairs were sold in the first eight hours.
26/2/1940, The United States Air Defense Command was created, to provide co-ordinated air defence for the USA.
7/2/1940, Disney’s film Pinocchio was given a gala premiere in New York.
8/12/1939, As the UK began a naval blockade of Germany, the US protested at restrictions on international free trade.
4/11/1939. President Roosevelt announced he would amend the Neutrality Act to allow Britain and France to buy arms from the USA. Roosevelt hoped this would avoid direct US involvement in the war.
18/10/1939, Lee Harvey Oswald, American assassin, was born in New Orleans.
17/10/1939, Evel Kneivel, American stuntman , was born.
13/10/1939, Hitler made an unsuccessful attempt to persuade US President Roosevelt to mediate a peace between Germany, France and Britain.
5/9/1939. President Roosevelt declared the USA neutral in World War Two.
2/8/1939, Albert Einstein wrote to US President Franklin D Roosevelt urging him to commit to research into the possibility of atomic bombs.
28/7/1939, William James Mayo, US surgeon and co-founder of the Mayo Clinic, died aged 78.
30/4/1939, The World Fair in New York opened. It was opened by President Franklin D Roosevelt, who became the first US President to appear on TV, as NBC began their TV news service this day.
14/4/1939, John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath was published.
1/4/1939, The USA recognised Franco’s government in Spain.
31/10/1938. A radio broadcast of H G Well’s War of the Worlds caused widespread panic because of its vivid realism. The adaptation of the play carried a warning that it was not 