military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (10/12/89)
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Thursday, 12 October, 1939 Soviet-Finnish negotiations begin in Moscow. Russia requests that Finland cede territory on the shores of Lake Ladoga and the Gulf of Finland, and lease several ports, including Viipuri in the south and Petsamo in the north. In exchange, they offer Finland less strategic territory in the north. The liner SS Iroquois arrives safely in New York, despite German warnings that she would be attacked. The US Navy proposes a budget for Fiscal Year 1941, requesting over $ 900 million. Planned construction for that year includes 2 battleships 4-8 light cruisers, 8 destroyers, and 8 submarines. Since 1933, the US Naval building program has totalled some 1.2 billion dollars. British PM Neville Chamberlain rejects the Hitler peace offer. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@cbnews.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "And I personally take exception at seeing foreign statesmen stand up and call me guilty of having broken my word..." - Adolf Hitler