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September 16th, 1940

During the early morning London is bombed, wrecking the Strand Shell Mex building and damaging the Gaiety Theatre, St. Thomas's, Guys and Lambeth hospitals.

During the following night bombers caused seven huge fires in the East End and also hit parts of Birmingham and Wakefield Prison.

Losses: Luftwaffe, 9; RAF, 1.

In the morning six shells land on Dover.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-99 sank SS Lotos in Convoy SC-3. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.A.:  The Congress passes the Burke-Wadsworth Bill (the Selective Training and Service Act) by wide margins in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. This bill provides for the first peacetime draft (conscription) in the history of the United States but also provides that not more than 900,000 men are to be in training at any one time and it limits military service to 12 months. It also provides for the establishment of the Selective Service System as an independent Federal agency. President Franklin D. Roosevelt immediately signs the bill into law. The first draftees will be selected next month.   (Jack McKillop)

     The first call up of National Guard units occurs. Called into Federal service are 4 divisions, 12 brigades, 50 regiments and 4 observation squadrons from 26 states. The divisions are New Jersey's 44th, Oklahoma's 45th, Oregon's 41st, and South Carolina's 30th. Eighteen of the 50 regiments are coast artillery regiments.  Here for more detailed unit information. (Jack McKillop)

     The keel of the Iowa-class battleship New Jersey (BB-62) is laid at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Pennsylvania. The "Big J," as she will be nicknamed, becomes the most decorated battleship in the history of the USN.  (Jack McKillop)

     Representative Samuel T Rayburn of Texas is elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, a post he will hold for 17-years. (Jack McKillop)

     In baseball, a rhubarb erupts at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York, during a game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers. The fight results in a suspension and fine for Dodgers' manager Leo Durocher for "inciting a riot." Perhaps better known from the game is the photo showing an obese Brooklyn fan astride George Magerkurth, pummeling the veteran umpire.  (Jack McKillop)
 

EGYPT: Sidi Barrani: Italian troops have managed to fight their way to this Egyptian coastal outpost as Lieutenant-General Maitland Wilson, GOC Egypt, and his heavily outnumbered force of British and Indian troops are withdrawing to a prepared defence line at Mersa Matruh.

Although the next battle could be decisive - with an Italian victory leaving Egypt open to Marshal Graziani's army - the Italians are fortifying Sidi Barrani, with the marshal ignoring furious orders from the Duce to attack, preferring to put up monuments to his "victorious advance". While Mussolini fumes, Churchill in beleaguered Britain has taken the "awful and right" decision to despatch 150 tanks and other desperately-needed weapons to General Wavell, Britain's C-in-C Middle East.

Although small in number - with fewer than 30,000 men facing 250,000 Italians - the hard core of Wavell's army is professional, tough and confident. The question now is whether the British line can hold until the tanks are unloaded in Alexandria.

LIBYA:  The Italian destroyers Aquilone and Borea are sunk off Bengasi by British bombers.  (Jack McKillop)
 

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