break out from the encircled city. July 6–16 Évian Conference: The United States and the United Kingdom refuse to accept any more Jewish refugees. July 29 The Soviet–Japanese border conflicts begin with the Battle of Lake Khasan. August Soviet Union wins the Battle of Lake Khasan against Japan. September 27 U.S. President Roosevelt sends a letter to German Führer Adolf Hitler seeking peace. September 30 The Munich Agreement is signed by Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Italy. The agreement allows Germany to annex the Czechoslovak Sudetenland area in exchange for peace in an attempt to appease Hitler. Related: . October 5 Germany invalidates the passports of all its Jewish citizens who are reissued passports with the letter "J" stamped in red. This change was made after requests by Sweden and Switzerland who wanted a way of easily denying Jews entry into their countries. November 7 Polish-German Jew Herschel Grynszpan murders moderate German consular aide Ernst vom Rath in Paris. November 9 vom Rath's death triggers Kristallnacht pogrom begins in Germany; thousands of Jewish shops and synagogues are smashed, looted, burned, and destroyed throughout the country. 1939 January 25 A uranium atom is split for the first time at Columbia University in the United States. January 27 Hitler orders Plan Z, a 5-year naval expansion programme intended to provide for a huge German fleet capable of defeating the British Royal Navy by 1944. The Kriegsmarine is given the first priority on the allotment of German economic resources. This is the first and only time the Kriegsmarine is given the first priority in the history of the Third Reich. March 14 The pro-German Slovak Republic is created. Carpatho-Ukraine is created, which Hungary invades that same day. March 15 Germany occupies and annexes Bohemia and Moravia-Silesia in violation of the Munich Agreement. The Czechs do not attempt to put up any organized resistance, having lost their main defensive line with the annexation of the Sudetenland. Germany establishes the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The Second Czechoslovak Republic is dissolved. March 16 Hungary annexes Carpatho-Ukraine. March 20 German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop delivers an oral ultimatum to Lithuania, demanding that it cede the Klaipėda Region (German name Memel) to Germany. March 21 Hitler demands the return of the Free City of Danzig to Germany. March 23 German–Romanian Treaty for the Development of Economic Relations between the Two Countries is signed. Germany annexes