sent a letter to Francisco Franco asking for Germany to be granted naval bases in the Canary Islands and other places. Franco would reject the request a week later by asking for an excessive amount of compensation in return. Lieutenant Colonel Bernhard von Lossberg prepared the Lossberg study on the planned German invasion of the Soviet Union. General elections were held in Sweden. The Swedish Social Democratic Party remained the country's largest party, receiving more than half the vote. Died: Glenn Frank, 52, American journalist and President of the University of Wisconsin-Madison September 16, 1940 (Monday) Italian forces captured Sidi Barrani. The Italian Tenth Army halted and took up defensive positions around the port so supplies could be moved up. RAF planes from the carrier Illustrious attacked Benghazi and sank four Italian ships. The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 was enacted in the United States, the first peacetime conscription in American history. September 17, 1940 (Tuesday) Hitler postponed Operation Sea Lion indefinitely. Heinrich Himmler ruled that all Polish workers must wear a yellow badge marked with the letter "P" to distinguish themselves from Germans. September 18, 1940 (Wednesday) The British passenger ship City of Benares was torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by German submarine U-48 Chongqing University of Technology was established in China. The Cincinnati Reds clinched their second straight National League pennant with a 4–3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies in 13 innings. German submarine U-143 was commissioned. Born: Frankie Avalon, actor and singer, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (some sources give year of birth as 1939) Died: James Baldwin-Webb, 45 or 46, British Army officer and politician (killed in the City of Benares sinking) September 19, 1940 (Thursday) The Royal Air Force bombed German invasion barges in ports along the French coast. After the attack, Hitler ordered the barges dispersed. 1924 Democratic presidential candidate John W. Davis delivered a speech to a U.S. Senate sub-committee proposing an amendment to the Constitution that would limit the President to serving one term lasting six years with no possibility of re-election. "We think we do better if we employ our servants in the executive branch for fixed and certain terms," Davis explained. "We want them to realize that what they do they must do within the allotted span of their official lives ... Six years is long enough in which to do all the good one man is likely