Navy destroyers are sunk by running into a minefield off the coast of the occupied Netherlands with the loss of around 400 men, 300 of them dead. Film stars Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh are married at the San Ysidro Ranch in California. September September – The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division (previously a National Guard Division in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Oklahoma), is activated and ordered into federal service for one year, to engage in a training program in Ft. Sill and Louisiana, prior to serving in WWII. September 2 – WWII: The Destroyers for Bases Agreement between the United States and Great Britain is announced, to the effect that 50 U.S. destroyers needed for escort work will be transferred to Great Britain. In return, the United States gains 99-year leases on British bases in the North Atlantic, West Indies and Bermuda. September 4 – WWII: Adolf Hitler's Winterhilfe speech at the Berlin Sportpalast declares that Nazi Germany will make retaliatory night air raids on British cities and threatens invasion. September 5 – WWII: Commerce raiding German auxiliary cruiser Komet enters the Pacific Ocean via the Bering Strait, after crossing the Arctic Ocean from the North Sea, with the help of Soviet icebreakers Lenin, Stalin, and Kaganovich. September 6 – King Carol II of Romania abdicates and is succeeded by his son Michael. September 7 The President of Paraguay, José Félix Estigarribia, dies in a plane crash. Treaty of Craiova: Romania loses Southern Dobruja to Bulgaria. WWII: The Blitz – Nazi Germany begins to rain bombs on London (the first of 57 consecutive nights of strategic bombing). September 9–16 – WWII: The Italian invasion of Egypt commences from Libya, progressing only as far as Sidi Barrani. September 9 Treznea massacre: The Hungarian Army, supported by local Hungarians, kill 93 Romanian civilians in Treznea, Sălaj, a village in Northern Transylvania, as part of attempts at ethnic cleansing. George Stibitz first demonstrates the remote operation of a computer, in the United States. September 12 In Lascaux, France, 17,000-year-old cave paintings are discovered by a group of young Frenchmen hiking through Southern France. The paintings depict animals, and date to the Stone Age. The Hercules Munitions Plant in Succasunna-Kenvil, New Jersey explodes, killing 55 people. September 14 – Ip massacre: The Hungarian Army, supported by local Hungarians, kill 158 Romanian civilians in Ip, Sălaj, a village in Northern Transylvania, as part