first liberty ship, the , is launched at Baltimore. September 28 – WWII: The Drama Uprising against the Bulgarian occupation in northern Greece begins. September 29 – WWII: The Moscow Conference begins; U.S. representative Averell Harriman and British representative Lord Beaverbrook meet with Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov, to arrange urgent assistance for Russia. September 29–30 – The Holocaust: Babi Yar massacre – German troops, assisted by Ukrainian police and local collaborators, kill 33,771 Jews in Kyiv. October Mid-October – The first P-38E Lightning fighter is produced by Lockheed in the United States. October 1 The Holocaust: The Nazi German Majdanek concentration camp (Konzentrationslager Lublin) opens in occupied Poland, on the outskirts of the town of Lublin. Between October 1941 and July 1944, at least 200,000 people will be killed in the camp. The New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy becomes the Royal New Zealand Navy. October 2 WWII: Operation Typhoon begins, as Germany launches an all-out offensive against Moscow. Tudeh Party of Iran is founded. October 5 – The Holocaust: In Berdychiv, 20–30,000 Jews are shot dead. October 7 – John Curtin becomes the 14th Prime Minister of Australia, following the defeat of Arthur Fadden's Country/UAP Coalition Government, on the floor of the House of Representatives. October 8 – WWII: In their invasion of the Soviet Union, Germany reaches the Sea of Azov, with the capture of Mariupol. October 11 – WWII: Armed insurgents from the People's Liberation Army of Macedonia attack Axis-occupied zones in the city of Prilep, beginning the National Liberation War of Macedonia. October 11–12 – Fire destroys a Firestone Tire and Rubber Company plant in Fall River, Massachusetts, consuming 15,850 tons of rubber, and causing a setback to the United States military effort. October 13 – The Holocaust: Heinrich Himmler instructs SS and Police Leader Odilo Globocnik to begin construction of Bełżec, the first of the Operation Reinhard extermination camps. October 15 – WWII: British submarine bombards the port of Apollonia, Cyrenaica in Italian Libya. October 16 – WWII: The Soviet government moves to Kuibyshev (modern Samara), but Stalin remains in Moscow. October 17 – WWII: Destroyer is torpedoed and damaged near Iceland, killing 11 sailors (the first American military casualties of the war, in which the US is at this time neutral). October 18 – General Hideki Tōjō becomes the 40th Prime Minister of Japan. October 18 – Film The Maltese Falcon is