Historical calendar/What happened on September 30?

2023-09-30 10:11:00, Blog CNA

1938 - The Munich Pact is signed between Germany, France and Britain

British and French Prime Ministers Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladie sign the Munich Pact with Germany's Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. This agreement temporarily avoided the outbreak of war, but gave Germany Czechoslovakia.

In the spring of 1938, Hitler began to openly support the demands of German speakers living in the Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia for closer ties with Germany. Only a short time before he had annexed Austria, and the invasion of Czechoslovakia was the next step in his plan to create a "Greater Germany".

The Czechoslovak government hoped that Great Britain and France would come to their aid in the event of a German invasion. But British Prime Minister Chamberlain intended to avoid war. He visited Germany twice in September, where he offered Hitler a favorable deal. However, the Fuhrer continued to increase his demands.

On September 22, Hitler demanded the immediate annexation of the Sudetenland and the evacuation of the Czechoslovak population by the end of that month. The next day, Czechoslovakia ordered the mobilization of troops. War seemed inevitable, and France began a partial mobilization on September 24.

Historical calendar/What happened on September 30?

Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Daladie, unprepared for the outbreak of hostilities, traveled to Munich, where they submitted to Hitler's demands. Daladie did not want to tolerate the Nazis through the Munich Pact, but Chamberlain was delighted and even stayed in Munich to sign a special document with Hitler that he believed would ensure future Anglo-German peace.

That same day, Chamberlain returned to Britain, where he addressed a large crowd gathered in London, praising the Munich Pact for guaranteeing "peace in our lifetime." But after annexing the Sudetenland the very next day in March 1939, Hitler annexed the rest of Czechoslovakia and the country ceased to exist. On September 1, 1939, 53 German army divisions invaded Poland, starting World War II.

Other important events:

1139 – A magnitude 7.7 earthquake strikes the Caucasus Mountains in the Seljuk Empire, causing massive destruction and killing up to 300,000 people.

1846 – Dr. Edward Morton first used anesthesia on a patient suffering from toothache.

1949 - After 15 months, the mass air transport of Western products to Berlin ends. The Berlin Blockade was a major international crisis, since the Soviet Union blocked the entry of representatives of Western countries into the city.

1955 - American actor James Dean, who became a symbol of the confused and idealistic youth of the 1950s, died in a car accident while en route to California.

1965 - In Indonesia, a group of army conspirators known as the 30 September Movement launched a failed coup. The next day they kidnapped and killed 6 army generals.

2005 - The Danish newspaper "Jyllands-Posten" published a controversial cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. The publication led to riots and protests in many parts of the world./ Adapted from CNA