Slavery Begins

TUE 27 AUG 1940
President Roosevelt signs joint resolution authorizing him to call Army Reserve components and National Guard into federal service for one year.

Legislation is enacted authorizing the appointment of naval aviators of the Navy and Marine Corps reserve to the line of the regular Navy and Marine Corps, in order to augment the Naval Academy as a source of regular aviators.

President Roosevelt confers with Secretary of the Navy Knox, Secretary of War Stimson and Secretary of State Hull concerning a compromise to resolve the impasse that has arisen over the proposed destroyers-for-bases agreement. Subsequently, Roosevelt meets with Admiral Harold R. Stark, Chief of Naval Operations, Secretary of the Navy Knox and Secretary of State Hull, and British Ambassador Lord Lothian; these men review the proposal arrived at earlier that day. Admiral Stark certifies that the destroyers involved are no longer essential to the defense of the United States, thus clearing the way for their transfer.

Attorney General Robert H. Jackson delivers to President Roosevelt a ruling in which the legal framework for the transfer of destroyers to the British can be accomplished.