18 September: On this day in history

18 September 1931

The Mukden Incident, a staged explosion on the Japanese-owned South Manchurian railway, gave the Japanese military the opportunity to blame Chinese dissidents and the excuse to invade and occupy Manchuria.

18 September 1942

Convoy ON-131 set sail for New York from Liverpool, as the Battle of the Atlantic raged. All 70 merchant vessels and escorts safely reached New York with the exception of American Liberty ship John Winthrop which straggled and was sunk on 24 September by U-619 under the command of Kurt Makowski. All 52 crew were lost. Two days later U-619, which was on its first active patrol, torpedoed and sank the Yorktown, a British steamer, but was itself sunk with all hands on 5 October by depth charges dropped from a British Hudson aircraft.

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