http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/23.htm
March 23rd, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM:
Devon: IRA prisoners stage a riot in Dartmoor prison.
Heston airfield: The Lockheed 12A civil aircraft, registration code G-AGAR, leaves on a south-east heading. At the controls is Hugh MacPhail, Sidney Cotton’s personal assistant. MacPhail and Cotton are to carry out aerial reconnaissance of the Soviet oilfields in the Caucasus as directed by F.W. Winterbotham, the Chief of MI6. After intermediate landings at Malta and Cairo, the Lockheed will reach RAF Habbaniya where its identifying marks will be painted over and the several high-powered hidden cameras that it carries will be inspected.
GERMANY: Field Marshal Göring orders a halt to transports of Jews in eastern Europe, but is ignored.
Commerce raider ‘Atlantis’ leaves harbour in Suederpiep to begin her first war patrol. She is masquerading as a Norwegian freighter. (Alex Gordon)
PACIFIC: The British Royal Navy forms the “Malaya Force” to shadow 17 German merchant ships trapped in Netherlands East Indies ports. (Jack McKillop)
U.S.A.: The 30-minute radio show “Truth or Consequences” makes its debut this Saturday night on CBS radio at 2145 hours Eastern Time sponsored by Ivory Soap. The radio show was originally heard on only four CBS stations but in August, NBC picked up the show where it eventually became the most popular of all radio quiz shows. Hosted by Ralph Edwards, the show ran for 16 years. Supposedly a quiz show, contestants were paid only US$15 for right answers (= US$197 in 2003 dollars); for wrong answers, guests were required to perform outrageous stunts—pushing walnuts across the stage with their noses, howling like a dog, collecting hundreds of thousands of pennies, digging for buried treasure, and a wide range of other pranks. Some of the shows more elaborate setups took months to arrange: A New Jersey woman, for instance, was taken to a New York theater and told to play the violin for 1,500 unsuspecting people who had turned up to see a European musician promoted for weeks as the Great Yiffniff. It only took a moment for the audience to realize they’d been had; after an explanation by the show’s host, they were treated to a real concert, though not by the fictional Yiffniff. (Jack McKillop)
I should try and see if I can find a broadcast of the Truth or Consequences show. That show has a special meaning for us New Mexicans.
In 1950 the host of the show, Ralph Edwards, announced that he would broadcast from the first town that renamed themselves Truth or Consequences. The little town of Hot Springs, New Mexico, was up to the challenge and made the name change. Today we just call the town T or C.
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 205 March 23, 1940
The British Malaya Force is formed to watch German merchant ships in Dutch East Indies, including destroyers HMS Stronghold and HMS Tenedos, cruisers HMS HMS Dauntless, HMS Danae and HMS Durban, sloop HMS Falmouth and submarines HMS Perseus and HMS Rainbow.
At 11.30 PM, a British submarine (either HMS Truant or HMS Trident) intercepts German merchant Edmund Hugo Stinnes IV, en route to Copenhagen, and fires five warning shots 6 miles off the West coast of Denmark. As expected, the steamer heads for shore and is scuttled. The submarine applies a coup de grâce with two torpedoes to prevent salvage.
http://home.cogeco.ca/~gchalcraft/sm/truant.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Trident_(N52)