September 1
In 1939 Germany invaded Poland, triggering the start of the Second World War; in 1939, two days before Britain and France declared war on Germany, the British government started a three-day evacuation of 1.5 million children, mothers with infants and the infirm from at-risk cities and towns; in 1949 the film The Third Man premiered at the Ritz Cinema in Hastings, East Sussex. The Oscar-winning film was directed by Carol Reed and stars Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Orson Welles and Trevor Howard; in 1953 Henry Molaison, who suffered from epileptic seizures, underwent brain surgery in the US. Known by psychology students as “HM”, it was discovered that the removal of both hippocampus resulted in severe memory loss. He died on December 2, 2008, aged 82, having been unable to form new memories since the operation; in 1960 government approval was given for betting shops to open from May 1, 1961. The aim was to solve the problem of illegal gambling; in 1962 more than 12,000 people were killed by a 7.1-magnitude earthquake in Iran.