1940
Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.
Events
Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.
January
February
March
- March – Truth or Consequences debuts on NBC Radio.
- March 2 – Cartoon character Elmer Fudd makes his debut in the animated short Elmer's Candid Camera.
- March 3 – In Sweden, a time bomb destroys the office of Norrskenflamman (a Swedish communist newspaper), killing 5.
- March 5 – Katyn massacre: Members of the Soviet Politburo (Joseph Stalin, Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, Mikhail Kalinin, Kliment Voroshilov and Lavrenty Beria) sign an order, prepared by Beria, for the execution of 25,700 Polish intelligentsia, including 14,700 Polish POWs.
- March 11 – Ed Ricketts, John Steinbeck and six others leave Monterey, California for The Sea of Cortez on a collecting expedition.
- March 12 – The Soviet Union and Finland sign a peace treaty in Moscow ending the Winter War; Finns, along with the world at large, are shocked by the harsh terms.
- March 18 – WWII: Axis powers: Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet at Brenner Pass in the Alps and agree to form an alliance against France and the United Kingdom.
- March 21 – Édouard Daladier resigns as prime minister of France; Paul Reynaud succeeds him.
- March 23 – The Pakistan Resolution is rallied around by the All-India Muslim League; Muslims from every corner of India meet up around Iqbal Park, Lahore (now in modern-day Pakistan).
- March 31 – WWII: Commerce raiding hilfskreuzer Atlantis, leaves the Wadden Sea for what will become the longest warship cruise of the war. (622 days without in-port replenishment or repair)[1]
April
May
- May 13 – Winston Churchill, in his first address as Prime Minister, tells the House of Commons, "I have nothing to offer you but blood, toil, tears, and sweat."
- May 13 – WWII: German armies open a 60-mile (97 km) wide breach in the Maginot Line at Sedan, France.
- May 14 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and her government flee to London; Rotterdam is subjected to savage terror bombing by the Luftwaffe; 980 are killed, and 20,000 buildings destroyed.
- May 14 – Recruitment begins in Britain for a home defence force: the Local Defence Volunteers, later known as the Home Guard.
- May 15 – The very first McDonald's restaurant opens in San Bernardino, California.
- May 15 – WWII: The Dutch army surrenders.
- May 16 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, addressing a joint session of Congress, asks for an extraordinary credit of approximately $900 million to finance construction of at least 50,000 airplanes per year.
- May 17 – Brussels falls to German forces; the Belgian government flees to Ostend.
- May 18 – Marshal Philippe Pétain is named vice-premier of France.
- May 19 – General Maxime Weygand replaces Maurice Gamelin as commander-in-chief of all French forces.
- May 20 – WWII: German forces (2nd Panzer division), under General Rudolf Veiel, reach Noyelles on the English Channel.
- May 20 – Holocaust: The Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest of the German concentration camps, opens in occupied Poland near the town of Oświęcim. Between May 1940 and January 1945, around 1.1 million people were killed there.
- May 22 – WWII: The British Parliament passes the Emergency Powers Act, giving the government full control over all persons and property.
- May 26
- May 28 – WWII: King Leopold III of Belgium orders the Belgian forces to cease fighting. Leaders of the Belgian government on French territory declare Leopold deposed.
- May 28 – Winston Churchill warns the House of Commons to "prepare itself for hard and heavy tidings."
- May 29 – The Vought XF4U-1, prototype of the F4U Corsair U.S. fighter later used in WWII, makes its first flight.
June
July
- July 1 – The first Tacoma Narrows Bridge opens for business, built with an 8-foot (2.4 m) girder and 190 feet (58 m) above the water, as the third longest suspension bridge in the world.
- July 2 – WWII: British-owned SS Arandora Star, carrying civilian internees and POWs of Italian and German origin from Liverpool to Canada, is torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-47 off northwest Ireland with the loss of around 865 lives.
- July 3 – WWII: British naval units sink or seize ships of the French fleet anchored in the Algerian ports of Oran and Mers-el-Kebir. The following day, Vichy France breaks off diplomatic relations with Britain.
- July 10
- July 14 – WWII: Winston Churchill, in a worldwide broadcast, proclaims the intention of Great Britain to fight alone against Germany whatever the outcome: "We shall seek no terms. We shall tolerate no parley. We may show mercy. We shall ask none."
- July 15 – U.S. politics: The Democratic Party begins its national convention in Chicago, and nominates Franklin D. Roosevelt for an unprecedented third term as president.
- July 19 – WWII: Adolf Hitler makes a peace appeal to Britain in an address to the Reichstag. Lord Halifax, the British foreign minister, flatly rejects peace terms in a broadcast reply on July 22.
- July 21 – The Estonian SSR, Latvian SSR and Lithuanian SSR are proclaimed in Moscow.
- July 25 – General Henri Guisan addresses the officer corps of the Swiss army at Rütli resolving to resist any invasion of the country.
- July 27 – Bugs Bunny makes his debut in the Oscar-nominated cartoon short, A Wild Hare.
August
September
- September – The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division (previously a National Guard Division in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Oklahoma), is activated and ordered into federal service for 1 year, to engage in a training program in Ft. Sill and Louisiana, prior to serving in WWII.
- September 2 – WWII: An agreement between America and Great Britain is announced to the effect that 50 U.S. destroyers needed for escort work will be transferred to Great Britain. In return, America gains 99-year leases on British bases in the North Atlantic, West Indies and Bermuda.
- September 5 – WWII: Commerce raiding hilfskreuzer Komet enters the Pacific Ocean via the Bering Strait after crossing the Arctic Ocean from the North Sea with the help of Soviet icebreakers Lenin, Stalin, and Kaganovich.[6]
- September 7
- September 12
- September 16 – WWII: The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 is signed into law by Franklin D. Roosevelt, creating the first peacetime draft in U.S. history.
- September 17–September 18 – WWII: SS City of Benares is torpedoed by German submarine U-48 in the Atlantic with the loss of 248 of the 406 on board, including child evacuees bound for Canada. This results in cancellation of the British Children's Overseas Reception Board's plan to relocate children overseas.
- September 26 – WWII: The United States imposes a total embargo on all scrap metal shipments to Japan.
- September 27 – WWII: Germany, Italy and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact.
October
November
- November 5 – United States presidential election, 1940: Democrat incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats Republican challenger Wendell Willkie and becomes the United States' first and only third-term president.
- November 6 – Agatha Christie's mystery novel And Then There Were None is published in book form in the United States.
- November 7 – In Tacoma, Washington, the 600-foot (180 m)-long center span of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (known as Galloping Gertie) collapses.
- November 9 – Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez premieres in Barcelona, Spain.
- November 10 – An earthquake in Bucharest, Romania kills 1,000.
- November 11
- November 13 – Walt Disney's Fantasia is released. It is the first box office failure for Disney, though it eventually recoups its cost years later, and becomes one of the most highly regarded of Disney's films.
- November 14 – WWII: The city of Coventry, England is destroyed by 500 German Luftwaffe bombers (150,000 fire bombs, 503 tons of high explosives, and 130 parachute mines level 60,000 of the city's 75,000 buildings; 568 people are killed).
- November 16
- November 18 – WWII: German leader Adolf Hitler and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano meet to discuss Benito Mussolini's disastrous invasion of Greece.
- November 20 – WWII: Hungary, Romania and Slovakia join the Axis Powers.
- November 27
December
- December – Timely Comics' Captain America Comics #1 (cover dated March 1941), first appearance of Captain America and Bucky, hits newsstands.
- December 1 – Manuel Ávila Camacho takes office as President of Mexico.
- December 8 – The Chicago Bears, in what will become the most one-sided victory in National Football League history, defeat the Washington Redskins 73–0 in the 1940 NFL Championship Game.
- December 9 – WWII: Operation Compass – British forces in North Africa begin their first major offensive with an attack on Italian forces at Sidi Barrani, Egypt.
- December 12 and December 15 – WWII: "Sheffield Blitz" – The City of Sheffield is badly damaged by German air-raids.
- December 14 – Plutonium is first isolated chemically in the laboratory.
- December 16 – WWII: Operation Abigail Rachel – RAF bombing of Mannheim.
- December 17 – President Roosevelt, at his regular press conference, first sets forth the outline of his plan to send aid to Great Britain that will become known as Lend-Lease.
- December 23 – WWII: Winston Churchill, in a broadcast address to the people of Italy, blames Benito Mussolini for leading his nation to war against the British, contrary to Italy's historic friendship with them: "One man has arrayed the trustees and inheritors of ancient Rome upon the side of the ferocious pagan barbarians."
- December 24 – Mahatma Gandhi, Indian spiritual non-violence leader writes his second letter to Adolf Hitler addressing him "My friend", requesting him to stop the war Germany had begun.
- December 29
- December 30 – California's first modern freeway, the future State Route 110, opens to traffic in Pasadena, California, as the Arroyo Seco Parkway (now the Pasadena Freeway).
- December 30 – In Sweden, Victor Hasselblad forms the Victor Hasselblad AB Camera Company.
Date unknown
- In Korea, The Hunmin Jeong-eum Haerye (1446) is discovered, explaining the basis of Hangul.
- Olympic Games, assigned to Tokyo, Japan, and later to Helsinki, Finland, are suspended due to WWII.
- US historian Arthur Marder publishes The Anatomy of British Sea Power: a history of British naval policy in the pre-Dreadnought era, 1880-1905.
Births
January
- January 2 – Jim Bakker, American televangelist and former husband of Tammy Faye
- January 4
- January 6 – Penny Lernoux, American journalist and author (d. 1989)
- January 9 – Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, Costa Rican politician, lawyer, economist, and businessman
- January 14 – Julian Bond, American civil rights activist
- January 19 – Mike Reid, English actor (d. 2007)
- January 20 – Carol Heiss, American figure skater
- January 21 – Jack Nicklaus, American golfer
- January 22 – John Hurt, English actor
- January 27 – James Cromwell, American actor
- January 28 – Carlos Slim, Mexican businessman
- January 29 – Katharine Ross, American actress
- January 31 – Kitch Christie, South African rugby coach (d. 1998)
February
- February 1 – Bibi Besch, Austrian-born American actress (d. 1996)
- February 2 – David Jason, English actor
- February 3 – Fran Tarkenton, American football player
- February 4 – George A. Romero, American film writer and director
- February 5 – H. R. Giger, Swiss artist
- February 6
- February 8
- February 9
- February 12
- February 17 – Gene Pitney, American singer (d. 2006)
- February 18 – Fabrizio De André, Italian singer-songwriter (d. 1999)
- February 19 – Smokey Robinson, American musician
- February 20 – Jimmy Greaves, English footballer
- February 21
- February 22
- February 23 – Peter Fonda, American actor
- February 24
- February 25 – Ron Santo, American baseball player (d. 2010)
- February 28 – Mario Andretti, American race car driver
March
- March 3
- March 6 – Willie Stargell, African-American baseball player (d. 2001)
- March 7 – Rudi Dutschke, German radical student leader (d. 1979)
- March 8 – Susan Clark, Canadian actress (Webster)
- March 9 – Raúl Juliá, Puerto Rican actor (d. 1994)
- March 10
- March 12 – Al Jarreau, American singer
- March 13 – Candi Staton, American singer
- March 15 – Phil Lesh, American musician (Grateful Dead)
- March 16
- March 17 – Mark White, Governor of Texas
- March 21 – Solomon Burke, American singer and songwriter (d. 2010)
- March 22 – Haing S. Ngor, Cambodian actor (d. 1996)
- March 25 – Anita Bryant, American entertainer
- March 26
- March 27 – Cale Yarborough, American race car driver
- March 29 – Ray Davis, American musician (P-Funk) (d. 2005)
- March 30 – Astrud Gilberto, Brazilian-born singer
April
May
- May 1 – Elsa Peretti, Italian jewelry designer
- May 2 – Jo Ann Pflug, American former actress and motivational speaker
- May 5 – Lance Henriksen, American actor and potter
- May 7 – Jim Connors, American radio personality (d. 1987)
- May 8
- May 9
- May 11 – Juan Downey, Chilean-born video artist (d. 1993)
- May 14 – 'H'. Jones, British soldier (VC recipient) (d. 1982)
- May 15
- May 17
- May 18 – Lenny Lipton, American inventor
- May 20
- May 22 – Bernard Shaw, American journalist and television news reporter
- May 24 – Joseph Brodsky, Russian-born poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)
- May 29 – Farooq Leghari, President of Pakistan (d. 2010)
June
- June 1 – Rene Auberjonois, American actor
- June 2 – King Constantine II of Greece
- June 4 – Ludwig Schwarz, Austrian bishop
- June 6 – Richard Paul, American actor (d. 1998)
- June 7 – Tom Jones, Welsh singer
- June 8
- June 16
- June 17
- June 20 – John Mahoney, English-born actor
- June 21 – Mariette Hartley, American actress
- June 22
- June 23
- June 25 – A. J. Quinnell, English writer (d. 2005)
- June 27 – Anil Karanjai, Indian painter of the Hungry generation movement.
- June 28 – Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank, Nobel Prize laureate
- June 29 – Vyacheslav Artyomov, Russian composer
July
August
- August 1 – Ram Loevy, Israeli screenwriter and director
- August 3 – Martin Sheen, American actor
- August 7 – Jean-Luc Dehaene, Prime Minister of Belgium
- August 8 – Dilip Sardesai, former Indian cricketer (d. 2007)
- August 9 – Beverlee McKinsey, American actress
- August 10 – Bobby Hatfield, American singer (Righteous Brothers) (d. 2003)
- August 14 – Galen Hall, American football coach
- August 19 – Jill St. John, American actress
- August 20
- August 25 – José Van Dam, Belgian bass-baritone
- August 28 – Tom Baker, American actor (d. 1982)
- August 29
- August 31 – Jack Thompson, Australian actor
September
- September 5 – Raquel Welch, American actress
- September 7 – Abdurrahman Wahid, former President of Indonesia (d. 2009)
- September 10 – David Mann, American artist (d. 2004)
- September 11 – Brian De Palma, American film director
- September 12
- September 13 – Óscar Arias, Costa Rican politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- September 14 – Larry Brown, American basketball coach
- September 20 – Taro Aso, Prime Minister of Japan
- September 23 – Mohammad-Reza Shajarian, Iranian traditional singer
- September 24 – Michiko Suganuma, Urushi Japanese lacquer artist
October
- October 9 – John Lennon, British musician and singer (The Beatles) (d. 1980)
- October 13 – Pharoah Sanders, American saxophonist
- October 14 – Cliff Richard, English singer
- October 15 – Peter C. Doherty, Australian immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- October 16 – Ivan Della Mea, Italian singer-songwriter (d. 2009)
- October 19 – Michael Gambon, Irish actor
- October 20 – Robert Pinsky, Poet Laureate of the United States
- October 21
- October 23 – Pelé, Brazilian footballer
- October 25 – Bobby Knight, American basketball coach
- October 27 – John Gotti, American gangster (d. 2002)
November
December
- December 1 – Richard Pryor, American actor and comedian (d. 2005)
- December 4
- December 5 – Peter Pohl, Swedish writer
- December 11 – Donna Mills, American actress and dancer
- December 12
- December 20 – Pat Chapman, English author
- December 21 – Frank Zappa, American musician, composer, and satirist (d. 1993)
- December 22 – Noel Jones, British ambassador to Kazakhstan (d. 1995)
- December 23
- December 26 – Edward C. Prescott, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
Date unknown
Deaths
January–March
- January – Fusajiro Yamauchi, Japanese business executive (b. 1859)
- January 4 – Flora Finch, English-born actress and comedian (b. 1869)
- January 18 – Kazimierz Tetmajer, Polish poet and writer (b. 1865)
- January 27 – Isaac Babel, Ukrainian writer (b. 1894)
- February 1 – Philip Francis Nowlan, science fiction writer, creator of Buck Rogers (b. 1888)
- February 2 – Vsevolod Meyerhold, Russian Theatre Practitioner (b. 1874)
- February 4 – Samuel M. Vauclain, American engineer (b. 1856)
- February 11 – John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, Governor General of Canada (b. 1875)
- February 26 – Michael Hainisch, 2nd President of Austria (b. 1858)
- February 29 – Edward Frederic Benson, English writer
- March 1 – Anton Hansen Tammsaare, Estonian writer (b. 1878)
- March 5
- March 10 – Mikhail Bulgakov, Russian writer (b. 1891)
- March 11 – John Monk Saunders, American writer (b. 1897)
- March 16 – Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1858)
- March 20 – Alfred Ploetz, German physician, biologist, and eugenicist (b. 1860)
- March 26 – Spiridon Louis, Greek runner (b. 1873)
- March 27
- March 31 – Tinsley Lindley, English footballer (b. 1865)
April–June
- April 1 – John A. Hobson, English economist (b. 1858).
- April 26 – Carl Bosch, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874)
- April 28 – Luisa Tetrazzini, Italian opera singer (b. 1871)
- May 11 – Chujiro Hayashi, Japanese Reiki Master (b. 1880)
- May 14 – Emma Goldman, Lithuanian-born anarchist (b. 1869)
- May 15 – Menno ter Braak, Dutch writer (b. 1902)
- May 19 – Diego Mazquiarán, Spanish matador (b. 1895)
- May 20 – Verner von Heidenstam, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1859)
- May 25 – Joe De Grasse, Canadian film director (b. 1873)
- May 26 – Wilhelm of Prussia, Prussian prince (b. 1906)
- May 28
- May 29 – Mary Anderson, American stage actress (b. 1859).
- June 7 – James Hall, American actor (b. 1900)
- June 10 – Marcus Garvey, Jamaican-born publisher, entrepreneur, and black nationalist (b. 1887)
- June 11 – Alfred S. Alschuler, American architect (b. 1876)
- June 13 – George Fitzmaurice, American director (b. 1885)
- June 14 – Henry W. Antheil, Jr., American diplomat (b. 1912)
- June 17 – Arthur Harden, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)
- June 19 – Maurice Jaubert, French composer (b. 1900)
- June 20 – Charley Chase, American comedian (b. 1893)
- June 21
- June 29 – Paul Klee, Swiss artist (b. 1879)
July–September
- July 1 – Ben Turpin, American actor (b. 1869)
- July 15 – Robert Pershing Wadlow, tallest man ever (infection) (b. 1918)
- August 5 – Frederick Albert Cook, American explorer (b. 1865)
- August 8 – Johnny Dodds, American jazz clarinetist (b. 1892)
- August 18 – Walter Chrysler, American automobile pioneer (b. 1875)
- August 21
- August 22 – Mary Vaux Walcott, American artist and naturalist (b. 1860)
- August 30 – J.J. Thomson, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1856)
- September 2 – Eddie Collins, American vaudeville-veteran comic (b. 1883)
- September 4 – George William de Carteret, author from Jersey island (b. 1869)
- September 5 – Charles de Broqueville, Prime Minister of Belgium (b. 1860)
- September 25 – Marguerite Clark, American actress (b. 1883)
- September 27 – Julius Wagner-Jauregg, Austrian neuroscientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1857)
October–December
- October 5
- October 9 – Wilfred Grenfell, English medical missionary to Newfoundland and Labrador (b. 1865)
- October 10 – Berton Churchill, Canadian actor (b. 1876)
- October 12 – Tom Mix, American actor (b. 1880)
- November 9
- November 17
- December 5 – Jan Kubelík, Czech violinist (b. 1880)
- December 15 or December 16 – Billy Hamilton, American baseball player (b. 1866)
- December 19 – Kyösti Kallio, President of Finland (b. 1873)
- December 21 – F. Scott Fitzgerald, American writer (b. 1896)
- December 22 – Nathanael West, American writer (b. 1903)
- December 25 – Agnes Ayres, American actress (b. 1898)
- December 26 – Daniel Frohman, American theater producer (b. 1851)
Nobel Prizes
References