Year 1940 (
MCMXL) was a
leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar) of the
Gregorian calendar.
Events
- (Below, many events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.)
January
February
March
- 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 (Stalin, 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 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).
April
May
.
June
July
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 World War II.
- 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 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 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 - U.S. presidential election, 1940: Democrat incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats Republican challenger Wendell Willkie and becomes the United States' first third-term president.
- November 7 - In Tacoma, Washington, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (known as Galloping Gertie) collapses in a 42-mile per hour wind storm, causing the center span of the bridge to sway. When it collapses, a 600 foot-long design of the center span falls 190 feet above the water, killing Tubby, a black male cocker spaniel dog.
- November 9 - Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez premieres in Barcelona, Spain.
- November 10 - An Earthquake in Bucharest, Romania kills 1,000.
- November 11 - WWII:
- 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 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 12 & 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 23 - Winston Churchill, in a broadcast address to the people of Italy, squarely blames Benito Mussolini for leading his nation to war against the British, contrary to Italy's historic friendship with them.
- December 26 - The film version of The Philadelphia Story, starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, James Stewart and Ruth Hussey, premieres at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
- December 29
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a fireside chat to the nation, declares that the United States must become "the great arsenal of democracy."
- WWII - "Second Great Fire of London": Luftwaffe carries out a massive incendiary bombing raid, starting 1,500 fires. Many famous buildings, including the Guildhall and Trinity House, are either damaged or destroyed.
- 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).
Undated
Ongoing
Births
January
- 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 (1984)
- January 27 - James Cromwell, American actor
- January 31 - Kitch Christie, South African rugby coach (d. 1998)
February
- February 2 - David Jason, English actor
- February 3 - Fran Tarkenton, American football player
- February 4 - George Romero, American film writer, producer, and director
- February 5 - H.R. Giger, Swiss artist
- February 6
- February 8
- Ted Koppel, American journalist (ABC News Nightline)
- Joe South, American singer and songwriter (Games People Play)
- February 9 - J. M. Coetzee, South African writer, Nobel Prize laureate<