1940

Events

   * January 5 - FM radio is demonstrated to the FCC for the first time.
   * January 12 - World War II: Russia bombs cities in Finland.
   * June 21 - France surrenders to Germany
   * February 2 - Frank Sinatra debuts with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra
   * February 2 - The Complex Number Calculator, a calculator for complex
     arithmetic based on relays, was completed. (see History of computing).
   * February 2 - The first transposons are discovered in maize (Zea mays,
     aka corn) by Barbara McClintock.
   * February 23 - World War II: Soviet Union troops conquer Lasi Island.
   * February 29 - For her role as as Mammy in Gone with the Wind, Hattie
     McDaniel becomes the first African American to win an Academy Award
     (Best Supporting Actress).
   * March 12 - Soviet Union and Finland sign a peace treaty in Moscow
     ending the Winter War. Finns, and the World opinion, shocked by the
     harsh terms.
   * March 18 - World War II: 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.
   * April 7 - Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to be
     depicted on a United States postage stamp.
   * April 9 - World War II: Germany invades Denmark and Norway in operation
     WeserŸbung. The British campaign in Norway is simultaneously commenced.
   * May 10 - World War II: Germany invades Belgium, the Netherlands, and
     Luxembourg.
   * May 13 - World War II: Nazi Germany's conquest of France begins as the
     German army crosses the Meuse River.
   * May 14 - World War II: The Dutch city of Rotterdam is bombed by the
     German Luftwaffe.
   * May 14 - World War II: The Netherlands surrender to Germany.
   * May 15 - World War II: German troops occupy Amsterdam and invade
     Northern France.
   * May 15 - Nylon stockings go on sale for the first time in the United
     States.
   * May 17 - World War II: Germany occupies Brussels, Belgium
   * May 20 - Holocaust: The first prisoners arrive at a new concentration
     camp at Auschwitz.
   * May 24 - Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor
     helicopter flight.
   * May 25 - World War II: The Battle of Dunkirk begins.
   * May 26 - World War II: Battle of Dunkirk - In France, Allied forces
     begin a massive evacuation from Dunkirk.
   * May 28 - World War II: Belgium surrenders to Germany.
   * July 5 - World War II: The United Kingdom and the Vichy France
     government break off diplomatic relations.
   * July 10 - World War II: Vichy France government established.
   * July 10 - World War II: Battle of Britain - The German Luftwaffe begin
     to hit British convoys in the English Channel thus starting the battle
     (this start date is contested, though).
   * July 14 - World War II: Andrew George Latta McNaughton takes command
     7th Army Corps consisting of British, Canadian and New Zealand troops.
   * August 20 - Exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is fatally
     wounded in Mexico City by an assassin's ice-ax. He will die the next
     day.
   * September 7 - Treaty of Craiova: Romania loses Southern Dobrudja to
     [[Bulgaria.
   * November - Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats Wendell L. Wilkie in the U.S.
     presidential election
   * November 11 - The Royal Navy launches the first aircraft carrier strike
     in history, on the Italian fleet at Taranto
   * November 11 - The German Hilfskreuzer (cruiser) Atlantis captures top
     secret British mail, and sends it to Japan
   * December 30 - California opens its first freeway the Arroyo Seco
     Parkway.

   * Charlie Chaplin directs the film The Great Dictator in which he plays a
     fascist dictator, clearly modeled on Adolf Hitler.
   * The first McDonald's restaurant is founded by brothers Dick and Mac
     McDonald, in San Bernardino, California.

   * USSR annexes the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.
   * Germany begins a bombing campaign against Britain in preparation for an
     invasion, in what becomes known as the Battle of Britain.
   * Guilin, China aquired current name.

Births

   * January 14 - Julian Bond, civil rights activist (cofounder of the
     Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, chairman of NAACP board of
     directors)
   * January 20 - Carol Heiss, Olympic figure skating gold medalist
   * January 22 - John Hurt, actor
   * February 3 - Fran Tarkenton, Football Hall of Famer
   * February 4 - George Romero, horror movie writer, producer, director
   * February 5 - H.R. Giger, artist
   * February 6 - Tom Brokaw, news anchorman
   * February 8 - Ted Koppel, journalist
   * February 19 - Smokey Robinson, musician
   * February 25 - Ron Santo, baseball player
   * February 28 - Mario Andretti, automobile driver
   * February 29 - Edward Frederick Benson, American writer
   * March 7 - Rudi Dutschke, student leader (+ 1979)
   * March 7 - Daniel J. Travanti, actor
   * March 9 - John Cale, composer, musician
   * March 9 - Raul Julia, actor (+ 1994)
   * March 10 - Dean Torrence, musician ("Jan and Dean")
   * March 10 - Chuck Norris, actor, martial arts practitioner
   * March 12 - Al Jarreau, singer
   * March 15 - Phil Lesh of The Grateful Dead
   * March 16 - Bernardo Bertolucci, Italian writer and film director
   * March 22 - Haing S. Ngor, actor (+ 1996)
   * March 24 - Bob Mackie, costume designer
   * March 30 - Astrud Gilberto, singer
   * April 2 - Penelope Keith, actress
   * April 16 - Queen Margaret II of Denmark
   * April 25 - Al Pacino, actor
   * April 26 - Giorgio Moroder, composer
   * May 8 - Ricky Nelson, pop singer, (+ 1985)
   * May 9 - James L. Brooks, producer, writer
   * May 11 - Juan Downey, video artist (+ 1993)
   * May 20 - Stan Mikita, Hockey Hall of Famer
   * May 20 - Sadaharu Oh, baseball star
   * June 23 - Adam Faith, English singer and actor
   * June 23 - Lord Irvine of Lairg, British lawyer and Lord Chancellor
   * June 23 - Wilma Rudolph, American runner
   * July 7 - Ringo Starr, English drummer (Beatles)
   * July 27 - Bharati Mukherjee, Indian-American novelist
   * August 3 - Martin Sheen, American actor
   * August 7 - Jean-Luc Dehaene, Prime Minister of Belgium
   * November 27 - Bruce Lee
   * October 9 - John Lennon, English musician and singer (Beatles)
   * October 14 - Cliff Richard, English pop singer
   * December 21 - Frank Zappa, American rock musician, composer and
     satirist

Deaths

   * February 11 - John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, Governor-General of
     Canada (1935-1940).
   * March 10 - Mikha•l Boulgakov, Russian writer
   * March 16 - Selma Lagerlšf, writer
   * May 25 - Joe De Grasse, pioneer Hollywood film director
   * May 28 - Friedrich Karl von Hessen (*1868)
   * June 10 - Marcus Mosiah Garvey, publisher, entrepreneur, black
     nationalist
   * June 29 - Paul Klee, Swiss artist
   * August 21 - Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary
   * October 10 - Berton Churchill, pioneer Hollywood actor
   * October 11 - Llu’s Companys, President of Catalan Generalitat, shot at
     Montju•c Castle, Barcelona.
   * November 9 - Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom