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1940

Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

Decades: 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s - 1940s - 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s

Years: 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 - 1940 - 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945

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.
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.
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.

Art, Culture & Fashion

1940 in film
- February 23 - The animated movie Pinocchio is released.
- Rebecca, directed by Alfred Hitchcock
- All This and Heaven Too
- The Grapes of Wrath
- The Great Dictator, starring Charlie Chaplin
1940 in literature
1940 in music
1940 in sports[?]
- February 28 - Basketball is televised for the first time (Fordham University[?] vs. the University of Pittsburgh in Madison Square Garden).
1940 in television
- January - The FCC holds public hearings on television.
- February 25 - The first televised ice hockey game, the Rangers vs Canadians, from Madison Square Garden.
- February 26 - The first quiz show, Spelling Bee, is televised.
- February 28 - The first basketball game is televised, from Madison Square Garden; Fordham vs the University of Pittsburgh.
- March 15 - RCA cuts price of television sets
- June - W2XBS (NBC) covers the Republican National Convention[?] from Philadelphia for 33 hours, over a five day period
- August 29 - Peter Goldmark[?] of CBS announces his invention of a color television system.
- September 3 - CBS resumes it's television transmitions with the first demonstration of high definition color TV, by W2XAB, transmitting from the Chrysler Building.

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 - Wilma Rudolph, American runner
July 7 - Ringo Starr, English drummer (Beatles)
August 3 - Martin Sheen, American actor
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 - Mikhaïl Boulgakov[?], Russian writer
March 16 - Selma Lagerlöf, 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 - Lluís Companys, President of Catalan Generalitat, shot at Montjuïc Castle, Barcelona.
November 9 - Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Nobel Prizes

Physics - not awarded
Chemistry - not awarded
Medicine - not awarded
Literature - not awarded
Peace - not awarded

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