1940
Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full 1940 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.
Events of 1940
 (Below, many events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.)
January
January 4 - WWII: Axis powers - Luftwaffe General Hermann Goering assumes control of all war industries in Germany.
January 6 - WWII: Winter War - General Semyon Timoshenko takes command of all Russian forces.
January 8 - WWII: Winter War - Russian 44th Assault Division destroyed by Finnish forces in Battle of Suomussalmi.
January 26 - Australia - Brisbane swelters through its hottest day ever, 43.2 degrees Celsius (109.76 Fahrenheit).
January 27 - WWII: South Africa - A peace resolution introduced in Parliament is defeated by 81 votes to 59.
January 29 - Three gasoline multiple units carrying factory workers crash and explode while approaching Ajikawaguchi station, Yumesaki Line (Nishinari Line), Osaka, Japan, killing at least 181 people and injuring at least 92.
February
February 1 - WWII: Winter War - Russian forces launch major assault on Finnish troops which occupy the Karelian Isthmus.
February 7 - RKO releases Walt Disney's second full-length animated film, Pinocchio.
February 16 - WWII: In the Altmark Incident British destroyer Cossack pursues German tanker Altmark into Jøssingfjord in southwestern Norway.
February 27 - Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discovered carbon-14
March
March 2 - Elmer Fudd makes his debut in the short Elmer's Candid Camera.
March 3 - In Sweden, a time bomb destroys the office of Norrskenflamman newspaper of Swedish communists - 5 dead.
March 5- Members of Soviet politburo: Stalin, Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, Mikhail Kalinin, Kliment Voroshilov and Lavrenty Beria, signed an order, prepared by Beria, for the execution of 25,700 Polish intelligentsia, including 14,700 Polish POWs. The action is known as the Katyn massacre.
March 12 - Soviet Union and Finland sign a peace treaty in Moscow ending the Winter War. Finns, along with the world at large, were 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. He is replaced by Paul Reynaud.
March 23 - The Pakistan Resolution is rallied by the All-India Muslim League: Muslims from every corner of India meet up around Iqbal Park, Lahore (now in modern-day Pakistan).
April
April 5 - Neville Chamberlain, in what will prove to be a tragic lapse of judgment, declares in a major public speech that Hitler has "missed the bus".
April 7 - Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to be depicted on a United States postage stamp.
April 9 - WWII: Germany invades Denmark and Norway in operation Weserübung. The British campaign in Norway is simultaneously commenced.
April 12 - The Faroe Islands were occupied by British troops following the invasion of Denmark by Nazi Germany. This action was taken to avert a possible German occupation of the islands, which would have had very grave consequences for the course of the Battle of the Atlantic.
April 15 - Opening day at Jamaica Racetrack features the use of pari-mutuel betting equipment, a departure from bookmaking heretofore used exclusively throughout New York state. Other NY tracks follow suit later in 1940.
April 21 - Take It or Leave It makes it debut on CBS Radio, with Bob Hawk as host.
April 23 - Rhythm Night Club burns in Natchez, Mississippi: 198 dead.
May
May 10 - WWII:
*Battle of France begins - German forces invade Low Countries.
*Invasion of Iceland by the United Kingdom.
*With the resignation of Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
.
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."
*WWII: German armies open 60-mile wide breach in Maginot Line at Sedan.
May 14
*Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and her government flee to London; Rotterdam subjected to savage terror bombing by the Luftwaffe - 980 killed, 20,000 buildings destroyed.
*Recruitment begins in Britain for a home defence force - the Local Defence Volunteers, later known as the Home Guard.
May 15
*WWII: 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; Belgian government flees to Ostend.
May 18 - Marshal Henri Petain 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, under General Erwin Rommel, reach the English Channel. Holocaust: concentration and death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau opens in Poland.
May 22 - WWII: British Parliament passes Emergency Powers Act giving the government full control over all persons and property.
May 26 - WWII: Dunkirk evacuation of British Expeditionary Force starts.
May 28
*WWII: King Leopold III orders the Belgian forces to cease fighting. Leaders of the Belgian government on French territory declare Leopold deposed.
*Winston Churchill warns the House of Commons to, "... prepare itself for hard and heavy tidings."
May 29 - First flight of the Vought XF4U-1, the prototype of the F4U Corsair U.S. fighter later used in WWII.
June
June 3
* Holocaust: Franz Rademacher proposes the Madagascar Plan.
* WWII: Paris is bombed by the Luftwaffe for the first time.
June 4
*Dunkirk evacuation ends - British forces complete evacuating 300,000 troops from Dunkirk in France.
*Winston Churchill tells the House of Commons, "We shall not flag or fail. We shall fight on the beaches...on the landing grounds...in the fields and the streets...We shall never surrender."
June 9 - WWII: The British Commandos are created.
June 10 - WWII
*Italy declares war on France and the United Kingdom.
*U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt denounces Italy's actions with "Stab in the Back" speech from the graduation ceremonies of the University of Virginia.
*Canada declares war on Italy.
*Norway surrenders to German forces.
*French government flees to Tours.
June 12 - WWII: 13,000 British and French troops surrender to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel at St. Valery-en-Caux.
June 13 - WWII: Paris is declared an open city.
June 14 - WWII:
*French government flees to Bordeaux.
*Paris falls under German occupation.
*U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Naval Expansion Act into law which aims to increase the United States Navy's tonnage by 11 %.
*Holocaust: A group of 728 Polish political prisoners from Tarnów become the first residents of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
June 15 - WWII: Verdun falls to German forces.
June 16 : The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is held for the first time in Sturgis, South Dakota.
June 17
*Philippe Petain becomes Prime Minister of France and immediately asks Germany for peace terms.
*Soviet Army enters Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia.
*Operation Ariel begins - Allied troops start to evacuate France, following Germany's takeover of Paris and most of the nation.
*Luftwaffe Junkers 88 bomber sinks British ship RMS Lancastria, that was evacuating troops from near Saint-Nazaire, France. Death toll is over 2500. Wartime censorship prevents the story going public.
June 18
*Winston Churchill speaks to the House of Commons: "... the Battle of France is over. The Battle of Britain is about to begin."
*General Charles de Gaulle broadcasts from London, calling on all French people to continue the fight against Nazi Germany: "France has lost a battle. But France has not lost the war."
June 21 - WWII: Vichy France and Germany sign armistice at Compiegne in the same wagon-lit railroad car used by Marshal Ferdinand Foch to accept the surrender of Germany in 1918.
June 23 - WWII: German leader Adolf Hitler surveys newly defeated Paris in now occupied France.
June 24
*U.S. politics: Republican Party begins its national convention in Philadelphia and nominates Wendell Willkie as its candidate for president.
*WWII: Vichy France signs armistice terms with Italy.
June 28 - General Charles DeGaulle is officially recognized by Britain as "Leader of all Free Frenchmen, wherever they may be."
June 30 - WWII: German forces land in Guernsey marking the start of the 5-year Occupation of the Channel Islands.
July
July 1 The first Tacoma Narrows Bridge opened for traffic and is build with 8-foot girder and is 190 feet obove the water. The bridge opened as the third longest suspension bridge in the world.
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 - WWII: Vichy France begins with a constitutional law where only 80 members of the parliament voted against.
July 15 - U.S. politics: 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 peace appeal to Britain in an address to the Reichstag. Lord Halifax, British foreign minister, flatly rejects peace terms in a broadcast reply on July 22.
July 21 - Estonian SSR, Latvian SSR and Lithuanian SSR are proclaimed.
August
August 3 - Lithuanian SSR, Latvian SSR (August 5) and Estonian SSR (August 6) are incorporated into the Soviet Union.
August 4 - Gen. John J. Pershing, in a nationwide radio broadcast, urges all-out aid to Britain in order to defend the Americas, while Charles Lindbergh speaks to an isolationist rally at Soldier Field in Chicago.
August 8 - Wilhelm Keitel signs the "Aufbau Ost" directive.
August 20
*Winston Churchill pays tribute in the House of Commons to the Royal Air Force: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
*Leon Trotsky assassinated in Mexico by Ramón Mercader, a Soviet agent, with an ice axe.
August 26 - Chad is the first French colony to proclaim its support for the Allies.
September
September - U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division (previously a National Guard Division in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Oklahoma), activated and ordered into federal service for one year to engage in a training program in Ft. Sill and Louisiana prior to serving in World War II.
September 2 - WWII: Agreement between America and Great Britain announced. Fifty U.S. destroyers needed for escort work transferred to Great Britain. In return, America gains 99-year leases on British bases in the North Atlantic, West Indies and Bermuda.
September 7
*Treaty of Craiova: Romania loses Southern Dobrudja to Bulgaria.
*WWII: The Blitz - Nazi Germany begins to rain bombs on London. This will be the first of 57 consecutive nights of strategic bombing.
September 12
*Lascaux, France - 17,000-year-old cave paintings are discovered by a group of young Frenchmen hiking through Southern France. The paintings depict animals and date to the Stone Age.
*The Hercules Munitions Plant in Kenvil, New Jersey explodes, killing 55 people.
September 16 - WWII: Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 signed into law by Franklin D. Roosevelt, creating the first peacetime draft in U.S. history.
September 26 - WWII: U.S. imposes a total embargo on all shipments of scrap metal to Japan.
September 27 - WWII: Germany, Italy and Japan sign Tripartite Pact.
October
October 16 - Draft registration of approximately 16 million men begins in the United States.
October 28 - WWII: Italian troops invaded Greece meeting strong resistance from Greek troops and civilians. This action signals the beginning of the Balkans Campaign.
October 29 - Selective Service System lottery held in Washington, D.C..
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 third longest suspension bridge in the world named the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and was nicknamed Galloping Gertie collapsed in a 42-mile per hour wind storm causing the center span of the bridge to sway. When it collapsed, a 600 foot-long design of the center span fell 190 feet above the water killing a black male cocker spaniel dog.
November 9 - Premiere of Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez in Barcelona, Spain.
November 10 - Earthquake in Bucharest, Romania - 1,000 dead.
November 11 - WWII:
*Battle of Taranto - The Royal Navy launches the first aircraft carrier strike in history, on the Italian fleet at Taranto.
*The German Hilfskreuzer (cruiser) Atlantis captures top secret British mail, and sends it to Japan.
*Armistice Day Blizzard: An unexpected blizzard kills 144 in U.S. Midwest.
November 13 - Walt Disney's Fantasia is released. It is the first box office failure for Disney, though it will eventually recoup its cost years later, and become one of the most highly regarded of Disney's films.
November 14 - WWII: In England, the city of Coventry is destroyed by 500 German Luftwaffe bombers (150,000 fire bombs, 503 tons of high explosives, 130 parachute mines leveled 60,000 of the city's 75,000 buildings; 568 people were killed).
November 16
*WWII: In response to Germany leveling Coventry two days before, the Royal Air Force begins to bomb Hamburg (by war's end, 50,000 Hamburg residents died from Allied attacks).
*Unexploded pipe bomb found in Consolidated Edison office building. (Only years later is the culprit, George Metesky, apprehended.)
*The Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers is founded.
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
*In Romania, coup leader General Ion Antonescu's Iron Guard arrests and executes over 60 of exiled king Carol II of Romania's aides. Among the dead is former minister and acclaimed historian Nicolae Iorga.
*WWII: Royal Navy and Regia Marina fight the Battle of Cape Spartivento.
December
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: The "Sheffield Blitz". The City of Sheffield is badly damaged by German air-raids.
December 14 - Plutonium 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 massive incendiary bombing raid starting 1500 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, is opened to traffic in Pasadena, California, as the Arroyo Seco Parkway. It is now called the Pasadena Freeway.
Undated
Guilin, China, acquires the current name.
Tibet, province of Amdo: five-year-old Tenzin Gyatso was proclaimed the tulku (rebirth) of the thirteenth Dalai Lama.
Korea The Hunmin Jeong-eum Haerye (1446) was discovered, explaining the basis of Hangul.
Truth or Consequences debuts on NBC Radio.
Ongoing
Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)
World War II (1939 - 1945).
January-February
January 4- Brian David Josephson, Welsh physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
-Gao Xingjian, Chinese-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate
January 6 - Penny Lernoux, American journalist and author (d. 1989)
January 9 - Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, a 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 31 - Kitch Christie, South African rugby coach (d. 1998)
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
*Tom Brokaw, American television news reporter
*Jimmy Tarbuck, English comedian
February 8
*Ted Koppel, American journalist
*Joe South, American singer and songwriter
February 9 - J. M. Coetzee, South African writer, Nobel Prize laureate
February 12 - Richard Lynch, American actor
February 17 - Gene Pitney, American singer (d. 2006)
February 19 - Smokey Robinson, American musician
February 20 - Jimmy Greaves, English footballer
February 21 - James Wong, Hong Kong composer (d. 2004)
February 22
*Johnson Mlambo, South African politician
*Billy Name, American photographer and Warhol archivist
February 23 - Peter Fonda, American actor
February 24 - Denis Law, Scottish footballer
February 25 - Ron Santo, American baseball player
February 28 - Mario Andretti, American race car driver
March-April
March 3 - Germán Castro Caycedo, Colombian writer and journalist
March 3 - Owen Spencer-Thomas, English broadcaster, journalist and clergyman
March 6 - Willie Stargell, baseball player (d. 2001)
March 7 - Rudi Dutschke, German student leader (d. 1979)
March 9 - Raúl Juliá, Puerto Rican actor (d. 1994)
March 10 - Chuck Norris, American actor and martial artist
March 12 - Al Jarreau, American singer
March 15 - Phil Lesh, American musician (Grateful Dead)
March 16
*Bernardo Bertolucci, Italian writer and film director
*Jan Pronk, Dutch politician and diplomat
March 17 - Mark White, Governor of Texas
March 22 - Haing S. Ngor, Cambodian actor (d. 1996)
March 25 - Anita Bryant, American entertainer
March 26 -
*James Caan, American actor
*Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
March 27
*Austin Pendleton, American actor
*Cale Yarborough, American race car driver
March 29 - Ray Davis, American musician (P-Funk)
March 30 - Astrud Gilberto, Brazilian-born singer
April 1 - Wangari Maathai, Kenyan environmentalist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
April 2 - Penelope Keith, English actress
April 12
*Herbie Hancock, American musician
*John Hagee, American televangelist
April 16 - Queen Margrethe II of Denmark
April 18 - Joseph L. Goldstein, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
April 25 - Al Pacino, American actor
April 26 - Giorgio Moroder, Italian film composer
May-June
May 1 - Elsa Peretti, Italian jewelry designer
May 7 - Jim Connors, Legendary Radio personality (d. 1987)
May 8
*Peter Benchley, American author (d. 2006)
*Angela Carter, English author and editor (d. 1992)
*Ricky Nelson, American singer (d. 1985)
May 8 - Toni Tennille, American singer
May 9 - James L. Brooks, American film producer and writer
May 11 - Juan Downey, Chilean-born video artist (d. 1993)
May 14 - 'H'. Jones, British soldier (VC recipient) (d. 1982)
May 15 - Don Nelson, American basketball player and coach
May 17
* Alan Kay, American computer scientist
* Reynato Puno, Filipino Supreme Court Chief Justice
May 18 - Lenny Lipton, American inventor
May 20
*Stan Mikita, Slovakian-born hockey player
*Sadaharu Oh, Japanese baseball player
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
June 1 - René 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 - Carole Ann Ford, British actress
June 8 - Nancy Sinatra, American singer
June 16 - Neil Goldschmidt, Governor of Oregon
June 17 - George Akerlof, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
June 20 - John Mahoney, English-born actor
June 21 - Mariette Hartley, American actress
June 22
*Abbas Kiarostami, Iranian film director, screenwriter, and film producer
*Esther Rantzen, British broadcaster
June 23
*Adam Faith, English singer and actor (d. 2003)
*Lord Irvine of Lairg, Lord Chancellor of England
*Wilma Rudolph, American athlete (d. 1994)
June 25 - A.J. Quinnell, English writer (d. 2005)
June 29 - Vyacheslav Artyomov, Russian composer
July-August
July 3 - César Tovar, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (d. 1994)
July 7 - Ringo Starr, British drummer (The Beatles)
July 10
*Gene Alley, baseball player
*Tom Farmer, Scottish entrepreneur
*Helen Donath, American soprano
July 13 - Patrick Stewart, English actor
July 17
*Tim Brooke-Taylor, English comedian
*Verne Lundquist, American sportscaster
July 18
*Joe Torre, baseball player and manager
*James Brolin, American actor and director
July 22
*George Clinton, American musician
*Alex Trebek, Canadian game show host
July 24 - Stanley Hauerwas, American theologian
July 26 - Mary Jo Kopechne, American aide to Ted Kennedy (d. 1969)
July 27 - Bharati Mukherjee, Indian-born novelist
July 31 - Roy Walker, comedian and TV presenter of ITV's Catchphrase (1986-1999)
August 3 - Martin Sheen, American actor
August 7 - Jean-Luc Dehaene, Prime Minister of Belgium
August 8 - Dilip Sardesai, former Indian Test cricketer (d. 2007)
August 9 - Beverlee McKinsey, American actress
August 10 - Bobby Hatfield, American singer (Righteous Brothers) (d. 2003)
August 19 - Jill St. John, American actress
August 20
*Musa Geshaev, Chechen poet and historian
*Rubén Hinojosa, American politician
August 22 - Valerie Harper, American actress
August 25 - José Van Dam, Belgian bass-baritone
August 28 - Tom Baker, American actor (d. 1982)
August 29
*Johnny Paris, American musician (Johnny and the Hurricanes) (d. 2006)
*Bennie Maupin, American musician
September-October
September 5 - Raquel Welch, American actress
September 10 - David Mann, American artist (d. 2004)
September 12
*Skip Hinnant, American actor
*Mickey Lolich, baseball player
September 13 - Óscar Arias, Costa Rican politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
September 14 - Larry Brown, American basketball coach
September 23 - Mohammad-Reza Shajarian, Iranian traditional singer and undisputed Master
September 24 - Michiko Suganuma, Urushi japanese lacquer artist
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 Doherty, Australian immunologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
October 19 - Michael Gambon, Irish actor
October 20 - Robert Pinsky, Poet Laureate of the United States
October 21
*Manfred Mann (Manfred Lubowitz), South African musician (Manfred Mann bands)
*Geoffrey Boycott, English cricketer
October 23 - Pelé, Brazilian footballer
October 25 - Bobby Knight, American basketball coach
October 27 - John Gotti, American gangster (d. 2002)
November-December
November 1 - Ramesh Chandra Lahoti, Chief Justice of India
November 15 - Sam Waterston, American actor
November 17 - Luke Kelly,Irish Ballad Singer from The Dubliners
November 21 - Richard Marcinko, U.S. Navy SEAL team member and author
November 25 - Joe Gibbs, American football coach
November 27 - Bruce Lee, Chinese American martial artist and actor (d. 1973)
November 29 - Chuck Mangione, famous American flugelhorn player
December 1 - Richard Pryor, American actor and comedian (d. 2005)
December 4 - Freddy Cannon, American singer
December 4 - Gary Gilmore, American murderer (d. 1977)
December 5 - Peter Pohl, Swedish writer
December 12
*Sharad Pawar, Indian politician
*Dionne Warwick, American singer
December 21 - Frank Zappa, American musician, composer, and satirist (d. 1993)
December 22 - Noel Jones, British ambassador to Kazakhstan (d. 1995)
December 23 - Jorma Kaukonen, American musician (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna)
December 23 - Robert Labine, former mayor of old city of Gatineau, Quebec
December 26 - Edward C. Prescott, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
Unknown dates
Seamus Deane, Irish poet and novelist
António Roseiro Founder and President of VITAE
January - June
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)
Fusajiro Yamauchi, Japanese business executive
February 1 - Philip Francis Nowlan, science fiction writer, creator of Buck Rogers character (b. 1888)
February 11 - John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir, Governor General of Canada (b. 1875)
February 26 - Michael Hainisch, second President of Austria (b. 1858)
February 29 - Edward Frederic Benson, English writer
March 5 - Cai Yuanpei, Chinese edjaucator (b. 1868)
March 10 - Mikhaïl Boulgakov, Russian writer (b. 1891)
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 - Michael Joseph Savage, Prime Minister of New Zealand (b. 1872)
March 31 - Tinsley Lindley, English footballer (b. 1865)
April 1 - John A. Hobson, English economist (b. 1858).
April 26 - Carl Bosch, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1874)
May 14 - Emma Goldman, Lithuanian-born anarchist (b. 1869)
May 15 - Menno ter Braak, Dutch writer (b. 1902)
May 20 - Verner von Heidenstam, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1859)
May 25 - Joe De Grasse, Canadian film director (b. 1873)
May 28 - Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse (b. 1868)
June 10 - Marcus Garvey, Jamaican-born publisher, entrepreneur, and black nationalist (b. 1887)
June 11 - Alfred S. Alschuler, American architect (b. 1876)
June 17 - Arthur Harden, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)
June 21 - Smedley Butler, U.S. general (b. 1881)
June 29 - Paul Klee, Swiss artist (b. 1879)
July - December
July 4 - Robert Pershing Wadlow, tallest man ever (infection) (b. 1918)
August 8 - Johnny Dodds, American jazz clarinetist (b. 1892)
August 18 - Walter Chrysler, American automobile pioneer (b. 1875)
August 21 - Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary (b. 1879)
August 21 - Hermann Obrecht, Swiss Federal Councillor (b. 1882)
August 22 - Mary Vaux Walcott, American artist and naturalist (b. 1860)
August 30 - J.J. Thomson, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1856)
September 5 - Charles de Broqueville, Prime Minister of Belgium (b. 1860)
September 27 - Julius Wagner-Jauregg, Austrian neuroscientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1857)
October 5 - Ballington Booth, American co-founder of Volunteers of America (b. 1857)
October 9 - Wilfred Grenfell, English medical missionary to Newfoundland and Labrador (b. 1865)
October 10 - Berton Churchill, Canadian actor (b. 1876)
November 9 - Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1869)
November 9 - John Henry Kirby, Texas legislator and American businessman (b. 1860)
November 17 - Eric Gill, British sculptor and writer (b. 1882)
November 17 - Raymond Pearl, American biologist (b. 1879)
December 5 - Jan Kubelík, Czech violinist (b. 1880)
December 15 or December 16 - Billy Hamilton, Baseball Hall of Fame outfielder (b. 1866)
December 19 - Kyösti Kallio, President of Finland (b. 1873)
December 21 - F. Scott Fitzgerald, American writer (b. 1896)
December 25 - Agnes Ayres, American actress (b. 1898)
Nobel prizes
Physics - not awarded
Chemistry - not awarded
Physiology or Medicine - not awarded
Literature - not awarded
Peace - not awarded
Ship events
List of ship launches in 1940
List of ship commissionings in 1940
List of ship decommissionings in 1940
List of shipwrecks in 1940
External links
The 1930s Timeline: 1940 — from American Studies Programs at The University of Virginia
1940 Coin Pictures
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