1940

Events in 1940 126

• 1849 – 1940 Saionji Kinmochi (1849-1940) Died 24 November 1940, aged 91 Japanese statesman who served twice as Prime Minister and was the last of the genrō, the elder advisers to the emperor. He was a leading moderate voice against militarism.
• 1851 – 1940 Oliver Lodge (1851-1940) Died 22 August 1940, aged 89 British physicist who did pioneering work on radio. In later life he was a prominent investigator of spiritualism.
• 1856 – 1940 J. J. Thomson (1856-1940) Died 30 August 1940, aged 83 British physicist who discovered the electron in 1897 and won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1906. He led the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, and seven of his assistants went on to win Nobel Prizes.
• 1858 – 1940 Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) Died 16 March 1940, aged 81 Swedish author of "The Wonderful Adventures of Nils" and "Gösta Berling's Saga". In 1909 she became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 1859 – 1940 George Lansbury (1859-1940) Died 7 May 1940, aged 81 British Labour politician, pacifist and social reformer who led the Labour Party from 1932 to 1935.
• 1865 – 1940 Mrs Patrick Campbell (1865-1940) Died 9 April 1940, aged 75 English stage actress for whom George Bernard Shaw wrote the role of Eliza Doolittle in "Pygmalion". She died in Pau, France.
• 1867 – 1940 E. F. Benson (1867-1940) Died 29 February 1940, aged 72 English novelist best known for the comic Mapp and Lucia series and for his ghost stories.
• 1868 – 1940 Édouard Vuillard (1868-1940) Died 21 June 1940, aged 71 French painter of the Nabis group, known for intimate domestic interiors. He died in La Baule while fleeing the German advance.
• 1869 – 1940 Emma Goldman (1869-1940) Died 14 May 1940, aged 70 Anarchist writer and activist, born in the Russian Empire, who campaigned in the United States for free speech, birth control and workers' rights. She was deported in 1919 and died in Toronto.
• 1869 – 1940 Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940) Died 9 November 1940, aged 71 British Prime Minister from 1937 to 1940, known for the policy of appeasement and the Munich Agreement. He resigned in May 1940 but served in Churchill's War Cabinet until illness forced him out. He died of bowel cancer six months later.
• 1871 – 1940 Luisa Tetrazzini (1871-1940) Died 28 April 1940, aged 68 Italian coloratura soprano and one of the most celebrated opera singers of the early twentieth century. Chicken Tetrazzini is named after her.
• 1872 – 1940 Michael Joseph Savage (1872-1940) Died 27 March 1940, aged 68 New Zealand's first Labour Prime Minister, from 1935, whose government built the country's welfare state. He died of cancer in office.
• 1874 – 1940 Vsevolod Meyerhold (1874-1940) Died 2 February 1940, aged 65 Russian theatre director and innovator of avant-garde staging. He was arrested during the Great Purge, tortured, and shot in Moscow.
• 1875 – 1940 John Buchan (1875-1940) Died 11 February 1940, aged 64 Scottish novelist, author of "The Thirty-Nine Steps", and Governor General of Canada as Lord Tweedsmuir from 1935. He died in office in Montreal after a stroke.
• 1875 – 1940 Walter Chrysler (1875-1940) Died 18 August 1940, aged 65 American industrialist who founded the Chrysler Corporation in 1925. He also paid for the Chrysler Building in New York.
• 1879 – 1940 Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) Died 21 August 1940, aged 60 Russian revolutionary, founder of the Red Army and Stalin's chief rival, exiled from the Soviet Union in 1929. A Soviet agent, Ramón Mercader, struck him with an ice axe at his home in Coyoacán, Mexico City, on 20 August. He died the following day.
• 1879 – 1940 Paul Klee (1879-1940) Died 29 June 1940, aged 60 Swiss-born German painter and Bauhaus teacher whose work drew on Expressionism, Cubism and Surrealism. The Nazis labelled his art degenerate. He died in Switzerland after years of illness.
• 1880 – 1940 Manuel Azaña (1880-1940) Died 3 November 1940, aged 60 President of the Second Spanish Republic from 1936 until its defeat in the Civil War. He died in exile in Montauban, France.
• 1880 – 1940 Tom Mix (1880-1940) Died 12 October 1940, aged 60 American actor who starred in hundreds of silent Western films and was Hollywood's first great cowboy star. He died in a car crash in Arizona.
• 1880 – 1940 Ze'ev Jabotinsky (1880-1940) Died 4 August 1940, aged 59 Zionist leader born in Odessa who founded Revisionist Zionism and the Betar youth movement. He died of a heart attack while visiting a Betar camp in New York State.
• 1882 – 1940 Eric Gill (1882-1940) Died 17 November 1940, aged 58 English sculptor, printmaker and designer of the Gill Sans and Perpetua typefaces.
• 1882 – 1940 Lluís Companys (1882-1940) Died 15 October 1940, aged 58 President of the Generalitat of Catalonia during the Civil War. The Gestapo arrested him in France and handed him to Franco's regime. He was shot at Montjuïc Castle in Barcelona.
• 1885 – 1940 DuBose Heyward (1885-1940) Died 16 June 1940, aged 54 American author of the novel "Porgy", which became the basis of the Gershwin opera "Porgy and Bess". He also wrote the opera's libretto.
• 1887 – 1940 Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) Died 10 June 1940, aged 52 Jamaican political activist who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association and led the Pan-Africanist "Back to Africa" movement. He died in London after a series of strokes.
• 1891 – 1940 Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940) Died 10 March 1940, aged 48 Russian writer and playwright whose novel "The Master and Margarita" was published only in the 1960s, long after his death. Much of his work was banned in his lifetime. He died of kidney disease in Moscow.
• 1892 – 1940 Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) Died 26 September 1940, aged 48 German-Jewish philosopher and critic, author of "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction". He fled occupied France and killed himself in Portbou after Spanish officials threatened to return his group to France.
• 1894 – 1940 Isaac Babel (1894-1940) Died 27 January 1940, aged 45 Soviet writer of "Red Cavalry" and "Odessa Stories". The NKVD arrested him in 1939 on invented charges of espionage and shot him in Moscow after a brief trial.
• 1895 – 1940 Nikolai Yezhov (1895-1940) Died 4 February 1940, aged 44 Head of the Soviet NKVD from 1936 to 1938, who carried out the worst years of the Great Purge. Stalin had him removed and arrested, and he was shot in Moscow.
• 1896 – 1940 Italo Balbo (1896-1940) Died 28 June 1940, aged 44 Italian Fascist leader, aviator famous for mass transatlantic flights, and Governor of Libya. Italian anti-aircraft gunners shot down his plane by mistake over Tobruk.
• 1896 – 1940 F. Scott Fitzgerald American novelist Fitzgerald captured the Jazz Age in The Great Gatsby, exploring wealth, illusion, and disillusionment.
• 1899 – 1940 Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940) Died 5 October 1940, aged 40 Mexican composer and violinist whose works include "Sensemayá" and the score for "La noche de los Mayas". He died in Mexico City of pneumonia.
• 1903 – 1940 Nathanael West (1903-1940) Died 22 December 1940, aged 37 American novelist, author of "Miss Lonelyhearts" and "The Day of the Locust". He and his wife died in a car crash in California the day after his friend F. Scott Fitzgerald died.
• 1939 – 1940 The Winter War Talvisota Finland successfully defended its independence against a massive Soviet invasion, despite losing territory.
• 1939 – 1940 Battle of Suomussalmi Winter War battle in which outnumbered Finnish ski troops encircled and destroyed the Soviet 163rd and 44th divisions, capturing large amounts of equipment.
• 1940 "Nickel Nickel" jingle First advertising jingle on radio — 1940 In 1940 Pepsi introduced the "Nickel Nickel" jingle sung by the Tune Twisters — widely considered the first advertising jingle ever broadcast on national radio. The catchy song emphasised the value of getting 12 ounces of Pepsi for just five cents and became a pop culture phenomenon.
• 1940 – 2023 Astrud Gilberto (1940-2023) Died 5 June 2023, aged 83 Brazilian singer whose vocal on The Girl from Ipanema carried bossa nova around the world.
• 1940 – 2025 Edmund White (1940-2025) Died 3 June 2025, aged 85 American writer whose acclaimed work chronicled gay life in America and the impact of HIV/AIDS on it.
• 1940 – 2022 James Caan (1940-2022) Died 6 July 2022, aged 82 American actor whose Sonny Corleone in The Godfather earned an Academy Award nomination.
• 1940 – 2025 Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (1940-2025) Died 24 January 2025, aged 85 Native American artist whose paintings and prints used Modernist vocabularies to explore Native American history and identity.
• 1940 – 2024 Luis Tiant (1940-2024) Died 8 October 2024, aged 83 Cuban-born pitcher who won more major league games than any other Cuban player.
• 1940 – 2026 Mary Rand (1940-2026) Died 26 March 2026, aged 86 British long jumper who won gold at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the first British woman to win an Olympic athletics title.
• 1940 McDonald’s founded McDonald’s founded Richard and Maurice McDonald opened a drive-in barbecue restaurant in San Bernardino in 1940, then in 1948 stripped it back to a nine-item menu built around speed. Ray Kroc began franchising it in 1955 and bought the brothers out in 1961. The Speedee Service System became the template for fast food worldwide.
• 1940 – 1945 Mobile neurosurgical units North Africa and Europe Cairns designed and trained surgical teams that worked within miles of the fighting, so that head wounds were operated on in hours rather than days. British army death rates from such injuries fell below those of any other army.
• 1940 – 2022 Pelé (1940-2022) Died 29 December 2022, aged 82 Brazilian footballer, the only man to win three World Cups and for many the greatest player the game has produced.
• 1940 – 2024 Phil Lesh (1940-2024) Died 25 October 2024, aged 84 American bassist and founding member of the Grateful Dead.
• 1940 – 2024 Roberto Cavalli (1940-2024) Died 12 April 2024, aged 83 Italian fashion designer known for glamorous, animal-print clothing.
• 1940 – 1945 The Nutcrackers Suite Oxford, United Kingdom St Hugh's College was requisitioned and became the Military Hospital for Head Injuries, the most important neurological unit in the country. Its records are still held in the college archive.
• 1940 Woody Guthrie records Dust Bowl Ballads Victor Records His first commercial album, songs of the Okie migration.
• 1940 – 2024 Yamini Krishnamurthy (1940-2024) Died 3 August 2024, aged 83 Indian dancer of bharata natyam and other classical styles who shaped the country's dance world for decades.
• 1940 Food rationing begins in Britain Bacon, butter and sugar become the first foods rationed in wartime Britain, starting a system that lasted until 1954.
• 1940 Romeo and Juliet ballet premieres in Leningrad Prokofiev's ballet has its Soviet premiere at the Kirov Theatre, with Galina Ulanova as Juliet.
• 1940 – 2015 Julian Bond (1940-2015) Died 15 August 2015, aged 75 Julian Bond was an American civil rights leader who co-founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and later served as chairman of the NAACP. He was one of the youngest members ever elected to the Georgia state legislature, though he was initially barred from taking his seat over his opposition to the Vietnam War. Bond remained a prominent voice for civil rights until his death.
• 1940 – 2017 John Hurt (1940-2017) Died 25 January 2017, aged 77 British actor known for roles in Alien, The Elephant Man, and the Harry Potter films. He received Academy Award nominations for Midnight Express and The Elephant Man. He died of pancreatic cancer.
• 1940 The Grapes of Wrath premieres John Ford's film of the Steinbeck novel, starring Henry Fonda, premieres in New York. It won Oscars for Ford and for Jane Darwell.
• 1940 6th Elfstedentocht — Pact of Dokkum Shared victory: Adema, Van der Duim, Jongert, Keijzer, Westra Held on 30 January 1940 with over 3,000 competitors. Five skaters — Auke Adema, Durk van der Duim, Cor Jongert, Piet Keijzer and Sjouke Westra — conspired in Dokkum to cross the finish line together. This Pact of Dokkum caused such controversy that shared finishes were again strictly forbidden. The race took place just months before the German invasion of the Netherlands.
• 1940 – 2014 H.R. Giger (1940-2014) Died 12 May 2014, aged 74 H.R. Giger, the Swiss artist whose biomechanical designs created the title creature in the film "Alien," died in Zurich following a fall. His surreal, nightmarish artwork won him an Academy Award for visual effects. His distinctive style influenced science fiction and horror design for decades.
• 1940 Pinocchio premieres Disney's second animated feature Walt Disney's Pinocchio premiered in New York on 7 February. It won Academy Awards for Best Original Score and for the song "When You Wish Upon a Star". It is widely considered one of the finest animated films ever made.
• 1940 Tom and Jerry debut Puss Gets the Boot is released MGM released the cartoon Puss Gets the Boot by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera on 10 February. It introduced the cat and mouse later named Tom and Jerry. The series went on to win seven Academy Awards.
• 1940 – 2020 John Lewis (1940-2020) Died 17 July 2020, aged 80 John Lewis was a leader of the American civil rights movement who helped organize the 1965 Selma march and later served over three decades as a US congressman from Georgia. He died of pancreatic cancer on 17 July 2020.
• 1940 – 2019 Peter Fonda (1940-2019) Died 16 August 2019, aged 79 Peter Fonda was an American actor and filmmaker who co-wrote, produced, and starred in the 1969 counterculture film Easy Rider. He came from a celebrated acting family, the son of Henry Fonda and brother of Jane Fonda. He died at his home in Los Angeles from complications of lung cancer.
• 1940 Woody Guthrie writes This Land Is Your Land New York An answer to Irving Berlin's God Bless America.
• 1940 – present Mario Andretti The Versatile Legend 1978 World Champion and one of the few drivers to win races in F1, IndyCar, NASCAR, and World Sportscars.
• 1940 Frisch-Peierls memorandum Two physicists show an atomic bomb is feasible In March Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls, working in Birmingham, calculated that a few kilograms of uranium-235 could make a practical bomb. Their memorandum led to the British MAUD Committee. Its findings later spurred the American Manhattan Project.
• 1940 – 1994 Raul Julia (1940-1994) Puerto Rican actor of stage and screen, known for Kiss of the Spider Woman and Gomez in The Addams Family.
• 1940 1940 World Snooker Championship Joe Davis Title 14 The final tournament before the WWII hiatus. Winner: Joe Davis; Runner-up: Fred Davis. Score: 37–36.
• 1940 – 2010 Solomon Burke (1940-2010) Died 10 October 2010, aged 70 Burke was an American singer often called one of the founding fathers of soul music, known for hits including Cry to Me and Everybody Needs Somebody to Love. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. He died of a heart attack aboard a flight to Amsterdam.
• 1940 Lahore Resolution The Muslim League calls for separate Muslim states On 23 March the All-India Muslim League met in Lahore and presented a resolution demanding independent states for the Muslim-majority areas of British India. It was adopted the following day. Pakistan marks the date as Pakistan Day.
• 1940 Wang Jingwei regime established Japan installs a collaborationist government in Nanjing On 30 March Wang Jingwei, a former Kuomintang leader, became head of a Japanese-backed Reorganized National Government of China in Nanjing. It claimed to be the legitimate government of China but had little independence. It collapsed with Japan's defeat in 1945.
• 1940 – 2026 Barney Frank (1940-2026) Died 19 May 2026, aged 86 American Democratic congressman from 1981 to 2013, one of the first openly gay members of Congress and co-sponsor of the Dodd-Frank Act.
• 1940 – 2011 Wangari Maathai (1940-2011) Died 25 September 2011, aged 71 The Kenyan environmentalist founded the Green Belt Movement, which planted tens of millions of trees across Africa, and became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, in 2004. She died in Nairobi of ovarian cancer. She was also a member of the Kenyan parliament and a prominent democracy activist.
• 1940 Katyn massacre Soviet NKVD executes about 22,000 Polish prisoners Between April and May the Soviet NKVD shot about 22,000 Polish officers, police and members of the intelligentsia in the Katyn Forest and at other sites. The Soviet Union blamed Nazi Germany for the killings until 1990. The massacre remains a defining grievance in Polish-Russian relations.
• 1940 – 2019 John Havlicek Hondo 8-time champion with the Celtics; famous for the "Havlicek stole the ball!" call.
• 1940 Battles of Narvik Allied and German forces fight over the iron-ore port German forces seized the northern Norwegian port of Narvik on 9 April. British, French, Polish and Norwegian troops retook the town in late May but withdrew in early June as the situation in France collapsed. The naval battles in the fjord cost Germany ten destroyers.
• 1940 German invasion of Denmark and Norway Operation Weserübung secures Scandinavia for Germany On 9 April Germany invaded Denmark, which surrendered within hours, and Norway, which fought on with Allied support. The campaign ended when the last Norwegian forces capitulated on 10 June. King Haakon VII and the Norwegian government went into exile in London.
• 1940 Battle of France Germany overruns France and the Low Countries in six weeks On 10 May Germany attacked the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France, and armoured forces broke through the Ardennes at Sedan. Allied armies were split and pushed back to the Channel coast. France signed an armistice on 22 June, which came into effect on 25 June.
• 1940 British invasion of Iceland Britain occupies Iceland to forestall Germany British forces landed at Reykjavík on 10 May to stop Germany from seizing Iceland and to secure North Atlantic routes. The Icelandic government protested but did not resist. United States forces later took over most of the occupation.
• 1940 – 1945 German occupation of the Netherlands World War II occupation Nazi Germany occupied the Netherlands during World War II while Queen Wilhelmina led the government-in-exile.
• 1940 Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister Churchill replaces Chamberlain on the day Germany invades the West Neville Chamberlain resigned after the failed Norwegian campaign and the Norway Debate in the Commons. Winston Churchill was appointed Prime Minister on 10 May and formed an all-party coalition government. He led Britain for the rest of the war.
• 1940 Rotterdam Blitz German bombers destroy the centre of Rotterdam On 14 May the Luftwaffe bombed Rotterdam during surrender negotiations, destroying the historic city centre and killing about 850 people. Germany threatened to bomb Utrecht next, and the Netherlands capitulated the following day.
• 1940 – 2017 Roger Ailes (1940-2017) Died 18 May 2017, aged 77 American media executive who founded and ran Fox News, transforming it into the dominant force in cable news and conservative media. He resigned in 2016 following multiple sexual harassment allegations. He died following complications from a fall.
• 1940 Dunkirk evacuation Operation Dynamo rescues 338,000 Allied troops Between 26 May and 4 June more than 338,000 British and French soldiers were evacuated from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk. Naval ships were joined by hundreds of civilian craft, the "little ships". The operation saved the core of the British Army, though almost all of its heavy equipment was left behind.
• 1940 – 2012 Levon Helm (1940-2012) Died 19 April 2012, aged 71 American musician and drummer-vocalist for the roots-rock group the Band. He died of complications from throat cancer.
• 1940 Belgium surrenders King Leopold III capitulates to Germany After eighteen days of fighting, King Leopold III surrendered the Belgian army on 28 May against the advice of his government. The government continued the war from exile in London. The surrender made the king a divisive figure in Belgium after the war.
• 1940 We Shall Fight on the Beaches speech Churchill vows Britain will never surrender On 4 June Churchill reported the Dunkirk evacuation to the House of Commons and warned that "wars are not won by evacuations". He declared that Britain would fight on the beaches, the landing grounds and in the streets. It is one of the best-known speeches in the English language.
• 1940 Italy enters the Second World War Mussolini declares war on France and Britain On 10 June Benito Mussolini declared war on France and the United Kingdom as France was collapsing. Italian forces attacked across the Alps but made little progress before the armistice. The move widened the war into the Mediterranean and North Africa.
• 1940 Fall of Paris German troops enter the French capital The French government declared Paris an open city and moved south. German troops entered Paris unopposed on 14 June. Pictures of German soldiers marching past the Arc de Triomphe became symbols of the French defeat.
• 1940 First prisoners arrive at Auschwitz Polish political prisoners open the camp On 14 June the Germans sent 728 Polish political prisoners from Tarnów to the new concentration camp at Auschwitz. The camp grew into the largest Nazi killing centre. More than a million people, most of them Jews, were murdered there by 1945.
• 1940 Soviet occupation of the Baltic states Red Army occupies Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia The Soviet Union issued ultimatums and occupied Lithuania on 15 June, then Latvia and Estonia on 17 June. Rigged elections followed, and all three states were annexed as Soviet republics in early August. They regained independence only in 1991.
• 1940 Sinking of RMS Lancastria Britain's worst maritime disaster On 17 June German aircraft sank the troopship Lancastria off Saint-Nazaire while it was evacuating British troops and civilians from France. At least 3,000 people died, and some estimates are far higher. Churchill suppressed news of the disaster at the time.
• 1940 Appeal of 18 June De Gaulle calls on the French to keep fighting On 18 June General Charles de Gaulle broadcast from the BBC in London and urged the French to reject the armistice and continue the war. Few heard the broadcast at the time. It came to be seen as the founding act of the Free French and the Resistance.
• 1940 Armistice of Compiègne France signs an armistice with Germany On 22 June France signed an armistice with Germany in the railway carriage at Compiègne where Germany had signed the 1918 armistice. Germany occupied northern and western France, and a nominally sovereign French state kept the south. A separate armistice with Italy followed on 24 June.
• 1940 Hitler tours Paris Hitler makes his only visit to the French capital In the early morning of 23 June Adolf Hitler toured Paris with Albert Speer and Arno Breker. He visited the Opéra, the Eiffel Tower and Napoleon's tomb. The photographs of the brief visit became some of the best-known images of the war.
• 1940 Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina Romania cedes territory to the Soviet Union under ultimatum After a Soviet ultimatum on 26 June, Romania withdrew from Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. The Red Army occupied the territories between 28 June and 4 July. Most of Bessarabia became the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic.
• 1940 German occupation of the Channel Islands The only British soil occupied by Germany German forces landed on Guernsey on 30 June and on Jersey on 1 July, after Britain had demilitarised the islands. The occupation lasted until May 1945. Islanders faced deportations, forced labour and severe food shortages.
• 1940 Attack on Mers-el-Kébir The Royal Navy attacks the French fleet On 3 July British warships attacked the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir to keep it out of German hands after the French refused an ultimatum. Almost 1,300 French sailors were killed and the battleship Bretagne was sunk. Vichy France broke off diplomatic relations with Britain.
• 1940 Battle of Britain RAF defeats Luftwaffe in first major air battle The Battle of Britain was fought from July to October 1940 as the Luftwaffe attempted to destroy the RAF and gain air superiority for a planned invasion of Britain. The RAF prevailed, forcing Hitler to postpone Operation Sea Lion.
• 1940 Vichy regime established The French parliament gives Pétain full powers On 10 July the National Assembly, meeting in Vichy, voted full powers to Marshal Philippe Pétain, ending the Third Republic. Pétain became head of the French State and began a policy of collaboration with Germany. The regime lasted until the Liberation in 1944.
• 1940 – 2020 Alex Trebek (1940-2020) Died 8 November 2020, aged 80 Alex Trebek hosted the American quiz show Jeopardy! for 37 seasons, becoming one of the most familiar faces on US television. He died of pancreatic cancer on 8 November 2020, having continued hosting the show after his 2019 diagnosis.
• 1940 Bugs Bunny debuts A Wild Hare introduces the finished Bugs Bunny Warner Bros. released the Tex Avery cartoon A Wild Hare on 27 July. It is regarded as the first proper appearance of Bugs Bunny, voiced by Mel Blanc, with the line "What's up, Doc?". Elmer Fudd appeared in his established form in the same cartoon.
• 1940 Hundred Regiments Offensive Chinese Communist forces attack Japanese railways and garrisons From 20 August the Eighth Route Army under Peng Dehuai attacked Japanese railways, roads and blockhouses across northern China. It was the largest Communist offensive of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Japan retaliated with the brutal "Three Alls" policy.
• 1940 Second Vienna Award Germany and Italy give Northern Transylvania to Hungary On 30 August Germany and Italy arbitrated a territorial dispute and forced Romania to cede Northern Transylvania to Hungary. The loss sparked a political crisis in Romania. King Carol II abdicated on 6 September and Ion Antonescu took power.
• 1940 Destroyers-for-bases deal The US gives Britain 50 destroyers for base rights On 2 September the United States agreed to transfer 50 old destroyers to the Royal Navy. In return it received 99-year leases on bases in British territories in the Caribbean and Newfoundland. The deal marked a clear move away from American neutrality.
• 1940 – 2023 Raquel Welch American Actress & Icon American actress and cultural icon who rose to international fame in the 1960s. Born Jo Raquel Tejada to a Bolivian father and American mother, she became one of the defining sex symbols of her era following her appearance in One Million Years B.C. (1966). She won a Golden Globe for The Three Musketeers and had a career spanning over fifty years.
• 1940 – 1941 The Blitz London bombed for 57 consecutive nights Germany began the Blitz on September 7, 1940, bombing London and other British cities. London was bombed for 57 consecutive nights. Over 43,000 civilians were killed but British morale held firm.
• 1940 Lascaux cave paintings discovered Teenagers find Palaeolithic art in the Dordogne On 12 September four teenagers found a cave near Montignac containing about 600 painted animals and many engravings. The paintings are about 17,000 years old. Lascaux became one of the most famous examples of prehistoric art.
• 1940 Italian invasion of Egypt Italy advances from Libya into Egypt On 13 September the Italian Tenth Army crossed from Libya into Egypt and advanced about 100 km to Sidi Barrani, where it stopped and dug in. The offensive opened the Western Desert campaign. British forces counter-attacked in December.
• 1940 Selective Training and Service Act The first US peacetime draft On 16 September Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the first peacetime conscription law in American history. Men aged 21 to 35 had to register for military service. More than 16 million men registered on the first registration day in October.
• 1940 Japanese invasion of French Indochina Japan moves into northern Indochina Japanese forces invaded northern French Indochina on 22 September and fought briefly with French colonial troops before a settlement. Japan wanted to cut supply routes to China. The move led the United States to embargo scrap iron and steel exports to Japan.
• 1940 Tripartite Pact signed Germany, Italy and Japan form the Axis alliance On 27 September Germany, Italy and Japan signed a pact in Berlin. They promised to help each other if any of them was attacked by a power not yet in the war, which in practice meant the United States. Hungary, Romania and Slovakia joined in November.
• 1940 – 1980 John Lennon Singer-songwriter, Beatle English musician, co-founder of the Beatles and co-writer of most of their songs. Solo career with Plastic Ono Band and Imagine. Murdered in New York in 1980.
• 1940 The Great Dictator premieres Chaplin satirises Hitler Charlie Chaplin's first full talking picture premiered in New York on 15 October. Chaplin played both a Jewish barber and the dictator Adenoid Hynkel, a parody of Adolf Hitler. It was Chaplin's most commercially successful film.
• 1940 – 2023 Michael Gambon Irish-English Actor Irish-English actor who enjoyed a six-decade career spanning theatre, film and television. Knighted in 1998 for services to drama, he won three Olivier Awards, four BAFTAs and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. He is best known internationally for playing Albus Dumbledore in six of the eight Harry Potter films.
• 1940 For Whom the Bell Tolls published Hemingway's novel of the Spanish Civil War Ernest Hemingway's novel was published on 21 October. It follows Robert Jordan, an American volunteer ordered to blow up a bridge during the Spanish Civil War. It became one of the best-selling American novels of its time.
• 1940 Hitler meets Pétain at Montoire Pétain publicly embraces collaboration On 24 October Adolf Hitler met Marshal Philippe Pétain at Montoire-sur-le-Loir. A photograph of their handshake became notorious. Pétain announced a week later that France was entering "the path of collaboration".
• 1940 – 2002 John Gotti (1940-2002) Died 10 June 2002, aged 61 John Gotti took over the Gambino crime family after ordering the 1985 murder of its boss Paul Castellano outside a Manhattan steakhouse. His expensive suits and repeated acquittals earned him the nicknames the Dapper Don and the Teflon Don. He was convicted of murder and racketeering in 1992 on the testimony of his underboss and died in a prison hospital.
• 1940 Italian invasion of Greece Greece rejects Mussolini's ultimatum On 28 October Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas rejected an Italian ultimatum, and Italian forces invaded from Albania. The Greeks drove the Italians back into Albania within weeks. Greece still marks the refusal each year as Ohi Day.
• 1940 Roosevelt elected to a third term FDR breaks the two-term tradition On 5 November Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated the Republican Wendell Willkie and became the only US president to win a third term. He took 449 electoral votes. The two-term limit was later written into the Constitution by the 22nd Amendment.
• 1940 Collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge "Galloping Gertie" tears itself apart in the wind On 7 November the new Tacoma Narrows suspension bridge in Washington State collapsed after wind set off violent twisting oscillations. The collapse was filmed, and the only death was a dog left in a car. The failure changed how engineers design suspension bridges for aerodynamic stability.
• 1940 Battle of Taranto British carrier aircraft cripple the Italian fleet On the night of 11-12 November Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers from HMS Illustrious attacked the Italian fleet at anchor in Taranto. They put three battleships out of action for the loss of two aircraft. Japanese planners studied the raid before attacking Pearl Harbor.
• 1940 Molotov visits Berlin Soviet-German talks on spheres of influence fail On 12-13 November Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov met Hitler and Ribbentrop in Berlin to discuss the Soviet Union joining the Axis. The talks stalled over Soviet claims in Finland, the Balkans and the Turkish Straits. Soon afterwards Hitler ordered planning for an invasion of the Soviet Union.
• 1940 Fantasia premieres Disney's animated concert film Walt Disney's Fantasia premiered in New York on 13 November. It set animation to classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski. Its early stereo sound system, Fantasound, was a technical innovation, though the film lost money on its first release.
• 1940 Coventry Blitz The Luftwaffe devastates Coventry On the night of 14-15 November about 500 German bombers attacked Coventry, killing around 570 people. The raid destroyed much of the city centre and St Michael's Cathedral. The Germans coined the word "coventrieren" for such destruction.
• 1940 Warsaw Ghetto sealed Germans enclose Warsaw's Jews behind walls On 16 November the German authorities sealed the Warsaw Ghetto, confining more than 400,000 Jews in about 3.4 square kilometres. Starvation and disease killed tens of thousands. Most of the survivors were deported to Treblinka in 1942.
• 1940 – 1973 Bruce Lee Martial artist, actor and philosopher — born San Francisco 1940 Bruce Lee (Lee Jun-fan) was born on November 27, 1940 in San Francisco. He became the most influential martial artist of the 20th century, transforming how Asian people were portrayed in film and inspiring generations worldwide. He died on July 20, 1973, aged 32.
• 1940 – 2005 Richard Pryor (1940-2005) Died 10 December 2005, aged 65 Richard Pryor, a stand-up comedian and actor widely regarded as one of the most influential in American comedy, died on 10 December 2005 after a long battle with multiple sclerosis. His raw, confessional style influenced generations of comedians and he starred in numerous films through the 1970s and 1980s. Pryor was awarded the first Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 1998.
• 1940 – 1993 Frank Zappa (1940-1993) Died 4 December 1993, aged 52 Frank Zappa was an American musician and composer known for his prolific and genre-defying output across rock, jazz, and orchestral music. He was also an outspoken advocate for free speech, testifying before Congress against the labeling of music with explicit content warnings. He died of prostate cancer at his home in Los Angeles.