Timeline February 1940

Events in February 1940 12

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 The Altmark Incident Violation of Neutrality A British naval attack on a German ship in Norwegian waters, signaling that war was coming.
• 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.