1940 - What happened in 1940 ?

January 1940

Friday 05:

FM radio is demonstrated to the FCC for the first time.

Saturday 06:

Mass execution of Poles, committed by Germans in the city of Poznan, Warthegau.

Friday 12:

World War II: Russia bombs cities in Finland.

February 1940

Friday 02:

Frank Sinatra debuts with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra.

Wednesday 07:

Pinocchio, an Academy Award-winning animated feature based on the story Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, was first released by Walt Disney Productions.

Friday 16:

Altmark Incident: The German tanker Altmark, with 299 British prisoners, was boarded in neutral Norwegian waters by sailors from the British destroyer HMS Cossack and the prisoners set free, a breach of Norwegian neutrality at the beginning of World War II.

Friday 23:

The animated movie Pinocchio is released.

Thursday 29:

Finland initiates Winter War peace negotiations

March 1940

Tuesday 05:

Members of Soviet politbiuro sign an order for the execution of 25,700 Polish intelligentsia, including 14,700 Polish POW, known also as Katyn massacre.

Tuesday 12:

Winter War: Finland signs a harsh peace treaty with the Soviet Union, ceding almost all of Finnish Karelia. Finnish troops and remaining population are immediately evacuated.

Wednesday 13:

Winter War ended.

Thursday 21:

Paul Reynaud becomes Prime Minister of France

Saturday 23:

The Lahore Resolution (Qarardad-e-Pakistan or the then Qarardad-e-Lahore) is put forward at the Annual General Convention of the All India Muslim League.

April 1940

Tuesday 09:

World War II: Germany invades Denmark and Norway.

Sunday 14:

Royal Marines land in Namsos, Norway, occupying key points, preparatory to a larger force arriving two days later.

Monday 15:

The Allies start their attack on the Norwegian town of Narvik which was occupied by Nazi Germany.

Tuesday 23:

A fire at a dance hall in Natchez, Mississippi kills 198 people.

Thursday 25:

The Faroese flag Merkið is made the official flag for the Faroe Islands.

May 1940

Sunday 05:

World War II: In London, a Norwegian government in exile is formed.

Thursday 09:

World War II: The German submarine U-9 sinks French coastal submarine Doris near Den Helder.

Friday 17:

World War II: Germany occupies Brussels, Belgium.

Monday 20:

Holocaust: The first prisoners arrive at a new concentration camp at Auschwitz.

Tuesday 28:

World War II: Norwegian, French, Polish and British forces recapture Narvik. First allied infantry victory in WW2.

June 1940

Tuesday 04:

The Destroyer War Badge for Kriegsmarine was instituted.

Wednesday 12:

World War II: 13,000 British and French troops surrender to Field Marshal Erwin Rommel at Saint-Valery-en-Caux.

Friday 14:

A group of 728 Polish political prisoners from Tarnów become the first residents of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Monday 17:

The three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania fall under the occupation of the Soviet Union.

Wednesday 26:

World War II: Under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union presents an ultimatum to Romania requiring it to cede Bessarabia and northern part of Bukovina.

July 1940

Thursday 11:

World War II: Vichy France regime formally established. Henri Philippe Pétain becomes Prime Minister of France.

Sunday 14:

World War II: Andrew George Latta McNaughton takes command of the 7th Army Corps consisting of British, Canadian and New Zealand troops.

Saturday 20:

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill limiting political activity by Federal employees, the Hatch Act.

Tuesday 23:

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Saturday 27:

Bugs Bunny makes his official debut in the animated cartoon A Wild Hare.

August 1940

Saturday 03:

Second World War: Italy invades British Somaliland.

Tuesday 13:

The Luftwaffe launches a series of attacks on British fighter bases and radar installations.

Tuesday 20:

Exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is fatally wounded in Mexico City by an assassin's ice-ax. He will die the next day.

Friday 23:

World War II: The Germans start bombing London.

Monday 26:

Chad is the first French colony to join the Allies under the administration of Félix Éboué, France's first black colonial governor.

September 1940

Saturday 07:

Treaty of Craiova: Romania loses Southern Dobrudja to Bulgaria.

Wednesday 11:

George Stibitz pioneers the first remote operation of a computer.

Friday 13:

Italy invades Egypt.

Monday 16:

Sam Rayburn elected Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

Friday 27:

The Tripartite Pact is signed in Berlin by Germany, Japan and Italy.

October 1940

Tuesday 01:

The Pennsylvania Turnpike, often considered the first superhighway in the United States, opens to traffic.

Monday 07:

Germany invades Romania.

Wednesday 09:

During a nighttime air raid by the German Luftwaffe, St. Paul's Cathedral is pierced by a bomb.

Wednesday 16:

1940 - Warsaw Ghetto established

Monday 28:

World War II: Italy invades Greece.

November 1940

Thursday 07:

In Washington, the middle section of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapses in a windstorm, a mere four months after the bridge's completion.

Sunday 10:

Walt Disney begins serving as a informer for the Los Angeles office of the FBI; his job is to report back information on Hollywood "subversives".

Thursday 14:

World War II: In England, the city of Coventry is heavily bombed by German Luftwaffe bombers.

Friday 15:

The Warsaw Ghetto, with a population of 400,000 Jews, is sealed off from the outside world by the Nazis.

Wednesday 20:

World War II: Hungary, Romania and Slovakia join the Axis Powers.

December 1940

Monday 09:

British Army attacks Italian forces in North Africa

Sunday 29:

Battle of Britain: Luftwaffe firebombs London, killing almost 3000 civilians

Monday 30:

California opens its first freeway: the Arroyo Seco Parkway.