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.
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