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.

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.

Wednesday 28:

Basketball is televised for the first time (Fordham University vs. the University of Pittsburgh in Madison Square Garden).

Thursday 29:

Finland initiates Winter War peace negotiations

March 1940

Sunday 03:

Five people are killed in a arson attack on the offices of the communist newspaper Norrskensflamman in Luleå, Sweden.

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.

Wednesday 06:

Winter War: An armistice is signed by Finland and the Soviet Union.

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

Sunday 07:

Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to be depicted on a United States postage stamp.

Tuesday 09:

World War II: Germany invades Denmark and Norway.

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.

Wednesday 24:

World War II: Operation Demon – The United Kingdom begins evacuating Greece.

May 1940

Tuesday 14:

World War II: The Netherlands surrender to Germany.

Wednesday 15:

World War II: German troops occupy Amsterdam and invade Northern France.

Monday 20:

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

Sunday 26:

World War II: Battle of Dunkirk – In France, Allied forces begin a massive evacuation from Dunkirk.

Monday 27:

World War II: 97 out of 99 members of a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit are massacred while trying to surrender at Dunkirk. The German commander, Captain Fritz Knochlein, is eventually hanged for war crimes.

June 1940

Monday 10:

World War II: Norway Surrenders to German forces.

Wednesday 12:

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

Tuesday 18:

Finest Hour speech by Winston Churchill

Sunday 23:

World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler surveys newly defeated Paris in now occupied France.

Friday 28:

Romania cedes Bessarabia (current-day Moldova) to the Soviet Union.

July 1940

Wednesday 10:

The German Luftwaffe begin to hit British convoys in the English Channel thus starting the battle (this start date is contested, though).

Thursday 11:

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

Friday 19:

World War II: Battle of Cape Spada between the Royal Navy and the Regia Marina; the Italian light cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni sinks, with 121 casualities.

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.

Thursday 12:

The Hercules Munitions Plant in Kenvil, New Jersey explodes, killing 55 people.

Friday 13:

Italy invades Egypt.

Monday 16:

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

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.

Tuesday 15:

The Great Dictator, a satiric social commentary film by and starring Charlie Chaplin, is released.

Thursday 31:

The United Kingdom prevents Germany from invading Great Britain.

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".

Wednesday 13:

The animated feature-length film Fantasia is released.

Saturday 16:

New York City's Mad Bomber places his first bomb at a Manhattan office building used by Consolidated Edison.

Monday 18:

World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano meet to discuss Benito Mussolini's disastrous invasion of Greece.

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.