November 1940

Tuesday 05:

U.S. presidential election, 1940: Democrat incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats Republican challenger Wendell Willkie and becomes the United States' first third-term president.

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.

Saturday 09:

Premiere of Joaquin Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez in Barcelona, Spain.

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".

Monday 11:

Armistice Day Blizzard: An unexpected blizzard kills 144 in U.S. Midwest.

Wednesday 13:

The animated feature-length film Fantasia is released.

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.

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.

Wednesday 20:

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

Monday 25:

Woody Woodpecker first appears, in the film "Knock Knock".

Wednesday 27:

In Romania, General Ion Antonescu's Iron Guard arrests and executes over 60 of exiled king Carol II of Romania's aides, including former minister and acclaimed historian Nicolae Iorga. Mediterranean Sea: battle of Cape Spartivento between the Royal Navy and the Regia Marina

Saturday 30:

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz are married in Greenwich, Connecticut.