Significant Events
- Feb 27 Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discover carbon-14 (radiocarbon dating) at the University of California Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, California
- Feb 29 Hattie McDaniel becomes 1st African American woman to win an Oscar for "Gone with the Wind"
- Mar 18 Benito Mussolini and Italy join Hitler in Germany's war against France & Britain
- May 10 Winston Churchill succeeds Neville Chamberlain as British Prime Minister
- May 12 Nazi blitzkrieg conquest of France began by crossing Muese River
- May 13 Winston Churchill says "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears & sweat" in his first speech as Prime Minister to British House of Commons
- May 15 McDonald's opens its first restaurant in San Bernardino, California
- May 27 British and Allied forces begin the evacuation of Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo) during WWII
- Jun 4 British complete the "Miracle of Dunkirk" by evacuating 338,226 allied troops from France via a flotilla of over 800 vessels including Royal Navy destroyers, merchant marine boats, fishing boats, pleasure craft and even lifeboats
- Jun 14 Auschwitz concentration camp opens in Nazi controlled Poland with Polish POWs (approx. 3 million would die within its walls)
Did You Know?
FCC hears 1st transmission of FM radio with clear, static-free signal
On January 5, 1940
World Leaders in 1940
Adolf Hitler
Dictator of Nazi Germany
Franklin D. Roosevelt
32nd US President
Winston Churchill
Soldier, Author and British Prime Minister
Famous People in 1940
Ginger Rogers
Oscar for Best Actress
Jimmy Stewart
Oscar for Best Actor- Winston Churchill
Time Person
of the Year
Bruce Lee
Chuck Norris
Jack Nicklaus
John Gotti
John Lennon
Ringo StarrWould You Believe?
Walt Disney begins serving as an informer for the Los Angeles office of the FBI; his job is to report back information on Hollywood subversives.
On November 10, 1940
Famous Weddings
- Jan 1 68th Prime Minister of UK Harold Wilson (23) weds poet Mary Baldwin (23) in the chapel of Mansfield College, Oxford
- Jan 2 Archibald Campbell Mzoliza Jordan, Xhosa writer, linguist and academic and outspoken critic of the South African National Party government's Bantu Education policy, marries Priscilla Phyllis Ntantla.
- Jan 26 Actor Ronald Raegan (28) weds Academy Award-winning actress Jane Wyman (23) at the Wee Kirk o' the Heather church in Glendale, California
- Feb 13 Actress Lana Turner marries bandleader Artie Shaw
- Feb 18 Molecular biologist Francis Crick (23) weds Ruth Doreen Dodd
Famous Divorces
- Jul 22 Jacqueline Kennedy's parents John Vernou "Black Jack" Bouvier III and Janet (Norton Lee) divorce
- Nov 4 American author and journalist "The Old Man and the Sea" Ernest Hemingway divorces 2nd wife Pauline Pfeiffer
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Henry Ossian Flipper
Leon Trotsky
Neville Chamberlain
Selma Lagerlöf
Walter ChryslerArticles on Events in 1940
Dog Unearths Cave of Antiquity
A cave complex that contained wall paintings later described by experts as 'the cradle of art' was unearthed on this day by a curious dog, named Robot.
September 12, 1940
'Hitler Will Have to Break Us or Lose the War'
The German Luftwaffe were hammering the British RAF until a furious and frustrated Hitler changed the plan and possibly the outcome of the war.
December 29, 1940