Historical Events in 1940

Events 1 - 200 of 532

Sports History

Jan 14 MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis gives free agency to 91 Detroit Tigers minor league players

Jan 15 German U-Boot torpedoes Dutch merchant ship Arendskerk (Eagle's Church)
Jan 19 LPGA Titleholders Championship Women's Golf, Augusta CC: Helen Hicks wins by 1 stroke ahead of Helen Dettweiler

Film Release

Jan 19 The Three Stooges film "You Nazty Spy!" about the Nazis released with the disclaimer "Any resemblance between the characters in this picture and any persons, living or dead, is a miracle."

Jan 21 Foreign correspondents in Netherlands subjected to censorship
Jan 22 1st radio broadcast of "Road to Happiness" on CBS

Film Release

Jan 24 "The Grapes of Wrath", directed by John Ford and based on John Steinbeck's novel of the same name, starring Henry Fonda and Jane Darwell, is released

Jan 25 Nazi decrees establishment of Jewish ghetto in Lodz Poland
Jan 26 Nazis forbid Polish Jews to travel on trains
Jan 27 -17°F (-27°C), CCC Camp F-16, Georgia (state record)
Jan 28 Chicago's Les Cunningham scores 5 points in one period to set an NHL record that stands until 1978; records 2 goals & 3 assists in a 10:04 span during the 3d period of an 8-1 win over Montreal

Australian Men's Tennis Open

Jan 29 Australian Championships men's Tennis: Australian Adrian Quist beats countryman Jack Crawford 6-3, 6-1, 6-2 for his 2nd Australian title

Jan 29 Australian Championships Women's Tennis: Nancye Wynne Bolton wins her 2nd Australian singles titles; beats Thelma Coyne 5-7, 6-4, 6-0

Music History

Jan 30 Benjamin Britten's "Lesson Illuminations" premieres in London

Jan 30 Cor Jongert wins 6th Dutch 11 Cities Skating Race
Jan 30 Hassett's second 122 of the game for Vic can't stop a NSW win
Jan 31 C Turney & J Horwin's "My Dear Children" premieres in NYC
Feb 1 NBC performs the first inter-city television broadcast from its station in New York City to another in Schenectady, New York by General Electric relay antennas.
Feb 1 Soviet Union begins new offensive against Finland

Music History

Feb 2 Frank Sinatra performs at the Lyric Theater in Indianapolis, Indiana, his first as featured singer with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra

Feb 5 General Winckelman replaces Gen Reijnders as Dutch supreme commander

Music History

Feb 5 Glenn Miller and his Orchestra record "Tuxedo Junction"

Film Premiere

Feb 7 Walt Disney's second feature length movie, "Pinocchio" premieres (NYC)

Feb 8 Lewis & Hamilton's musical "Two for the Show" premieres in NYC
Feb 8 Lodtz, 1st large ghetto established by Nazis in Poland

Boxing Title Fight

Feb 9 Joe Louis beats Arturo Godoy in 15 for heavyweight boxing title

Feb 10 "In The Mood" by Glenn Miller hits #1

Film & TV History

Feb 10 "Tom & Jerry" cartoon created by William Hanna & Joseph Barbera debut by MGM

Feb 10 US female Figure Skating championship won by Joan Tozzer

Sports History

Feb 13 Bradman scores 209* in 161 minutes for South Aust at the WACA

Feb 14 British merchant vessel fleet is armed
Feb 16 British search plane finds German supply ship Altmark, used to accommodate allied sailors from vessels sunk by the Graf Spee off Norway
Feb 17 Altmark Incident: Crew of the British destroyer "Cossack" board German "Altmark" in Jøssingfjord, Norway, releasing 299 British prisoners after hand-to-hand fighting with bayonets and the last recorded Royal Naval action with cutlass
Feb 20 Larry Clinton & his Orchestra record "Limehouse Blues"
Feb 22 Finnish troops vacate Koivisto island
Feb 22 German air force sinks 2 German destroyers, killing 578
Feb 23 Russian troops conquer Lasi Island
Feb 23 Walt Disney's animated movie "Pinocchio" released
Feb 24 Frances Langford records "When You Wish Upon a Star"
Feb 25 1st televised (W2XBS, NYC) hockey game (Rangers vs Canadians)
Feb 26 US Air Defense Command forms at Mitchel Field, LI, NY
Feb 27 Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discover carbon-14 (radiocarbon dating) at the University of California Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, California
Feb 28 1st televised basketball game (U of Pitts beats Fordham U, 50-37)
Feb 28 Richard Wright's "Native Son" published
Feb 28 US population at 131,669,275 (12,865,518 African American (9.8%))

Academy Awards

Feb 29 12th Academy Awards: "Gone With The Wind" wins eight Oscars, Robert Donat & Vivien Leigh also win

Golf Tournament

Feb 29 American golfer Jimmy Demaret wins his third PGA Tour event within an 8-day span, taking the St. Petersburg Open by 1 stroke from Byron Nelson

Feb 29 Detroit's Cecil "Tiny" Thompson becomes first goaltender in NHL history to play 40 (or more) games for 12 straight seasons; milestone comes in a 3-1 Red Wings loss at Toronto
Feb 29 Finland initiates Winter War peace negotiations
Feb 29 Frederic from G & S "Pirates of Penzance" finally released by pirate

Academy Awards

Feb 29 Hattie McDaniel becomes 1st African American woman to win an Oscar for "Gone With The Wind"

Mar 1 Richard Wright's novel "Native Son" is published
Mar 2 Beaten by a nose in both the 1937 and 1938 Santa Anita Handicaps, Seabiscuit finally wins the Big 'Cap in his final race; retires the leading money-winning horse in the world
Mar 2 Soviet armies conquer Tuppura Island, Finland
Mar 2 The first televised intercollegiate track meet is seen in NYC on W2XBS; NYU wins the meet presented live from Madison Square Garden
Mar 3 American bandleader Artie Shaw records "Frenesi" on RCA Victor label
Mar 6 1st US telecast from an airplane, NYC
Mar 7 Montreal Canadiens lose record tying NHL 15th straight game at home

Sports History

Mar 7 Ray Steele beats B Nagurski in St Louis, to become wrestling champ

Hall of Fame American Football Player Bronko Nagurski

Mar 10 1st US opera telecast, W2XBS, NYC: Ruggero Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci"
Mar 12 Finland signs the Moscow Peace Treaty in Moscow, surrendering to Russia and ceding 11% of their pre-WWII territory, ending the "Winter War"
Mar 13 Finland-Russian cease fire signed, the Winter War ends. Finland gives up Karelische

Film Premiere

Mar 14 "The Road to Singapore" directed by Victor Schertzinger starring Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour, first of seven such films premieres

Mar 14 27 killed, 15 injured when truck full of migrant workers collides with a train outside McAllen, Texas

Goering Smelts the Bells

Mar 15 Hermann Goering says 100-200 church bells enough for Germany, smelt the rest

Mar 16 German air raid on British fleet base Scapa Flow

Agreement of Interest

Mar 18 Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler meet at Brenner Pass where the Italian dictator agrees he will, in due course, join Germany's impending war effort in the west

Mar 19 Failed British air raid on German base at Sylt

Event of Interest

Mar 19 French government of Édouard Daladier falls

Mar 20 Paul Reynoud becomes French premier

Premiere of Rebecca

Mar 21 "Rebecca" based on the book by Daphne du Maurier, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine premieres in Miami, Florida (Oscar - Best Picture 1941)

Mar 23 1st radio broadcast of "Truth or Consequences" on CBS
Mar 23 The Lahore Resolution (Qarardad-e-Lahore), calling for independent Muslim state(s), is adopted by the All-India Muslim League

Theater Premiere

Mar 26 "The Fifth Column", a play by Ernest Hemingway and adapted by Benjamin Glazer premieres in NYC courtesy of the Theater Guild

Election of Interest

Mar 27 Peter Fraser becomes Prime Minister of New Zealand after the death of his predecessor Michael Joeseph Savage from cancer

Mar 28 Construction begins of the exhibition center to host the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair
Mar 29 American boxer Joe Louis KOs Johnny Paycheck in 2 rounds to retain heavyweight boxing title
Mar 30 2nd NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Indiana beats Kansas, 60-42; Hoosiers' forward Marvin Huffman is named tournament Most Outstanding Player
Mar 31 Karelo-Finnish SSR becomes 12th Soviet republic (until 1956)

Historic Publication

Apr 1 Filipino President Quezon officially authorizes the printing and publication of the grammar and dictionary prepared by the Institute of the National Language.

2nd President of the Philippines Manuel L. Quezon

Music Premiere

Apr 4 Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's musical "Higher & Higher" premieres in NYC

Apr 5 99th Grand National: 25/1 shot Bogskar ridden by Royal Air Force sergeant Mervyn Jones wins by 4 lengths from MacMoffat; last true Aintree GN before a 5-year break due to World War II

US Masters Golf

Apr 7 7th US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: Jimmy Demaret wins the first of his 3 Masters titles, 4 strokes ahead of runner-up Lloyd Mangrum

Event of Interest

Apr 7 US Post Office issues first postage stamp of African American educator Booker T. Washington

Apr 8 German battle cruisers sink British aircraft carrier Glorious
Apr 9 German cruiser Blucher torpedoed and capsizes in Oslofjord, 1,000 die
Apr 9 Nazi Germany invades Denmark and Norway, and Denmark surrenders after a six-hour battle

Event of Interest

Apr 10 Vidkun Quisling forms Norwegian "national government"

Apr 12 Italy annexes Albania
Apr 12 NFL cuts clipping penalty from 25 yards to 15 yards
Apr 13 American athlete Cornelius "Dutch" Warmerdam, using a bamboo pole, becomes 1st man to pole vault 15 ft, at University of California, Berkeley
Apr 13 Second battle of Narvik; 3 German destroyers and one U-boat sunk by the Royal Navy, 5 more German destroyers scuttled
Apr 13 Stanley Cup Final, Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario: New York Rangers beat Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2 for 4-2 series victory; Rangers last Cup win for 54 years
Apr 14 Allied troops land in Norway
Apr 14 RCA demonstrated its new electron microscope in Philadelphia
Apr 15 44th Boston Marathon won by Gérard Côté of Canada in 2:28:28.6; first of 4 wins in the event
Apr 15 British troops land at Narvik, Norway

Sports History

Apr 16 Cleveland Indians pitcher Bob Feller hurls the first and only Opening Day no-hitter in MLB history; beats Chicago WSWhite Sox, 1-0 at Comiskey Park

Apr 16 Heitor Villa-Lobos' opera "Izaht" premieres in Rio de Janeiro
Apr 19 "Lake Shore Ltd" derails speed killing 34 near Little Falls, New York
Apr 19 Dutch prime minister De Geer declares state of siege
Apr 20 1st electron microscope demonstrated (RCA), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [1]
Apr 21 1st $64 Question, "Take It or Leave It," on CBS Radio
Apr 22 Rear Admiral Joseph Taussig testifies before US Senate Naval Affairs Committee that war with Japan is inevitable
Apr 23 Dance hall fires kills 198 in Natchez, Mississippi
Apr 23 NY Yankees dedicate a plaque to Jacob Rupert

Event of Interest

Apr 27 Himmler orders establishment of Auschwitz Concentration Camp

Leading Nazi and Reichsführer of the SS Heinrich Himmler

Apr 28 Glenn Miller records "Pennsylvania 6-5000"
Apr 28 SS-Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) Rudolf Höss (not Hess, different Nazi) becomes commandant of concentration camp Auschwitz
Apr 29 1st radio broadcast of "Young Dr Malone" on CBS
Apr 29 Norwegian King Haakon & government flee to Britain
Apr 29 Robert Sherwood's play "There Shall be No Night" premieres in NYC
Apr 30 Air New Zealand then known as TEAL makes its inaugural flight with a flight from Auckland to Sydney. Later becomes 1st airline in the world to boil hot water in-flight to offer customers hot tea and coffee.
Apr 30 Brooklyn Dodger Tex Carleton no-hits Cincinnati Reds, 3-0
May 1 140 Palestinian Jews die as German planes bomb their ship
May 1 Summer Olympics (scheduled for Helsinki) are cancelled by the Finnish OC because of WWII
May 4 21 "not neutral" Nazis & communists arrested in Netherlands
May 4 66th Kentucky Derby: Carroll Bierman aboard Gallahadion wins in 2:05
May 5 Norwegian government-in-exile forms in London

Event of Interest

May 6 Pulitzer prize awarded to John Steinbeck for "The Grapes of Wrath"

May 10 Dutch-Indies Governor Van Starkenborch proclaims end to state of siege

Event of Interest

May 10 Winston Churchill succeeds Neville Chamberlain as British Prime Minister

May 10 World War II: Nazi Germany invades the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France
May 10 World War II: The first German bombs of the war fall on England at Chilham and Petham, in Kent
May 11 65th Preakness: Fred A Smith aboard Bimelech wins in 1:58.6
May 11 NY World's Fair reopens
May 12 French marines occupy St Maarten
May 12 German tanks conquer Moerdijk bridges, Netherlands
May 12 Nazi blitzkrieg and conquest of France begins with the crossing of the Muese River
May 13 British bomb factory at Breda, Netherlands

Event of Interest

May 13 Dutch Queen Wilhelmina flees to England

Queen of the Netherlands Wilhelmina of the Netherlands

May 13 German breakthrough at Grebbelinie
May 13 Winston Churchill says "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat" in his first speech as Prime Minister to British House of Commons
May 14 Admiral Johannes Furstner, Royal Dutch Navy, departs to England

Sports History

May 14 Boston's Jimmie Foxx HR goes over Comiskey Park's left field roof

May 14 British Local Defence Volunteers forms, an armed citizen militia designed to support the British Army during the Second World War. It is later renamed the Home Guard.
May 14 German breakthrough at Sedan
May 14 Lord Beaverbrook appointed British minister of aircraft production
May 14 Nazis bomb Rotterdam (600-900 dead), Netherlands surrenders to Germany
May 15 German armoured division moves into Northern France
May 15 German troops occupy Amsterdam, General Winkelman surrenders
May 15 Nazis capture General Dutch Persbureau (ANP)
May 15 Richard and Maurice McDonald open the 1st McDonald's restaurant in San Bernardino, California
May 15 USS Sailfish (SS-192) recommissioned, originally the Squalus
May 16 British Premier Winston Churchill returns to London from Paris
May 16 Nazis forbid non-professional auto workers
May 17 Germany occupies Brussels, Belgium and begins invasion of France
May 17 Nazis bombs Middelburg/B IJzerdrat begins illegal defiance
May 18 WWII: German troops conquer Antwerp, Belgium
May 19 Amsterdam time becomes MET (Middle European Time)

Event of Interest

May 19 French counter attack at Pronne under General Charles de Gaulle

May 20 German General Guderian's tanks reach the English Channel (British expeditionary army)
May 20 Soccer team HZVV forms in Hoogeveen
May 20 Trailing 7-1 in 9th to Pitts, Phils win 8-7
May 21 Allied counter attack at Atrecht, northern France
May 21 AVRO-chairman Willem Vogt fires all Jewish employees
May 21 Paul Reynaud forms French government
May 22 Dutch Premier De Geer begins working with Nazis
May 22 UK Premier Winston Churchill flies to Paris to decide with General Maxime Weygand a strategy to save the city
May 23 1st great dogfight between Spitfires and Luftwaffe
May 24 1st night game at St Louis Sportsman Park (Indians 3, Browns 2)

Event of Interest

May 24 Adolf Hitler affirms General von Rundstedts "Stopbevel"

May 24 Dutch army demobilizes
May 24 Dutch Queen Wilhelmina speaks on BBC radio
May 24 German tanks reach Atrecht, France
May 24 NY Giants swat Boston Bees, 8-1, in 1st night game at Polo Grounds, NYC
May 25 German troops conquer Boulogne
May 25 Golden Gate International Exposition reopens

Event of Interest

May 26 1st successful helicopter flight in US: Vought-Sikorsky US-300 designed by Igor Sikorsky

Miracle of Dunkirk

May 27 British and Allied forces begin the evacuation of Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo) during WWII

British troops await evacuation at Dunkirk

May 27 World War II: In the Le Paradis massacre, 97 soldiers from a Royal Norfolk Regiment unit are shot after surrendering to German troops
May 28 Belgium surrenders to Germany, King Leopold III gives himself up
May 28 British-French troops capture Narvik, Norway

Music Premiere

May 28 Irving Berlin's musical "Louisiana Purchase", satirizing Huey Long's political power, opens at The Imperial Theatre, NYC; runs for 444 performances

May 29 Adolf Kiefer swims world record 100 yards backstroke (58.8 sec)
May 29 Arthur Seyss-Inquart installed as Reich commissar of The Hague, Netherlands
May 29 In WWII, Germans capture Ostend & Ypres in Belgium and Lille in France
May 30 Indianapolis 500: Wilbur Shaw drives same Maserati 8CTF he had driven to victory in 1939; first driver in the history to win at Indy in consecutive years

Event of Interest

May 31 Major General Bernard Montgomery leaves Dunkirk

May 31 Winston Churchill flies to Paris to meet with French Marshal Philippe Pétain who announces he is willing to make a separate peace with Germany
Jun 1 Coffee & tea rationed in Holland
Jun 1 Major General Bernard Montgomery returns to London
Jun 1 Nazi occupiers kick Jews out of Dutch air guard
Jun 2 Heavy German bombing on Dunkirk beach
Jun 3 Last British and French troops evacuated from Dunkirk
Jun 4 1st night game at Forbes Field (Pirates 14, Braves 2)