1940

Events

January 5 - FM radio is demonstrated to the FCC for the first time.
January 12 - World War II: Russia bombs cities in Finland.
June 21 - France surrenders to Germany
February 2 - Frank Sinatra debuts with the Tommy Dorsey orchestra
February 2 - The Complex Number Calculator, a calculator for complex arithmetic based on relays, was completed. (see History of computing).
February 2 - The first transposons are discovered in maize (Zea mays, aka corn) by Barbara McClintock.
February 29 - For her role as as Mammy in "Gone with the Wind," Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African American to win an Academy Award (Best Supporting Actress).
March 6 - Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union ends. Finland loses 10% territory.
November - Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats Wendell L. Wilkie in the U.S. presidential election
November 11 - The Royal Navy launches the first aircraft carrier strike in history, on the Italian fleet at Taranto
November 11 - The German Hilfskreuzer (cruiser) Atlantis captures top secret British mail, and sends it to Japan
February 23 - World War II: Soviet Union troops conquer Lasi Island.
1965 - Rhodesia proclaims
Charlie Chaplin directs the film The Great Dictator in which he plays a fascist dictator, clearly modeled on Adolf Hitler.
The first McDonald's restaurant is founded by brothers Dick and Mac McDonald, in San Bernardino, California.
December 30 - California opens its first freeway the Arroyo Seco Parkway.

USSR annexes the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.
Germany begins a bombing campaign against Britain in preparation for an invasion, in what becomes known as the Battle of Britain.

Art, Culture & Fashion

1940 in film
- February 23 - The animated movie Pinocchio is released.
- Rebecca, directed by Alfred Hitchcock
- All This and Heaven Too
- The Grapes of Wrath
- The Great Dictator, starring Charlie Chaplin
1940 in literature
- Native Son by Richard Wright
- A Mathematician's Apology by G. H. Hardy
- The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
- Daniel Boone by James Daugherty
1940 in music
1940 in sports
- February 28 - Basketball is televised for the first time (Fordham University vs. the University of Pittsburgh in Madison Square Garden).
1940 in television
- January - The FCC holds public hearings on television.
- February 25 - The first hockey game is televised, the Rangers vs Canadians, from Madison Square Garden.
- February 26 - The first quiz show, Spelling Bee, is televised.
- February 28 - The first basketball game is televised, from Madison Square Garden; Fordham vs the University of Pittsburgh.
- March 15 - RCA cuts price of television sets
- June - W2XBS (NBC) covers the Republican National Convention from Philadelphia for 33 hours, over a five day period
- August 29 - Peter Goldmark of CBS announces his invention of a color television system.
- September 3 - CBS resumes it's television transmitions with the first demonstration of high definition color TV, by W2XAB, transmitting from the Chrysler Building.

Births

Deaths