• Home
• Articles
• Dates
• Days
• Today in History
• Topics
• Quiz

Months in 1940: January February March April May June July August October November December

Historical Events

Results 1 - 74 of 74

1st - Gen George Marshall sworn in as chief of staff of US army
2nd - 23rd PGA Championship: Byron Nelson at Hershey CC Hershey Pa
2nd - Great Smoky Mountains National Park dedicated
3rd - 1st showing of high definition color TV
3rd - 39.4 CM rainfall at Sapulpa Oklahoma (state record)
3rd - Hitler orders invasion in England on Sept 21 (Operation Seelöwe/Sealion)
3rd - Neth govt in exile of Gerbrandy forms London
3rd - Sicherheits police bans Free masons, Rotary & Red Cross
3rd - US gives Britain 50 destroyers in exchange for Newfoundland base lease
4th - CBS begins broadcasting TV as station W2XAB
4th - Gerbrandy becomes premier of Dutch govt in exile
4th - Mussert sends telegram, that Hitler has captured the Dutch
4th - Nazi collaborator Mussert puts the fate of Neth in Hitler's hands
6th - Crown prince Michael succeeds Carol II as king of Romania
6th - Generalissimo Gamelin arrested in France
7th - 54th US Womens Tennis: Alice Marble beats Helen Hull Jacobs (62 63)
7th - 60th US Mens Tennis: McNeill beats Robert Riggs (46 68 63 63 75)
7th - German Air Force blitz London for 1st of 57 consecutive nights
7th - Luftwaffe loses 41 bombers above England
7th - Treaty of Craiova: Romania loses Southern Dobrudja to Bulgaria.
9th - 28 German aircraft shot down above England
9th - 60th US Mens Tennis: W D McNeill beats Robert L Riggs (46 68 63 63 75)
10th - Buckingham Palace hit by German bomb
11th - -12] Buckingham Palace destroyed by German bombs
11th - 54th Postmaster General: Frank C Walker of Pa takes office
11th - Anton Mussert establishes Dutch SS
11th - Buckingham Palace in London destroyed by German bombs
11th - Hitler begins operation-Seelöwe (aborted invasion England)
11th - George Stibitz pioneers the first remote operation of a computer.
12th - 49 die & 200 injured when Hercules Powder Co plant explodes (NJ)
12th - Italian troops enter Egypt
12th - 4 teens, following their dog down a hole near Lascaux France discover 17,000-year-old drawings now known as Lascaux Cave Paintings
13th - Buckingham Palace destroyed by German bombs
13th - Italian troops under Marshal Graziani attack Egypt
14th - Congress passes 1st peace-time conscription bill (draft law)
14th - German bomb hits shelter in Chelsea; 100s die
15th - 3rd American Football League plays 1st game (Milw 14, Columbus 2)
15th - Chicago Tribune sponsors Ted Lyons Day (White Sox pitcher)
15th - Luftwaffe bombs Bristol Aeroplane Company
15th - PM Winston Churchill visits #11 Fighter Group
15th - Tide turns in Battle of Britain in WW II, RAF beats Luftwaffe
16th - Dutch SS forms
16th - FDR signs Selective Training & Service Act (1st peacetime draft)
16th - Leo Durocher suspended from Ebbetts Field for "inciting a riot"
16th - Luftwaffe attacks center of London
16th - Samuel T Rayburn of Tx elected speaker of House
16th - St Louis Browns Johnny Lucadello is 2nd to HR from each side of plate
17th - Nazis deprive Jews of possessions
18th - 19 German aircrafts shot down above England
18th - Elmer Harris' "Johnny Belinda," premieres in NYC
18th - Italian troops conquer Sidi Barrani
19th - Nazi decree forbids gentile woman to work in Jewish homes
19th - Witold Pilecki is voluntarily captured and sent to Auschwitz in order to smuggle out information and start a resistance.
23rd - -27] French/British assault on French fleet in Dakar, flees
23rd - Dutch nazi collaborator Mussert's 1st meeting with Hitler
24th - Jimmy Foxx hits his 500th career HR
24th - Luftwaffe bombs Spitfire-factory in Southampton
25th - German High Commissioner in Norway sets up Vidkun Quisling govt
25th - Luftwaffe bombs Spitfire-factory in Southampton
26th - Airplane manufacturer in Woolston bombed, 30 killed
26th - Japanese troops attack French Indo-China
27th - 55 German aircrafts shot down above England
27th - Black leaders protest discrimination in US armed forces
27th - Floyd Giebells, 1st game, 2-0 pennant clinching beating Bob Feller
27th - Nazi-Germany, Italy & Japan sign 10 year formal alliance (Axis)
27th - Yankees, lose to A's & eliminated from pennant for 1st time since 1935
28th - Michigan's Tom Harmon runs 72, 86 & 94 yard touchdowns
28th - Nazi occupiers present "New Dutch Culture" in German
28th - Bud Brennan, a fan at Memorial Stadium, races out of stands & attempts to tackle Tom Harmon at 3-yard line, Harmon easily evades Brennan
29th - "Double or Nothing," a radio quiz show, 1st heard on Mutual Radio Net
29th - "Strike Up Band," opens
29th - 1st US merchant ship "Booker T Washington" commanded by a black captain (Hugh Mulzac), launched at Wilmington Delaware
30th - 47 German aircrafts shot down above England
30th - 59 U-boats sunk this month (295,000 tons)

Famous Birthdays

Results 1 - 56 of 56

2nd - Beverly Sanders, Hollywood Calif, actress (Lotsa Luck, CPO Sharkey)
2nd - Jimmy Clanton, Baton Rogue, La, rock vocalist (Just a Dream)
2nd - Mike Pyne, jazz Pianist
3rd - Pauline Collins, London England, actress (Shirley Valentine)
3rd - Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan journalist
5th - Lewis Spratlan, composer
5th - Raquel Welch, Chic Ill, (Myra Breckenridge, 1,000,000 BC, 100 Rifles)
6th - Jackie Trent, singer
7th - Dario Argento, director (Creepers, Deep Red, Tenebrae)
8th - Willie Tyler, Red Level Ala, ventriloquist (Lester)
8th - Quentin L. Cook, LDS apostle
9th - Joe Negroni, rock vocalist (Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers)
10th - Roy Ayers, LA, disco jazz artist (Fever, You Send Me)
10th - Yevgeni Nikolayevich Khludeyev, Russia, cosmonaut
11th - Bernie Dwyer, rock drummer (Freddie & The Dreamers)
11th - Brian DePalma, Newark NJ, film director (Body Double, Dressed to Kill)
11th - Theodore Olson, U.S. Solicitor General
11th - Robert Palmer, last CEO of Digital Equipment Corporation
12th - Linda Gray, Santa Monica Calif, actress (Sue Ellen Ewing-Dallas)
12th - Mickey Lolich, pitcher (Detroit Tiger, won 25 in 1971)
12th - Roger K Crouch, Jamestown Tenn, astronauts (STS 83, 94)
12th - Stephen J Solarz, (Rep-D-NY, 1975-93)
12th - Susan Sennett, Santa Monica Calif, actress (Big Bad Mama)
12th - Patrick Mower, English actor
13th - Joyce Schouten, Dutch singer (Fouryo's)
13th - Óscar Arias, Costa Rican politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
14th - Larry Brown, NBA player/NBA coach (NY Knicks)
14th - Leo H Ferrier, Suriname writer (Atman)
15th - Frank Linzy, baseball player
15th - Merlin Olsen, UT, NFL tackle (Rams)/sportscaster/actor (Father Murphy)
15th - Norman [Richard] Spinrad, US, sci-fi author (Child of Fortune)
17th - Jan Eliasson, Swedish diplomat
17th - Sotiris Moustakas, Greek actor (d. 2007)
18th - Frankie Avalon, Phila, actor (Beach movies)/singer (Venus)
19th - Bill Medley, Santa Ana Cal, rocker (Righteous Bros-Up Where We Belong)
19th - Paul Williams, Omaha NE, singer/composer/actor (Planet of the Apes)
19th - Sylvia Tyson, rocker
20th - Joseph J DioGuardi, (Rep-R-NY, 1985- )
21st - Bill Kurtis, Pensacola Fla, newscaster (American Parade)
21st - Hermann Knoflacher, Austrian civil engineer
22nd - Anna Karina, Copenhagen Denmark, actress (Alphaville)
22nd - Edward Boguslawski, composer
23rd - Tim Rose, rocker
24th - Barbara Allbut, Orange NJ, rock vocalist (Angels)
24th - Yves Navarre, French writer (d. 1994)
25th - Timothy Severin, author/explorer
27th - Josephine Barstow, opera singer
27th - Benoni Beheyt, Belgian cyclist
28th - Alekander Sergeyevich Ivanchenkov, USSR, cosmonaut (Soyuz 29/31, T-6)
28th - Aleksandr Y Kalery, Russian cosmonaut
28th - George Greenstein, author (Secret of a Jewish Baker)
29th - Jimmy Knapp, trade unionist
29th - John Dawes, rugby coach
29th - Mike Eischeid, NFL punter (Oakland Raiders)
29th - Nicola Di Bari, Italian singer
30th - Harry Winston Jerome, Sask Canada, 100m runner (Olympic-bronze-1964)

Famous Deaths

Results 1 - 7 of 7

3rd - Otto V Ekelund, Swedish poet/writer (Hafvets Stjorna), dies at 59
7th - Edmund Rumpler, Austria auto/airplane builder, dies
15th - Dick Ket, painter/cartoonist, dies at 37
26th - Walter Benjamin, writer, dies at 48
27th - Walter Benjamin, German/French literature critic/writer, dies at 48
27th - Julius Wagner-Jauregg, Austrian neuroscientist, Nobel laureate (b. 1857)
30th - Walter Kollo, composer, dies at 62