Events from the year 1940 in the United States .
May 15: The first McDonald's restaurant (photographed in 2005 ). June 27: "100 Water Colors" show by Federal Arts Project opens in New York City April – Dick Grayson (AKA as Robin , the Boy Wonder) first appears with Batman .
April 1 (April Fools' Day ) – Census date for the 16th U.S. Census .
April 3 – Isle Royale National Park is established in Michigan.
April 7 – Booker T. Washington becomes the first African American to be depicted on a United States postage stamp .
April 10 – WWII : All Danish and Norwegian assets are frozen in the United States after both countries were invaded by Nazi Germany .[ 1]
April 12 – Opening day at Jamaica Racetrack features the use of pari-mutuel betting equipment, a departure from bookmaking heretofore used exclusively throughout New York state. Other NY tracks follow suit later in 1940.
April 13 – New York Rangers win their Third Stanley Cup in ice hockey (and last until 1994) by defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs 4 games to 2.
April 21 – Take It or Leave It CBS Radio , with Bob Hawk as host.
April 23 – Rhythm Club fire : A fire at the Rhythm Night Club in Natchez, Mississippi kills 209.
May 10 – WWII : The assets of all foreign nationals from The Netherlands , Belgium and Luxembourg are frozen.[ 1]
May 15
May 16 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt , addressing a joint session of Congress , asks for an extraordinary credit of approximately $900 million to finance construction of at least 50,000 airplanes per year.
May 18 – The 6.9 Mw El Centro earthquake affects California's Imperial Valley with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme ), causing nine deaths and twenty injuries. Financial losses are around $6 million. Significant damage also occurs in Mexicali, Mexico.
May 25 – The Crypt of Civilization at Oglethorpe University is sealed.
May 29 – The Vought XF4U-1, prototype of the F4U Corsair U.S. fighter later used in WWII , makes its first flight.
June 10 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt denounces Italy's actions with his "Stab in the Back" [permanent dead link ] University of Virginia .
June 14 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Naval Expansion Act into law, which aims to increase the United States Navy 's tonnage by 11%.
June 16 – The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is held for the first time in Sturgis, South Dakota .
June 17 – WWII : Assets of all foreign nationals from France and Monaco are frozen.[ 1]
June 22 – The first Dairy Queen opens in Edina, Minnesota .
June 24 – U.S. politics: The Republican Party begins its national convention in Philadelphia and nominates Wendell Willkie as its candidate for president. July 1 – The doomed first Tacoma Narrows Bridge opens for business, built with an 8-foot (2.4 m) girder and 190 feet (58 m) above the water, as the third longest suspension bridge in the world.
July 15 – U.S. politics: The Democratic Party begins its national convention in Chicago and nominates Franklin D. Roosevelt for an unprecedented third term as president.
July 20 – The Arroyo Seco Parkway , one of the first freeways built in the U.S., opens to traffic, connecting downtown Los Angeles with Pasadena, California .
July 25 – WWII : President Roosevelt announces a ban on Japan acquiring high-octane aviation fuel from the United States. A ban is also placed on some grades of steel and scrap iron along with some lubricants being banned.[ 3]
July 27 – Bugs Bunny makes his debut in the Oscar -nominated cartoon short, A Wild Hare
August 4 – Gen. John J. Pershing , in a nationwide radio broadcast, urges all-out aid to Britain in order to defend the Americas, while Charles Lindbergh speaks to an isolationist rally at Soldier Field in Chicago .
September – The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division (previously a National Guard Division in Arizona , Colorado , New Mexico and Oklahoma ), is activated and ordered into federal service for 1 year, to engage in a training program in Ft. Sill and Louisiana , prior to serving in World War II .
September 2 – WWII : An agreement between America and Great Britain is announced to the effect that 50 U.S. destroyers needed for escort work will be transferred to Great Britain. In return, America gains 99-year leases on British bases in the North Atlantic , West Indies and Bermuda .
September 12 – The Hercules Munitions Plant in Succasunna-Kenvil, New Jersey explodes, killing 55 people.
September 16 – WWII : The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 is signed into law by Franklin D. Roosevelt , creating the first peacetime draft in U.S. history.
September 26 – WWII : The United States imposes a total embargo on all scrap metal shipments to Japan . November 5: FDR becomes the first and only president elected to a third term. October 1 – The first section of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the country's first long-distance controlled-access highway , is opened between Irwin and Carlisle .
October 8 – The Cincinnati Reds defeat the Detroit Tigers , 4 games to 3, to win their second World Series championship in baseball.
October 10 – WWII : The assets of all Romanian nationals in the United States are frozen.[ 1] [ 4]
October 16 – The draft registration of approximately 16 million men begins in the United States.
October 29 – The Selective Service System lottery is held in Washington, D.C.
November 5 – U.S. presidential election, 1940 : Democratic incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats Republican challenger Wendell Willkie and becomes the nation's first and only third-term president.
November 7 – In Tacoma, Washington , the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (nicknamed the "Galloping Gertie") collapses in a 42-mile-per-hour (68 km/h) wind storm, causing the center span of the bridge to sway. When it collapses, a 600-foot-long (180 m) design of the center span falls 190 feet above the water, killing Tubby , a black male cocker spaniel dog.
November 11 – Armistice Day Blizzard : An unexpected blizzard kills 144 in the Midwest .
November 12 – Case of Hansberry v. Lee 311 U.S. 32 (1940), decided, allowing a racially restrictive covenant to be lifted.
November 13 – Walt Disney 's third feature film, Fantasia
November 16 – An unexploded pipe bomb is found in the Consolidated Edison office building (only years later is the culprit, George Metesky , apprehended).
December 8 – The Chicago Bears , in what will become the most one-sided victory in National Football League history, defeat the Washington Redskins 73–0 in the 1940 NFL Championship Game.
December 17 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt , at his regular press conference, first sets forth the outline of his plan to send aid to Great Britain that will become known as Lend-Lease .
December 20
December 21 – Writer F. Scott Fitzgerald (author of The Great Gatsby Hollywood gossip columnist Sheilah Graham , leaving his novel The Last Tycoon
December 29 – Franklin D. Roosevelt , in a fireside chat to the nation, declares that the United States must become "the great Arsenal of Democracy ."
December 30 – California 's first modern freeway , the future State Route 110 , opens to traffic in Pasadena, California , as the Arroyo Seco Parkway (later the Pasadena Freeway).
James Cromwell January 2 – Jim Bakker , televangelist, sometime husband of Tammy Faye January 4 – Helmut Jahn , German-American architect (d. 2021 )January 6 – Penny Lernoux , journalist and author (d. 1989 )January 7 – Jim Hannan , baseball player (d. 2024 )January 13 – Edmund White , authorJanuary 14 – Julian Bond , African-American civil rights activist (d. 2015 )January 15 – Arlie Russell Hochschild , professor emireta of sociologyJanuary 20 – Carol Heiss , figure skaterJanuary 21
January 23 – Jimmy Castor , African-American funk, R&B and soul saxophonist (d. 2012 )January 27 – James Cromwell , actorJanuary 28 – Al Strobel , actor (d. 2022 )January 29 – Katharine Ross , actressJanuary 31 – Stuart Margolin , actor (d. 2022 ) George A. Romero Smokey Robinson Peter Fonda February 2 – Odell Brown , jazz organist (d. 2011 )February 3 – Fran Tarkenton , American football playerFebruary 4 – George A. Romero , film writer and director (d. 2017 )February 6 – Tom Brokaw , television news reporterFebruary 8
February 12
February 14 – James Maynard , businessman, co-founded Golden Corral February 15 – John Hadl , American football player and coachFebruary 17
February 19 – Smokey Robinson , African-American musicianFebruary 21 – John Lewis , African-American politician, civil rights leader (d. 2020 )February 22
February 23 – Peter Fonda , actor (d. 2019 )February 24
February 25 – Ron Santo , baseball player (d. 2010 )February 27 – Howard Hesseman , actor (d. 2022 )[ 6] February 28
February 29 – Billy Turner , horse trainer (d. 2021 ) Chuck Norris James Caan Nancy Pelosi March 6 – Willie Stargell , African American baseball player (d. 2001 )March 7 – Daniel J. Travanti , American actor[ 7] March 10
March 12 – Al Jarreau , African-American singer (d. 2017 )March 13 – Candi Staton , American singerMarch 15 – Phil Lesh , American rock guitarist (Grateful Dead ) (d. 2024 )March 17 – Mark White , American politician (d. 2017 )March 18 – Mark Medoff , American playwright and screenwriter (d. 2019 )March 20 – Mary Ellen Mark , American photographer (d. 2015 )March 21 – Solomon Burke , African-American singer, songwriter (d. 2010 )March 22 – Garland Boyette , American football player (d. 2022 )[ 8] March 25 – Anita Bryant , American entertainerMarch 26
March 27 – Austin Pendleton , American actor, playwright, theatre director and instructorMarch 29
March 31
Al Pacino Burt Young David Koch Toni Tennille May 1 – Allan M. Siegal , American newspaper editor and journalist (d. 2022 )May 3 – David Koch , American billionaire businessman, philanthropist and political activist (d. 2019 )May 5
May 7 – Kim Chernin , American feminist writer and poet (d. 2020 )May 8
May 9 – James L. Brooks , American film producer, writerMay 10 – Wayne A. Downing , American U.S. general (d. 2007 )May 15
May 17 – Alan Kay , computer scientistMay 18 – Lenny Lipton , inventor (d. 2022 )May 20 – Shorty Long , African-American soul music singer, songwriter, musician and record producer (Here Comes The Judge 1969 )May 22 – Bernard Shaw , African-American journalist and television news reporter (d. 2022 )May 29 – Tyree Scott , labor leader and civil rights activist[ 13] René Auberjonois Nancy Sinatra June 1
June 3 – Connie Saylor , race car driver (d. 1993 )June 7
June 8
June 9 – Roger J. Phillips , geophysicist (d. 2020 )June 13 – Bobby Freeman , singer, songwriter (d. 2017 )June 14 – Jack Bannon , actor (d. 2017 )[ 14] June 16
June 19 – Shirley Muldowney , race car driverJune 21 – Mariette Hartley , actressJune 23 – Wilma Rudolph , track & field athlete and 3-time Olympic winner (d. 1994 )June 24 – Hope Cooke , socialite, Queen Consort of SikkimJune 26 – Lucinda Childs , actress, postmodern dancer and choreographer Jeannie Seely James Brolin Joe Torre July 2 – Joshua Bryant , American actor, director, author and speakerJuly 3
July 4 – Gene McDowell , American college football coachJuly 6 – Jeannie Seely , American singer, songwriterJuly 7 – Madeline Davis , American LGBT activist and historian (d. 2021 )July 10
July 13 – Paul Prudhomme , Louisiana Creole cuisine American chef (d. 2015 )July 15 – Johnny Seay , American country music singer (d. 2016 )July 16 – Tom Metcalf , American baseball pitcherJuly 17 – Verne Lundquist , American sportscasterJuly 18
July 21 – Jim Clyburn , African-American politicianJuly 23
July 24
July 26
July 27 – Gary Kurtz , American filmmaker (d. 2018 )July 28 – Philip Proctor , American actorJuly 29 – Bernard Lafayette , African-American civil rights activistJuly 30 – Pat Schroeder , American politician (d. 2023 )[ 17] Martin Sheen August 3 – Martin Sheen , actorAugust 5 – Roman Gabriel , football player, coach, and actor (d. 2024 )August 7 – Thomas Barlow , politician (d. 2017 )August 10 – Bobby Hatfield , singer (The Righteous Brothers 2003 )August 13 – Tony Cloninger , baseball player (d. 2018 )August 14 – Galen Hall , American football coachAugust 19 – Jill St. John , actressAugust 20 – Rubén Hinojosa , politicianAugust 22 – Bill McCartney , American football player and coach, founded Promise Keepers August 23 – Thomas A. Steitz , biochemist (d. 2018 )August 27 – Fernest Arceneaux , Zydeco accordionist (d. 2008 )August 28 – William Cohen , politicianAugust 29
August 31 – Wilton Felder , African American jazz saxophonist (d. 2015 ) Raquel Welch Bob Knight October 1 – Richard Corben , American illustrator and comic book artist (d. 2020 )October 3
October 6
October 7 – Bruce Vento , American educator and politician (d. 2000 )October 9
October 13 – Pharoah Sanders , American saxophonist (d. 2022 )October 16
October 18 – Cynthia Weil , American songwriter (d. 2023 )October 20 – Robert Pinsky , American poet, essayist, literary critic and translatorOctober 25 – Bob Knight , American basketball player and coach (d. 2023 )October 27 – John Gotti , American gangster (d. 2002 )October 29 – Connie Mack III , American politician Bruce Lee November 2 – Ed Budde , American football player (d. 2023 )November 11 – Barbara Boxer , American politicianNovember 12 – Donald Wuerl , American cardinal archbishopNovember 15 – Sam Waterston , American actorNovember 21 – Richard Marcinko , U.S. Navy SEAL team member, authorNovember 22 – Terry Gilliam , American-born British screenwriter, director and animatorNovember 23
November 25
November 27 – Bruce Lee , Chinese-American martial artist, actor (d. 1973 )November 29 – Chuck Mangione , American flugelhorn playerNovember 30 – Kevin Phillips , American political commentator (d. 2023 ) Richard Pryor Dionne Warwick December 1 – Richard Pryor , African-American actor, comedian (d. 2005 )December 4
December 7 – Carole Simpson , American journalistDecember 11
December 12
December 19 – Phil Ochs , American singer and songwriter (d. 1976 )December 21
Kelly Cherry , American poet and authorFrank Zappa , American musician, songwriter, composer, guitarist, record producer, actor and filmmaker (d. 1993 )December 23 – Jorma Kaukonen , American musician (Jefferson Airplane December 24
December 26 – Edward C. Prescott , American economist, Nobel Prize laureateDecember 29 – Fred Hansen , American Olympic athleteDecember 31 – Tim Considine , American actor (d. 2022 )
January 4 – Flora Finch , silent film actress and comedian (born 1869 in the United Kingdom )
January 19 – William Borah , U.S. Senator from Idaho from 1907 to 1940 (born 1865 )
January 20 – Omar Bundy , U.S. Army General (born 1861 )
January – Matilda McCrear , last survivor of the transatlantic slave trade in the U.S. (born c. 1857 in Yorubaland)
February 1 – Philip Francis Nowlan , science fiction writer, creator of Buck Rogers (born 1888 )
February 4 – Samuel M. Vauclain , steam locomotive engineer (born 1856 )
February 9 – William Edward Dodd , diplomat and historian (born 1869 )
February 11 – Ellen Day Hale , painter and printmaker (born 1855 )
March 4 – Hamlin Garland , writer (born 1860 )
March 7 – Edwin Markham , poet (born 1852 )
March 11 – John Monk Saunders , screenwriter (born 1897 )
March 27 – Madeleine Talmage (Force) Astor Dick Fiermonte , socialite, survivor of the sinking of the Titanic , widow of John Jacob Astor IV (born 1893 )
April 8 – David C. Shanks , army officer (born 1861 )
April 29 – Edgar Buckingham , physicist and soil scientist (born 1867 )
May 28 – Walter Connolly , film character actor (born 1887 )
May 29 – Mary Anderson , stage actress (born 1859 )
June 7
June 11 – Alfred S. Alschuler , Chicago architect (born 1876 )
June 13 – George Fitzmaurice , film director (born 1885 in France )
June 14 – Henry W. Antheil Jr. , diplomat, killed in shootdown of airplane Kaleva 1912 )
June 20 – Charley Chase , comedian (born 1893 )
June 21 – John T. Thompson , U.S. Army officer, inventor of the Thompson submachine gun (born 1860 ) July 1 – Ben Turpin , comic silent film actor (born 1869 )
July 15 – Robert Wadlow , tallest man ever (born 1918 )
July 30 – Spencer S. Wood , U.S. Navy rear admiral (born 1861 )
August 5 – Frederick Cook , explorer (born 1865 )
August 8 – Johnny Dodds , jazz clarinetist (born 1892 )
August 18 – Walter Chrysler , automobile pioneer (born 1875 )
August 21 – Ernest Thayer , writer, comic poet (born 1863 )
August 22 – Mary Vaux Walcott , botanical artist (born 1860 )
August 28 – William Bowie , geodetic engineer (born 1872 )
August 31 – Ernest Lundeen , lawyer and politician (born 1878 )
September 1 – Lillian Wald , nurse and humanitarian (born 1867 )
September 2 – Eddie Collins , vaudeville-veteran comic (born 1883 )
September 6 – Leonor F. Loree , civil engineer and railroad executive (born 1858 )
September 23 – Hale Holden , president of Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (born 1869 )
September 25 – Marguerite Clark , stage and silent film actress (born 1883 )
September 28 – Earl Hurd , animator, film director and comics artist (born 1880 )
October 5 – Ballington Booth , co-founder of Volunteers of America (born 1857 )
October 11 – Charles Stanton Ogle , actor (born 1865 )
October 12 – Tom Mix , Western film actor (born 1880 )
October 17 – George Davis , baseball player (born 1870 )
November 5 – Otto Plath , entomologist, father of poet Sylvia Plath (born 1885 in Germany )
November 9 – John Henry Kirby , Texas legislator and businessman (born 1860 )
November 17
November 18 – Sylvia Ashton , silent film actress (born 1880 )
December 10 – William V. Mong , film actor, screenwriter and director (born 1875 )
December 15 – Billy Hamilton , baseball player (born 1866 )
December 21 – F. Scott Fitzgerald , fiction writer (born 1896 )
December 22 – Nathanael West , fiction writer, in automobile accident (born 1903 )
December 23 – Eddie August Schneider , aviator, in airplane crash (born 1911 )
December 25 – Agnes Ayres , silent film actress (born 1891 )
December 26 – Daniel Frohman , theater producer (born 1851 )
December 27 – Ella Rhoads Higginson , poet (born 1862 )
December 30 – C. Harold Wills , automobile engineer and businessman (born 1878 )
December 31 – Roberta Lawson , Indigenous American (Lenape) activist and musician (born 1878 )
^ a b c d Wilkins, Mira (2004). The History of Foreign Investment in the United States, 1914-1945 (Harvard Studies in Business History) ISBN 9780674013087 . Retrieved May 19, 2024 – via Google Books. ^ Trossarelli, L. (2010). "The history of nylon" . Club Alpino Italiano, Centro Studi Materiali e Tecniche. Retrieved 2012-02-28 . ^ Record, Jeffrey (February 1, 2009). "Japanese Aggression and U.S. Policy Responses, 1937-41" . Japan's Decision for War in 1941: Some enduring lessons . Strategic Studies Institute & United States Army War College. p. 15 – via JSTOR. On July 25 Roosevelt announced a ban on Japanese acquisition of U.S. high-octane aviation gasoline, certain grades of steel and scrap iron, and scrap iron, and some lubricants. ^ "Chapter III: Assets in the United States". PLUNDER AND RESTITUTION: Findings and Recommendations of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States and Staff Report . Retrieved May 19, 2024 . ^ Former 76ers, Bulls legend Chet Walker dead at 84 ^ Barnes, Mike (January 30, 2022). "Howard Hesseman, Dr. Johnny Fever on 'WKRP in Cincinnati,' Dies at 81" . The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved January 30, 2021 . ^ "Daniel J. Travanti" . Authentic Wisconsin . Retrieved 5 February 2021 .^ Former Oilers Linebacker Garland Boyette Dies at 82 ^ Huff, Lauren (2019-12-06). " . Entertainment Weekly . Archived from the original on 2019-12-07. Retrieved 2021-08-11 . ^ Schudel, Matt (December 29, 2017). "Sue Grafton, author of best-selling 'alphabet' mysteries, dies at 77" . The Washington Post Archived from the original on December 30, 2017. Retrieved December 30, 2017 . ^ III, Harris M. Lentz (2018-04-30). Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2017 ISBN 978-1-4766-7032-4 ^ Robert Jervis, 1940-2021 ^ Mary T. Henry, “Tyree Scott (1940-2003),” HistoryLink.org Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History
^ "Jack Bannon, Cool-Headed Co-Star of 'Lou Grant,' Dies at 77" . The New York Times Associated Press . October 27, 2017.^ Kilkenny, Duane Byrge, Katie; Byrge, Duane; Kilkenny, Katie (2019-12-27). "Don Imus, Legendary 'Imus in the Morning' Host, Dies at 79" . The Hollywood Reporter . Archived from the original on 2021-07-20. Retrieved 2021-07-20 . {{cite web }}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link )^ Roberts, Sam (December 2, 2023). "John Nichols, Author of 'The Milagro Beanfield War,' Dies at 83" . The New York Times . Retrieved December 3, 2023 . ^ Former Colorado Rep. Pat Schroeder, pioneer for women’s rights, dies
Bloch, Leon Bryce and Lamar Middleton, ed. The World Over in 1940 (1941) detailed coverage of world events online free ; 914pp 
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