1940

1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 | 1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944

Events[edit]

January 4 - Hermann Göring assumes control of most war industries in Germany.
March 13 - End of the Winter War.
March 13 - Former Lieutenant Governor of Punjab Michael O'Dwyer is assassinated in Caxton Hall, Westminster, England by the Indian revolutionary Udham Singh.
March 30 - Wang Jingwei declares the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China to be the legitimate Chinese state, and pledges its allegiance to the Empire of Japan.
April to May - The Katyn Massacre is perpetrated by the NKVD.
April 9 - The Nazi Party launches Operation Weserübung, invading Denmark and Norway. Vidkun Quisling proclaims a new collaborationist regime in Norway.
May 20 - Auschwitz Birkenau concentration camp is opened in occupied Poland, near the town of Oświęcim.
May 23 - The British Union of Fascists is dissolved.
June 14 - Francisco Franco orders an occupation of the Tangier International Zone.
July 10 - The French Constitutional Law of 1940 is passed, establishing Vichy France as a client state of Nazi Germany. Philippe Pétain is named Chief of State and is given dictatorial powers.
July 22 - Fumimaro Konoe is named Prime Minister of Japan for the second time.
August - Lehi is founded by Avraham Stern after breaking away from the Irgun.
August 21 - Leon Trotsky is assassinated in Mexico City by NKVD agent Ramón Mercader, acting on orders from Joseph Stalin.
September 7 - Beginning of the Blitz.
September 9 - African-American man Austin Callaway is lynched by a gang of six white supremacists in LaGrange, Georgia.
September 14 - Ion Antonescu and the Iron Guard declare the formation of the National Legionary State to govern Romania, and allign themselves with the Axis Powers.
September 22 - Imperial Japan begins an invasion of French Indochina.
September 30 - A gang of Hitler Youth members burn down the Great Synagogue of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, France.
October 10 - Fulgencio Batista is elected President of Cuba.
October 12 - The Taisei Yokusankai is founded.
October 23 - Adolf Hitler meets with Francisco Franco to discuss a possible alliance with Spain.
October 28 - Benito Mussolini launches an invasion of Greece.
Unknown - A.O. Neville steps down as Chief Protector of the Aborigines.

Births[edit]

Villain births[edit]

January 1 - Clifford Olson
January 12 - Bob Hewitt
February 2 - Delwar Hossain Sayeedi
February 16 - Kim Jong-il
June 7 - Samuel Little
June 16 - Neil Goldschmidt
July 6 - Nursultan Nazarbayev
July 15 - Ronald Gene Simmons Sr.
August 24 - Gordon Baum
August 26 - Michel Micombero
September 10 - Robert Anthony Buell
September 23 - Michel Temer
September 27 - Lawrence Bittaker
October 27 - John Gotti
November 23 - Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr.
Unknown - Ali Hassan Salameh

Victim births[edit]

May 29 - Leonardo Henrichsen
July 16 - Daniel L. Simmons
September 6 - Hugo Spadafora
October 8 - John Lennon

Deaths[edit]

Villain deaths[edit]

February 4 - Nikolai Yezhov & Mikhail Frinovsky
August 3 - Vladimir Jabotinsky
August 21 - Leon Trotsky
September 23 - Robert Hichens
November 17 - Eric Gill

Victim deaths[edit]

March 30 - Michael O'Dwyer
July 6 - Jack Avery
September 9 - Austin Callaway