1940

Events

• 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 full government powers.
• August 21 - Leon Trotsky is assassinated in Mexico City by NKVD agent Ramón Mercader, acting on orders from Joseph Stalin.
• September 9 - The Treznea Massacre is carried out.
• 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.

Births

Villain births

• January 1 - Clifford Olson
• January 12 - Bob Hewitt
• February 16 - Kim Jong-il
• June 7 - Samuel Little
• July 15 - Ronald Gene Simmons Sr.
• August 26 - Michel Micombero
• September 10 - Robert Anthony Buell
• September 27 - Lawrence Bittaker
• October 27 - John Gotti
• November 23 - Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr.
• Unknown - Ali Hassan Salameh

Victim births

• September 6 - Hugo Spadafora
• October 8 - John Lennon

Deaths

Villain deaths

• February 4 - Nikolai Yezhov & Mikhail Frinovsky
• August 21 - Leon Trotsky
• November 17 - Eric Gill

Victim deaths

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