1940

1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1940th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 940th year of the 2nd millennium, the 40th year of the 20th century, and the 1st year of the 1940s decade.

Millennium: 2nd millennium
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1940 by topic
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1940 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar1940
MCMXL
Ab urbe condita2693
Armenian calendar1389
ԹՎ ՌՅՁԹ
Assyrian calendar6690
Baháʼí calendar96–97
Balinese saka calendar1861–1862
Bengali calendar1347
Berber calendar2890
British Regnal year4 Geo. 6 – 5 Geo. 6
Buddhist calendar2484
Burmese calendar1302
Byzantine calendar7448–7449
Chinese calendar己卯年 (Earth Rabbit)
4636 or 4576
    — to —
庚辰年 (Metal Dragon)
4637 or 4577
Coptic calendar1656–1657
Discordian calendar3106
Ethiopian calendar1932–1933
Hebrew calendar5700–5701
Hindu calendars
 - Vikram Samvat1996–1997
 - Shaka Samvat1861–1862
 - Kali Yuga5040–5041
Holocene calendar11940
Igbo calendar940–941
Iranian calendar1318–1319
Islamic calendar1358–1359
Japanese calendarShōwa 15
(昭和１５年)
Javanese calendar1870–1871
Juche calendar29
Julian calendarGregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar4273
Minguo calendarROC 29
民國29年
Nanakshahi calendar472
Thai solar calendar2482–2483
Tibetan calendar阴土兔年
(female Earth-Rabbit)
2066 or 1685 or 913
    — to —
阳金龙年
(male Iron-Dragon)
2067 or 1686 or 914
Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1940.

A calendar from 1940 according to the Gregorian calendar, factoring in the dates of Easter and related holidays, cannot be used again until the year 5280.[1]

Events

Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.

January
  • January 4 – WWII: Luftwaffe Colonel Hermann Göring assumes control of most war industries in Germany.
  • January 6 – WWII: Winter War – General Semyon Timoshenko takes command of all Soviet forces.
  • January 7 – WWII: Winter War: Battle of Raate Road – Outnumbered Finnish troops decisively defeat Soviet forces.[2]
  • January 8
    • WWII: Winter War: Battle of Suomussalmi – Finnish forces destroy the Soviet 44th Rifle Division.
    • WWII: Food rationing in the United Kingdom begins; it will remain in force until 1954.
  • January 9 – WWII: British submarine HMS Starfish is sunk in the Heligoland Bight.
  • January 10 – WWII: Mechelen incident – A German plane carrying secret plans for the invasion of Western Europe makes a forced landing in Belgium, leading to mobilization of defense forces in the Low Countries.
  • January 27 – WWII: A peace resolution introduced in the Parliament of South Africa is defeated 81–59.
  • January 29 – Three gasoline-powered trains carrying factory workers crash and explode while approaching Ajikawaguchi Station, Yumesaki Line (Nishinari Line), Osaka, Japan, killing at least 181 people and injuring at least 92.[3]

February

March

April

May
  • May 10 – WWII:
  • May 13 – WWII:
  • May 13–14 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and her government are evacuated to London, using the British destroyer HMS Hereward.
  • May 14 – WWII:
    • Rotterdam is subjected to savage terror bombing by the Luftwaffe; 980 are killed, and 20,000 buildings destroyed.[8] General Henri Winkelman announces the surrender of the Dutch army (outside Zeeland) to German forces.
    • Recruitment begins in Britain for a home defence force: the Local Defence Volunteers, later known as the Home Guard.
  • May 15
    • WWII: The Dutch Army formally signs a surrender document.
    • Women's stockings made of nylon are first placed on sale across the United States. Almost five million pairs are bought on this day.[9]
  • May 16 – President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt, addressing a joint session of the U.S. Congress, asks for an extraordinary credit of approximately $900,000,000 to finance construction of at least 50,000 airplanes per year.
  • May 17 – WWII:
    • Brussels falls to German forces; the Belgian government flees to Ostend.
    • Zeeland is overrun by German forces, ending the Battle of the Netherlands and beginning full German occupation of the Netherlands (Noord-Beveland surrenders on May 18, and the remaining Dutch troops are withdrawn from Zeelandic Flanders on May 19).
  • May 18 – Marshal Philippe Pétain is named vice-premier of France.[10]
  • May 19 – General Maxime Weygand replaces Maurice Gamelin as commander-in-chief of all French forces.
  • May 20
  • May 22 – WWII: The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939, giving the government full control over all persons and property.
  • May 24 – WWII:
    • The Anglo-French Supreme War Council decides to withdraw all forces under its control from Norway.
    • Hitler issues Der Halte Befehl, a stop order preventing his Panzer divisions advancing on Dunkirk.
  • May 25 – The Crypt of Civilization time capsule at Oglethorpe University, Brookhaven, Georgia in the United States, is sealed shut, with a projected opening date of 8113 CE.
  • May 26
    • WWII: The Dunkirk evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force begins.
    • The first free flight of Igor Sikorsky's Vought-Sikorsky VS-300 helicopter is made.
  • May 27 – WWII: Le Paradis massacre: 97 retreating British soldiers of the Royal Norfolk Regiment are executed by German troops of 3rd SS Panzer Division Totenkopf after surrendering in France.
  • May 28 – WWII:
    • King Leopold III of Belgium orders the Belgian forces to cease fighting, ending the 18-day Battle of Belgium. Leaders of the Belgian government on French territory declare Leopold deposed.
    • Land Battle of Narvik: German forces retire, giving the Allies their first victory on land in the war; however, the British have already decided to evacuate Narvik.
    • Winston Churchill warns the House of Commons of the United Kingdom to "prepare itself for hard and heavy tidings."
    • The Wormhoudt massacre (or Wormhout massacre) takes place with the mass murder of 80 British and French POWs by Waffen-SS soldiers from the 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler during the Battle of France.
  • May 29 – The Vought XF4U-1, prototype of the F4U Corsair U.S. fighter later used in WWII, makes its first flight.

June

July
  • July 1 – The 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 2 – WWII: British-owned SS Arandora Star, carrying civilian internees and POWs of Italian and German origin from Liverpool to Canada, is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-47 off northwest Ireland, with the loss of around 865 lives.
  • July 3 – WWII: Attack on Mers-el-Kébir: British naval units sink or seize ships of the French fleet anchored in the Algerian ports of Mers-el-Kebir and Oran, to prevent them from falling into German hands. The following day, Vichy France breaks off diplomatic relations with Britain.
  • July 5 – WWII: Operation Fish – A British convoy including HMS Batory sails from Greenock (Scotland) for Halifax, Nova Scotia, carrying gold bar and other valuables worth $1.7 billion for safe keeping in Canada,[18] the largest movement of wealth in history.[19]
  • July 6
    • Story Bridge opens in Brisbane.
    • WWII: British submarine HMS Shark is sunk.
  • July 10 – WWII: The Battle of Britain begins.
  • July 11
  • July 14 – WWII: Winston Churchill, in a worldwide broadcast, proclaims the intention of Great Britain to fight alone against Germany whatever the outcome: "We shall seek no terms. We shall tolerate no parley. We may show mercy. We shall ask none."
  • 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 19
    • WWII: Battle of Cape Spada: HMAS Sydney and five destroyers sink the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni.
    • WWII: Adolf Hitler makes a peace appeal to Britain, in an address to the Reichstag. BBC German-language broadcaster Sefton Delmer unofficially rejects it at once[20] and Lord Halifax, the British foreign minister, flatly rejects peace terms in a broadcast reply on July 22.
  • July 20–August 4 – Scheduled dates for the 1940 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, cancelled in November 1939 due to WWII (originally allocated to Tokyo, Japan).
  • July 21
  • July 23 – Welles Declaration: United States Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles announces that the U.S. will not accord diplomatic recognition to the Soviet Union's occupation of the Baltic states.
  • July 25 – General Henri Guisan addresses the officer corps of the Swiss army at Rütli, resolving to resist any invasion of the country.
  • July 27
    • Eleven British nationals, including Melville James Cox, are arrested on suspicion of spying for military intelligence by the secret police in Japan. Cox commits suicide in Tokyo on July 29, according to a report by the Japanese Foreign Ministry.[21]
    • Bugs Bunny makes his debut in the Oscar-nominated cartoon short, A Wild Hare. However, it is not until 1941 that his name is adopted.

August

September
  • 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 one year, to engage in a training program in Ft. Sill and Louisiana, prior to serving in WWII.
  • September 2 – WWII: The Destroyers for Bases Agreement between the United States 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, the United States gains 99-year leases on British bases in the North Atlantic, West Indies and Bermuda.[29]
  • September 4 – WWII: Adolf Hitler's Winterhilfe speech at the Berlin Sportpalast declares that Nazi Germany will make retaliatory night air raids on British cities and threatens invasion.[29]
  • September 5 – WWII: Commerce raiding German auxiliary cruiser Komet enters the Pacific Ocean via the Bering Strait, after crossing the Arctic Ocean from the North Sea, with the help of Soviet icebreakers Lenin, Stalin, and Kaganovich.[30]
  • September 6 – King Carol II of Romania abdicates and is succeeded by his son Michael.
  • September 7
  • September 9–16 – WWII: The Italian invasion of Egypt commences from Libya, progressing only as far as Sidi Barrani.
  • September 9
    • Treznea massacre: The Hungarian Army, supported by local Hungarians, kill 93 Romanian civilians in Treznea, Sălaj, a village in Northern Transylvania, as part of attempts at ethnic cleansing.
    • George Stibitz first demonstrates the remote operation of a computer, in the United States.
  • September 12
    • In Lascaux, France, 17,000-year-old cave paintings are discovered by a group of young Frenchmen hiking through Southern France. The paintings depict animals, and date to the Stone Age.
    • The Hercules Munitions Plant in Succasunna-Kenvil, New Jersey explodes, killing 55 people.
  • September 14 – Ip massacre: The Hungarian Army, supported by local Hungarians, kill 158 Romanian civilians in Ip, Sălaj, a village in Northern Transylvania, as part of attempts at ethnic cleansing.
  • 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 17 – WWII:
    • Hitler postpones Operation Sea Lion (Unternehmen Seelöwe), the planned German invasion of Britain, indefinitely.[31]
    • British planes from HMS Illustrious, backed by battleship HMS Valiant, attack the port of Benghazi in Libya. Four Italian ships are sunk in the harbour.
  • September 17–18 – SS City of Benares is torpedoed by German submarine U-48 in the Atlantic, with the loss of 248 of the 406 on board, including child evacuees bound for Canada. This results in cancellation of the British Children's Overseas Reception Board's plan to relocate children overseas.
  • September 20–22 – Convoy HX 72, a North Atlantic convoy of 43 ships, is attacked by a German U-boat group (wolfpack), eleven ships of 73 tons are sunk, seven during the second night of the attack by the U-100 under the command of Joachim Schepke.
  • September 21 – 1940 Australian federal election: Robert Menzies' UAP/Country Coalition Government is re-elected as a minority government, narrowly defeating the Labor Party led by John Curtin. It is the last federal election to result in a minority government until 2010.
  • September 22 – Japan enters French Indochina: An agreement is signed in which Japan promises to station 6,000 troops there, and limit the total number of troops that could be in the colony at any given time to 25,000. Rights are also given for three airfields.
  • September 23–25 – Battle of Dakar – Naval forces of Free France and Britain fail to take the port of Dakar in French West Africa from Vichy France.
  • September 25 – Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany: German Reichskommissar Josef Terboven appoints a provisional council of state from the pro-Nazi Nasjonal Samling party, under Vidkun Quisling, as a puppet government for Norway.
  • September 26 – A group of Japanese officers, in violation of an agreement, signed 4 days earlier with French Indochina, take Đồng Đăng and Lam Sơn, with 40 Franco-Vietnamese troops killed and around 1,000 deserting. The same day the United States imposes a total embargo on all scrap metal shipments to Japan.
  • September 27 – WWII: Germany, Italy and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact.
  • September 30 (night to October 1) – Arsonists from the Hitler Youth destroy the Great Synagogue of Strasbourg.

October
  • October 1 – The first section of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the United States' first long-distance controlled-access highway, is opened.
  • October 11 – Portuguese-born performer Carmen Miranda makes her American film debut in Down Argentine Way, one of the first films produced to promote the Good Neighbor policy.
  • October 14 – The Balham tube station disaster in London, England, occurs during the Nazi Luftwaffe air raids on Great Britain.
  • October 15 – Charlie Chaplin releases his controversial wartime satire The Great Dictator, nine months after The Three Stooges' You Nazty Spy!.
  • October 16
    • The draft registration of approximately 16 million men begins in the United States.
    • Nazi Governor-General Hans Frank establishes the Warsaw Ghetto.
  • October 18–19 – WWII: Thirty-two ships are sunk from Convoy SC 7 and Convoy HX 79 by the most effective "wolfpack" of the war, including Otto Kretschmer, Günther Prien and Joachim Schepke.
  • October 26–28 – WWII: RMS Empress of Britain, serving as a troopship under the British flag, is bombed, torpedoed and sunk off the Donegal coast, with the loss of 45 lives. At 42,348 GRT, she is the war's largest merchant ship loss.
  • October 28 – WWII: Italian troops invade Greece, meeting strong resistance from Greek troops and civilians. This action signals the beginning of the Balkan Campaign.
  • October 29 – The Selective Service System lottery is held in Washington, D.C..

November
  • November – In Cambodia, the Khmer Issarak is formed to overthrow the French Army within the nation.
  • November 2–8 – WWII: (Greco-Italian War): Battle of Elaia–Kalamas in Epirus: Outnumbered Greek forces repel the Italian Army.
  • November 2 – German submarine U-69 is commissioned, the first Type VIIC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine, which will become its most numerous class, with 568 commissioned during the War.
  • November 5
    • 1940 United States presidential election: Democrat incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt decisively defeats Republican challenger Wendell Willkie, and becomes the United States' first and only third-term president.
    • WWII: Allied Convoy HX 84 is attacked by German cruiser Admiral Scheer in the North Atlantic; the sacrifice of escorting British armed merchant cruiser HMS Jervis Bay under Capt. Edward Fegen and SS Beaverford enables a majority of the ships (including tanker MV San Demetrio) to escape.
  • November 6 – Agatha Christie's mystery novel And Then There Were None is published in book form, in the United States.
  • November 7 – In Tacoma, Washington, the 600-foot (180 m)-long center span of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (known as Galloping Gertie) collapses.
  • November 8 – WWII: MS City of Rayville is sunk by a naval mine off Cape Otway, Australia (the first United States Merchant Marine loss of the war).
  • November 9 – Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez premieres in Barcelona, Spain.
  • November 10 – 1940 Vrancea earthquake: An earthquake in Romania kills 1,000.
  • November 11
    • WWII: The British Royal Navy launches the first aircraft carrier strike in history, on the Italian battleship fleet anchored at Taranto Naval Base.
    • WWII: German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis captures top secret British mail intended for the British Far East Command from the SS Automedon, and sends it to Japan.
    • Armistice Day Blizzard: An unexpected blizzard kills 144 in the Midwestern United States.
  • November 13 – The Walt Disney animated film Fantasia, the first commercial film shown in stereophonic sound, has its world premiere at the Broadway Theatre in New York City. It is the first box office failure for Disney, though it recoups its cost years later and becomes one of the most highly regarded of Disney's films.
  • November 14 – WWII: Coventry Blitz: The city centre of Coventry, England is destroyed by 500 Luftwaffe bombers; 150,000 fire bombs, 503 tons of high explosives, and 130 parachute mines level 60,000 of the city's 75,000 buildings; 568 people are killed. The city's cathedral is gutted.
  • November 15 – Abbott and Costello make their film debut, in One Night in the Tropics.
  • November 16
    • WWII: In response to Germany levelling Coventry 2 days before, the Royal Air Force begins to bomb Hamburg (by war's end, 50,000 Hamburg residents will have died from Allied attacks).
    • An unexploded pipe bomb is found in the Consolidated Edison office building (only years later is the culprit, George Metesky, apprehended).
    • The Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers is founded.
  • November 17 – The Tartu Art Museum is established in Tartu, Estonia.[32]
  • November 18 – WWII: German leader Adolf Hitler and Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano meet to discuss Benito Mussolini's disastrous invasion of Greece.
  • November 20 – WWII: Hungary, Romania and Slovakia join the Axis powers.
  • November 25
    • Patria disaster: As British authorities attempt to deport Jewish refugees (originating from German-occupied Europe) from Mandatory Palestine to Mauritius, aboard the requisitioned emigrant liner SS Patria at Haifa, the Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah sinks the ship with a bomb, killing around 250 refugees and crew.
    • The de Havilland Mosquito and Martin B-26 Marauder military aircraft both make their first flights.
    • Woody Woodpecker makes his debut in the animated short, Knock Knock. It is not until 1941 that his current name is adopted.
  • November 26–27 – Jilava Massacre: In Romania, coup leader General Ion Antonescu's Iron Guard arrests and executes over 60 of exiled King Carol II of Romania's aides, starting at a penitentiary near Bucharest. Among the dead is former minister and acclaimed historian Nicolae Iorga.
  • November 27 – WWII: Battle of Cape Spartivento: The British Royal Navy and Italian Regia Marina battle to a draw.

December
  • December – Timely Comics' Captain America Comics #1 (cover dated March 1941), first appearance of Captain America and Bucky, hits newsstands in the United States.
  • December 1 – Manuel Ávila Camacho takes office, as President of Mexico.
  • December 6 – British submarine HMS Regulus is sunk near Taranto.
  • 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 9 – WWII: Operation Compass – British forces in North Africa begin their first major offensive, with an attack on Italian forces at Sidi Barrani, Egypt.
  • December 12 and December 15 – WWII: Sheffield Blitz ("Operation Crucible"): The Yorkshire city of Sheffield is badly damaged by German air-raids.
  • December 14
  • December 16 – WWII: Operation Abigail Rachel: The RAF bombs Mannheim.
  • December 17 – President Roosevelt, at his regular press conference, first sets forth the outline of his plan to send aid to Great Britain, which will become known as Lend-Lease.
  • December 23 – WWII: Winston Churchill, in a broadcast address to the people of Italy, blames Benito Mussolini for leading his nation to war against the British, contrary to Italy's historic friendship with them: "One man has arrayed the trustees and inheritors of ancient Rome upon the side of the ferocious pagan barbarians."
  • December 24 – Mahatma Gandhi, Indian spiritual non-violence leader, writes his second letter to Adolf Hitler, addressing him as "My friend", and requesting him to stop the war Germany had begun.
  • December 25 – The German cruiser Admiral Hipper attacks a British shipping convoy (WS 5A) en route to Sierra Leone 700 miles (1,100 km) west of Cape Finisterre in Spain. Admiral Hipper sinks one ship but has to withdraw with engine trouble.
  • December 27 – The German auxiliary cruiser Komet shells and heavily damages the phosphate production facilities on Nauru while flying the Japanese flag. The bombardment lasts an hour, and it causes the loss of 13,000 tons of oil.
  • December 29
    • Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a fireside chat to the nation, declares that the United States must become "the great arsenal of democracy."
    • WWII: "Second Great Fire of London": The Luftwaffe carries out a massive incendiary bombing raid, starting 1,500 fires. Many famous buildings, including the Guildhall and Trinity House, are either damaged or destroyed.
  • December 30
    • California's first modern freeway, the future State Route 110, opens to traffic in Pasadena, California, as the Arroyo Seco Parkway (now the Pasadena Freeway).
    • In Sweden, Victor Hasselblad forms the Victor Hasselblad AB Camera Company.

Date unknown
  • In Korea, the Hunminjeongeum (1446) is discovered, explaining the basis of the Hangul alphabet.
  • Walter Knott begins construction of a California ghost town replica, which soon evolves into Knott's Berry Farm.

Births
Births
January · February · March · April · May · June · July · August · September · October · November · December

January
Brian Josephson
Tabaré Vázquez
John Hurt
James Cromwell
Carlos Slim

February
George A. Romero
H. R. Giger
Vicente Fernández
Smokey Robinson
Peter Fonda

March
Raul Julia
Chuck Norris
Nancy Pelosi
  • March 1
    • David Broome, Welsh Show Jumper
    • Nuala O'Faolain, Irish journalist, author (d. 2008)
  • March 2 – Billy McNeill, Scottish football player and manager (d. 2019)
  • March 3
    • Germán Castro Caycedo, Colombian writer, journalist
  • March 4 – Vladimir Morosov, Soviet athlete
  • March 5 – Anton Fliegerbauer, West German police officer (d. 1972)
  • March 7
    • Rudi Dutschke, German radical student leader (d. 1979)
    • Viktor Savinykh, Soviet cosmonaut
  • March 9 – Raul Julia, Puerto Rican actor (d. 1994)
  • March 10 – Chuck Norris, American actor, martial artist
  • March 12 – Al Jarreau, African-American singer (d. 2017)
  • March 13 – Candi Staton, American singer
  • March 16
    • Jan Pronk, Dutch politician, diplomat
    • James Wong Jim, Hong Kong composer (d. 2004)
  • March 21 – Solomon Burke, African-American singer, songwriter (d. 2010)
  • March 20 – Paul Neville, Australian politician (d. 2019)
  • March 22 – Haing S. Ngor, Cambodian actor (The Killing Fields) (d. 1996)
  • March 25
    • Anita Bryant, American entertainer
    • Mina, Italian singer
  • March 26
    • James Caan, American actor (d. 2022)
    • Nancy Pelosi, American politician; Speaker and Minority Leader (alternately) of the United States House of Representatives
  • March 29
    • Ray Davis, African-American musician (P-Funk) (d. 2005)
    • Astrud Gilberto, Brazilian-born singer
  • March 30 – Jerry Lucas, American professional basketball player[41]
  • March 31 – Patrick Leahy, American politician

April
Wangari Maathai
Julie Christie
Margrethe II of Denmark
Al Pacino

May
Lance Henriksen
Ricky Nelson
Toni Tennille
  • May 1 – Elsa Peretti, Italian jewelry designer (d. 2021)
  • May 2
    • Manuel Esquivel, Belizean politician, 2nd Prime Minister of Belize (d. 2022)
    • Hariton Pushwagner, Norwegian artist (d. 2018)
  • May 3
    • David Koch, American businessman (d. 2019)
    • Oemarsono, Indonesian civil servant and politician (d. 2022)[46]
  • May 5 – Lance Henriksen, American actor
  • May 7
    • Angela Carter, English author, editor (d. 1992)
  • May 8
  • May 9 – James L. Brooks, American film producer, writer
  • May 11 – Juan Downey, Chilean-born American video artist (d. 1993)
  • May 13
  • May 15
    • Lainie Kazan, American actress, singer
    • Don Nelson, American basketball player and coach
  • May 16 – Ole Ernst, Danish actor (d. 2013)
  • May 17
    • Alan Kay, American computer scientist
    • Reynato Puno, Filipino Supreme Court Chief Justice
  • May 19 – Jan Janssen, Dutch cyclist
  • May 20
    • Shorty Long, African-American soul music singer, songwriter, musician and record producer (Here Comes The Judge) (d. 1969)
    • Stan Mikita, Slovakian-born Canadian hockey player (d. 2018)
    • Sadaharu Oh, Japanese baseball player
  • May 22 – Bernard Shaw, African-American journalist and television news reporter (d. 2022)
  • May 24 – Joseph Brodsky, Russian-born poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)
  • May 26 – Levon Helm, American musician and actor (d. 2012)
  • May 27 – Sotsha Dlamini, 5th Prime Minister of Swaziland (d. 2017)
  • May 29 – Farooq Leghari, 8th President of Pakistan (d. 2010)

June
René Auberjonois
Constantine II of Greece
Tom Jones
Nancy Sinatra
Wilma Rudolph
  • June 1
  • June 2 – Constantine II of Greece[49]
  • June 4 – Ludwig Schwarz, Austrian prelate
  • June 7
    • Samuel Little, American serial killer (d. 2020)
    • Tom Jones, Welsh singer
    • Ronald Pickup, English actor (d. 2021)
  • June 8 – Nancy Sinatra, American singer
  • June 9 – Barry McDonald, Papua New Guinea-Australian rugby union player (d. 2020)
  • June 11 – Wayne Kemp, American country music singer (d. 2015)
  • June 13 – Bobby Freeman, American singer, songwriter (d. 2017)
  • June 14 – Jack Bannon, American actor (d. 2017)
  • June 16
    • Neil Goldschmidt, American politician, Governor of Oregon
    • Taylor Gun-Jin Wang, Chinese-American astronaut
    • Thea White, American voice actress (d. 2021)
  • June 17
    • George Akerlof, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
    • Alan Murray, Australian golfer
    • Ali Saibou, 3rd President of Niger (d. 2011)
  • June 18 – Phillip E. Johnson, American lawyer and author (d. 2019)
  • June 20
    • Eugen Drewermann, German theologian, activist and priest
    • John Mahoney, English-born American actor (d. 2018)
  • June 21 – Michael Ruse, British-Canadian philosopher
  • June 22
    • Egon Henninger, German swimmer
    • Abbas Kiarostami, Iranian film director, screenwriter and producer (d. 2016)
    • Dame Esther Rantzen, British broadcaster
  • June 23
    • Willie Wallace, Scottish football player, coach
    • Wilma Rudolph, American Olympic athlete (d. 1994)
  • June 24
    • Hope Cooke, American socialite, Queen Consort of Sikkim
    • Murali Mohan, Indian film actor, producer, politician and business executive
    • Walter Ofonagoro, Nigerian scholar, politician and businessman
    • Ian Ross, Australian newsreader (d. 2014)
    • Vittorio Storaro, Italian cinematographer
  • June 25
    • Thomas Köhler, East German luger
    • Mary Beth Peil, American actress and singer
  • June 26
    • Lucinda Childs, American actress, postmodern dancer and choreographer
    • Jerry Fujio, Japanese singer, actor and tarento
  • June 27 – Anil Karanjai, Indian painter of the Hungry generation movement (d. 2001)
  • June 28
  • June 29 – Vyacheslav Artyomov, Russian composer
  • June 30 – Neelo, Indian actress

July
Jerzy Buzek
Nursultan Nazarbayev
Jeannie Seely
Ringo Starr
Patrick Stewart
James Brolin
Hanako, Princess Hitachi
  • July 1
    • Fukunohana Koichi, Japanese sumo wrestler
    • Craig Brown, Scottish footballer, manager
    • Abdul Razzak Ahmed, Iraqi football player
    • Wathiq Naji, Iraqi football manager
  • July 2
    • Joshua Bryant, American actor, director, author and speaker
    • Ruriko Asaoka, Japanese actress
  • July 3
    • Lamar Alexander, American politician
    • Fontella Bass, African-American soul singer ("Rescue Me") (d. 2012)
    • Jerzy Buzek, Polish politician, 8th Prime Minister of Poland
    • Jose Alberto Laboy, Puerto Rican Major League Baseball player
    • Lance Larson, American competition swimmer, Olympic champion and world record-holder in four events
    • Chuck Sieminski, American football player
    • César Tovar, Venezuelan baseball player (d. 1994)
    • Mario Zanin, Italian cyclist
  • July 4
    • Deidre Catt, English tennis player
    • Nasser Madani, Iranian fencer
    • Gene McDowell, American college football coach
    • Pat Stapleton, Canadian ice hockey player
  • July 5 – Reiko Kusamura, Japanese actress
  • July 6
    • Pablo Dabezies, Uruguayan priest and theologian
    • Nursultan Nazarbayev, 1st President of Kazakhstan
    • Jeannie Seely, American singer-songwriter
    • Siti Norma Yaakob, Malaysian lawyer and judge
  • July 7
    • Lee Keun-hak, North Korean football player
    • Ringo Starr, English rock drummer (The Beatles)
    • Irène Sweyd, Belgian swimmer
  • July 9 – Herminia Roman, Filipino politician
  • July 10
    • Gene Alley, American baseball player
    • Jim Cadile, American professional football offensive guard
    • Helen Donath, American soprano
    • Lofty Drews, Kenyan rally co-driver
    • Sir Tom Farmer, Scottish entrepreneur
    • Julie Payne, American actress (d. 2019)
    • David C. Schutter, American attorney (d. 2005)
    • Tommy Troelsen, Danish footballer, manager and television presenter
  • July 11
    • Rufus Ada George, Nigerian politician
    • Anita Wall, Swedish actress
  • July 13
  • July 15 – Johnny Seay, American country music singer (d. 2016)
  • July 16
    • Lofty Drews, Kenyan rally co-driver
    • Tom Metcalf, American baseball pitcher
  • July 17
    • Verne Lundquist, American sportscaster
    • Tim Brooke-Taylor, English comic performer (d. 2020)
    • Francisco Toledo, Mexican painter, sculptor and graphic artist (d. 2019)
  • July 18
    • James Brolin, American actor, director
    • Peter Mutharika, 5th President of Malawi
    • Joe Torre, American baseball player, manager
  • July 19
    • Hanako, Princess Hitachi
    • Vikki Carr, American singer
    • Anzor Kavazashvili, Soviet football goalkeeper
  • July 22
    • Prince Sixtus Henry of Bourbon-Parma
    • Alex Trebek, Canadian game show host (Jeopardy!) (d. 2020)
  • July 23 – Don Imus, American radio personality, television show host and author (d. 2019)
  • July 24
    • Stanley Hauerwas, American theologian
    • Dan Hedaya, American actor
  • July 26
    • Dobie Gray, African-American singer-songwriter (Drift Away) (d. 2011)
    • Mary Jo Kopechne, American aide to Ted Kennedy (d. 1969)
  • July 27
    • Gary Kurtz, American filmmaker (d. 2018)
    • Pina Bausch, German choreographer (d. 2009)
    • Bharati Mukherjee, Indian-born novelist (d. 2017)
  • July 29 – Bernard Lafayette, African-American civil rights activist
  • July 30
    • Alice Azure, American poet and writer
    • Clive Sinclair, English inventor (d. 2021)
  • July 31 – Roy Walker, Northern Irish comedian

August
Martin Sheen
Jack Thompson
  • August 1 – Ram Loevy, Israeli screenwriter, director
  • August 3 – Martin Sheen, American actor, father of Charlie Sheen
  • August 7
    • Jean-Luc Dehaene, Prime Minister of Belgium (d. 2014)
    • Thomas Barlow, American politician (d. 2017)
  • August 8 – Dilip Sardesai, Indian cricketer (d. 2007)
  • August 10 – Bobby Hatfield, American singer (The Righteous Brothers) (d. 2003)
  • August 12 – Tony Allen, Nigerian Afrobeat drummer (d. 2020)
  • August 13
    • Dirk Sager, German journalist (d. 2014)
    • Tony Cloninger, American baseball player (d. 2018)
  • August 14
    • Galen Hall, American football coach
    • Max Schautzer, Austrian-born German radio, television presenter
  • August 17 – Joseph Pairin Kitingan, Malaysian politician, Chief Minister Of Sabah
  • August 19
    • Johnny Nash, American singer-songwriter (d. 2020)
    • Jill St. John, American actress
  • August 20
    • Musa Geshaev, Chechen poet, historian (d. 2014)
    • Rubén Hinojosa, American politician
    • Rajendra K. Pachauri, Indian scientist (d. 2020)
    • John Waller, English historical European martial arts (HEMA) revival pioneer and fight director (d. 2018)[50]
  • August 23
    • Tom Baker, American actor (d. 1982)
    • Maria Teresa Fontela Goulart, First Lady of Brazil
    • Thomas A. Steitz, American biochemist (d. 2018)
  • August 25 – José van Dam, Belgian bass-baritone
  • August 26
    • Don LaFontaine, American voice actor (d. 2008)
    • Michel Micombero, 1st President of Burundi (d. 1983)
  • August 27
    • Fernest Arceneaux, American musician (d. 2008)
    • Sonny Sharrock, American jazz musician (d. 1994)
  • August 28 – Joseph Shabalala, South African choral director (Ladysmith Black Mambazo) (d. 2020)
  • August 29 – Wim Ruska, Dutch wrestler, martial artist (d. 2015)
  • August 31
    • Wilton Felder, American saxophonist, bassist (d. 2015)
    • Jack Thompson, Australian actor

September
Raquel Welch
Brian De Palma
Óscar Arias
Michel Temer

October
John Lennon
Cliff Richard
Michael Gambon
Pelé

November
Qaboos bin Said al Said
Bruce Lee

December
Richard Pryor
Dionne Warwick
Frank Zappa

Deaths
Deaths
January · February · March · April · May · June · July · August · September · October · November · December

January

February
Gunnar Höckert
Michael Hainisch

March
Selma Lagerlöf
Spyridon Louis

April
Carl Bosch

May
Prince Wilhelm of Prussia
Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse

June
Arthur Harden
Janusz Kusocinski
Paul Klee

July
  • July 1 – Ben Turpin, American actor, comedian (b. 1869)
  • July 9 – Józef Biniszkiewicz, Silesian politician (b. 1875)
  • July 10 – Pietro Frugoni, Italian general (b. 1851)
  • July 15 – Robert Wadlow, American citizen, tallest man ever (infection) (b. 1918)
  • July 28 – David W. Taylor, American naval architect (b. 1864)
  • July 30 – Spencer S. Wood, United States Navy Rear Admiral (b. 1861)

August
Leon Trotsky
Paul Nipkow
J. J. Thomson
  • August 3
    • Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Russian Zionist philosopher and intellectual (b. 1880)[61]
    • Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV, Indian royal, Maharajah of Mysore (b. 1884)
  • August 4 – Joaquina Maria Mercedes Barcelo Pages, Filipino Roman Catholic nun and venerable (b. 1857)
  • August 5 – Frederick Cook, American explorer (b. 1865)
  • August 8 – Johnny Dodds, American jazz clarinetist (b. 1892)
  • August 13
    • James Fairbairn, Australian pastoralist, aviator and politician (b. 1897)
    • Sir Henry Gullett, Australian politician (b. 1878)
    • Geoffrey Street, Australian politician (b. 1894)
    • Sir Brudenell White, Australian general (b. 1876)
  • August 16 – Henri Desgrange, French racing cyclist and founder of the Tour de France (b. 1865)[62]
  • August 18 – Walter Chrysler, American automobile pioneer (b. 1875)
  • August 21 – Leon Trotsky, Russian communist revolutionary (assassinated) (b. 1879)
  • August 22
    • Sir Oliver Lodge, British physicist (b. 1851)
    • Gerald Strickland, 1st Baron Strickland, Maltese politician, 4th Prime Minister of Malta, 23rd Governor of New South Wales, 15th Governor of Western Australia and 9th Governor of Tasmania (b. 1861)
    • Mary Vaux Walcott, American artist, naturalist (b. 1860)
  • August 24 – Paul Gottlieb Nipkow, German technician and inventor (b. 1860)
  • August 28 – William Bowie, American geodetic engineer (b. 1872)
  • August 30
  • August 31 – Ernest Lundeen, American lawyer, politician (b. 1878)

September
Charles de Broqueville

October
  • October 5
    • Ballington Booth, American co-founder of Volunteers of America (b. 1857)
    • Lincoln Loy McCandless, Hawaiian politician, cattle rancher (b. 1859)
    • Silvestre Revueltas, Mexican composer (b. 1899)
  • October 6 – Michitarō Komatsubara, Japanese general (b. 1885)
  • October 8
    • Robert Emden, Swiss astrophysicist and meteorologist (b. 1862)
    • Sir Henry Head, English neurologist (b. 1861)
  • October 9 – Sir Wilfred Grenfell, English medical missionary to Newfoundland and Labrador (b. 1865)
  • October 10 – Berton Churchill, Canadian actor (b. 1876)
  • October 12 – Tom Mix, American actor (b. 1880)
  • October 15 – Lluís Companys, President of the Generalitat of Catalonia (executed) (b. 1882)
  • October 17 – George Davis, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1870)
  • October 20 – Gunnar Asplund, Swedish architect (b. 1885)
  • October 22 – Sir Charles Harington, British general (b. 1872)

November
Neville Chamberlain
Nicolae Iorga

December
Kyosti Kallio
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Nobel Prizes

References
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Further reading
  • 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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