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Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: Carl E. Friend (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Rodes K. Myers (Democratic)
Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Coleman Lindsey (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Marc M. Mouton (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Horace T. Cahill (Republican)
Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: vacant (until month and day unknown), Matilda Dodge Wilson (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: Jacob Buehler Snider (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Dennis Murphree (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
February 7 – RKO release Walt Disney's second full-length animated film, Pinocchio.
February 10 – Tom and Jerry make their debut in Puss Gets the Boot.
February 27 – Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discover carbon-14.
February 29 – The 12th Academy Awards, hosted by Bob Hope, are presented at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, with Victor Fleming's Gone with the Wind winning eight awards out of thirteen nominations, including Outstanding Production and Best Director for Fleming.
March – Truth or Consequences debuts on NBC Radio.
March 2 – Cartoon character Elmer Fudd makes his debut in the animated short Elmer's Candid Camera.
March 4 – Kings Canyon National Park is established in California.
April–June[]
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 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 makes it debut on 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 15
The very first McDonald's restaurant opens in San Bernardino, California.
Women's stockings made of nylon are first placed on sale across the U.S. Almost five million pairs are bought on this day.[1]
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 MwEl 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] speech during the graduation ceremonies of the 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 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–September[]
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 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.
October–December[]
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 2nd World Series Title in baseball.
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, 311U.S.32 (1940), decided, allowing a racially restrictive covenant to be lifted.
November 13 – Walt Disney's third feature film, Fantasia, is released. 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 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 – 1940 New Hampshire earthquakes: A 5.3 Mw earthquake shakes New England with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong). This first event in a doublet earthquake is followed four days later by a 5.6 Mw shock, but total damage from the events is light.
December 21 – Writer F. Scott Fitzgerald (author of The Great Gatsby) dies of a heart attack aged 44 in the apartment of Hollywood gossip columnist Sheilah Graham, leaving his novel The Last Tycoon unfinished.
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).
Undated[]
Walter Knott begins construction of a California ghost town replica at Knott's Berry Farm.
Births[]
January[]
James Cromwell
January 2 – Jim Bakker, televangelist, sometime husband of Tammy Faye
January 4 – Helmut Jahn, German-American architect
January 6 – Penny Lernoux, journalist and author (d. 1989)
January 13 – Edmund White, author
January 14 – Julian Bond, African-American civil rights activist (d. 2015)
January 15 – Arlie Russell Hochschild, professor emireta of sociology
January 20 – Carol Heiss, figure skater
January 21
Jeremy Jacobs, businessman
Jack Nicklaus, golfer
January 23 – Jimmy Castor, African-American funk, R&B and soul saxophonist (d. 2012)
January 27 – James Cromwell, actor
January 29 – Katharine Ross, actress
January 31 – Stuart Margolin, actor
February[]
George A. Romero
Smokey Robinson
Peter Fonda
February 2 – Odell Brown, jazz organist (d. 2011)
February 3 – Fran Tarkenton, American football player
February 4 – George A. Romero, film writer and director (d. 2017)