News and Events of 1940

World Events

• Winston Churchill becomes Britain's Prime Minister.
  
  
• Trotsky is assassinated in Mexico.
  
  
• Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania annexed by U.S.S.R.
  
  
• Hitler invades Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Luxembourg.
  
  
• Lascaux caves with Cro-Magnon art discovered by French schoolboy.
  
  

U.S. Events

• Selective Service Act signed. Background: conscription
  
  
• The first Social Security benefit checks are paid out (Jan 30).
  
  
• The Pennsylvania Turnpike opens. It is the first multilane U.S. superhighway. The first Los Angeles freeway opens.
  
  
• The first McDonald's hamburger stand opens in Pasadena, Calif.
  
  

Economics

Sports

World Series

Stanley Cup

Wimbledon

Kentucky Derby Champion

NCAA Basketball Championship

NCAA Football Champions

Entertainment

Events

• CBS demonstrates color television in New York.
• WNBT, the first regularly operating television station, debuts in New York with an estimated 10,000 viewers.
• It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman! The radio show debuts.
• The first Bugs Bunny cartoon.

Science

• Freeze drying is adapted for food preservation.
• Plasma is discovered to be a substitute for whole blood in transfusions.
• Karl Landsteiner and Alexander Weiner discover the Rh factor in blood.

Year by Year: 1900-2012

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