Events 1 - 200 of 304
- Jan 2 Book publisher Simon and Schuster founded
Henry Hudson Statue
Jan 6 Bronze memorial statue of explorer Henry Hudson erected in the Bronx, New York
- Jan 10 Eduard van Beinum debuts as conductor of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Netherlands
La Sauvage
Jan 10 Jean Anouilh's play "La Sauvage" premieres in Paris
- Jan 10 Paul Vincent Carroll's "White Seed" premieres in NYC
- Jan 11 Don Bradman scores a second innings 113 vs Qld after a ton in the 1st innings
- Jan 11 Frances Moulton elected 1st woman president of a US national bank
- Jan 13 The Church of England accepts the theory of evolution
- Jan 14 National Society for Legalization of Euthanasia forms (NY)
Carnegie Hall's First Jazz Concert
Jan 16 First jazz concert held at Carnegie Hall, performed by Benny Goodman and his band
Berg retains Title
Jan 16 LPGA Titleholders Championship Women's Golf, Augusta CC: Patty Berg retains title by a massive 14 strokes ahead of Jane Cothran
Kennedy US Ambassador
Jan 17 Joseph P. Kennedy becomes the 44th United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom
Our Town
Jan 22 "Our Town", Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer-winner of small-town life in Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, premieres (NJ)
- Jan 25 Ian Hay's "Bachelor Born" premieres in NYC
- Feb 3 Paul Osborn's "On Borrowed Time" premieres in NYC
- Feb 4 "Our Town" a play by Thornton Wilder opens on Broadway, NYC (later awarded Pulitzer Prize for Drama)
Hitler Controls German Army
Feb 4 Adolf Hitler seizes control of German army and puts Nazis in key posts
Film & TV History
Feb 11 World's first science fiction TV program - a broadcast of the play R.U.R. by Karel Čapek
- Feb 12 3rd British Empire Games close in Sydney, Australia
- Feb 12 Austrian chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg visits Adolf Hitler in Berchtesgaden
Bringing Up Baby
Feb 16 "Bringing Up Baby" film directed by Howard Hawks, starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, is released
- Feb 16 US Federal Crop Insurance program authorized
- Feb 17 1st public experimental demonstration of Baird color TV (London)
- Feb 19 Soviet arctic ice research station North Pole 1 evacuated, Denmark
- Feb 20 Adolf Hitler announces his support for Japan during the Sino-Japanese War
Anthony Eden Resigns
Feb 20 UK Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden resigns, stating Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain has appeased Nazi Germany
- Feb 24 Du Pont begins commercial production of nylon toothbrush bristles
- Feb 25 Lord Halifax becomes British Foreign Secretary
- Feb 26 1st passenger ship equipped with radar
- Feb 26 Rie Van Veen swims world record 200m free style (2:24.6)
- Mar 1 Federal Trade Commission orders 8 manufacturers and the PGA of America to end their practice of golf ball price-fixing
- Mar 2 Landslides & floods cause over 200 deaths (Los Angeles California)
- Mar 2 Trials of Soviet leaders begins in the Soviet Union
- Mar 3 American Bowling Congress' largest tournament (24,765 competitors)
Jezebel
Mar 10 "Jezebel" film premieres directed by William Wyler, starring Bette Davis and Henry Fonda, from the play by Owen Davis
10th Academy Awards
Mar 10 10th Academy Awards: "The Life of Emile Zola", Spencer Tracy & Luise Rainer win
- Mar 11 Artur Seyss-Inquart replaces Kurt von Schuschnigg as Chancellor of Austria; German troops also entered the country
- Mar 12 Nazi Germany invades Austria (Anschluss)
- Mar 13 In a process known as Anschluss, Austria is annexed into Nazi Germany
- Mar 13 World News Roundup is broadcast for the first time on CBS Radio in the United States.
Operette
Mar 16 Noël Coward's musical "Operette" premieres in London
- Mar 16 Temple defeats Colorado to win 1st NIT
Italy Bombs Spain
Mar 17 The Italian Air Force, in support of Francisco Franco, bombs Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War
Commissioner Frees Cardinals
Mar 23 MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis frees 74 St Louis Cardinals minor league players from their contracts
Hanson's 3rd Symphony
Mar 26 NBC radio performance of Howard Hanson's 3rd Symphony
- Mar 27 The Battle of Taierzhuang takes place.
- Apr 1 Nescafé introduces their flagship brand in Switzerland
- Apr 1 World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis KOs Harry Thomas in 5th round of their title bout in Chicago; 3rd defense by Louis
- Apr 6 Teflon invented by American chemist Roy J. Plunkett at DuPont [1]
Piston's 1st Symphony
Apr 8 Walter Piston's 1st Symphony in E, premieres in Boston, by the Boston Symphony, conducted by the composer
- Apr 10 Austria becomes a state of Germany
- Apr 10 NY makes syphilis test mandatory in order to get a marriage license
Government of Édouard Daladier
Apr 10 Second government of Blum replaced by Édouard Daladier's government in France
- Apr 12 1st US law requiring medical tests for marriage licenses (New York)
- Apr 12 Stanley Cup Final, Chicago Stadium, Chicago, IL: Chicago Black Hawks beat Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-1 for a 3-1 series win; only team to win Cup with losing regular season record
- Apr 13 Clifford Goldsmith's play "What a Life" premieres at The Biltmore Theater, NYC
- Apr 15 Anti-Jewish riots break out in in Dąbrowa Tarnowska, Poland
- Apr 16 Great Britain recognizes Italian annexation of Abyssinia
- Apr 18 Headless Mad Butcher victim found in Cleveland
- Apr 19 Baker Bowl, Philadelphia: Phillies infielder Emmett "Heine" Mueller & Brooklyn Dodger outfielder Ernie Koy both homer in their 1st MLB at bats
- Apr 26 Austrian Jews required to register property above 5,000 Reichsmarks
A-Tisket, A-Tasket
May 2 American singer Ella Fitzgerald records "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" with Chick Webb and His Orchestra
- May 2 Pulitzer prize awarded to Thornton Wilder for his play "Our Town"
- May 3 Concentration camp at Flossenburg goes into use
- May 3 Lefty Grove defeats Tigers 4-3 for 1st of record 20 consecutive wins at his home field Fenway Park; he doesn't lose there until May 12 1941
- May 4 Douglas Hyde, a protestant, becomes 1st president of Eire
- May 5 MLB Philadelphia Phillies Harold Kelleher pitcher faces 16 batters in 6th, as Cubs score 12 runs, both marks are NL records off one hurler in a single inning
- May 6 Dutch court sentences writer Maurits Dekker to 50 days imprisonment for "offending a friendly head of state" - Adolf Hitler
- May 7 Dutch Minister of Justice Goseling calls fugitives of Nazi-Germany "undesired strangers"
- May 8 Stravinsky's "Dumbarton Oaks" premieres in Washington, D.C.
- May 10 Banning speech on anti-fascism demonstration in Amsterdam
Joan of Arc at the Stake
May 12 Arthur Honegger and Paul Claudel's oratorio "Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher" (Joan of Arc at the Stake) premieres in Basel, Switzerland
- May 12 Sandoz Labs begins manufacturing LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide)
The Adventures of Robin Hood
May 14 "The Adventures of Robin Hood", directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley, and starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland premieres
- May 14 England soccer team beats Nazi-Germany, 6-3
O'Neil's Negro League Debut
May 15 Buck O'Neil makes his debut playing for the Negro league baseball team Kansas City Monarchs at Ruppert Stadium, Kansas City
- May 15 Paul-Henri Spak forms red coalition of Belgium
- May 16 1st animal breeding society forms (NJ)
- May 16 38 die in a fire at Terminal Hotel Atlanta, Georgia
- May 16 Australian cricketer Donald Bradman scores 278 vs MCC in 349 mins with 35 fours and 1 six
- May 17 Radio quiz show "Information Please!" debuts on NBC Blue Network
- May 17 US Congress approves Vinson Naval Act, which funds a two-ocean navy
- May 21 Batsman Don Bradman scores 143 for Australia v Surrey, in 198 mins, with 11 fours
- May 22 Dodgers announce contracts to install lights at Ebbets Field
- May 25 Spanish Civil War: The bombing of Alicante takes place, with 313 deaths
- May 26 US House of Representatives Committee on un-American Activities forms
- May 27 Cricket batting genius Don Bradman scores 145 not out for Australia v Hampshire at Southampton, completing 1,000 runs before the end of May for the second time, the only touring batsman to England ever to perform the feat
- May 28 Foundation for Tel Aviv harbor laid
Mathis der Maler
May 28 Paul Hindemith's opera "Mathis der Maler" premieres in Zurich
- May 30 New York Yankees sweep arch rival Boston Red Sox, 10-0 & 5-4 in front of 83,533 at Yankee Stadium
- May 30 Walter Piston's dance work, The Incredible Flutist, written for the Boston Pops Orchestra, which premieres it, Arthur Fiedler conducting
- May 31 Bill Edrich scores his 1,000th run of cricket season, all at Lord's
- Jun 3 German law on "Entartete Art" legalizes art robbery
Freud Flees to London
Jun 6 Sigmund Freud arrives in London, fleeing the Nazi annexation of Austria
- Jun 7 1st play telecast with original Broadway cast, "Susan & God"
- Jun 7 Boeing 314 Clipper flying boat 1st flown (Eddie Allen)
Douglas DC-4E
Jun 7 The Douglas DC-4E makes its 1st test flight
- Jun 8 Gert Terblanche, a local school boy, discovers fossils of an unknown 'robust-type' human ancestor, later named Paranthropus robustus by Robert Broom, at Kromdraai, Blaauwbank River Valley in South Africa
- Jun 10 English cricketer Charlie Barnett makes 98 by lunch in England v Australia test match at Trent Bridge (closest any Englishman has come to scoring 100 runs before lunch)
- Jun 11 5.0 Earthquake in Belgium kills 2, strongest in 45 years
- Jun 11 Cincinnati Red Johnny Vander Meer no-hits Boston Braves, 3-0
- Jun 11 Compton scores 1st Test Cricket ton (102 v Aust) aged 20 yrs 19 days
- Jun 11 England cricket team declare at 8 for 658 v Australia at Trent Bridge
- Jun 13 Great Cricket innings of 232 by Stan McCabe v England at Trent Bridge
- Jun 13 Jews injured & property destroyed in Przemyal, Poland
- Jun 14 Bradman scores 144* in 1st Test Cricket at Trent Bridge
- Jun 14 Chlorophyll patented by Benjamin Grushkin
- Jun 14 Dorothy Lathrop wins 1st Caldecott Medal (kid books author)
- Jun 15 1st night game at Brooklyn Ebbets Field (Reds 6, Dodgers 0) as Cincinnati Red Johnny Vander Meer hurls unprecedented 2nd consecutive no-hitter
Foxx's Record Six Walks
Jun 16 Boston first baseman Jimmie Foxx is walked a record 6 consecutive times by St Louis Browns; Red Sox still win, 12-8
- Jun 17 Japan declares war on China
- Jun 19 "Olympian Flyer" express train crashes in Montana, killing 47
- Jun 19 FIFA World Cup Final, Stade Olympique de Colombes, Paris, France: Luigi Colausig & Silvio Piola each score 2 goals as Italy beats Hungary, 4-1
- Jun 19 Reds Johnny Vander Meer extends his string of hitless baseball innings to 21 2/3 before Debs Garms singles for Boston in 4th
- Jun 21 Baseball's Pinky Higgins gets 12th straight hit
- Jun 21 Bradman scores 101* in 77 minutes, Australia v Lancashire
- Jun 22 Joe Louis scores a stunning 1st round KO of German Max Schmeling at Yankee Stadium, NYC to retain his world heavyweight boxing title
- Jun 23 Civil Aeronautics Authority (US) established
- Jun 23 Marineland opens in Florida-1st aquarium
- Jun 24 500 ton meteorite lands near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Jun 25 "A Tisket, A Tasket" by Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb hits #1
- Jun 25 US federal minimum wage law guarantees workers 25 cents per hour (rising to 40 cents by 1945) and a maximum 44 hour working week
- Jun 26 Cincinnati Red Lonny Frey hits 8 doubles in a doubleheader
- Jun 28 Bradman scores 102* in drawn 2nd Test cricket at Lord's
- Jun 30 Final game at Philadelphia's Baker Bowl, Giants beat Philadelphia 14-1
- Jun 30 Superman first appears in DC Comics' Action Comics Series issue #1
- Jul 1 The South African Press Association (SAPA) is established as a non-governmental institution by South Africa's major newspapers to facilitate the sharing of news, both national and international
- Jul 3 British East Coast Main Line locomotive No. 4468 "Mallard" reached a speed of 202.6 km/h (126 mph) setting new record for steam powered trains
Eternal Flame Lit at Gettysburg
Jul 3 President Franklin Roosevelt dedicates the Eternal Light Peace Memorial and lights the eternal flame at Gettysburg Battlefield
- Jul 4 France-Turkish friendship treaty
- Jul 4 Phillies complete move to Shribe Park in Philadelphia, lose 10-5 to Boston Bees
- Jul 5 Herb Caen's 1st column in San Francisco Chronicle
- Jul 8 Would be start of England v Australia Test Cricket at Old Trafford Washout
- Jul 10 "Yankee Clipper" completes 1st passenger flight over Atlantic
Event of Interest
Jul 10 Howard Hughes flies around the world in 91 hours
- Jul 13 Kroller-Muller museum opens in Holland
Mussolini's Manifesto
Jul 14 Benito Mussolini publishes anti-Jewish African manifesto
Oops, Wrong Way!
Jul 18 Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan arrives in Ireland after a 28 hours flight, supposedly left NY flying for California
- Jul 20 IOC awards Helsinki, Finland 1940 Summer Olympic Games after Tokyo, Japan withdraws (Second Sino-Japanese War)
- Jul 21 Paul Hindemith and Leonide Massine's ballet Nobilissima Visione premieres in London
- Jul 23 Australian cricketer Don Bradman scores 103 in 178 mins on a Headingley sticky, 3rd Test
- Jul 25 Jewish artisans not allowed in Germany
- Jul 25 Revolutionary offensive of Ebro Spain (Hollander Piet)
- Jul 26 1st radio broadcast of "Young Widder Brown" on NBC
- Jul 28 34,000-ton Cunard-White Star liner Mauretania launched at Birkenhead
- Jul 28 Don Bradman scores 202 Australia v Somerset, 225 mins, 32 fours
- Jul 29 Olympic National Park established in Washington state, longest undeveloped coastline in America
- Jul 31 Archaeologists discover engraved gold and silver plates from King Darius in Persepolis.
- Jul 31 MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis suspends New York Yankees outfielder Jake Powell after he said on Chicago radio he kept in shape by "cracking" African Americans over the head with his nightstick
- Aug 2 MLB conducts the first test of bright yellow baseballs during Dodgers vs Cardinals doubleheader
2,000th Brooklyn Dodgers HR
Aug 7 2,000th Brooklyn Dodgers home run: legendary shortstop Leo Durocher homers off Reds hurler Peaches Davis in 8th inning of a 6-3 win
- Aug 7 Nazis close theologic department of Innsbruck university
- Aug 8 Great Trek Centenary Celebrations commence; the Great Trek was a migration involving Boers leaving the Cape Colony and settling in the interior of South Africa
- Aug 10 119°F (48°C), Pendleton, Oregon (state record)
- Aug 14 BBC's 1st feature film on TV (Student of Prague)
- Aug 17 1st aircraft owned by US Forest Service in service (Oakland)
- Aug 17 Henry Armstrong wins his 3rd concurrent boxing championship
- Aug 18 FDR dedicates Thousand Islands Bridge connecting US & Canada
Lou Gehrig's 23rd Grand Slam
Aug 20 NY Yankees future Baseball Hall of Fame first baseman Lou Gehrig hits record 23rd & final grand slam in 11-3 win over Philadelphia A's at Shribe Park
- Aug 21 Italy bars all Jewish teachers in Public & High School
You Can’t Take It With You
Aug 23 "You Can’t Take It With You" from the play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, directed by Frank Capra and starring James Stewart and Jean Arthur premieres. Best Picture (1939)
- Aug 23 England score 7-903 declared v Australia, Len Hutton scores 364
- Aug 24 England beat Australia by an innings & 579 runs at The Oval
- Aug 24 Virgil Trucks strikes out his 418th batter, highest season total in organized ball-for Andalusia in an Alabama-Florida League game
- Aug 26 British leaders & Arabians fight in Palestine
- Aug 26 Montreal Maroons dropped from NHL
Pearson No-hits Cleveland
Aug 27 New York Yankees pitcher Monte Pearson no-hits Cleveland Indians, 13-0; Joe DiMaggio hits 3 triples
- Aug 27 Two NYC subway trains collide at 116th Street killing 2 and injuring 51
- Aug 28 Mauthausen concentration camp opens in Austria
- Aug 28 Northwestern University awards honorary degree to dummy Charlie McCarthy
- Aug 28 On Connie Mack Day at Philadelphia's Shibe Park, the A's win a doubleheader
- Aug 31 5th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: All-Stars 28, Washington 16 (74,250)
- Sep 1 Benito Mussolini cancels civil rights of Italian Jews
- Sep 3 1940 Olympic site is changed from Tokyo, Japan to Helsinki, Finland because of the Second Sino-Japanese War; WWII causes eventual cancellation
Wilhelmina Celebrates Forty Years
Sep 6 Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands celebrates 40th anniversary
- Sep 12 Adolf Hitler demands self-determination for Sudeten Germans in Czech
Alexander Cartwright
Sep 13 Alexander Cartwright is inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame
The Age of Zeppelins
Sep 14 Graf Zeppelin II, world's largest airship, makes its maiden flight
Chamberlain Visits Hitler
Sep 15 British PM Neville Chamberlain visits Adolf Hitler at Berchtesgaden
Margaret Johnson's Only Recording
Sep 15 Jazz piano prodigy Margaret Johnson (20) makes her only recording, four sides with Billie Holiday in NYC: Johnson dies of tuberculosis less than a year later
- Sep 15 John Cobb sets world auto speed record at 350.2 MPH (lasts 1 day)
- Sep 15 Only time brothers hit back-to-back HRs (Lloyd & Paul Waner, Pitts)