" The term made an impact into English pulp science fiction starting from Jack Williamson's The Cometeers ( 1936 ) and the distinction between mechanical robots and fleshy androids was popularized by Edmond Hamilton's Captain Future ( 1940 – 1944 ).

* 1940 – Homero Aridjis, Mexican writer and diplomat

* 1940 – Pedro Armendáriz Jr., Mexican actor

* 1874 – William B. Bankhead, American politician ( d. 1940 )

* 1892 – Johnny Dodds, American jazz clarinetist and saxophonist ( d. 1940 )

* 1940 – John Hagee, American pastor and televangelist

* 1940 – Herbie Hancock, American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer

* 1857 – Eugen Bleuler, Swiss psychiatrist ( d. 1940 )

* 1940 – Burt Young, American actor

* 1874 – Carl Bosch, German chemist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate ( d. 1940 )

* 1940 – Sonny Sharrock, American guitarist ( Last Exit ) ( d. 1994 )

* 1940 – Mukhu Aliyev, Russian politician

* 1940 – Louise Sorel, American actress

* 1857 – Manuel de Escandón, Mexican polo player ( d. 1940 )

* 1940 – Bill Musselman, American basketball coach ( d. 2000 )

* 1940 – Beko Ransome-Kuti, Nigerian doctor and activist ( d. 2006 )

* 1940 – Will Tura, Belgian singer-songwriter, musician, and composer

2 # 1 ( Jan., 1940 ), pp. 87 – 104 in JSTOR

* 1881 – Otto Toeplitz, German mathematician ( d. 1940 )

* 1940 – Mervyn Kitchen, English cricketer and umpire

* 1940 – Ram Loevy, Israeli screenwriter and director

* 1940 – World War II: Italian forces begin the invasion of British Somaliland.

* 1940 – Lance Alworth, American football player

* 1940 – Martin Sheen, American actor

In 1940 Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union.

From 1525 to 1917 14 503 titles were published in Estonia, as opposed to the 23 868 titles which were published between 1918 and 1940.

This was especially marked in the Baltic Republics of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, which had been annexed into the Soviet Union by Joseph Stalin in 1940.

In 1940 the Soviet Union occupied Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bessarabia ( now the Republic of Moldova ) and Bukovina.

After Stalin declared that he was going to " solve the Baltic problem ", by June 1940, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were merged into the Soviet Union, after repressions and actions therein brought about the deaths of over 160, 000 citizens of these states.

* 1940 – The three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania fall under the occupation of the Soviet Union.

* 1940 – The United States ' Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles issues a declaration on the U. S. non-recognition policy of the Soviet annexation and incorporation of three Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

In mid-June 1940, when international attention was focused on the German invasion of France, Soviet NKVD troops raided border posts in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.

After World War II started, Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union ( USSR ) in 1940, and later occupied by Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1944.

However, as a result of the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939, the Soviet Union occupied Estonia and Tartu in 1940.

* March 30 – Cold War: After its first free elections during the Soviet era on March 18, Estonia declares Soviet rule to have been illegal since 1940.

The doctrine was also invoked by U. S. Under-Secretary of State Sumner Welles in a declaration of July 23, 1940, that announced non-recognition of the Soviet annexation and incorporation of the three Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania — and remained the official U. S. position until the Baltic states gained formal international recognition as independent states in 1991.

The Republic of Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union in June 1940.

On June 12, 1940, the order for a total military blockade of Estonia by the Soviet Baltic Fleet was given.

On June 14, 1940, while the world's attention was focused on the fall of Paris to Nazi Germany a day earlier, the Soviet military blockade of Estonia went into effect, and two Soviet bombers downed Finnish passenger airplane " Kaleva " flying from Tallinn to Helsinki carrying three diplomatic pouches from the U. S. legations in Tallinn, Riga and Helsinki.

On June 16, 1940, the Soviet Union invaded Estonia.

The " parliament " so elected proclaimed Estonia a Socialist Republic on July 21, 1940 and unanimously requested Estonia to be " accepted " into the Soviet Union.

Jüri Uluots, the last legitimate prime minister of the Republic of Estonia ( according to the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia ) prior to its fall to the Soviet Union in 1940, delivered a radio address that implored all able-bodied men born from 1904 through 1923 to report for military service ( before this, Uluots had opposed Estonian mobilization.

* Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic ( 1940 )-In June 1940 the Republic of Estonia was occupied by the USSR and in July a puppet government proclaimed Soviet power.

In August 1940, Estonia was annexed by the USSR.

Several small treaties were signed with Estonia and Latvia in 1939 and 1940 concerning the emigration of Baltic Germans and the liquidation of their educational, cultural, and religious institutions.