" 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 – Estonia was illegally annexed by the Soviet Union.

* 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

* 1940 – James Brady, American activist, 15th White House Press Secretary

* 1940 – James Burrows, American television director

* 1940 – James Maynard, American businessman, co-founded Golden Corral

* Spouses: Ruth Doreen Crick, née Dodd ( b. 1913, m. 18 February 1940 – 8 May 1947 ), now Mrs. James Stewart Potter ; Odile Crick, née Speed ( b. 11 August 1920, m. 14 August 1949 – 28 July 2004, d. 5 July 2007 )

James Thurber used the ancient fable style in his books Fables for Our Time ( 1940 ) and Further Fables for Our Time ( 1956 ), and in his stories " The Princess and the Tin Box " in The Beast in Me and Other Animals ( 1948 ) and " The Last Clock: A Fable for the Time, Such As It Is, of Man " in Lanterns and Lances ( 1961 ).

* Fables for Our Time ( 1940 ) and Further Fables for Our Time ( 1956 ) by James Thurber

In an autobiographical piece that Orwell sent to the editors of Twentieth Century Authors in 1940, he wrote: " The writers I care about most and never grow tired of are: Shakespeare, Swift, Fielding, Dickens, Charles Reade, Flaubert and, among modern writers, James Joyce, T. S. Eliot and D. H. Lawrence.

Despite this reputation, during his career, he oversaw more performances honored with the Academy Award for Best Actor than any other director: James Stewart in The Philadelphia Story ( 1940 ), Ronald Colman in A Double Life ( 1947 ), and Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady ( 1964 ).

* 1940 – James Cromwell, American actor

* 1871 – James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon, Irish politician ( d. 1940 )

* 1940 – James Brolin, American actor

James Orsen " Jim " Bakker ( pronounced " Baker "; born January 2, 1940 ) is an American televangelist, a former Assemblies of God minister, convicted felon, and a former host ( with his then-wife Tammy Faye Bakker ) of The PTL Club, a popular evangelical Christian television program.

* 1940 – James L. Brooks, American director, producer, and screenwriter

* 1940 – First person killed in a German bombing raid on the UK in World War II during a raid on Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, James Isbister.

James Welch, the BBC Director of Religious Broadcasting, who had read his 1940 book, The Problem of Pain.

* Edward Kasner and James Newman: Mathematics and the Imagination, Simon and Schuster, 1940.

* Admiral James O. Richardson, United States Navy Fleet Commander 1940 – 1941

James and his first wife divorced in 1940 mainly as a result of James's many relationships with other women ; it was a pattern that continued throughout his life.

* The Letter ( 1940 ) featuring Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson, Frieda Inescort and Gale Sondergaard.

Though started in 1938, it only gathered steam in 1940 under new-broom chairman James L. Fly.

* Edward Kasner & James Newman ( 1940 ) Mathematics and the Imagination, pp 196 – 200, Simon & Schuster.

Alfredo James " Al " Pacino (; born April 25, 1940 ) is an American film and stage actor and director.

Fonda starred in The Return of Frank James ( 1940 ) with Gene Tierney.

* James Welch ( 1940 – 2003 ), was an award-winning U. S. author and poet.