" 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 – An Italian submarine torpedoes and sinks the Greek cruiser Elli at Tinos harbor during peacetime, marking the most serious Italian provocation prior to the outbreak of the Greco-Italian War in October.

The Italian invasion of Greece in October 1940 saw mounted cavalry used effectively by the Greek defenders along the mountainous frontier with Albania.

* 1940 – World War II: Himarë is captured by the Greek army.

* 1940 – George Regas, Greek actor ( b. 1890 )

Italian troops crossed the border on 28 October 1940, beginning the Greco-Italian War, but were stopped by determined Greek defence, and ultimately driven back into Albania.

Mussolini, in October 1940, used his Albanian base to launch an attack on Greece, which led to the defeat of the Italian forces and the Greek occupation of Southern Albania in what was seen by the Greeks as the liberation of Northern Epirus.

* 1940 – Tolis Voskopoulos, Greek singer, actor, and composer

* 1940 – Vasilis N. Triantafillidis, Greek comedian and actor

* 1890 – George Regas, Greek actor ( d. 1940 )

* 1940 – World War II: Following the initial Italian invasion, Greek troops counterattack into Italian-occupied Albania and capture Korytsa.

* January 12 – Spiridon Louis, Greek runner ( d. 1940 )

Early in 1940, he was trained for a commission after, whilst working in a kitchen, answering the question of an inspecting brigadier with a Greek proverb ; on several occasions, he told colleagues that he expected to be at least a major-general by the end of the war.

During World War II Thessaloniki was heavily bombarded by Fascist Italy ( with 232 people dead, 871 wounded and over 800 buildings damaged or destroyed in November 1940 alone ), and, the Italians having failed to succeed in their invasion of Greece, it fell to the forces of Nazi Germany on 8 April 1941 and remained under German occupation until 30 October 1944 when it was liberated by the Greek People's Liberation Army.

The Greek historian Aristotle Kallis wrote that the best evidence suggests that in late 1940 Hitler was serious about carrying out Raeder's " Mediterranean plan ", but only within certain strict limits and conditions, and that he saw the " Mediterranean plan " as part of the preparations for Barbarossa by defeating Britain first.

* Nilsson, Martin P. Greek Popular Religion 1940.

The chapel was enlarged in 1940, changing it from a Greek cross to a Roman cross.

Taught Greek and Latin at the Gemeentelijk Lyceum Grammar School from 1940 until 1951.

Constantine II, (, Konstantínos Βʹ ; born 2 June 1940 ) was King of Greece from 1964 until the abolition of the monarchy in 1973, the sixth and last monarch of the Greek Royal Family.

The term taphonomy ( from the Greek taphos-τάφος meaning burial, and nomos-νόμος meaning law ) was introduced to paleontology in 1940 by Russian scientist Ivan Efremov to describe the study of the transition of remains, parts, or products of organisms, from the biosphere, to the lithosphere, i. e. the creation of fossil assemblages.

Sir Thomas Little Heath ( 5 October 1861 – 16 March 1940 ) was a British civil servant, mathematician, classical scholar, historian of ancient Greek mathematics, translator, and mountaineer.

When he entered Sewanhaka High School in Floral Park, New York, he initially only spoke Greek, but learned English and graduated in 1940.

* Martin P. Nilsson, Greek Popular Religion, 1940.

Nikos Zachariadis, KKE General Secretary, wrote from prison on 2 November 1940: " Today the Greek people are waging a war of national liberation against Mussolini's fascism.

On 16 November 1940, Zachariadis repudiated the line of his first letter in a second letter where he accused the Greek Army of waging a " fascist " and " imperialistic war " and appealed to the USSR for peaceful intervention, thus aligning his position with that of the " Old Central Committee ".