" 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

* Russian — Blok, Alexander: The Fairground Booth a. k. a. The Puppet Show ( 1906 ); Evreinov, Nikolai: A Merry Death ( 1908 ), Today's Columbine ( 1915 ), The Chief Thing ( 1921 ; turned into film, La Comédie du bonheur, in 1940 ).

Other important works of literature include Fyodor Gladkov's Cement ( 1925 ), Nikolai Ostrovsky's How the Steel Was Tempered, and Mikhail Sholokhov's two volume epic, Quiet Flows the Don ( 1934 ) and The Don Flows Home to the Sea ( 1940 ).

In 1940, the leading botanical geneticist Nikolai Vavilov was arrested, and Lysenko replaced him as director of the Institute of Genetics.

Nikolai Vissarionovich Nekrasov () ( February 1, 1879 ( Old Style ), Saint Petersburg – May 7, 1940, Moscow ) was a Russian liberal politician and the last Governor-General of Finland.

The famous Soviet geneticist Nikolai Vavilov was arrested in 1940 and died in prison in 1943.

Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov or Ezhov () (; May 1, 1895 – February 4, 1940 ) was the senior figure in the NKVD ( the secret police of the Soviet Union ) under Joseph Stalin during the period of the Great Purge in the 1930s.

* Nikolai Vissarionovich Nekrasov ( 1879 – 1940 ), Russian politician

Between 1934 and 1940, under Lysenko's admonitions and with Stalin's blessings, many geneticists were executed ( including Israel Agol, Solomon Levit, Nikolai Vavilov, Grigorii Levitskii, Georgii Karpechenko and Georgii Nadson ) or sent to labor camps ( including the most well-known Soviet geneticist, Nikolai Vavilov, who was arrested in 1940 and died in prison in 1943 ).

* Andrey Rimsky-Korsakov ( 1878 – 1940 ), Russian musicologist, son of the composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Between 1934 and 1940, many geneticists were executed ( including Agol, Levit, Nadson ) or sent to labor camps ( including the best-known Soviet geneticist, Nikolai Vavilov, who died in prison in 1943 ).

* Chapter 4: The Great Terror – from: " Stalin's Loyal Executioner: People's Commissar Nikolai Ezhov, 1895 – 1940 ", by Marc Jansen and Nikita Petrov

* Nikolai Yezhov ( 1895 – 1940 ), a head of NKVD and perpetrator of the Great Purge

* Andrey Rimsky-Korsakov ( 1878 – 1940 ), Russian musicologist and son of Nikolai

Andrey Nikolayevich Rimsky-Korsakov ( Russian: Андре ́ Никола ́ эвич Ри ́ мский-Ко ́ рсаков, André Nikolájevich Rímskij-Kórsakov, October 17, 1878 – May 23, 1940 ) was a Russian musicologist and son of the great Russian nationalist composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

Nikolai Ignatovich Kondratenko ( Russian: Николай Игнатович Кондратенко ) ( 16 Feb. 1940, Plastunovskaya ) is a Russian politician, long time Krasnodar Krai Governor, runner-up candidate of the Communist Party ( KPRF ) in 2003.

* Nikolai Yezhov ( 1895 – 1940, executed and secretly buried )

It was first created by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in 1940 as an equivalent to General of the Army, but was not used until 1944, when Ivan Isakov and Nikolai Kuznetsov were promoted to the rank.

He did not immediately plead guilty to alleged crimes, however, only being sentenced on December 15, 1940, well after the fall of Secret Police head Nikolai Ezhov.