* 1940 – James Tyler, American guitarist, composer, and author ( d. 2010 )

* 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.

In the spring of 1940, a group of German generals seeking to overthrow Hitler and make peace with the British approached Pope Pius XII, who acted as a negotiator between the British and the abortive plot.

Kazan acted in only a few films, including City for Conquest ( 1940 ).

Demarest also acted in Diamond Jim ( 1935 ), Easy Living ( 1937 ), The Great McGinty ( 1940 ), Christmas in July ( 1940 ), The Lady Eve ( 1941 ), Sullivan's Travels ( 1941 ), The Palm Beach Story ( 1942 ), The Miracle of Morgan's Creek ( 1944 ), Hail the Conquering Hero ( 1944 ) and The Great Moment ( 1944 )

Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, he was a member of the Althing in 1914 – 1916 and 1920, and after Iceland's independence from Denmark in 1918 he acted as minister to Denmark during 1920 – 1924 and 1926 – 1940.

From 1936 to 1940 Cesare Maria De Vecchi acted as governor of the Italian Aegean Islands promoting the official use of the Italian language and favoring a process of italianization, interrupted by the beginning of WWII.

Operational from 1940 until 1944, the Home Guard – comprising 1. 5 million local volunteers otherwise ineligible for military service, usually owing to age, hence the nickname " Dad's Army " – acted as a secondary defence force, in case of invasion by the forces of Nazi Germany and their allies.

He became a Thakin ( lord or master – a politically motivated title that proclaimed that the Burmese people were the true masters of their country, not the colonial rulers who had usurped the title for their exclusive use ) when he joined the Dobama Asiayone ( Our Burma Union ), and acted as their general secretary until August 1940.

From 1939 to 1940, he was briefly deployed to Poland and participated in various Einsatzgruppen actions before serving a further tour as a uniformed Gestapo officer in occupied Belgium where he acted to suppress resistance.

In 1940, RAF West Raynham also acted as a temporary base for 18 and 139 squadrons after they suffered losses in the Blitzkrieg.

* Edna Ferber herself acted in The Royal Family at the Maplewood Theater in 1940, in a production staged by Cheryl Crawford

The incident made such an impression on Berger that, years later in 1940, he wrote: “ It was a case of spontaneous telepathy in which at a time of mortal danger, and as I contemplated certain death, I transmitted my thoughts, while my sister, who was particularly close to me, acted as the receiver .”

He acted in two adaptations of A. J. Cronin's novels, The Citadel ( 1938 ) and The Stars Look Down ( 1940 ), in addition to appearing in The Lady Vanishes ( 1938 ) and Under Capricorn ( 1949 ), both of the later films were directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

He also acted as a consultant to the California State Board of Equalization from 1932 to 1940, and to the United States Department of the Treasury from 1937 to 1940.

The latter was a member of the police ( Garda Síochána ) and drowned while on holiday in Ballybunion, Co. Kerry July 1940 and acted as Boyle's father following the death of his mother 1933.

* 1940 – Gudrun Ensslin, German militant leader, founded Red Army Faction ( d. 1977 )

During the Battle of France in 1940, De Gaulle's 4th Armoured Division and elements of the British Expeditionary Force's 1st Army Tank Brigade both made probing attacks on the German flank, actually pushing into the rear of the advancing armoured columns at times.

Moreover just 10 percent of the Army was motorised in 1940.

Half of the German divisions available in 1940 were combat ready, often being more poorly equipped than the British and French Armies, as well as the German Army of 1914.

In 1940, the U. S. Army gave Cessna their largest order to date, when they ordered 33 specially equipped Cessna T-50s.

After turning down Bantam's initial request, Probst responded to an Army request and commenced work, initially without salary, on July 17, 1940.

* 1940 – General Henri Guisan orders the Swiss Army to resist German invasion and makes surrender illegal.

* 1857 – Ballington Booth, English Salvation Army officer, co-founder of Volunteers of America ( d. 1940 )

* 1940 – World War II: Army order 112 forms the Intelligence Corps of the British Army.

After weeks of practice, Berry, Ginsburg, and Torrence planned to record a demo recording in Berry's garage, but Torrance was conscripted into the United States Army Reserve forcing Berry and Ginsburg to record " Jennie Lee " without Torrence, with Berry's friend and fellow University High student Donald J. Altfeld ( born March 18, 1940 in Los Angeles, California ) " belting out the rhythm on a children's metal high chair ".

Cade was appointed captain, Australian Army Medical Corps, A. I. F., on 1 July 1940 and posted to the 2nd / 9th Field Ambulance.

Voroshilov commanded Soviet troops during the Winter War from November 1939 to January 1940, but, due to his poor planning and overall incompetence, the Red Army suffered about 185, 000 casualties.

Leon Trotsky (, ; – 21 August 1940 ), born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army.

In October 1940 – February 1942, the NKVD under Beria carried out a new purge of the Red Army and related industries.

In 1940 the Permanent Active Militia and Non-Permanent Active Militia were renamed to become the Canadian Army.

In 1940 the German Army Weapons Office ordered the mass production of sarin for wartime use.

* 1940 – Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. is named the first African American general in the United States Army.

When Franz Halder, the Chief of the Army General Staff, heard of the state of the Kriegsmarine, and its plan for the invasion, he noted in his diary, on 28 July 1940, " If that plan is true, all previous statements by the navy were so much rubbish and we can throw away the whole plan of invasion ".

In April 1940, Popular Science showed an example of a radar unit using the Watson-Watt patent in an article on air defence, but not knowing that the U. S. Army and U. S. Navy were working on radars with the same principle, stated under the illustration, " This is not U. S. Army equipment.

The Great Purge of 1937 – 1939 and Purge of 1940 – 1942 removed many leading officers from the Red Army, including Tukhachevsky and many of his followers, and the doctrine was abandoned.

Red Army soldiers display a captured Finnish banner, March 1940.

However, the effect of the purges would soon manifest itself in the Winter War of 1940, where Red Army forces generally performed poorly against the much smaller Finnish Army.