| January 2 | Book publisher Simon and Schuster founded |
| January 3 | March of Dimes established to fight polio |
| January 6 | Bronze memorial statue of Henry Hudson erected in Bronx |
| January 8 | Bradman scores 107 for South Australia vs. Qld (1st innings) |
| January 10 | Eduard van Beinum becomes world's 1st conductor at Concert Hall |
| January 10 | Jean Anouilh's "La Sauvage," premieres in Paris |
| January 10 | Paul Vincent Carroll's "White Seed," premieres in New York City |
| January 11 | Bradman scores a second innings 113 vs. Qld after a ton in the 1st |
| January 11 | Frances Moulton elected 1st woman president of a U.S. national bank |
| January 14 | National Society for Legalization of Euthanasia forms (NY) |
| January 16 | Benny Goodman refuses to play Carnegie Hall when black members of his band were barred from performing |
| January 17 | Supreme Soviet elects Michail Kalinin as presidium chairman |
| January 18 | Bradman scores 104* for South Australia vs. NSW at the SCG |
| January 18 | Pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander is elected to Hall of Fame |
| January 19 | GM began mass production of diesel engines |
| January 21 | Dutch government starts obligatory unemployment insurance |
| January 22 | "Our Town," Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer-winner of small-town life in Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, premieres |
| January 25 | Ian Hay's "Bachelor Born," premieres in New York City |
| February 3 | Paul Osborn's "On Borrowed Time," premieres in New York City |
| February 4 | Hitler seizes control of German army and puts Nazi in key posts |
| February 4 | "Our Town," by Thornton Wilder opens on Broadway |
| February 5 | Hans Engnestangen skates world record 500m (41.8 sec) |
| February 10 | King Carol II of Romania drives out dictator Goga |
| February 11 | Steve Casey beats Lou Thesz in Boston, to become wrestling champ |
| February 12 | Austrian chancellor Schuschnigg visits Hitler in Berchtesgaden |
| February 12 | German troops entered Austria |
| February 16 | U.S. Federal Crop Insurance program authorized |
| February 17 | 1st public experimental demonstration of Baird color TV in London |
| February 19 | Soviet arctic ice research station North Pole 1 evacuated, Denmark |
| February 20 | U.K. Foreign Secretary Eden resigns, says Prime Minister Chamberlain appeased Germany |
| February 23 | Joe Louis KOs Nathan Mann in 3 for heavyweight boxing title |
| February 24 | Du Pont begins commercial production of nylon toothbrush bristles |
| February 25 | British Lord Halifax becomes Foreign Minister |
| February 26 | 1st passenger ship equipped with radar |
| February 26 | Rie Van Veen swims world record 200m free style (2:24.6) |
| February 26 | U.S. Female Figure Skating championship won by Joan Tozzer |
| February 26 | U.S. Male Figure Skating championship won by Robin Lee |
| February 27 | Britain and France recognize Franco government in Spain |
| March 2 | Landslides and floods cause over 200 deaths in Los Angeles, California |
| March 2 | Trials of Soviet leaders begins in the Soviet Union |
| March 3 | American Bowling Congress' largest tournament (24,765 competitors) |
| March 11 | Artur Seyss-Inquart replaces Kurt von Schuschnigg as Chancellor of Austria; German troops also entered the country |
| March 12 | Nazi Germany invades Austria (Anschluss) |
| March 13 | Austria annexed by Nazi Germany |
| March 16 | Noel Coward's musical "Operette," premieres in London |
| March 16 | Temple defeats Colorado to win 1st NIT |
| March 18 | Mexico takes control of foreign-owned oil properties |
| March 18 | New York 1st requires serological blood tests of pregnant women |
| March 18 | President Cardena of Mexico nationalizes U.S. and British oil companies |
| March 19 | Toronto Maple Leafs score 8 goals in 5 minutes |
| March 23 | Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis frees 74 St. L Cardinals minor leaguers |
| March 25 | 1st U.S. bred horse (Battleship) to win Grand National Steeplechase |
| March 26 | NBC radio performance of Howard Hanson's 3rd Symphony |
| April 1 | Baseball Hall of Fame opens in Cooperstown, New York |
| April 1 | Joe Louis KOs Harry Thomas in 5 for heavyweight boxing title |
| April 4 | 5th Golf Masters Championship: Henry Picard wins, shooting a 285 |
| April 5 | Anti-Jewish riots break out in Dabrowa Poland |
| April 6 | Teflon invented by Roy J Plunkett |
| April 10 | 2nd government of Blum replaced by Daladier government in France |
| April 10 | Austria becomes a state of Germany |
| April 10 | New York makes syphilis test mandatory in order to get a marriage license |
| April 12 | 1st U.S. law requiring medical tests for marriage licenses |
| April 12 | Stanley Cup: Chicago Blackhawks beat Toronto Maple Leafs, 3 games to 1 |
| April 13 | Clifford Goldsmith' "What a Life," premieres in New York City |
| April 16 | Great Britain recognizes Italian annexation of Abyssinia |
| April 19 | 42nd Boston Marathon won by Leslie Pawson of RI in 2:35:34.8 |
| April 19 | Phil Emmett Mueller and Dodger Ernie Koy both homer in their 1st at bat |
| April 23 | Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia demand self government |
| April 24 | Lindenheuvel soccer team forms |
| April 25 | 1st use of seeing eye dog |
| April 26 | Austrian Jews required to register property above 5,000 Reichsmarks |
| April 28 | King Zog of Albania marries Countess Geraldine of Hungary |
| April 30 | Bradman scores 258 Australia vs. Worcs, 293 minutes, 33 fours 1 five |
| May 2 | Ella Fitzgerald records "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" |
| May 2 | Pulitzer prize awarded to Thornton Wilder (Our Town) |
| May 3 | Concentration camp at Flossenburg goes into use |
| May 3 | Lefty Grove defeats Tigers 4-3 for 1st of record 20 consecutive wins at his home field Fenway Park; he doesn't lose there until May 12 1941 |
| May 3 | Vatican recognizes Franco-Spain |
| May 4 | Douglas Hyde (a protestant) becomes 1st president of Eire |
| May 5 | Phillies Harold Kelleher faces 16 batters in 6th, as Cubs score 12 runs, both marks are NL records off one hurler in a single inning |
| May 6 | Dutch writer Maurits Dekker sentenced to 50 days for "offending a friendly head of state" (Hitler) |
| May 7 | 64th Kentucky Derby: Eddie Arcaro aboard Lawrin wins in 2:04.8 |
| May 7 | Dutch Minister of Justice Goseling calls fugitives of nazi-Germany "undesired strangers" |
| May 8 | Stravinsky's "Dumbarton Oaks," premieres in Washington, D.C. |
| May 10 | Banning speech on anti-fascism demonstration in Amsterdam |
| May 12 | Sandoz Labs manufactures LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) |
| May 14 | 64th Preakness: Maurice Peters aboard Dauber wins in 1:59.8 |
| May 14 | English soccer team beats Nazi-Germany, 6-3 |
| May 15 | Paul-Henri Spak forms red coalition of Belgium |
| May 16 | 1st animal breeding society forms in New Jersey |
| May 16 | 38 die in Terminal Hotel fire in Atlanta, Georgia |
| May 16 | In cricket Bradman scores 278 Australia vs. MCC, 349 minutes, 35 fours 1 six |
| May 17 | Congress approves Vinson Naval Act, which funds a two-ocean navy |
| May 17 | Radio quiz show "Information Please!" debuts on NBC Blue Network |
| May 21 | Bradman scores 143 Australia vs. Surrey, 198 minutes, 11 fours |
| May 22 | Dodgers announce contracts to install lights at Ebbets Field |
| May 26 | House on un-American Activities forms |
| May 28 | Foundation for Tel Aviv harbor laid |
| May 28 | Hindemiths opera "Mathis der Maler," premieres in Zurich |
| May 30 | Yankees sweep Red Sox 10-0 and 5-4 in front of 83,533 at Yankee Stadium |
| May 31 | Bill Edrich scores his 1,000th run of cricket season, all at Lord's |
| June 1 | Protective baseball helmets 1st worn by batters |
| June 1 | Superman 1st appears in DC Comics' Action Comics Series issue #1 |
| June 3 | German law on "Entartete Art" legalizes art robbery |
| June 4 | 10th Walker Cup: Britain - Ireland, 7 - 4 |
| June 4 | 70th Belmont: James Stout aboard Pasteurized wins in 2:29.6 |
| June 7 | 1st play telecast with original Broadway cast, "Susan and God" |
| June 7 | Boeing 314 Clipper flying boat 1st flown, Eddie Allen |
| June 9 | Second Chamber agrees to return Jews to nazi-Germany |
| June 10 | Charlie Barnett makes 98 by lunch vs. Australia at Trent Bridge |
| June 11 | 42nd U.S. Golf Open: Ralph Guldahl shoots a 284 at Cherry Hills Denver |
| June 11 | Cincinnati Red Johnny Vander Meer no-hits Boston Braves, 3-0 |
| June 11 | Compton scores 1st Test Cricket ton (102 vs. Australia) aged 20 years 19 days |
| June 11 | Earthquake in Belgium |
| June 11 | England declare at 8 for 658 vs. Australia at Trent Bridge |
| June 13 | Great Cricket innings of 232 by Stan McCabe vs. England at Trent Bridge |
| June 13 | Jews injured and property destroyed in Przemyal Poland |
| June 14 | Bradman scores 144* in 1st Test Cricket at Trent Bridge |
| June 14 | Chlorophyll patented by Benjamin Grushkin |
| June 14 | Dorothy Lathrop wins 1st Caldecott Medal, kid books author |
| June 15 | 1st night game at Brooklyn Ebbets Field (Reds 6, Dodgers 0) as Cincinnati Red Johnny Vander Meer hurls unprecedented 2nd consecutive no-hitter |
| June 16 | Jimmie Foxx is walked a record 6 consecutive times by Browns |
| June 16 | St. Louis Browns walk Boston Red Sox Jimmy Foxx 6 times in a row |
| June 17 | Japan declares war on China |
| June 18 | Babe Ruth is signed as a Dodgers coach for the rest of the season |
| June 19 | Italy beats Hungary 4-1 in soccer's 3rd World Cup at Paris |
| June 19 | "Olympian Flyer" express train crashes in Montana, killing 47 |
| June 19 | Paul Waner (Pirates) homers off Pete Sivess (Phillies) in DH |
| June 19 | Reds Johnny Vander Meer extends his string of hitless innings to 21 2/3 before Debs Garms singles for Boston in 4th |
| June 21 | Baseball's Pinky Higgins gets 12th straight hit |
| June 21 | Bradman scores 101* in 77 minutes, Australia vs. Lancashire |
| June 22 | Joe Louis KOs Max Schmeling at 2:04 of 1st round at Yankee Stadium |
| June 23 | Civil Aeronautics Authority (U.S.) established |
| June 23 | Marineland opens in Florida-1st aquarium |
| June 23 | New York City Mayor LaGuardia assigns 21 cops to patrol subway |
| June 24 | 500 ton meteorite lands near Pittsburgh Pennsylvania |
| June 25 | "A Tisket A Tasket" by Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb hits #1 |
| June 25 | Federal minimum wage law guarantees workers 40 cents per hour |
| June 26 | Cincinnati Red Lonny Frey hits 8 doubles in a doubleheader |
| June 28 | Bradman scores 102* in drawn 2nd Test cricket at Lord's |
| June 30 | Final game at Philadelphia's Baker Bowl, Giants beat Phillies 14-1 |
| July 1 | 58th Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Don Budge beats Henry Austin (61 60 63) |
| July 2 | 51st Wimbledon Womens Tennis: Helen Moody beats Helen Jacobs (64 60) |
| July 4 | 1st game at Shribe Park, Philadelphia; Braves beat Phillies 10-5 |
| July 4 | France-Turkish friendship treaty |
| July 5 | Herb Caen's 1st column in San Francisco Chronicle |
| July 6 | 6th All Star Baseball Game: NL wins 4-1 at Crosley Field, Cincinnati |
| July 8 | Would be start of Eng/Australia Test Cricket at Old Trafford Washout |
| July 10 | Howard Hughes flies around the world in 91 hours |
| July 10 | "Yankee Clipper" completes 1st passenger flight over Atlantic |
| July 13 | Kroller-Muller museum opens in Holland |
| July 14 | Mussolini publishes anti-Jewish/African manifest |
| July 15 | Arthur Fagg completes 244 and 202 in the same cricket game for Kent |
| July 16 | 21st PGA Championship: Paul Runyan at Shawnee CC Shawnee-on-Del Pa |
| July 17 | Douglas (Wrong Way) Corrigan leaves New York for LA, wound up in Ireland |
| July 18 | Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan arrives in Ireland-left New York for California |
| July 20 | Finland awarded 1940 Olympic games after Japan withdraws |
| July 21 | Paul Hindemith and Leonide Massines ballet premieres in London |
| July 23 | Bradman scores 103 in 178 minutes on a Headingley sticky, 3rd Test |
| July 25 | Jewish artisans not allowed in Germany |
| July 25 | Revolutionary offensive of Ebro Spain (Hollander Piet) |
| July 26 | 1st radio broadcast of "Young Widder Brown" on NBC |
| July 28 | 34,000-ton Cunard-White Star liner Mauretania launched at Birkenhead |
| July 28 | Bradman scores 202 Australia vs. Somerset, 225 minutes, 32 fours |
| July 29 | Comic strip "Dennis the Menace," 1st appears |
| July 29 | Olympic National Park forms |
| July 30 | General Metaxas names himself premier of Greece |
| July 31 | New York Yankees suspend Jake Powell, after he said on Chicago radio he'd "hit every colored person in Chicago over head with a club" |
| August 2 | 1st test of a yellow baseball (Dodgers vs Cardinals) |
| August 5 | 33rd Davis Cup: USA beats Australia in Philadelphia (3-2) |
| August 7 | 2 die in a New York City subway accident |
| August 7 | Leo Durocher, hits 2,000th Dodger home run |
| August 7 | Nazi's close theologic department of Innsbruck university |
| August 10 | 119 degrees F (48 degrees C), Pendleton, Oregon (state record) |
| August 14 | BBC's 1st feature film on TV (Student of Prague) |
| August 17 | 1st aircraft owned by Forest Service in service (Oakland) |
| August 17 | Henry Armstrong won his 3rd concurrent boxing championship |
| August 18 | Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicates Thousand Islands Bridge connecting U.S. and Canada |
| August 20 | Lou Gehrig hits record 23rd and last grand slam |
| August 21 | Italy bars all Jewish teachers in Public and High School |
| August 23 | England score 7-903 decl vs. Australia Hutton 364 |
| August 24 | England beat Australia by an innings and 579 runs at The Oval |
| August 24 | Virgil Trucks strikes out his 418th batter, highest season total in organized ball-for Andalusia in an Alabama-Florida League game |
| August 26 | British leaders and Arabians fight in Palestine |
| August 26 | Montreal Maroons dropped from NHL |
| August 27 | Yankees Monte Pearson no-hits Indians 13-0, DiMaggio hits 3 triples |
| August 28 | Mauthausen concentration camp opens in Austria |
| August 28 | Northwestern U awards honorary degree to dummy Charlie McCarthy |
| August 28 | On Connie Mack Day at Shibe Park, the A's win a doubleheader |
| August 31 | 5th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: All-Stars 28, Washington 16 (74,250) |
| September 1 | Mussolini cancels civil rights of Italian Jews |
| September 3 | 1940 Olympic site changed from Tokyo Japan to Helsinki Finland |
| September 4 | Vainio Muinonen wins 2nd European marathoner (2:37:28.8) |
| September 6 | Wilhelmina celebrates 40th anniversary jubilee as Dutch queen |
| September 12 | Adolph Hitler demands self-determination for Sudeten Germans in Czechoslovakia |
| September 13 | Alexander Cartwright selects to Baseball's Hall of Fame |
| September 14 | Graf Zeppelin II, world's largest airship, makes maiden flight |
| September 15 | British Prime Minister Chamberlain visits Hitler at Berchtesgarden |
| September 15 | John Cobb sets world auto speed record at 350.2 MPH (lasts 1 day) |
| September 15 | Only time brothers hit back-to-back home runs (Lloyd and Paul Waner, Pitts) |
| September 16 | George E T Eyston sets world auto speed record at 357.5 MPH |
| September 17 | 52nd U.S. Womens Tennis: Alice Marble beats Nancye Wynne Bolton (60 63) |
| September 17 | 58th U.S. Mens Tennis: J Donald Budge beats C Gene Mako (63 68 62 61) |
| September 17 | British premier Neville Chamberlain leaves Munich |
| September 17 | Don Budge wins U.S. Tennis open and completes Grand Slam |
| September 18 | Despite losing a double header, Yankees clinch pennant #10 |
| September 20 | Dmitri Shostakovich's Suite for jazz orchestra, premieres |
| September 20 | Emlyn Williams' "Corn is Green," premieres in London |
| September 21 | Hurricane (183 MPH winds) in New England kills 700 |
| September 21 | Winston Churchill condemns Hitler's annexation of Czechoslovakia |
| September 23 | British premier Neville Chamberlain flies to Munich |
| September 23 | Time capsule, to be opened in 6939, buried at World's Fair in New York City (capsule contained a woman's hat, man's pipe and 1,100' of microfilm) |
| September 24 | Alice Marble wins her 2nd singles U.S. tennis title |
| September 24 | Don Budge becomes 1st tennis player to grand slam |
| September 26 | Hitler issues ultimatum to Czechoslovakian government, demanding Sudenten Land |
| September 27 | British ocean liner "Queen Elizabeth," launches at Clydebank Scotland |
| September 27 | Jewish lawyers forbidden to practice in Germany |
| September 27 | League of Nations declares Japan the aggressor against China |
| September 27 | Ocean liner Queen Elizabeth launched at Glasgow |
| September 28 | Clare Boothe's "Boys Goodbye," premieres in New York City |
| September 28 | Dutch Premier Colijn sends radio message "No war coming" |
| September 29 | 1st archival course is offered at Columbia University in New York City |
| September 29 | Treaty of Munich signed by Hitler, Mussolini, Daladier and Chamberlain |
| September 30 | British premier Chamberlain arrives in Munich |
| September 30 | Munich Agreement-forced Czechoslovakia to give territory to Germany |
| October 1 | Cubs clinch NL pennant |
| October 1 | Germany annexes Sudetenland (1/3 of Czechoslovakia) |
| October 2 | Indian Bob Feller strikes out record 18 Tigers (Chester Laabs 5 times) |
| October 6 | Yankees Lefty Gomez sets record of 6 World Series wins without a loss |
| October 7 | Germany demands all Jewish passports stamped with letter J |
| October 8 | G Kaufman and Moss Hart's "Fabulous Invalid," premieres in New York City |
| October 9 | A Copland and E Lorings ballet "Billy the Kid," premieres in Chicago |
| October 9 | Cleveland Browns and Chicago Bears play a penalty free NFL game |
| October 9 | New York Yankees sweep Cubs in 35th World Series, 3rd straight WS win |
| October 10 | Germany completed annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland |
| October 10 | Premier of Dmitri Shostakovich's 1st String Quartet |
| October 14 | Nazis plan Jewish ghettos for all major cities |
| October 15 | Robert Sherwoods "Abe Lincoln in Illinois," premieres in New York City |
| October 21 | Japanese troops occupies Canton |
| October 22 | Chester Carlson demonstrates 1st Xerox copying machine |
| October 24 | U.S. forbids child labor in factories |
| October 25 | Japanese troops occupies Hankou and Wuhan |
| October 26 | Du Pont named its new synthetic fiber "nylon" |
| October 27 | DuPont announces its new synthetic fiber will be called "nylon" |
| October 28 | Farewell parade of International Brigade (Barcelona) |
| October 30 | Orson Welles panics a nation with broadcast of "War of the Worlds" |
| November 1 | German colonel-general Gerd von Runstedt retires |
| November 1 | NL batting champ Ernie Lombardi is named MVP |
| November 1 | Seabiscuit beats War Admiral in a match race at Pimlico |
| November 2 | Babe Ruth applies for job of St. Louis Browns' manager |
| November 2 | Jimmie Foxx wins his 3rd AL MVP |
| November 5 | Ottawa Roughriders score on 5-man, 4-lateral, 65-yard punt return |
| November 5 | Rugers beats Princeton 1st time in 60 years as Rutgers Stad dedicated |
| November 6 | 3 DiMaggio brothers play together for 1st time, charity all star game |
| November 8 | 1st black woman legislator, Crystal Bird Fauset of Philadelphia |
| November 9 | Al Capp, cartoonist of Lil' Abner creates Sadie Hawkins Day |
| November 9 | Crystal Night - Germans break windows owned by Jews |
| November 10 | 8.3 earthquake shakes East of Shumagin Islands, Alaska |
| November 10 | Nobel for literature awarded to Pearl Buck (Good Earth) |
| November 11 | German and Austrian Jewish suffer 1 billion Mark damage in nazi |
| November 11 | Kristallnacht; Jews forced to wear Star of David |
| November 12 | Hermann Goering announces he wants Madagascar as a Jewish homeland |
| November 13 | America's 1st saint, Mother Frances Cabrini, beatified |
| November 14 | Dutch DC3 crashes at Schiphol, 6 die |
| November 15 | 1st telecast of an unscheduled event (fire), W2XBT, New York |
| November 15 | Farewell Parade of International Brigades in Barcelona |
| November 16 | K B Regiment refuses round-table conference in East-India |
| November 17 | Italy passes their own version of anti-Jewish Nuremberg laws |
| November 20 | 1st documented anti-semitic remarks over U.S. radio (by Father Coughlin) |
| November 21 | Belgian king Leopold III visits Netherlands |
| November 21 | Nazi forces occupy western Czechoslovakia and declared them German citizens |
| November 24 | Clifford Odets' "Rocket to the Moon," premieres in New York City |
| November 24 | National Semi-Pro Basketball Congress authorizes yellow basketball |
| November 28 | 4th Heisman Trophy Award: Davey O'Brien, Texas Christian (quarterback) |
| November 29 | Mayor Oud of Rotterdam forbids soccer match between Netherlands-Germany |
| November 30 | Fascist coup in Romania, fails |
| November 30 | Germany bans Jews being lawyers |
| December 1 | School bus and train collide in Salt Lake City Utah |
| December 3 | AAU's decides to continue linear measuring system over metric |
| December 6 | 117 Spanish knights under Captain Piet Laros return to Netherlands |
| December 6 | French/German non-attack treaty drawn (Ribbentrop-Bonnet Pact) |
| December 7 | Philip Barry's "Here Come the Clowns," premieres in New York City |
| December 7 | W9XZY broadcasts facsimile of St. Louis Post-Dispatch by radio |
| December 8 | Highest temperature for December in U.S. recorded in La Mesa California |
| December 8 | LP Beria follows Nikolai Jezjov as head of Russian secret police |
| December 10 | 26th CFL Grey Cup: Toronto Argonauts defeats Winn Blue Bombers, 30-7 |
| December 10 | Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Zen teacher, Rinzai line, enters Zen priesthood |
| December 11 | New York Giants win NFL championship |
| December 13 | Los Angeles freezes at 28 degrees F |
| December 14 | AL permits Cleveland and Philadelphia to play night games |
| December 14 | Major leagues agrees on standard ball |
| December 14 | Major leagues disagree on increasing rosters from 23 to 25 |
| December 14 | Will Harridge is elected to a 10-year-term as AL president |
| December 15 | Groundbreaking begins for Jefferson Memorial in Washington D.C. |
| December 16 | Bradman scores 143 South Australia vs. NSW, 11 fours 91 singles |
| December 17 | Utrecht Central Station destroyed by fire |
| December 20 | Vladimir K Zworykin (Penn) receives patent on Iconoscope TV system |
| December 23 | Margaret Hamilton's costume catches fire in filming of "Wizard of Oz" |
| December 25 | George Cukor announces Vivien Leigh will play Scarlett O'Hara |
| December 26 | Bradman scores 225 South Australia vs. Qld before Christ gets him out |
| December 26 | Tom Goddard takes a cricket hat-trick for England vs. South Africa |
| December 28 | Paul Gibb scores 106 on Test Cricket debut vs. South Africa |
| December 29 | Construction on Lake Washington Floating Bridge, Seattle, begins |
| December 30 | Electronic television system patented by V. K. Zworykin |
| December 31 | Dr. R N Harger's "drunkometer," 1st breath test, introduced in Indiana |
