1940-1950

  • RKO release Walt Disney's second full-length animated film, Pinocchio.

  • Tom and Jerry make their debut in Puss Gets the Boot

  • Cartoon character Elmer Fudd makes his debut in the animated short Elmer's Candid Camera.

  • Take It or Leave It makes it debut on CBS Radio, with Bob Hawk as host.

  • The very first McDonald's restaurant opens in San Bernardino, California.

  • The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is held for the first time in Sturgis, South Dakota.

  • WWII: The United States imposes a total embargo on all scrap metal shipments to Japan.

  • The first section of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, the country's first long-distance controlled-access highway, is opened between Irwin and Carlisle.

  • The draft registration of approximately 16 million men begins in the United States.

  • The Selective Service System lottery is held in Washington, D.C..

  • Armistice Day Blizzard: An unexpected blizzard kills 144 in U.S. Midwest.

  • The Chicago Bears, in what will become the most one-sided victory in National Football League history, defeat the Washington Redskins 73–0 in the 1940 NFL Championship Game.

  • President Franklin D. Roosevelt, at his regular press conference, first sets forth the outline of his plan to send aid to Great Britain that will become known as Lend-Lease.

  • Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a fireside chat to the nation, declares that the United States must become "the great arsenal of democracy."

  • World War II: United States troops land in the Marshall Islands.

  • World War II: American forces successfully defeat Nazi forces at Chambois, closing the Falaise Gap.

  • World War II: Operation Market Garden begins.

  • Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated to an unprecedented 4th term as President of the United States. No president before, or since, has ever reached a third term in office.

  • United States forces capture Manila, Philippines from the Japanese Imperial Army.

  • United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt gives what will be his last address to a joint session of Congress, reporting on the Yalta Conference.