1940

Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., becomes the first African-American general in the U. S. armed forces.

In spring the Nazi blitzkrieg, or “lightning war,” overruns western Europe.

The U. S. Congress passes the National Defense Appropriation Act of 1940, which initiates appropriation of billions of dollars for defense.

In Cantwell v. Connecticut, the U. S. Supreme Court upholds the right to the free exercise of religion protected by the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution.

The U. S. Congress passes the Smith Act of 1940, which mandates the registration and fingerprinting of all resident aliens and authorizes the deportation of suspected revolutionaries.

Canadian prime minister L. Mackenzie King and President Roosevelt issue the Ogdensburg Declaration of 1940, which announces the establishment of the Permanent Joint Board of Defense. The board’s purpose is to plan for the cooperative defense of North America in case of any foreign attack.

In the destroyers-for-bases deal, the United States trades World War I destroyers for 99-year leases on British bases in the Western Hemisphere.

The America First Committee is formed; it is the most prominent organization to oppose American intervention in World War II.

The U. S. Congress passes the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, which establishes the first peacetime program of compulsory military service in the United States.

Germany, Italy, and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact committing the Axis nations to mutual action against attack.

Republican Wendell Willkie loses the presidential race to Franklin D. Roosevelt; Roosevelt becomes the only president elected to a third term.

Richard Wright’s novel Native Son examines the effects of racial discrimination on blacks.