This is a list of various things that took place in 1940.
Births
January
- 15 - Tommy Gilbert (Lexington, Tennesee)
February
- 5 - Grady Johnson (Union Point, Georgia)
- 11 - Espanto III
March
- 10 - Chuck Norris (Navasota, Texas)
- 24 - Don Jardine (Moncton, New Brunswick)
- 25 - Jim Breaks (Bradford, Yorkshire), Joe Carollo (Wyandotte, Michigan)
April
- 20 - El Matemático
May
- 18 - Masio Koma
- 26 - Joseph Maroon (Wheeling, West Virginia)
June
- 16 - Sweet Daddy Siki (Montgomery, Texas)
- 20 - Umanosuke Ueda (Yatomi, Aichi, Japan)
July
- 4 - Bob Sweetan
- 22 - Alex Trebek
August
- 10 - Chucho Villa
September
- 3 - Spiros Arion (Athens, Greece)
October
- 15 - Kay Noble (St. Joseph, Missouri)
- 17 - Baron Von Raschke (Omaha, Nebraska)
- 22 - Tom Jones (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)
- 28 - Les Thatcher (Cincinnati, Ohio)
November
- 5 - Carlos Ignacio Carrillo Contreras (Topilejo, Michoacán)
December
- 5 - Adrian Street (Brynmawr, South Wales)
- 5 - Bello Adrián
Title changes
June
- 23 - Ray Steele defeats Bronko Nagurski to win the World Heavyweight Championship (National Wrestling Association).
