1940
1940
1940- Many of the groups of Chinese around Oakland are united by a powerful gang, known as the T'ang Dragons.
1940- Clinton Anderson runs for the state senate in Sonora, winning in his district.
1940 Fiorella LaGuardia resigns from the Governorship to run for Roosevelt's Senate seat, which TR Jr. is not running for in order to concentrate on his race for the Presidency. He hands the Governor's office over to his trusted Lt. Governor, to give him the incumbant advantage in the next Gubernatorial election.
1940 - The Imperial Council is formally renamed the Imperial Senate. All powers of oversight of inter-Imperial relations and foreign relations have been ceded by Westminster to the Senate, which has three elected representatives from each Dominion as well as Great Britain in its composition. The Prime Minister of Great Britain and the Sovereign both may wield a veto power over the Senate, which in turn can be overturned by a 3/4 vote of the Senate or a vote for overturning the veto in 2/3rds of the Dominions plus Great Britain.
January 1940: Seymour publishes an article in a Pulitzer paper again about the nature of comitees. He encourages more men of the people to be invited, and discourages the old tendancy of only bringing in party big whigs.
January 4, 1940 - Officials in Brittany declare the Breton Republic and petition London, Madrid, Lisbon, and Berlin for recognition. Some see this more of an attempt to avoid reparations than a true revolution, but the breakaway region is recognized by most nations by the end of the year.
January 13th 1940- Left wing counter-coup occurs in the South of France, with Marseilles being declared the capital of a Socialist Provencal Republic. The French fleet is taken after a short fight almost intact.
January 16th 1940- Infant Vittorio Emanuelle is declared King of Italy by Giacomo San Pietro, who declares himself regent. In reality the young King's rule was only effective over the lower third of Italy, Sicily and Sardinia.
January 25th 1940- The Saud faction in the Arabian Peninsula is finally eliminated, their pipeline to Russian weapons already dry and with no foreign support. The leaders went either into exile or died but many later joined the extremist Allah’s Will movement.
January 27, 1940 - The Boston, Revere Beach, and Lynn Railroad goes defunct. It is decided by the MTA to purchase the section of the line going from Wood Island to Lynn and convert it to extend the Bowdoin-Airport Line.
February 1940: The convention comitee agrees to adopt Seymours suggestions. Seymour's theory is that Roosevelt's support comes not from party leadership but from the middle class. Though LaGuardia and Cabot-Lodge both reppresent their party's beliefs much better then Roosevelt, they lack the media appeal. Thus Hearst ensured a Roosevelt primary victory. Roosevelt remained unaware of any of this planning.
February 1st 1940- Chaos reigns in France. By now separatists movements are in place in at least two areas of France while the rule of the French monarch effectively only exists in the immediate area of Paris and in Occupied France.
February 7th 1940- Regiment 999 is used by the Austro-Hungarian Army as the parent unit for the creation of an elite division, the Guards Division. Under Michael Skorzeny the unit, while their members were fully trained as airmobile troops, they were an unconventional unit used to defeat irregular forces using the teachings of their commander Skorzeny.
February 13th 1940- Frank Anthony, one of the prominent leaders of the Anglo-Indian community in India, is named as Minister of Education in the Nehru’s cabinet.
February 22nd 1940- First Amphibious Armored vehicles or AAV’s for short were ordered into production by the Department of the Navy. With the reduction going on of the military only 120 were ordered, a quantity considered not enough by many of the leaders in the US Marines. Tracked and capable of 9 mph on water, they were considered to fill the expectations of the Marines’ experts but the actions in Cuba in 1945 demonstrated some changes needed to be made in the design.
March 1940- Erich von Manstein, German Chief of the General Staff, announced his plan for the reduction in size of the German Heer. While personally opposed to this, he was told that the funding for the Heer was being slashed and was forced to come up with a plan to how to use the available funds. The main shock to the press was the announced reduction of the number of divisions from the 52 current post-war divisions to 28. He announced that was going to be a process that they expected to finish by 1946, with the end result being better equip divisions, armed with the most modern weapons systems build by that time. A lot of the available funds were being made available to the Heer’s R&D division to ensure his promise was a reality.
March 1st 1940- Manchurian Republic Army is formally organized. With Manchuria being declared independent since early 1938 only the Treaty of San Francisco guaranteed the continued existence of the nation while Chinese making overt moves to end their existence. While the organization followed the traditions of the Japanese Army in the size and shape of the units, the equipment was a mix of Japanese and Russian equipment on the first years while neutral “advisors”, in majority of the cases American but some Russians and South Americans were also included in the first years. By the end of the year the Army reached the higher echelon level organization that still exists today of four army groups but the composition of the units included in those army groups changed with time but originally were three infantry divisions each of 15,000 per group.
March 7th 1940- Napoleon IV abdicates the French throne in what he stated “to end the cycle of violence our nation is falling.”
March 16th 1940- Irish prime minister Michael Collins steps down due to health reasons. He's replaced by his political ally Richard Mulcahy, former commander of the Irish Expeditionary Force during the Global War and recently Minister of the Interior for Collins' cabinet.
March 17th 1940- Japan began production of the Mitsubishi A5M to replace the remaining American build P-14 on their carrier-based inventory. With a maximum range of over 900 miles, with a maximum speed of 330 mph and armed with two 20mm cannons and two 7.7mm machineguns it was build in duralumin alloy to save weight and made it very maneuverable. It was the best carrier-based aircraft of the early 1940’s but it was superseded by newer designs by 1948.
March 18th 1940- Sir Oswald Mosley is named to the Cripps cabinet as a minister without portfolio. A member of the Labour Party since 1922, Mosley returned to politics after serving in a Territorial Division during the Global War and being wounded in 1936.
March 18th 1940- King Alfonso XIII of Spain dies and his succeeded by his son Alfonso, who took the throne as Alfonso XIV.
March 29th 1940- Malagasy nationalist revolted against the Germans. Although the revolt eventually spread to 1/3 of the island, the Germans were able to defeat the revolt after the arrival of Askaris from Tanganyika and the Congo by the end of the year. Estimates put the casualties in between 20,000 to 30,000 Malagasy with close to 2,000 German and Askaris being counted as casualties. The revolt polarized the politics in the island, forcing the German to rule by decree until 1951.
April 8th 1940- Even with the Russian Baltic Fleet still a threat even in their reduced state, budget cutbacks affected the German Imperial Fleet. Finally after some arm twisting, enough funds were found to build a new class of battleships, a three-ship class with one of the ships being build for the German Far East Fleet. Three ships with three triple 18” turrets, they turned out to be obsolete by the time their construction was ended in early 1947.
April 12th 1940- Germany develops the first ship/submarine launched surface to surface missile. Using semi active MWD the "Raptor" was a Pulsejet/ramjet hybrid that could be launched from any catapult-equipped ship. The "Hawk" the submarine launched derivative used pulse jets with solid rocket boosters and was radio command guided. It was launched from a converted UA type sub. Unfortunatly due to budget constrains a modified version of the Hawk called the Hawk 1A, which used the guidance package of the Raptor, was employed in small numbers as a coastal defence weapon. Become operational in 1942.
April 19th 1940-Japanese Prime Minister Yamashita announces a process of integration of the citizens of the Empire. His idea was to force Japanese culture into the minorities of the Empire in an attempt to eliminate what he called “the dissention that caused our defeat in the past war never happens again.”
April 23 1940 -- A coalition of Asian Canadian groups, reacting to Japan's planned crackdown on its minorities, begins petitioning Parliament to expand immigration quotas and streamline the naturalization process. Millions of Asians arrived in Canada as "war refugees" or through other special programs, but the public is increasingly willing to allow Asian immigrants in through the front door.
April 24th 1940- Leon Blum returns to France from his exile in Mexico and in Calais announces he was willing to lead a coalition of moderate groups to bring an end to the chaos in France. The British and Germans support Blum’s attempts to bring an end to the French quagmire.
May 1940: New oil fields are discovered in Bahrain and Qatar. Petrol prices plummet to 20-year lows, as the post-war auto market in Europe has been dominated almost entirely by fuel-efficient cars while Americans continue their love affair with half-electric hybrids. The more-expensive oil sands petrol fields in Canada and Venezuela begin losing money.
May-June 1940 -- Although a sizeable portion of voters, especially in Quebec, are still opposed to increased immigration, the Asian Canadians seem to be having their "breakthrough moment", as the Toronto Star called it. Parades, speeches, and community action campaigns have gathered hundreds of thousands of volunteers. In the oldest Asian communities, Victoria and Vancouver, there are almost as many White volunteers as Asian.
May 2nd 1940- Lt. General Erwin Rommel is ordered to lead the German advisor team in China to help build the Chinese Army on the German mold. Rommel’s recommendation was to further reduce the size of the Chinese Army, from the current 70 infantry divisions with a small armored complement, into 40 divisions with a preponderance in armored vehicles plus independent brigades included. He stated the process will be a long one and he has his doubts it will completed during his four-year tenure in the post.
May 10th 1940- The city of Paris is captured by forces loyal to the new Republican government of Leon Blum. Air assets of the British and German occupation forces supported the advancing forces.
May 17 1940 -- Canadian Parliament begins debate on a series of new proposals designed to encourage further Asian immigration and continue integrating the existing immigrant population.
May 18th 1940- Igor Sikorsky, the Russian aircraft engineer, unveils the S-7. The very first production helicopter to enter service in any armed forces, they made a very showing during the short 1941 civil war and served with the Russian military for the rest of the decade until replaced by faster and more capable designs.
May 21st 1940- The 2nd and 3rd Cavalry Divisions are dismounted and replaced their horses with armored vehicles. The new Cavalry Corps, with the 1st Cavalry in Fort Riley, the 2nd in Fort Hood and the 3rd in Fort Huachuca, was put under the overall command of the war hero George Patton.
May 22 1940 With the oil prices plummeting, President Gomez orders the sale of Venezuela's oil to its ravaged neighbors in South America at a discount of the world price in an attempt to dominate the market in the area plus he made massive sales of oil to China at special rates. By the end of the year the size of the new markets pushed the Venezuelan economy back in the right direction. President Gomez uses the oil generated funds to begin a crash program to industrialize and strengthen his country as a whole.
June 4th 1940- Henri Petain finally agrees to meet his former opponent in Paris to end the Civil War in France. Petain was very sick due to his age and the months he spent in prison during 1939 and early 1940. The old warrior was very condescend and after days of meetings he agreed to speak to the right-wing factions to lay down their weapons and to work together in a coalition government. Petain was offered the position of President while Blum took for himself the position of Prime Minister. Still Brittany and the Provencal areas refused to acknowledge the new Paris government.
June 8th 1940- China announces the purchase of over 600 surplus American M1A1 and M2A1 armored cars. Those vehicles, with the remaining vehicles from the Global War and the ones donated by the Central Powers from French stock made possible to raise three armored divisions by the end of 1942.
June 25 1940- After news are leaked that money that had been received to help the economy was being spent on the military the public begin to protest the action of President Umanzor, as not wanting to help his country but on the contrary to appease his power base on the military.
June 27, 1940 -- Before a cheering crowd in Rideau Hall, Ottowa, Governor General Charles Colquhoun Ballantyne signs the Reformed Naturalization and Education Acts. He is accompanied by Willie Ah Poy and Stanley Chong, the first two Asian-Canadian MPs. The acts greatly ease the process for Asians, especially ethnic minorities from China, Manchuria, and Japan, to immigrate to Canada. They also reform the educational system, first and foremost to make it easier for Asians to learn English and French, but also so that other Canadians can learn various Asian languages in public schools.
July 1940- The German Army used the lessons of the Great War to bear in the design of their new main battle rifle, the GEW 40. The recognition that the majority of battlefield casualties occurred at shorter ranges brought forward the idea of improved firepower coupled with the use of a smaller caliber round for the main battlerifle. The ideas for the development of this weapons have to wait until the end of the war due to the use of funds for the "Thor Project." Still this weapon was revolutionary. A selective fire 30 round detachable magazine rifle, the use of the 7.92 x 33 MM round made it possible to be used as a submachinegun at shorter ranges but with greater accuracy and range than submachineguns in longer range encounters.
July 4, 1940 - Jews in Salonika start a revolt against Greek rule. They demand the restoration of the Autonomous state.
Jul 4th 1940- William Lincoln Roberts is born in Alexandria, Virginia. The son of a a veteran of the 10th Infantry Division (colored) and a schoolteacher, he was a well educated and athletic boy, receiving allocades by all his teachers and piers during his school years.
August 1940: Hearst gives an official endorsement to Roosevelt.
Fall 1940 - Republican presidential candidate Theodore Roosevelt Jr. holds appeal to several Democrats, who come to be called 'Roosevelt Democrats'.
September 1940 -- Through the financial backing of Spanish-Basque businessmen, especially those with Euskal Europa Party leanings, the University of Deusto sets up a second campus in Rennes, with the mission of "encouraging academic brotherhood between the Basque and Celt peoples." Deusto-Rennes quickly develops excellent linguistics and archaeology programs.
September 8th 1940- Japan goes around the Treaty of San Francisco by raising the size of the Special Naval Landing Forces to a size never seem before. By the end of the decade close to eight divisions of this nation's equivalent to Marines were serving in active duty.
September 9th 1940- Giacomo San Pietro agrees with Pope Paul VI and the Austro-Hungarian ambassador to Rome in the terms later called the Rome Accord. San Pietro agreed to recognize the city of Rome and a small corridor from the coast to that city as “temporal territory of the Pope” and under the eternal protection of the Kingdom of Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Also he recognized the lost of Lombardy and Venetia to the Austro-Hungarians in exchange for the recognition of his Regency as the “true” government of Italy and for the Austro-Hungarians to stop sending support to any other factions in the ongoing Civil War.
September 10th 1940- United States develops the first surface to air AA missile. Using semi-active MWD homing like the Russian Golden Eagle, the Bulldog was designed to be used either in ships or as static air defense due to being too large to be mobile. It enter production in 1942.
September 17th 1940- British Prime Minister Cripps announces that no further construction of battleships or battlecruisers is on the immediate future. Instead major capital ships were going to be send to be refurnished to extend the lifetime of those ships. Also he announced that the five oldest dreadnaughts and the three battlecruisers in the Royal Navy were going either to be decommissioned or transferred to Dominion’s fleets. Critics accused Cripps of reducing the Royal Fleet to “second to the US”, but he defended himself by stating that the Royal Navy has still almost a 2:1 advantage in battleships versus the US and almost parity on carriers with the Colossus class.
Fall 1940 -- With the introduction of the 1941 model year, the two newcomers on the European auto market surge into prominence. Britain's Sopwith-Rolls, which until 1938 had contented itself with the British market, is now #1 in revenue in France, a position largely won because high-end manufacturing has been almost impossible in France. Gesgeshi, meanwhile, has won the #1 spot in Italy through an innovative sales technique -- by only selling their cars at dockside dealerships, they feed on the association of anything Italian with turmoil and failure. Businesses in other industries soon mimic Gegegshi, further warping the Italian economy.
October 1st to 10th 1940- Chicago Cubs won their second consecutive World Series, by defeating the Boston Blue Sox 4 games to 3. Shortstop Paul Dimaggio (.374-37-119) wins the National League Leadership Award by winning the batting crown and leading his team to victory for a second consecutive year.
October 8th 1940- Enrico Fermi is spotted in Moscow by diplomatic attaches under the German Naval Intelligence Department.
October 17th 1940- The Socialist Republic of Italy leader Pasolini is assassinated while reading on his study in Genoa. The assassin was a member of his security detail, disgruntled with the continued bloodshed and no end in sight to the fighting in Italy. A provisional Junta was immediately formed and their first order of business was to ask for a ceasefire with the Italian People’s Republic that was accepted three days later.
November 1940 Despite signs that the economy is reviving, incumbent president Wendell Wilkie is defeated by Republican challenger Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
November 1940- Rafael Espaillat is reelected as President of the Dominican Republic. The next six years saw the economy slowly taking a turn for the better while in the international front the nation was more active in the Caribbean, with the border with Haiti being closed after a border clash with the Gendermerie in 1942 and his nation taking part in the stabilization of Cuba in 1945.
November 14th 1940- Brazil puts an order to the British for the construction of two brand new ones fast battleships to increase the size of their fleet. The ships had a displacement of 27,000 tons, a max speed of 32 knots and armed with three dual 12” guns. The main guns were taken from old decommissioned British ships to save in cost and the armour on the ships really made them battlecruiser. A terrible mistake in the opinion of many naval experts, it was considered a fast ship that handled very well but it lacked the armour and guns to stand up in any fight against the main ships of their possible rivals.
December 19th 1940- The Dominion of India informs the British government their intention of acquiring as many ships as possible from the ones being mothballed by the Royal Navy, to what Prime Minister Nehru stated “to build a true Royal Indian Navy.”
1940
1940- Many of the groups of Chinese around Oakland are united by a powerful gang, known as the T'ang Dragons.
1940- Clinton Anderson runs for the state senate in Sonora, winning in his district.
1940 Fiorella LaGuardia resigns from the Governorship to run for Roosevelt's Senate seat, which TR Jr. is not running for in order to concentrate on his race for the Presidency. He hands the Governor's office over to his trusted Lt. Governor, to give him the incumbant advantage in the next Gubernatorial election.
1940 - The Imperial Council is formally renamed the Imperial Senate. All powers of oversight of inter-Imperial relations and foreign relations have been ceded by Westminster to the Senate, which has three elected representatives from each Dominion as well as Great Britain in its composition. The Prime Minister of Great Britain and the Sovereign both may wield a veto power over the Senate, which in turn can be overturned by a 3/4 vote of the Senate or a vote for overturning the veto in 2/3rds of the Dominions plus Great Britain.
January 1940: Seymour publishes an article in a Pulitzer paper again about the nature of comitees. He encourages more men of the people to be invited, and discourages the old tendancy of only bringing in party big whigs.
January 4, 1940 - Officials in Brittany declare the Breton Republic and petition London, Madrid, Lisbon, and Berlin for recognition. Some see this more of an attempt to avoid reparations than a true revolution, but the breakaway region is recognized by most nations by the end of the year.
January 13th 1940- Left wing counter-coup occurs in the South of France, with Marseilles being declared the capital of a Socialist Provencal Republic. The French fleet is taken after a short fight almost intact.
January 16th 1940- Infant Vittorio Emanuelle is declared King of Italy by Giacomo San Pietro, who declares himself regent. In reality the young King's rule was only effective over the lower third of Italy, Sicily and Sardinia.
January 25th 1940- The Saud faction in the Arabian Peninsula is finally eliminated, their pipeline to Russian weapons already dry and with no foreign support. The leaders went either into exile or died but many later joined the extremist Allah’s Will movement.
January 27, 1940 - The Boston, Revere Beach, and Lynn Railroad goes defunct. It is decided by the MTA to purchase the section of the line going from Wood Island to Lynn and convert it to extend the Bowdoin-Airport Line.
February 1940: The convention comitee agrees to adopt Seymours suggestions. Seymour's theory is that Roosevelt's support comes not from party leadership but from the middle class. Though LaGuardia and Cabot-Lodge both reppresent their party's beliefs much better then Roosevelt, they lack the media appeal. Thus Hearst ensured a Roosevelt primary victory. Roosevelt remained unaware of any of this planning.
February 1st 1940- Chaos reigns in France. By now separatists movements are in place in at least two areas of France while the rule of the French monarch effectively only exists in the immediate area of Paris and in Occupied France.
February 7th 1940- Regiment 999 is used by the Austro-Hungarian Army as the parent unit for the creation of an elite division, the Guards Division. Under Michael Skorzeny the unit, while their members were fully trained as airmobile troops, they were an unconventional unit used to defeat irregular forces using the teachings of their commander Skorzeny.
February 13th 1940- Frank Anthony, one of the prominent leaders of the Anglo-Indian community in India, is named as Minister of Education in the Nehru’s cabinet.
February 22nd 1940- First Amphibious Armored vehicles or AAV’s for short were ordered into production by the Department of the Navy. With the reduction going on of the military only 120 were ordered, a quantity considered not enough by many of the leaders in the US Marines. Tracked and capable of 9 mph on water, they were considered to fill the expectations of the Marines’ experts but the actions in Cuba in 1945 demonstrated some changes needed to be made in the design.
March 1940- Erich von Manstein, German Chief of the General Staff, announced his plan for the reduction in size of the German Heer. While personally opposed to this, he was told that the funding for the Heer was being slashed and was forced to come up with a plan to how to use the available funds. The main shock to the press was the announced reduction of the number of divisions from the 52 current post-war divisions to 28. He announced that was going to be a process that they expected to finish by 1946, with the end result being better equip divisions, armed with the most modern weapons systems build by that time. A lot of the available funds were being made available to the Heer’s R&D division to ensure his promise was a reality.
March 1st 1940- Manchurian Republic Army is formally organized. With Manchuria being declared independent since early 1938 only the Treaty of San Francisco guaranteed the continued existence of the nation while Chinese making overt moves to end their existence. While the organization followed the traditions of the Japanese Army in the size and shape of the units, the equipment was a mix of Japanese and Russian equipment on the first years while neutral “advisors”, in majority of the cases American but some Russians and South Americans were also included in the first years. By the end of the year the Army reached the higher echelon level organization that still exists today of four army groups but the composition of the units included in those army groups changed with time but originally were three infantry divisions each of 15,000 per group.
March 7th 1940- Napoleon IV abdicates the French throne in what he stated “to end the cycle of violence our nation is falling.”
March 16th 1940- Irish prime minister Michael Collins steps down due to health reasons. He's replaced by his political ally Richard Mulcahy, former commander of the Irish Expeditionary Force during the Global War and recently Minister of the Interior for Collins' cabinet.
March 17th 1940- Japan began production of the Mitsubishi A5M to replace the remaining American build P-14 on their carrier-based inventory. With a maximum range of over 900 miles, with a maximum speed of 330 mph and armed with two 20mm cannons and two 7.7mm machineguns it was build in duralumin alloy to save weight and made it very maneuverable. It was the best carrier-based aircraft of the early 1940’s but it was superseded by newer designs by 1948.
March 18th 1940- Sir Oswald Mosley is named to the Cripps cabinet as a minister without portfolio. A member of the Labour Party since 1922, Mosley returned to politics after serving in a Territorial Division during the Global War and being wounded in 1936.
March 18th 1940- King Alfonso XIII of Spain dies and his succeeded by his son Alfonso, who took the throne as Alfonso XIV.
March 29th 1940- Malagasy nationalist revolted against the Germans. Although the revolt eventually spread to 1/3 of the island, the Germans were able to defeat the revolt after the arrival of Askaris from Tanganyika and the Congo by the end of the year. Estimates put the casualties in between 20,000 to 30,000 Malagasy with close to 2,000 German and Askaris being counted as casualties. The revolt polarized the politics in the island, forcing the German to rule by decree until 1951.
April 8th 1940- Even with the Russian Baltic Fleet still a threat even in their reduced state, budget cutbacks affected the German Imperial Fleet. Finally after some arm twisting, enough funds were found to build a new class of battleships, a three-ship class with one of the ships being build for the German Far East Fleet. Three ships with three triple 18” turrets, they turned out to be obsolete by the time their construction was ended in early 1947.
April 12th 1940- Germany develops the first ship/submarine launched surface to surface missile. Using semi active MWD the "Raptor" was a Pulsejet/ramjet hybrid that could be launched from any catapult-equipped ship. The "Hawk" the submarine launched derivative used pulse jets with solid rocket boosters and was radio command guided. It was launched from a converted UA type sub. Unfortunatly due to budget constrains a modified version of the Hawk called the Hawk 1A, which used the guidance package of the Raptor, was employed in small numbers as a coastal defence weapon. Become operational in 1942.
April 19th 1940-Japanese Prime Minister Yamashita announces a process of integration of the citizens of the Empire. His idea was to force Japanese culture into the minorities of the Empire in an attempt to eliminate what he called “the dissention that caused our defeat in the past war never happens again.”
April 23 1940 -- A coalition of Asian Canadian groups, reacting to Japan's planned crackdown on its minorities, begins petitioning Parliament to expand immigration quotas and streamline the naturalization process. Millions of Asians arrived in Canada as "war refugees" or through other special programs, but the public is increasingly willing to allow Asian immigrants in through the front door.
April 24th 1940- Leon Blum returns to France from his exile in Mexico and in Calais announces he was willing to lead a coalition of moderate groups to bring an end to the chaos in France. The British and Germans support Blum’s attempts to bring an end to the French quagmire.
May 1940: New oil fields are discovered in Bahrain and Qatar. Petrol prices plummet to 20-year lows, as the post-war auto market in Europe has been dominated almost entirely by fuel-efficient cars while Americans continue their love affair with half-electric hybrids. The more-expensive oil sands petrol fields in Canada and Venezuela begin losing money.
May-June 1940 -- Although a sizeable portion of voters, especially in Quebec, are still opposed to increased immigration, the Asian Canadians seem to be having their "breakthrough moment", as the Toronto Star called it. Parades, speeches, and community action campaigns have gathered hundreds of thousands of volunteers. In the oldest Asian communities, Victoria and Vancouver, there are almost as many White volunteers as Asian.
May 2nd 1940- Lt. General Erwin Rommel is ordered to lead the German advisor team in China to help build the Chinese Army on the German mold. Rommel’s recommendation was to further reduce the size of the Chinese Army, from the current 70 infantry divisions with a small armored complement, into 40 divisions with a preponderance in armored vehicles plus independent brigades included. He stated the process will be a long one and he has his doubts it will completed during his four-year tenure in the post.
May 10th 1940- The city of Paris is captured by forces loyal to the new Republican government of Leon Blum. Air assets of the British and German occupation forces supported the advancing forces.
May 17 1940 -- Canadian Parliament begins debate on a series of new proposals designed to encourage further Asian immigration and continue integrating the existing immigrant population.
May 18th 1940- Igor Sikorsky, the Russian aircraft engineer, unveils the S-7. The very first production helicopter to enter service in any armed forces, they made a very showing during the short 1941 civil war and served with the Russian military for the rest of the decade until replaced by faster and more capable designs.
May 21st 1940- The 2nd and 3rd Cavalry Divisions are dismounted and replaced their horses with armored vehicles. The new Cavalry Corps, with the 1st Cavalry in Fort Riley, the 2nd in Fort Hood and the 3rd in Fort Huachuca, was put under the overall command of the war hero George Patton.
May 22 1940 With the oil prices plummeting, President Gomez orders the sale of Venezuela's oil to its ravaged neighbors in South America at a discount of the world price in an attempt to dominate the market in the area plus he made massive sales of oil to China at special rates. By the end of the year the size of the new markets pushed the Venezuelan economy back in the right direction. President Gomez uses the oil generated funds to begin a crash program to industrialize and strengthen his country as a whole.
June 4th 1940- Henri Petain finally agrees to meet his former opponent in Paris to end the Civil War in France. Petain was very sick due to his age and the months he spent in prison during 1939 and early 1940. The old warrior was very condescend and after days of meetings he agreed to speak to the right-wing factions to lay down their weapons and to work together in a coalition government. Petain was offered the position of President while Blum took for himself the position of Prime Minister. Still Brittany and the Provencal areas refused to acknowledge the new Paris government.
June 8th 1940- China announces the purchase of over 600 surplus American M1A1 and M2A1 armored cars. Those vehicles, with the remaining vehicles from the Global War and the ones donated by the Central Powers from French stock made possible to raise three armored divisions by the end of 1942.
June 25 1940- After news are leaked that money that had been received to help the economy was being spent on the military the public begin to protest the action of President Umanzor, as not wanting to help his country but on the contrary to appease his power base on the military.
June 27, 1940 -- Before a cheering crowd in Rideau Hall, Ottowa, Governor General Charles Colquhoun Ballantyne signs the Reformed Naturalization and Education Acts. He is accompanied by Willie Ah Poy and Stanley Chong, the first two Asian-Canadian MPs. The acts greatly ease the process for Asians, especially ethnic minorities from China, Manchuria, and Japan, to immigrate to Canada. They also reform the educational system, first and foremost to make it easier for Asians to learn English and French, but also so that other Canadians can learn various Asian languages in public schools.
July 1940- The German Army used the lessons of the Great War to bear in the design of their new main battle rifle, the GEW 40. The recognition that the majority of battlefield casualties occurred at shorter ranges brought forward the idea of improved firepower coupled with the use of a smaller caliber round for the main battlerifle. The ideas for the development of this weapons have to wait until the end of the war due to the use of funds for the "Thor Project." Still this weapon was revolutionary. A selective fire 30 round detachable magazine rifle, the use of the 7.92 x 33 MM round made it possible to be used as a submachinegun at shorter ranges but with greater accuracy and range than submachineguns in longer range encounters.
July 4, 1940 - Jews in Salonika start a revolt against Greek rule. They demand the restoration of the Autonomous state.
Jul 4th 1940- William Lincoln Roberts is born in Alexandria, Virginia. The son of a a veteran of the 10th Infantry Division (colored) and a schoolteacher, he was a well educated and athletic boy, receiving allocades by all his teachers and piers during his school years.
August 1940: Hearst gives an official endorsement to Roosevelt.
Fall 1940 - Republican presidential candidate Theodore Roosevelt Jr. holds appeal to several Democrats, who come to be called 'Roosevelt Democrats'.
September 1940 -- Through the financial backing of Spanish-Basque businessmen, especially those with Euskal Europa Party leanings, the University of Deusto sets up a second campus in Rennes, with the mission of "encouraging academic brotherhood between the Basque and Celt peoples." Deusto-Rennes quickly develops excellent linguistics and archaeology programs.
September 8th 1940- Japan goes around the Treaty of San Francisco by raising the size of the Special Naval Landing Forces to a size never seem before. By the end of the decade close to eight divisions of this nation's equivalent to Marines were serving in active duty.
September 9th 1940- Giacomo San Pietro agrees with Pope Paul VI and the Austro-Hungarian ambassador to Rome in the terms later called the Rome Accord. San Pietro agreed to recognize the city of Rome and a small corridor from the coast to that city as “temporal territory of the Pope” and under the eternal protection of the Kingdom of Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Also he recognized the lost of Lombardy and Venetia to the Austro-Hungarians in exchange for the recognition of his Regency as the “true” government of Italy and for the Austro-Hungarians to stop sending support to any other factions in the ongoing Civil War.
September 10th 1940- United States develops the first surface to air AA missile. Using semi-active MWD homing like the Russian Golden Eagle, the Bulldog was designed to be used either in ships or as static air defense due to being too large to be mobile. It enter production in 1942.
September 17th 1940- British Prime Minister Cripps announces that no further construction of battleships or battlecruisers is on the immediate future. Instead major capital ships were going to be send to be refurnished to extend the lifetime of those ships. Also he announced that the five oldest dreadnaughts and the three battlecruisers in the Royal Navy were going either to be decommissioned or transferred to Dominion’s fleets. Critics accused Cripps of reducing the Royal Fleet to “second to the US”, but he defended himself by stating that the Royal Navy has still almost a 2:1 advantage in battleships versus the US and almost parity on carriers with the Colossus class.
Fall 1940 -- With the introduction of the 1941 model year, the two newcomers on the European auto market surge into prominence. Britain's Sopwith-Rolls, which until 1938 had contented itself with the British market, is now #1 in revenue in France, a position largely won because high-end manufacturing has been almost impossible in France. Gesgeshi, meanwhile, has won the #1 spot in Italy through an innovative sales technique -- by only selling their cars at dockside dealerships, they feed on the association of anything Italian with turmoil and failure. Businesses in other industries soon mimic Gegegshi, further warping the Italian economy.
October 1st to 10th 1940- Chicago Cubs won their second consecutive World Series, by defeating the Boston Blue Sox 4 games to 3. Shortstop Paul Dimaggio (.374-37-119) wins the National League Leadership Award by winning the batting crown and leading his team to victory for a second consecutive year.
October 8th 1940- Enrico Fermi is spotted in Moscow by diplomatic attaches under the German Naval Intelligence Department.
October 17th 1940- The Socialist Republic of Italy leader Pasolini is assassinated while reading on his study in Genoa. The assassin was a member of his security detail, disgruntled with the continued bloodshed and no end in sight to the fighting in Italy. A provisional Junta was immediately formed and their first order of business was to ask for a ceasefire with the Italian People’s Republic that was accepted three days later.
November 1940 Despite signs that the economy is reviving, incumbent president Wendell Wilkie is defeated by Republican challenger Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
November 1940- Rafael Espaillat is reelected as President of the Dominican Republic. The next six years saw the economy slowly taking a turn for the better while in the international front the nation was more active in the Caribbean, with the border with Haiti being closed after a border clash with the Gendermerie in 1942 and his nation taking part in the stabilization of Cuba in 1945.
November 14th 1940- Brazil puts an order to the British for the construction of two brand new ones fast battleships to increase the size of their fleet. The ships had a displacement of 27,000 tons, a max speed of 32 knots and armed with three dual 12” guns. The main guns were taken from old decommissioned British ships to save in cost and the armour on the ships really made them battlecruiser. A terrible mistake in the opinion of many naval experts, it was considered a fast ship that handled very well but it lacked the armour and guns to stand up in any fight against the main ships of their possible rivals.
December 19th 1940- The Dominion of India informs the British government their intention of acquiring as many ships as possible from the ones being mothballed by the Royal Navy, to what Prime Minister Nehru stated “to build a true Royal Indian Navy.”