Michael T. Mondak speaks: 40 til 40 day 8

This is day eight of 40 in this 40 til 40 series of blog entries about anything and everything relevant to the number 40 as my 40th birthday approaches on July 10.

In my last entry I talked about Super Bowl XL.  Today I will take you on a time machine ride back to the year 1940.

1940 was the year that Sudbury, Ontario, Canada gave the world future Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek.  Ringo Starr was born that same year, as were Nancy Sinatra, Stan Mikita, Emilio Delgado, Al Pacino, John Havlicek, James Caan, Chuck Norris, Nancy Pelosi, Peter Fonda, Tom Brokaw, Jack Nicklaus, Martin Sheen, Galen Hall, Jill St. John, Frankie Avalon, John Lennon, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Joe Gibbs, Donna Mills, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Don Francisco.

1940 was the year that Isaac Babel died, along with William Dodd, Madeleine Astor, George Barnes, Joe De Grasse, James Hall, George Fitzmaurice, Ben Turpin, Robert Wadlow, Leon Trotsky, Robert Hichens, Tom Mix, Neville Chamberlain, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Nathanael West.

1940 was the year that food rationing began in Great Britain as a result of World War II, the Olympics were cancelled, the British Open was cancelled, Booker T. Washington became the first black man depicted on a United States postage stamp, Winston Churchill became the new British Prime Minister, France fell to Nazi Germany, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, aka Galloping Gertie, opened, then collapsed four months later, Bugs Bunny made his cartoon debut, the Pennsylvania Turnpike opened, President Franklin Roosevelt was elected for an unprecedented third term as president, 144 people were killed in the Armistice Day Blizzard in the Midwestern United States, Walt Disney’s Fantasia debuted, Abbott and Costello made their film debut, Woody Woodpecker made his cartoon debut, and president Roosevelt first proposed the Lend-Lease Act.

1940 was the year the New York Rangers won the Stanley Cup over the Boston Bruins, then celebrated by burning the mortgage papers for Madison Square Garden in the Cup.  The Cincinnati Reds won the World Series over the Detroit Tigers, and the Chicago Bears won the NFL championship over the Washington Redskins by a lopsided final score of 73-0.  Bob Feller pitched a no-hitter on Opening Day for the Cleveland Indians against the Chicago White Sox, Jimmy Demaret won his first Masters Tournament at Augusta National, Lawson Little won the US Open outside of Cleveland, and Byron Nelson won the PGA Championship in Hershey.  The Minnesota Golden Gophers were national champions of college football, and the Indiana Hoosiers were national champions of college basketball.