. . . Walt Disney’s Pinocchio made its cinematic debut (Feb 7).

. . . Hattie McDaniel won an Oscar for Gone With the Wind, becoming the first African-American Academy award winner (Feb 29).

. . . Hitler and Mussolini decided to fight Britain and France (Mar 18).

. . . Germany invaded Denmark and Norway (Apr 9).

. . . 198 people were killed in nightclub fire in Natchez, Mississippi.

. . . Winston Churchill became prime minister of Britain (May10).

. . .Brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald opened a small hamburger restaurant in San Bernardino, California (May 15).

. . . Auchwitz-Birkenau, an extermination camp opened in occupied Poland (May 20).

. . . The Germans took over Paris (June 14).

. . . The first Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was held in South Dakota (June 16).

. . . Bug Bunny made his first screen appearance in the film A Wild Hare, which was later nominated for an Oscar.

. . .Penicillin was first described as a useful medicine (Aug 28).

. . .Germany began bombing England (Sep 7).

. . . The first-ever peacetime draft registration began in the United States (Oct 16)

. . .Walt Disney’s Fantasia opened and became Disney’s first box office failure (Nov 13).

. . .California opened its first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway (now CA 110, the Pasadena Freeway).