February 29, 1940

1940Sonja Barend, Dutch talk show host^[†]

Sonja Maria Barend is a Dutch television personality and former talk show host. Her talk show Sonja, which she presented since the 1970s, was noted for breaking taboos and allowing ordinary people a voice in public dialog. She retired from television in 2006, after four decades of television making.

1940Bartholomew I, current Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.^[†]

Bartholomew is the current Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople since 1991. In accordance with his title, he is regarded as the primus inter pares in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and as a spiritual leader of the Eastern Orthodox Christians worldwide.

1940For her performance as Mammy in Gone with the Wind, Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African American to win an Academy Award.^[†]

Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American epic historical romance film adapted from the 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell. The film was produced by David O. Selznick of Selznick International Pictures and directed by Victor Fleming. Set in the American South against the backdrop of the American Civil War and the Reconstruction era, the film tells the story of Scarlett O'Hara, the strong-willed daughter of a Georgia plantation owner, following her romantic pursuit of Ashley Wilkes, who is married to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton, and her subsequent marriage to Rhett Butler.

1940Finland initiates Winter War peace negotiations.^[†]

The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940. Despite superior military strength, especially in tanks and aircraft, the Soviet Union suffered severe losses and initially made little headway. The League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from its organization.