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| 1940, May 16 |
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| President Roosevelt asked the Congress to appropriate $2.5 billion for expansion of the army and navy and proposed a production goal of 50,000 airplanes a year. This program of expansion was to be supervised by a defense advisory commission. | 1 |
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| June 16 |
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| Congress authorized the sale of munitions to the government of any American republic. This measure, known as the Pittman Act, was extended by provisions authorizing the Export-Import Bank to lend the American republics up to $500 million (Sept. 26) and permitting them to procure munitions of a total value of $400 million for their defense. These programs were taken over by the Lend-Lease Administration after its creation in March 1941. | 2 |
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| June 17 |
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| The U.S. Department of State notified European governments that it would not recognize the transfer of any geographic region of the Western Hemisphere from one non-American power to another non-American power. | 3 |
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| July 20 |
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| President Roosevelt signed a bill providing for a two-ocean navy as part of a vast defense plan for the U.S. in particular and the Western Hemisphere in general. | 4 |
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| July 30 |
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| The republics of the Pan-American Union approved a convention setting up an Inter-American commission on territorial administration to guard the sovereignty of the states of the Western Hemisphere. At this meeting at Havana, the delegates also approved the Act of Havana providing that the American republics, jointly or individually, should act as their own defense and that of the continent required. | 5 |
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| Aug. 18 |
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| President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Mackenzie King of Canada agreed to set up a joint board of defense. | 6 |
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| Sept. 2 |
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| The U.S. obtained naval and air bases in Newfoundland, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Trinidad, Antigua, and British Guiana on 99-year leases from Great Britain. In exchange Britain acquired 50 overage destroyers from the U.S. The facilities at these bases were extended to the Latin American governments in conformity with understandings reached at the conferences of Lima, Panama, and Havana. | 7 |
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| Sept. 16 |
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| The U.S. Congress passed the Selective Service Act providing for the registration of all men between 21 and 36 years of age, and for the training, for one year, of 1.2 million troops and 800,000 reserves. | 8 |
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| Dec. 20 |
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| The president named a defense board headed by William A. Knudsen to prepare defense measures and speed armament production. | 9 |
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