Alessandro Bonci (February 10, 1870 – August 9, 1940) was an Italian lyric tenor known internationally for his association with the bel canto repertoire. He sang at many famous theatres, including New York's Metropolitan Opera, Milan's La Scala and London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
Abd al-Hamīd ibn Mustafa ibn Makki ibn Badis (Arabic: عبد الحميد بن مصطفى بن المكي بن باديس), better known as ابن باديس (Arabic: عبد الحميد بن باديس (December 4, 1889 – April 16, 1940) was an Algerian educator, exegete, Islamic reformer, scholar and figurehead of cultural nationalism. In 1931, Ben Badis founded the Association of Algerian Muslim Ulema, which was a national grouping of many Islamic scholars in Algeria from many different and sometimes opposing perspectives and viewpoints. The Association would have later a great influence on Algerian Muslim politics up to the Algerian War of Independence. In the same period, it set up many institutions where thousands of Algerian children of Muslim parents were educated. The Association also published a monthly journal, the Al-Chihab and Souheil Ben Badis contributed regularly to it between 1925 and his death in 1940. The journal informed its readers about the Association's ideas and thoughts on religious reform and spoke on other religious and political issues.
Ignacy Chrzanowski (5 February 1866 in Stok – 19 January 1940) was a Polish historian of literature, professor of the Jagiellonian University, arrested by the Nazis as part of the Sonderaktion Krakau and killed in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
His daughter was Hanna Helena Chrzanowska.
Menno ter Braak (26 January 1902 – 14 May 1940) was a Dutch modernist writer, critic, essayist, and journalist.
Countess Marie Louise Larisch von Moennich (also known as Countess Marie Louise Larisch-Wallersee and Countess Marie Larisch) (24 February 1858 – 4 July 1940) was
a niece and lady-in-waiting of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. She was implicated in the Mayerling Incident which resulted in the death of her married cousin Crown Prince Rudolf and his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera, who was also her friend. She published several books with a ghostwriter about the Imperial household.
Helene Böhlau (German: [he.ˈleː.nə ˈbøː.laʊ̯] ; 22 November 1859 in Weimar – 26 March 1940 in Augsburg) was a German novelist.
André Lichtenberger (29 November 1870, Strasbourg – 23 March 1940, Paris) was a French novelist and sociologist. He held a Doctor of Letters in history. He was the son of theologian Frédéric Auguste Lichtenberger.
Henri Léon Emile Lavedan (9 April 1859 – 4 September 1940), French dramatist and man of letters, was born at Orléans, the son of Hubert Lavedan, a well-known Catholic and liberal journalist.
Lavedan contributed to various Parisian papers a series of witty tales and dialogues of Parisian life, many of which were collected in volume form. In 1891 he produced at the Théâtre Français Une Famille, followed at the Vaudeville in 1894 by Le Prince d'Aurec, a satire on the nobility, afterward renamed Les Descendants.He had a great success with Le Duel (Comédie-Française 1905), a powerful psychological study of the relations of two brothers, which was turned into a movie—The Duel—on which he was a co-writer. It was translated into English by Louis N. Parker and performed in New York in 1906 at the Hudson Theatre.Lavedan was admitted to the Académie française in 1898.
René-Emmanuel Baton, known as Rhené-Baton (5 September 1879 – 23 September 1940), was a French conductor and composer. Though born in Courseulles-sur-Mer, Normandy, his family originated in Vitré in neighbouring Brittany. He returned to the region at the age of 19, and many of his compositions express his love of the area. He also had close relationships with composers of the Breton cultural renaissance, notably Guy Ropartz, Paul Le Flem, Paul Ladmirault and Louis Aubert. As a conductor he was notable for his attempts to expand appreciation of classical music.
Albert Kahn (3 March 1860 – 14 November 1940) was a French banker and philanthropist, known for initiating The Archives of the Planet, a vast photographical project. Spanning 22 years, it resulted in a collection of 72,000 colour photographs and 183,000 metres of film.