1939

Years: 1936 1937 1938 - 1939 - 1940 1941 1942
Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s - 1930s - 1940s 1950s 1960s
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century 1939 in art 1939 in aviation 1939 in film 1939 in literature 1939 in music 1939 in radio 1939 in science 1939 in sports 1939 in television 1939 state leaders 1939 in Canada

Events

January-June

January 2 - End of term for Frank Finley Merriam, 28th Governor of California. He is succeeded by Culbert Levy Olson.
January 24 - Earthquake kills 30.000 in Chile – about 50.000 sq mi razed
January 26 - Falangists take Barcelona
January 26 - Spanish Civil War: Troops loyal to Francisco Franco and aided by Italy take Barcelona.
February 2 - Hungary joins Antikomintern Pact
February 10 - Falangists take Catalonia
February 27 - United Kingdom and France recognize Franco's government
February 27 - Borley Rectory burns
February 27 - Sit-down strikes are outlawed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
March 2 - Pius XII becomes Pope
March 3 - In Bombay, Mohandas Gandhi begins to fast in protest of the autocratic rule in India.
March 15 - German troops occupy the remaining part of Bohemia and Moravia; Czechoslovakia ceases to exist; beginning hostilities leading to WWII
March 16 - Marriage of Princess Fawzia of Egypt to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran
March 22 - Germany takes Memel from Lithuania
March 28 - Dictator Francisco Franco conquers Madrid, ending the Spanish Civil War
March 28 - The last message from an adventurer Richard Halliburton - he disappears later
April 4 - Faisal II becomes King of Iraq.
April 7 - Italy invades Albania - King Zog flees
April 11 - Hungary leaves the League of Nations
May 7 - Spain leaves the League of Nations
May 22 - Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.
June 4 - Holocaust: The SS St. Louis, a ship carrying a cargo of 963 Jewish refugees, is denied permission to land in Florida after already having been turned away from Cuba. Forced to return to Europe, most of its passengers later die in Nazi concentration camps.
June 17 - Last public execution by guillotine in France - murderer Eugen Weidmann

July-September

July 4 - The concentration camp Neuengamme becomes autonomous.
July 6 - Holocaust: The last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany are closed.
August 23 - Hitler and Stalin divide eastern Europe between themselves. Finland, the Baltic states and eastern Poland to the USSR. Western Poland to Germany (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact)
August 27 - A Heinkel 178, the first jet-powered aircraft, flies for the last time.
August 30 - Poland begins mobilization
September 1 - World War II: Polish September Campaign - Nazi Germany attacks Poland, beginning the war
September 3 - World War II: France, Australia and the United Kingdom declare war on Germany.
September 5 - World War II: The United States declares its neutrality in the war.
September 6 - World War II: South Africa declares war on Germany.
September 10 - Canada declares war on Germany.
September 17 - Soviet Union invades Poland and then occupies eastern Polish territories.
September 27 - Warsaw surrenders to Germany; Modlin surrenders day later; last Polish large operational unit surrenders near Kock eight days later.

October-November

October 8 - World War II: Germany annexes Western Poland.
October 11 - Manhattan Project: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt is presented with a letter signed by Albert Einstein urging the United States to rapidly develop the atomic bomb.
October 15 - The New York Municipal Airport (later renamed La Guardia Airport) is dedicated.
November 4 - World War II: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the United States Customs Service to implement the Neutrality Act of 1939, allowing cash-and-carry purchases of weapons by belligerents.
November 6 - World War II: Sonderaktion Krakau
November 6 - The Hedda Hopper Show debuts with Hollywood gossip Hedda Hopper as host (the show ran until 1951 and made Hopper a powerful figure in the Hollywood elite).
November 8 - Venlo Incident: Two British agents of SIS are captured by the Germans.
November 8 - In Munich, Adolf Hitler narrowly escapes an assassination attempt while celebrating the 16th anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch.
November 15 - In Washington, DC, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial.
November 30 - Winter War begins: Soviet forces invade Finland and reach the Mannerheim Line, starting the war.

December

December 2 - La Guardia Airport opens for business in New York City.
December 14 The USSR was expelled from League of Nations because of attacking Finland
December 25 - A Christmas Carol was read before a radio audience for the first time.
December 27 - Earthquake in Eastern Anatolia, Turkey, destroys the town of Erzingan - about 100.000 dead
December 26 - Mining strike in Boringae, Belgium

unknown dates

Batman created by Bob Kane.
Nuclear fission discovered independently by Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn
Kirlian photography invented by Semyon Kirlian
Siam changes its name to Thailand
A logging crew sets off a second forest fire in the Tillamook Burn, which destroys 190,000 acres (769 km²)

Ongoing events

Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)

Year in topic

1939 in film
- August 12 - The Wizard of Oz
- December 15 - Gone With the Wind premiers in Atlanta, Georgia.
- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington starring Jimmy Stewart
- Of Mice and Men
- Wuthering Heights
1939 in literature
1939 in music
- January 18 - Louis Armstrong records "Jeepers Creepers."
- Frequency modulation (FM) is invented
1939 in sports
July 4 - Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, tells a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considered himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth" as he announces his retirement from Major League Baseball.
1939 in television
- April - television demonstrations are held at the World's Fair in New York and the Golden Gate International Exhibition in San Francisco
- April 30 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, appearing at the World's Fair, becomes the first U.S. president to give a speech that is broadcast on television
- May 17 - The first baseball game (Princeton-Columbia) is broadcast on television, from Baker Field in New York. Bill Stern was the announcer
- June 1 - The first heavyweight boxing match is televised, Max Baer vs Lou Nova, form Yankee Stadium.
- August 26 - The first Major League Baseball game is telecast, a double-header between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field, in Brooklyn.
- September 1 - As World War II began, BBC television abruptly stopped its broadcasting in the middle of a Mickey Mouse cartoon (The BBC would resume its broadcasting at that same point after the war in 1945)
- The DuMont company begins producing consumer television sets
- September 30 - The first televised college football game, Fordham vs Waynesburg, at Randall's Island, New York.
- October 22 - The first NFL game is televised. The Brooklyn Dodgers vs Philadelphia Eagles at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn.

Births

July

July 14 - George E. Slusser, American scholar, professor & writer
July 26 - John Howard, twenty-fifth Prime Minister of Australia
July 26 - Bob Lilly, NFL football player

August

August 5 - Princess Irene of the Netherlands
August 22 - Carl Yastrzemski, Baseball Hall of Famer
August 29 - Joel Schumacher, film producer, director
August 30 - John Peel, Radio 1 DJ

September-December

September 6- Brigid Berlin actor and artist
September 16 - Breyten Breytenbach, South African poet, writer and painter
September 23 - Janusz Gajos, Polish actor
September 30 - Len Cariou, Tony Award winning stage actor/singer
October 7 - John Hopcroft, American theoretical computer scientist
October 14 - Ralph Lauren, American fashion designer
October 24 - F. Murray Abraham, actor
October 31 - Ron Rifkin, actor
November 21 - Mulayam Singh Yadav, politician, India
November 23 - Bill Bissett, Canadian anti-conventional poet
December 8 - James Galway, Irish flutist
December 18 - Michael Moorcock, English science fiction author

Robert T. Bennett, chairman of the Ohio Republican Party

Deaths

January 24 - Maximilian Bircher-Benner, Swiss physician and Muesli inventor
January 28 - William Butler Yeats, writer
February 10 - Pope Pius XI
February 11 - Franz Schmidt, Austrian composer
February 12 - S. P. L. S�rensen, Danish chemist
March 19 - Lloyd L. Gaines, American civil rights activist
April 7 - Joseph Lyons, tenth Prime Minister of Australia
June 4 - Tommy Ladnier, jazz musician (b. 1900)
June 17 - Eugen Weidmann, last public guillotine execution in France
June 19 - Grace Abbott, social worker, activist (b. 1878)
August 2 - Harvey Spencer Lewis, F.R.C., Rosicrucian mysticist and Imperator of AMORC
September 18 - Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (a.k.a. “Witkacy”), Polish writer and painter (b. 1885)
October 7 - Harvey Cushing, American neurosurgeon (b. 1869)
November 12 - Norman Bethune, Canadian humanitarian
November 28 - James Naismith, inventor of basketball
December 3 - Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, fourth daughter of Queen Victoria
December 22 - Ma Rainey, blues singer (b. 1886)
December 23 - Anthony Fokker, aircraft manufacturer

Nobel Prizes

Physics - Ernest Orlando Lawrence
Chemistry - Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt, Leopold Ruzicka
Medicine - Gerhard Domagk
Literature - Frans Eemil Sillanp��
Peace - not awarded

Heads of state in 1939

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