1939

1939 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar	1939; MCMXXXIX
Ab urbe condita	2692
Armenian calendar	1388; ԹՎ ՌՅՁԸ
Assyrian calendar	6689
Bahá'í calendar	95–96
Balinese saka calendar	1860–1861
Bengali calendar	1346
Berber calendar	2889
British Regnal year	3 Geo. 6 – 4 Geo. 6
Buddhist calendar	2483
Burmese calendar	1301
Byzantine calendar	7447–7448
Chinese calendar	戊寅年 (Earth Tiger); 4635 or 4575; — to —; 己卯年 (Earth Rabbit); 4636 or 4576
Coptic calendar	1655–1656
Discordian calendar	3105
Ethiopian calendar	1931–1932
Hebrew calendar	5699–5700
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1995–1996
- Shaka Samvat	1860–1861
- Kali Yuga	5039–5040
Holocene calendar	11939
Igbo calendar	939–940
Iranian calendar	1317–1318
Islamic calendar	1357–1358
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 14; (昭和１４年)
Javanese calendar	1869–1870
Juche calendar	28
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4272
Minguo calendar	ROC 28; 民國28年
Nanakshahi calendar	471
Thai solar calendar	2481–2482
Tibetan calendar	阳土虎年; (male Earth-Tiger); 2065 or 1684 or 912; — to —; 阴土兔年; (female Earth-Rabbit); 2066 or 1685 or 913

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century; 20th century ; 21st century;
Decades:	1910s; 1920s; 1930s; 1940s; 1950s;
Years:	1936; 1937; 1938; 1939; 1940; 1941; 1942;

The year 1939

1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1939th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 939th year of the 2nd millennium, the 39th year of the 20th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1930s decade. This year also marks the start of the Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history.

Events[edit]

Below, events of World War II have the WWII prefix.

January[edit]

Further Information: January 1939

January 3 – EFE, a news agency based in Madrid, Spain, is officially founded as a limited company.^[1]
January 5 – Amelia Earhart is officially declared dead after her disappearance.
January 6 – Naturwissenschaften publishes evidence that nuclear fission has been achieved by Otto Hahn.
January 13 – Black Friday: 71 people die across Victoria in one of Australia's worst ever bushfires.
January 14 – Norway claims Queen Maud Land in Antarctica.
January 23 – "Dutch War Scare": Admiral Wilhelm Canaris of the Abwehr leaks misinformation to the effect that Germany plans to invade the Netherlands in February, with the aim of using Dutch air-fields to launch a strategic bombing offensive against Britain. The "Dutch War Scare" leads to a major change in British policies towards Europe.
January 24 – 1939 Chillán earthquake: An earthquake in Chile kills 30,000 and razes about 50,000 sq mi (130,000 km²).
January 25 – Refik Saydam forms the new (11th) government of Turkey.
January 26
- Spanish Civil War: Spanish Nationalist troops, aided by Italy, take Barcelona.
- In Paris, French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet, in response to rumours (which are true) that he is seeking to end the French alliance system in Eastern Europe, gives a speech highlighting his government's commitment to the cordon sanitaire.
January 27 – Adolf Hitler orders Plan Z, a 5-year naval expansion programme intended to provide for a huge German fleet capable of crushing the Royal Navy by 1944. The Kriegsmarine is given the first priority on the allotment of German economic resources.
January 30 – Hitler gives a speech before the Reichstag calling for an "export battle" to increase German foreign exchange holdings. The same speech also sees Hitler's "prophecy", where he warns that if "Jewish financiers" start a war against Germany, "the result will be the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe".

February[edit]

Further Information: February 1939

February 21: Golden Gate International Exposition opens.

February 2 – Hungary joins the Anti-Comintern Pact.
February 6
- British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain states in the House of Commons that any German attack on France will be automatically considered an attack on Britain.
- In a response to Georges Bonnet's speech of January 26, German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, referring to Bonnet's alleged statement of December 6, 1938, accepting Eastern Europe as being in Germany's exclusive sphere of influence, protests that all French security commitments in that region are "now off limits".
February 10
- Spanish Nationalists complete their offensive in Catalonia.
- Pope Pius XI dies of a heart attack in Rome.
February 15 – Stagecoach premieres in New York City and Los Angeles.
February 18 – The Golden Gate International Exposition opens in San Francisco.
February 27
- The United Kingdom and France recognize Franco's government.
- Borley Rectory in England is destroyed by fire.
- Sit-down strikes are outlawed by the Supreme Court of the United States.

March[edit]

Further Information: March 1939

March – The 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine ends.
March 1 – An Imperial Japanese Army ammunition dump explosion on the outskirts of Osaka kills 94.
March 2 – Pope Pius XII (Cardinal Pacelli) succeeds Pope Pius XI as the 260th pope.
March 3
- In Bombay, Mahatma Gandhi begins a fast, protesting against British rule in India.
- Students at Harvard University demonstrate the new tradition of swallowing goldfish to reporters.
- In Durban, South Africa the Timeless Test begins between England and South Africa, the longest game of cricket ever played. It is abandoned 12 days later, when the English team has to catch the last ferry home.
March 13
- Adolf Hitler advises Jozef Tiso to declare Slovakia's independence, in order to prevent its partition by Hungary and Poland.
- Irish writer Flann O'Brien's comic metafiction At Swim-Two-Birds is published in London but attracts little attention at this time.
March 14 – The Slovak provincial assembly proclaims independence; priest Jozef Tiso becomes president of the independent Slovak government.
March 15 – German troops occupy the remaining part of Bohemia and Moravia; Czechoslovakia ceases to exist. The Ruthenian region of Czechoslovakia declares independence as Carpatho-Ukraine.
March 16
- Princess Fawzia Fuad of Egypt marries Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran.
- Hungary invades Carpatho-Ukraine; final resistance ends on March 18.
March 17
- British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain gives a speech in Birmingham, stating that Britain will oppose any effort at world domination on the part of Germany.
- The nationalist governments of Spain and Portugal sign the Iberian Pact in Lisbon, pledging mutual defence of the Iberian Peninsula and neutrality in the event of a general European war.
March 18 – "Romanian War Scare": Virgil Tilea, the Romanian Minister in London, spreads false rumours that Romania is on the verge of a German attack.
March 20
- 1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania, requiring return of the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory) to Germany.
- At an emergency meeting in London to deal with the Romanian crisis, French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet suggests to Lord Halifax that the ideal state for saving Romania from a German attack is Poland.
March 21 – Aleister Crowley's Eight Lectures on Yoga is published by the Ordo Templi Orientis in London.
March 22
- Following the March 20 ultimatum, Nazi Germany is granted the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory, Memelland) by Lithuania; on the following day German forces occupy the territory.
- In the U.S., undefeated LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds men's basketball team tops undefeated Loyola of Chicago in the championship game of the second annual National Invitation Tournament, 44–32. LIU's 24–0 final record is the first perfect season of college basketball's postseason tournament era.
March 23 – The Slovak–Hungarian War begins.
March 24 – Marks the seventh successive year of the worldwide boycott of all German exports initiated by front page declarations in Britain and the U.S. 'Judea declares war on Germany'.
March 26 – Final offensive of the Spanish Civil War launched by the Nationalists.
March 27 – The University of Oregon defeats Ohio State University 46–33 in Evanston, Illinois, to win the championship of the first NCAA men's basketball tournament.
March 28
- Dictator Francisco Franco assumes power in Madrid, remaining in power until his death in 1975.
- American adventurer Richard Halliburton delivers a last message from a Chinese junk, before he disappears on a voyage across the Pacific Ocean. In 1945, some wreckage identified as a rudder, and believed to belong to the junk, washes ashore in San Diego, California.
March 31 – Neville Chamberlain gives a speech in the House of Commons, offering the British "guarantee" of the independence of Poland.

April[edit]

Further Information: April 1939

April 1
- The Spanish Civil War comes to an end, when the last of the Republican forces surrender.
- The rumor that Hitler is dead sweeps the United States, as millions of CBS radio listeners hear the Führer cut off in mid-speech, during a shortwave relay of his address, at the dedication of the Tirpitz in Wilhelmshaven.^[2]
April 3
- Adolf Hitler orders the German military to start planning for Fall Weiß, the codename for the invasion of Poland.
- Refik Saydam forms the new government in Turkey (12th government; Refik Saydam had served twice as a prime minister).
April 4
- Faisal II becomes King of Iraq at age 3, following the death of his father, Ghazi, in an automobile incident.
- The Slovak–Hungarian War ends, with Slovakia ceding eastern territories to Hungary.
- Polish Foreign Minister Colonel Józef Beck, in London, signs a treaty designed to bilateralize Neville Chamberlain's "Polish Guarantee" of March 31.
April 7
- Italy invades Albania; King Zog flees.
- Joseph Lyons, 10th Prime Minister of Australia, dies in office from a heart attack at the age of 59. He is briefly replaced by his deputy Earle Page, who serves as the 11th Prime Minister, until a UAP leadership election is held to replace Lyons.
April 9 – African-American singer Marian Anderson performs before 75,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., after having been denied the use both of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution, and of a public high school by the federally controlled District of Columbia. First Lady of the United States Eleanor Roosevelt resigns from the DAR, because of their decision.
April 11 – Hungary leaves the League of Nations.
April 13 – Britain offers a "guarantee" to Romania and Greece.
April 14
- John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath is first published, in the United States.
- At a meeting in Paris, French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet meets with Soviet Ambassador Jakob Suritz, and suggests that a "peace front" comprising France, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, Poland and Romania would deter Germany from war.
April 18
- The Soviet Union proposes a "peace front" to resist aggression.
- Robert Menzies is elected leader of the United Australia Party, and consequently becomes the 12th Prime Minister of Australia, defeating former Prime Minister Billy Hughes. However, he will not be sworn in until April 26, due to Earle Page and his Country Party refusing to serve under him.
April 20 – Billie Holiday records "Strange Fruit", the first anti-lynching song.
April 25 – The Federal Security Agency (FSA) is founded in the United States, along with the Civilian Conservation Corps and Public Health Service.
April 27 – Ely Racecourse in Cardiff closes.
April 28 – In a speech before the Reichstag, Adolf Hitler renounces the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact.
April 30 – The 1939 New York World's Fair opens.

May[edit]

Further Information: May 1939

May 1 – Batman, created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, makes his first appearance in Detective Comics #27.
May 2 – Major League Baseball's Lou Gehrig, the legendary Yankee first baseman known as "The Iron Horse", ends his 2,130 consecutive games-played streak, after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The record stands for 56 years, before Cal Ripken Jr. plays 2,131 consecutive games.
May 3
- Vyacheslav Molotov succeeds Maxim Litvinov, as Soviet Foreign Commissar.
- The All India Forward Bloc is formed by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
May 6 – Carl Friedrich Goerdeler tells the British government that the German and Soviet governments are secretly beginning a rapprochement, with the aim of dividing Eastern Europe between them. Goerdeler also informs the British of German economic problems which he states threaten the survival of the Nazi regime, and advises that if a firm stand is made for Poland, then Hitler will be deterred from war.
May 9 – Spain leaves the League of Nations.
May 14 – Lina Medina, a 5-year-old Peruvian girl, gives birth to a baby boy, becoming the youngest confirmed mother in medical history.
May 17
- King George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrive in Quebec City, to begin the first-ever tour of Canada by Canada's monarch.
- The British government issues the White Paper of 1939, sharply restricting Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine.
- Sweden, Norway, and Finland refuse Germany's offer of non-aggression pacts.
May 18 – The Hòa Hảo religious sect is established in Vietnam, by Huỳnh Phú Sổ.
May 20 – Pan American Airways begins transatlantic mail service with the inaugural flight of its Boeing 314 flying boat Yankee Clipper from Port Washington, New York, to Marseille.
May 22 – Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.
May 24 – The first issue of Fashizmi is published in Tirana, Albania.
May 29 – Albanian fascist leader Tefik Mborja is appointed as member of the Italian Chamber of Fasces and Corporations.

June[edit]

Further Information: June 1939

June 24: Siam is renamed "Thailand".

June 3 – The Soviet government offers its definition of what constitutes "aggression", upon which the projected Anglo-Soviet-French alliance will come into effect. French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet accepts the Soviet definition of aggression at once. The British reject the Soviet definition, especially the concept of "indirect aggression", which they feel is too loose a definition, and phrased in such a manner as to imply the Soviet right of inference in the internal affairs of Eastern European nations.
June 4 – The St. Louis, a ship carrying a cargo of 907 Jewish refugees, is denied permission to land in Florida, after already having been turned away from Cuba. Forced to return to Europe, many of its passengers later die in Nazi death camps during The Holocaust.
June 6 – The first Little League Baseball game is played in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
June 10 – MGM's first successful animated character, Barney Bear, makes his debut in The Bear That Couldn't Sleep. However, it is not until 1942 that his name is adopted.
June 12 – The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is officially dedicated in Cooperstown, New York.
June 14 – Tientsin Incident: The Japanese blockade the British concession in Tianjin, China, beginning a crisis which almost causes an Anglo-Japanese war in the summer of 1939.
June 17 – In the last public guillotining in France, murderer Eugen Weidmann is executed.
June 21 – The New York Yankees announce Lou Gehrig's retirement, after doctors reveal he has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
June 23 – Talks are completed in Ankara between French Ambassador René Massigli and Turkish Foreign Minister Şükrü Saracoğlu, resolving the Hatay dispute in Turkey's favor. Turkey annexes Hatay.
June 24 – The government of Siam changes its name to Thailand, which means 'Free Land'.^[3]
June 29 – The Ford 9N tractor, with the Ferguson hydraulic three-point hitch, is first demonstrated at Dearborn, Michigan.^[4]

July[edit]

Further Information: July 1939

July 2
- The 1st World Science Fiction Convention opens in New York City.
- Theodore Roosevelt's head is dedicated at Mount Rushmore.
July 4
- Lou Gehrig gives his last public speech, following a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In it, he says, "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth."
- The Neuengamme concentration camp becomes autonomous.
July 6 – The last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany are closed by the Nazis.
July 8 – The Pan American Airways Boeing 314 flying boat Yankee Clipper inaugurates the world's first heavier-than-air North Atlantic air passenger service, between the United States (Port Washington, New York) and Britain.
July 23 – Mahatma Gandhi writes a personal letter to Adolf Hitler from India, addressing him as "My friend", requesting to prevent any possible war.
July 27 – The first recorded snow falls in Auckland, New Zealand, since records began in 1853.

August[edit]

Further Information: August 1939

August 2 – The Einstein–Szilárd letter is signed, advising President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt of the potential use of uranium, to construct an atomic bomb.
August 4 – Neville Chamberlain dismisses Parliament until October 3.
August 15 – MGM's classic musical film The Wizard of Oz, based on L. Frank Baum's famous novel, and starring Judy Garland as Dorothy, premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
August 19 – Adolf Hitler, after evaluating the pace of non-aggression negotiations with the Soviet Union, orders the Kriegsmarine to begin the opening operations for Fall Weiß, the invasion of Poland. The German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee, along with the German pocket battleship Deutschland, as well as dozens of u-boats, cast off for their advance positions. According to William L. Shirer, Hitler spends the next few days worrying that the Russians will not come to terms in time for the rest of the invasion plans to unfold as scheduled.
August 20 – Armored forces under the command of Soviet General Georgy Zhukov deliver a decisive defeat to Imperial Japanese Army forces, in the Japanese-Soviet border war in Inner Mongolia.
August 23 – The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact is signed between Germany and the Soviet Union, a neutrality treaty that also agrees to division of spheres of influence (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, eastern Poland and Bessarabia (today Moldova), north-east province of Romania to the Soviet Union; Lithuania and western Poland to Germany). Its annex reassigns Lithuania to the Soviet Union.
August 24 – As details of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact become public, Neville Chamberlain recalls the Parliament of the United Kingdom several weeks early. In a burst of legislation, a War Powers Act is approved; and HMG order the Royal Navy to be put on a war footing, all leaves to be cancelled, and the Naval and coast defense reserves to be called up, especially radar and anti-aircraft units. In addition, the last British and French private citizens in Germany are ordered home by their respective Governments.
August 25
- The German Foreign Ministry cuts off all telegraph and telephone communication with the outside world, in accordance with the plan for Fall Weiß. At approximately 1830 Central European time, Adolf Hitler postpones Fall Weiss for 5 days, after receiving a message from Benito Mussolini that he will not honor the Pact of Steel if Germany attacks Poland, and because Chamberlain's government has not fallen as a result of the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. Some units already in their forward positions (the attack is scheduled for 0430 the next day) do not get the word in time and attack various targets along the border. That same day, Neville Chamberlain gives Edward Rydz-Śmigły his "ironclad guarantee" of assistance, if Poland is attacked by Germany.
- An Irish Republican Army bomb explodes in the centre of Coventry, England, killing 5 people.
- MGM's classic musical film The Wizard of Oz, based on L. Frank Baum's famous novel, and starring Judy Garland as Dorothy, is released in theaters everywhere.
August 26
- The first televised Major League Baseball games are shown on experimental station W2XBS: a double-header between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field.
- The Division of Grazing is renamed the United States Grazing Service.
- The Kriegsmarine orders all German-flagged merchant ships to head to German ports immediately, in anticipation of the invasion of Poland.
August 27 – A Heinkel He 178, the first turbojet-powered aircraft, flies for the first time, with Captain Erich Warsitz in command.
August 28 – The SS Normandie heads into New York Harbor, where she will be interned on 3 September, and cut up for scrap, beginning in 1946.
August 30 – Poland begins a mobilization against Nazi Germany.
August 31 – Operation Himmler: Nazi German troops posing as Poles stage a series of false flag operations on the border (including the Gleiwitz incident), giving a pretext for the invasion of Poland.

September[edit]

Further Information: September 1939

September 1: Wieluń destroyed by Luftwaffe bombing.

Common parade of Wehrmacht and Red Army in Brest at the end of the Invasion of Poland. At the center Major General Heinz Guderian and Brigadier Semyon Krivoshein.

Gregorian calendar	1939 MCMXXXIX
Ab urbe condita	2692
Armenian calendar	1388 ԹՎ ՌՅՁԸ
Assyrian calendar	6689
Bahá'í calendar	95–96
Balinese saka calendar	1860–1861
Bengali calendar	1346
Berber calendar	2889
British Regnal year	3 Geo. 6 – 4 Geo. 6
Buddhist calendar	2483
Burmese calendar	1301
Byzantine calendar	7447–7448
Chinese calendar	戊寅年 (Earth Tiger) 4635 or 4575 — to — 己卯年 (Earth Rabbit) 4636 or 4576
Coptic calendar	1655–1656
Discordian calendar	3105
Ethiopian calendar	1931–1932
Hebrew calendar	5699–5700
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1995–1996
- Shaka Samvat	1860–1861
- Kali Yuga	5039–5040
Holocene calendar	11939
Igbo calendar	939–940
Iranian calendar	1317–1318
Islamic calendar	1357–1358
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 14 (昭和１４年)
Javanese calendar	1869–1870
Juche calendar	28
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4272
Minguo calendar	ROC 28 民國28年
Nanakshahi calendar	471
Thai solar calendar	2481–2482
Tibetan calendar	阳土虎年 (male Earth-Tiger) 2065 or 1684 or 912 — to — 阴土兔年 (female Earth-Rabbit) 2066 or 1685 or 913

1939

Contents

Events[edit]

January[edit]

February[edit]

March[edit]

April[edit]

May[edit]

June[edit]

July[edit]

August[edit]

September[edit]

October[edit]

November[edit]

December[edit]

Date unknown[edit]

Births[edit]

January[edit]

February[edit]

March[edit]

April[edit]

May[edit]

June[edit]

July[edit]

August[edit]

September[edit]

October[edit]

November[edit]

December[edit]

Deaths[edit]

January[edit]

February[edit]

March[edit]

April[edit]

May[edit]

June[edit]

July[edit]

August[edit]

September[edit]

October[edit]

November[edit]

December[edit]

Nobel Prizes[edit]

References[edit]

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]

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