1939
Year 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.
Events of 1939
 (Below, many events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.)
January
January 1
*The Hewlett-Packard Company is founded.
*Texas A&M University wins its first football national championship
January 2 - End of term for Frank Finley Merriam, 28th Governor of California. He is succeeded by Culbert Levy Olson.
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 24 - Earthquake kills 30,000 in Chile – about 50,000 sq mi razed.
January 26 - Spanish Civil War: Troops loyal to Francisco Franco, and aided by Italy, take Barcelona.
February
February 2 - Hungary joins Anti-Comintern Pact.
February 10 - Falangists take Catalonia.
February 21 - Golden Gate International Exposition opens in San Francisco, California.
February 27
*United Kingdom and France recognize Franco's government.
*Borley Rectory burns.
*Sit-down strikes are outlawed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
February 28 - The first issue of Serbian weekly magazine Politikin zabavnik was published.
March
March - End of the Great Arab Revolt in the British mandate of Palestine (started 1936
March 1 - 94 killed, Japanese Imperial Army ammunition dump exploded at outskirt of Osaka.
March 2 - Pope Pius XII (Cardinal Pacelli) succeeds Pope Pius XI as the 260th pope.
March 3
*In Bombay, Mohandas Gandhi begins to fast in protest of the autocratic rule in India.
*Students at Harvard University demonstrate the new tradition of swallowing goldfish to reporters.
March 13 - Hitler advises Jozef Tiso to declare Slovakia's independence in order to prevent its partition by Hungary and Poland.
March 14 - Slovak provincial assembly proclaims independence - priest Jozef Tiso becomes the president of independent Slovak government.
March 15 - German troops occupy the remaining part of Bohemia and Moravia; Czechoslovakia ceases to exist; beginning hostilities leading to WWII. The Ruthenian region of Czechoslovakia declares independence as Carpatho-Ukraine.
March 16 - Marriage of Princess Fawzia of Egypt to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran. Hungary invades Carpatho-Ukraine; final resistance ends on March 18.
March 22 - After an ultimatum of March 20 Nazi Germany takes Klaipeda Region from Lithuania
March 23 - Slovak-Hungarian War begins.
March 25 - The second cartoon to feature Happy Rabbit, Prest-O Change-O, is released.
March 26 - The Philadelphia Story, a comedy by Philip Barry starring Katharine Hepburn, debuts at the Shubert Theater in New York City.
March 28
*Dictator Francisco Franco assumes power in Madrid.
*The last message from adventurer Richard Halliburton - he disappears later.
April
April 1 - Spanish Civil War comes to an end when the last of the Republican forces surrendered.
April 4 - Faisal II becomes King of Iraq. Slovak-Hungarian War ends with Slovakia ceding eastern territories to Hungary.
April 7 - Italy invades Albania - King Zog flees.
April 9 - 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.
April 11 - Hungary leaves the League of Nations.
April 14 - John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath is first published.
April 27 - Ely Racecourse closes.
April 30 - New York World's Fair opens.
May
May 2 - Batman, created by Bob Kane (and, unofficially, Bill Finger), makes his first appearance.
May 2 - Major League Baseball's Lou Gehrig, the legendary Yankee first baseman known as "The Iron Horse", ends his 2130 consecutive games played streak after contracting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The record will stand for 56 years before Cal Ripken, Jr. plays 2131 consecutive games.
May 3 - The All India Forward Bloc is formed by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
May 7 - Spain leaves the League of Nations.
May 17 - King George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrive in Quebec City to begin the first-ever tour of Canada by Canada's monarch.
May 20 - Pan-American Airways begins trans-Atlantic mail service with the inaugural flight of its Yankee Clipper from Port Washington, New York.
May 22 - Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.
May 29 - Northamptonshire gains (over Leicestershire at Northampton) their first victory for 99 matches, easily a record in the County Championship. Their last Championship victory was as far back as 14 May 1935 over Somerset at Taunton.
June
June 4 - The SS 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, most of its passengers later die in Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust.
June 12 - The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is officially dedicated in Cooperstown, New York.
June 17 - Last public guillotining in France - murderer Eugen Weidmann is decapitated by the guillotine.
June 23 - Turkey annexes Hatay.
June 24 - Government of Siam changes its name to Thailand, which means 'Free Land'.
"Thailand ( Siam ) History" (overview),
CS Mngt, 2005, CSMngt.com webpage:
CSMngt-Thai.
July
July 2 - The 1st World Science Fiction Convention opens in New York City.
July 4
*Lou Gehrig gives his last public speech, following his diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In it, he states, "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth."
*The concentration camp Neuengamme becomes autonomous.
July 6 - The last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany are closed by the Nazis.
August
August 2 - Albert Einstein writes President Franklin Roosevelt about developing the Atomic Bomb using Uranium. This led to the creation of the Manhattan Project.
August 15 - MGM's classic musical film version of The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley and Bert Lahr, premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Winner of three Academy Awards, it will not do quite as well as hoped on first release, but years later, after two theatrical re-releases, will grow to legendary status with its annual showings on TV.
August 20 - Armored forces under the command of Soviet General Georgi Zhukov deliver a decisive defeat to forces of the Japanese Imperial Army in the Japanese-Soviet border war in Inner Mongolia. Although largely unnoticed in the West, this event enhances Soviet military prestige in the East, leading to the Japanese-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1941, and increases German motivation to conclude a non-aggression pact with the Russians before invading Poland.
August 23 - Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact: Hitler and Stalin agree to divide Europe between themselves (Finland, Estonia, Latvia and eastern Poland to the USSR; Lithuania and western Poland to Germany).so they would not have to fight on two fronts.
August 25 - An IRA bomb explodes in the centre of Coventry, England killing five people.
August 26 - 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 178, the first turbojet-powered aircraft, flies for the first time with Captain Erich Warsitz in command.
August 30 - Poland begins mobilization against Nazi Germany.
September
September 1 - WWII: Nazi Germany invades Poland, beginning the Second World War in Europe.
September 1 - German navy fires on Danzig.
September 1 - Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Switzerland declare their neutrality.
September 2 - Following the invasion of Poland, Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland) is annexed to Nazi Germany.
September 2 - Spain and Ireland declare their neutrality.
September 3 - WWII: United Kingdom, France, New Zealand and Australia declare war on Germany.
September 4 - WWII: Nepal declares war on Germany.
September 5 - WWII: The United States declares its neutrality in the war.
September 6 - WWII: South Africa declares war on Germany.
September 9 - Canada declares war on Germany.
September 16 - Ceasefire ending undeclared Border War between The Soviet Union (and Mongolian allies) and Japan.
September 17 - Soviet Union invades Poland and then occupies eastern Polish territories.
September 21 - Radio station WJSV in Washington, D.C. records an entire broadcast day for preservation in the National Archives.
September 23 - Death of Sigmund Freud.
September 27 - Warsaw surrenders to Germany; Modlin surrenders day later; last Polish large operational unit surrenders near Kock eight days later.
October
October 8 - WWII: 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 12 - Jüri Uluots becomes prime minister of Estonia.
October 14 - German U-Boat U-47 sinks British battleship HMS Royal Oak.
October 15 - The New York Municipal Airport (later renamed La Guardia Airport) is dedicated.
October 24 - Nylon stockings go on sale for the first time anywhere in Wilmington, Delaware.
October 25 - The Time of Your Life, a drama by William Saroyan, debuts in New York City.
November
November 4 - WWII: 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 to non-belligerent nations.
November 6
*Hedda Hopper's Hollywood debuts on radio with Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper as host (the show ran until 1951 and made Hopper a powerful figure in the Hollywood elite).
*WWII: Sonderaktion Krakau, the codename for a German action against scientists from the University of Kraków and other Kraków universities at the beginning of World War II.
November 8
*Venlo Incident: Two British agents of SIS are captured by the Germans.
*In Munich, Adolf Hitler narrowly escapes an assassination attempt by Georg Elser 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 16 - Al Capone released from Alcatraz
November 30 - Winter War begins: Soviet forces attack Finland and reach the Mannerheim Line, starting the war.
November 30 - Sweden declares non-warfaring (not neutral) in the Winter War.
December
December 2 - La Guardia Airport opens for business in New York City.
December 13 - WWII - Battle of the River Plate: German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee trapped by cruisers HMS Ajax, HMNZS Achilles, and HMS Exeter after a running battle off the coast of Uruguay. Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled by its crew off Montevideo harbor on December 17.
December 14 - League of Nations expels the USSR for attacking Finland.
December 15 - The film version of Gone with the Wind, starring Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Olivia de Havilland and Leslie Howard, premieres at Loew's Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia.
December 26 - Mining strike in Borinage, Belgium
December 27 - Earthquake in Eastern Anatolia, Turkey, destroys the town of Erzincan - about 30,000 dead.
December 31 - The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the first sound film version of the Victor Hugo classic, is released by RKO. It stars Charles Laughton as Quasimodo the hunchback, and Maureen O'Hara as Esmerelda the gypsy.
Undated
Kirlian photography is invented by Semyon Kirlian.
A logging crew sets off a second forest fire in the Tillamook Burn, which destroys 190,000 acres (769 km²).
Sandia View Academy, a private Adventist school, is founded in Corrales, New Mexico.
Ongoing
Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).
Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).
The Great Depression (1929-The Late 1930s, early 1940s).
World War II (1939-1945).
Fictional
The following are references to year 1939 in fiction:
All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989) - Takes place in 1939 New Orleans
According to "The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror" theme park attraction and the derivative 1997 television movie Tower of Terror, it was on October 31, 1939 that five unfortunate souls aboard an elevator at the fictional Hollywood Tower Hotel were cast into the Twilight Zone when the tower was struck by lightning. Since this event, the hotel has been abandoned and apparently cursed.
January-February
January 3
*Bobby Hull, Canadian hockey player
*Ruben Reyes, Filipino Supreme Court jurist
January 6 - Valeri Lobanovsky, Ukrainian footballer and manager (d. 2002)
January 6 - Murray Rose, Australian swimmer
January 9 - Malcolm Bricklin, American automotive pioneer
January 10
*Sal Mineo, American actor (d. 1976)
*Bill Toomey, American athlete
January 11 - Ann Heggtveit, Canadian skier
January 12 - William Lee Golden, American country and gospel singer, member of the Oak Ridge Boys
January 17 - Maury Povich, American talk show host
January 17 - Archbishop Christodoulos, The most popular Archbishop of the modern Greek History,he was the best Archbishop of Greece considering the criticism from people.
January 18 - James Gritz, U.S. Presidential candidate
January 19 - Phil Everly, American musician
January 20 - Chandra Wickramasinghe, British astronomer and poet
January 22 - Ray Stevens, American musician
January 29 - Germaine Greer, Australian writer
February 1 - Paul Gillmor, American politician (d. 2007)
February 6 - Mike Farrell, American actor
February 10
*Adrienne Clarkson, 26th Governor General of Canada
*Peter Purves, British actor and television presenter
February 12 - Ray Manzarek, American keyboardist
February 13 - Beate Klarsfeld, German-born Nazi hunter
February 16 - Adolfo Azcuna, Filipino Supreme Court jurist
February 20 - Frank Arundel, English footballer
February 21 - Gert Neuhaus, German artist
February 27 - David Mitton, British producer, director, model maker, and author (d. 2008)
February 28 - Daniel C. Tsui, Chinese-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
February 28 - Tommy Tune, American dancer, choreographer, and actor
March-April
March 1 - Leo Brouwer, Cuban composer and guitarist
March 4
*Jack Fisher, former American Major League baseball pitcher
*Paula Prentiss, American actress
*Carlos Vereza, Brazilian actor
March 8 - Robert Tear, Welsh tenor
March 12 - Johnny Callison, American baseball player (d. 2006)
March 13 - Neil Sedaka, American singer
March 14 - Raymond J. Barry, American actor
March 17 - Jim Gary, American sculptor (d. 2006)
March 20 - Brian Mulroney, eighteenth Prime Minister of Canada
March 31
*Zviad Gamsakhurdia, President of Georgia (d. 1993)
*Volker Schlöndorff, German film director
April 2 - Marvin Gaye, American singer (d. 1984)
April 4 - Hugh Masakela, South African musician
April 7
*Francis Ford Coppola, American film director
*David Frost, English television personality
April 13 - Seamus Heaney, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate
April 13 - Paul Sorvino, American actor
April 16 - Dusty Springfield, English singer (d. 1999)
April 20 - Elspeth Ballantyne, Australian actress
April 22 - Jason Miller, American playwright and actor (d. 2001)
April 23 - Lee Majors, American actor
April 25 - Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate
April 27 - Erik Pevernagie, Belgian painter
May-June
May 1 - Judy Collins, American singer and songwriter
May 7
*Sidney Altman, Canadian-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
*Ruud Lubbers, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
*Jimmy Ruffin, American singer
*Marco St. John, American actor
May 9
*Ralph Boston, American athlete
*Pierre Desproges, French humorist (d. 1988)
May 11 - Dante Tinga, Filipino Supreme Court jurist
May 12 - Ron Ziegler, White House Press Secretary (d. 2003)
May 13 - Harvey Keitel, American actor
May 19
*Livio Berruti, Italian athlete
*Sonny Fortune, American jazz musician
*James Fox, English actor
*Dick Scobee, astronaut (d. 1986)
May 21 - Heinz Holliger, Swiss oboist and composer
May 23 - Reinhard Hauff, German film director
May 25 - Dixie Carter, American actress
May 26 - Brent Musburger, American sports announcer
May 29 - Al Unser, American race car driver
May 30 - Michael J. Pollard, American actor
June 1 - Cleavon Little, American actor (d. 1992)
June 3 - Ian Hunter (singer), English singer (Mott the Hoople)
June 6 - Louis Andriessen, Dutch composer
June 9
*Ileana Cotrubas, Romanian soprano
*Dick Vitale, American basketball broadcaster
June 11 - Jackie Stewart, Scottish race car driver
June 15 - Brian Jacques, British writer
June 16
*Billy Crash Craddock, American country singer
*Richard Spendlove, British radio and television presenter and scriptwriter
July-August
July 5 - Booker Edgerson, American football player
July 14 - George E. Slusser, American scholar and writer
July 15 - Aníbal Cavaco Silva, President of Portugal and former Prime Minister
July 17
*Milva, Italian singer and actress
*Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran
July 21 - John Negroponte, U.S. Director of National Intelligence
July 23 - Raine Karp, Estonian architect
July 26
*John Howard, twenty-fifth Prime Minister of Australia
*Bob Lilly, American football player
July 27 - Michael Longley, Irish poet
August 2 - John Snow, 73rd United States Secretary of the Treasury
August 5 - Princess Irene of the Netherlands
August 12 - George Hamilton, American actor
August 12 - Skip Caray, American broadcaster for baseball (d. 2008)
August 17 - Luther Allison, American musician (d. 1997)
August 19 - Ginger Baker - Drummer of English rock group Cream
August 22 - Carl Yastrzemski, baseball player
August 25 - Robert Jager, American composer and theorist
August 29 - Joel Schumacher, American film producer and director
August 30 - John Peel, English disk jockey (d. 2004)
August 31 - Cleveland Eaton, American jazz musician
September-October
September 5 - Clay Regazzoni, Swiss Formula 1 Driver (d. 2006)
September 5 - George Lazenby, Australian Actor
September 6 - Brigid Berlin, American actress and artist
September 6 - David Allan Coe, American musician
September 8 - Carsten Keller, German field hockey player
September 8 - Susumu Tonegawa, Japanese biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
September 8 - Guitar Shorty, American blues guitarist
September 9 - Ron McDole, American football player
September 13 - Richard Kiel, American actor
September 16 - Breyten Breytenbach, South African writer and painter
September 17 - Shelby Flint, American singer
September 18 - Frankie Avalon, American musician
September 18 - Fred Willard, American comedian
September 23 - Janusz Gajos, Polish actor
September 26 - Ricky Tomlinson, British actor
September 29 - Larry Linville, American actor (d. 2000)
September 30 - Len Cariou, Canadian actor and singer
September 30 - Jean-Marie Lehn, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
October 1 - George Archer, American golfer (d. 2005)
October 5 - Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, Filipino Supreme Court jurist
October 7 - John Hopcroft, American computer scientist
October 7 - Harold Kroto, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
October 7 - Bill Snyder, American football coach
October 11 - Austin Currie, Irish politician
October 13 - T. J. Cloutier, American poker player
October 13 - Melinda Dillon, American actress
October 18 - Flavio Cotti, Swiss Federal Councilor
October 18 - Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of President John F. Kennedy (d. 1963)
October 14 - Ralph Lauren, American fashion designer
October 22 - George Cohen, English footballer
October 24 - F. Murray Abraham, American actor
October 27 - John Cleese, British actor
October 30 - Leland H. Hartwell, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
October 30 - Grace Slick, American singer (The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship)
October 31 - Ron Rifkin, American actor
November-December
November 1 - Barbara Bosson, American actress
November 6
*Athanasios Angelopoulos, Greek academic
*Leonardo Quisumbing, Filipino Supreme Court jurist
November 8 - Laila Kinnunen, Finnish singer (d. 2000)
November 9 - Paul Cameron, American psychologist
November 10 - Russell Means, Native American activist
November 15 - Yaphet Kotto, American actor
November 16 - Michael Billington, British drama critic
November 18
*Margaret Atwood, Canadian writer
*Brenda Vaccaro, American actress
November 21 - Mulayam Singh Yadav, Indian politician
November 23 - Bill Bissett, Canadian poet
November 26 - Tina Turner, American singer
November 27 - Laurent-Désiré Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (d. 2001)
December 1 - Dianne Lennon, American singer (The Lennon Sisters}
December 2
*Yael Dayan, Israeli writer and politician
*Harry Reid, American politician and U.S. Senate Majority Leader
December 5 - Minita Chico-Nazario, Filipino Supreme Court jurist
December 8 - James Galway, Irish flautist
December 11 - Thomas McGuane, American writer
December 13 - Eric Flynn, British actor and singer (d. 2002)
December 17 - Eddie Kendricks, American singer (The Temptations)
December 18
*Alex Bennett, American radio personality
*Robert T. Bennett, American politician
*Michael Moorcock, English writer
*Harold E. Varmus, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
December 22 - Alfred J. Ferrara, American baseball player
January - June
January 2 - Roman Dmowski, Polish politician (b. 1864)
January 23 - Matthias Sindelar, Austrian footballer (b. 1903)
January 24 - Maximilian Bircher-Benner, Swiss physician and nutritionist (b. 1867)
January 28 - William Butler Yeats, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)
February 10 - Pope Pius XI (b. 1857)
February 11 - Franz Schmidt, Austrian composer (b. 1874)
February 12 - S. P. L. Sørensen, Danish chemist (b. 1868)
February 22 - Antonio Machado, Spanish poet (b. 1875)
February 27 - Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya, Russian Marxist revolutionary, Vladimir Lenin's wife (b. 1869)
March 2 - Howard Carter, British archaeologist (b. 1874)
March 19 - Lloyd L. Gaines, American civil rights activist
March 28 - Francis Matthew John Baker, Australian politician (b. 1903)
April 7 - Joseph Lyons, tenth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1879)
April 25 - John Foulds, British classical music composer (b. 1880)
April 25 - Georges Ricard-Cordingley, painter (b. 1873)
June 4 - Tommy Ladnier, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1900)
June 19 - Grace Abbott, American social worker and activist (b. 1878)
June 26 - Ford Madox Ford, English writer (b. 1873)
July - December
July 14 - Alfons Mucha, Czech painter and decorative artist (b. 1860)
August 2 - Harvey Spencer Lewis, American mystic (b. 1883)
August 11 - Jean Bugatti, German automobile designer (b. 1909)
August 30 - Wilhelm Bölsche, German journalist and science writer (b. 1861)
September 6 - Arthur Rackham, British artist (b. 1867)
September 18 - Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, Polish writer and painter (b. 1885)
September 23 - Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychiatrist (b. 1856)
October 7 - Harvey Cushing, American neurosurgeon (b. 1869)
October 29 - Dwight B. Waldo, American educator and historian (b. 1864)
November 12 - Norman Bethune, Canadian humanitarian (b. 1890)
November 28 - James Naismith, Canadian inventor of basketball (b. 1861)
November 29 - Philipp Scheidemann, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1865)
December 3 - Princess Louise of the United Kingdom, second youngest daughter of Queen Victoria (b. 1848)
December 23 - Anthony Fokker, Dutch aircraft manufacturer (b. 1890)
Nobel prizes
Physics - Ernest Orlando Lawrence
Chemistry - Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt, Leopold Ruzicka
Physiology or Medicine - Gerhard Domagk
Literature - Frans Eemil Sillanpää
Peace - not awarded
External links
The 1930s Timeline: 1939 — from American Studies Programs at The University of Virginia
1939 Coin Pictures
Table of contents
__TOC__
|
|
|
|
This section is sponsored by:
1939
Find 1939 info here!
www.dealrain.com
Looking for 1939?
Find it NOW on NeXplore.com! The New Web 2.0 Search Engine!
www.nexplore.com
Limited Offer
How About Take 3 Seconds to Enter Postal Address to Claim Your Free Laptop Now while you are looking for 1939?
www.RewardLaptop.com
Laptops
Find a great deal on a Laptop Computer by browsing our Laptop Computer listings.
www.LaptopComputersInfo.com
Extreme Laptop Sale
Ultra Performance Notebook Systems Save up to $2000 on special units!
www.notebookchoice.com
laptops
Don't just search for laptops, find results.
www.ask.com
laptops
Search for laptops here.
www.aywoh.com
Laptop
Laptop At Huge Discount! Free Shipping On Laptop.
www.insights1.com
|
