Centuries:	19th century - 20th century - 21st century
Decades:	1900s  1910s  1920s  - 1930s -  1940s  1950s  1960s
Years:	1936 1937 1938 - 1939 - 1940 1941 1942

1939 by topic:

Subject:      Archaeology - Architecture - Art

Aviation - Film - Literature (Poetry) Meteorology - Music (Country) Rail transport - Radio - Science

Sports - Television

Countries:      Australia - Canada - India - Ireland

Malaysia - New Zealand - Norway - Singapore South Africa - Soviet Union - UK - Zimbabwe

Leaders:    Sovereign states - State leaders

Religious leaders - Law

Categories: Births - Deaths - Works - Introductions

Establishments - Disestablishments - Awards v • d • e

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 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 21: Golden Gate International Exposition opens.

• February 1 - Martensville, Saskatchewan is founded.
• 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 ammuntion 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 Klaipėda 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 conquers 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 - 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 24: Siam is renamed "Thailand"

• 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'.^[1]

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 musical classic film The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley and Bert Lahr, premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
• 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 Gdańsk, 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 10 - 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 - WJSV records an entire broadcast day for preservation in the National Archives.
• 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.
• October 31 - Elevator accident at The Hollywood Tower Hotel.

November

November 6: Hedda Hopper

• 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 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 15: Gone with the Wind premieres.

• 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 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.

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.

Births

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 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 Cotrubaş, 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 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 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
• 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, baseball Player to L.A. Dodgers

Deaths

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 - Stanisław 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

Notes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

1939

External links

• 1939 Coin Pictures

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