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 was founded.
★
★
Texas A&M wins their 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 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 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 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
gold fish 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 Czechoslavakia declares independences 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 -
Germany takes
Memel 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 visit to
Canada by British sovereigns.
★
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 -
Holocaust: 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.
★
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 -
Holocaust: The last remaining
Jewish enterprises in
Germany are closed.
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 17 - The film version of ''
The Wizard of Oz'', starring
Judy Garland,
Ray Bolger,
Jack Haley and
Bert Lahr, premieres at the Capitol Theater in
New York City.
★
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 center 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.
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, 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:
France,
New Zealand,
Australia and the
United Kingdom 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 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 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 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.
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.
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.
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
★
January 6 -
Valeri Lobanovsky, Ukrainian footballer and manager (d.
2002)
★
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 18 -
James Gritz, U.S. Presidential candidate
★
January 19 -
Phil Everly, American musician
★
January 20 -
Chandra Wickramasinghe, British astronomer and poet
★
January 21 -
Wolfman Jack, American disk jockey and actor (d.
1995)
★
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
★
★
Roberta Flack, American singer
★
★
Peter Purves, British actor and television presenter
★
February 12 -
Ray Manzarek, American keyboardist
★
February 13 -
Beate Klarsfeld, German-born Nazi hunter
★
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
★
May 12 -
Ron Ziegler, White House Press Secretary (d.
2003)
★
May 13 -
Harvey Keitel, American actor
★
May 19
★
★
Livio Berruti, Italian athlete
★
★
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 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 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 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 6
★
★
Brigid Berlin, American actor and artist
★
★
David Allan Coe, American musician
★
September 8
★
★
Julian Cooper,artist
★
★
Carsten Keller, German field hockey player
★
★
Susumu Tonegawa, Japanese biologist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
★
★
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 23 -
Janusz Gajos, Polish actor
★
September 26 -
Ricky Tomlinson, British actor
★
September 30
★
★
Len Cariou, Canadian actor and singer
★
★
Jean-Marie Lehn, French chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate
★
October 1 -
George Archer, American golfer (d.
2005)
★
October 7
★
★
John Hopcroft, American computer scientist
★
★
Harold Kroto, English chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate
★
★
Bill Snyder, American football coach
★
October 11 -
Austin Currie, Irish politician
★
October 13
★
★
T. J. Cloutier, American poker player
★
★
Melinda Dillon, American actress
★
October 18
★
★
Flavio Cotti, Swiss Federal Councilor
★
★
Lee Harvey Oswald, alleged 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
★
★
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
★
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 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
Deaths
January - June
★
January 2 -
Roman Dmowski, Polish politician (b.
1864)
★
January 9 -
Johnny Gruelle, American cartoonist and children's book writer (b.
1880)
★
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, a
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)
★
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)
★
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
1.
"Thailand ( Siam ) History" (overview),
CS Mngt, 2005, ''CSMngt.com'' webpage:
CSMngt-Thai.
External links
★
1939 Coin Pictures
Table of contents
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