1939

Published on Saturday, November 17th 2007. Edited by Ban Gumlotsly, Palo Alto, United States.

Centuries: 19th century – 20th century – 21st century

Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s – 1930s – 1940s 1950s 1960s

Years: 1936 1937 1938 – 1939 – 1940 1941 1942

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

1 January
The Hewlett-Packard Company is founded.
Texas A&M University wins its first football national championship
2 January – End of term for Frank Finley Merriam, 28th Governor of California. He is succeeded by Culbert Levy Olson.
5 January – Amelia Earhart is officially declared dead after her disappearance.
6 January – Naturwissenschaften publishes evidence that nuclear fission has been achieved by Otto Hahn.
13 January – Black Friday: 71 people die across Victoria in one of Australia’s worst ever bushfires.
24 January – Earthquake kills 30,000 in Chile – about 50,000 sq mi razed.
26 January – Spanish Civil War: Troops loyal to Francisco Franco, and aided by Italy, take Barcelona.

February

21 February: Golden Gate International Exposition opens.

2 February – Hungary joins Anti-Comintern Pact.
10 February – Falangists take Catalonia.
21 February – Golden Gate International Exposition opens in San Francisco, California.
27 February
United Kingdom and France recognize Franco’s government.
Borley Rectory burns.
Sit-down strikes are outlawed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
28 February – 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
1 March – 94 killed, Japanese Imperial Army ammunition dump exploded at outskirt of Osaka.
2 March – Pope Pius XII (Cardinal Pacelli) succeeds Pope Pius XI as the 260th pope.
3 March
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.
13 March – Hitler advises Jozef Tiso to declare Slovakia’s independence in order to prevent its partition by Hungary and Poland.
14 March – Slovak provincial assembly proclaims independence – priest Jozef Tiso becomes the president of independent Slovak government.
15 March – 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.
16 March – Marriage of Princess Fawzia of Egypt to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran. Hungary invades Carpatho-Ukraine; final resistance ends on 18 March.
22 March – After an ultimatum of March 20 Nazi Germany takes Klaipėda Region from Lithuania
23 March – Slovak-Hungarian War begins.
25 March – The second cartoon to feature Happy Rabbit, Prest-O Change-O, is released.
26 March – The Philadelphia Story, a comedy by Philip Barry starring Katharine Hepburn, debuts at the Shubert Theatre in New York City.
28 March
Dictator Francisco Franco assumes power in Madrid.
The last message from adventurer Richard Halliburton – he disappears later.

April

1 April – Spanish Civil War comes to an end when the last of the Republican forces surrendered.
4 April – Faisal II becomes King of Iraq. Slovak-Hungarian War ends with Slovakia ceding eastern territories to Hungary.
7 April – Italy invades Albania – King Zog flees.
9 April – 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.
11 April – Hungary leaves the League of Nations.
14 April – John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath is first published.
27 April – Ely Racecourse closes.
30 April – New York World’s Fair opens.

May

2 May – Batman, created by Bob Kane (and, unofficially, Bill Finger), makes his first appearance.
2 May – 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.
3 May – The All India Forward Bloc is formed by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
7 May – Spain leaves the League of Nations.
17 May – King George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrive in Quebec City to begin the first-ever tour of Canada by Canada’s monarch.
20 May – Pan-American Airways begins trans-Atlantic mail service with the inaugural flight of its Yankee Clipper from Port Washington, New York.
22 May – Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.
29 May – 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

24 June: Siam is renamed “Thailand”

4 June – 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.
12 June – The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is officially dedicated in Cooperstown, New York.
17 June – Last public guillotining in France – murderer Eugen Weidmann is decapitated by the guillotine.
23 June – Turkey annexes Hatay.
24 June – Government of Siam changes its name to Thailand, which means ‘Free Land’.

July

2 July – The 1st World Science Fiction Convention opens in New York City.
4 July
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.
6 July – The last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany are closed by the Nazis.

August

2 August – Albert Einstein writes President Franklin Roosevelt about developing the Atomic Bomb using Uranium. This led to the creation of the Manhattan Project.
15 August – 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.
20 August – 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.
23 August – 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.
25 August – An IRA bomb explodes in the centre of Coventry, England killing five people.
26 August – The Kriegsmarine orders all German flagged merchant ships to head to German ports immediately in anticipation of the Invasion of Poland.
27 August – A Heinkel 178, the first turbojet-powered aircraft, flies for the first time with Captain Erich Warsitz in command.
30 August – Poland begins mobilization against Nazi Germany.

September

Wieluń destroyed by Luftwaffe bombing the 1st of September 1939

1 September – WWII: Nazi Germany invades Poland, beginning the Second World War in Europe.'
1 September – German navy fires on Danzig.
1 September – Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Switzerland declare their neutrality.
2 September – Following the invasion of Poland, Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) is annexed to Nazi Germany.
2 September – Spain and Ireland declare their neutrality.
3 September – WWII: United Kingdom, France, New Zealand and Australia declare war on Germany.
4 September – WWII: Nepal declares war on Germany.
5 September – WWII: The United States declares its neutrality in the war.
6 September – WWII: South Africa declares war on Germany.
9 September – Canada declares war on Germany.
16 September – Ceasefire ending undeclared Border War between The Soviet Union (and Mongolian allies) and Japan.
17 September – Soviet Union invades Poland and then occupies eastern Polish territories.
21 September – Radio station WJSV in Washington, D.C. records an entire broadcast day for preservation in the National Archives.
23 September – Death of Sigmund Freud.
27 September – Warsaw surrenders to Germany; Modlin surrenders day later; last Polish large operational unit surrenders near Kock eight days later.

October

8 October – WWII: Germany annexes Western Poland.
11 October – 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.
12 October – Jüri Uluots becomes prime minister of Estonia.
14 October – German U-Boat U-47 sinks British battleship HMS Royal Oak.
15 October – The New York Municipal Airport (later renamed La Guardia Airport) is dedicated.
24 October – Nylon stockings go on sale for the first time anywhere in Wilmington, Delaware.
25 October – The Time of Your Life, a drama by William Saroyan, debuts in New York City.

November

6 November: Hedda Hopper

4 November – 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.
6 November
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.
8 November
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.
15 November – In Washington, DC, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial.
16 November – Al Capone released from Alcatraz
30 November – Winter War begins: Soviet forces attack Finland and reach the Mannerheim Line, starting the war.
30 November – Sweden declares non-warfaring (not neutral) in the Winter War.

December

15 December: Gone with the Wind premieres.

2 December – La Guardia Airport opens for business in New York City.
13 December – 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 harbour on 17 December.
14 December – League of Nations expels the USSR for attacking Finland.
15 December – 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.
26 December – Mining strike in Borinage, Belgium
27 December – Earthquake in Eastern Anatolia, Turkey, destroys the town of Erzincan – about 30,000 dead.
31 December – 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.

Births

1939 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar 1939 MCMXXXIX

Ab urbe condita 2692

Armenian calendar 1388 ԹՎ ՌՅՁԸ

Bahá'í calendar 95 – 96

Berber calendar 2889

Buddhist calendar 2483

Burmese calendar 1301

Byzantine calendar 7447 – 7448

Chinese calendar 戊寅年十一月十一日 (4575/4635-11-11)

— to —

己卯年十一月廿一日 (4576/4636-11-21)

Coptic calendar 1655 – 1656

Ethiopian calendar 1931 – 1932

Hebrew calendar 5699 – 5700

Hindu calendars

- Vikram Samvat 1994 – 1995

- Shaka Samvat 1861 – 1862

- Kali Yuga 5040 – 5041

Holocene calendar 11939

Iranian calendar 1317 – 1318

Islamic calendar 1357 – 1358

Japanese calendar Shōwa 14 (昭和14年)

Korean calendar 4272

Thai solar calendar 2482

January-February

3 January
Bobby Hull, Canadian hockey player
Ruben Reyes, Filipino Supreme Court jurist
6 January – Valeri Lobanovsky, Ukrainian footballer and manager (d. 2002)
6 January – Murray Rose, Australian swimmer
9 January – Malcolm Bricklin, American automotive pioneer
10 January
Sal Mineo, American actor (d. 1976)
Bill Toomey, American athlete
11 January – Ann Heggtveit, Canadian skier
12 January – William Lee Golden, American country and gospel singer, member of the Oak Ridge Boys
17 January – Maury Povich, American talk show host
17 January – Archbishop Christodoulos, The most popular Archbishop of the modern Greek History,he was the best Archbishop of Greece considering the criticism from people.
18 January – James Gritz, U.S. Presidential candidate
19 January – Phil Everly, American musician
20 January – Chandra Wickramasinghe, British astronomer and poet
22 January – Ray Stevens, American musician
29 January – Germaine Greer, Australian writer
1 February – Paul Gillmor, American politician (d. 2007)
6 February – Mike Farrell, American actor
10 February
Adrienne Clarkson, 26th Governor General of Canada
Peter Purves, British actor and television presenter
12 February – Ray Manzarek, American keyboardist
13 February – Beate Klarsfeld, German-born Nazi hunter
16 February – Adolfo Azcuna, Filipino Supreme Court jurist
20 February – Frank Arundel, English footballer
21 February – Gert Neuhaus, German artist
27 February – David Mitton, British producer, director, model maker, and author (d. 2008)
28 February – Daniel C. Tsui, Chinese-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
28 February – Tommy Tune, American dancer, choreographer, and actor

March-April

1 March – Leo Brouwer, Cuban composer and guitarist
4 March
Jack Fisher, former American Major League baseball pitcher
Paula Prentiss, American actress
Carlos Vereza, Brazilian actor
8 March – Robert Tear, Welsh tenor
12 March – Johnny Callison, American baseball player (d. 2006)
13 March – Neil Sedaka, American singer
14 March – Raymond J. Barry, American actor
17 March – Jim Gary, American sculptor (d. 2006)
20 March – Brian Mulroney, eighteenth Prime Minister of Canada
31 March
Zviad Gamsakhurdia, President of Georgia (d. 1993)
Volker Schlöndorff, German film director
2 April – Marvin Gaye, American singer (d. 1984)
4 April – Hugh Masakela, South African musician
7 April
Francis Ford Coppola, American film director
David Frost, English television personality
13 April – Seamus Heaney, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate
13 April – Paul Sorvino, American actor
16 April – Dusty Springfield, English singer (d. 1999)
20 April – Elspeth Ballantyne, Australian actress
22 April – Jason Miller, American playwright and actor (d. 2001)
23 April – Lee Majors, American actor
25 April – Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate
27 April – Erik Pevernagie, Belgian painter

May-June

1 May – Judy Collins, American singer and songwriter
7 May
Sidney Altman, Canadian-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
Ruud Lubbers, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
Jimmy Ruffin, American singer
Marco St. John, American actor
9 May
Ralph Boston, American athlete
Pierre Desproges, French humorist (d. 1988)
11 May – Dante Tinga, Filipino Supreme Court jurist
12 May – Ron Ziegler, White House Press Secretary (d. 2003)
13 May – Harvey Keitel, American actor
19 May
Livio Berruti, Italian athlete
Sonny Fortune, American jazz musician
James Fox, English actor
Dick Scobee, astronaut (d. 1986)
21 May – Heinz Holliger, Swiss oboist and composer
23 May – Reinhard Hauff, German film director
25 May – Dixie Carter, American actress
26 May – Brent Musburger, American sports announcer
29 May – Al Unser, American race car driver
30 May – Michael J. Pollard, American actor
1 June – Cleavon Little, American actor (d. 1992)
3 June – Ian Hunter (singer), English singer (Mott the Hoople)
6 June – Louis Andriessen, Dutch composer
9 June
Ileana Cotrubaş, Romanian soprano
Dick Vitale, American basketball broadcaster
11 June – Jackie Stewart, Scottish race car driver
15 June – Brian Jacques, British writer
16 June
Billy Crash Craddock, American country singer
Richard Spendlove, British radio and television presenter and scriptwriter

July-August

5 July – Booker Edgerson, American football player
14 July – George E. Slusser, American scholar and writer
15 July – Aníbal Cavaco Silva, President of Portugal and former Prime Minister
17 July
Milva, Italian singer and actress
Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran
21 July – John Negroponte, U.S. Director of National Intelligence
23 July – Raine Karp, Estonian architect
26 July
John Howard, twenty-fifth Prime Minister of Australia
Bob Lilly, American football player
27 July – Michael Longley, Irish poet
2 August – John Snow, 73rd United States Secretary of the Treasury
5 August – Princess Irene of the Netherlands
12 August – George Hamilton, American actor
12 August – Skip Caray, American broadcaster for baseball (d. 2008)
17 August – Luther Allison, American musician (d. 1997)
19 August – Ginger Baker – Drummer of English rock group Cream
22 August – Carl Yastrzemski, baseball player
25 August – Robert Jager, American composer and theorist
29 August – Joel Schumacher, American film producer and director
30 August – John Peel, English disk jockey (d. 2004)
31 August – Cleveland Eaton, American jazz musician

September-October

5 September – Clay Regazzoni, Swiss Formula 1 Driver (d. 2006)
5 September – George Lazenby, Australian Actor
6 September – Brigid Berlin, American actress and artist
6 September – David Allan Coe, American musician
8 September – Carsten Keller, German field hockey player
8 September – Susumu Tonegawa, Japanese biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
8 September – Guitar Shorty, American blues guitarist
9 September – Ron McDole, American football player
13 September – Richard Kiel, American actor
16 September – Breyten Breytenbach, South African writer and painter
17 September – Shelby Flint, American singer
18 September – Frankie Avalon, American musician
18 September – Fred Willard, American comedian
23 September – Janusz Gajos, Polish actor
26 September – Ricky Tomlinson, British actor
29 September – Larry Linville, American actor (d. 2000)
30 September – Len Cariou, Canadian actor and singer
30 September – Jean-Marie Lehn, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1 October – George Archer, American golfer (d. 2005)
5 October – Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, Filipino Supreme Court jurist
7 October – John Hopcroft, American computer scientist
7 October – Harold Kroto, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
7 October – Bill Snyder, American football coach
11 October – Austin Currie, Irish politician
13 October – T. J. Cloutier, American poker player
13 October – Melinda Dillon, American actress
18 October – Flavio Cotti, Swiss Federal Councilor
18 October – Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of President John F. Kennedy (d. 1963)
14 October – Ralph Lauren, American fashion designer
22 October – George Cohen, English footballer
24 October – F. Murray Abraham, American actor
27 October – John Cleese, British actor
30 October – Leland H. Hartwell, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
30 October – Grace Slick, American singer (The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship)
31 October – Ron Rifkin, American actor

November-December

1 November – Barbara Bosson, American actress
6 November
Athanasios Angelopoulos, Greek academic
Leonardo Quisumbing, Filipino Supreme Court jurist
8 November – Laila Kinnunen, Finnish singer (d. 2000)
9 November – Paul Cameron, American psychologist
10 November – Russell Means, Native American activist
15 November – Yaphet Kotto, American actor
16 November – Michael Billington, British drama critic
18 November
Margaret Atwood, Canadian writer
Brenda Vaccaro, American actress
21 November – Mulayam Singh Yadav, Indian politician
23 November – Bill Bissett, Canadian poet
26 November – Tina Turner, American singer
27 November – Laurent-Désiré Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (d. 2001)
1 December – Dianne Lennon, American singer (The Lennon Sisters}
2 December
Yael Dayan, Israeli writer and politician
Harry Reid, American politician and U.S. Senate Majority Leader
5 December – Minita Chico-Nazario, Filipino Supreme Court jurist
8 December – James Galway, Irish flautist
11 December – Thomas McGuane, American writer
13 December – Eric Flynn, British actor and singer (d. 2002)
17 December – Eddie Kendricks, American singer (The Temptations)
18 December
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
22 December – Alfred J. Ferrara, American baseball player

Deaths

January – June

2 January – Roman Dmowski, Polish politician (b. 1864)
23 January – Matthias Sindelar, Austrian footballer (b. 1903)
24 January – Maximilian Bircher-Benner, Swiss physician and nutritionist (b. 1867)
28 January – William Butler Yeats, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)
10 February – Pope Pius XI (b. 1857)
11 February – Franz Schmidt, Austrian composer (b. 1874)
12 February – S. P. L. Sørensen, Danish chemist (b. 1868)
22 February – Antonio Machado, Spanish poet (b. 1875)
27 February – Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya, Russian Marxist revolutionary, Vladimir Lenin’s wife (b. 1869)
2 March – Howard Carter, British archaeologist (b. 1874)
19 March – Lloyd L. Gaines, American civil rights activist
28 March – Francis Matthew John Baker, Australian politician (b. 1903)
7 April – Joseph Lyons, tenth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1879)
25 April – John Foulds, British classical music composer (b. 1880)
25 April – Georges Ricard-Cordingley, painter (b. 1873)
4 June – Tommy Ladnier, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1900)
19 June – Grace Abbott, American social worker and activist (b. 1878)
26 June – Ford Madox Ford, English writer (b. 1873)

July – December

14 July – Alfons Mucha, Czech painter and decorative artist (b. 1860)
2 August – Harvey Spencer Lewis, American mystic (b. 1883)
11 August – Jean Bugatti, German automobile designer (b. 1909)
30 August – Wilhelm Bölsche, German journalist and science writer (b. 1861)
6 September – Arthur Rackham, British artist (b. 1867)
18 September – Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Polish writer and painter (b. 1885)
23 September – Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychiatrist (b. 1856)
7 October – Harvey Cushing, American neurosurgeon (b. 1869)
29 October – Dwight B. Waldo, American educator and historian (b. 1864)
12 November – Norman Bethune, Canadian humanitarian (b. 1890)
28 November – James Naismith, Canadian inventor of basketball (b. 1861)
29 November – Philipp Scheidemann, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1865)
3 December – Princess Louise of the United Kingdom, second youngest daughter of Queen Victoria (b. 1848)
23 December – 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

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939”