1939

Table of contents

1 Events 1.1 January-June 1.2 July-September 1.3 October-November 1.4 December 1.5 unknown dates 1.6 Ongoing events 2 Year in topic 3 Births 3.7 January-February 3.8 March-April 3.9 May-August 3.10 September-December 4 Deaths 5 Nobel Prizes 6 Heads of state in 1939

Events

• January 26 - Spanish Civil War: Troops loyal to Francisco Franco and aided by Italy take Barcelona.
• February 27 - Sit-down strikes are outlawed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
• March 2 - Pius XII becomes Pope
• March 3 - In Bombay, Mohandas Gandhi begins to fast in protest of the autocratic rule in India.
• March 15 - German troops occupy the remaining part of Bohemia and Moravia; Czechoslovakia ceases to exist.
• March 16 - Marriage of Princess Fawzia of Egypt to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran
• March 22 - Germany takes Memel from Lithuania
• March 28 - Dictator Francisco Franco conquers Madrid, ending the Spanish Civil War
• April 4 - Faisal II becomes King of Iraq.
• April 7 - Italy invades Albania.
• May 22 - Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.
• June 4 - Holocaust: The SS St. Louis, a ship carrying a cargo of 963 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.

• July 4 - The concentration camp Neuengamme becomes autonomous.
• July 6 - Holocaust: The last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany are closed.
• August 23 - Hitler and Stalin divide eastern Europe between themselves. Finland, the Baltic states and eastern Poland to the USSR. Western Poland to Germany (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact)
• August 27 - A Heinkel 178, the first jet-powered aircraft, flies for the last time.
• September 1 - World War II: Polish September Campaign - Nazi Germany attacks Poland, beginning the war
• September 3 - World War II: France, Australia and the United Kingdom declare war on Germany.
• September 5 - World War II: The United States declares its neutrality in the war.
• September 6 - World War II: South Africa declares war on Germany.
• September 10 - Canada declares war on Germany.
• 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 8 - World War II: 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 15 - The New York Municipal Airport (later renamed La Guardia Airport) is dedicated.
• November 4 - World War II: 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 by belligerents.
• November 6 - The Hedda Hopper Show debuts with Hollywood gossip Hedda Hopper as host (the show ran until 1951 and made Hopper a powerful figure in the Hollywood elite).
• November 8 - Venlo Incident: Two British agents of SIS are captured by the Germans.
• November 8 - In Munich, Adolf Hitler narrowly escapes an assassination attempt 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 30 - Winter War begins: Soviet forces invade Finland and reach the Mannerheim Line, starting the war.

• December 2 - La Guardia Airport opens for business in New York City.
• December 14 The USSR was expelled from League of Nations because of attacking Finland
• December 25 - A Christmas Carol was read before a radio audience for the first time.

• Batman created by Bob Kane.
• Nuclear fission discovered independently by Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn
• Kirlian photography invented by Semyon Kirlian
• Siam changes its name to Thailand
• A logging crew sets off a second forest fire in the Tillamook Burn, which destroys 190,000 acres (769 km²)

• Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
• Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)

• 1939 in film
  • August 12 - The Wizard of Oz
  • December 15 - Gone With the Wind premiers in Atlanta, Georgia.
  • Mr. Smith Goes to Washington starring Jimmy Stewart
  • Of Mice and Men
  • Wuthering Heights
• 1939 in literature
• 1939 in music
  • January 18 - Louis Armstrong records "Jeepers Creepers."
  • Frequency modulation (FM) is invented
• 1939 in sports
• July 4 - Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, tells a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considered himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth" as he announces his retirement from Major League Baseball.
• 1939 in television
  • April - television demonstrations are held at the World's Fair in New York and the Golden Gate International Exhibition in San Francisco
  • April 30 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, appearing at the World's Fair, becomes the first U.S. president to give a speech that is broadcast on television
  • May 17 - The first baseball game (Princeton-Columbia) is broadcast on television, from Baker Field in New York. Bill Stern was the announcer
  • June 1 - The first heavyweight boxing match is televised, Max Baer vs Lou Nova, form Yankee Stadium.
  • August 26 - The first Major League Baseball game is telecast, a double-header between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field, in Brooklyn.
  • September 1 - As World War II began, BBC television abruptly stopped its broadcasting in the middle of a Mickey Mouse cartoon (The BBC would resume its broadcasting at that same point after the war in 1945)
  • The DuMont company begins producing consumer television sets
  • September 30 - The first televised college football game, Fordham vs Waynesburg, at Randall's Island, New York.
  • October 22 - The first NFL game is televised. The Brooklyn Dodgers vs Philadelphia Eagles at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn.

• January 3 - Bobby Hull, hockey player
• January 10 - Sal Mineo, actor (d. 1976)
• January 10 - Bill Toomey, track and field athlete
• January 11 - Ann Heggtveit, world and 1960 Winter Olympics ski champion
• January 17 - Maury Povich, talk show host
• January 19 - Phil Everly, musician and singer
• January 21 - Wolfman Jack, disk jockey, actor (d. 1995)
• January 22 - Ray Stevens, country music musician
• January 24 - Doug Kershaw, musician
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