1939

history

Year 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events of 1939

January
  • January 1 – The Hewlett-Packard Company is founded.
  • January 1 – Texas A&M University wins its only football national championship.
  • 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 23 – "Dutch War Scare": Admiral Wilhelm Canaris of the Abwehr leaks misinformation to the effect that Germany plans to invade the Netherlands in February, with the aim of using Dutch air-fields to launch a strategic bombing offensive against Britain. The "Dutch War Scare" leads to a major change in British policies towards Europe.
  • January 24 – An earthquake kills 30,000 in Chile, and razes about .
  • January 25 – Refik Saydam forms the new government of Turkey. (11 th government)
  • January 26 – Spanish Civil War: Spanish Nationalist troops, aided by Italy, take Barcelona.
  • January 26 – In Paris, French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet, in response to rumours (which are true) that he is seeking to end the French alliance system in Eastern Europe, gives a speech highlighting his government's commitment to the cordon sanitaire.
  • January 27 – Adolf Hitler orders Plan Z, a 5-year naval expansion programme intended to provide for a huge German fleet capable of crushing the Royal Navy by 1944. The Kriegsmarine is given the first priority on the allotment of German economic resources.
  • January 30 – Hitler gives a speech before the Reichstag calling for an "export battle" to increase German foreign exchange holdings. The same speech also sees Hitler's "prophecy" where he warns that if "Jewish financers" start a war against Germany, the "...result will be the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe".

February

: Golden Gate International Exposition opens.]]
  • February 2 – Hungary joins the Anti-Comintern Pact.
  • February 6 – British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain states in the House of Commons that any German attack on France will be automatically considered an attack on Britain.
  • February 6 – In a response to Georges Bonnet's speech of January 26, German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, referring to Bonnet's alleged statement of December 6, 1938 accepting Eastern Europe as being in Germany's exclusive sphere of influence, protests that all French security commitments in that region are "now off limits".
  • February 10 – Spanish Nationalists complete their offensive in Catalonia.
  • February 21 – The Golden Gate International Exposition opens in San Francisco, California.
  • February 27 – The United Kingdom and France recognize Franco's government.
  • February 27 – Borley Rectory in England burns.
  • February 27 – Sit-down strikes are outlawed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
  • February 28 – The first issue of the Serbian weekly magazine Politikin Zabavnik is published.

March

,
  • March – The 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine ends.
  • March 1 – A Japanese Imperial Army ammunition dump explosion on the outskirts of Osaka kills 94.
  • 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.
  • March 3 – Students at Harvard University demonstrate the new tradition of swallowing goldfish to reporters.
  • March 3 – In Durban, South Africa the Timeless Test begins between England and South Africa, the longest game of cricket ever played. It was abandoned 12 days later, when the English team had to catch the last ferry home.
  • March 13 – Hitler advises Jozef Tiso to declare Slovakia's independence in order to prevent its partition by Hungary and Poland. Neil Sedaka is born in Brooklyn,New York.
  • March 14 – The Slovak provincial assembly proclaims independence; priest Jozef Tiso becomes the president of the independent Slovak government.
  • March 15 – German troops occupy the remaining part of Bohemia and Moravia; Czechoslovakia ceases to exist. The Ruthenian region of Czechoslovakia declares independence as Carpatho-Ukraine.
  • March 16 – Princess Fawzia of Egypt marries Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran.
  • March 16 – Hungary invades Carpatho-Ukraine; final resistance ends on March 18.
  • March 17 – British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain gives a speech in Birmingham, stating that Britain will oppose any effort at world domination on the part of Germany.
  • March 18 – "Romanian War Scare": Virgil Tilea, the Romanian Minister in London, spreads false rumours that Romania is on the verge of a German attack.
  • March 20 – At an emergency meeting in London to deal with the Romanian crisis, French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet suggests to Lord Halifax that the ideal state for saving Romania from a German attack is Poland.
  • March 21 – In London: the O.T.O. publish Aleister Crowley's "Eight Lectures on Yoga".
  • March 22 – After an ultimatum of March 20, Nazi Germany takes Memelland from Lithuania.
  • March 23 – The Slovak-Hungarian War begins.
  • March 28 – Dictator Francisco Franco assumes power in Madrid.
  • March 28 – American adventurer Richard Halliburton delivers a last message from a Chinese junk, before he disappears on a voyage across the Pacific Ocean.
  • March 31 – Neville Chamberlain gives a speech in the House of Commons offering the British "guarantee" of the independence of Poland.

April

  • April 1 – The Spanish Civil War comes to an end when the last of the Republican forces surrender.
  • April 3 – Adolf Hitler orders the German military to start planning for Fall Weiss, the codename for the invasion of Poland.
  • April 3 – Refik Saydam forms the new government in Turkey. (12 th government; Refik Saydam had served twice as a prime minister )
  • April 4 – Faisal II becomes King of Iraq.
  • April 4 – The Slovak-Hungarian War ends with Slovakia ceding eastern territories to Hungary.
  • April 7 – Italy invades Albania; King Zog flees.
  • April 9 – African-American 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 13 – Britain offers a "guarantee" to Romania and Greece.
  • April 14 – John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath is first published.
  • April 14 – At a meeting in Paris, French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet meets with Soviet Ambassador Jakob Suritz, and suggests that a "peace front" comprising France, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, Poland and Romania would deter Germany from war.
  • April 18 – The Soviet Union proposes a "peace front" to resist aggression.
  • April 20 – Billie Holiday records "Strange Fruit", the first anti-lynching song.
  • April 25 – CCC under the Federal Security Agency.
  • April 25 – Federal Security Agency (FSA)
  • April 25 – Public Health Service under the Federal Security Agency.
  • April 27 – Ely Racecourse in Cardiff closes.
  • April 28 – In a speech before the Reichstag, Adolf Hitler renounces the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact.
  • April 30 – The 1939 New York World's Fair opens.

May

,
  • May 1 – Batman, created by Bob Kane (and, unofficially, Bill Finger) makes his first appearance in a comic book.
  • May 2 – Major League Baseball's Lou Gehrig, the legendary Yankee first baseman known as "The Iron Horse", ends his 2,130 consecutive games played streak after contracting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The record stands for 56 years before Cal Ripken, Jr. plays 2,131 consecutive games.
  • May 3
    • Vyacheslav Molotov succeeds Maxim Litvinov as Soviet Foreign Commissar.
    • The All India Forward Bloc is formed by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
  • May 6 – Carl Friedrich Goerdeler tells the British government that the German and Soviet governments are secretly beginning a rapprochement with the aim of dividing Eastern Europe between them. Goerdeler also informs the British of German economic problems which he states threaten the survival of the Nazi regime, and advises that if a firm stand is made for Poland, then Hitler will be deterred from war.
  • May 9 – Spain leaves the League of Nations.
  • May 14 – Lina Medina, a 5-year old Peruvian girl, gives birth to a baby boy, becoming the youngest confirmed mother in medical history.
  • May 17
    • King George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrive in Quebec City to begin the first-ever tour of Canada by Canada's monarch.
    • The British government issues the White Paper of 1939, sharply restricting Jewish immigration to the Palestine Mandate.
    • Sweden, Norway, and Finland refuse Germany's offer of non-aggression pacts.
  • 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.
    • Albanian fascist leader Tefik Mborja is appointed as member of the Italian Chamber of Fasces and Corportations.

June

: Siam is renamed "Thailand"]]
  • June 3 – The Soviet government offers its definition of what constitutes "aggression", upon which the projected Anglo-Soviet-French alliance will come into effect. The French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet accepts the Soviet definition of aggression at once. The British reject the Soviet definition, especially the concept of "indirect aggression", which they feel is too loose a definition and phrased in such a manner as to imply the Soviet right of inference in the internal affairs of nations of Eastern Europe.
  • June 4 – The 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, many of its passengers later die in Nazi death camps during the Holocaust.
  • June 12 – The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is officially dedicated in Cooperstown, New York.
  • June 14 – Tientsin Incident: The Japanese blockade the British concession in Tianjin, China, beginning a crisis which almost causes an Anglo-Japanese war in the summer of 1939.
  • June 17 – In the last public guillotining in France, murderer Eugen Weidmann is decapitated by the guillotine.
  • June 23 – Talks are completed in Ankara between French Ambassador RenĂ© Massigli and Turkish Foreign Minister ŞükrĂĽ SaracoÄźlu, resolving the Hatay dispute in Turkey's favor. Turkey annexes Hatay.
  • June 24 – The 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."
  • July 4 – The Neuengamme concentration camp becomes autonomous.
  • July 6 – The last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany are closed by the Nazis.
  • July 23 – Mahatma Gandhi the spiritual leader from India writes a personal letter to Adolf Hitler addressing him "My friend", requesting to prevent any possible war.
  • July 27 – The only recorded snowfall in Auckland, New Zealand since records began in 1853.

August

  • August 2 – Albert Einstein writes to President Franklin Roosevelt about developing the atomic bomb using uranium. This leads to the creation of the Manhattan Project.
  • August 4 – Neville Chamberlain dismisses Parliament until October 3.
  • August 15 – MGM's classic musical film The Wizard of Oz, based on L. Frank Baum's famous novel, and starring Judy Garland as Dorothy, premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
  • August 19 – Hitler, after evaluating the pace of the non-aggression negotiations with the Soviet Union, orders the Kriegsmarine to begin the opening operations for Fall Weiss, the invasion of Poland. The Graf Spee, along with the Deutschland, as well as dozens of u-boats, cast off for their advance positions. According to William L. Shirer, Hitler spends the next few days worrying that the Russians will not come to terms in time for the rest of the invasion plans to unfold as scheduled.
  • August 20 – Armored forces under the command of Soviet General Georgi Zhukov deliver a decisive defeat to Japanese Imperial Army forces in the Japanese-Soviet border war in Inner Mongolia.
  • August 23 – Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact: Hitler and Stalin agree to divide Europe between themselves (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, eastern Poland and Basarabia (today Moldavia), north-east province of Romania to the USSR; Lithuania and western Poland to Germany).
  • August 24 – As details of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact become public, Neville Chamberlain recalls Parliament several weeks early. In a burst of legislation, a War Powers Act is approved; and HMG order the Royal Navy to be put on a war footing, all leaves to be cancelled, and the Naval and coast defense reserves to be called up, especially radar and anti-aircraft units. In addition, the last British and French private citizens in Germany are ordered home by their respective Governments.
  • August 25 – Adolf Hitler postpones Fall Weiss for 5 days, due to a message from Benito Mussolini that he will not honor the Pact of Steel if Germany attacks Poland in 1939, and to the failure of Chamberlain's government to fall because of the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. Hitler cancels the invasion at approximately 1830 Central European time, a few hours after the German Foreign Ministry cuts off all telegraph and telephone communication with the outside world in accordance with the plan for Fall Weiss. Some units already in their forward positions (the attack is to begin at 0430 the next day) do not get the word in time and attack various targets along the border, but such incidents have been occurring sporadically for months and the Poles do not yet mobilize fully. That same day, Neville Chamberlain gives Edward Rydz-ĹšmigĹ‚y his "ironclad guarantee" of assistance if Poland is attacked by Germany.
  • August 25 – An IRA bomb explodes in the centre of Coventry, England, killing 5 people.
  • August 25 – MGM's classic musical film The Wizard of Oz, based on L. Frank Baum's famous novel, and starring Judy Garland as Dorothy, is released in theaters everywhere.
  • August 26 – Division of Grazing renamed U.S. Grazing Service.
  • 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 a mobilization against Nazi Germany.

September

, destroyed by Luftwaffe bombing the 1st of September 1939]] and Brigadier Semyon Krivoshein.]]
  • September 1 – World War II: At 04.45 Central European Time, the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opens bombardment on the Westerplatte, a Polish military base outside Danzig, firing what are, according to many sources, the first shots of World War II. At the same time, regular Wehrmacht troops begin crossing the border into Poland.
  • September 1 – World War II: Norway, Finland, Sweden, and Switzerland declare their neutrality.
  • September 2 – World War II: Following the invasion of Poland, Danzig (now GdaĹ„sk, Poland) is annexed to Nazi Germany.
  • September 2 – World War II: Spain and Ireland declare their neutrality.
  • September 3 – World War II: The United Kingdom, France, New Zealand and Australia declare war on Germany.
  • September 4 – World War II: Nepal declares 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 8 – Little Sisters of Jesus founded in Algeria by Little Sister Magdeleine.
  • September 8 – World War II: Forward elements of General Hoeppner's XVI Panzerkorps take up positions outside Warsaw. The world is stunned by the rapidity of the German advance and the Polish High Command is effectively isolated, but lack of infantry support and effective civilian resistance cause Hoeppner to halt outside the city itself.
  • September 8 – World War II: Polish troops on the Westerplatte are forced, due to lack of food and ammunition, to surrender. The garrison of about two hundred had held out against thousands of German forces (many of them Naval officer cadets from the Schleswig-Holstein,) for seven days.
  • September 9 – World War II: Troops of the Polish Poznan Army under the command of General Kutrzeba open the Battle of the Bzura, the largest and best organized counter-attack mounted by the Polish forces in the campaign of 1939. For the first few days all goes well and the Germans are forced to retreat; but quick reaction by mechanized units and the Luftwaffe soon take their toll and the operation bogs down.
  • September 10 – World War II: Canada declares war on Germany.
  • September 15 – World War II: Diverse elements of the German Wehrmacht surround Warsaw and demand its surrender. The Poles refuse and the siege begins in earnest.
  • September 16 – A ceasefire ends the undeclared Border War between The Soviet Union (and Mongolian allies) and Japan.
  • September 17 – World War II: The Soviet Union invades Poland and then occupies eastern Polish territories.
  • September 19 – World War II: The Poznan pocket collapses, and the Germans capture, according to many sources, over 150,000 men. Many elements of General Kutrzeba's forces work their way into Warsaw under extreme difficulty.
  • September 21 – Radio station WJSV in Washington, D.C. records an entire broadcast day for preservation in the National Archives.
  • September 22 – World War II: Joint victory parade of Wehrmacht and Red Army in Brest-Litovsk at the end of the Invasion of Poland.
  • September 28 – World War II: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree on a division of Poland after their invasion.
  • September 28 – World War II: Warsaw surrenders to Germany; Modlin surrenders a day later; the last Polish large operational unit surrenders near Kock 8 days later.
  • September 29 – Gerald J. Cox, speaking at an American Water Works Association meeting, becomes the first person to publicly propose the fluoridation of public water supplies in the United States.

October

November

: Hedda Hopper]]
  • November 4 – World War II: U.S. 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 runs until 1951, making Hopper a powerful figure in the Hollywood elite).
  • November 6 – World War II – Sonderaktion Krakau: Germans take action against scientists from the University of KrakĂłw and other KrakĂłw universities at the beginning of World War II.
  • November 8 – In Munich, an attempt to kill Adolf Hitler is made by Georg Elser while Hitler is celebrating the 16th anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch.
  • November 9 – Venlo Incident: Two British agents of SIS are captured by the Germans.
  • November 15 – In Washington, D.C., U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial.
  • November 16 – Al Capone is released from Alcatraz.
  • November 17 – To punish protests against the Nazi occupation of the Czech homeland, the Nazis murder 9 Czech graduate students, send over 1200 to concentration camps, and close all Czech universities.
  • November 30 – Winter War: Soviet forces attack Finland and reach the Mannerheim Line, starting the war.
  • November 30 – Sweden declares non-belligerency in the Winter War.

December

: Gone with the Wind premieres.]]
  • December 2 – La Guardia Airport opens for business in New York City.
  • December 4 – World War II: HMS Nelson is struck by a mine (laid by U-31) off the Scottish coast and is laid up for repairs until August 1940.
  • December 12 – World War II: HMS Duchess sinks after a collision with HMS Barham off the coast of Scotland with the loss of 124 men.
  • December 13 – World War II – Battle of the River Plate: The German pocket battleship, Admiral Graf Spee is 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 – The 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. It is based on Margaret Mitchell's best-selling novel. It is the longest American film made up to that time (nearly four hours).
  • December 26 – Miners strike in Borinage, Belgium.
  • December 27 – The 1939 Erzincan earthquake in Eastern Anatolia, Turkey, kills 30,000.

Undated

Ongoing

Births

January–February

March–April

May–June

July–August

September–October

November–December

Deaths

January–June

July–December

Undated

  • Keeleri Kunhikannan, Father of Kerala Circus

Nobel Prizes

Notes

External links

Table of contents

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