1939

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

Decades: 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s - 1930s - 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s

Years: 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 - 1939 - 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944

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 - World War II: Nazi troops occupy Bohemia, Moravia and part of Czechoslovakia.
• March 22 - World War II: 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 - World War II: Italy invades Albania.
• May 22 - World War II: Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.
• July 6 - Holocaust: The last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany are closed.
• August 23 - Hitler and Stalin divides eastern Europe between themselves. Finland, the Baltic states and eastern Poland to 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 - Nazi Germany invades Poland, thus beginning World War II in Europe (see Polish September Campaign 1939[?]).
• September 3 - France and the United Kingdom declare 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 surrender to Germans; Modlin surrender day later; last Polish large operational unit surrender near Kock eight days later.
• November 30 - Soviet Union attacks Finland, starting the Winter War.
• 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

Art, Culture & Fashion

• 1939 in film
  • August 12 - The Wizard of Oz
  • December 15 - Gone With the Wind premiers in Atlanta.
  • 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 the war began, the BBC 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 Ebbetts Field[?] in Brooklyn.

Births:

• January 3 - Bobby Hull, hockey player
• January 10 - Bill Toomey[?], track and field athlete
• January 10 - Sal Mineo, actor (+ 1976)
• January 17 - Maury Povich[?], talk show host
• January 19 - Phil Everly[?], musician
• January 21 - Wolfman Jack, disk jockey, actor (+ 1995)
• January 24 - Doug Kershaw[?], musician
• January 24 - Ray Stevens, country music musician
• January 29 - Germaine Greer, writer, feminist
• February 6 - Mike Farrell, actor
• February 10 - Roberta Flack, singer
• February 11 - Jane Hyatt Yolen[?], science fiction author.
• February 12 - Ray Manzarek[?], keyboardist
• February 23 - Peter Fonda, actor
• February 23 - Majel Barrett, actress
• February 28 - Erika Pluhar[?], actress and singer
• February 28 - Tommy Tune[?], dancer, choreographer, actor
• March 13 - Neil Sedaka[?], singer
• March 19 - Joe Kapp[?], American football star
• March 20 - Brian Mulroney, eighteenth Prime Minister of Canada
• March 26 - James Caan[?], actor
• March 27 - Cale Yarborough[?], NASCAR racer
• March 31 - Volker Schlöndorff[?], film director
• April 2 - Marvin Gaye, singer (+ 1984)
• April 4 - Hugh Masakela[?], musician
• April 7 - Francis Ford Coppola, American film director
• April 7 - Sir David Frost[?], broadcaster, television host
• May 7 - Ruud Lubbers, politician and Prime Minister of the Netherlands[?]
• May 7 - Jimmy Ruffin[?], singer
• May 9 - Ralph Boston[?], athlete
• May 13 - Harvey Keitel, actor
• May 18 - Hark Bohm[?], film director
• May 19 - Dick Scobee, astronaut (+ 1986)
• May 23 - Reinhard Hauff[?], film director
• May 25 - Ian McKellen, actor
• May 30 - Michael J. Pollard, actor
• June 6 - Louis Andriessen, Dutch composer
• July 26 - John Howard, Australian Prime Minister
• August 5 - Princess Irene of the Netherlands
• October 14 - Ralph Lauren[?], American fashion designer
• November 23 - Bill Bissett, Canadian anti-conventional poet
• December 18 - Michael Moorcock, English science fiction author

Deaths:

• January 24 - Maximilian Bircher-Benner, Swiss physician and Muesli[?] inventor
• January 28 - William Butler Yeats, writer
• February 10 - Pope Pius XI
• February 11 - Franz Schmidt, Austrian composer.
• November 28 - James Naismith, inventor of basketball
• December 3 - Princess Louise of the United Kingdom[?], Duchess of Argyll, fourth daughter of Queen Victoria, aunt of King George V
• December 23 - Anthony Fokker, aircraft manufacturer
• S.P.L. Sørensen, Danish chemist

Nobel Prizes:

• Physics - Ernest Orlando Lawrence[?]
• Chemistry - Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt[?], Leopold Ruzicka[?]
• Medicine - Gerhard Domagk[?]
• Literature - Frans Eemil Sillanpää
• Peace - not awarded