1939

Background Information

This Wikipedia selection is available offline from SOS Children for distribution in the developing world. SOS mothers each look after a a family of sponsored children.

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1900s 1910s 1920s – 1930s – 1940s 1950s 1960s
Years:	1936 1937 1938 – 1939 – 1940 1941 1942

1939 by topic:
Subject
Archaeology Architecture Art Aviation Awards Comics Film Literature ( Poetry) Meteorology Music ( Country) Rail transport Radio Science Sports Television
By country
Australia Canada China Ecuador France Germany Greece India Ireland Italy Japan Malaya Mexico New Zealand Norway Palestine Mandate Philippines Singapore South Africa Soviet Union United Kingdom United States
Leaders
Sovereign states State leaders Religious leaders Law
Birth and death categories
Births Deaths
Establishments and disestablishments categories
Establishments Disestablishments
Works and introductions categories
Works Introductions

1939 in other calendars
Gregorian calendar	1939 MCMXXXIX
Ab urbe condita	2692
Armenian calendar	1388 ԹՎ ՌՅՁԸ
Assyrian calendar	6689
Bahá'í calendar	95–96
Bengali calendar	1346
Berber calendar	2889
British Regnal year	3 Geo. 6 – 4 Geo. 6
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	1995–1996
- Shaka Samvat	1861–1862
- Kali Yuga	5040–5041
Holocene calendar	11939
Igbo calendar
- Ǹrí Ìgbò	939–940
Iranian calendar	1317–1318
Islamic calendar	1357–1358
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 14 (昭和14年)
Juche calendar	28
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4272
Minguo calendar	ROC 28 民國28年
Thai solar calendar	2482

Year 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. This year also marks the start of the Second World War, the deadliest human conflict in history.

Events

Below, events of World War II have the WWII prefix.

January

January 1 – Hewlett-Packard is founded as an electronics company in Palo Alto, California.
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 50,000 sq mi (130,000 km²).
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.
- 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

February 21: 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.
- 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.
- Borley Rectory in England is destroyed by fire.
- Sit-down strikes are outlawed by the Supreme Court of the United States.

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 a fast protesting against British rule in India.
- Students at Harvard University demonstrate the new tradition of swallowing goldfish to reporters.
- In Durban, South Africa the Timeless Test begins between England and South Africa, the longest game of cricket ever played. It is abandoned twelve days later when the English team has 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.
- Irish writer Flann O'Brien's comic metafiction At Swim-Two-Birds is published in London but attracts little attention at this time.
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.
- 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 19 – Hitler sends a registered letter to the government of Lithuania stating that Germany intends to annex the port of Memel.
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 Ordo Templi Orientis 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 24 – Marks the seventh successive year of the world wide boycott of all German exports initiated by front page declarations in Britain and the U.S. 'Judea declares war on Germany'
March 28
- Dictator Francisco Franco assumes power in Madrid.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 – The Federal Security Agency (FSA) is founded in the USA, along with the Civilian Conservation Corps and Public Health Service.
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 Subhas 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 – Albanian fascist leader Tefik Mborja is appointed as member of the Italian Chamber of Fasces and Corporations.

June

June 24: 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 René Massigli and Turkish Foreign Minister Şükrü Saracoğlu, resolving the Hatay dispute in Turkey's favour. Turkey annexes Hatay.
June 24 – The government of Siam changes its name to Thailand, which means 'Free Land'.
June 29 – Ford 9N tractor with Ferguson hydraulic three-point hitch first demonstrated at Dearborn, Michigan.

July

July 2 – The 1st World Science Fiction Convention opens in New York City.
July 2 – Theodore Roosevelt's head is dedicated at Mount Rushmore.
July 4
- Lou Gehrig gives his last public speech, following a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In it, he says, "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth."
- 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 first 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 German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee, along with the German pocket battleship 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 signed between Germany and the Soviet Union, a neutrality treaty that also agreed to division of spheres of influence (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, eastern Poland and Bessarabia (today Moldova), north-east province of Romania to the Soviet Union; Lithuania and western Poland to Germany).
August 24 – As details of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact become public, Neville Chamberlain recalls the Parliament of the United Kingdom 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 – The German Foreign Ministry cuts off all telegraph and telephone communication with the outside world in accordance with the plan for Fall Weiss. At approximately 1830 Central European time, Adolf Hitler postpones Fall Weiss for 5 days, after receiving a message from Benito Mussolini that he will not honour the Pact of Steel if Germany attacks Poland, and because Chamberlain's government has not fallen as a result of the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. Some units already in their forward positions (the attack is scheduled for 0430 the next day) do not get the word in time and attack various targets along the border. That same day, Neville Chamberlain gives Edward Rydz-Śmigły his "ironclad guarantee" of assistance if Poland is attacked by Germany.
August 25
- An Irish Republican Army bomb explodes in the centre of Coventry, England, killing 5 people.
- 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.
- 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

September 1: Wieluń destroyed by Luftwaffe bombing.

Common parade of Wehrmacht and Red Army in Brest at the end of the Invasion of Poland. At the centre Major General Heinz Guderian and Brigadier Semyon Krivoshein.

September 1 – Beginning of WWII:
- Opening shots of World War II and Invasion of Poland: At 4:45am Central European Time, under cover of darkness, the German WW1-era battleship Schleswig-Holstein quietly slips her moorings at her wharf in Danzig harbor, drifts into the centre of the channel, and commences firing on the fortress Westerplatte, a Polish army installation at the mouth of the port of Danzig, Poland. Simultaneously, shock-troops of the German Wehrmacht begin crossing the border into Poland.
- The Reichstag passes a statement stating that Hitler's second-in-command Reichsmarshall Hermann Göring should be appointed as Hitler's successor as Führer should Hitler die during the War. Rudolf Hess is to be appointed in Göring's place should anything befall Göring.
- Norway, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland declare their neutrality.
September 2 – WWII:
- Following the invasion of Poland, Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) is annexed to Nazi Germany.
- Spain and Ireland declare their neutrality.
September 3 – WWII:
- The United Kingdom, France, New Zealand and Australia declare war on Germany.
- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt advocates neutrality in a Nation-wide radio address.
- British liner SS Athenia becomes the first civilian casualty of the war when she is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-30 in the eastern Atlantic. Of the 1,418 aboard, 98 passengers and 19 crew are killed.
- Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King, in English, and Justice Minister Ernest Lapointe, in French, give an international radio address, stating its intentions to declare war against Nazi 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 8
- Little Sisters of Jesus founded in Algeria by Little Sister Magdeleine.
- WWII: 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.
- WWII: 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 – WWII: 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 – WWII: Canada declares war on Germany.
September 15 – WWII: 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 – WWII:
- The Soviet Union invades Poland and then occupies eastern Polish territories.
- Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Courageous is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-29 in the Western Approaches with the loss of 519 crew, the first British warship loss of the War.
September 19 – WWII: 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
- Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the Security Police, sends a directive, the Schnellbrief, explaining that Jews living in towns and villages in the Polish occupation zones are to be transferred to ghettos, and Jewish councils, Judenräte, will be established to carry out the German authorities’ orders.
- Radio station WJSV in Washington, D.C. records an entire broadcast day for preservation in the National Archives.
September 22 – WWII: Joint victory parade of Wehrmacht and Red Army in Brest-Litovsk at the end of the Invasion of Poland.
September 28 – WWII:
- Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree on a division of Poland after their invasion.
- 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

October 8 – WWII: Germany annexes Western Poland.
October 11 – Manhattan Project: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt is presented a letter signed by Albert Einstein, urging the United States to rapidly develop the atomic bomb.
October 14 – The German submarine U-47 sinks the British battleship HMS Royal Oak.
October 15 – The New York Municipal Airport (later renamed La Guardia Airport) is dedicated.
October 24 – Nylon stockings go on sale for the first time anywhere in Wilmington, Delaware.
October 25 – The Time of Your Life, a drama by William Saroyan, debuts in New York City.

November

November 6: Hedda Hopper

November 1– 2 – WWII: Physicist Hans Ferdinand Mayer writes the Oslo Report on German weapons systems and passes it to the British Secret Intelligence Service.
November 4 – WWII: 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 4 Stewart Menzies appointed head of MI6
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).
- WWII – Sonderaktion Krakau: Germans take action against scientists from the University of Kraków and other Kraków universities at the beginning of WWII.
November 8 – WWII: 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 – WWII: 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, due to deteriorating health caused by syphilus.
November 17 – WWII: 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
- WWII – Winter War: Soviet forces attack Finland and reach the Mannerheim Line, starting the war.
- WWII – Sweden declares non-belligerency in the Winter War.

December

December 2 – La Guardia Airport opens for business in New York City.
December 4 – WWII: HMS Nelson is struck by a mine (laid by U-31) off the coast of Scotland and is laid up for repairs until August 1940.
December 12 – WWII: HMS Duchess sinks after a collision with HMS Barham off the coast of Scotland with the loss of 124 men.
December 13 – WWII – Battle of the River Plate: The German heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee is trapped by cruisers HMS Ajax, HMNZS Achilles, and HMS Exeter after a running battle off the coast of Uruguay. The Graf Spee is scuttled by its crew off Montevideo harbour on December 17.
December 14 – WWII – Winter War: 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 18 – WWII – Battle of the Heligoland Bight: RAF Bomber Command, on a daylight mission to attack Kriegsmarine ships in the Heligoland Bight, is repulsed by Luftwaffe fighter aircraft.
December 26 – Miners strike in Borinage, Belgium.
December 27 – The Erzincan earthquake in eastern Anatolia, Turkey, kills 30,000.

Date unknown

CBS Television begins transmission.
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 (770 km²).
Sandia View Academy, a private Adventist school, is founded in Corrales, New Mexico,
General Motors introduces the Hydra-Matic drive, the first mass-produced, fully automatic transmission, as an option in 1940 model year Oldsmobile automobiles.
In Australia the Australian Frontier Wars ends after 151 years.

Births