Important Historical Events of the year 1939, Year 1939 in History
List of 1939 Major News Events in History, Most Important Historical Events in 1939
What happened in the year 1939?
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| January 13, 1939 | The Black Friday bushfires burn 20,000 square kilometers of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people. |
| January 14, 1939 | Norway claims Queen Maud Land in Antarctica. |
| January 24, 1939 | The deadliest earthquake in Chilean history strikes Chillán, killing approximately 28,000 people. |
| January 26, 1939 | Spanish Civil War: Catalonia Offensive: Troops loyal to nationalist General Francisco Franco and aided by Italy take Barcelona. |
| January 27, 1939 | First flight of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning. |
| February 5, 1939 | Generalísimo Francisco Franco becomes the 68th "Caudillo de España", or Leader of Spain. |
| February 10, 1939 | Spanish Civil War: The Nationalists conclude their conquest of Catalonia and seal the border with France. |
| February 25, 1939 | As part of British air raid precautions, the first of 2.mw-parser-output .frac{white-space:nowrap}.mw-parser-output .frac .num,.mw-parser-output .frac .den{font-size:80%;line-height:0;vertical-align:super}.mw-parser-output .frac .den{vertical-align:sub}.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px}1⁄2 milli |
| February 27, 1939 | United States labor law: The U.S. Supreme Court rules in NLRB v. Fansteel Metallurgical Corp. that the National Labor Relations Board has no authority to force an employer to rehire workers who engage in sit-down strikes. |
| March 1, 1939 | An Imperial Japanese Army ammunition dump explodes at Hirakata, Osaka, Japan, killing 94. |
| March 2, 1939 | Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli is elected Pope and takes the name Pius XII. |
| March 3, 1939 | In Bombay, Mohandas Gandhi begins a hunger strike in protest at the autocratic rule in British India. |
| March 5, 1939 | Spanish Civil War: The National Defence Council seizes control of the republican government in a coup d'etat, with the intention of negotiating an end to the war. |
| March 14, 1939 | Slovakia declares independence under German pressure. |
| March 15, 1939 | Germany occupies Czechoslovakia. |
| March 15, 1939 | Carpatho-Ukraine declares itself an independent republic,[26] but is annexed by Hungary the next day. |
| March 16, 1939 | From Prague Castle, Hitler proclaims Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate. |
| March 22, 1939 | Germany takes Memel from Lithuania. |
| March 23, 1939 | The Hungarian air force attacks the headquarters of the Slovak air force in Spišská Nová Ves, killing 13 people and beginning the Slovak–Hungarian War. |
| March 26, 1939 | Spanish Civil War: Nationalists begin their final offensive of the war. |
| March 28, 1939 | Spanish Civil War: Generalissimo Francisco Franco conquers Madrid after a three-year siege. |
| March 30, 1939 | The Heinkel He 100 fighter sets a world airspeed record of 463 mph (745 km/h). |
| April 1, 1939 | Spanish Civil War: Generalísimo Francisco Franco of the Spanish State announces the end of the Spanish Civil War, when the last of the Republican forces surrender. |
| April 7, 1939 | Benito Mussolini declares an Italian protectorate over Albania and forces King Zog I into exile. |
| April 9, 1939 | African-American singer Marian Anderson gives a concert at the Lincoln Memorial after being denied the use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution. |
| April 10, 1939 | Alcoholics Anonymous, A.A.'s "Big Book", is first published. |
| April 18, 1939 | Robert Menzies, who became Australia's longest-serving prime minister, is elected as leader of the United Australia Party after the death of Prime Minister Joseph Lyons. |
| April 30, 1939 | The 1939–40 New York World's Fair opens. |
| April 30, 1939 | NBC inaugurates its regularly scheduled television service in New York City, broadcasting President Franklin D. Roosevelt's N.Y. World's Fair opening day ceremonial address. |
| May 3, 1939 | The All India Forward Bloc is formed by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. |
| May 14, 1939 | Lina Medina becomes the youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five. |
| May 17, 1939 | The Columbia Lions and the Princeton Tigers play in the United States' first televised sporting event, a collegiate baseball game in New York City. |
| May 21, 1939 | The Canadian National War Memorial is unveiled by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. |
| May 22, 1939 | World War II: Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel. |
| May 23, 1939 | The U.S. Navy submarine USS Squalus sinks off the coast of New Hampshire during a test dive, causing the death of 24 sailors and two civilian technicians. The remaining 32 sailors and one civilian naval architect are rescued the following day. |
| June 1, 1939 | First flight of the German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter aircraft. |
| June 4, 1939 | The Holocaust: The MS St. Louis, a ship carrying 963 German Jewish refugees, is denied permission to land in Florida, in the United States, after already being turned away from Cuba. Forced to return to Europe, more than 200 of its passengers later die in Nazi concentration camps. |
| June 12, 1939 | Shooting begins on Paramount Pictures' Dr. Cyclops, the first horror film photographed in three-strip Technicolor. |
| June 12, 1939 | The Baseball Hall of Fame opens in Cooperstown, New York. |
| June 17, 1939 | Last public guillotining in France: Eugen Weidmann, a convicted murderer, is executed in Versailles outside the Saint-Pierre prison. |
| June 24, 1939 | Siam is renamed Thailand by Plaek Phibunsongkhram, the country's third prime minister. |
| July 4, 1939 | Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, informs a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considers himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth", then announces his retirement from major league baseball. |
| July 6, 1939 | Anti-Jewish legislation in prewar Nazi Germany closes the last remaining Jewish enterprises. |
| July 28, 1939 | The Sutton Hoo helmet is discovered. |
| August 2, 1939 | Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard write a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging him to begin the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear weapon. |
| August 15, 1939 | Twenty-six Junkers Ju 87 bombers commanded by Walter Sigel meet unexpected ground fog during a dive-bombing demonstration for Luftwaffe generals at Neuhammer. Thirteen of them crash and burn. |
| August 15, 1939 | The Wizard of Oz premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California. |
| August 23, 1939 | World War II: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret protocol to the pact, Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania are divided into German and Soviet "spheres of influence". |
| August 25, 1939 | The United Kingdom and Poland form a military alliance in which the UK promises to defend Poland in case of invasion by a foreign power. |
| August 27, 1939 | First flight of the turbojet-powered Heinkel He 178, the world's first jet aircraft. |
| August 31, 1939 | Nazi Germany mounts a false flag attack on the Gleiwitz radio station, creating an excuse to attack Poland the following day, thus starting World War II in Europe. |
| September 1, 1939 | World War II: Nazi Germany and Slovakia invade Poland, beginning the European phase of World War II. |
| September 2, 1939 | World War II: Following the start of the invasion of Poland the previous day, the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) is annexed by Nazi Germany. |
| September 3, 1939 | World War II: France, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia declare war on Germany after the invasion of Poland, forming the Allied nations. The Viceroy of India also declares war, but without consulting the provincial legislatures. |
| September 3, 1939 | World War II: The United Kingdom and France begin a naval blockade of Germany that lasts until the end of the war. This also marks the beginning of the Battle of the Atlantic. |
| September 4, 1939 | World War II: William J. Murphy commands the first Royal Air Force attack on Germany. |
| September 6, 1939 | World War II: The British Royal Air Force suffers its first fighter pilot casualty of the Second World War at the Battle of Barking Creek as a result of friendly fire. |
| September 6, 1939 | World War II: South Africa declares war on Germany. |
| September 9, 1939 | World War II: The Battle of Hel begins, the longest-defended pocket of Polish Army resistance during the German invasion of Poland. |
| September 9, 1939 | Burmese national hero U Ottama dies in prison after a hunger strike to protest Britain's colonial government. |
| September 10, 1939 | World War II: The submarine HMS Oxley is mistakenly sunk by the submarine HMS Triton near Norway and becomes the Royal Navy's first loss of a submarine in the war. |
| September 10, 1939 | World War II: The Canadian declaration of war on Germany receives royal assent. |
| September 14, 1939 | World War II: The Estonian military boards the Polish submarine ORP Orzeł in Tallinn, sparking a diplomatic incident that the Soviet Union will later use to justify the annexation of Estonia. |
| September 17, 1939 | World War II: The Soviet invasion of Poland begins. |
| September 17, 1939 | World War II: German submarine U-29 sinks the British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous. |
| September 18, 1939 | World War II: The Polish government of Ignacy Mościcki flees to Romania. |
| September 18, 1939 | World War II: The radio show Germany Calling begins transmitting Nazi propaganda. |
| September 19, 1939 | World War II: The Battle of Kępa Oksywska concludes, with Polish losses reaching roughly 14% of all the forces engaged. |
| September 21, 1939 | Romanian Prime Minister Armand Călinescu is assassinated by the Iron Guard. |
| September 22, 1939 | World War II: A joint German–Soviet military parade in Brest-Litovsk is held to celebrate the successful invasion of Poland. |
| September 28, 1939 | World War II: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree on a division of Poland. |
| September 28, 1939 | World War II: The siege of Warsaw comes to an end. |
| September 30, 1939 | World War II: General Władysław Sikorski becomes prime minister of the Polish government-in-exile. |
| September 30, 1939 | NBC broadcasts the first televised American football game. |
| October 1, 1939 | World War II: After a one-month siege, German troops occupy Warsaw. |
| October 6, 1939 | World War II: The Battle of Kock is the final combat of the September Campaign in Poland. |
| October 8, 1939 | World War II: Germany annexes western Poland. |
| October 14, 1939 | World War II: The German submarine U-47 sinks the British battleship HMS Royal Oak within her harbour at Scapa Flow, Scotland. |
| October 15, 1939 | The New York Municipal Airport (later renamed LaGuardia Airport) is dedicated. |
| October 16, 1939 | World War II: No. 603 Squadron RAF intercepts the first Luftwaffe raid on Britain. |
| November 4, 1939 | 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 by belligerents. |
| November 8, 1939 | Venlo Incident: Two British agents of SIS are captured by the Germans. |
| November 8, 1939 | In Munich, Adolf Hitler narrowly escapes the assassination attempt of Georg Elser while celebrating the 16th anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch. |
| November 10, 1939 | Finnish author F. E. Sillanpää is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. |
| November 15, 1939 | In Washington, D.C., U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial. |
| November 17, 1939 | Nine Czech students are executed as a response to anti-Nazi demonstrations prompted by the death of Jan Opletal. All Czech universities are shut down and more than 1,200 students sent to concentration camps. Since this event, International Students' Day is celebrated in many countries, especially in the Czech Republic. |
| November 23, 1939 | World War II: HMS Rawalpindi is sunk by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. |
| November 26, 1939 | Shelling of Mainila: The Soviet Army orchestrates an incident which is used to justify the start of the Winter War with Finland four days later. |
| November 30, 1939 | World War II: The Soviet Red Army crosses the Finnish border in several places and bomb Helsinki and several other Finnish cities, starting the Winter War. |
| December 1, 1939 | World War II: A day after the beginning of the Winter War in Finland, the Cajander III Cabinet resigns and is replaced by the Ryti I Cabinet, while the Finnish Parliament move from Helsinki to Kauhajoki to escape the Soviet airstrikes. |
| December 2, 1939 | New York City's LaGuardia Airport opens. |
| December 4, 1939 | 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, 1939 | HMS Duchess sinks after a collision with HMS Barham off the coast of Scotland with the loss of 124 men. |
| December 12, 1939 | Winter War: The Battle of Tolvajärvi, also known as the first major Finnish victory in the Winter War, begins. |
| December 13, 1939 | The Battle of the River Plate is fought off the coast of Uruguay; the first naval battle of World War II. The Kriegsmarine's Deutschland-class cruiser (pocket battleship) Admiral Graf Spee engages with three Royal Navy cruisers: HMS Ajax, HMNZS Achilles and HMS Exeter.[13] |
| December 14, 1939 | Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland. |
| December 15, 1939 | Gone with the Wind (highest inflation adjusted grossing film) receives its premiere at Loew's Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. |
| December 17, 1939 | World War II: Battle of the River Plate: The Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled by Captain Hans Langsdorff outside Montevideo. |
| December 18, 1939 | World War II: The Battle of the Heligoland Bight, the first major air battle of the war, takes place. |
| December 22, 1939 | Indian Muslims observe a "Day of Deliverance" to celebrate the resignations of members of the Indian National Congress over their not having been consulted over the decision to enter World War II with the United Kingdom. |
| December 24, 1939 | World War II: Pope Pius XII makes a Christmas Eve appeal for peace. |
| December 27, 1939 | The 7.8 Mw Erzincan earthquake shakes eastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). At least 32,700 people were killed. |
| December 27, 1939 | Winter War: Finland holds off a Soviet attack in the Battle of Kelja. |