1939

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 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.
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 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

Ongoing events

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

Year in topic

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 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 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 and singer
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 Schl�ndorff, 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
June 11 - Jackie Stewart, Formula One racing driver
July 26 - John Howard, Australian Prime Minister
July 26 - Bob Lilly, NFL football player
August 5 - Princess Irene of the Netherlands
August 30 - John Peel, Radio 1 DJ
September 23 - Janusz Gajos, Polish actor
October 14 - Ralph Lauren, American fashion designer
October 24 - F. Murray Abraham, Actor
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
February 12 - S. P. L. S�rensen, Danish chemist
March 19 - Lloyd L. Gaines, American civil rights activist
October 7 - Harvey Cushing, American neurosurgeon (* 1869)
November 28 - James Naismith, inventor of basketball
December 3 - Princess Louise of the United Kingdom, Duchess of Argyll, fourth daughter of Queen Victoria
December 23 - Anthony Fokker, aircraft manufacturer

Nobel Prizes

Physics - Ernest Orlando Lawrence
Chemistry - Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt, Leopold Ruzicka
Medicine - Gerhard Domagk
Literature - Frans Eemil Sillanp��
Peace - not awarded

1939

Events

Ongoing events

Year in topic

Births

Deaths

Nobel Prizes

Heads of state in 1939