1939 - What happened in 1939 ?

January 1939

Sunday 01:

The Vienna New Year's Concert is first held.

Saturday 14:

Norway claims Queen Maud Land in Antarctica.

Wednesday 18:

Louis Armstrong records Jeepers Creepers.

Thursday 26:

Spanish Civil War: Troops loyal to Francisco Franco and aided by Italy take Barcelona.

Friday 27:

1939 - The President of the United-States Franklin D. Roosevelt approves the sale of U.S. war planes to France.

February 1939

Monday 27:

American Civil Rights Movement: Sit-down strikes are outlawed by the Supreme Court of the United States.

Tuesday 28:

The word "Dord" is discovered in the Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition, prompting an investigation.

March 1939

Thursday 02:

Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli is elected Pope and takes the name Pius XII.

Friday 03:

In Mumbai, Mohandas Gandhi begins to fast in protest of the autocratic rule in India.

Tuesday 14:

German troops fully occupy the Czechoslovak provinces of Bohemia and Moravia.

Friday 17:

Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945): The Battle of Nanchang between the Kuomintang and the Japanese break out.

Tuesday 28:

Spanish Civil War: Generalissimo Francisco Franco conquers Madrid

April 1939

Tuesday 04:

Faisal II becomes King of Iraq.

Friday 07:

World War II: Italy invades Albania.

Sunday 09:

Marian Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial, after having been refused the right to sing at the Daughters of the American Revolution's Constitution Hall.

Thursday 13:

In India, the Hindustani Lal Sena (Indian Red Army) is formed and wovs to engage in armed struggle against the British.

Sunday 30:

1939 - The 1939 New York World's Fair opens.

May 1939

Tuesday 02:

Lou Gehrig's streak of 2130 consecutive Major League Baseball games played comes to an end. The record will stand for 56 years before Cal Ripken, Jr. breaks it.

Sunday 14:

Lina Medina, becomes the world's youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five.

Monday 22:

World War II: Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.

Tuesday 23:

The U.S. Navy submarine USS Squalus sinks off the coast of New Hampshire during a test dive, causing the death of 26 sailors. The remaining 32 crewmen and one passenger are rescued the following day.

Saturday 27:

DC Comics publishes its second superhero in Detective Comics #27; he is Batman, one of the most topical comic book superheroes of all time.

June 1939

Sunday 04:

Holocaust: The SS St. Louis, a ship carrying 963 Jewish refugees, is denied permission to land in Florida, United States, after already having been turned away from Cuba. Forced to return to Europe, most of its passengers later die in Nazi concentration camps.

Monday 12:

The Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is dedicated in Cooperstown, New York.

Saturday 17:

Last public execution in France. Eugene Weidmann, a convicted murderer, is guillotined in Versailles outside the prison Saint-Pierre.

Tuesday 20:

Benny Goodman's Song School ends its radio series.

Wednesday 21:

The New York Yankees U.S. baseball team announce Lou Gehrig's retirement.

July 1939

Tuesday 04:

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.

Thursday 06:

Holocaust: The last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany are closed.

August 1939

Wednesday 23:

World War II: Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression treaty, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret addition to the pact, Baltic states, Finland and Poland are divided between the two nations.

Saturday 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, New York.

Sunday 27:

First jet aircraft flight

Thursday 31:

Nazi Germany mounts a staged attack on Gleiwitz radio station, giving them an excuse to attack Poland the following day, starting World War II.

September 1939

Tuesday 05:

World War II: The United States declares its neutrality in the war.

Wednesday 13:

Canada enters World War II.

Thursday 21:

Romanian Prime Minister Armand Calinescu is assassinated by pro-Nazi members of the Iron Guard.

Friday 29:

Poland is divided between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

Saturday 30:

General W?adys?aw Sikorski becomes commander-in-chief of the Polish Government in exile.

October 1939

Friday 06:

Last Polish army is defeated in World War II.

Sunday 08:

World War II: Germany annexes Western Poland.

Wednesday 11:

Manhattan Project: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt is presented with a letter signed by Albert Einstein urging the United States to rapidly develop an atomic bomb program.

Sunday 15:

The New York Municipal Airport (later renamed La Guardia Airport) is dedicated.

November 1939

Wednesday 01:

The first rabbit born after artificial insemination is shown to the world.

Saturday 04:

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.

Monday 06:

The Hedda Hopper Show debuts with Hollywood gossip Hedda Hopper as host. The show would until 1951, making Hopper a powerful figure in the Hollywood elite.

Wednesday 08:

In Munich, Adolf Hitler narrowly escapes an assassination attempt while celebrating the 16th anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch.

Sunday 26:

The Red Army stages the Shelling of Mainila in order to justify the start of the Winter War with Finland four days later.

December 1939

Tuesday 12:

Finland defeated the Soviet Union in the Battle of Tolvajärvi, their first major victory in the Winter War.

Wednesday 13:

The Battle of the River Plate, the first major naval battle of World War II, begins.

Thursday 14:

USSR expelled from the League of Nations

Friday 15:

Gone with the Wind premiers in Atlanta, Georgia

Sunday 17:

German battleship Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled by Captain Hans Langsdorff at the Battle of the River Plate.