1939

align="center" colspan=2 | Years:
1936 1937 1938 - 1939 - 1940 1941 1942

align="center" colspan=2 | Decades:
1900s 1910s 1920s - 1930s - 1940s 1950s 1960s

align="center" | Centuries:
19th century - 20th century - 21st century

1939 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January-June

January 2 - End of term for Frank Finley Merriam, 28th Governor of California. He is succeeded by Culbert Levy Olson.
January 24 - Earthquake kills 30.000 in Chile – about 50.000 sq mi razed
January 26 - Spanish Civil War: Troops loyal to Francisco Franco and aided by Italy take Barcelona.
February 2 - Hungary joins Antikomintern Pact
February 10 - Falangists take Catalonia
February 27 - United Kingdom and France recognize Franco's government
February 27 - Borley Rectory burns
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; beginning hostilities leading to WWII
March 16 - Marriage of Princess Fawzia of Egypt to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran
March 22 - Germany takes Memel from Lithuania
March 28 - Dictator Francisco Franco conquers Madrid, ending the Spanish Civil War
March 28 - The last message from an adventurer Richard Halliburton - he disappears later
April 4 - Faisal II becomes King of Iraq.
April 7 - Italy invades Albania - King Zog flees
April 11 - Hungary leaves the League of Nations
May 7 - Spain leaves the League of Nations
May 22 - Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.
June 4 - Holocaust: The SS St. Louis, a ship carrying a cargo of 963 Jewish refugees, is denied permission to land in Florida after already having been turned away from Cuba. Forced to return to Europe, most of its passengers later die in Nazi concentration camps.
June 17 - Last public execution by guillotine in France - murderer Eugen Weidmann

July-September

July 4 - The concentration camp Neuengamme becomes autonomous.
July 6 - Holocaust: The last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany are closed.
August 2 - Albert Einstein writes President Franklin Roosevelt about developing the Atomic Bomb using Uranium. This led to the creation of the Manhattan Project.
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.
August 30 - Poland begins mobilization
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-November

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 11 - Soviet Union attacks Poland
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 - World War II: Sonderaktion Krakau
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

December 2 - La Guardia Airport opens for business in New York City.
December 14 The USSR was expelled from League of Nations because of attacking Finland
December 25 - A Christmas Carol was read before a radio audience for the first time.
December 27 - Earthquake in Eastern Anatolia, Turkey, destroys the town of Erzingan - about 100.000 dead
December 26 - Mining strike in Boringae, Belgium

unknown dates

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 (769 km²)

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, Georgia.
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 rail transport

* May - Union Pacific, Southern Pacific and Santa Fe passenger trains in Los Angeles, California, are united into a single terminal as Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal is opened.

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 Ebbets Field in Brooklyn.