1939

Events in 1939 122

• 1856 – 1939 Freud Father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud founded psychoanalysis and introduced concepts like the unconscious mind, repression, and the Oedipus complex.
• 1857 – 1939 Pope Pius XI (1857-1939) Died 10 February 1939, aged 81 Achille Ratti was pope from 1922. He signed the Lateran Treaty, which created Vatican City. In 1937 he condemned Nazism in the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge.
• 1859 – 1939 Havelock Ellis (1859-1939) Died 8 July 1939, aged 80 Ellis was an English physician and one of the founders of sexology. He wrote the multi-volume Studies in the Psychology of Sex. He was an early writer to treat homosexuality in a non-judgemental way.
• 1860 – 1939 Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939) Died 14 July 1939, aged 78 Mucha was a Czech painter and designer whose Paris posters defined the Art Nouveau style. He later completed the Slav Epic, a cycle of 20 monumental canvases. The Gestapo interrogated him shortly before his death.
• 1861 – 1939 James Naismith (1861-1939) Died 28 November 1939, aged 78 Naismith was a Canadian-American physical educator who invented basketball in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1891. He later founded the basketball programme at the University of Kansas. He lived to see the sport played at the 1936 Olympics.
• 1861 – 1939 William James Mayo (1861-1939) Died 28 July 1939, aged 78 William Mayo was an American surgeon who co-founded the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, with his brother Charles. The clinic became one of the most famous medical centres in the world. He died two months after his brother.
• 1865 – 1939 Charles Horace Mayo (1865-1939) Died 26 May 1939, aged 73 Charles Mayo was an American surgeon and co-founder of the Mayo Clinic. He was known for his work on goitre and thyroid surgery. He died of pneumonia in Chicago.
• 1865 – 1939 W. B. Yeats (1865-1939) Died 28 January 1939, aged 73 Yeats was an Irish poet and dramatist and a leading figure of the Irish Literary Revival. He co-founded the Abbey Theatre and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923. Many consider him the greatest English-language poet of the twentieth century.
• 1866 – 1939 Ambroise Vollard (1866-1939) Died 22 July 1939, aged 73 Vollard was a Paris art dealer who gave Cézanne and Picasso their first solo exhibitions. He championed Gauguin, Van Gogh and the Nabis. He also published artists' books and prints.
• 1867 – 1939 Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) Died 6 September 1939, aged 71 Rackham was an English book illustrator of the golden age of illustration. He illustrated Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Grimm's Fairy Tales. His last work was The Wind in the Willows.
• 1867 – 1939 Carl Laemmle (1867-1939) Died 24 September 1939, aged 72 Laemmle was a German-born film pioneer who founded Universal Pictures. The studio produced Dracula, Frankenstein and All Quiet on the Western Front. He sponsored affidavits that helped hundreds of German Jews emigrate to the United States.
• 1869 – 1939 Harvey Cushing (1869-1939) Died 7 October 1939, aged 70 Cushing was an American surgeon who pioneered brain surgery and is known as the father of modern neurosurgery. He described Cushing's disease. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his biography of William Osler.
• 1869 – 1939 Nadezhda Krupskaya (1869-1939) Died 27 February 1939, aged 70 Krupskaya was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Lenin's wife. She served as Deputy People's Commissar for Education. She shaped Soviet library and educational policy.
• 1872 – 1939 Zane Grey (1872-1939) Died 23 October 1939, aged 67 Grey was an American novelist whose Western romances did much to create the popular image of the American West. Riders of the Purple Sage was his best-known book. More than a hundred films were made from his stories.
• 1873 – 1939 Ford Madox Ford (1873-1939) Died 26 June 1939, aged 65 Ford was an English novelist and editor. His novels include The Good Soldier and the Parade's End tetralogy. He founded The English Review and The Transatlantic Review and published many modernist writers.
• 1874 – 1939 Franz Schmidt (1874-1939) Died 11 February 1939, aged 64 Schmidt was an Austrian composer, cellist and teacher. He is best known for his four symphonies and the oratorio The Book with Seven Seals. He also played cello in the Vienna Court Opera orchestra under Mahler.
• 1874 – 1939 Howard Carter (1874-1939) Died 2 March 1939, aged 64 Carter was a British archaeologist and Egyptologist. In 1922 he discovered the almost intact tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings. He spent a decade recording its contents.
• 1875 – 1939 Antonio Machado (1875-1939) Died 22 February 1939, aged 63 Machado was a Spanish poet of the Generation of 98 and wrote Campos de Castilla. He supported the Republic and fled to France as Catalonia fell. He died in Collioure a few weeks later.
• 1879 – 1939 Joseph Lyons (1879-1939) Died 7 April 1939, aged 59 Lyons was Prime Minister of Australia from 1932. He led the United Australia Party through the recovery from the Depression. He was the first Australian prime minister to die in office.
• 1880 – 1939 Werner von Fritsch (1880-1939) Died 22 September 1939, aged 59 Fritsch was Commander-in-Chief of the German Army until 1938, when false homosexuality charges forced him out. He was killed near Warsaw during the invasion of Poland. He was one of the first German generals to die in the war.
• 1883 – 1939 Douglas Fairbanks (1883-1939) Died 12 December 1939, aged 56 Fairbanks was an American actor, and swashbuckling films such as The Mark of Zorro and Robin Hood made him a silent film star. He co-founded United Artists. He was also a founder and the first president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
• 1885 – 1939 Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885-1939) Died 18 September 1939, aged 54 Witkacy was a Polish playwright, painter, novelist and philosopher and one of the major figures of the interwar avant-garde. He fled east after the German invasion. He took his own life on hearing of the Soviet invasion.
• 1888 – 1939 Anton Makarenko (1888-1939) Died 1 April 1939, aged 51 Makarenko was a Soviet educator who ran colonies for homeless and delinquent children. He described this work in The Pedagogical Poem. His collective methods were very influential in Soviet education.
• 1893 – 1939 Ernst Toller (1893-1939) Died 22 May 1939, aged 45 Toller was a German Expressionist playwright and a leader of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic of 1919. He went into exile after the Nazis came to power. He took his own life in New York.
• 1894 – 1939 Joseph Roth (1894-1939) Died 27 May 1939, aged 44 Roth was an Austrian novelist and journalist who wrote Radetzky March about the decline of the Habsburg monarchy. He fled Germany in 1933. He died in poverty in Paris.
• 1912 – 1939 Ghazi of Iraq (1912-1939) Died 4 April 1939, aged 27 Ghazi was King of Iraq from 1933 and was known for Arab nationalist broadcasts from his private radio station. He was killed when his car crashed in Baghdad. His infant son succeeded him as Faisal II.
• 1929 – 1939 Great Depression Global economic collapse The 1929 stock market crash triggered the Great Depression — a decade of mass unemployment, poverty, and political instability worldwide.
• 1936 – 1939 Spanish Civil War Franco victorious A brutal conflict between Republicans and Nationalists, serving as a proxy war for fascist and communist powers, ending with Franco's dictatorship.
• 1939 – 2026 Alfredo Bryce Echenique (1939-2026) Died 10 March 2026, aged 87 Peruvian novelist and essayist whose fiction blends wry humour with intimacy and pathos.
• 1939 – 2024 Breyten Breytenbach (1939-2024) Died 24 November 2024, aged 85 South African writer, leading Afrikaner poet and critic of apartheid who spent seven years in prison.
• 1939 First televised baseball game First televised baseball game NBC televised a college game between Columbia and Princeton on 17 May 1939, then the first major league game, Reds against Dodgers at Ebbets Field, on 26 August. A single camera covered the whole field and only a few hundred sets could receive it. Regular baseball broadcasts resumed after the war and reshaped the sport's finances.
• 1939 – 1945 Manhattan Project Atomic bomb developed The secret US-led Manhattan Project developed the world's first nuclear weapons, tested at Trinity in New Mexico in July 1945.
• 1939 – 2025 Michael Longley (1939-2025) Died 22 January 2025, aged 85 Northern Irish poet called a custodian of griefs and wonders, best known for Ceasefire, written about the Troubles.
• 1939 – 2026 Neil Sedaka (1939-2026) Died 27 February 2026, aged 86 American singer and songwriter who wrote or co-wrote more than 500 songs, among them Calendar Girl and Breaking Up Is Hard to Do.
• 1939 – 2025 Robert A.M. Stern (1939-2025) Died 27 November 2025, aged 86 American architect whose postmodern work drew on a wide range of historical styles across houses, towers, universities and cultural buildings.
• 1939 – 2023 Rudolph Isley (1939-2023) Died 11 October 2023, aged 84 American singer and founder member of the Isley Brothers.
• 1939 – 1940 The Winter War Talvisota Finland successfully defended its independence against a massive Soviet invasion, despite losing territory.
• 1939 – 1945 World War II Deadliest conflict ever The deadliest conflict in human history, killing an estimated 70–85 million people and reshaping the entire global political order.
• 1939 – 1945 World War II under George VI Britain during World War II King George VI became a symbol of British resistance during the war.
• 1939 Discovery of francium Marguerite Perey identifies element 87 Marguerite Perey of the Curie Institute in Paris found francium while studying the decay of actinium-227. It was the last element discovered in nature rather than made in a laboratory. She named it after France.
• 1939 Hewlett-Packard founded Two Stanford graduates form a partnership in a Palo Alto garage Bill Hewlett and David Packard formally set up their partnership. Their first product was an audio oscillator, and Walt Disney bought an early version. The garage where they started is often called the birthplace of Silicon Valley.
• 1939 – 1976 Sal Mineo (1939-1976) Died 12 February 1976, aged 37 Sal Mineo, the American actor twice nominated for an Academy Award, including for his role in Rebel Without a Cause, was stabbed to death outside his West Hollywood apartment. His killer, a pizza delivery driver who had robbed him, was not identified until 1978. The murder shocked Hollywood.
• 1939 Black Friday bushfires Wildfires sweep across Victoria Bushfires burned about two million hectares of Victoria, Australia, and killed 71 people. Several towns were destroyed. A Royal Commission afterwards changed Australian forest and fire management.
• 1939 Chillán earthquake Chile's deadliest recorded earthquake A magnitude 7.8 earthquake destroyed much of Chillán and nearby towns in south-central Chile. It remains the deadliest earthquake in Chile's recorded history. The disaster led to the creation of CORFO, the national development agency.
• 1939 Hitler's Reichstag prophecy speech Hitler threatens the annihilation of Europe's Jews On the sixth anniversary of taking power, Hitler told the Reichstag that another world war would lead to the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe. He returned to this prophecy often during the war. Historians treat the speech as a key statement of his intent.
• 1939 – 1978 Claude François (1939-1978) Died 11 March 1978, aged 39 François was one of France's biggest pop stars of the 1960s and 70s, co-writer of the song that became "My Way". He died of electrocution while adjusting a lamp in his bathtub.
• 1939 – 2026 Wally Funk (1939-2026) Died 8 July 2026, aged 87 American aviation pioneer who in 2021 became the oldest woman to reach space, sixty years after being denied a place in the astronaut corps.
• 1939 Japanese occupation of Hainan Japan seizes the island off southern China Japanese forces landed on Hainan and quickly took control of the island. The occupation gave Japan air and naval bases within reach of French Indochina. It alarmed France and Britain.
• 1939 Meitner and Frisch explain nuclear fission Uranium splitting is explained and named Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch published a paper in Nature showing that Hahn and Strassmann's experiments had split the uranium nucleus. They calculated the enormous energy released and gave the process the name fission. The discovery made atomic weapons conceivable.
• 1939 – 2013 Ray Manzarek (1939-2013) Died 20 May 2013, aged 74 Ray Manzarek was an American musician and co-founder of the rock band the Doors, known for his distinctive keyboard work. He died in Germany after a long battle with bile duct cancer.
• 1939 1939 World Snooker Championship Joe Davis Title 13 Winner: Joe Davis; Runner-up: Sidney Smith. Score: 43–30.
• 1939 Election of Pope Pius XII Eugenio Pacelli becomes pope The conclave elected Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the Vatican Secretary of State, on his 63rd birthday. He took the name Pius XII. His record during the Holocaust remains a matter of debate.
• 1939 Stagecoach released John Ford's Western makes John Wayne a star John Ford's Stagecoach was the first of his Westerns filmed in Monument Valley. It turned John Wayne into a leading man. Critics credit it with making the Western a serious film genre.
• 1939 German occupation of Czechoslovakia Hitler takes the rest of the Czech lands German troops occupied Prague on 15 March, breaking the Munich Agreement. On 16 March Hitler proclaimed the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and Slovakia became a German client state. Britain and France gave up on appeasement as a result.
• 1939 Battle of Nanchang Japan captures the capital of Jiangxi Japanese forces attacked Nanchang in March and took the city within days. A Chinese counteroffensive in April failed to retake it. Holding Nanchang secured Japan's supply lines around Wuhan.
• 1939 – 2024 Brian Mulroney (1939-2024) Died 29 February 2024, aged 84 Canadian politician who was prime minister from 1984 to 1993 and negotiated the free trade agreement with the United States.
• 1939 Germany annexes the Memel Territory Lithuania cedes Klaipėda under German pressure Lithuania received a German ultimatum and handed over the Memel Territory. Hitler visited the port on 23 March. This was the last territory Germany gained before the war without fighting.
• 1939 First NCAA basketball championship Oregon wins the inaugural tournament Oregon beat Ohio State 46–33 in Evanston, Illinois, to win the first NCAA men's basketball tournament. The tournament had eight teams. It later grew into March Madness.
• 1939 Batman first appears Detective Comics #27 introduces the Bat-Man Bob Kane and Bill Finger created Batman, who first appeared in Detective Comics #27. The issue was cover-dated May 1939. The character became one of the most recognised fictional figures in the world.
• 1939 British guarantee to Poland Chamberlain pledges to defend Polish independence Neville Chamberlain told the House of Commons that Britain and France would support Poland if its independence were threatened. The guarantee followed the German occupation of Prague. It committed Britain to go to war when Germany invaded Poland.
• 1939 – 1984 Marvin Gaye (1939-1984) Died 1 April 1984, aged 44 Soul singer Marvin Gaye, known for hits including "What's Going On" and "Sexual Healing," was shot and killed by his father during a domestic argument at the family home in Los Angeles, one day before his 45th birthday.
• 1939 – 2018 Hugh Masekela (1939-2018) Died 23 January 2018, aged 78 South African trumpeter, composer and singer who blended jazz with African musical traditions. An outspoken opponent of apartheid, he lived in exile for three decades before returning to South Africa. His song "Grazing in the Grass" was an international hit.
• 1939 Italian invasion of Albania Mussolini annexes Albania Italian forces landed on the Albanian coast on 7 April and met little resistance. King Zog fled the country. The Albanian crown was then united with that of Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.
• 1939 Marian Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial An open-air concert after the DAR refuses her Constitution Hall The Daughters of the American Revolution barred the contralto Marian Anderson from Constitution Hall because she was Black. With Eleanor Roosevelt's support, she sang on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday. The crowd numbered about 75,000, and the concert became a landmark of the civil rights movement.
• 1939 – 2013 Seamus Heaney (1939-2013) Died 30 August 2013, aged 74 Seamus Heaney was an Irish poet and Nobel laureate, widely regarded as one of the major poets of the twentieth century. He died in Dublin following a short illness.
• 1939 The Grapes of Wrath published Steinbeck's novel of Dust Bowl migrants John Steinbeck's novel follows the Joad family from Oklahoma to California during the Great Depression. It was the best-selling book of 1939 and won the Pulitzer Prize. It was banned and burned in parts of California.
• 1939 – 1999 Dusty Springfield (1939-1999) Died 2 March 1999, aged 59 Dusty Springfield was an English pop singer known for hits including Son of a Preacher Man and the album Dusty in Memphis. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame shortly before her death. She died of breast cancer in Henley-on-Thames, England.
• 1939 – 2026 Ali Khamenei (1939-2026) Died 28 February 2026, aged 86 Iranian cleric who was president of Iran from 1981 to 1989 and then its supreme leader from 1989 until his death in a US-Israeli military assault.
• 1939 Billie Holiday records Strange Fruit Anti-lynching song A song about lynching that her label refuses to record.
• 1939 Robert Menzies becomes Prime Minister of Australia Menzies takes office after Joseph Lyons dies Robert Menzies became Prime Minister after Joseph Lyons died in office. He led Australia into the war in September. He went on to become the country's longest-serving prime minister.
• 1939 New York World's Fair opens The World of Tomorrow opens in Queens The New York World's Fair opened at Flushing Meadows. Exhibits included television, the Futurama model of a future America and the Trylon and Perisphere. Its first season ended on 31 October, and it reopened in 1940.
• 1939 Sutton Hoo ship burial excavated An Anglo-Saxon royal grave is uncovered in Suffolk Basil Brown and a team of archaeologists excavated a 27-metre ship burial at Sutton Hoo. It held a rich collection of Anglo-Saxon gold, weapons and the Sutton Hoo helmet. The grave is usually linked to King Rædwald of East Anglia.
• 1939 Bombing of Chongqing begins in earnest Japanese air raids devastate China's wartime capital Japanese raids on 3 and 4 May set large parts of Chongqing on fire and killed thousands of civilians. The Nationalist government had moved to the city after the fall of Wuhan. The bombing went on for years.
• 1939 Finnegans Wake published James Joyce's final work appears Faber and Faber published James Joyce's Finnegans Wake after 17 years of work. The book is written in a dense, multilingual invented language. It is one of the most difficult novels in English.
• 1939 Battles of Khalkhin Gol Soviet and Mongolian forces defeat Japan on the Mongolian border An undeclared border war between Soviet-Mongolian and Japanese forces ended with a decisive Soviet victory under Georgy Zhukov in late August. A ceasefire took effect on 16 September. The defeat pushed Japan away from war with the Soviet Union and towards expansion southward.
• 1939 Voyage of the MS St. Louis Jewish refugees are refused entry in the Americas The liner St. Louis sailed from Hamburg with more than 900 Jewish refugees. Cuba, the United States and Canada refused to let them land. The ship returned to Europe, and about a quarter of its passengers later died in the Holocaust.
• 1939 White Paper of 1939 Britain limits Jewish immigration to Palestine The British government proposed an independent Palestine within ten years and capped Jewish immigration at 75,000 over five years. Both Zionists and Arab leaders rejected it. It governed British policy in Palestine through the war.
• 1939 – 1992 Giovanni Falcone Anti-Mafia Judge A magistrate who spent his life fighting the Sicilian Mafia until his assassination in the Capaci bombing.
• 1939 Pact of Steel signed Germany and Italy form a military alliance Ciano and Ribbentrop signed the Pact of Friendship and Alliance in Berlin. Each country promised to support the other in any war, whether offensive or defensive. The treaty formalised the Rome–Berlin Axis.
• 1939 Military Training Act Britain introduces peacetime conscription Parliament passed Britain's first peacetime conscription law. It required men aged 20 and 21 to do six months of military training. It was replaced once war broke out.
• 1939 – present Ileana Cotrubas Romanian Soprano Romanian operatic soprano whose sweet timbre, dramatic intensity and command of opera in multiple languages made her one of the most admired sopranos of the 1970s and 1980s. Born in Galati, she rose from a children's radio choir to perform on the world's greatest stages alongside Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo. Her signature roles included Violetta in La Traviata, Mimi in La Boheme and Gilda in Rigoletto. She was named an Austrian Kammersangerin and an Honorary Member of the Vienna State Opera.
• 1939 – present Jackie Stewart The Flying Scot Three-time World Champion and a tireless advocate for improved safety standards in motor racing.
• 1939 – 2026 Ada Yonath (1939-2026) Died 31 August 2026, aged 87 Israeli crystallographer who shared the 2009 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for mapping the atomic structure of the ribosome.
• 1939 Siam renamed Thailand Phibun's government changes the country's name Prime Minister Plaek Phibunsongkhram's government changed the country's name from Siam to Thailand. The change was part of a nationalist programme of cultural mandates. The name briefly reverted to Siam after the war and was restored in 1949.
• 1939 Dixie Clipper opens transatlantic passenger service Pan Am flies paying passengers across the Atlantic Pan American's Boeing 314 flying boat Dixie Clipper left Port Washington, New York, for Europe with 22 passengers. It was the first scheduled transatlantic passenger flight. The route went via the Azores and Lisbon to Marseille.
• 1939 Lou Gehrig's farewell speech The luckiest man on the face of the earth Lou Gehrig had been diagnosed with ALS, and at Yankee Stadium he called himself the luckiest man on the face of the earth. His streak of 2,130 consecutive games had ended weeks earlier. The speech is one of the best-known moments in American sport.
• 1939 Jet Harris born Kingsbury, Middlesex Terence Hawkins — later Jet Harris — was born on 6 July 1939 in Kingsbury, Middlesex. He would become the original bassist of The Shadows, known for his striking stage presence.
• 1939 Einstein–Szilárd letter Roosevelt is warned about atomic bombs Albert Einstein signed a letter drafted by Leó Szilárd warning President Roosevelt that Germany might develop extremely powerful uranium bombs. Alexander Sachs delivered it to Roosevelt on 11 October. In response, Roosevelt set up the Advisory Committee on Uranium.
• 1939 – 2015 Wes Craven (1939-2015) Died 30 August 2015, aged 76 Wes Craven was an American filmmaker who directed influential horror films including A Nightmare on Elm Street and the Scream franchise. His work helped define the slasher genre and shaped horror cinema for decades. Craven often used his films to explore social and psychological themes beneath their genre trappings.
• 1939 The Wizard of Oz premieres MGM's Technicolor musical opens in Hollywood The Wizard of Oz premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre and starred Judy Garland as Dorothy. The film introduced the song Over the Rainbow, which won an Academy Award. Television broadcasts later made it one of the most watched films ever.
• 1939 – 2019 Ginger Baker (1939-2019) Died 6 October 2019, aged 80 Ginger Baker was an English drummer best known as a member of the rock supergroup Cream alongside Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce. His powerful, jazz-influenced style made him one of the most influential rock drummers of his generation. He died in England after years of declining health.
• 1939 – 2019 Valerie Harper (1939-2019) Died 30 August 2019, aged 80 Valerie Harper was an American actress best known for playing Rhoda Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spin-off Rhoda, winning four Emmy Awards. She continued acting and advocacy after a 2013 terminal brain cancer diagnosis. She died in Los Angeles.
• 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agree not to attack each other Foreign ministers Joachim von Ribbentrop and Vyacheslav Molotov signed a non-aggression treaty in Moscow. A secret protocol divided Poland, the Baltic states, Finland and Bessarabia into German and Soviet spheres of influence. The pact left Germany free to invade Poland a week later.
• 1939 IRA bombing in Coventry A bicycle bomb kills five in a city centre street A bomb left in a bicycle basket exploded in Broadgate, Coventry, during the IRA's S-Plan campaign in Britain. Five people died and dozens were injured. Two Irishmen were hanged for the attack in 1940.
• 1939 First flight of the Heinkel He 178 The world's first turbojet aircraft flies Erich Warsitz flew the Heinkel He 178 from Rostock-Marienehe, the first flight of an aircraft powered by a turbojet. The engine was designed by Hans von Ohain. The flight took place days before the invasion of Poland.
• 1939 Heinkel He 178 makes the first jet flight Rostock, Germany Test pilot Erich Warsitz flies the Heinkel He 178, the first aircraft powered by a turbojet, days before the outbreak of the Second World War.
• 1939 – 2004 John Peel (1939-2004) Died 25 October 2004, aged 65 Peel was a British radio broadcaster renowned for championing new and underground music on BBC Radio 1 across four decades. His influential sessions helped launch the careers of countless artists.
• 1939 Battle of Westerplatte Polish garrison holds out against German assault The battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on the Polish Military Transit Depot at Westerplatte in Danzig, firing some of the first shots of the war. Fewer than 200 defenders held out for a week. The battle became a symbol of Polish resistance.
• 1939 German invasion of Poland Germany attacks Poland without a declaration of war German forces crossed into Poland on 1 September, and the invasion is usually taken as the start of the Second World War in Europe. Polish forces were overwhelmed by attacks from the west, north and south. The last Polish field units surrendered on 6 October.
• 1939 Operation Pied Piper Mass evacuation of British children begins The British government began moving schoolchildren, mothers and others out of cities it expected to be bombed. About 1.5 million people were evacuated in the first days. Many returned home during the Phoney War.
• 1939 Britain and France declare war on Germany The Western Allies respond to the invasion of Poland Germany ignored an ultimatum to withdraw from Poland, so Britain declared war on the morning of 3 September and France followed that afternoon. Neville Chamberlain announced the declaration in a radio broadcast. Australia and New Zealand declared war on the same day.
• 1939 Sinking of SS Athenia A U-boat torpedoes a British liner on the first day of the war The German submarine U-30 sank the passenger liner Athenia off the Hebrides hours after Britain declared war. 117 civilians and crew died, including 28 Americans. Germany falsely denied responsibility for years.
• 1939 – 2026 Claudette Colvin (1939-2026) Died 13 January 2026, aged 86 American civil rights figure who at fifteen refused to give up her bus seat to a white woman in Montgomery, Alabama, nine months before Rosa Parks did the same.
• 1939 – 2026 Susumu Tonegawa Japanese Molecular Biologist Japanese molecular biologist who was awarded the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering V(D)J recombination, the genetic mechanism by which the immune system generates millions of different antibodies from a limited set of genes. Born in Nagoya, he solved one of biology's oldest puzzles while working in Switzerland, then spent over 40 years at MIT, where he reinvented himself as a neuroscientist pioneering the use of optogenetics to identify and manipulate memory cells in the brain.
• 1939 Siege of Warsaw The Polish capital surrenders after heavy bombardment German forces surrounded Warsaw and bombarded it from the air and with artillery. The city suffered heavy civilian casualties and widespread destruction. The garrison surrendered on 28 September.
• 1939 Sikorsky VS-300 first flight Sikorsky's pioneering helicopter leaves the ground Igor Sikorsky made the first tethered flight of the VS-300 in Stratford, Connecticut. It was the first practical single main rotor helicopter with a tail rotor. The design became the standard layout for helicopters.
• 1939 First Battle of Changsha Chinese forces repel a Japanese offensive in Hunan Japanese troops advanced on Changsha, the capital of Hunan, and were forced back by the National Revolutionary Army. It was the first big Chinese defensive success after the fall of Wuhan. Chinese morale improved as a result.
• 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland The Red Army invades eastern Poland Under the secret terms of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Soviet forces entered eastern Poland on 17 September. Germany and the Soviet Union then divided the country between them. Hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers were taken prisoner.
• 1939 Aktion T4 authorised Hitler orders the killing of disabled people Hitler signed an order in October, backdated to 1 September, that authorised doctors to kill patients judged incurable. Around 70,000 people were murdered in gas chambers under the programme by 1941. Its staff and methods were later used in the extermination camps.
• 1939 Declaration of Panama American republics declare a neutral zone at sea The foreign ministers of the American republics met in Panama and declared a security zone of several hundred miles around the Americas. They asked the warring powers to keep hostilities out of the zone. The Battle of the River Plate broke it two months later.
• 1939 Sinking of HMS Royal Oak A U-boat sinks a battleship inside Scapa Flow Günther Prien took U-47 into the Royal Navy's anchorage at Scapa Flow and torpedoed the battleship Royal Oak. 835 of her crew died. The attack exposed serious gaps in the base's defences.
• 1939 Bill Monroe joins the Grand Ole Opry Mule Skinner Blues With his new band, the Blue Grass Boys.
• 1939 – 2006 Ali Farka Touré (1939-2006) Died 6 March 2006, aged 66 Ali Farka Touré, the Malian singer and guitarist celebrated for blending traditional West African music with blues, died of bone cancer in Bamako. He won multiple Grammy Awards for his collaborative albums. He is widely regarded as one of Africa's most influential musicians.
• 1939 Neutrality Act of 1939 The US allows arms sales on a cash-and-carry basis Congress lifted the arms embargo on nations at war. Belligerents could now buy American weapons if they paid cash and carried the goods on their own ships. The change favoured Britain and France.
• 1939 Georg Elser's bomb attempt on Hitler A time bomb explodes in Munich's Bürgerbräukeller The carpenter Georg Elser hid a time bomb in a pillar of the beer hall where Hitler gave his annual speech. Hitler left early, and the explosion 13 minutes later killed eight people. Elser was arrested while trying to cross into Switzerland.
• 1939 – 2023 Tina Turner Queen of Rock 'n' Roll American-born singer, songwriter and actress widely known as the Queen of Rock 'n' Roll. She rose to fame in the 1960s as part of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue, then rebuilt her career as a solo artist in her forties with the landmark album Private Dancer (1984). She won twelve Grammy Awards, sold over 100 million records worldwide, and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice.
• 1939 – 2001 Laurent-Désiré Kabila (1939-2001) Died 16 January 2001, aged 61 Kabila seized power in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1997 after ousting Mobutu Sese Seko, then fought a war against his former Rwandan and Ugandan backers. He was shot dead by one of his bodyguards in the presidential palace in Kinshasa. His son Joseph Kabila succeeded him.
• 1939 – 1940 Battle of Suomussalmi Winter War battle in which outnumbered Finnish ski troops encircled and destroyed the Soviet 163rd and 44th divisions, capturing large amounts of equipment.
• 1939 Battle of the River Plate British cruisers engage the Admiral Graf Spee Three British cruisers attacked the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee off the coast of Uruguay. The damaged Graf Spee took refuge in Montevideo and was scuttled on 17 December. It was the first major naval battle of the war.
• 1939 Soviet Union expelled from the League of Nations The League responds to the attack on Finland The League of Nations expelled the Soviet Union for invading Finland. It was the only time the League expelled a member. By then the organisation had little influence left.
• 1939 Gone with the Wind premieres Selznick's Civil War epic opens in Atlanta The film of Margaret Mitchell's novel premiered in Atlanta and starred Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable. Adjusted for inflation, it became the highest-grossing film ever made. It won eight competitive Academy Awards, and Hattie McDaniel became the first African American to win an Oscar.
• 1939 Erzincan earthquake A massive earthquake devastates eastern Turkey A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck eastern Anatolia in severe winter weather and destroyed the city of Erzincan. About 33,000 people died. It is one of the deadliest earthquakes in Turkish history.