Timeline April 1939

Events in April 1939 17

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 1931 – 1939 The Second Spanish Republic Democratic Experiment The democratic regime that existed until its defeat in the Spanish Civil War.
• 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 Marvin Gaye born in Washington, D.C. Marvin Pentz Gay Jr. The son of a strict Pentecostal minister.
• 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 – present Gro Harlem Brundtland Mother of the Nation First female Prime Minister and a global leader in sustainable development.
• 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.