What Happened in 1939

Major Events

  • Jan 30 Adolf Hitler threatens Jews during his speech to the German Reichstag (Parliament)
  • Mar 3 Mahatma Gandhi begins a fast in Mumbai (Bombay) to protest against autocratic rule in India
  • Mar 17 Battle of Nanchang between the Kuomintang and the Japanese breaks out (Sino-Japanese War 1937-1945)
  • Mar 28 Spanish Civil War ends, Madrid falls to the Nationalists headed by Francisco Franco
  • May 22 Germany's Adolf Hitler and Italy's Benito Mussolini sign the "Pact of Steel" formalizing the 1936 alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis
  • Sep 1 World War II starts when Germany invades Poland by attacking the Free City of Danzig
  • Sep 3 World War II: Britain declares war on Germany after invasion of Poland. France follows 6 hours later quickly joined by Australia, New Zealand, South Africa & Canada
  • Sep 14 World’s 1st practical helicopter, the VS-300 designed by Igor Sikorsky takes (tethered) flight in Stratford, Connecticut
  • Sep 28 German–Soviet Boundary and Friendship Treaty is signed by Joachim von Ribbentrop and Vyacheslav Molotov; redraws German and Soviet spheres of influence in central Europe and transfers most of Lithuania to the USSR
  • Dec 27 Between 20,000 and 40,000 die in magnitude 8 earthquake in Erzincam, Turkey
  • More 1939 Events

1939 in Film & TV

1939 in Music

  • Mar 25 Billboard Magazine introduces hillbilly (country) music chart

1939 in Sport

  • May 17 1st televised baseball game is broadcast on NBC, with Princeton University defeating Columbia University 2-1
  • Jul 4 Lou Gehrig is first MLB player to have his number (4) retired on his "Appreciation Day" at Yankee Stadium, makes iconic "luckiest man" speech
  • Dec 30 Bradman scores 267 South Australia v Vic, world record 34th double cricket century

Did You Know?

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

May 14, 1939


More People Born in 1939

Fun Fact About 1939

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

June 17, 1939


More 1939 Deaths

Famous Weddings in 1939

  • Jan 3 American future MLB catcher Roy Campanella (18) weds Bernice Ray; eventually divorce
  • Feb 4 American singer Frank Sinatra (23) marries 1st wife Nancy Barbato (21) at Our Lady of Sorrows catholic church in Jersey City, New Jersey; divorce in 1951
  • Mar 16 Princess Fawzia of Egypt (17) marries the Shah of Persia Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (19)

Famous Divorces in 1939


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