Year 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.
Events of 1939
- (Below, many events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.)
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
- 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 15 - MGM's classic musical film version of The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Jack Haley and Bert Lahr, premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Winner of three Academy Awards, it will not do quite as well as hoped on first release, but years later, after two theatrical re-releases, will grow to legendary status with its annual showings on TV.
- August 20 - Armored forces under the command of Soviet General Georgi Zhukov deliver a decisive defeat to forces of the Japanese Imperial Army in the Japanese-Soviet border war in Inner Mongolia. Although largely unnoticed in the West, this event enhances Soviet military prestige in the East, leading to the Japanese-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1941, and increases German motivation to conclude a non-aggression pact with the Russians before invading Poland.
- August 23 - Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact: Hitler and Stalin agree to divide Europe between themselves (Finland, Estonia, Latvia and eastern Poland to the USSR; Lithuania and western Poland to Germany).so they would not have to fight on two fronts.
- August 25 - An IRA bomb explodes in the centre of Coventry, England killing five people.
- August 26 - The Kriegsmarine orders all German flagged merchant ships to head to German ports immediately in anticipation of the Invasion of Poland.
- August 27 - A Heinkel 178, the first turbojet-powered aircraft, flies for the first time with Captain Erich Warsitz in command.
- August 30 - Poland begins mobilization against Nazi Germany.
September
October
November
December
- December 2 - La Guardia Airport opens for business in New York City.
- December 13 - WWII - Battle of the River Plate: German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee trapped by cruisers HMS Ajax, HMNZS Achilles, and HMS Exeter after a running battle off the coast of Uruguay. Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled by its crew off Montevideo harbor on December 17.
- December 14 - League of Nations expels the USSR for attacking Finland.
- December 15 - The film version of Gone with the Wind, starring Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Olivia de Havilland and Leslie Howard, premieres at Loew's Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia.
- December 26 - Mining strike in Borinage, Belgium
- December 27 - Earthquake in Eastern Anatolia, Turkey, destroys the town of Erzincan - about 30,000 dead.
- December 31 - The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the first sound film version of the Victor Hugo classic, is released by RKO. It stars Charles Laughton as Quasimodo the hunchback, and Maureen O'Hara as Esmerelda the gypsy.
Undated
Ongoing
Fictional
The following are references to year 1939 in fiction:
Births
January-February
- January 3
- January 6 - Valeri Lobanovsky, Ukrainian footballer and manager (d. 2002)
- January 6 - Murray Rose, Australian swimmer
- January 9 - Jimmy Boyd, American singer musician and actor
- January 9 - Malcolm Bricklin, American automotive pioneer
- January 10
- January 11 - Ann Heggtveit, Canadian skier
- January 12 - William Lee Golden, American country and gospel singer, member of the Oak Ridge Boys
- January 17 - Maury Povich, American talk show host
- January 17 - Archbishop Christodoulos, The most popular Archbishop of the modern Greek History,he was the best Archbishop of Greece considering the criticism from people.
- January 18 - James Gritz, U.S. Presidential candidate
- January 19 - Phil Everly, American musician
- January 20 - Chandra Wickramasinghe, British astronomer and poet
- January 22 - Ray Stevens, American musician
- January 29 - Germaine Greer, Australian writer
- February 1 - Paul Gillmor, American politician (d. 2007)
- February 6 - Mike Farrell, American actor
- February 10
- February 12 - Ray Manzarek, American keyboardist
- February 13 - Beate Klarsfeld, German-born Nazi hunter
- February 16 - Adolfo Azcuna, Filipino Supreme Court jurist
- February 20 - Frank Arundel, English footballer
- February 21 - Gert Neuhaus, German artist
- February 27 - David Mitton, British producer, director, model maker, and author (d. 2008)
- February 28 - Daniel C. Tsui, Chinese-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- February 28 - Tommy Tune, American dancer, choreographer, and actor
March-April
- March 1 - Leo Brouwer, Cuban composer and guitarist
- March 4
- March 8 - Robert Tear, Welsh tenor
- March 12 - Johnny Callison, American baseball player (d. 2006)
- March 13 - Neil Sedaka, American singer
- March 14 - Raymond J. Barry, American actor
- March 17 - Jim Gary, American sculptor (d. 2006)
- March 20 - Brian Mulroney, eighteenth Prime Minister of Canada
- March 31
- April 2 - Marvin Gaye, American singer (d. 1984)
- April 4 - Hugh Masakela, South African musician
- April 7
- April 13 - Seamus Heaney, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- April 13 - Paul Sorvino, American actor
- April 16 - Dusty Springfield, English singer (d. 1999)
- April 20 - Elspeth Ballantyne, Australian actress
- April 22 - Jason Miller, American playwright and actor (d. 2001)
- April 23 - Lee Majors, American actor
- April 25 - Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate
- April 27 - Erik Pevernagie, Belgian painter
May-June
- May 1 - Judy Collins, American singer and songwriter
- May 7
- May 9
- May 11 - Dante Tinga, Filipino Supreme Court jurist
- May 12 - Ron Ziegler, White House Press Secretary (d. 2003)
- May 13 - Harvey Keitel, American actor
- May 19
- May 21 - Heinz Holliger, Swiss oboist and composer
- May 23 - Reinhard Hauff, German film director
- May 25 - Dixie Carter, American actress
- May 26 - Brent Musburger, American sports announcer
- May 29 - Al Unser, American race car driver
- May 30 - Michael J. Pollard, American actor
- June 1 - Cleavon Little, American actor (d. 1992)
- June 3 - Ian Hunter (singer), English singer (Mott the Hoople)
- June 6 - Louis Andriessen, Dutch composer
- June 9
- June 11 - Jackie Stewart, Scottish race car driver
- June 15 - Brian Jacques, British writer
- June 16
July-August
- July 5 - Booker Edgerson, American football player
- July 14 - George E. Slusser, American scholar and writer
- July 15 - Aníbal Cavaco Silva, President of Portugal and former Prime Minister
- July 17
- July 21 - John Negroponte, U.S. Director of National Intelligence
- July 23 - Raine Karp, Estonian architect
- July 26
- July 27 - Michael Longley, Irish poet
- August 2 - John Snow, 73rd United States Secretary of the Treasury
- August 5 - Princess Irene of the Netherlands
- August 12 - George Hamilton, American actor
- August 12 - Skip Caray, American broadcaster for baseball (d. 2008)
- August 17 - Luther Allison, American musician (d. 1997)
- August 19 - Ginger Baker - Drummer of English rock group Cream
- August 22 - Carl Yastrzemski, baseball player
- August 25 - Robert Jager, American composer and theorist
- August 29 - Joel Schumacher, American film producer and director
- August 30 - John Peel, English disk jockey (d. 2004)
- August 31 - Cleveland Eaton, American jazz musician
September-October
- September 5 - Clay Regazzoni, Swiss Formula 1 Driver (d. 2006)
- September 5 - George Lazenby, Australian Actor
- September 6 - Brigid Berlin, American actress and artist
- September 6 - David Allan Coe, American musician
- September 8 - Carsten Keller, German field hockey player
- September 8 - Susumu Tonegawa, Japanese biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- September 8 - Guitar Shorty, American blues guitarist
- September 9 - Ron McDole, American football player
- September 13 - Richard Kiel, American actor
- September 16 - Breyten Breytenbach, South African writer and painter
- September 17 - Shelby Flint, American singer
- September 18 - Frankie Avalon, American musician
- September 18 - Fred Willard, American comedian
- September 23 - Janusz Gajos, Polish actor
- September 26 - Ricky Tomlinson, British actor
- September 29 - Larry Linville, American actor (d. 2000)
- September 30 - Len Cariou, Canadian actor and singer
- September 30 - Jean-Marie Lehn, French chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- October 1 - George Archer, American golfer (d. 2005)
- October 5 - Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, Filipino Supreme Court jurist
- October 7 - John Hopcroft, American computer scientist
- October 7 - Harold Kroto, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
- October 7 - Bill Snyder, American football coach
- October 11 - Austin Currie, Irish politician
- October 13 - T. J. Cloutier, American poker player
- October 13 - Melinda Dillon, American actress
- October 18 - Flavio Cotti, Swiss Federal Councilor
- October 18 - Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of President John F. Kennedy (d. 1963)
- October 14 - Ralph Lauren, American fashion designer
- October 22 - George Cohen, English footballer
- October 24 - F. Murray Abraham, American actor
- October 27 - John Cleese, British actor
- October 30 - Leland H. Hartwell, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- October 30 - Grace Slick, American singer (The Great Society, Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship)
- October 31 - Ron Rifkin, American actor
November-December
- November 1 - Barbara Bosson, American actress
- November 6
- November 8 - Laila Kinnunen, Finnish singer (d. 2000)
- November 9 - Paul Cameron, American psychologist
- November 10 - Russell Means, Native American activist
- November 15 - Yaphet Kotto, American actor
- November 16 - Michael Billington, British drama critic
- November 18
- November 21 - Mulayam Singh Yadav, Indian politician
- November 23 - Bill Bissett, Canadian poet
- November 26 - Tina Turner, American singer
- November 27 - Laurent-Désiré Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (d. 2001)
- December 1 - Dianne Lennon, American singer (The Lennon Sisters}
- December 2
- Yael Dayan, Israeli writer and politician
- Harry Reid, American politician and U.S. Senate Majority Leader
- December 5 - Minita Chico-Nazario, Filipino Supreme Court jurist
- December 8 - James Galway, Irish flautist
- December 11 - Thomas McGuane, American writer
- December 13 - Eric Flynn, British actor and singer (d. 2002)
- December 17 - Eddie Kendricks, American singer (The Temptations)
- December 18
- December 22 - Alfred J. Ferrara, American baseball player
Deaths
January - June
- January 2 - Roman Dmowski, Polish politician (b. 1864)
- January 23 - Matthias Sindelar, Austrian footballer (b. 1903)
- January 24 - Maximilian Bircher-Benner, Swiss physician and nutritionist (b. 1867)
- January 28 - William Butler Yeats, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)
- February 10 - Pope Pius XI (b. 1857)
- February 11 - Franz Schmidt, Austrian composer (b. 1874)
- February 12 - S. P. L. Sørensen, Danish chemist (b. 1868)
- February 22 - Antonio Machado, Spanish poet (b. 1875)
- February 27 - Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya, Russian Marxist revolutionary, Vladimir Lenin's wife (b. 1869)
- March 2 - Howard Carter, British archaeologist (b. 1874)
- March 19 - Lloyd L. Gaines, American civil rights activist
- March 28 - Francis Matthew John Baker, Australian politician (b. 1903)
- April 7 - Joseph Lyons, tenth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1879)
- April 25 - John Foulds, British classical music composer (b. 1880)
- April 25 - Georges Ricard-Cordingley, painter (b. 1873)
- June 4 - Tommy Ladnier, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1900)
- June 19 - Grace Abbott, American social worker and activist (b. 1878)
- June 26 - Ford Madox Ford, English writer (b. 1873)
July - December
- July 14 - Alfons Mucha, Czech painter and decorative artist (b. 1860)
- August 2 - Harvey Spencer Lewis, American mystic (b. 1883)
- August 11 - Jean Bugatti, German automobile designer (b. 1909)
- August 30 - Wilhelm Bölsche, German journalist and science writer (b. 1861)
- September 6 - Arthur Rackham, British artist (b. 1867)
- September 18 - Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Polish writer and painter (b. 1885)
- September 23 - Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychiatrist (b. 1856)
- October 7 - Harvey Cushing, American neurosurgeon (b. 1869)
- October 29 - Dwight B. Waldo, American educator and historian (b. 1864)
- November 12 - Norman Bethune, Canadian humanitarian (b. 1890)
- November 28 - James Naismith, Canadian inventor of basketball (b. 1861)
- November 29 - Philipp Scheidemann, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1865)
- December 3 - Princess Louise of the United Kingdom, second youngest daughter of Queen Victoria (b. 1848)
- December 23 - Anthony Fokker, Dutch aircraft manufacturer (b. 1890)
Nobel prizes
Notes
- ^ "Thailand ( Siam ) History" (overview), CS Mngt, 2005, CSMngt.com webpage: CSMngt-Thai.
External links
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