1939

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

Events

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 Anticomintern 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 14 - Slovak provincial assemble proclaims independence - priest Jozef Tiso becomes the president of independent Slovak government
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
March - End of the Great Arab Revolt in the British Mandate of Palestine (started 1936)

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 2 - Lou Gehrig's streak of 2130 consecutive Major League Baseball games played comes to an end. The record will stand for 56 years before Cal Ripken, Jr. breaks it.
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 in France - murderer Eugene Weidmann is decapitated by the Guillotine.
June 23 - Turkey annexes Hatay

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 25 - An IRA bomb explodes in the centre of Coventry, England killing five people.
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 2 - Following the invasion of Poland, Freie Stadt Danzig Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) is annexed to Nazi Germany.
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 16 - Cease Fire ending undeclared Border War between The Soviet Union (and Mongolian allies) and Japan.
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 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 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 16 - Al Capone released from Alcatraz
November 30 - Winter War begins: Soviet forces invade Finland and reach the Mannerheim Line, starting the war.
December 2 - La Guardia Airport opens for business in New York City.
December 14 - League of Nations expels the USSR 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
December 30 - USSR invades Finland

Batman created by Bob Kane (and, unofficially, Bill Finger).
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 km�)