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Millennium: 2nd millennium
Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century
Decades: 1900s  1910s  1920s  - 1930s -  1940s  1950s  1960s
Years: 1936 1937 1938 - 1939 - 1940 1941 1942
1939 by topic:
Subject:      Archaeology - Architecture - Art
Aviation - Film - Literature (Poetry)
Meteorology - Music (Country)
Rail transport - Radio - Science
Sports - Television
Countries:      Australia - Canada - India - Ireland - Malaysia - New Zealand - Norway - Singapore - South Africa - Soviet Union - UK - Zimbabwe
Leaders:    Sovereign states - State leaders
Religious leaders - Law
Categories: Births - Deaths - Works - Introductions
Establishments - Disestablishments - Awards

Year 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Contents:

1. Events of 1939
   • -  Jan. ^. Feb. ^. March ^. April
   • -  May ^. June ^. July  ^.  Aug.
   • -  Sept. ^. Oct. ^. Nov. ^.  Dec.
   • -  Undated ^. Ongoing ^.
2. Births
3. Deaths
4. Nobel Prizes
5. See also -  Notes -  External links

Events of 1939

January

• January 1 - The Hewlett-Packard Company is founded.
• January 1 - Texas A&M University wins its first football national championship.
• January 2 - Frank Finley Merriam, 28th Governor of California, is succeeded by Culbert Levy Olson.
• January 5 - Amelia Earhart is officially declared dead after her disappearance.
• January 6 - Naturwissenschaften publishes evidence that nuclear fission has been achieved by Otto Hahn.
• January 13 - Black Friday: 71 people die across Victoria in one of Australia's worst ever bushfires.
• January 23 – “Dutch War Scare”: Admiral Wilhelm Canaris of the Abwehr leaks misinformation to the effect that Germany plans to invade the Netherlands in February, with the aim of using Dutch air-fields to launch a strategic bombing offensive against Britain. The “Dutch War Scare” leads to a major change in British policies towards Europe.
• January 24 - An earthquake kills 30,000 in Chile, and razes about 50,000 sq mi (130,000 km²).
• January 26 - Spanish Civil War: Spanish Nationalist troops, aided by Italy, take Barcelona.
• January 26 - In Paris, French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet, in response to rumours (which are true) that he is seeking to end the French alliance system in Eastern Europe, gives a speech highlighting his government's commitment to the cordon sanitaire.
• January 27 - Adolf Hitler orders Plan Z, a 5-year naval expansion programme intended to provide for a huge German fleet capable of crushing the Royal Navy by 1944. The Kriegsmarine is given the first priority on the allotment of German economic resources. (the first and only time the Kriegsmarine is given first priority in the history of the Third Reich).
• January 30 - Hitler gives a speech before the Reichstag calling for an "export battle" to increase German foreign exchange holdings. The same speech also sees Hitler's “prophecy” where he warns that if "Jewish financers" start a war against Germany, the "...result will be the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe".

February

• February 2 - Hungary joins the Anti-Comintern Pact.
• February 6
  • British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain states in the House of Commons that any German attack on France will be automatically considered an attack on Britain.
  • In a response to Georges Bonnet's speech of January 26th, German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, referring to Bonnet’s alleged statement of December 6, 1938 accepting Eastern Europe as being in Germany’s exclusive sphere of influence, protests that all French security commitments in that region are “now off limits”.
• February 10 - Spanish Nationalists complete their offensive in Catalonia.
• February 21 - The Golden Gate International Exposition opens in San Francisco, California.
• February 27
  • The United Kingdom and France recognize Franco's government.
  • Borley Rectory in England burns.
  • Sit-down strikes are outlawed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
• February 28 - The first issue of the Serbian weekly magazine Politikin Zabavnik is published.

March

• March - The 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine ends.
• March 1 - A Japanese Imperial Army ammunition dump explosion on the outskirts of Osaka kills 94.
• March 2 - Pope Pius XII (Cardinal Pacelli) succeeds Pope Pius XI as the 260th pope.
• March 3
  • In Bombay, Mohandas Gandhi begins to fast in protest of the autocratic rule in India.
  • Students at Harvard University demonstrate the new tradition of swallowing goldfish to reporters.
• March 13 - Hitler advises Jozef Tiso to declare Slovakia's independence in order to prevent its partition by Hungary and Poland.
• March 14 - The Slovak provincial assembly proclaims independence; priest Jozef Tiso becomes the president of the independent Slovak government.
• March 15 - German troops occupy the remaining part of Bohemia and Moravia; Czechoslovakia ceases to exist. The Ruthenian region of Czechoslovakia declares independence as Carpatho-Ukraine.
• March 16
  • Princess Fawzia of Egypt marries Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran.
  • Hungary invades Carpatho-Ukraine; final resistance ends on March 18.
• March 17 - British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain gives a speech in Birmingham, stating that Britain will oppose any effort at world domination on the part of Germany.
• March 18 - “Romanian War Scare”: Virgil Tilea, the Romanian Minister in London, spreads false rumours that Romania is on the verge of a German attack.
• March 20 - At an emergency meeting in London to deal with the Romanian crisis, French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet suggests to Lord Halifax that the ideal state for saving Romania from a German attack is Poland.
• March 22 - After an ultimatum of March 20, Nazi Germany takes Memelland from Lithuania.
• March 23 - The Slovak-Hungarian War begins.
• March 25 - The second cartoon to feature Happy Rabbit, Prest-O Change-O, is released.
• March 26 - The Philadelphia Story, a comedy by Philip Barry starring Katharine Hepburn, debuts at the Shubert Theater in New York City.
• March 28
  • Dictator Francisco Franco assumes power in Madrid.
  • American adventurer Richard Halliburton delivers a last message from a Chinese junk, before he disappears on a voyage across the Pacific Ocean.
• March 31 - Neville Chamberlain gives a speech in the House of Commons offering the British "guarantee" of the independence of Poland.