What happened in 1939

World11

• Jan 30Hitler 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 financiers" start a war against Germany, "the result will be the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe".
• Mar 201939 German ultimatum to Lithuania, requiring return of the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory) to Germany.
• Mar 23The Slovak–Hungarian War begins.
• Apr 4The Slovak–Hungarian War ends, with Slovakia ceding eastern territories to Hungary.
• Apr 4Faisal II becomes King of Iraq aged three, following the death of his father, Ghazi, in an automobile incident.
• May 17The British government issues the White Paper of 1939, sharply restricting Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine.
• Aug 2The Einstein–Szilard letter is signed by Albert Einstein, advising President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt of the potential use of uranium to construct an atomic bomb. It is delivered on October 11 and leads to the first meeting on October 21 of the Advisory Committee on Uranium.
• SepWorld War IIIt began with Germany's invasion of Poland, and in 1941 Japan started the Pacific War. It lasted until 1945, and tens of millions of people died.
• Nov 30WWII: Winter War – Soviet forces attack Finland and reach the Mannerheim Line, starting the war. Sweden declares itself a non-belligerent in the Winter War.
• Dec 6WWII: Winter War – The Red Army's advance on the Karelian Isthmus is stopped by Finns at the Mannerheim Line during the Battle of Taipale.
• Dec 14WWII: Winter War – The League of Nations expels the USSR for attacking Finland.

North America10

• Jan 1The Hewlett-Packard technology and scientific instruments manufacturing company is founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard, in a garage in Palo Alto, California, considered the birthplace of Silicon Valley.
• Jan 5Pioneering U.S. aviator Amelia Earhart is officially declared dead, eighteen months after her disappearance.
• Feb 18The Golden Gate International Exposition opens in San Francisco.
• Mar 28American adventurer Richard Halliburton delivers a last message from a Chinese junk, before he disappears on a voyage across the Pacific Ocean. In 1945, some wreckage identified as a rudder, and believed to belong to the junk, washes ashore in San Diego, California.
• Mar 30The superhero Batman debut for Detective Comics (issue #27) (cover date of May).
• Apr 30The 1939 New York World's Fair opens.
• May 20Pan American Airways begins transatlantic mail service with the inaugural flight of its Boeing 314 flying boat Yankee Clipper from Port Washington, New York, to Marseille.
• Jul 8The Pan American Airways Boeing 314 flying boat Yankee Clipper inaugurates the world's first heavier-than-air North Atlantic air passenger service, between the United States (Port Washington, New York) and Britain.
• Nov 16Al Capone is released from Terminal Island, due to deteriorating health caused by syphilis.
• Dec 15Gone with the Wind premieres at Loew's Grand Theatre in Atlanta. Based on Margaret Mitchell's best-selling novel of 1936, it is the longest American film made up to this date (at nearly four hours) and rapidly becomes the highest-grossing film up to this time.

Europe30

• Feb 10Pope Pius XI, the head of the Roman Catholic Church since 1922, dies of a heart attack.
• Mar 2Pope Pius XII (Cardinal Pacelli) succeeds Pope Pius XI to become the 260th pope, holding office until 1958.
• Mar 14The Slovak provincial assembly proclaims independence; priest Jozef Tiso becomes president of the independent Slovak government.
• Apr 7Italian invasion of Albania begins; King Zog flees into exile, initially in Greece, with his wife and Crown Prince Skander (born April 5).
• May 22Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.
• Aug 19Adolf Hitler, after evaluating the pace of non-aggression negotiations with the Soviet Union, orders the Kriegsmarine to begin the opening operations for Fall Weiß, the invasion of Poland. The, along with the, as well as dozens of U-boats, cast off for their advance positions. Hitler spends the next few days worrying that the Russians will not come to terms in time for the rest of the invasion plans to unfold as scheduled.
• Aug 27A Heinkel He 178, the first turbojet-powered aircraft, flies for the first time, with Captain Erich Warsitz in command.
• Sep 8WWII: Battle of Westerplatte ends when Polish troops on the Westerplatte are forced by lack of food and ammunition to surrender. The garrison of about two hundred had held out against thousands of German forces (many of them naval officer cadets from the Schleswig-Holstein) for seven days.
• Sep 9WWII: Troops of the Polish Poznań Army under the command of General Kutrzeba open the Battle of the Bzura, the largest and best organized counter-attack mounted by the Polish forces in the campaign of 1939. For the first few days all goes well, and the Germans are forced to retreat; but quick reaction by mechanized units and the Luftwaffe soon take their toll, and the operation bogs down.
• Sep 15WWII: Diverse elements of the German Wehrmacht surround Warsaw, and demand its surrender. The Poles refuse, and the siege begins in earnest.
• Sep 21Reinhard Heydrich, chief of the Security Police, sends a directive, the Schnellbrief, explaining that Jews living in towns and villages in the Polish occupation zones are to be transferred to ghettos, and Jewish councils, Judenräte, will be established to carry out the German authorities' orders.
• Sep 22WWII: A joint victory parade is staged by the Wehrmacht and Red Army in Brest-Litovsk, at the end of the Invasion of Poland.
• Sep 30General Władysław Sikorski becomes Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile.
• Oct 8The Holocaust: Piotrków Trybunalski Ghetto, the first Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Europe, is proclaimed in German-occupied Poland.
• Dec 13WWII – Battle of the River Plate: The German heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee is trapped by cruisers, HMNZS Achilles, and after a running battle off the coast of Uruguay. Graf Spee is scuttled by its crew off Montevideo Harbor, on December 17.

15 more in the app

USSR / Russia4

• Aug 23The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact is signed between Germany and the Soviet Union, a neutrality treaty that also agrees to division of spheres of influence (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, eastern Poland and Bessarabia (modern-day Moldova), north-east province of Romania to the Soviet Union; Lithuania and western Poland to Germany). Its annex reassigns Lithuania to the Soviet Union.
• Sep 17The Soviet Union invades Poland, and then occupies eastern Polish territories.
• Nov 26Shelling of Mainila: The Soviet Union's Red Army shells the Russian village of Mainila, then claims that the fire originated from Finland, giving a casus belli for the Winter War.
• Dec 1The Soviet Union establishes the Finnish Democratic Republic puppet state in Terijoki.

Asia3

• May 18The Hòa Hảo religious sect is established in Vietnam, by Huỳnh Phú Sổ.
• Jun 14Tientsin Incident: The Japanese blockade the British concession in Tianjin, China, beginning a crisis which almost causes an Anglo-Japanese war this summer.
• Sep 16A ceasefire ends the Battles of Khalkhin Gol, the undeclared border war between the Soviet Union (and Mongolian allies) and Japan.

Middle East2

• Jun 23Talks are completed in Ankara between French Ambassador René Massigli and Turkish Foreign Minister Şükrü Saracoğlu, resolving the Hatay dispute in Turkey's favor. Turkey annexes Hatay.
• Dec 27The 7.8 Erzincan earthquake shakes eastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XII (Extreme), causing $20 million in damage, and leaving 32,700–32,968 dead.

Latin America1

• Jan 241939 Chillán earthquake: An earthquake in Chile kills an estimated 30,000 people and razes about of land.

Africa1

• Sep 8The Little Sisters of Jesus is founded in Algeria, by Little Sister Magdeleine.

Oceania1

• Apr 7Joseph Lyons, 10th Prime Minister of Australia, dies in office from a heart attack at the age of 59. He is briefly replaced by his deputy Earle Page, who serves as the 11th Prime Minister, until a UAP leadership election is held to replace Lyons.