In history, year 1939 has its own importance and known for many memorable events like famous birthdays, inventions, natural disaster, treaties, change of rulers, special days etc. Find below a list of important historical events which happened during the year 1939.
| Date/Month | Event / Incidence / Incident |
|---|
| 10 february | Spanish Civil War-The Nationalists concluded their conquest of Catalonia and sealed the border with France. |
| 02 march | Italian Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli was elected as Pope and tookthe name Pius XII. |
| 19 march | Winston Churchill signed British Russian anti-Nazi pact on May 19, 1939. Thus both the countries made an alliance against Germany as a part of World War II. |
| 09 april | After being denied permission to perform at Constitution Hallby the Daughters of the American Revolution, African American singerMarian Anderson gave an open-air concert on the steps of the LincolnMemorial in Washington, D.C. |
| 20 april | Billie Holiday recorded her version of 'Strange Fruit', which gained fame as an emblem of the Civil Rights Movement. |
| 20 april | Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday was celebrated as a national holiday in Nazi Germany. |
| 03 may | The All India Forward Bloc was formed by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose on May 3, 1939. The motive of the Forward Bloc was to rally all the left wing sections within Congress and develop an alternative leadership inside the party, after three years it was banned by the British Authorities. |
| 03 may | Subhas Chandra Bose formed the All India Forward Bloc of the Indian National Congress in opposition to Gandhi's tactics of non-violence. |
| 13 may | WDRC-FM, the first commercial US FM radio station, was launched on May 13, 1939 in Bloomfield, Connecticut. Now it is known as 102.9 The Whale with the slogan ‘Classic Rock is back’ after changing their old theme Brass Bonanza. |
| 14 may | Lina Medina became the youngest confirmed mother at the age of five years, seven months and seventeen days when she gave birth to a boy by a caesarean section on May 14, 1939. |
| 19 may | Winston Churchill signed British Russian anti-Nazi pact on May 19, 1939. Thus both the countries made an alliance against Germany as a part of World War II. |
| 04 june | The German ocean liner St. Louis, carrying 937 Jewish refugeesseeking political asylum from Nazi persecution, was denied permission toland in the United States, after already having been turned away fromCuba. |
| 19 june | Former American baseball player Lou Gehrig was diagnosed withamyotrophic lateral sclerosis, now commonly known in the United Statesas 'Lou Gehrig's Disease'. |
| 02 august | Physicist Leó Szilárd wrote a letter to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, signed by Albert Einstein, warning that Germany might develop atomic bombs, which led to the establishment of the Manhattan Project. |
| 23 august | Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact, a 10-year, mutual non-aggression treaty,which also included a secret protocol dividing Northern and EasternEurope into German and Soviet spheres of influence. |
| 25 august | The United Kingdom and Poland entered into a military alliancefor mutual assistance in case of military invasion by 'a EuropeanPower'. |
| 31 august | Nazi forces, posing as Poles, staged an attack against theGerman radio station Sender Gleiwitz in Gleiwitz, Upper Silesia,Germany, creating an excuse to invade Poland the next day. |
| 01 september | Nazi Germany invaded Poland at Wielun and Westerplatte, starting World War II in Europe. |
| 03 september | Britain and France declare war on Germany in retaliation to Hitler's incursion of Poland. |
| 10 september | Canada with England and France declare war on Germany. |
| 17 september | Soviet Union invades eastern Poland in retaliation to Germany’s invasion of Western Poland earlier in the month. |
| 17 september | World War II-The Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east,sixteen days after Nazi Germany's attack on that country from the west. |
| 17 september | Second World War-The Royal Navy lost its first warship in the war when German submarine U-29 torpedoed and sank HMS Courageous. |
| 18 september | The Nazi propaganda radio programme Germany Calling, with ahost nicknamed 'Lord Haw-Haw', began broadcasting to audiences in theUnited Kingdom and the United States. |
| 21 september | Romanian Prime Minister Armand Calinescu was assassinated inBucharest by pro-Nazi members of the Iron Guard. |
| 25 september | Versailles Peace Treaty forgot to include Andorra, so Andorra and Germany finally sign an official treaty ending WW I |
| 27 september | Poland surrenders to Germany after just 26 days of fierce battle. The German Army imprisons approximately 140,000 Polish troops. |
| 30 september | World War II-General Wladyslaw Sikorski became Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile. |
| 06 november | As part of their plan to eradicate the Polish intellectualelite, the Gestapo arrested 184 professors, students and employees ofJagiellonian University in Kraków. |
| 26 november | The Soviet Red Army shelled Mainila and then claimed that the fire originated from Finland, giving them a casus belli to launch the Winter War a few days later. |
| Date/Month | Name / Profession / Country |
|---|
| 02 May | Jonathan Harvey / Educator / United Kingdom |
| 03 June | Ian Hunter / Writer / United Kingdom |
| 05 October | A. R. Penck / Painter / Germany |
| 05 May | Ray Gosling / Author / United Kingdom |
| 06 September | Brigid Berlin / Actress / United States of America |
| 07 October | Harry Kroto / Scientist / United Kingdom |
| 07 April | David Frost / Journalist / United Kingdom |
| 08 August | Alexander Watson / Diplomat / United States of America |
| 10 January | David Horowitz / Author / United States of America |
| 11 March | Flaco Jiménez / Accordion Player / United States of America |
| 15 March | Robert Nye / Poet / United Kingdom |
| 16 April | Dusty Springfield / Singer / United Kingdom |
| 16 November | Michael Billington / Author / United Kingdom |
| 17 March | Bill Graham / Politician / Canada |
| 18 February | Bobby Hart / Writer / United States of America |
| 21 June | Rubén Berríos / Politician / United States of America |
| 21 March | Kathleen Widdoes / Actress / United States of America |
| 21 November | R. Budd Dwyer / Politician / United States of America |
| 29 May | Pete Smith / Radio / Australia |
| 30 August | John Peel / Producer / United Kingdom |
| Year | Name / Profession / Country |
|---|
| 27 June | R. D. Burman / Writer / India |
| 03 March | M. L. Jaisimha / Cricketer / India |
| 15 September | Subramanian Swamy / Academic / India |
| 16 July | Shringar Nagaraj / Actor / India |
| 27 June | Rahul Dev Burman / Musician / India |
| 21 September | Agnivesh / Philosopher / India |
| 11 November | Ravindra Kalia / Author / India |
| 08 February | James Michael Lyngdoh / Civil Servant / India |
| 14 October | Dr. Suniti Solomon / Physician / India |
| 01 July | S. Rajendra Babu / Lawyer / India |
| 13 July | Prakash Mehra / Producer / India |
| 02 October | Budhi Kunderan / Cricketer / India |
| 02 May | V. N. Khare / Lawyer / India |
| 01 November | Ved Prakash Malik / Soldier / India |
| 20 May | Balu Mahendra / Director / India |
| 01 December | Hemananda Biswal / Politician / India |
| 03 August | Apoorva Sengupta / Cricketer / India |
| 24 February | Joy Mukherjee / Actor / India |
| 25 September | Feroz Khan / Actor / India |
| 20 June | Ramakant Desai / Cricketer / India |
