1939

Events

January

• January 1
• * Coming into effect in Nazi Germany of:
• ** The Protection of Young Persons Act, passed on April 30, 1938, the Working Hours Regulations.
• ** The small businesses obligation to maintain adequate accounting.
• ** The Jews name change decree.
• * With his traditional call to the New Year in Nazi Germany, Führer and Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler addresses the members of the National Socialist German Workers' Party.
• * The 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.
• * Philipp Etter takes over as President of the Swiss Confederation.
• * The Third Soviet Five Year Plan is launched.
• January 5 - Pioneering U.S. aviator Amelia Earhart is officially declared dead, eighteen months after her disappearance.
• January 6 - Otto Hahn's discoveries in the field of nuclear fission are published in Naturwissenschaften.
• January 7 - French physicist Marguerite Perey identifies francium, the last chemical element first discovered in nature.
• January 14 - Norway claims Queen Maud Land in Antarctica.
• 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 - 1939 Chillán earthquake: An earthquake in Chile kills an estimated 30,000 people and razes about of land.
• January 25 - Refik Saydam forms the new government of Turkey.
• January 26
• * Spanish Civil War: Spanish Nationalist troops, aided by Italy, take Barcelona.
• * In Paris, French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet, in response to rumours 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 British Royal Navy by 1944. The Kriegsmarine is given the first priority on the allotment of German economic resources.
• 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 financiers" start a war against Germany, "the result will be the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe".

  February

• 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 26, 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 - Pope Pius XI, the head of the Roman Catholic Church since 1922, dies of a heart attack.
• February 18 - The Golden Gate International Exposition opens in San Francisco.
• February 27 - The United Kingdom and France recognize Franco's government in Spain.

  March

• March - The 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine ends.
• March 1 - An Imperial Japanese Army ammunition dump explosion on the outskirts of Osaka kills 94.
• March 2 - Pope Pius XII succeeds Pope Pius XI to become the 260th pope, holding office until 1958.
• March 3 - In Durban, South Africa the Timeless Test begins between England and South Africa, the longest game of cricket ever played. It is abandoned 12 days later, when the English team has to catch their ship home.
• March 13 - Adolf 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 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
• * Hungary invades Carpatho-Ukraine; final resistance ends on March 18.
• * 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 17 - The nationalist governments of Spain and Portugal sign the Iberian Pact in Lisbon, pledging mutual defence of the Iberian Peninsula and neutrality in the event of a general European war.
• March 20
• * 1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania, requiring return of the Klaipėda Region to Germany.
• * 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 - Following the March 20 ultimatum, Nazi Germany is granted the Klaipėda Region by Lithuania; on the following day German forces occupy the territory.
• March 23 - The Slovak–Hungarian War begins.
• March 26 - Final offensive of the Spanish Civil War launched by the Nationalists.
• March 28
• * General Francisco Franco assumes power in Madrid, remaining in power until his death in 1975.
• * American 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.
• March 31 - Neville Chamberlain gives a speech in the House of Commons, offering the British "guarantee" of the independence of Poland.

  April

• April 1 - The Spanish Civil War comes to an end when the last of the Republican forces surrender.
• April 3
• * Adolf Hitler orders the German military to start planning for Fall Weiß, the codename for the invasion of Poland.
• * Refik Saydam forms the new government in Turkey.
• April 4
• * The Slovak–Hungarian War ends, with Slovakia ceding eastern territories to Hungary.
• * Polish Foreign Minister Colonel Józef Beck, in London, signs a treaty designed to bilateralize Neville Chamberlain's "Polish Guarantee" of March 31.
• * Faisal II becomes King of Iraq aged three, following the death of his father, Ghazi, in an automobile incident.
• April 7
• * Italian invasion of Albania begins; King Zog flees into exile, initially in Greece, with his wife and Crown Prince Skander.
• * Joseph 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.
• April 9 - African-American singer Marian Anderson performs before 75,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., after having been denied the use both of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution, and of a public high school by the federally controlled District of Columbia. First Lady of the United States Eleanor Roosevelt resigns from the DAR because of their decision.
• April 11 - Hungary leaves the League of Nations.
• April 14 - At a meeting in Paris, French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet meets with Soviet Ambassador Jakob Suritz, and suggests that a "peace front" comprising France, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, Poland and Romania would deter Germany from war.
• April 18
• * The Soviet Union proposes a "peace front" to resist aggression.
• * Robert Menzies is elected leader of the United Australia Party, and consequently becomes the 12th Prime Minister of Australia, defeating former Prime Minister Billy Hughes. However, he will not be sworn in until April 26, due to Earle Page and his Country Party refusing to serve under him.
• April 25 - The Federal Security Agency is founded in the United States, along with the Civilian Conservation Corps and Public Health Service.
• April 28 - In a speech before the Reichstag, Adolf Hitler renounces the Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish declaration of non-aggression.
• April 30 - The 1939 New York World's Fair opens.

  May

• May 3 - Vyacheslav Molotov succeeds Maxim Litvinov, as Soviet Foreign Commissar.
• May 6 - German anti-Nazi Carl Friedrich Goerdeler tells the British government that the German and Soviet governments are secretly beginning a rapprochement, with the aim of dividing Eastern Europe between them. Goerdeler also informs the British of German economic problems which he states threaten the survival of the Nazi regime, and advises that if a firm stand is made for Poland, then Hitler will be deterred from war.
• May 9 - Spain leaves the League of Nations.
• May 14 - Lina Medina, a 5-year-old Peruvian girl, gives birth to a baby boy, becoming the youngest confirmed mother in medical history.
• May 17
• * King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom arrive in Quebec City, to begin the first-ever tour of Canada by Canada's monarch.
• * The British government issues the White Paper of 1939, sharply restricting Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine.
• * Sweden, Norway, and Finland refuse Germany's offer of non-aggression pacts.
• May 18 - The Hòa Hảo religious sect is established in Vietnam, by Huỳnh Phú Sổ.
• May 20 - Pan 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.
• May 22 - Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel.
• May 23 - The White Paper of 1939 is ratified by the British government, acting as the governing policy for Mandatory Palestine from 1939 to 1948.
• May 24 - The first issue of Fashizmi is published in Tirana, Albania.
• May 29 - Albanian fascist leader Tefik Mborja is appointed as member of the Italian Chamber of Fasces and Corporations.