Our records for 1939 hold 500 events from 11 regions; the best-ranked is “Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in Moscow”.
This page lists all 500 events in our records for 1939: 382 dated to the day, 98 from outside Europe and North America. The biggest come first, then every event month by month, grouped by region.
How sure we are: events with no label are high confidence. A grey label such as Exact day uncertain says why one detail is less certain; a yellow label such as Sources differ on the date marks a low-confidence event where the sources disagree or are thin. The notes say where. Dates are in the Gregorian calendar; where a country still used another calendar, the notes give the original. How events are checked
The biggest stories of 1939
Ranked by how widely known each event is today, one card per happening, at least a third from outside Europe and North America.
Politics & diplomacyWidely known
Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in Moscow
· Moscow, Soviet Union (now Russia) · Europe
Some details uncertain.
Foreign ministers Molotov and von Ribbentrop signed a non-aggression treaty in Moscow. A secret protocol split Eastern Europe into Soviet and German zones of influence and agreed to partition Poland.
Why it is interesting. A public non-aggression treaty hid a secret protocol that carved up Poland and the Baltic region between Hitler and Stalin.
Notes and dating details
The infobox and the secret protocol are dated 23 August 1939, but the lead says the pact was signed on 24 August and backdated to 23 August; Wikidata gives 23 August. The pact is stored under the document's own date, 23 August.
Germany invades Poland and World War II begins in Europe
· Poland · Europe
German troops crossed into Poland, joined by the Slovak Republic, and the Soviet Union invaded from the east on 17 September. By 6 October the campaign was over and Germany and the Soviet Union had divided Poland between them.
Why it is interesting. A crisis over Danzig and a pact signed with the Soviet Union a week earlier led up to the attack that began the war.
Notes and dating details
The lead and infobox give 1 September to 6 October 1939, matching Wikidata.
The Soviet Union invades Finland, beginning the Winter War
· Finland · Europe
Soviet forces attacked Finland, citing the protection of Leningrad after Finland refused to trade border territory. The Soviets had more tanks and aircraft, yet took heavy losses and advanced little at first.
Why it is interesting. The League of Nations ruled the attack unlawful and expelled the Soviet Union from the organisation.
Notes and dating details
The lead and infobox give 30 November 1939 to 13 March 1940, matching Wikidata. The end date falls in 1940.
The Spanish Civil War ends in a Nationalist victory
· Spain · Europe
The Nationalists won the war against the Republicans of the Popular Front government. Francisco Franco went on to rule Spain until his death in November 1975, over a military-led state.
Why it is interesting. The Republicans were backed by the Soviet Union, while Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany directly aided the Nationalists.
Notes and dating details
The infobox gives 1 April 1939 as the end, matching Wikidata; the lead says only that the Nationalists won in early 1939.
Soviet forces entered Poland from the east with no formal declaration of war, 16 days after Germany attacked from the west. Fighting ended on 6 October, when Germany and the Soviet Union divided and annexed all Polish territory.
Why it is interesting. A secret clause of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact had foreshadowed the invasion, and hundreds of thousands of eastern Poles were later deported to Siberia.
Notes and dating details
The lead and infobox give 17 September to 6 October 1939, matching Wikidata.
The Nazi Aktion T4 programme to kill disabled and mentally ill people begins
· Germany · Europe
Some details uncertain.
Germany ran a systematic programme that killed disabled and mentally ill people by gas, injection, starvation and other means. The killing began in September 1939 and continued until the war in Europe ended in 1945.
Why it is interesting. Hitler's authorisation was signed in October 1939 but backdated to 1 September, the day Germany invaded Poland.
Notes and dating details
The infobox gives September 1939 to 1945 and the lead says killings ran from September 1939. The authorisation is dated October 1939 and backdated to 1 September 1939, so only the month September 1939 is stored. Wikidata gives only the year 1939.
Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel in Berlin
· Berlin, Germany · Europe
Foreign ministers Ribbentrop and Ciano signed a treaty binding Germany and Italy in a military and political alliance. A secret supplementary protocol called for a union of their military and economic policies.
Why it is interesting. The pact began as a draft three-way alliance with Japan, but Japan wanted it aimed at the Soviets and Italy and Germany at Britain and France.
Notes and dating details
The infobox and lead give 22 May 1939, matching Wikidata.
The Battle of the River Plate is fought off Uruguay
· Off the River Plate, South Atlantic · At sea
The German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee under Captain Langsdorff met a British squadron under Commodore Harwood. With her fuel system crippled, Graf Spee took refuge in neutral Montevideo, Uruguay.
Why it is interesting. The Royal Navy's opening sea battle of the war ended with the German cruiser limping into neutral Montevideo.
Notes and dating details
The lead dates the battle to 13 December 1939 and the infobox gives 13-17 December 1939, the later days covering the aftermath at Montevideo. Wikidata gives 13 December.
German SS men stage the Gleiwitz radio station attack
· Gleiwitz, Germany (now Gliwice, Poland) · Europe
SS men dressed in Polish uniforms staged an attack on the radio station at Gleiwitz on the night of 31 August. Germany used it, with some two dozen similar incidents, as an excuse to invade Poland.
Why it is interesting. The attackers presented as Poles were German SS officers in Polish uniforms, staging an attack to justify an invasion.
Notes and dating details
The lead and infobox give the night of 31 August 1939, matching Wikidata.
The naval campaign between Allied and German forces centred on the Allied blockade of Germany, announced a day after war was declared, and Germany's counter-blockade. It ran until Germany's defeat in 1945.
Why it is interesting. It was World War II's longest unbroken campaign, running from 1939 to Germany's defeat in 1945.
Notes and dating details
The infobox gives 3 September 1939 to 8 May 1945, matching Wikidata's start; the lead says only 1939 to 1945. The end date falls in 1945.
Soviet-Mongolian and Japanese forces begin the Battles of Khalkhin Gol
· Khalkhin Gol, Mongolia · Asia
The fighting decided the unofficial border war between the Soviet Union and Japan. General Georgy Zhukov led a three-pronged Soviet offensive using aircraft, tanks and infantry.
Why it is interesting. The Soviet victory discouraged Japan from further confrontation with the Soviet Union and helped turn it toward Southeast Asia.
Notes and dating details
The infobox gives 11 May to 16 September 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox places the battlefield in the Mongolian People's Republic, while Wikidata proposes a place in China.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes Erzincan in eastern Turkey
· Erzincan, Turkey · Middle East
The earthquake struck at 1:57 a.m. and ruptured up to 360 km of the North Anatolian Fault. Estimates of the death toll run from 32,700 to 32,968, some 100,000 people were injured, and about 116,720 buildings were seriously damaged.
Why it is interesting. Winter weather made it hard for aid to arrive, and the quake was among the largest of a run of strong earthquakes along the fault between 1939 and 1999.
Notes and dating details
Local date stored. NOAA UTC date 1939-12-26 23:57. The shock came just before 2 a.m. local time on 27 December, which was still 26 December in UTC, the date used by Wikidata and the NOAA record; German Wikipedia also gives 27 December at about 01:57 local time. Turkey was already on the Gregorian calendar. Death toll: the English infobox gives 32,700 to 32,968, and the English body says almost 33,000 had died by 5 January from the earthquake and the cold, blizzards and floods that followed; the NOAA record gives 32,700, and its comments quote figures from 23,000 to 33,000 including 32,962; German Wikipedia gives about 33,000 in its text and 32,962 in its infobox.
Dmowski co-founded the National Democracy movement and was its chief ideologue, though he held significant office only briefly, as foreign minister in 1923. He wanted Poland to be a nation of Polish speakers who practised Roman Catholicism.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 2 January 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Drozdowo as the place of death and Bródno Cemetery in Warsaw as the burial place.
The Battle of the Segre ends in a Nationalist victory
War & conflict
Fighting along the Segre River ran from 4 April 1938 until 3 January 1939. The Nationalists fought it after breaking Republican lines in the Aragon Offensive, and the Republic held the river line until early January.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 3 January 1939 as the end, matching Wikidata. The battle began in April 1938.
Two Fabra representatives told a notary they had agreed to form Agencia EFE S.A. Interior Minister Ramón Serrano Súñer, on the Francoist side, created the agency, which was officially founded in Burgos, where Franco had his headquarters.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 3 January 1939, matching Wikidata.
Working at the Curie Institute in Paris, Marguerite Perey found francium while purifying a sample of actinium-227. The element carries the name of France, the country where she found it.
Notes
The lead and the body both give 7 January 1939; Wikidata gives only the year 1939.
· Zaporizhzhia, Soviet Union (now Ukraine) · Europe
Zaporizhzhia Oblast is created in Soviet Ukraine
Politics & diplomacy
The Ukrainian Soviet republic gained the new oblast, formed from territory of neighbouring oblasts including Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Its capital is the city of Zaporizhzhia in south-east Ukraine.
Notes
The infobox and body give 10 January 1939, matching Wikidata and the German article. The English body says the oblast was created out of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, while the German article says it was formed from districts of the Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv oblasts.
Rio Ave Futebol Clube was founded in Vila do Conde and takes its name from the Ave River running through the town. It was soon nicknamed Rio Grande, meaning Big River.
Notes
The infobox gives 18 January 1939, matching Wikidata, while the lead and body give only the year.
The 1939 Home Nations Championship rugby union tournament begins
Sport
England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales played six matches from late January to mid-March. It was the last tournament without France, who had been expelled after 1931 over professionalism allegations.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 21 January to 18 March 1939, matching Wikidata.
Joe Davis wins the 1939 World Snooker Championship
Sport
The thirteenth championship ran at Thurston's Hall in London. Joe Davis kept the title he had held since 1927, beating Sidney Smith 43-30 in the final.
Notes
The lead gives 23 January to 4 March 1939, while Wikidata gives only the year.
· Davos, Switzerland; London, United Kingdom; and Zakopane, Poland · Europe
The 1939 European Figure Skating Championships are held in three countries
SportSome details uncertain
The men's event took place in Davos, the ladies' in London and the pairs in Zakopane. Graham Sharp won the men's title, Cecilia Colledge the ladies' title, and Maxi Herber and Ernst Baier the pairs.
Notes
The English lead and infobox name the three host towns and the 1938-39 season. The German and French articles give 23-24 January 1939 for the ladies' event in London, 27-29 January 1939 for the men's event in Davos and 4 February 1939 for the pairs in Zakopane; Wikidata gives January 1939.
Yeats was an Irish poet, dramatist and critic and a driving force of the Irish Literary Revival. He died in France, at the Hôtel Idéal Séjour. He had won the 1923 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 28 January 1939, matching Wikidata. The English infobox and the French article give Roquebrune-Cap-Martin as the place of death (a footnote in the French article places the Hôtel Idéal Séjour at Roquebrune near Menton); the German article has him dying at that hotel in Menton and buried in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, and Wikidata gives Menton, so confidence is medium.
La Retirada: nearly 500,000 Spanish Republicans flee into France
War & conflict
Nearly 500,000 Republican soldiers and civilians fled from Spain to France in the weeks after Franco's Nationalist army conquered Catalonia, including Barcelona. France was unprepared for the numbers and did not welcome the refugees warmly.
Notes
The English lead gives 28 January to 15 February 1939, while Wikidata gives only the year. The English body says France closed the border on 26 and 27 January and let women, children and the elderly cross again from 28 January.
Hitler delivers a Reichstag speech containing his prophecy about the Jews
Politics & diplomacy
Hitler addressed Reichstag delegates at the Kroll Opera House on the sixth anniversary of his taking power. He predicted that another world war would bring the destruction of the Jews of Europe.
Notes
The lead gives 30 January 1939 and the venue, matching Wikidata. The place is given as Berlin from the Kroll Opera House venue named in the lead.
The antisemitic propaganda exhibition The Eternal Jew ends its showing in Berlin
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
The exhibition, sponsored by Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, had opened in Munich in November 1937 and then travelled to Vienna and Berlin. The Berlin showing began on 12 November 1938.
Notes
The last paragraph of the English lead and the French article give the Berlin showing as 12 November 1938 to 31 January 1939, matching Wikidata's end date; the German article gives 12 November 1938 to 13 January 1939 and says the exhibition then went on to Bremen, Dresden and Magdeburg. The first paragraph of the English lead describes the Munich showing of 1937-38 and its 412,300 visitors.
The 75th Congress met in Washington for two years, 1937 to 1939, in the middle of Franklin Roosevelt's presidency. Democrats held a supermajority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 3 January 1939 as the end of the term, matching Wikidata.
Earhart had disappeared with her navigator Fred Noonan over the Pacific on 2 July 1937. She was declared legally dead on 5 January 1939.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 5 January 1939 as the date she was declared dead in absentia, matching Wikidata. This is a legal declaration; she had disappeared on 2 July 1937, and Wikidata's place of Howland Island refers to her intended destination, not where the declaration was made.
Universal Pictures put the horror film in theatres, with Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi in the cast. It is the third film in Universal's Frankenstein series.
Notes
The lead, body and infobox agree on 13 January 1939, matching Wikidata.
Henry King directed the American Western starring Tyrone Power, Henry Fonda and Nancy Kelly, loosely based on the outlaw's life. Channel 4 has called it notorious for historical inaccuracy.
Notes
The English infobox gives 14 January 1939. Wikidata gives 9 January 1939 for Los Angeles, 14 January 1939 for New York City and 27 January 1939 for the United States.
Badlands National Monument is formally established in South Dakota
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
The monument had been authorised by law on 4 March 1929 but was not formally established until January 1939. It was redesignated a national park in 1978.
Notes
The English lead and infobox give 25 January 1939, matching Wikidata, while the English body says Roosevelt signed the proclamation on 24 January 1939 and the French infobox gives 29 January 1939. The day is therefore uncertain and confidence is medium.
A federal decree created the park, which borders Iguazu National Park in Argentina. It contains one of the world's largest waterfalls and shelters giant otters and giant anteaters.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 10 January 1939, matching Wikidata.
A magnitude 8.3 earthquake strikes south-central Chile near Chillán
Disasters
Shaking began at 23:32 local time and destroyed more than half of Chillán, including its cathedral. At 23:35 Concepción was hit, and about 95 percent of its houses were destroyed. Around 28,000 people died.
Notes
Local date stored. NOAA UTC date 1939-01-25 03:32; the English Wikipedia infobox gives the same UTC time and a local time of 23:32 on 24 January. The Earthquake section of the English article gives the 23:32 start under Chillán, the 23:35 shock in Concepción and about 95% of houses destroyed there. Wikidata and the NOAA record use the UTC date. Death toll: English Wikipedia gives around 28,000; German Wikipedia gives 24,000 and says official figures were considerably lower; the NOAA record gives 30,000.
The Apostolic Prefecture of Urawa is established in Japan
Religion & philosophy
The prefecture was carved out of the Diocese of Yokohama, with the Franciscan Fr. Ambroise Leblanc as its first prefect apostolic. It became the Diocese of Urawa in 1957 and the Diocese of Saitama in 2003.
Notes
The body gives the day, 4 January 1939, in its history list, and Wikidata gives only the year.
Itami Airport opens near Osaka as No. 2 Osaka Airport
Architecture
Construction had begun in July 1936 on a site of 53 hectares. It opened with four runways of 1,100 to 1,600 metres, able to take planes up to the size of a Douglas DC-3.
Notes
The History section gives 17 January 1939 for the opening, and the infobox gives the year 1939, matching Wikidata. The same section gives the July 1936 start of construction, the 53-hectare site, the army's main use in the early years and the four runways of 1,100 to 1,600 metres that could handle planes up to the size of a Douglas DC-3. Its sentence on Osaka dropping a seaplane airport near the Yamato River carries a questionable-source tag, so that point is left out.
The fires burned after years of drought and extreme heat, affecting about three-quarters of the state. Seventy-one people died, more than 1,300 homes and 69 sawmills burned, and several towns were wiped out.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 13 January 1939, matching Wikidata. Fires had been burning since December 1938 and through the summer, but the worst day was 13 January.
The 32nd Australian Championships tennis tournament begins in Melbourne
SportSome details uncertain
The championships, now the Australian Open, began on 20 January at Kooyong Stadium in Melbourne. The singles titles went to the Australians John Bromwich and Emily Hood Westacott.
Notes
The English lead and the German article give 20 to 30 January 1939; the English infobox gives 20 to 28 January 1939.
The Catholic boys' school in the Edmund Rice tradition opened in Grafton as heir to Auckland's first school, which dated from 1841. The Outhwaite family gave the land, and the Christian Brothers provided its staff for 70 years.
Notes
The infobox and lead give the year 1939. The body says Bishop Liston opened the school on Sunday 29 January 1939 and that it first took in pupils on Monday 6 February 1939; the opening ceremony date is stored. The body adds that the foundation also commemorated 1838, when Catholic church life in New Zealand began with Bishop Pompallier's arrival.
The German Antarctic Expedition reaches the Princess Martha Coast
ExplorationSome details uncertain
The secret expedition under Captain Alfred Ritscher left Hamburg aboard the ship Schwabenland on 17 December 1938. On arrival the ship began charting the region.
Notes
The infobox and body give 19 January 1939 for the arrival of the expedition ship, matching the infobox start of contact. Wikidata gives only the year for the founding of New Swabia, and the area was never an officially recognised territory, so confidence is medium.
Smith proposed the round nomogram independently, and it was published in January 1939. Radio-frequency engineers use it to solve problems of transmission lines and impedance matching.
Notes
The body says the chart was published in January 1939 and that Smith proposed it independently that year, which points to earlier parallel work elsewhere; Wikidata gives only the year 1939.
Saint-Exupéry's memoir Terre des hommes appears in France
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
Saint-Exupéry's memoir, published in English as Wind, Sand and Stars, centres on his 1935 plane crash in the Sahara, which he barely survived. Lewis Galantière translated it for the American edition later that year.
Notes
The lead, body and infobox agree on February 1939, matching Wikidata. No day is given, so confidence is medium.
The anarchist women's organisation Mujeres Libres collapses after the fall of Catalonia
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Lucía Sánchez Saornil, Amparo Poch y Gascón and Mercedes Comaposada had begun the group in Madrid, and it grew into a national federation of 30,000 members by the summer of 1938.
Notes
The month comes from the infobox and the body, with no day given, so confidence is medium.
Penza Oblast was established by splitting territory off Tambov Oblast. Its Communist Party committee was formed in March, with Alexander Kabanov as first secretary.
Notes
The English infobox and body and the French article give 4 February 1939, matching Wikidata, while the German article gives 7 February 1939, so the day is disputed and confidence is medium.
Pius XI was head of the Catholic Church from February 1922 and died in office in February 1939. He was the sovereign of Vatican City, created in February 1929, and his encyclical Quas primas set up the feast of Christ the King.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 10 February 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City as the place of death.
A Nationalist push that began on 23 December 1938 quickly overran Catalonia. Barcelona fell on 26 January, the Republican and Catalan governments fled toward France, and by 10 February Franco's forces had sealed the frontier.
Notes
The infobox gives 23 December 1938 to 10 February 1939, matching Wikidata's end day. The lead ties 10 February to the closing of the French border.
· Budapest, Hungary, and Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) · Europe
The 1939 World Figure Skating Championships are held in Budapest and Prague
SportSome details uncertain
The championships were split between Budapest and Prague. Graham Sharp won the men's title, Megan Taylor the ladies' title, and Maxi Herber and Ernst Baier the pairs.
Notes
The lead and infobox cover 11 to 19 February 1939 but disagree on which events were held on which dates. The lead puts men and pairs on 17-19 February in Budapest and ladies on 11-12 February in Prague, and the infobox reverses the dates. Confidence is medium.
Sørensen was a Danish chemist known for introducing the concept of pH, the scale that measures acidity and alkalinity. He headed the Carlsberg Laboratory in Copenhagen from 1901 to 1938.
Notes
The English lead and infobox give 12 February 1939, matching the main Wikidata date, while the German article gives 13 February 1939, which Wikidata also lists. The day is therefore disputed and confidence stays medium.
Italian bombers hit a train at Xàtiva railway station
War & conflict
Italian bombers of the Aviazione Legionaria, acting for Franco's government, hit a train carrying Republican troops and crowded with civilians greeting relatives. A total of 129 people died, 109 of them instantly, and over 200 were wounded.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 12 February 1939, matching Wikidata. The History section gives 129 dead, 109 of them killed instantly, and over 200 wounded, and says five Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 bombers from Palma de Mallorca dropped twenty bombs; most of the dead were soldiers, and three children and 14 women were among the civilian victims.
· Leningrad, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russia) · Europe
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin dies
Lives
Petrov-Vodkin was a Russian and Soviet painter who later chaired the newly formed Leningrad Union of Soviet Artists. He died of tuberculosis in Leningrad.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 15 February 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Leningrad as the place of death.
Machado was a Spanish poet, prominent in the Generation of '98 literary group, whose early modernist work grew into an intimate symbolism. He died at Collioure in France, after being evacuated to Valencia and then Barcelona in 1938.
Notes
The lead, infobox and body agree on 22 February 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Collioure as the place of death, while the body places the death in Barcelona or on the way to Collioure, so the place follows the infobox.
Kosior led the Ukrainian Communist Party as first secretary and sat on the Politburo. He was recalled to Moscow in January 1938 and arrested in May, and he and his wife were both put to death.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 26 February 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Moscow as the place of death.
Krupskaya was a Bolshevik leader and political theorist, and the wife of Vladimir Lenin. She died of peritonitis in Moscow the day after turning seventy, though people close to Stalin later claimed she had been poisoned.
Notes
The lead, infobox and body agree on 27 February 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives her birth as 26 February 1869. The English body gives peritonitis as the cause of death and then reports later claims, including one by Stalin's secretary Poskrebyshev, that she was poisoned; the French article mentions strong suspicions of poisoning by the NKVD. Her ashes were placed in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.
· New Haven, Connecticut, United States · North America
Edward Sapir dies
Lives
Sapir was an American anthropologist and linguist who helped shape linguistics in the United States. Born in Pomerania, in today's northern Poland, he moved to the US with his family as a child.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 4 February 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives New Haven, Connecticut as the place of death.
George Stevens directed the RKO adventure picture, with Victor McLaglen, Cary Grant and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in leading roles. Three British sergeants and their water bearer fight the Thugs, a murder cult, in colonial India.
Notes
The infobox gives a United States release on 17 February 1939 and the body gives a Los Angeles premiere on 24 January 1939. Wikidata lists 24 January 1939 (Los Angeles), 26 January 1939 (New York) and 17 February 1939 (United States) with equal rank, plus the year 1939 alone, so the dates differ by place and confidence is medium.
· Treasure Island, San Francisco, California · North America
The Golden Gate International Exposition opens on Treasure Island
Art & literature
The exposition celebrated San Francisco's two new bridges, the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. Its motto was A Pageant of the Pacific, and it showed goods from nations bordering the Pacific.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on the opening day and on the final close, 29 September 1940. The first season ended on 29 October 1939 according to the lead and body, while the original schedule called for closing on 2 December 1939.
The German American Bund holds a rally at Madison Square Garden
Politics & diplomacy
More than 20,000 people attended the Nazi rally, where Bund leader Fritz Julius Kuhn was a featured speaker beneath a huge portrait of George Washington flanked by swastikas. Anti-Nazi protesters outside tried three times to break through police lines.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 20 February 1939, matching Wikidata. The preparations section says Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia sent about 1,700 uniformed police and 600 plainclothes officers, and puts the anti-Nazi protesters outside at about 100,000; the lead and infobox put attendance inside at more than 20,000.
· Los Angeles, California, United States · North America
The 11th Academy Awards are held in Los Angeles
Stage, music & film
The ceremony took place at the Biltmore Hotel, and You Can't Take It with You won Best Picture. Frank Capra took his third Best Director award.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 23 February 1939, matching Wikidata. The English article says Frank Capra hosted the ceremony, but the French article says there was no official host that year, so no host is named. Wikidata files the event under science and discovery; it is an awards ceremony.
The Uruguayan sports club Boston River is founded in Montevideo
Sport
Club Atlético Boston River's name joins a tailor shop owned by its founder, Sastrería Boston, with Argentina's River Plate. Its football section plays in the Uruguayan Primera División.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 20 February 1939, matching Wikidata.
Japanese forces landed on Hainan between 9 and 11 February, with naval troops coming ashore at Haikou and Sanya and occupying Yulin and Yai-Hsien. The result was a Japanese victory.
Notes
The infobox gives 9-11 February 1939 and the body gives the same landings on 9, 10 and 11 February, while Wikidata gives only the month.
The German Archaeological Institute's expedition found the carved white marble female face at Warka, ancient Uruk. It stands about 20 cm tall and dates to around 3100 BC, and is probably a depiction of the goddess Inanna.
Notes
The English body gives 22 February 1939, matching Wikidata, while the French article says the mask was found in 1938 during German excavations, so the date is disputed and confidence is medium. The infobox dates the mask itself to 3200-3000 BC and the lead to 3100 BC; the German article places it at the end of the fourth millennium BC and the French article at 3300 BC. It is now in the National Museum of Iraq.
· Bloemfontein, Union of South Africa (now South Africa) · Africa
The Afrikaner nationalist Ossewabrandwag is founded in Bloemfontein
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The group was opposed to South African participation in the Second World War, hostile to Britain and sympathetic to Nazi Germany. Its first leader was J. C. C. Laas, replaced in January 1941 by Johannes Van Rensburg.
Notes
The English infobox and lead give 4 February 1939 and the German article also says the organisation was founded in Bloemfontein on 4 February 1939, but the English body says the group was officially established in 1938 to mark the centennial of the Great Trek (the German article places only the preparations in 1938), so confidence is medium. Wikidata gives the year 1939. The first leader, Laas, and his replacement in January 1941 come from the German article. The English infobox gives about 350,000 members in 1941.
The Tunisian sports club AS Marsa is founded in La Marsa
Sport
Avenir Sportif de La Marsa, known as AS Marsa, is based in La Marsa, Tunis. Its traditional colours are green and yellow.
Notes
The English infobox and the French article on the club both give 22 February 1939 for the founding (the French article names M'hamed Zaouchi as founder), so the day is stored. The club's first name is disputed and is left out of the title and summary: English Wikipedia says Club Musulman; the French article on the club says Avenir musulman; the French article on its football section says the football side entered competition in 1939 as Association sportive des scouts musulmans de La Marsa and later took the name Avenir musulman. Wikidata gives only the year 1939.
Carter was a British archaeologist and Egyptologist who found the intact tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings in November 1922. He died of Hodgkin's disease at his London flat, aged 64.
Notes
The lead, infobox and body agree on 2 March 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Kensington, London as the place of death.
A rising in Cartagena challenges the Republican government
War & conflict
Soldiers sympathetic to Segismundo Casado rebelled against Juan Negrín's government in Cartagena, the main base of the Republican Navy. The Republican fleet left for French Tunisia, where its ships were interned, before loyalists retook the city.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 4-7 March 1939, matching Wikidata. The English lead gives 1,476 soldiers killed on the sunk transport; the Spanish article gives the same figure and adds that some historians lower the toll to 1,223.
Colonel Casado leads a coup against Prime Minister Negrín
War & conflict
Colonel Segismundo Casado led a coup against Juan Negrín's government in the Spanish Republican zone. The rebels set up their own Consejo Nacional de Defensa in Madrid, aiming to open peace talks with the Nationalists.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 5 March 1939 as the start, and the infobox gives 5-12 March, matching Wikidata.
The 18th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party meets in Moscow
Politics & diplomacy
The congress met from 10 to 21 March. It was the first congress dominated by the purified leadership after the Great Purge, and Stalin voiced disappointment with the Western democracies over collective security.
Notes
The lead gives 10-21 March 1939, matching Wikidata.
Trained in philosophy, the French scholar Lévy-Bruhl advanced anthropology through work in the young fields of sociology and ethnology. He was born and died in Paris.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 13 March 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Paris for both birth and death.
· Prague, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (now Czech Republic) · Europe
Germany occupies the Czech lands and declares the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
After the Slovak parliament voted for an independent state, President Emil Hácha was coerced in Berlin into signing away Czechoslovakia's independence. Hitler declared the Protectorate from Prague Castle on 16 March.
Notes
The lead gives events from 14 to 16 March 1939, matching Wikidata's start and end days, but the article treats the occupation as a longer process starting with the Sudetenland in 1938, so the start day is a choice and confidence is medium.
· Bratislava, Slovak Republic (now Slovakia) · Europe
Slovakia declares independence as a client state of Nazi Germany
Politics & diplomacy
Slovakia, then part of Czechoslovakia, proclaimed independence with German backing, one day before Germany occupied Bohemia and Moravia. Hlinka's Slovak People's Party ruled it as a one-party state with Bratislava as its capital.
Notes
The lead gives 14 March 1939 as the start, matching Wikidata.
· Carpatho-Ukraine, Czechoslovakia (now Ukraine) · Europe
Hungary invades Carpatho-Ukraine
War & conflictSome details uncertain
Hungarian and Polish troops clashed with the Carpathian Sich militia and Czech soldiers left in the region. The war ended with Hungary occupying and annexing the territory.
Notes
The English infobox gives 13 to 18 March 1939. The English body has the Hungarian advance beginning on the night of 13-14 March and the Czechoslovak defence ordered on the morning of 14 March, which matches Wikidata's start date, and says the whole territory was occupied on the evening of 17 March, other sources giving 18 March.
· Frýdek-Místek, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) · Europe
Czechoslovak troops resist at Czajánek's barracks
War & conflict
Czechoslovak and German troops clashed at Czajánek's barracks. The unit never received the general order to surrender, because Germans cut the communication lines too early. Between 6 and 18 German soldiers were killed.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 14 March 1939, matching Wikidata. The body says the German invasion began on the evening of 14 March, a day earlier than Hitler's planned date.
The banned Hungarian party is reconstituted as the Arrow Cross Party
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Authorities had banned Ferenc Szálasi's earlier parties, and the reconstituted party was modelled closely on the German Nazi Party. In May it won 15 percent of the vote and 29 parliamentary seats in an election most Hungarians were not allowed to vote in.
Notes
The English body gives the year 1939 for the reconstitution, and the French infobox and the German article both give 15 March 1939 for the founding of the Arrow Cross Party, matching Wikidata, so the day is stored at medium confidence. The English body says the movement was outlawed in 1937, while the German article lists several bans of Szálasi's earlier parties, the last on 23 February 1939.
· Carpatho-Ukraine, Czechoslovakia (now Ukraine) · Europe
Carpatho-Ukraine proclaims independence
Politics & diplomacy
Carpatho-Ukraine proclaimed itself an independent republic with Avgustyn Voloshyn as president. It had been an autonomous region of the Second Czechoslovak Republic since December 1938, and Hungary and Poland crushed local resistance by 18 March.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 15 March 1939 for the proclamation, matching Wikidata. Wikidata also lists 18 March 1939 as the end.
Spain and Portugal sign the Iberian Pact in Lisbon
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Portuguese Prime Minister Salazar and Spanish ambassador Nicolás Franco signed the non-aggression pact a few days before the Spanish Civil War ended. It was ratified on 25 March.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 17 March 1939 for the signing, while Wikidata gives 18 March 1939, so confidence is medium.
Germany issues an ultimatum to Lithuania over the Klaipėda Region
Politics & diplomacy
Ribbentrop gave Lithuania's foreign minister Juozas Urbšys an oral ultimatum demanding the Klaipėda (Memel) Region, threatening invasion and the bombing of Kaunas. Lithuania gave in on 23 March.
Notes
The lead gives 20 March 1939 for the ultimatum and the body says a treaty signed in the small hours of 23 March took effect from 22 March. Wikidata gives 20 March.
· Danzig, Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) · Europe
The Danzig crisis between Poland and Nazi Germany begins
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Tensions rose over the Free City of Danzig. Hitler wanted Danzig back under German control and asked Poland to join the Anti-Comintern Pact. Poland refused, and Hitler began planning a full-scale invasion.
Notes
The infobox gives 21 March 1939 and the lead says March 1939 for the start, while Wikidata gives 28 April 1939, so the start is disputed and confidence is medium.
· Eastern Slovakia, Slovak State (now Slovakia) · Europe
Hungary attacks Slovakia, starting the Slovak-Hungarian War
War & conflictSome details uncertain
Hungary attacked Slovakia from Carpatho-Ukraine at dawn on 23 March, with orders to advance as far west as possible. Hungary won, and Slovakia gave up a strip of land in the east.
Notes
The English lead and infobox give 23-31 March 1939 for the war, while the German article gives 23 March to 4 April 1939 and both the English and German bodies date the border treaty signed in Budapest to 4 April; Wikidata gives 4 April as the end, so the end day is disputed and confidence is medium.
Germany and Romania sign an economic treaty in Bucharest
Politics & diplomacy
The agreement gave Germany control over most aspects of the Romanian economy. Romania was to supply farm goods, timber and oil, and receive technical know-how and military equipment.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 23 March 1939, matching Wikidata. The agreement took effect on 20 January 1940.
The German National Movement attempts a coup in Liechtenstein
Politics & diplomacy
About 40 members of the German National Movement marched from Nendeln toward Vaduz and were stopped near Schaan. They had aimed to provoke German troops from Feldkirch to enter and annex the country.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 24 March 1939, matching Wikidata. The aftermath section says 76 people were arrested and questioned, about 50 were charged, and all were released in December 1939.
Franco's Nationalists begin their last general offensive
War & conflict
The Nationalists began a general offensive, and within days, by 31 March, they held every part of Spain. The war was effectively over by 1 April.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 26 March to 1 April 1939. Wikidata gives an end of 31 March, when the Nationalists held all the territory. The preceding coup by Colonel Casado ran 5-13 March 1939.
Ford directed the western, starring Claire Trevor and John Wayne, about a mixed group of travellers on a stagecoach crossing dangerous Apache land. Dudley Nichols adapted it from a 1937 short story by Ernest Haycox.
Notes
The infobox gives a Los Angeles release on 2 February 1939 and a US release on 3 March 1939, while the body gives 2 March 1939. Wikidata gives 15 February 1939, with 2 March as another date. Because the days disagree, only the month of the general release is stored.
· Miami Beach, Florida, United States · North America
Gerardo Machado dies
Lives
Machado fought as a general in Cuba's independence war and was the country's president from 1925 to 1933. He won office in 1924 as Liberal Party leader but later took dictatorial powers. He died of colon cancer in Miami Beach.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 29 March 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Miami Beach as the place of death.
Batman made his first appearance in Detective Comics #27, published by DC Comics. Bill Finger and Bob Kane created him, though Kane often claimed sole credit.
Notes
The English lead and infobox give 30 March 1939 as the publication date; the issue is cover-dated May 1939, and the German article says the character first appeared in May 1939. Wikidata gives 27 May 1939, which differs from the publication date, so confidence is medium.
The Hound of the Baskervilles is released with Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Sidney Lanfield directed the American gothic mystery based on Conan Doyle's 1902 novel, with Rathbone playing Holmes opposite Nigel Bruce's Dr Watson. It began a run of fourteen Rathbone and Bruce Holmes films between 1939 and 1946.
Notes
The infobox gives 31 March 1939, matching Wikidata's main date. Wikidata also lists 24 March 1939, so confidence is medium.
· Nanchang, Jiangxi, Republic of China (now China) · Asia
The Battle of Nanchang begins
War & conflict
Japanese forces attacked Nanchang in Jiangxi against the Chinese National Revolutionary Army in spring 1939. The battle ended in a Japanese victory.
Notes
The English infobox gives 17 March to 9 May 1939, the English body has the Chinese retreat on 9 May, and the German article gives the same span. Wikidata gives 9 May, the end of the battle.
Turkey held a general election in which only one party existed, the Republican People's Party. All 429 Grand National Assembly seats were up for election, and reported turnout was 77.8 percent.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 26 March 1939, matching Wikidata.
· Beirut, French Mandate of Lebanon (now Lebanon) · Middle East
Safa Sporting Club is formally established in Beirut
SportSome details uncertain
Seven founders, among them Maher Wahab and Anis Naaim, formally established the club, which had existed since 1933 as an amateur side in Beirut's Wata El-Museitbeh quarter.
Notes
The English and French infoboxes give 31 March 1939, while the English lead and history section give the year 1939, so confidence is medium. The history section also dates an amateur club to 1933, and the German article says the club was founded in 1937. Wikidata gives the year 1939.
Nazi Germany's first nuclear research effort began in April, a few months after fission was discovered in Berlin. A colloquium paper at the University of Göttingen on 22 April triggered it.
Notes
The infobox and lead give April 1939 for the first effort, matching Wikidata's year; the lead also dates a second effort to 1 September 1939. Only the month of the first effort is stored.
Soviet-British-French talks on a triple alliance begin in Moscow
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The three countries negotiated in Moscow from April to August on a three-way alliance. The key dispute was whether the Red Army could cross Poland and Romania to fight Germany.
Notes
The lead gives April to August 1939. The first concrete Soviet proposal came on the evening of 17 April, the military talks began on 12 August, and they were adjourned without a date on 21 August and never resumed, so the start is stored as the month, at medium confidence, and the end as 21 August. Wikidata gives the year 1939. The military negotiations part of the article dates the start of those talks to 12 August and their final adjournment to 21 August.
France built the Gurs camp near Pau after Catalonia fell at the close of the Spanish Civil War. It first held Spanish Republican refugees, and later 4,000 German Jews interned as enemy aliens.
Notes
The lead says the camp was constructed in 1939 and the body places the first transfers in April 1939; no day is stated. Wikidata gives April 1939 for the start. Wikidata's end date of 1 November 1943 differs from the article's closing year of 1946.
The Spanish Civil War ends in a Nationalist victory
War & conflict
The Nationalists won the war against the Republicans of the Popular Front government. Francisco Franco went on to rule Spain until his death in November 1975, over a military-led state.
Notes
The infobox gives 1 April 1939 as the end, matching Wikidata; the lead says only that the Nationalists won in early 1939.
Makarenko was a Soviet educator and writer, a founder of Soviet pedagogy. After the Revolution he set up self-supporting orphanages for street children. He died under unclear circumstances.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 1 April 1939, matching Wikidata. The lead gives his birth as 13 March 1888, with the Old Style date 1 March. The infobox gives Golitsyno as the place of death.
The Nationalist faction in Spain ends as a wartime side with Franco's victory
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The Nationalist faction was active from 17 July 1936 and brought together the Falange, the CEDA and two rival monarchist claimants against the Second Spanish Republic.
Notes
Only the infobox gives the day, 1 April 1939, which is the date of the end of the Spanish Civil War, matching Wikidata. The body dates the end of hostilities to April 1939, and a victory parade to May 1939.
The Catholic camp won the most seats in the 202-seat Chamber of Representatives, on a turnout of 93.3 percent.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 2 April 1939, matching Wikidata. The lead gives the Catholic Party 67 of the 202 seats, while the infobox gives 73 to its joint list with the Catholic Flemish People's Party, so no seat figure is stored. The lead says the Pierlot government fell and that ministers could not form a stable government, which led King Leopold III to press for a dissolution.
Elections to the Danish Folketing took place on 3 April, and on 19 April in the Faroe Islands. Both chambers had been dissolved so that a referendum on changing the constitution could be called. The Social Democrats won 64 of the 149 seats.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 3 April 1939, matching Wikidata.
The two main parties split the 15 seats in advance, eight for the Progressive Citizens' Party and seven for the Patriotic Union, so no vote was actually held. The deal aimed to keep the German National Movement in Liechtenstein out of the Landtag.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 4 April 1939, matching Wikidata. The English body says the results were announced on 6 April, and the German article says the government declared the Landtag elected on 6 April 1939, after a 14-day period for objections had passed, so the exact day is uncertain. The German article confirms the joint list of eight seats for the Progressive Citizens' Party and seven for the Patriotic Union.
Italy attacked Albania in a short campaign driven by Mussolini's imperial ambitions. Albania was quickly occupied, King Zog I went into exile in Greece, and the country became a protectorate under the Italian Crown.
Notes
The infobox gives 7-12 April 1939, matching the start and end days Wikidata holds.
King Zog's government goes into exile and the Albanian Kingdom ends
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
King Zog fled to Greece with Queen Geraldine and their baby son Leka after the Italian invasion, and later settled in London. The Albanian Kingdom had been Albania's official name since 1928.
Notes
The infobox gives 9 April for the end and 7 April 1939 for the invasion, with the year 1939 given separately; Wikidata also gives 9 April 1939, and the English article on the Kingdom of Albania under Italy says Zog fled on 9 April 1939. The Italian occupation section of this article says Zog, Queen Geraldine and their infant son went to Greece and later London, and that the Albanian parliament voted for union with Italy on 12 April. The English article on the Italian invasion has Zog and his family leaving for Greece on the first day of the invasion.
The 40th Paris-Roubaix, a one-day classic from Paris to a velodrome in Roubaix, was won by Émile Masson Jr. of Belgium. Marcel Kint of Belgium was second and Roger Lapébie of France third.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 9 April 1939, matching Wikidata.
Germany creates the Spanish Cross for Condor Legion veterans
War & conflict
Germany created the Spanish Cross for its men who fought for Franco in Spain, above all Condor Legion airmen and soldiers, with navy crews in Spanish waters also qualifying. It served as both a gallantry award and a campaign medal.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 14 April 1939, matching Wikidata.
The north-south S-Bahn line reaches Potsdamer Platz in Berlin
Architecture
The line reached Potsdamer Platz from Unter den Linden, then Anhalter Bahnhof in October and Yorckstraße on 6 November. Planning had begun in 1928, approval came in 1933 and building started in 1934.
Notes
The history section gives 15 April 1939, and Wikidata gives the same day. The article covers three stations at Potsdamer Platz, so the 1939 date is for the S-Bahn station only. The history section says the collapse of 20 August 1935 trapped 23 workmen and that four of them survived. The S-Bahn part of the history section gives detailed planning in 1928, approval in 1933, the start of building in 1934, the target of the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and the extensions to Anhalter Bahnhof on 9 October and Yorckstraße on 6 November.
The Four Feathers is released in the United Kingdom
Stage, music & film
Zoltan Korda directed the British adventure film, shot in Technicolor, in which a cowardly junior officer tries to redeem his name in Queen Victoria's reign. Alexander Korda produced it for London Films.
Notes
The infobox lists 20 April 1939 for the UK and 4 August 1939 for the US. Wikidata gives 20 April with 4 August as an alternative, so the UK date is stored.
Brundtland trained as a physician before joining the Labour Party and becoming environment minister in 1974. In 1981 she became Norway's first female prime minister.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 20 April 1939, matching Wikidata. The place is disputed within the English article: the infobox says Bærum while the early-life section says she was born in Oslo. The German and French articles both say Bærum, so Bærum is used.
Nazi Germany celebrates Hitler's 50th birthday as a national holiday
Politics & diplomacy
Propaganda minister Goebbels staged the Berlin festivities as a lavish spectacle centred on Hitler. A military parade of some 40,000 to 50,000 troops included 162 Luftwaffe aircraft overhead.
Notes
The lead gives 20 April 1939, matching Wikidata; the body says the holiday was declared on 18 April 1939.
Hitler denounces the German-Polish non-aggression declaration
Politics & diplomacy
In an address to the Reichstag, Hitler unilaterally ended the declaration signed in Berlin on 26 January 1934, which had committed both states to negotiate rather than fight for ten years. He renewed German territorial claims in Poland.
Notes
The body gives 28 April 1939 for the denunciation and the infobox gives 28 April 1939 as the expiry, matching Wikidata. The declaration would otherwise have run for ten years from 1934.
The 27th Giro d'Italia began in Milan with a stage to Turin and finished back in Milan on 18 May. Giovanni Valetti won, ahead of fellow Italians Gino Bartali and Mario Vicini.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 28 April to 18 May 1939, matching Wikidata.
Portsmouth beats Wolverhampton Wanderers in the 1939 FA Cup final
Sport
Portsmouth won 4-1 at Wembley, Cliff Parker scoring twice and Bert Barlow and John Anderson once each. King George VI gave the cup to captain Jimmy Guthrie.
Notes
The infobox gives 29 April 1939, matching Wikidata.
Condé Nast launched Glamour, at first under the name Glamour of Hollywood, as a guide to the Hollywood approach to fashion, beauty and charm. Alice Thompson was its editor-in-chief at the start.
Notes
The infobox gives April 1939 for the first issue, matching Wikidata; the lead and body say 1939. Only the month is stored.
All-American Comics was the flagship title of All-American Publications, a forerunner of DC Comics. The series ran from April 1939 until October 1948, totalling 102 issues.
Notes
The infobox and body give April 1939 as the first month, without a day, so confidence is medium. Wikidata gives only the year.
The Western film Dodge City premieres in Dodge City, Kansas
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Warner Bros.' Western Dodge City premiered in the town of its name, and reached US cinemas generally on 8 April. Michael Curtiz directed, with Flynn, de Havilland and Sheridan as the leads.
Notes
Only the infobox gives the days, 1 April 1939 for the Dodge City premiere and 8 April 1939 for the US release, while the lead gives the year, so confidence is medium. Wikidata gives only the year.
Leo McCarey directed the American romance starring Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne, in which a French playboy and a former nightclub singer fall in love on an ocean liner.
Notes
The infobox gives 7 April 1939. The body mentions earlier planned release dates of 17 February and 10 March, and Wikidata gives only the year, so confidence is medium.
Coppola emerged as a major name in the New Hollywood movement. He directed The Godfather in 1972, and its sequel won him the Academy Award for Best Director.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 7 April 1939, matching Wikidata.
Disney's Silly Symphonies short The Ugly Duckling reaches theatres
Stage, music & film
The colour cartoon is based on Hans Christian Andersen's 1843 fairy tale. Jack Cutting and Clyde Geronimi directed it, and RKO Radio Pictures distributed it.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 7 April 1939, matching Wikidata. Wikidata also lists a year-only value, 1939.
· New York City, New York, United States · North America
S. S. Van Dine (Willard Huntington Wright) dies
Lives
S. S. Van Dine was the pen name of the art critic Willard Huntington Wright, who created the fictional detective Philo Vance. Wright died in New York at age 50 of a heart condition worsened by heavy drinking.
Notes
The lead, body and infobox agree on 11 April 1939, matching Wikidata.
Wuthering Heights is released in the United States
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
William Wyler directed this adaptation of Emily Brontë's 1847 novel, produced by Samuel Goldwyn, with Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier and David Niven. The screenplay covers just sixteen of the book's thirty-four chapters.
Notes
The infobox gives a Hollywood opening on 24 March 1939 and a wider United States release on 13 April 1939. Wikidata uses 13 April. Stored the wider release, with medium confidence because two dates exist.
The Viking Press published Steinbeck's realist novel, which follows the Joads, a tenant farming family forced out of Oklahoma by drought and hard times. The family travels west to California with thousands of other migrants.
Notes
The infobox gives 14 April 1939 as the release date, matching Wikidata; the lead says only 1939.
Billie Holiday records Strange Fruit for Commodore Records
Stage, music & film
Abel Meeropol wrote the song under the pseudonym Lewis Allan, from a poem he published in 1937. Its lyrics condemn the lynching of African Americans, likening victims to fruit on trees.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 20 April 1939 for the recording, while the infobox gives only the year 1939 for release. Wikidata gives only the year. The recording place is not named in the passages used, so the place is left blank.
Edmund Goulding directed the American melodrama starring Bette Davis, with George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Ronald Reagan in supporting roles. Casey Robinson wrote the screenplay from a 1934 play that starred Tallulah Bankhead.
Notes
Only the infobox gives 22 April 1939 for the United States release, while Wikidata gives just the year, so confidence is medium.
William Dieterle directed the American historical drama, which draws on Bertita Harding's 1934 biography The Phantom Crown and Franz Werfel's 1925 play. Paul Muni and Bette Davis head the cast.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 24 April 1939 for the New York opening, and the body gives 4 June as the general release. Wikidata gives only the year.
The Bronx-Whitestone Bridge opens to traffic in New York City
Architecture
The suspension bridge opened with four lanes, designed by Othmar Ammann and Allston Dana. It gave the Bronx a direct route to the 1939 World's Fair and LaGuardia Airport.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 29 April 1939, matching Wikidata.
· Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens, New York, United States · North America
The New York World's Fair opens at Flushing Meadows
Everyday life
The fair opened at Flushing Meadows in Queens on the day marking 150 years since George Washington first took office as president, under the theme of the world of tomorrow. Exhibitors came from dozens of countries, from American states and from many companies and organisations.
Notes
The English lead and infobox give 30 April 1939 for the opening, with a second season in 1940; the lead says the date fell on the 150th anniversary of Washington's first inauguration, gives slightly over 45 million visitors across two seasons and says only 32% of the original cost was recouped. The German article gives the same opening day. The English lead counts 62 nations, 35 American states and territories and over 1,400 organisations, while the German article counts 1,500 exhibitors from 33 countries and 44,932,978 visitors. Wikidata gives only the year.
Japanese designers introduce the Model 3B submachine gun
TechnologySome details uncertain
Japan had imported European submachine guns, but its own development had stalled until new army requirements in August 1937. The Model 3B followed the Experimental Model 3 of 1938.
Notes
The infobox gives 1939 as the design date, while the development section says the Model 3B was introduced in April 1939, the Type 3C was adopted as the Type 100 in summer 1940, and mass production of a native submachine gun began only in 1944. The April 1939 month is stored at medium confidence. The prototypes part of the development section gives the Army's new requirements of August 1937 and the Experimental Model 3 of 1938.
Ali Hosseini Khamenei studied at a religious seminary in Mashhad, then moved to Qom in 1958 and attended the classes of Ruhollah Khomeini. After the revolution he was president of Iran from 1981 to 1989 and then supreme leader.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on the birth date, matching Wikidata.
· Canton and Enderbury Islands (now Kiribati) · Oceania
The United States and Britain agree to run Canton and Enderbury Islands jointly
Politics & diplomacy
Washington and London agreed to run the two coral atolls jointly, though both countries had claimed them since the mid-19th century. The deal left each side's sovereignty claim untouched.
Notes
The body and infobox agree on 6 April 1939, matching Wikidata. The condominium lasted until 12 July 1979.
Lyons was Australia's tenth prime minister, in office from 1932 until he died, and led the United Australia Party. Earlier he led the Tasmanian branch of the Labor Party and was premier of Tasmania from 1923 to 1928.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 7 April 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Sydney as the place of death, while Wikidata names the suburb Darlinghurst.
An annular solar eclipse occurred on Wednesday 19 April with a magnitude of 0.9731. The annular track went across the North Pole and touched Alaska, northern Canada and Franz Josef Land.
The Ravensbrück concentration camp for women opens
War & conflictSome details uncertain
Ravensbrück, north of Berlin, first took in prisoners in May under commandant Günther Tamaschke. Prisoners were used as slave labour, including for Siemens & Halske, and medical experiments were carried out on them from 1942 to 1945.
Notes
The English infobox and body give May 1939 for the start of operation, matching Wikidata, and the German article gives 18 May for the arrival of the first women, almost 900 moved from Lichtenburg. The English body says construction began in November 1938 on Himmler's order, while the German article has the camp built between December 1938 and April 1939.
Groener, a German general from Württemberg, took over from Ludendorff as First Quartermaster General in October 1918, which in effect put him at the head of the army command. He later served as Reich minister for transport, for defence and for the interior.
Notes
The English lead, infobox and body give 3 May 1939, matching Wikidata, and the German article agrees; the infobox and the German article give Potsdam-Bornstedt as the place of death. The English lead calls him the last Chief of the Great General Staff, while the English body and the German article describe his 1918 post as First Quartermaster General, the German article calling him the de facto head of the army supreme command.
Faber and Faber published the novel after seventeen years of writing. Parts had appeared in installments from 1924 as Work in Progress, and Joyce blended words from many languages into his own idiom.
Notes
The lead, body and infobox agree on 4 May 1939, matching Wikidata. The English body describes seventeen years of composition, a caption dates the start to 1922 and the earliest letter quoted is from 10 March 1923, and the French article dates Work in Progress to 1923-1938, so the length of the writing is approximate.
Regular air services did not begin until October 1946. By 1948 British European Airways flew a daily Douglas DC-3 service to Southampton.
Notes
The history section gives 5 May 1939 for the official opening, matching Wikidata, and dates regular services to October 1946. The history section also dates BEA's daily DC-3 service to Southampton to 1948 and Jersey Airlines' weekend Rapide services to 1951.
The Estonian energy company Eesti Energia is founded
Economy & trade
President Konstantin Päts signed the founding document of AS Elektrikeskus, the start of the group now called Eesti Energia. The Tallinn-based company runs on oil shale mined in eastern Estonia, generating power, producing shale oil and selling electricity.
Notes
The English lead and History section give the year 1939; the History section also gives the 1998 reorganisation from a state enterprise into a private limited company, and the lead says the Government of Estonia owns the shares. The Estonian article says President Konstantin Päts signed the document creating AS Elektrikeskus on 8 May 1939 and that this marks the start of the Eesti Energia group, matching Wikidata's 8 May 1939.
Hitchcock directed the British adventure thriller, based on a 1936 novel by Daphne du Maurier and set in Cornwall in 1820. Charles Laughton starred and also produced it through his company Mayflower Pictures.
Notes
The infobox gives 12 May 1939, matching Wikidata's main date. Wikidata also lists 16 October 1939, so confidence is medium.
Born in Lemberg to a Jewish family, Radek was active in the Polish and German socialist movements, worked with Lenin in Switzerland and became a leader of the Communist International. Sentenced in 1937 to ten years of penal labour, he died in a Soviet labour camp, reportedly killed on Stalin's orders.
Notes
The English lead and infobox give 19 May 1939, matching Wikidata, and the infobox names Verkhneuralsk; the English lead says he died in a labour camp in the Urals. The German article gives the death as probably 19 May 1939 in Nerchinsk and says he was reportedly killed by fellow prisoners, probably in 1939, so the place and the exact day are uncertain and only the country is stored. The English body says he was reportedly killed on Stalin's orders after a fight with another inmate.
King Leopold III opens the international water exposition in Liège
Technology
The exposition, themed on water management, celebrated the completion of the Albert Canal. Its grounds took in 70 hectares of dry land plus 30 of water, on both banks of the river.
Notes
The infobox gives 20 May to 2 September 1939, and the lead gives the same opening date and the planned November end. Wikidata gives only the year.
· Verkhneuralsk, Soviet Union (now Russia) · Europe
Grigori Sokolnikov is killed in prison
Lives
Sokolnikov, born to a Jewish family in Romny, became a revolutionary, economist and Soviet statesman. The Moscow trials sentenced him to ten years in prison, and he was killed there in 1939.
Notes
The English lead and infobox give 21 May 1939, matching Wikidata, and the German article agrees; the English infobox and the German article name Verkhneuralsk as the place of death. The English lead dates his Siberian exile to 1907-1909, while the German article says he was exiled in 1908 and fled after six months.
Germany and Italy sign the Pact of Steel in Berlin
Politics & diplomacy
Foreign ministers Ribbentrop and Ciano signed a treaty binding Germany and Italy in a military and political alliance. A secret supplementary protocol called for a union of their military and economic policies.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 22 May 1939, matching Wikidata.
Finland's men's basketball team plays its first international game
SportSome details uncertain
France beat Finland 76-11 in Finland's first game, played in Kaunas at EuroBasket 1939. Finland's basketball federation had been set up in February, and Finland joined FIBA that year.
Notes
Only the infobox gives the date of the first game, so confidence is medium. Wikidata gives only the year 1939 as the team's founding. The Finnish Basketball Association was founded earlier in 1939.
The House of Commons approves the White Paper on Palestine
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Neville Chamberlain's government issued the White Paper after the Arab revolt in Palestine, and the House of Commons formally approved it. It capped Jewish immigration at 75,000 for five years and called for an independent Palestine State within 10 years.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 23 May 1939 for approval in the House of Commons; the German article says it was debated on 22 and 23 May. The body says that on 22 May the Commons defeated, by 268 votes to 179, a motion that the White Paper conflicted with the terms of the Mandate. Wikidata gives only the year.
Roth, a journalist and novelist from Austria-Hungary, was born in Brody in Galicia and died in Paris. He is best known for Radetzky March (1932), a family saga about the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 27 May 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Paris as the place of death.
Glenn Miller's recording of Moonlight Serenade is released
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Miller's orchestra recorded the instrumental in New York City on 4 April, and it came out in May. It was an instant hit, reaching number three on the Billboard charts.
Notes
The lead gives May 1939 without a day, so the month is stored at medium confidence. Wikidata gives only the year.
The National Film Act creates the National Film Board of Canada
Stage, music & film
The National Film Act, drafted by John Grierson, passed and created the NFB. The post of Film Commissioner stayed vacant for months, and Grierson then served as the first Film Commissioner, from 1939 to 1945.
Notes
The body and infobox agree on 2 May 1939, while Wikidata gives only the year.
The terminal took the place of three older stations in the city and served Union Pacific, Southern Pacific and Santa Fe. It cost $11 million in 1939 dollars.
Notes
Only the infobox gives the day, 3 May 1939, while the lead and body give May 1939, so confidence is medium. Wikidata gives only the year.
Cecil B. DeMille's Union Pacific is released generally
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
DeMille directed and produced the Western drama with Barbara Stanwyck, Joel McCrea and Robert Preston. It adapts Ernest Haycox's 1936 novel Trouble Shooter, which follows the construction of the Union Pacific line.
Notes
Disputed date: the infobox gives 5 May 1939 for release, while the body says the world premiere was on 28 April 1939 in Omaha. The release date is stored at medium confidence, and Wikidata gives only the year.
· Los Angeles, California, United States · North America
Only Angels Have Wings premieres in Los Angeles
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Howard Hawks directed the adventure romance starring Cary Grant and Jean Arthur, about an air freight firm's manager in an isolated South American port. It premiered at the Pantages Theater.
Notes
The English body and the German article give a Los Angeles premiere on 10 May 1939, which the German article calls a preview, followed the next day by the official world premiere at Radio City Music Hall in New York. The English infobox gives 15 May 1939 as the release date and Wikidata gives 12 May 1939.
· New York, New York, United States · North America
Goodbye, Mr. Chips is released in New York
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Sam Wood directed the romantic drama, with Robert Donat and Greer Garson, about a beloved old schoolmaster who looks back on his career and personal life. It is based on James Hilton's 1934 novella.
Notes
Only the infobox gives 15 May 1939 for the New York release, while Wikidata gives just the year, so confidence is medium.
The first US food stamp program begins in Rochester, New York
Politics & diplomacy
People on relief could purchase orange stamps worth the amount they normally spent on food. Mabel McFiggin of Rochester became the first person to receive stamps, and Joseph Mutolo the first retailer to redeem them.
Notes
The history section gives 16 May 1939 to spring 1943 for the first program, matching Wikidata; the infobox gives 1939. The history section says the first program reached about 20 million people in nearly half the US counties.
· New York, New York, United States · North America
Ernst Toller dies
Lives
Toller, a German author and revolutionary, was known for his Expressionist plays. He went into exile in 1933 after the Nazis took power, and died by suicide in New York.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 22 May 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives New York City as the place of death.
· Indianapolis, Indiana, United States · North America
Wilbur Shaw wins the 1939 Indianapolis 500
Sport
Shaw won the 27th Indianapolis 500 in a Maserati 8CTF after starting third. Reigning champion Floyd Roberts was killed in a three-car crash on the backstretch.
Notes
The English lead and infobox give 30 May 1939, matching Wikidata. The English lead and crash section put the fatal crash on lap 109, while the results table credits Roberts with 106 laps and the caution table starts the caution at lap 106, with lap counts marked approximate.
The Diocese of Concepción in Chile becomes a metropolitan archdiocese
Religion & philosophy
The diocese was promoted to a metropolitan archdiocese. It began in 1563 as the Diocese of La Imperial, split from the Diocese of Santiago de Chile, and took the name Concepción in 1603.
Notes
The body gives 20 May 1939 for the promotion, matching Wikidata. Wikidata also lists 1563 and 1603 as alternative dates, which are the earlier establishment and renaming of the diocese.
Jinzō Nomoto secretly enters Tibet on a Japanese intelligence mission
ExplorationSome details uncertain
Nomoto entered disguised as a Mongolian travelling with a Tibetan monk. He gathered intelligence for 18 months on social conditions, culture, religion and local policies, mostly through interviews.
Notes
The Expedition section gives May 1939 for Nomoto's entry into Tibet and October 1940 for his departure, and calls it an 18-month mission; the Aftermath section gives the 2001 memoir. Months are stored at medium confidence. Wikidata gives the year 1939.
· Suizhou and Zaoyang, Hubei, Republic of China (now China) · Asia
The Battle of Suixian-Zaoyang begins in Hubei
War & conflictSome details uncertain
Japan opened a large offensive in two directions that took many towns and cities in Hubei. Chinese counter-attacks forced the Japanese to withdraw completely, restoring the earlier territorial situation.
Notes
The English body dates the Japanese attack towards Zaoyang to 1 May 1939, after plans made at the end of April, and the Chinese article also has the Japanese offensive opening on 1 May 1939 and places the battle in May; the English infobox gives 20 April 1939, the French article says only May 1939, and Wikidata gives 24 May 1939.
Soviet-Mongolian and Japanese forces begin the Battles of Khalkhin Gol
War & conflict
The fighting decided the unofficial border war between the Soviet Union and Japan. General Georgy Zhukov led a three-pronged Soviet offensive using aircraft, tanks and infantry.
Notes
The infobox gives 11 May to 16 September 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox places the battlefield in the Mongolian People's Republic, while Wikidata proposes a place in China.
· Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine · Middle East
The Rothschild-Hadassah University Hospital opens on Mount Scopus
Medicine & epidemics
The hospital opened as British Mandatory Palestine's first teaching hospital, in a Mount Scopus complex designed by Erich Mendelsohn after five years of construction.
Notes
The body gives 9 May 1939 for the Mount Scopus opening. The infobox and lead date the Hadassah Medical Center itself to 1934, and Wikidata gives only the year 1939.
Fornebu combined sea and land flying, taking over from the Kjeller land field and the Gressholmen seaplane base. After the official opening, a KLM Douglas DC-2 from Amsterdam touched down first.
Notes
The English infobox, lead and history section give 1 June 1939 as the official opening and the German article also says it opened on 1 June 1939, but a photo caption in the English article says 1 July 1939 was the day it opened, so confidence is medium. Wikidata gives 1 June 1939. The English article dates the closing to 7 October 1998 and the German article to 8 October 1998.
The Albanian Fascist Party is founded under Italian rule
Politics & diplomacy
The party was founded after Italy invaded Albania in April. It operated as a branch of Italy's National Fascist Party, members swore loyalty to Mussolini, and all Albanians serving the occupiers had to join.
Notes
The body and the infobox agree on 2 June 1939, matching Wikidata. The body also records an Albanian request on 11 April and a public announcement on 23 April, which were earlier steps.
Agatha Christie's Murder Is Easy is published in Britain
Art & literature
Collins Crime Club published the novel in London. Retired police officer Luke Fitzwilliam looks into a series of deaths in the village of Wychwood under Ashe.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 5 June 1939 for the UK edition, matching Wikidata.
Germany and Latvia sign a non-aggression pact in Berlin
Politics & diplomacy
Latvian foreign minister Vilhelms Munters and Joachim von Ribbentrop signed the pact, which was meant to last ten years. The German-Estonian pact was signed the same day.
Marcel Carné's Le jour se lève is released in France
Stage, music & film
Carné directed the film from a screenplay by Jacques Prévert, drawn from a Jacques Viot story. It is counted among the main works of the poetic realism movement.
Notes
The infobox gives 9 June 1939 and the body gives June 1939 for the French release, matching Wikidata.
George Orwell's novel Coming Up for Air is published
Art & literature
Victor Gollancz published Orwell's fourth novel, which he wrote while recovering from illness in French Morocco. The hero, an insurance salesman named George Bowling, foresees war and tries to recapture a lost childhood.
Notes
The infobox gives 12 June 1939, and the lead gives June 1939, matching Wikidata.
Khodasevich ranked among the influential Russian poets and literary critics of his day. He died of liver cancer in Paris.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 14 June 1939, matching Wikidata. The lead's second birth date is the Old Style equivalent and does not affect the 1939 death.
The airport opened after construction that began in 1937. It lies east of the Kemijoki river, near the Lautiosaari district of Kemi, and Finavia owns and operates it.
Notes
The infobox gives the opening as 18 June 1939 and construction as 1937-1939. Wikidata gives the year 1939.
Tucker edited and published the individualist anarchist periodical Liberty from 1881 to 1908. He saw anarchism as part of the wider socialist movement, and died in Monaco with his family.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 22 June 1939, matching Wikidata. He was born in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts.
Ford, an English novelist, poet, critic and editor, is remembered for The Good Soldier and the Parade's End tetralogy. He fell ill in Honfleur and died shortly afterwards in Deauville, aged 65.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 26 June 1939, matching Wikidata.
The 59th Wimbledon Championships were played on grass at the All England Club. Bobby Riggs won the men's singles and Alice Marble the women's.
Notes
The English lead and infobox give Monday 26 June to Saturday 8 July 1939, and Wikidata's end date is also 8 July; the German article's infobox gives 26 June to 7 July 1939.
Ford directed the American biographical drama about Abraham Lincoln's early life, starring Henry Fonda. The film earned writer Lamar Trotti an Oscar nomination.
Notes
The English infobox gives 9 June 1939 as the release date. The French article gives a world premiere in Springfield, Illinois on 30 May 1939, the date Wikidata holds, and the national release on 9 June 1939.
· Cooperstown, New York, United States · North America
The National Baseball Hall of Fame building is dedicated in Cooperstown
Sport
Stephen Carlton Clark funded the building, hoping to bring tourists to a village hurt by the Great Depression and Prohibition. The museum was timed to mark the centennial of baseball.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 12 June 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox also gives 1936 for the establishment of the Hall of Fame itself.
The MGM film was the fourth to star Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan and Maureen O'Sullivan as Jane. A baby survives a plane crash in the jungle, and Tarzan and Jane adopt him as Boy.
Notes
Only the infobox gives the release day, 16 June 1939, and Wikidata gives only the year, so confidence is medium.
· Jammu and Kashmir, British India (now Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir) · Asia
The Muslim Conference of Jammu and Kashmir is renamed the National Conference
Politics & diplomacy
Sheikh Abdullah and Chaudhry Ghulam Abbas had founded the party in 1932 as the Muslim Conference. It took the name All Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, meant to represent all the people of the princely state.
Notes
The body gives 11 June 1939 for the renaming and the lead gives the year 1939. The infobox gives 15 October 1932 for the original founding, so Wikidata's 1939 date refers to the renaming.
· Tientsin, Republic of China (now Tianjin, China) · Asia
Japan blockades the British and French concessions at Tientsin
Politics & diplomacy
The Japanese North China Area Army blockaded the foreign concessions after Britain refused to hand over four Chinese who had killed a Japanese collaborator. People entering or leaving were publicly strip-searched, and food and fuel were kept out.
Notes
The English body gives 14 June 1939 for the start of the blockade and says Britain handed over the four men on 20 August 1939 to end the standoff, matching Wikidata's start and end dates.
Before 1939 the country was known abroad as Siam, a name with official status in 19th-century diplomacy, as in the Bowring Treaty signed by King Mongkut. Premier Plaek Phibunsongkhram, leading a nationalist agenda, changed the name to Thailand.
Notes
The etymology section gives 24 June 1939 for the renaming, while Wikidata gives the year 1939. The lead links the renaming to the period after the 1932 revolution. The German article on Siam says the name Siam was used again from 1946 to 1949.
Ada Yonath, future Nobel laureate, is born in Jerusalem
Lives
Ada Esther Lifshitz was born in Jerusalem's Geula quarter, to parents who had come to Mandatory Palestine from Poland in 1933. She became an Israeli crystallographer known for work on the structure of ribosomes.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 22 June 1939, matching Wikidata. The English article says her parents came from Zduńska Wola, while the German article says Łódź, so the town is not named. The English and German articles give her death on 31 August 2026. The early life section says her parents emigrated from Poland to Mandatory Palestine in 1933.
· Hatay State (now Hatay Province, Turkey) · Middle East
The legislature of Hatay State votes to dissolve the state and join Turkey
Politics & diplomacy
Hatay State lasted from 2 September 1938 until 29 June 1939, in the Sanjak of Alexandretta of French-mandated Syria. Its legislature voted to dissolve it and join Turkey, and Turkey's Grand National Assembly approved the law creating Hatay Province on 7 July.
Notes
The lead, body and infobox agree on 29 June 1939 for the vote that ended the state, matching Wikidata. The same article dates the transfer to Turkey as de facto on 7 July and de jure on 23 July 1939, so the stored date is the end of the state, not the final annexation.
Vollard was a French art dealer regarded as one of the most important of his time. He championed then-unknown artists, among them Cézanne, Renoir, Picasso, Gauguin and van Gogh.
Notes
The English lead and infobox give 21 July 1939; the French and German articles give 22 July 1939, as does Wikidata's main date. Only the month is stored.
Tula Arsenal starts producing the SVT-38 semi-automatic rifle
TechnologySome details uncertain
Fedor Tokarev designed the rifle, accepted for production in 1938. Tula Arsenal started turning it out in July, and Izhmash followed in late 1939.
Notes
The English body gives July 1939 for the start of production at Tula, without a day; Wikidata gives 17 July 1939. The infobox gives a production period of 1938 to 1945. The English history section says production plans foresaw two million rifles a year by 1942.
The Soviet fairy-tale film The Golden Key is released
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Aleksandr Ptushko directed the film, based on Aleksey Tolstoy's tale about the wooden puppet Buratino, which was itself inspired by Pinocchio. Olga Shaganova-Obraztsova played Buratino herself, wearing a papier-mâché head and a wooden corset.
Notes
Only the infobox gives the release day, 1 July 1939, and Wikidata gives the same day, but the lead gives only the year, so confidence is medium.
The Soviet comedy drama Tractor Drivers is released
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Ivan Pyryev directed the film, in which a demobilised sergeant, Klim Yarko, returns home and finds love while leading a women's tractor team. Mosfilm produced it.
Notes
Only the infobox gives the release day, 3 July 1939, and Wikidata gives the same day, but the lead gives only the year, so confidence is medium.
Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game is released in Paris
Stage, music & film
Renoir directed the satirical comedy-drama about upper-class society and its servants on the eve of the war. Critics and audiences reacted to the premiere with scorn, and Renoir cut the film from 113 to 85 minutes.
Notes
The infobox gives 7 July 1939 in Paris, matching Wikidata. The lead and the body do not give a day for the premiere.
Ellis was an English physician and writer who studied human sexuality. He developed the ideas of narcissism and autoeroticism, which psychoanalysis later adopted.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 8 July 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox and body give Hintlesham, Suffolk as the place of death.
Elmdon Airport, now Birmingham Airport, is officially opened
Architecture
The Duchess of Kent and Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain performed the opening ceremony, though the airport had been complete enough to handle traffic by 1 May. The Air Ministry requisitioned it in the war and it served as RAF Elmdon.
Notes
The lead and body agree on 8 July 1939, while Wikidata gives only the year. Wikidata names Bickenhill, while the lead places the site in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull.
The 33rd Tour de France ran from 10 to 30 July. Italy, Germany and Spain sent no teams, so the 1938 champion Gino Bartali did not defend his title, and Belgian Sylvère Maes won.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 10-30 July 1939, matching Wikidata. Wikidata lists Switzerland, France and Monaco, while the infobox describes a route starting in Paris.
· Prague, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (now Czech Republic) · Europe
Alphonse Mucha dies
Lives
Mucha, a Czech painter, illustrator and graphic artist of the Art Nouveau era, was widely known for his stylised theatrical posters, especially those of Sarah Bernhardt. He caught pneumonia and died in Prague after German forces entered the city.
Notes
The lead, infobox and body agree on 14 July 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Prague as the place of death, while Wikidata gives Bubeneč, a district of Prague. The English lead says he returned home at 57, which does not fit his 1860 birth and the 1912 start it gives for The Slav Epic; the French article has him back in Prague in 1910 and the German article dates the cycle to 1911-1928.
Bleuler was a Swiss psychiatrist whose work shaped modern ideas of mental illness. He coined the terms schizophrenia, schizoid, autism and depth psychology.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 15 July 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Zollikon as the place of death.
A government resolution of 29 July set up the bureau, known as OKB-51, to put the BB-1 aircraft into production. The company survived the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Notes
The English infobox and lead give 1939. The English body ties the bureau to a government resolution of 29 July 1939, and the German article says that on that day Sukhoi was made chief designer of aircraft plant No. 135 in Kharkiv and that the date can be regarded as the founding day of the bureau, so the day is stored at medium confidence. Wikidata gives only the year.
The 1939 World Archery Championships begin in Oslo
Sport
The International Archery Federation (FITA) organised the ninth World Archery Championships in Oslo, with individual and team recurve events for men and women.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 31 July to 5 August, matching Wikidata.
· Palo Alto, California, United States · North America
Bill Hewlett and David Packard found Hewlett-Packard
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
Hewlett and Packard started the firm in a small Palo Alto garage and formally set up the Hewlett-Packard Company on 2 July. It grew into a Silicon Valley company known for a management creed called the HP Way.
Notes
The English lead and infobox give 2 July 1939 for the formal setting-up of the company, matching Wikidata, while the French article gives 1 January 1939 for the founding, so the day is disputed. The lead dates the first big contract to 1938, and the body says the two men first worked part-time in 1938 in a garage they rented.
The first World Science Fiction Convention is held
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
The first Worldcon was held on 2 July 1939. Members of the World Science Fiction Society vote on the site two years ahead and on the Hugo Awards.
Notes
Only the infobox gives the date of the first convention, and Wikidata gives only the year, so confidence is medium. The article names no place for the first convention, so the place is left blank and the region reflects the convention's mainly American base.
· St. Louis, Missouri, United States · North America
James Smith McDonnell founds McDonnell Aircraft in St. Louis
Economy & trade
James Smith McDonnell founded the aerospace company in St. Louis. It later built the F-4 Phantom II fighter and the Mercury and Gemini crewed capsules, and merged with Douglas Aircraft in 1967.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 6 July 1939. Wikidata gives the year 1939 in its date field and 6 July 1939 as its founding date.
The 20th Century Fox film Second Fiddle is released
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Sidney Lanfield directed the musical romance, with Sonja Henie and Tyrone Power leading a cast that includes Rudy Vallée, and a score by Irving Berlin. A Hollywood publicity agent falls for a new actress he helped to discover.
Notes
Only the infobox gives the release day, 14 July 1939, and Wikidata gives only the year, so confidence is medium.
William A. Wellman directed and produced the American adventure film, with Gary Cooper leading a cast that included Susan Hayward, Ray Milland, Robert Preston and Brian Donlevy. Robert Carson's screenplay was drawn from P. C. Wren's 1924 novel.
Notes
Only the infobox gives 24 July 1939, and Wikidata gives only the year, so confidence is medium.
Huỳnh Phú Sổ founds the Hòa Hảo religious movement in Cochinchina
Religion & philosophySome details uncertain
The movement blends Buddhism, ancestor worship, animist rites and Confucian ideas. Huỳnh Phú Sổ gathered ten thousand followers by the end of 1939.
Notes
The Origins section of the English article puts the founding on the 18th day of the 5th lunar month of the year kỷ mão, which it equates with 4 July 1939 in the Gregorian calendar, matching Wikidata; the same section says Sổ had ten thousand followers by the end of that year, and the lead gives one million to eight million adherents. The Vietnamese Wikipedia article on Huỳnh Phú Sổ also gives 4 July and says he began the faith at his home and named it after Hòa Hảo, his native village. The Vietnamese Wikipedia article on the religion gives 5 July 1939 for the same lunar date. The Gregorian date 4 July is stored and the lunisolar date is kept here.
The Crown Representative's Police is created in British India
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The force was raised after political unrest in India's princely states following the 1936 Madras Resolution of the Congress. The Crown Representative aimed to help princely states maintain order.
Notes
The English infobox gives 27 July 1939 and the lead and history section give 1939; the French article also says the unit was created on 27 July 1939 as the Crown Representative's Police. The day is stored at medium confidence. Wikidata gives the year 1939.
· Earlwood, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia · Oceania
John Howard is born in Sydney
Lives
Howard was raised in the Sydney suburb of Earlwood, studied law at the University of Sydney and worked as a commercial lawyer. He was elected to parliament for the division of Bennelong in 1974 and became treasurer in 1977.
Notes
The lead gives the birth date, 26 July 1939, matching Wikidata. The lead says he was born in Sydney and the body places his upbringing in Earlwood, so Earlwood is used as the place.
Construction of the Qemal Stafa Stadium begins in Tirana
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
Galeazzo Ciano of Italy ceremonially set the foundation stone. Building work started, but the stadium opened only in 1946, for the Balkan Cup, which Albania's national team won.
Notes
The infobox and body give August 1939 without a day, so confidence is medium. The stadium opened on 7 October 1946 according to the infobox.
The All-Union Agricultural Exhibition (VDNKh) opens in Moscow
Economy & trade
The exhibition, established in 1935, had its opening postponed more than once before it finally opened. It stayed open to the public until 25 October.
Notes
The full article states that the exhibition opened on 1 August 1939 and ran to the public until 25 October, matching Wikidata's start. The infobox gives 17 February 1935 for the establishment.
The Gold Star medal is introduced for Heroes of the Soviet Union
Politics & diplomacy
The Gold Star was introduced to mark Heroes apart from other holders of the Order of Lenin, which could be given for deeds that did not merit the hero title. The Hero title itself dated from 16 April 1934.
Notes
The body gives 1 August 1939 for the medal, matching Wikidata. The article dates the title itself to 1934, so the stored event is the introduction of the medal.
The race started and finished in Zürich, covering 1,724 km in eight stages. Robert Zimmermann of Switzerland won, ahead of his compatriot Max Bolliger.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 5-12 August 1939, matching Wikidata. The German article confirms eight stages and 1,724 km. The English infobox gives the winner's time as 48 hours 45 minutes 6 seconds, while the German results table gives 48:55:06.
Prodi was a professor of economics before entering politics. He led the Olive Tree coalition to victory in the 1996 election and was Italian prime minister until 1998, and again from 2006 to 2008.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 9 August 1939, matching Wikidata.
· Leningrad, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russia) · Europe
Isaak Brodsky dies
Lives
Brodsky was a Russian painter and draughtsman active in Saint Petersburg and later Leningrad. He is best known for portraits of Lenin and other Soviet leaders, held up as model examples of Socialist realism.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 14 August 1939, matching Wikidata. The two birth dates shown are the new-style and old-style dates.
Korfanty was an activist, journalist and politician who sat in the German Reichstag and later in the Polish Sejm, and who organised the Polish Silesian Uprisings. He returned to Poland in April, once Germany had cancelled the non-aggression pact of 1934.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 17 August 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Warsaw as the place of death.
Germany and the Soviet Union sign a credit agreement in Berlin
Economy & trade
The Soviets received seven-year credit at an effective interest rate of 4.5%, to buy factory equipment, machinery, ships and vehicles from Germany over two years. Repayment was to come from Soviet material shipments starting in 1946.
Notes
The infobox gives 19 August 1939, matching Wikidata. The lead's remark that the Soviet-Japanese fighting began the day after the agreement conflicts with the other dates given and is not used.
Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in Moscow
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Foreign ministers Molotov and von Ribbentrop signed a non-aggression treaty in Moscow. A secret protocol split Eastern Europe into Soviet and German zones of influence and agreed to partition Poland.
Notes
The infobox and the secret protocol are dated 23 August 1939, but the lead says the pact was signed on 24 August and backdated to 23 August; Wikidata gives 23 August. The pact is stored under the document's own date, 23 August.
The British government begins printing the Keep Calm and Carry On poster
Everyday life
The Ministry of Information designed the poster in the summer, and Home Secretary Samuel Hoare agreed the final designs on 4 August. Printing began on 23 August and ran until 3 September.
Notes
Wikidata gives only the year 1939. The article dates the design to 27 June to 6 July 1939 and the print run to 23 August to 3 September 1939; the print run is stored. The lead says 2.45 million copies and the body says almost 2,500,000.
· Hohlenstein-Stadel cave, Asselfingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany · Europe
The Lion man ivory figurine is found in Hohlenstein-Stadel cave
Art & literature
Otto Völzing is named as the finder of a fragmented mammoth-ivory figurine in the Hohlenstein-Stadel cave in Germany. It joins a human-like body to the head of a cave lion.
Notes
The infobox and body give 25 August 1939, matching Wikidata. The lead says only that it was discovered in 1939.
Britain and Poland sign the Agreement of Mutual Assistance
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Britain and Poland signed a mutual-assistance deal two days after the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Each pledged help if Nazi Germany invaded, with terms set out in a secret protocol.
Notes
The body gives 25 August 1939 for the signing, matching Wikidata, while the lead dates the alliance to 31 March 1939, the day of the British guarantee, so confidence is medium.
The zoo's first exhibit was a lynx named Illu, brought back from Helsinki by Estonian marksmen after their 1937 world title. The lynx later became the zoo's emblem animal.
Notes
The infobox and the history section agree on 25 August 1939, matching Wikidata. The history section dates the marksmen's world title in Helsinki to 1937.
· Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now Serbia and Croatia) · Europe
The Cvetkovic-Macek Agreement creates the Banovina of Croatia
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Prime minister Dragiša Cvetković, a Serb, and the Croat politician Vladko Maček settled a compromise that created an autonomous Banovina of Croatia within Yugoslavia. Its borders took in as many ethnic Croats as possible.
Notes
The lead says the agreement was settled on 26 August 1939; the body says it was finalized on 20 August and ratified on the 26th, so confidence is medium. Wikidata gives 26 August and places it in Croatia.
· Jablunkov Pass, Poland (now Czech Republic) · Europe
German commandos attack a railway station in the Jablunkov Pass
War & conflict
German Abwehr agents attacked a railway station at Mosty on the night of 25 to 26 August, aiming to seize the Jablunkov Pass and its strategic railway tunnel until German forces arrived. Polish Army units repelled them.
Notes
The lead describes the night of 25-26 August 1939, and the infobox and Wikidata give 26 August 1939.
A time bomb exploded in the waiting hall of the station. Between 20 and 22 people were killed and about 35 injured, and about a third of the station building was destroyed.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 28 August 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives 20 dead and the lead 20-22; the body gives 14 killed at once and 8 who died later, with 38 wounded.
· Gleiwitz, Germany (now Gliwice, Poland) · Europe
German SS men stage the Gleiwitz radio station attack
War & conflict
SS men dressed in Polish uniforms staged an attack on the radio station at Gleiwitz on the night of 31 August. Germany used it, with some two dozen similar incidents, as an excuse to invade Poland.
Notes
The lead and infobox give the night of 31 August 1939, matching Wikidata.
Germany carries out Operation Himmler, staged attacks to fake Polish aggression
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Most of the false flag operations, planned largely by Himmler, Heydrich and Müller, were carried out on 31 August after a delay from 26 August. Victims of the staged attacks included civilians and camp prisoners.
Notes
The Implementation section says most of the operations happened on 31 August, after a delay from the first planned date of 26 August, and some on 1 September, so the main day is stored at medium confidence. The Aftermath section says Hitler pointed to 21 border incidents when he announced war to the Reichstag on 1 September. Wikidata gives 31 August 1939.
Fritz Leiber publishes the first Fafhrd and Gray Mouser story
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
Leiber's opening tale of the series, Two Sought Adventure, appeared in Unknown magazine. Fafhrd is a tall northern barbarian and the Mouser a small thief with some magic.
Notes
The body gives August 1939 for the first story without a day, so confidence is medium. Wikidata gives only the year.
Einstein signs the letter warning Roosevelt about atomic bombs
Politics & diplomacy
Leo Szilard wrote the letter, which Albert Einstein signed, addressed to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It warned that Germany might build atomic bombs and urged an American nuclear programme.
Notes
The lead gives 2 August 1939, matching Wikidata. The body says Szilard and Wigner visited Einstein on Long Island on 12 July 1939, before the letter was signed.
Gutiérrez was a general in the Mexican Revolution from the state of Coahuila. The Aguascalientes Convention elected him provisional president, and he led Mexico for a few months, into January 1915.
Notes
The English lead and infobox give 12 August 1939, matching Wikidata, and the infobox gives Saltillo as the place of death. The English lead dates his presidency from 6 November 1914, while the body says he was named provisional president on 2 November 1914 and took office two days later.
· Tyringham, Massachusetts, United States · North America
Sidney Howard dies
Lives
Howard was an American playwright and screenwriter who won the 1925 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for They Knew What They Wanted. He died aged 48 in Tyringham, while working on his farm.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 23 August 1939, matching Wikidata.
The Wizard of Oz is released across the United States
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced the musical fantasy from L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel, starring Judy Garland, with music by Harold Arlen including 'Over the Rainbow'. It won Oscars for Best Original Song and Best Original Score.
Notes
The English infobox gives two release dates: 10 August 1939 at Green Bay, Wisconsin, and 25 August 1939 across the United States; the English body says the film opened nationwide on 25 August and that the Green Bay premiere date is disputed by a trade paper of the time, which put the first showing in New Bedford, Massachusetts, one day before. The German article gives 12 August 1939 for the US premiere, and the French article lists 12 August (Oconomowoc), 15 August (Hollywood), 17 August (New York) and 25 August (national release). The nationwide release is stored, matching Wikidata, and confidence is medium because of the differing premiere dates.
· Malton, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada · North America
The first scheduled passenger flight lands at Malton Airport, now Toronto Pearson
TechnologySome details uncertain
A Trans-Canada Air Lines DC-3 made the first scheduled passenger flight at Malton Airport. Malton later grew into Toronto Pearson, the busiest airport in Canada.
Notes
The body gives 29 August 1939 for the first scheduled passenger landing, while the infobox gives the airport's opening as 29 August 1938, so one of the two years may be an error and confidence is medium. Wikidata gives only the year 1939.
George Cukor directed the American comedy-drama, adapted from a 1936 stage play by Clare Boothe Luce and starring Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell. Anita Loos and Jane Murfin adapted it and had to make it acceptable under the Production Code.
Notes
Only the infobox gives 31 August 1939, while Wikidata gives just the year, so confidence is medium.
The ocean liner SS America is launched at Newport News
Technology
Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the president, sponsored the ship, which naval architect William Francis Gibbs designed for the United States Lines. War began in Europe the next day, so the ship was painted with large neutrality markings.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 31 August 1939, matching Wikidata.
Marvel Comics #1 from Martin Goodman's Timely Publications went on sale with an October cover date. It debuted the Human Torch and the Angel.
Notes
The publication history section gives 31 August 1939 as the publication day and October 1939 as the cover date, which the infobox uses as the start. Wikidata gives the year 1939. The same section says the first printing sold out its 80,000 copies and a second printing sold about 800,000. The publication day is stored at medium confidence.
FIDE's team tournament was held in Buenos Aires from 21 August to 19 September, alongside the 1939 Women's World Championship. The event overlapped with the start of World War II.
Notes
The English lead gives 21 August to 19 September 1939, with preliminaries from 21 to 31 August. The German article gives 24 August to 19 September 1939 with a preliminary round from 23 to 31 August, and Wikidata gives 24 August, so the start day is disputed and confidence is medium.
The zoologist and SS officer Ernst Schäfer led the party in Tibet from April 1938 to August 1939. Members documented Tibetan religion, festivals, social ranks, objects and everyday life.
Notes
The lead gives April 1938 to August 1939 and the body has Schäfer leaving Lhasa in August 1939, matching Wikidata's month. Wikidata proposes Taiwan as part of the place, which does not fit.
The Nazi Aktion T4 programme to kill disabled and mentally ill people begins
War & conflictSome details uncertain
Germany ran a systematic programme that killed disabled and mentally ill people by gas, injection, starvation and other means. The killing began in September 1939 and continued until the war in Europe ended in 1945.
Notes
The infobox gives September 1939 to 1945 and the lead says killings ran from September 1939. The authorisation is dated October 1939 and backdated to 1 September 1939, so only the month September 1939 is stored. Wikidata gives only the year 1939.
Germany and the Soviet Union begin their occupation of Poland
War & conflictSome details uncertain
Germany and the Soviet Union occupied Poland from the invasion of September 1939 until the German defeat in 1945. Both occupiers meant to wipe out Polish culture and subjugate the people.
Notes
The lead dates the start to the invasion in September 1939 and the infobox gives a start of 30 September without a year; Wikidata gives September 1939. Only the month is stored. The English lead says around six million Polish citizens died, half of them ethnic Poles and half Polish Jews, while a 2009 estimate by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance given in the body is about 5.62 to 5.82 million in total.
Operation Tannenberg was among the first Nazi extermination actions aimed at Poles in occupied Poland, running from September 1939 to January 1940. Einsatzgruppen units arrested and killed at least 20,000 Poles in mass killings.
Notes
The lead and infobox give September 1939 to January 1940; the German and French articles date the mass executions to September and October 1939. The toll is around 20,000 in the English lead, at least 20,000 in the German article and from at least 20,000 to more than 60,000 in the French article. Wikidata gives September 1939 as a month.
British owners have around 750,000 pet cats and dogs killed after war is declared
Everyday lifeSome details uncertain
In 1939 about a quarter of England's pets, roughly 750,000 cats and dogs, were put to death. Many owners feared they could not look after their animals in wartime and rushed them to be killed after Chamberlain declared war.
Notes
The lead dates the event to 1939 and the body ties it to the days after the declaration of war on 3 September 1939; no exact span is stated. Wikidata gives the year 1939.
Hitler reinstates the Wound Badge for the Second World War
War & conflictSome details uncertain
Wilhelm II first promulgated the badge in 1918 for soldiers wounded in the First World War. Hitler reinstated it, replacing the First World War helmet with the 1935 pattern.
Notes
The lead dates the reinstatement to September 1939 without a day; the infobox gives 3 March 1918 as the original establishment. Wikidata's 22 May 1939 date does not appear in the article, and Wikidata also lists 1 September 1939 as an alternative, so confidence is medium.
Germany invades Poland and World War II begins in Europe
War & conflict
German troops crossed into Poland, joined by the Slovak Republic, and the Soviet Union invaded from the east on 17 September. By 6 October the campaign was over and Germany and the Soviet Union had divided Poland between them.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 1 September to 6 October 1939, matching Wikidata.
· Westerplatte, Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) · Europe
Germany attacks the Polish garrison at Westerplatte
War & conflict
German forces attacked the Polish Military Transit Depot on the Westerplatte peninsula, opening with shellfire from the battleship Schleswig-Holstein. The garrison beat back thirteen assaults over seven days.
Notes
The infobox gives 1-7 September 1939, matching Wikidata.
· Danzig, Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) · Europe
Polish postal staff defend the post office in Danzig
War & conflictSome details uncertain
Polish postal staff held their building for about 15 hours against Danzig police and paramilitaries, including the SS Heimwehr Danzig. German military judges condemned the captured defenders to death as illegal combatants, and most were shot on 5 October.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 1 September 1939, matching Wikidata. The English lead says the defenders were sentenced on 5 October, but the English body and the German article put the trials on 8 and 30 September and the executions on 5 October (the German article says probably 5 October).
German aircraft bomb Warsaw on the first day of the invasion
War & conflict
The Luftwaffe raided Warsaw as the assault on Poland began, and the bombing continued through the siege. On 8 September, as German troops neared, 140 Stuka dive-bombers attacked the city.
Notes
The lead and body give 1 September 1939 for the opening raid, matching Wikidata's start; Wikidata's end of 27 September 1939 fits the 1939 siege, but the lead also covers bombing in 1944, so no end date is stored.
German Stuka dive-bombers struck Wieluń early in the morning and kept up raids for nine hours. The town lay near the German border with no air defences or garrison, though German intelligence had claimed a Polish cavalry brigade was stationed there. A clearly marked hospital was reportedly bombed.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 1 September 1939, matching Wikidata. The time of the first bombs is given as 04:40 in most Polish accounts and as 05:40 in German flight records and by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance in 2004, and whether the raid came before the Westerplatte shelling is debated. Casualty figures vary between reports and are not given here.
Polish cavalry charged and scattered a German infantry battalion near Krojanty on the evening of 1 September. German armoured cars firing machine guns from a forest then forced the Poles to fall back.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 1 September 1939, matching Wikidata.
The recently created Slovak Republic took part in the attack without a formal declaration of war. Field Army Bernolák supplied over 50,000 soldiers in three divisions, and Slovakia annexed the disputed border territories.
Notes
The infobox gives 1-16 September 1939, matching Wikidata.
Hitler addresses the Reichstag on the day Germany invades Poland
Politics & diplomacy
Hitler spoke to an extraordinary session of the Reichstag, in a speech that served as a public declaration of war on Poland. He wore a field-grey military uniform rather than his brown party uniform.
Notes
The lead places the speech on the day of the invasion, 1 September 1939, matching Wikidata.
Britain begins evacuating civilians at the outbreak of war
Everyday life
The government and private individuals arranged evacuations to protect vulnerable people from bombing. Eligible groups were children below fourteen, mothers with children under five, and expectant mothers, and most evacuees were billeted in private homes.
Notes
The full article states that the state evacuation began on 1 September 1939 and went on for four days, while the lead gives no dates. Wikidata also gives 1 September 1939.
Polish units defended the Hel Peninsula from 1 September to 2 October. From 20 September it was northern Poland's last sizeable stronghold of military resistance.
Notes
The English lead and infobox give 1 September to 2 October 1939; the English body has the first air raids on 1 September and the ground assault from 9 September. Wikidata and the German article give 9 September as the start, and a caption in the English article puts the capitulation on 1 or 2 October, so confidence is medium.
Polish forces win the Battle of Mokra on the first day of the invasion
War & conflict
The battle was fought near Mokra, north of Kłobuck and Częstochowa, in the opening round of the German invasion. Polish defenders pushed back the German 4th Panzer Division, but were pulled back eastwards overnight after German forces took Kłobuck.
Notes
The English lead and infobox give 1 September 1939, matching Wikidata, and the French article agrees. The English lead calls it a Polish victory and the first German defeat of the war; the English and French accounts of the fighting say the Polish forces withdrew south-eastwards overnight after the German 1st Panzer Division took Kłobuck.
Germany and Poland fought in the Tuchola Forest from 1 to 5 September. Weak Polish command and German superiority crippled the Polish Army Pomerania, and Germany broke through the Polish Corridor.
Notes
The English lead and infobox give 1 to 5 September 1939. Wikidata's main date is 5 September, with 1 September as the start date.
The Polish Modlin Army fought the German 3rd Army north of Mława from 1 to 3 September. General Emil Krukowicz-Przedrzymirski led the Polish forces and General Georg von Küchler the Germans.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 1-3 September 1939, matching Wikidata.
The Leica Freedom Train ends as Germany closes its borders
War & conflictSome details uncertain
Camera maker Ernst Leitz II and his daughter Elsie Kuehn-Leitz helped hundreds of Jews leave Nazi Germany, sending them out disguised as Leitz staff bound for its sales offices abroad. Shipments stopped when Germany shut its borders.
Notes
The article describes a covert effort that began in the 1930s and gives no formal end date. The stored day is when the article says the shipments stopped, with Germany's borders closing at the invasion of Poland, so confidence is medium.
Polish troops defend Chojnice on the first day of the invasion
War & conflict
Polish troops held Chojnice against the German 20th Motorized Infantry Division until early afternoon, after destroying a bridge before German armoured cars could reach the station. They then retreated east towards Rytel.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 1 September 1939, matching Wikidata.
· Danzig, Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) · Europe
Germany annexes the Free City of Danzig
Politics & diplomacy
Danzig had been a city-state under League of Nations protection since 1920. After Germany invaded Poland, the Nazis abolished it and folded the territory into the new Reich district of Danzig-West Prussia.
Notes
The infobox gives 1 September 1939 as the date of annexation by Germany, matching Wikidata. The lead gives only that the Nazis abolished the Free City after the invasion.
A decree brought the Iron Cross back, now as a German rather than a Prussian award. The version for the new war is known as the EK 1939.
Notes
The body gives the enactment re-introducing the Iron Cross as dated 1 September 1939, matching Wikidata. Wikidata's other dates (1813, 1870, 1914) refer to earlier issues of the award.
The Battle of Lasy Królewskie is fought on the first day of the invasion of Poland
War & conflictSome details uncertain
Polish uhlans of the 11th Legions' Cavalry Regiment, mostly fighting on foot, held off German cavalry of the 1st Cavalry Brigade near Janowo and Krzynowłoga Mała. It was one action in the German Third Army's attack from East Prussia towards Warsaw, which was slowed by the Mława fortifications.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 1 September 1939, matching Wikidata. The accounts of the fighting differ in scale and character. The English article says elements of the 11th Cavalry (Legions') Regiment, mostly dismounted, halted the German 1st Cavalry Brigade's attacks along the Ulatkówka river and lists the result as inconclusive. The Polish Wikipedia article describes squadrons of the 11th Uhlan Regiment defending for hours with horse-artillery support, and a platoon from the 4th squadron that clashed three times with German cavalry in the Lasy Królewskie forest and made a mounted sabre-and-lance charge, and also lists the result as inconclusive; it says the German attack did not break the Mazowiecka Cavalry Brigade's position that day.
The Wehrmacht begins to administer occupied Poland
War & conflictSome details uncertain
The Wehrmacht ran the occupied Polish lands during the invasion and its immediate aftermath. Military districts for Posen and West Prussia were set up on 8 and 13 September, and districts based on Łódź and Kraków followed on 3 October.
Notes
The infobox gives 1 September 1939 as the start and 26 October 1939 as the end, when the General Government came into force. The lead frames the administration within the period of the invasion, 1 September to 6 October, so the end is uncertain and confidence is medium. Wikidata gives only the year.
The airport lies west-northwest of Toulouse, partly in the commune of Blagnac, in southern France.
Notes
Only the infobox gives 1 September 1939, which is also the day of the German invasion of Poland. Wikidata gives only the year, so confidence is medium.
· Danzig Bay (now Gdańsk Bay), Baltic Sea · Europe
German aircraft attack Polish warships in the Battle of Danzig Bay
War & conflictSome details uncertain
German aircraft attacked Polish Navy warships in the Bay of Danzig at the very start of the invasion. Germany won the engagement, and Operation Rurka was cancelled.
Notes
The English lead and infobox give 1 September 1939, matching Wikidata, and the French article agrees. The English lead calls it the first naval-air battle of the Second World War; the French article calls it one of the first battles in which naval units had to defend against air attack. The Wikidata label is for the Polish coastal defence campaign; the article is the Battle of Danzig Bay.
· Stutthof, German-annexed Free City of Danzig (now Sztutowo, Poland) · Europe
Stutthof concentration camp opens near Danzig
War & conflict
The first inmates, Poles and Jews arrested in Danzig, were brought on 2 September to the camp in marshy woodland 34 km east of the city. At first it held Polish leaders and members of the intelligentsia.
Notes
The lead and body agree on 2 September 1939, matching Wikidata, and the German article gives the same day. The English body says the first 150 inmates arrived that day, while the German article says about 150 to 200 were brought from the Viktoriaschule; the German article also says preparatory work took place in July and August.
Ireland proclaims a state of emergency, known as the Emergency
Politics & diplomacy
The Dáil proclaimed a state of emergency, and the Oireachtas passed the Emergency Powers Act the following day. The Act gave the government sweeping powers, including internment, press censorship and control of the economy.
Notes
The lead gives 2 September 1939 for the proclamation, matching Wikidata.
The Battle of Borowa Góra begins in the German invasion of Poland
War & conflict
A series of fights from 2 to 6 September took place near the Góry Borowskie hills, where the German XVI Army Corps had to break through to reach Radomsko and Piotrków Trybunalski. The battle ended in a German victory.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 2-6 September 1939, matching Wikidata.
The British Expeditionary Force sets up its headquarters
War & conflict
The BEF dates from the day its general headquarters was set up. Lord Gort was appointed to command it the next day, and its move across to France started on 4 September.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 2 September 1939 for the start and 31 May 1940 for the end.
Britain declared war on Germany on Sunday 3 September, two days after Germany invaded Poland. France followed with its own declaration later that day, and the dominions of the British Empire soon followed Britain's lead.
Notes
The lead and body agree on 3 September 1939 (two days after the 1 September invasion), matching Wikidata.
Violence breaks out in Bydgoszcz on what Nazi propaganda called Bloody Sunday
War & conflictSome details uncertain
Violence broke out in Bydgoszcz, a Polish city with a large German minority, as German forces approached. Accounts of how it started differ, but Polish soldiers and civilians took violent reprisals against ethnic Germans, and Nazi propaganda later exaggerated German casualties.
Notes
The lead gives 3-4 September 1939 and Wikidata gives 3 September; the German article also gives 3 and 4 September. The cause is contested: the English lead says German-minority members working with the Abwehr attacked the Polish garrison, while the German article describes rumours that German saboteurs had fired from church towers and says historians explain the events differently and give widely varying figures for the dead.
France entered the war against Germany two days after Poland was invaded, acting under its defensive treaty with Poland. The declaration took effect at 17:00, when a French ultimatum from the day before expired.
Notes
The lead gives 3 September 1939, matching Wikidata.
· Belgrade, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now Serbia) · Europe
Tazio Nuvolari wins the Belgrade Grand Prix
Sport
The race took place around Kalemegdan Park. Five drivers started, two in Mercedes-Benz cars, two in Auto Unions and one in a Bugatti, and Nuvolari won in an Auto Union.
Notes
The lead gives 3 September 1939 and the infobox gives 3 September with the year 1939, matching Wikidata.
Westermarck was a Finnish anthropologist, sociologist and philosopher who studied how marriage developed over time and where moral ideas come from. He taught in London, Helsinki and at Åbo Akademi, whose first rector he was.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 3 September 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Tenala as the place of death.
The Luftwaffe's Defence of the Reich air campaign begins
War & conflictSome details uncertain
The Luftwaffe fought a defensive air campaign over Germany and occupied Europe against the Allied strategic bombing offensive, aiming to protect civilians, military sites and industry.
Notes
The infobox gives 4 September 1939 to 8 May 1945, matching Wikidata; the lead names no start day.
German troops execute about 80 Polish defenders of Katowice
War & conflict
German soldiers and Freikorps militia executed Polish defenders of Katowice, among them former Silesian insurgents and Polish Boy and Girl Scouts who had joined a self-defence militia. The Polish army had already left the city.
Notes
The lead gives 4 September 1939, matching Wikidata, and about 80 defenders executed. The body says the Polish Institute of National Remembrance put the number of Poles killed in Katowice that day, in fighting and executions, at about 150, and found the exact total impossible to fix; some estimates reached 750.
Wehrmacht forces shot, beat and robbed civilians at more than a dozen places across Częstochowa from 4 to 6 September. Estimates of the Polish civilians murdered, Jews among them, range from several hundred to about 1,140.
Notes
The English lead and infobox give 4-6 September 1939, matching Wikidata. The English lead puts the dead at about 1,140 Polish civilians, 150 of them Jewish, and the infobox gives an estimate of 990 Poles and 150 Jews. The Polish article says the toll has never been precisely established: an exhumation in early 1940 found 227 bodies (205 Poles and 22 Jews), Szymon Datner estimated about 300 dead, and Jan Pietrzykowski estimated about 500 killed on 4 September.
The Battle of Barking Creek, a friendly-fire incident between RAF fighters
War & conflict
A faulty radar set triggered a false alarm over the Essex coast, and RAF fighters were sent to intercept what were really British aircraft. Spitfires shot down two Hurricanes by mistake and killed one pilot.
Notes
The lead, body and infobox agree on 6 September 1939, matching Wikidata.
Rackham was an English book illustrator and a leading figure of the Golden Age of British illustration. He combined robust pen and ink drawing with watercolour.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 6 September 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Limpsfield, Surrey as the place of death.
The Polish 13th Infantry Division under Colonel Władysław Kaliński defended the area against two armoured divisions of the German 16th Panzer Corps, under Erich Hoepner. After a day of fighting the Germans broke through and took the town.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 6 September 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox lists 770 Polish dead and 1,023 wounded, and 100 German dead and 21 tanks destroyed.
After Germany's attack on Poland, France advanced into the German Saarland to relieve Poland by striking a neglected western front. Thirty divisions moved to the border and in places crossed it.
Notes
The lead gives 7 September to 16 October 1939; the infobox says the offensive lasted 1 month and 9 days, which agrees. Wikidata gives the end as 16 September, which differs from the article, so confidence is medium.
A small Polish force held a fortified line for three days against a far larger German force. Captain Władysław Raginis commanded the Polish defenders.
Notes
The English lead and infobox give 7-10 September 1939, matching Wikidata's start and end days; the German lead gives 6 to 10 September while its body gives 7 to 10 September, so the start day varies by one day. The defender and attacker numbers come from one historian cited in the lead.
The Battle of Łomża begins in the invasion of Poland
War & conflict
German forces attacked the Polish forts at Łomża on the Narew River from 7 to 10 September. Polish defenders from the 33rd Infantry Regiment repelled repeated attacks, and the Germans lost 6 tanks in the first attack.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 7-10 September 1939, matching Wikidata.
German aircraft bombed Warsaw from 1 September and land fighting began on 8 September. The city was besieged, and the Polish garrison under General Walerian Czuma capitulated on 28 September.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 8-28 September 1939 for the siege, matching Wikidata, but the lead says the aerial bombardment began on 1 September, so the start day depends on the definition and confidence is medium. Civilian deaths are given as around 18,000 in the English lead, 25,800 in the German article and 25,000 in the French article; the English lead says 10 percent of buildings were wholly destroyed and 40 percent heavily damaged, while the German and French articles give 12 percent destroyed.
German soldiers murder Polish prisoners of war at Ciepielów
War & conflictSome details uncertain
German soldiers of the 15th Motorized Infantry Regiment, under Colonel Walter Wessel, murdered Polish prisoners of war from the 74th Infantry Regiment in a forest near Ciepielów. The dead are commonly put at 300, though recent research suggests over 250.
Notes
The lead gives 8 September 1939, while the infobox and Wikidata give 9 September 1939, so the date is disputed and confidence is medium.
Poland's Prusy Army under General Stanisław Skwarczyński held Iłża and the Sandomierz-Radom road. The German XV Army Corps under Hermann Hoth outmatched the Poles, who were beaten within two days.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 8-9 September 1939, matching Wikidata.
Poland opened a counter-offensive near the Bzura River that made some early gains. The Germans outflanked the Poles and destroyed the Poznań and Pomorze Armies, leaving Germany holding all of western Poland.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 9-19 September 1939, matching Wikidata, but a footnote to the English lead says sources differ between 18 and 19 September for the end. The German article gives 9 to 19 September.
Polish forces defended Lwów against the Wehrmacht and, from 17 September, the Red Army. General Władysław Langner had begun organising the city's defence on 7 September, and the capitulation document was signed at Winniki on 22 September.
Notes
The infobox gives 12-22 September 1939, matching the other dates Wikidata lists.
Polish forces under General Wiktor Thommée defended Modlin Fortress against German assaults, in fighting closely tied to the Battle of Warsaw. The fortress surrendered on 29 September with 24,000 troops.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 13-29 September 1939, matching Wikidata.
· Brześć Litewski, Poland (now Brest, Belarus) · Europe
The Battle of Brześć Litewski for the Brest Fortress begins
War & conflict
German and Polish forces fought for the stronghold from 14 to 17 September. Germany took the fortress after three days of hard fighting and the Polish defenders pulled out.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 14-17 September 1939, matching Wikidata.
The German XIX Panzer Corps under Guderian fought an improvised Polish division at Kobryń, the 60th Infantry Division under Colonel Adam Epler. General Kleeberg then pulled his units south toward the Pinsk Marshes, which ended the fighting.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 14-18 September 1939, matching Wikidata.
Soviet forces entered Poland from the east with no formal declaration of war, 16 days after Germany attacked from the west. Fighting ended on 6 October, when Germany and the Soviet Union divided and annexed all Polish territory.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 17 September to 6 October 1939, matching Wikidata.
After the Battle of the Bzura, it was the invasion of Poland's biggest engagement, and the campaign's biggest armoured clash. Army Kraków surrendered on 20 September.
Notes
The infobox gives 17-26 September 1939, while the lead gives 18-20 September and describes phases of 19-20 and 21-26 September, so the dates disagree and confidence is medium.
The Polish submarine Orzeł escapes internment in Tallinn
War & conflict
Orzeł had reached neutral Tallinn on 14 September, damaged and leaking oil. Around midnight on 18 September the boat's portlights suffered an unexplained malfunction, and she sailed for Britain.
Notes
The infobox gives 18 September 1939, matching Wikidata.
· Jeziory, Poland (now Velyki Ozera, Ukraine) · Europe
Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy) dies by suicide
Lives
Witkiewicz, known as Witkacy, was a writer, painter, philosopher, playwright, novelist and photographer. After the German invasion he fled to the frontier town of Jeziory, and on 18 September he killed himself.
Notes
The lead, infobox and body agree on 18 September 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Jeziory, now Velyki Ozera in Ukraine, as the place of death.
The Red Army occupied Wilno on 18 and 19 September. Polish forces were concentrated in the west and weak in the east, and Polish commanders, unsure whether to resist, did not use the city's full defensive capacity.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 18-19 September 1939, matching Wikidata.
John was a Welsh artist who spent most of her career in France and painted mostly portraits of anonymous women. She wrote her will, then travelled to Dieppe, where she collapsed. She was buried in Janval Cemetery.
Notes
The lead, infobox and body agree on 18 September 1939, matching Wikidata.
The Battle of Grodno begins during the Soviet invasion of Poland
War & conflict
Improvised Polish units under General Wacław Przeździecki fought Soviet troops at Grodno from 20 to 22 September. The Soviet side was Komkor Ivan Boldin's cavalry mechanized group, and the Soviets won.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 20-22 September 1939, while Wikidata gives an end of 24 September.
Heydrich orders the first Judenrat councils created in occupied Poland
War & conflictSome details uncertain
Judenräte were administrative bodies that the Germans required Jews to form, locally and sometimes nationally, to deal with the Nazi authorities for the Jewish community. They were especially common in the ghettos of Eastern Europe.
Notes
The body gives 21 September 1939 for the first Judenräte in occupied Poland, while Wikidata gives only the year, so confidence is medium.
Romanian Prime Minister Armand Călinescu is assassinated
Lives
Călinescu, Romania's 39th prime minister, held the post for six months before he was murdered. Iron Guard members, reportedly with German help, killed him after several earlier attempts.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 21 September 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Bucharest as the place of death.
· Brest-Litovsk, Poland (now Brest, Belarus) · Europe
German and Soviet troops hold a joint ceremony at Brest-Litovsk
Politics & diplomacy
The ceremony marked the German withdrawal to the demarcation line secretly agreed in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and the city and its fortress passed to the Red Army. Brest-Litovsk is now Brest in Belarus.
Notes
The lead gives 22 September 1939, matching Wikidata.
The Sicherheitspolizei is dissolved and merged into the Reich Security Main Office
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The Sicherheitspolizei, or SiPo, combined the Gestapo and the criminal police from its formation on 26 June 1936. When the Reich Security Main Office was founded, SiPo stopped working as a state agency.
Notes
Dispute over the day: the infobox gives 22 September 1939, while the body ties the end to the Reich Security Main Office being founded that month, an event whose own article dates to 27 September 1939. The infobox date is stored at medium confidence, matching Wikidata.
Freud, an Austrian neurologist, founded psychoanalysis, a clinical method of treating conflicts of the psyche through dialogue between patient and analyst. He died in Hampstead, London.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 23 September 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Hampstead, London as the place of death.
France created the Croix de guerre 1939-1945 to honour those who fought the Axis. After the 1940 fall of France the Vichy government replaced it with another cross, while Free France kept the original.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 26 September 1939, matching Wikidata. The English article names the sculptor Paul-Albert Bartholomé as designer, while the French article on the 1914-1918 cross says recent research credits the Arthus Bertrand firm instead.
Himmler formally set up the Reich Security Main Office, combining the Security Police and the SD under one roof. Its stated task was to fight enemies of the Reich inside and outside Germany.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 27 September 1939, matching Wikidata. Berlin is the headquarters location given in the infobox.
The Service for Poland's Victory is founded, the origin of the Polish Underground State
War & conflictSome details uncertain
General Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski set it up during the siege of Warsaw to carry on the struggle under occupation. It was founded a day before the Polish capital surrendered.
Notes
The English lead dates the first elements of the Underground State to late September 1939, and the English section on its formation in 1939-1940 gives 27 September 1939 for the founding of its predecessor, the Service for Poland's Victory, and 13 November 1939 for its reorganisation as the Union of Armed Struggle; the Polish article on the organisation gives the same founding day. That section says Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski acted on orders from Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły, while the Polish article says the organisation was created on the order of General Juliusz Rómmel, commander of the defence of Warsaw. The infobox start is 1 September, the day of the invasion, and Wikidata gives only the year.
Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Boundary and Friendship Treaty
Politics & diplomacy
Ribbentrop and Molotov signed the treaty in Stalin's presence, as a second supplementary protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Its secret clauses amended the pact after the joint invasion of Poland.
Notes
The lead and a caption give 28 September 1939, matching Wikidata. Wikidata gives Moscow as the place.
Estonia and the Soviet Union sign the Mutual Assistance Treaty in Moscow
Politics & diplomacy
Foreign ministers Karl Selter and Vyacheslav Molotov signed the treaty, in which each side promised to honour the other's independence and sovereignty. It let the Soviet government set up military bases in Estonia.
Notes
The lead gives 28 September 1939, matching Wikidata.
The government in exile formed after the invasion and occupation of Poland. President Mościcki issued a proclamation on 17 September about transferring power, and the presidency passed to Raczkiewicz at the end of September.
Notes
The English infobox dates the start of the government to the handover of the presidency on 30 September 1939, while the body says Mościcki resigned on 29 or 30 September 1939, after which Raczkiewicz took the oath at the Polish Embassy in Paris; the body begins the story with Mościcki's proclamation of 17 September 1939. Wikidata gives only the year.
M.L.J. Magazines, the company that became Archie Comics, starts publishing comics
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
Goldwater, Silberkleit and Coyne founded M.L.J. Magazines. Its first title, Blue Ribbon Comics, appeared bearing a November cover date.
Notes
The lead says the company began in 1939, and the history section says it started publishing in September 1939, the month its first comic appeared, so the month is stored at medium confidence. Wikidata gives the year 1939.
Dalton Trumbo's anti-war novel Johnny Got His Gun is published
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
J. B. Lippincott published the novel, which Trumbo wrote in 1938. It appeared right as war broke out in Europe, over two years before American entry.
Notes
The infobox gives 3 September 1939, while the body places publication two days after war was declared in Europe, which would be 5 September, so only the month is stored, at medium confidence. Wikidata also gives September 1939.
20th Century-Fox released the American mystery adventure starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce. George Zucco plays Professor Moriarty, who plots against a wealthy family and the Crown Jewels.
Notes
The infobox gives 1 September 1939, matching Wikidata.
· Haverford, Pennsylvania, United States · North America
Australia wins the 1939 International Lawn Tennis Challenge
Sport
Australia beat the United States 3-2 in the Challenge Round at the Merion Cricket Club, having earlier beaten Yugoslavia in the Inter-Zonal play-off. Twenty teams entered the Europe Zone and seven the America Zone.
Notes
The lead and the Challenge Round section both give 2-5 September 1939 for the final at Merion Cricket Club in Haverford, so those dates are stored. The infobox gives 5 May to 5 September 1939 for the whole competition, and Wikidata's start and end dates are the same 5 May and 5 September, so Wikidata's range covers the competition, not the final alone.
· Forest Hills, New York City, New York, United States · North America
The 59th U.S. National Championships tennis tournament begins at Forest Hills
SportSome details uncertain
The championships, now the US Open, were played on grass at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York City.
Notes
The English lead gives 7 to 17 September 1939, matching Wikidata's end date; the French article gives 7 to 16 September 1939. Wikidata gives 13 August as the start date.
Manuel Gómez Morín founds the National Action Party in Mexico
Politics & diplomacy
Gómez Morín founded the conservative party after holding a number of significant government jobs in the 1920s and 30s, and led it as president from 1939 to 1949.
Notes
The infobox gives 16 September 1939, matching Wikidata. The lead and body give only the year.
American foreign ministers meet at the Panama Conference
Politics & diplomacy
Foreign ministers from across the Americas met in Panama City, seeking a common policy toward the new war, especially naval action near the Americas. They issued the Panama Declaration to assert their neutrality.
Notes
The English lead gives 23 September to 3 October 1939, matching Wikidata's start. Canada did not attend. The body lists a Pan-American Security Zone reaching 300 nautical miles out from the Americas, with belligerent naval activity prohibited in it.
· Los Angeles, California, United States · North America
Carl Laemmle dies
Lives
Laemmle was a German-American film producer and co-founder of Universal Pictures, which he owned until 1934. He was involved in making over 400 films as producer or in other roles.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 24 September 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Los Angeles as the place of death, while Wikidata names Beverly Hills.
Venezuela's Congress passes the law creating the Central Bank of Venezuela
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
The law authorised a central bank to issue the Venezuelan bolívar and guard its value. The bank was meant to control national monetary policy, taking over the work of a handful of private banks that had minted the currency.
Notes
The English infobox gives 8 September 1939 and the Spanish article says Congress passed the law authorising the bank on 8 September 1939. The history section of the Spanish article says the bank began its activities on 15 October 1940 and operated formally from 1 January 1941, while the English history section says it began in the late 1930s, so the stored day is the law's date and confidence is medium. Wikidata gives the same day.
Construction of the Altino Arantes Building begins in São Paulo
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
Construction of the Art Deco skyscraper began, and it was inaugurated on 27 June 1947. Banespa, the São Paulo state bank, used it as its headquarters.
Notes
The English body and the French article give 19 September 1939 for the start of construction, while the English infobox gives 13 September 1939. The English infobox and the French article give 27 June 1947 for the inauguration. Wikidata gives only the year. The English body says it was named the world's largest reinforced-concrete structure soon after completion; the French article calls it the tallest building in the world built in reinforced concrete.
· Kalgan, Mengjiang (now Zhangjiakou, China) · Asia
Japan folds two regional governments into the puppet state of Mengjiang
Politics & diplomacy
The South Chahar and North Shanxi governments were folded into the Mongol body, forming Mengjiang, with Kalgan as capital under the nominal rule of the Mongol nobleman Demchugdongrub. It covered the former Chinese provinces of Chahar and Suiyuan.
Notes
The body and infobox agree on 1 September 1939, matching Wikidata; the infobox prints no year beside the day, and the body supplies 1939.
· Soviet Far East, Mongolia and Manchukuo (now Russia, Mongolia and China) · Asia
The Soviet-Japanese border conflicts end with victory at Khalkhin Gol
War & conflict
From 1932 to 1939 the Soviet Union, Mongolia and Japan fought minor and major clashes along the border created by Japan's expansion in Northeast China. They ended with the Soviet-Mongolian victory at Khalkhin Gol.
Notes
The infobox gives 1 March 1932 to 16 September 1939, matching Wikidata's end day.
· Changsha, Hunan, Republic of China (now China) · Asia
The first Battle of Changsha begins
War & conflictSome details uncertain
The Japanese made the first of four attempts to take the city of Changsha in Hunan. On the night of 14 September Lieutenant General Ryotaro Nakai's 106th Division attacked westward in Jiangxi, and the battle ended in a Chinese victory.
Notes
The lead gives 17 September to 6 October 1939; the infobox gives 14 September or 17 September and the body describes an attack on the night of 14 September. Wikidata gives 17 September to 6 October. Confidence is medium because the start day differs.
The Arctic naval operations are counted as part of the Battle of the Atlantic. The German merchant ship Bremen was the first of 18 to take refuge in Murmansk, on 6 September.
Notes
The infobox gives 6 September 1939 to 29 April 1945, matching Wikidata. The start is a convention linked to the first dated event in the body, so confidence is medium.
Five Polish submarines carry out the Worek Plan in the Baltic
War & conflictSome details uncertain
The plan was activated after a distress call from the Westerplatte garrison, sending Polish submarines to block German amphibious landings and strike warships bombarding Hel. The Germans had no landings planned, so the operation achieved little.
Notes
The English infobox gives 1-25 September 1939, and Wikidata's date of 25 September is the end of that span; the English lead says the operation had in effect ended by the middle of September 1939.
The naval campaign between Allied and German forces centred on the Allied blockade of Germany, announced a day after war was declared, and Germany's counter-blockade. It ran until Germany's defeat in 1945.
Notes
The infobox gives 3 September 1939 to 8 May 1945, matching Wikidata's start; the lead says only 1939 to 1945. The end date falls in 1945.
Nazi Germany carried out mass murders at Piaśnica Wielka between the fall of 1939 and spring 1940, killing at least ten thousand people. Most of the victims were Polish intellectuals from Gdańsk Pomerania.
Notes
The English body says late October 1939 is the most commonly accepted start of the executions, so only the month is stored; the German article says the shootings ran from September to December 1939. The English lead estimates 12,000 to 14,000 dead, the English body twelve to sixteen thousand, and the German article 10,000 to 13,000. Wikidata gives only the year.
The division was set up from Waffen-SS and concentration camp guard units, with about 6,500 men of the SS-Totenkopfverbände transferred into it at the start. It grew out of Kampfgruppe Eicke, named for Theodor Eicke.
Notes
The Formation section gives October 1939 without a day, and Wikidata gives only the year. The same section says 6,500 men of the SS-Totenkopfverbände were transferred into the division when it was first formed.
Mass killings begin in the Valley of Death at Fordon
War & conflictSome details uncertain
Local German Selbstschutz members and the Gestapo shot Poles and Jews at Fordon in the autumn of 1939, mostly teachers, officials, priests and other educated people. The valley became a mass grave for well over a thousand victims.
Notes
The English lead and infobox give October and November 1939 and 1,200 to 1,400 victims; Wikidata gives October 1939. The German article dates the executions from early September to November 1939, with up to 5,000 victims, and says 1,400 to 3,000 people were shot between late September and late October alone, so the start and the toll are disputed and confidence is medium.
The Germans set up Fort VII, a concentration camp in Poznań
War & conflictSome details uncertain
The Germans chose Fort VII, a 19th-century fort ringing Poznań, for their first concentration camp in occupied Poland. The first Jewish victims from Poznań were shot there on 20 October. Most of the dead were Poles from Poznań and the surrounding region.
Notes
The infobox gives October 1939 to 1944 and the body says it began functioning around October 1939. Wikidata gives only the year, and files the event under science and discovery, which does not fit. Estimates of the dead range widely and are not given here.
Hitler created the War Merit Cross as successor to the non-combatant Iron Cross. By the end of the war it came in four degrees, with a matching civil award.
Notes
The body gives October 1939 without a day, and Wikidata gives only the year, so confidence is medium.
The Battle of Wytyczno is fought between Polish border troops and the Red Army
War & conflict
General Wilhelm Orlik-Rückemann's Border Defence Corps, down to about 3,000 men and short of heavy weapons and ammunition, fought the Soviet 45th Rifle Division near Włodawa. With ammunition nearly gone, the Poles chose to withdraw.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 1 October 1939, matching Wikidata.
At Kock, General Franciszek Kleeberg's Independent Operational Group Polesie fought the German XIV Motorized Corps. After some local success, the Polish forces surrendered on 6 October, having run out of ammunition and food.
Notes
The English lead and infobox give 2-5 October 1939, matching Wikidata, but the English body, the German article and the French article all date the surrender to 6 October (the English body and French article at 10:00), so the end is stored as 6 October at medium confidence.
T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats is published
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
Eliot wrote the whimsical cat poems in the 1930s and sent them to his godchildren in letters, signing himself Old Possum. Faber and Faber published them, with cover illustrations by Eliot himself.
Notes
Only the infobox gives the release day, 5 October 1939, while the lead and body give the year, so confidence is medium. Wikidata gives only the year.
Latvia and the Soviet Union sign a treaty in Moscow giving the Soviets bases
Politics & diplomacy
Vilhelms Munters for Latvia and Vyacheslav Molotov for the Soviet Union signed the treaty. Each country promised to honour the other's independence and sovereignty, but in practice it let the Soviet government set up military bases in Latvia.
Notes
The lead gives 5 October 1939 for the signing, matching Wikidata.
The present Spanish air force is formally set up after the Civil War
War & conflict
The air force succeeded both the Nationalist and the Republican air forces, the latter fully disbanded after the Nationalist victory. The black aircraft roundel gave way to a yellow and red one.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 7 October 1939, matching Wikidata.
The Soviet Union and Lithuania sign a Mutual Assistance Treaty
Politics & diplomacy
Lithuania was to receive about a fifth of the Vilnius Region, including Vilnius itself. In exchange it had to accept 20,000 Soviet troops at five bases.
Notes
The lead gives 10 October 1939, matching Wikidata. A caption shows the Lithuanian delegation leaving for Moscow on 7 October 1939.
The first transport of Jews is sent toward Lublin under the Nisko Plan
War & conflictSome details uncertain
Under the Nisko Plan the Nazis meant to send Jews to a district around Lublin in occupied Poland. Adolf Eichmann set up a transit camp at Nisko, from which deportees were to be driven eastward.
Notes
The lead says the plan was implemented between October 1939 and April 1940, and Wikidata gives October 1939 as a month. The English body gives 18 October 1939 for the first shipment to Lublin, which is the day stored, while the German article says three trains arrived at Nisko on 19 and 20 October and that further deportations stopped at the end of October 1939.
The 2nd Light Division is converted into the 7th Panzer Division
War & conflict
Georg Stumme commanded the new division from 18 October until February 1940, when Erwin Rommel took over. It then had 218 tanks in three battalions.
Notes
The infobox and the commanders list give 18 October 1939 and the Formation section gives October 1939, matching Wikidata. The Formation section gives the strength of 218 tanks in three battalions and has Rommel taking command on 10 February 1940; the commanders list gives Stumme's command as 18 October 1939 to 5 February 1940. Wikidata gives Gera as the place; the infobox names the garrison as Saalfeld in Thuringia.
President Albert Lebrun created the CNRS by decree. Since 1954 it has awarded gold, silver and bronze medals every year to French scientists.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 19 October 1939, matching Wikidata, and the German article gives the same day. The English article lists Jean Mercier as director general for 1939-1940, but the French article gives Henri Laugier for 1939-1940 and Mercier only for June to August 1940, so no first director is named. The English lead calls the CNRS the largest public research body in Europe, while the German article ranks it second in Europe after the Helmholtz Association.
· Eastern Poland (now Ukraine and Belarus) · Europe
The Soviet Union holds elections for two people's assemblies in occupied eastern Poland
Politics & diplomacy
The elections were meant to give legal cover to the annexation of eastern Poland, about a month after the Red Army invaded. The vote was rigged: candidates were unknown locally, ballot envelopes were numbered, and armed militias brought voters to polling stations.
Notes
The lead and body agree on 22 October 1939, matching Wikidata.
The 16th Army was a Wehrmacht field army that fought in the Battle of France and then joined Army Group North for the invasion of the Soviet Union. In January 1942 part of it was surrounded near Demyansk and kept alive by air supply until April.
Notes
The infobox gives 22 October 1939 as the formation day. The History section gives the January 1942 encirclement of part of the army near Demyansk, supply by air until a land corridor opened in April 1942, and the Courland Pocket from the 1944 offensives until the surrender in May 1945. Wikidata gives the year 1939.
Munich-Riem Airport began air traffic when its first plane landed. Construction had started in 1936, and the airport took over from the Oberwiesenfeld airfield, where the Olympic Village now stands.
Notes
The infobox and the history section agree on 25 October 1939, matching Wikidata, and the German article says the first civil flight, a Lufthansa Junkers Ju 52/3m from Berlin, came on that day. The history section says Nirvana gave its final live concert at Terminal 1 on 1 March 1994. The foundation and expansion part of the history section says construction started in 1936.
Germany establishes the General Government in central Poland
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Germany set up the General Government as an occupation zone after invading Poland. Occupied Poland was divided in three: a central General Government, a German-annexed west, and a Soviet-annexed east.
Notes
The English infobox and body give 26 October 1939 for the establishment of the General Government, and the German article agrees; the French article gives 12 October 1939, the day of Hitler's decree naming Hans Frank governor-general, as the founding date. The English lead gives 8 October 1939 for Hitler's annexation decree. Wikidata gives only the year, and its category (sport) is wrong.
The Spanish football club Lérida Balompié-AEM is founded in Lleida
Sport
The team was founded in Lleida, in Catalonia, and merged with CD Leridano in 1947 to become Unión Deportiva Lérida. It reached La Liga in the early 1950s and again in the early 1990s.
Notes
The lead gives 30 October 1939 and the infobox gives the year 1939, while Wikidata gives only the year. Only the lead supplies the day, so the day-level date rests on one statement.
· New Haven, Connecticut, United States · North America
Harvey Cushing dies
LivesSome details uncertain
Cushing died in New Haven, Connecticut, after complications from a myocardial infarction. He is widely regarded as a founder of modern neurosurgery.
Notes
The lead, infobox and body agree on 7 October 1939, matching the main Wikidata date, and the German article gives the same day; Wikidata also lists 8 October 1939, so confidence is medium. The English lead calls him the father of modern neurosurgery and the first exclusive neurosurgeon; the French article names him with Ernest Sachs as a father of modern neurosurgery, and the German article says he first described a case of the condition in 1912.
Busby Berkeley directed the film version of the 1937 Broadway musical, starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. Nearly all the Rodgers and Hart stage score was thrown out for the film.
Notes
The body and infobox give 13 October 1939 for the US premiere, while the infobox also lists a Houston date of 15 September 1939; the October date is stored at medium confidence. Wikidata gives only the year.
· Altadena, California, United States · North America
Zane Grey dies
Lives
Grey, an American author of popular Western adventure novels, died of heart failure at his home in Altadena, California, aged 67. Riders of the Purple Sage, from 1912, was his best-selling book.
Notes
The lead, infobox and body agree on 23 October 1939, matching Wikidata. He was born Pearl Zane Gray.
Raoul Walsh directed the American gangster picture featuring Cagney, Priscilla Lane, Bogart and Gladys George. The story spans 1919 to 1933 and follows three men through Prohibition-era violence and the 1929 crash.
Notes
The English infobox gives 28 October 1939, which the German article gives as the start of general release in the United States; the German article dates the premiere to 16 October 1939 and the French article gives a release on 23 October 1939. Wikidata gives only the year.
· New York, New York, United States · North America
Alice Brady dies
Lives
Brady began acting on stage in 1911 and played Meg March in Little Women on Broadway in 1912. She won her Oscar for best supporting actress for In Old Chicago. She died of cancer in New York.
Notes
The lead, infobox and body agree on 28 October 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives New York City as the place of death.
An international chess tournament opens in Buenos Aires after the 8th Chess Olympiad
Sport
The tournament was held at the Círculo de Ajedrez, straight after the Olympiad in the same city. All the foreign players except Paul Keres stayed in Argentina because the Second World War had broken out.
Notes
The English lead gives 2 to 19 October 1939, as does the French article. Wikidata gives the year 1939. Both standings tables give Najdorf and Keres 8.5 points each.
· Quezon City, Commonwealth of the Philippines (now Philippines) · Asia
Quezon City is founded in the Philippines
Politics & diplomacy
Quezon City was incorporated as a city, named for Manuel L. Quezon, the Philippines' second president. Its land was carved out of several neighbouring towns, along with large estates bought by the government.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 12 October 1939, matching Wikidata, and the French article gives the same founding day. The lead gives 12 October 1949 as the date it was proclaimed the national capital. The capital years are 1948 to 1976 in the English and French articles but 1937 to 1976 in the German article.
Darányi headed the Hungarian government as prime minister from 1936 to 1938 and then held the speaker's chair of the House of Representatives until his death. He pursued increasingly authoritarian policies and an alliance with Germany and Italy.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 1 November 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Budapest as the place of death.
German forces seize Jagiellonian University professors in Kraków
War & conflict
German forces seized scholars from the Jagiellonian University and other Kraków institutions, as part of the Intelligenzaktion against Poland's intellectual elite. The detainees were deported to the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps.
Notes
The infobox gives 6 November 1939 and the body lists academics arrested on that day, matching Wikidata. Wikidata files the event under theatre, music and film, which does not fit.
Agatha Christie's novel And Then There Were None is first published in Britain
Art & literature
Collins Crime Club first published the novel in the United Kingdom, under an original title that used a racial slur taken from an 1869 minstrel song central to the plot. The Daily Express had serialised it in 23 parts that summer.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 6 November 1939, while Wikidata gives only the year. The original title contained a racial slur, replaced in American editions.
Swiss Cottage Bakerloo line station opens in London
Architecture
The station lies on a new deep-level tunnel section linking Finchley Road with Baker Street, and Metropolitan line services on the Stanmore branch moved to the Bakerloo line at that time.
Notes
The infobox and the history section agree on 20 November 1939, matching Wikidata. The history section names the pub and its building dates of 1803–4.
St John's Wood Bakerloo line station opens in London
Architecture
The station began service on a new deep tunnel from Baker Street to Finchley Road, as Metropolitan line services on the Stanmore branch moved to the Bakerloo line. It replaced two Metropolitan line stations, Lord's and Marlborough Road.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 20 November 1939, matching Wikidata.
The British Overseas Airways Corporation is formed to take over Imperial Airways
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
Imperial Airways flew long-range routes from 1924 to 1939, serving Empire destinations such as South Africa, India and Australia. BOAC came into being with its finances arranged retrospectively.
Notes
Dispute over the end: BOAC was formed on 24 November 1939 (stored, matching Wikidata), but the article gives 1 April 1940 as the date the two airlines were officially combined, and the lead dates the airline's operation to 1924-1939. Confidence is medium.
Spain's National Research Council, CSIC, is formed under Franco
ScienceSome details uncertain
The council took over the property of the Board for Advanced Studies, which had run from 1907 to 1939. Its founding aim was to bring back a unified, Christian-based approach to the sciences, which it said had been broken up in the 18th century.
Notes
The infobox gives 24 November 1939 and the origins section gives 1939; the Spanish article dates the founding law to 24 November 1939, and Wikidata gives the same day. Confidence is medium.
The Kladovo Transport of Jewish refugees leaves Vienna
Politics & diplomacy
The transport carried 822 Jewish refugees, taken by train to Bratislava and then down the Danube. An early freeze of the Danube left them stuck over winter at Kladovo, Yugoslavia.
Notes
The lead and body agree on 25 November 1939, matching Wikidata. The transport lasted until 1942 and no end date is stored.
Soviet guns shell Mainila, a pretext for the Winter War
War & conflict
Red Army guns fired on Mainila, a Soviet village near the Finnish frontier, and the Soviet Union claimed the fire came from Finland. Historians now conclude the shelling was a fabrication by the Soviet NKVD.
Notes
The lead gives 26 November 1939, matching Wikidata. Wikidata files the event under theatre, music and film, which does not fit.
Le Temps prints part of an alleged Stalin speech of 19 August
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
A despatch from the Havas news agency in Geneva was printed in part in Le Temps. The speech was allegedly given by Stalin to the Politburo, justifying the promotion of war in Europe and collaboration with Nazi Germany.
Notes
The body gives 28 November 1939 for the first partial publication in Paris. The speech itself is alleged for 19 August 1939, and its historicity is disputed, so only the publication is stored, at medium confidence. Wikidata gives only the year, with 28 November 1939 as a publication date.
Scheidemann was a Social Democratic politician who played a leading role in the young Weimar Republic. In the revolution of 1918-1919 he declared the German Republic from a Reichstag balcony. He died in Copenhagen.
Notes
The lead gives 29 November 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Copenhagen as the place of death.
The Soviet Union invades Finland, beginning the Winter War
War & conflict
Soviet forces attacked Finland, citing the protection of Leningrad after Finland refused to trade border territory. The Soviets had more tanks and aircraft, yet took heavy losses and advanced little at first.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 30 November 1939 to 13 March 1940, matching Wikidata. The end date falls in 1940.
The Battle of Suomussalmi begins in the Winter War
War & conflictSome details uncertain
Finnish and Soviet forces fought at Suomussalmi in northern Finland until early January 1940. The Soviet 163rd Rifle Division crossed the border from Ukhta on 30 November, and Finland won.
Notes
The English infobox and lead give 30 November 1939 to 8 January 1940, but the German and French articles and Wikidata give 7 December 1939 as the start (the English body has Suomussalmi captured on 7 December), so the start day is disputed and confidence is medium.
Ford directed the film, starring Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert, based on Walter D. Edmonds's 1936 novel. Gloversville, New York, hosted the first of five location premieres, at the Glove Theatre.
Notes
The infobox gives 2 November 1939 at the Glove Theatre, and the body describes the Gloversville location premiere without a date. A New York Times review dated 4 November 1939 is cited in the body. Wikidata gives only the year, so confidence is medium.
The Flying Deuces, a Laurel and Hardy comedy, is released
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
In the comedy, Stan and Ollie join the French Foreign Legion after Ollie is rejected in love in Paris. RKO Radio Pictures released it, and independent producer Boris Morros made it.
Notes
Only the infobox gives the release day, 3 November 1939, and Wikidata gives only the year, so confidence is medium.
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex is released in the United States
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Michael Curtiz directed the film with Errol Flynn, Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland, based on Maxwell Anderson's play Elizabeth the Queen. It fictionalises the bond between Elizabeth I and Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex.
Notes
Disputed date: the infobox lists a Beverly Hills date of 27 September 1939, a Philadelphia date of 1 November 1939 and a US date of 11 November 1939. The US date is stored at medium confidence, and Wikidata gives only the year.
W. S. Van Dyke directed the American comedy mystery, the third in the Thin Man series, with Nick and Nora Charles played by William Powell and Myrna Loy. It is based on Dashiell Hammett's story The Farewell Murder.
Notes
The infobox gives 17 November 1939, matching Wikidata.
Atwood was the second of three children of Carl Atwood, an entomologist. Her father's forest research took the family into the northern Quebec backcountry for much of her childhood.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 18 November 1939, matching Wikidata.
Anna Mae Bullock, later Tina Turner, is born in Brownsville, Tennessee
Lives
Her family lived in Nutbush, where her father oversaw sharecroppers on Poindexter Farm. She picked cotton as a child and attended Flagg Grove School through eighth grade.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 26 November 1939, matching Wikidata.
Naismith was a Canadian-American physical educator, physician and coach, best known as the inventor of basketball. He started the University of Kansas basketball programme and died in Lawrence, Kansas.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 28 November 1939, matching Wikidata, and the German article gives the same day and place. The English lead dates the Kansas basketball programme to 1898, while the German article has him joining the university in 1898 and training its first team on 3 February 1899.
The Brazilian firm Taurus is founded in São Leopoldo as a tool forging plant
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
Taurus began as a tool and die forging plant, first known as Forjas Taurus, and now trades as Taurus Armas. Its first revolver, the Model 38101SO, came out in 1941.
Notes
The infobox gives 17 November 1939 and the lead gives 1939, so confidence is medium. The history section dates the first revolver to 1941 and exports to the US to 1968. Wikidata gives the year 1939.
Serra dos Órgãos National Park is created in Rio de Janeiro state
Architecture
Decree law 1822 created the park under the government of Getúlio Vargas, to protect the Serra dos Órgãos mountains and their water supply. It covers about 10,527 hectares and is run by the Chico Mendes Institute.
Notes
The body gives 30 November 1939 twice, as the creation date and as the decree date, while Wikidata and the infobox give only the year.
The airport serves Tianjin, a municipality in northern China, and is a major air cargo centre. It is now Tianjin Binhai International Airport.
Notes
Only the infobox dates the opening to November 1939, and the article's categories also list the airport as established in 1939, so confidence is medium. Wikidata gives the same month.
· Tang County, Hebei, Republic of China (now China) · Asia
Norman Bethune dies in China
Lives
Bethune was a Canadian thoracic surgeon and an early advocate of universal health care. He served as a frontline trauma surgeon in the Spanish Civil War and later supported the Eighth Route Army. He died of an infection linked to an operation.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 12 November 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Tang County, Hebei as the place of death.
· Southern Guangxi, Republic of China (now China) · Asia
The Battle of South Guangxi begins with a Japanese landing
War & conflict
Japanese forces landed on the Guangxi coast and captured Nanning. The landing cut Chongqing off from the sea, leaving Indochina, the Burma Road and the Hump as aid routes.
Notes
The infobox gives 15 November 1939, matching Wikidata. The lead puts the Japanese evacuation in November 1940, and Wikidata's end is 30 November 1940.
China launches its 1939-1940 Winter Offensive against Japan
War & conflictSome details uncertain
The National Revolutionary Army launched a large counter-offensive on many fronts, in provinces from Suiyuan in the north to Guangdong in the south. The Chinese fell short of their aims, but the operation unsettled Japanese commanders who had not expected it.
Notes
The infobox gives 26 November 1939 to 3 April 1940, which is stored at medium confidence. Wikidata gives only the month for the start and 1 March 1940 for the end, and the examples of fighting in the body start in December 1939, so the exact boundaries are uncertain. The lead says Japan halted the offensive by April 1940.
SS and Order Police men shot more than 1,700 Poles and Jews, most of them prisoners from Warsaw's Pawiak prison, in a forest clearing near Palmiry between December 1939 and July 1941.
Notes
The English body says the first executions there were probably on 7 and 8 December 1939, while the German article (now titled after the Palmiry memorial) says shootings began on 14 December 1939, so only the month is stored. The English body counts more than 1,700 victims between December 1939 and July 1941; the German article says the exact total is unknown and gives 2,115 (exhumed) to 2,255 depending on the source. Wikidata gives an end of 17 July 1941.
· Terijoki, Finland (now Zelenogorsk, Russia) · Europe
The Soviet Union sets up the Finnish Democratic Republic, a puppet government at Terijoki
War & conflict
The Soviet Union set up the puppet government a day after the Winter War began, headed by Otto Wille Kuusinen on Stalin's initiative. Kuusinen and Molotov concluded a pact of mutual aid in Moscow the next day.
Notes
The body and infobox agree on 1 December 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives 12 March as the end.
The Brest region of Belarus is formed after the Soviet annexation of eastern Poland
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The region was set up within the Byelorussian Soviet republic after the Soviet occupation of eastern Poland. Before that the area belonged to the Second Polish Republic, largely as the Polesie Voivodeship.
Notes
The English infobox and body give the year 1939. The German article gives 4 December 1939 for the founding within the Byelorussian SSR, matching Wikidata, so the day is stored at medium confidence.
Lviv Oblast is created after the Soviet annexation of eastern Poland
Politics & diplomacy
The oblast was created within the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic after the Soviet invasion of eastern Poland and the annexation of Eastern Galicia and Volhynia. From 1919 to 1939 the area had belonged to Poland, as part of the Lwów Voivodeship.
Notes
The body gives 4 December 1939, matching Wikidata.
· Metsäpirtti, Karelian Isthmus, Finland (now Russia) · Europe
The Battle of Taipale begins in the Winter War
War & conflict
A series of battles at Taipale ran from 6 to 27 December on the Karelian Isthmus, where the Soviets tried to break through the Finnish Mannerheim Line. Soviet forces had numerical superiority but could not break through, and Finland won.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 6-27 December 1939, matching Wikidata.
Finnish and Soviet troops clashed in Ladoga Karelia between 7 December 1939 and 13 March 1940. The battle ended in a Finnish victory.
Notes
The English lead and infobox and the French article give 7 December 1939 to 13 March 1940, matching Wikidata, while the German article gives 2 December 1939 to 13 March 1940, so the start day is disputed. The German article describes the Finnish line on the Kollaa river in front of a strategically important junction. The place is now in Russia.
The bureau was set up as a pilot design department inside Aviation Plant No. 1, headed by the aircraft designers Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich. It later became the MiG aircraft company.
Notes
The English infobox and body and the French article give 8 December 1939, matching Wikidata; the German article says the design office was split off by government decree on 25 December 1939. The English infobox gives Moscow as the present headquarters.
Finnish and Soviet forces fought north of Lake Ladoga, in what was then Ladoga Karelia, for roughly ten days. The Soviet General Belyaev was dismissed from command on 16 December.
Notes
The lead says it began on 12 December 1939 and the infobox gives 12-23 December 1939, matching Wikidata's start. The battlefield now lies in the Republic of Karelia, Russia.
· Summa, Finland (now Sokolinskoe, Russia) · Europe
The first phase of the Battle of Summa begins in the Winter War
War & conflictSome details uncertain
The Battle of Summa was fought in two phases near the village of Summa, on the main road from Leningrad to Viipuri. In December an untested Finnish division held the sector, and the first phase ended in a Finnish victory on 22 December.
Notes
The English infobox gives 16-22 December 1939 for the first battle and 1-15 February 1940 for the second; the English body says the Soviet push on Summa began on 17 December and that the Finns won on 22 December. Wikidata gives 16 December as the start and 22 December as its main date. The body names the defending division as the 5th (written '5h'), while the infobox lists the Third Division.
Three RAF squadrons were sent against capital ships anchored near Wilhelmshaven. Twenty-four Vickers Wellingtons took off at first, but two turned back with engine trouble. German fighters won the battle.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 18 December 1939, matching Wikidata.
The German army institutes the Infantry Assault Badge
War & conflict
Army commander-in-chief Walther von Brauchitsch instituted the badge for Waffen-SS and Wehrmacht Heer soldiers who took part in infantry assaults. Recipients needed assaults on three separate days of front-line fighting.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 20 December 1939 for the silver grade, matching Wikidata.
Germany introduces the Panzer Badge for tank crews
War & conflict
The badge was introduced for tank crews of Nazi Germany, and required taking part in three armoured assaults on different days. A bronze version for panzer grenadiers followed on 1 June 1940.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 20 December 1939, matching Wikidata. Before 1 June 1940 it was called the Panzerkampfwagenabzeichen.
One express train runs into the back of another at Genthin
Disasters
The collision happened at Genthin station at 00:55. The second train passed a danger signal, and its locomotive lacked the Indusi protection, removed for repairs.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 22 December 1939, matching Wikidata. Death toll is disputed: the official Reichsbahn figure is 186 dead and 106 injured, while the memorial and other sources say 278 dead and 453 injured.
Fighting at Kelja, a village on the eastern Karelian Isthmus now called Portovoe, lasted from 25 to 27 December. Finland's 10th Division faced the Soviet 4th Division, and the battle ended in a Finnish victory.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 25-27 December 1939, matching Wikidata.
German occupiers shot 107 Polish civilians overnight in Wawer, as a reprisal after two German soldiers died in a gunfight with two petty criminals. They had rounded up 120 men at random and held a hasty show trial.
Notes
The lead describes the executions as running from the night of 26 December into 27 December 1939, and Wikidata gives 27 December.
The Vienna Philharmonic gives the first New Year's Concert
Stage, music & film
Propaganda minister Goebbels supervised the concert, which the conductor Clemens Krauss devised for a wartime winter relief fund. It has been held in the Musikverein's Golden Hall since.
Notes
The infobox gives 31 December 1939 as the first concert, matching Wikidata.The infobox lists the years active as 1939 and 1941 to the present.
· Santa Monica, California, United States · North America
Douglas Fairbanks dies
Lives
Fairbanks starred in swashbuckling silent films, played Zorro on screen before anyone else did, and was called the King of Hollywood. He suffered a heart attack and died at 56.
Notes
The lead, infobox and body agree on 12 December 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Santa Monica, California as the place of death.
The film adapts Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel, with David O. Selznick producing and Victor Fleming directing. It premiered in Atlanta.
Notes
The infobox gives 15 December 1939 for the Atlanta premiere and the lead gives the same day for the film's release. The other dates Wikidata lists are later release dates elsewhere.
Ames was founded as the second laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, named for the physicist Joseph Sweetman Ames, one of NACA's founding members. It was set up to study the aerodynamics of propeller-driven aircraft in wind tunnels.
Notes
The infobox gives 20 December 1939 and the lead gives the year 1939, matching Wikidata.
Gertrude Pridgett took the name Ma Rainey after marrying Will Rainey in 1904 and became an early blues recording artist, called the Mother of the Blues. A heart attack killed her.
Notes
The English lead and infobox give 22 December 1939, matching Wikidata, and the German and French articles give the same day. The place of death differs: the English infobox gives Columbus, Georgia, the German article gives Rome, Georgia, and the French article gives Memphis, Tennessee, so only the state is stored.
The Fleischer film Gulliver's Travels is released generally
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
The film opened in New York on 20 December and went into general release on 22 December. Fleischer Studios made it for Paramount after Paramount saw the success of Disney's Snow White.
Notes
The stored day is the general release on 22 December 1939, matching Wikidata. The English article gives the New York premiere as 20 December 1939, while the French article lists a world premiere in Miami on 18 December 1939 and the German article gives 18 November 1939 at the Sheridan Theater in Miami Beach, so the premiere is disputed and confidence is medium. The English production section says the staff grew to some 800, while the German article says it grew from 200 to more than 700.
· New York City, New York, United States · North America
Anthony Fokker dies
Lives
Fokker was a Dutch aviation pioneer, aircraft designer and manufacturer. In the First World War he manufactured German fighter aircraft, and afterwards moved his business to the Netherlands. He died aged 49 of pneumococcal meningitis.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 23 December 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Murray Hill Hospital in New York City as the place of death.
William Dieterle directed the American romantic drama starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara, based on Victor Hugo's novel of 1831.
Notes
The English infobox and the French article give 29 December 1939 for the US release, matching Wikidata; the German article dates the premiere at Radio City Music Hall, New York, to 28 December 1939. The English lead describes a showing at the first Cannes festival, the rest of which was cancelled because of the war.
George Marshall directed the American Western comedy for Universal, starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. Its credits say it was suggested by Max Brand's novel, though the story differs greatly.
Notes
The English infobox gives 29 December 1939 for the United States release. Wikidata gives 30 November 1939 for New York City, 23 December 1939 for Canada and 29 December 1939 for the United States.
Lewis Milestone directed the film of John Steinbeck's story, starring Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney Jr. It follows two ranch workers, George and the intellectually disabled Lennie, who dream of owning a ranch.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 30 December 1939, while Wikidata gives only the year.
Hans Langsdorff, captain of the Admiral Graf Spee, dies by suicide
LivesSome details uncertain
Langsdorff commanded the pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee at the Battle of the River Plate. When the ship could not escape a pursuing British squadron he scuttled it, and soon afterwards he took his own life in a Buenos Aires hotel room.
Notes
The English lead and infobox give 20 December 1939, and the German article agrees. Wikidata lists two death dates with equal rank, 20 December and 19 December 1939; the English body quotes a letter Langsdorff wrote on 19 December 1939.
Thailand adopts its national anthem in its current form
Politics & diplomacy
The anthem took its present official form when Thailand adopted it. Phra Chenduriyang, also known as Peter Feit, composed the melody and Luang Saranupraphan wrote the official lyrics.
Notes
The lead gives 10 December 1939 for adoption in the present form, while the infobox gives the year, and Wikidata gives the year. The infobox also lists 1934 for the original name and lyrics.
· Kunlun Pass, Guangxi, Republic of China (now China) · Asia
The Battle of Kunlun Pass begins in Guangxi
War & conflictSome details uncertain
Japanese and Chinese troops fought over Kunlun Pass, a strategically important point in Guangxi, after the Japanese occupation of Nanning in November. The Chinese fought off the attacks.
Notes
Only the infobox gives 18 December 1939, and it names no end date. Wikidata gives an end of 11 January 1940, which does not appear in the article, so confidence is medium.
Yedioth Ahronoth is founded in Mandatory Palestine
Art & literature
The investor Gershom Komarov launched the paper, the earliest evening title in Mandatory Palestine, in imitation of the London Evening Standard. After money troubles he sold it to the land dealer Yehuda Mozes.
Notes
The infobox gives 11 December 1939 for the founding, and the body and lead give the year 1939, matching Wikidata. The infobox also lists a second founding date of 2000, which belongs to its website.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes Erzincan in eastern Turkey
Disasters
The earthquake struck at 1:57 a.m. and ruptured up to 360 km of the North Anatolian Fault. Estimates of the death toll run from 32,700 to 32,968, some 100,000 people were injured, and about 116,720 buildings were seriously damaged.
Notes
Local date stored. NOAA UTC date 1939-12-26 23:57. The shock came just before 2 a.m. local time on 27 December, which was still 26 December in UTC, the date used by Wikidata and the NOAA record; German Wikipedia also gives 27 December at about 01:57 local time. Turkey was already on the Gregorian calendar. Death toll: the English infobox gives 32,700 to 32,968, and the English body says almost 33,000 had died by 5 January from the earthquake and the cold, blizzards and floods that followed; the NOAA record gives 32,700, and its comments quote figures from 23,000 to 33,000 including 32,962; German Wikipedia gives about 33,000 in its text and 32,962 in its infobox.
· Sal, Portuguese Cape Verde (now Cape Verde) · Africa
The first plane lands at the airport Italy built on Sal, Cape Verde
Architecture
Italy built the airport in 1939 as a fuel and supply stop between Europe and South America, and a plane from Rome and Seville made the first landing. Italian involvement ended because of the Second World War.
Notes
The part of the English History section on the airport's foundation and early years gives 1939 for construction and 15 December 1939 for the first flight, and says the Portuguese colonial government bought the airport after the war and Alitalia began DC-4 services through Sal in 1950. Wikidata gives only the year 1939. The first flight is stored as the opening.
The Battle of the River Plate is fought off Uruguay
War & conflict
The German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee under Captain Langsdorff met a British squadron under Commodore Harwood. With her fuel system crippled, Graf Spee took refuge in neutral Montevideo, Uruguay.
Notes
The lead dates the battle to 13 December 1939 and the infobox gives 13-17 December 1939, the later days covering the aftermath at Montevideo. Wikidata gives 13 December.
Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand conclude the Air Training Agreement
War & conflict
The agreement created the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan and is often called the Riverdale Agreement, after Lord Riverdale, the British negotiator. Canada's prime minister King coined the plan's name in a speech that day.
Notes
The body gives 17 December 1939 for the agreement, while Wikidata gives only the year. The infobox lists the plan as in use from 1939 to 1945. The first Canadian training school opened on 29 April 1940.
Events we can place in 1939 but not in a particular month.
Europe 44
· Poland · Europe
The Intelligenzaktion begins in occupied Poland
War & conflictSome details uncertain
Teachers, priests, doctors and other leading Poles were murdered in a series of mass killings that began soon after the German invasion and lasted until spring 1940. Einsatzgruppen death squads and a local German-minority militia carried them out.
Notes
The lead gives autumn 1939 to spring 1940 and the infobox gives 1939-1940; Wikidata gives September 1939. Only the year is stored. The English article says about 100,000 people were killed, around 61,000 of them from the intelligentsia lists; the German article says about 50,000 were murdered and a further 50,000 were sent to concentration camps.
Heydrich re-forms the Einsatzgruppen to follow the German armies into Poland
War & conflictSome details uncertain
The Einsatzgruppen were SS paramilitary death squads that carried out mass shootings in German-occupied Europe. SS planners had drawn up victim lists by May, using files the SD kept from 1936.
Notes
The English body places the re-forming of the units before the 1 September 1939 invasion and gives no single founding day; earlier ad hoc units dated from 1938. The English body says about 65,000 civilians were murdered in Poland by the end of 1939, in a passage that also covers killings by other SS units, the Wehrmacht and the Order Police; the German article says the groups were to track down, arrest and in many cases murder up to 61,000 Poles under Operation Tannenberg.
When war broke out, the Allies were the United Kingdom, France and Poland with their dependencies, joined by the British dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Other states joined as Axis forces advanced.
Notes
The infobox lists an Anglo-Polish alliance as the starting event, with a start month of August and no year given, and Wikidata gives only 1939. The coalition grew over the war.
Lale Andersen recorded the song, then called Das Mädchen unter der Laterne, after Norbert Schultze had set the 1915 poem to music in 1938. It later spread among soldiers across Europe.
Notes
The English lead and body say Lale Andersen first recorded the song in 1939. The French article says she first performed it in 1938, and the German article mentions a version recorded at the Electrola studios in Berlin in 1938 as well as an orchestral recording made overnight into 1 August 1939, which fits Wikidata's August 1939. Because the sources disagree, only the year is stored.
German and Soviet war crimes in occupied Poland begin with the invasion
War & conflictSome details uncertain
Germany invaded Poland and the Soviet Union followed within weeks. An estimated six million Polish citizens died in the Second World War, most of them civilians. German forces shot civilians from the very start.
Notes
The article covers crimes from 1939 to 1945 by Germany, the Soviet Union and others, so only the start year is stored, with the end in 1945, at medium confidence.
The Baltic Sea naval campaigns of World War II begin
War & conflictSome details uncertain
Axis and Allied fleets fought across the Baltic and its gulfs, and on Lakes Ladoga and Onega. Early fighting pitted Polish forces against German ones, after which the Kriegsmarine and the Soviet Navy were the main opponents.
Notes
The infobox gives 1939-1945 for the campaigns, with no start day stated. Wikidata gives the year 1939.
Nazi authorities begin the child euthanasia programme
Medicine & epidemicsSome details uncertain
Nazi authorities organised the killing of disabled children and teenagers up to age 16, carried out across over thirty children's departments. The programme ran until 1945, and at least 5,000 children died in it.
Notes
The body gives 1939 to 1945 for the programme and no single start day, so only the year is stored, at medium confidence. A circular of 18 August 1939 is the key administrative document.
Germany's Condor Legion ends its service in the Spanish Civil War
War & conflictSome details uncertain
The Condor Legion was a force of German air force and army personnel that served with the Nationalists in Spain. The bombing of Guernica was its most infamous operation.
Notes
The English infobox gives July 1936 to March 1939, matching Wikidata's month. The French article gives April 1939 as the end, and the English body has the legion disbanded after the victory parades that followed the end of the war on 1 April, with the men sailing for Germany on 26 May. Because the sources disagree on the month, only the year is stored.
· Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (now Czech Republic) · Europe
The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia introduces its own koruna
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
The Protectorate's money was the koruna, also called the Protectorate crown, divided into 100 haléřů. It was pegged to the Reichsmark at 10 koruna to one Reichsmark.
Notes
The lead gives 1939 to 1945 and the body mentions notes issued from February 1940, with no start day stated. Wikidata gives 16 March 1939, the day the Protectorate was proclaimed.
The Phoebus light-bulb cartel stops operating as war begins
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
The Phoebus cartel was formed in Geneva in 1925 by Osram, General Electric, Philips, Tungsram and others, and controlled the making and selling of incandescent bulbs across much of Europe and North America. It stopped operating when the war began.
Notes
Disputed end: the English infobox, lead and one body passage say the cartel ended in 1939, another body passage says its compact was nullified in 1940, and the German article says it officially vanished after the US entered the war in 1941. The French article gives 1924 to 1939. The year 1939 is stored at medium confidence, matching Wikidata.
The Nansen International Office for Refugees is dissolved
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The League of Nations created the office in 1930, naming it after Fridtjof Nansen. It was responsible for refugees from war areas and developed the Nansen passport for stateless people.
Notes
The infobox and lead say the Office ended in 1939, but the body says a High Commissioner for Refugees replaced it in 1938. Only the year is given, so confidence is medium.
The Albert Canal between Antwerp and Liège is completed
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
The Albert Canal, named for King Albert I of Belgium, links Antwerp with Liège and joins the Meuse and the Scheldt. Construction ran from 1930 through 1939.
Notes
The English infobox gives 1939 for the start of use and the History section says construction ran from 1930 through 1939; the same section says the canal was first used in 1940, with heavy traffic only from 1946. The Size and geography section says that before completion the water trip from Antwerp to Liège took about seven days, against about 18 hours in the 21st century. The German article gives an official opening on 30 July 1939.
The Nazi genocide of the European Roma and Sinti in World War II is known as the Romani Holocaust, or Porajmos. Germany had persecuted Roma since 1933 through internment and compulsory sterilisation.
Notes
The infobox gives 1939 to 1945 for the genocide, while the lead says persecution began in 1933, so only the year 1939 is stored, with medium confidence. Wikidata gives the year 1939.
Archaeologists unearthed the decorated Anglo-Saxon helmet as hundreds of rusted fragments during the Sutton Hoo ship-burial dig. Many link it with King Rædwald of East Anglia.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 1939 only, and Wikidata gives the year 1939. The infobox names Charles Phillips as discoverer, and a caption shows Basil Brown at the 1939 ship impression.
The Porsche 64, often seen as the first Porsche car, is built
TechnologySome details uncertain
Most of the car's mechanical parts came from the VW 38, a prototype of the Volkswagen Beetle, with the engine reworked to give around 40 horsepower. Three cars were completed, with aluminium bodies shaped by hand by Reutter.
Notes
The English article ties the car to 1939 through the planned Berlin-Rome race of September 1939, and the German article says Ferdinand Porsche's design office developed it in spring 1939 for that run. The year is stored at medium confidence; Wikidata gives the same year. The name and origin section says the VW 38 supplied most of the mechanical parts and the engine was reworked to give around 40 horsepower.
The Jewish Military Union (ŻZW) is formed in occupied Warsaw
War & conflictSome details uncertain
The Jewish Military Union was an underground resistance group around the Warsaw Ghetto, made up mostly of former Polish Army officers. It was formed in late 1939.
Notes
The lead gives late 1939, and the history section gives November 1939 for the start and the end of December for the organisation and its name; the German article also gives November 1939. The year is stored at medium confidence. The history section says it began with only 39 men, each armed with a Vis pistol.
Zweig's novel, titled Ungeduld des Herzens in German, appeared in 1939, with Cassell issuing the English edition in the UK and Viking Press in the US.
Notes
The English infobox lists 1939 for both the German original and the English editions, with no month or day, so confidence is medium. The year is slightly uncertain: Wikidata lists both 1939 and 1938 as publication years, and the German Wikipedia article says the novel was finished in 1938 and appeared with the year 1939 on it, issued by the exile publishers Bermann-Fischer and Allert de Lange.
The Spanish Popular Front is dissolved after the Republican defeat
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The Popular Front was an electoral alliance formed in January 1936 under Manuel Azaña, bringing together the Socialists, Communists, Republican Left and Republican Union. After the Republican defeat in the civil war it was dissolved.
Notes
The infobox gives only the year 1939, and the English body ties the dissolution to the Republican defeat in the civil war without a date. Wikidata gives the year. The English article's section on the 1936 election says the Popular Front elected 278 deputies.
Levante FC and Gimnástico FC merge to form Levante Unión Deportiva
SportSome details uncertain
The two Valencia clubs merged after the Civil War. Levante's ground had been destroyed in the war, though its squad stayed together. The merged club plays in La Liga.
Notes
The body gives only the year 1939 for the merger, so confidence is medium. The lead and infobox give 6 September 1909 as the club's founding, which reflects the older Levante FC.
The Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia ends with the Nationalist occupation
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The 1932 statute restored self-rule to Catalonia after a gap of over two centuries. Franco repealed it on 5 April 1938 in the part of Catalonia his forces held, and elsewhere it stayed in force until the Nationalist army occupied the region in 1939.
Notes
The lead gives only the year 1939 for the end of the statute's operation, tied to the Nationalist occupation of Catalonia. The Implementation section says Franco had already repealed the statute on 5 April 1938 in the area of Catalonia he held. Wikidata gives the year 1939 only, so confidence is medium.
The Abwehr unit that became the Brandenburgers is formed
War & conflictSome details uncertain
Captain Theodor von Hippel conceived the unit, and Helmuth Groscurth backed it when they conferred on 27 September. It was first called the Deutsche Kompagnie, then Baulehr-Kompanie 800 on 25 October.
Notes
Dispute over the later steps: the body says the company became the Brandenburg Battalion on 15 December 1939, while another passage dates the name Bau-Lehr-Bataillon z.b.V. 800 to 10 January 1940. The infobox gives 1939 to 1945 and December 1939 for the battalion stage. Only the year 1939 is stored at medium confidence, and Wikidata gives only the year.
The Slovak koruna replaces the Czechoslovak koruna
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
The new Slovak currency took over from the Czechoslovak koruna at an equal rate and circulated in the Slovak Republic, a client state of Nazi Germany, until 1945. At first it matched the Bohemian and Moravian koruna, at 10 korunas to one Reichsmark.
Notes
The lead and body give only the year 1939. Wikidata gives 4 April 1939, which does not appear in the article, so the year is stored at medium confidence.
John Gregg founds the bakery business that became Greggs in Gosforth
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
John Gregg founded the business in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, though the first shop, on Gosforth High Street, did not open until 1951. After Gregg died in 1964, his son Ian took over with help from his brother Colin.
Notes
The infobox and the history section give 1939 for the founding, and the history section dates the first shop to 1951, so the year is stored at medium confidence. Wikidata gives the same year.
Casterman publishes King Ottokar's Sceptre as a Tintin book
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
Hergé's eighth Tintin adventure had appeared weekly in Le Petit Vingtième between 4 August 1938 and 10 August 1939. Casterman issued it as a book soon after the serial finished.
Notes
The infobox gives 1939 for the black-and-white album with no month, and the lead says the book followed shortly after the serial ended on 10 August 1939, so confidence is medium. Wikidata gives only the year.
Test firing in Finland favours Aimo Lahti's 20 mm anti-tank rifle
TechnologySome details uncertain
Lahti designed competing weapons against armour, a 20 mm rifle and a 13.2 mm machine gun. Test firing in 1939 found the rifle better at piercing armour, and after both were used in the Winter War, Finland put the rifle into production.
Notes
The infobox gives 1939 as the design date and the start of production, and the development section places the comparison trials in 1939, so the year is stored at medium confidence. The usage section says only two 20 mm rifles reached the front in the Winter War.
Marx's Grundrisse is published for the first time in Moscow
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
Karl Marx's Grundrisse first appeared in print as German-language volumes issued in Moscow in 1939 and 1941. Marx wrote the manuscript in 1857-1858, in seven notebooks, and left it unpublished in his lifetime.
Notes
The first volume is dated 1939 and the second 1941, with no day or month given, so only the year is stored at medium confidence. Wikidata gives only the year.
Poland's exiled government raises an army in France after the defeat of 1939
War & conflictSome details uncertain
Once Poland fell, its exiled government swiftly raised some 80,000 men in France, subordinate to the French Army. A Polish Independent Highland Brigade fought at Narvik in Norway in early 1940.
Notes
The article gives no formation day, only that the forces were raised in France after the defeat of Poland, so only the year is stored at medium confidence. Wikidata also gives only the year.
· Solovetsky Islands, Soviet Union (now Russia) · Europe
The Solovki special prison closes
Everyday lifeSome details uncertain
The Solovki camp, opened in 1923 on a remote island group in the White Sea, was the nucleus from which the Gulag grew. It later became a special prison, which held many people who were shot in the Great Terror.
Notes
The English lead and body say the special prison was closed in 1939 as war loomed, the islands lying too close to the Finnish border; no day is stated. The Russian article dates the special prison to 1937-1939 (the English article says 1936), says its last prisoners were moved out during 1939, and dates the NKVD order closing it to 2 November 1939. The German article covers the earlier camp, which it treats as dissolved at the end of 1933. Wikidata gives the year 1939 and files the event under architecture, which does not fit.
Stuttgart Airport is built to replace Böblingen Airport
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
Stuttgart Airport was built to replace Böblingen Airport. The company behind it, Luftverkehr Württemberg AG, dates from 1924 and first ran Böblingen Airport.
Notes
The body gives 1939 for the building of the airport and calls the first terminal a 1938 structure, while the infobox gives an opening year of 1948. These disagree, so only the year is stored, at medium confidence.
Jean-Paul Sartre's story collection The Wall is published
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
The collection gathers five short stories, four of which had appeared earlier in French journals. Sartre dedicated it to his companion Olga Kosakiewicz, once a pupil of Simone de Beauvoir.
Notes
The sources give only the year 1939, so confidence is medium. Wikidata gives the same year.
Mikhail Romm directed the biographical drama, which portrays the Russian Civil War period after the October Revolution, with Moscow in famine and turmoil. Mikheil Gelovani played Stalin.
Notes
The article gives only the year 1939 for release. Wikidata's 7 April 1939 date does not appear in the article, so only the year is stored at medium confidence.
The AIACR European Championship in motor racing ends at the outbreak of war
SportSome details uncertain
The European Drivers' Championship in Grand Prix racing ran from 1931 until the end of 1939. The outbreak of the Second World War ended it, and no champion was officially declared for 1939.
Notes
The lead says the championship ended with the 1939 season because of the war, with no day given, so only the year is stored, at medium confidence. The 1939 title is disputed: Nazi official Adolf Hühnlein declared Lang champion with 23 points, while the official scoring system would have made Müller champion. Wikidata gives only the year.
Gurvich and Yunyev report early animal defibrillation using a capacitor
Medicine & epidemicsSome details uncertain
N. L. Gurvich and G. S. Yunyev reported successful animal experiments in defibrillation, using the electrical discharge of a capacitor. Western medical journals carried reports of their work in 1947.
Notes
The part of the English article's History section on the direct current method dates the reported capacitor experiments by Gurvich and Yunyev to 1939, the western journal reports to 1947 and the start of serial production of Gurvich's pulse defibrillator, at the institute's electromechanical plant, to 1952. Wikidata gives 1939 for the defibrillator.
Pius XII creates the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Pius XII created the Pontifical Commission, the legislative body of Vatican City. It has a president and six cardinals appointed by the Pope for five-year terms.
Notes
The infobox and lead give only the year 1939, and the list of presidents starts on 20 March 1939, so the creation is stored as 1939 at medium confidence. Wikidata gives only the year.
The Tenerife basketball club CB Canarias is founded
SportSome details uncertain
The original CB Canarias was founded on Tenerife in 1939. In 1994 the club, deep in financial trouble, merged with other Tenerife teams, and opponents of the merger formed CB 1939 Canarias, which kept the old colours and logo.
Notes
Disputed founding: the English infobox, the Spanish article and the German article date the original club to 1939, while the English body says the present team began in 1994 when the old CB Canarias merged and its opponents formed a new club. The year 1939 is stored at medium confidence; Wikidata gives 1939. The English club lead gives the Champions League titles as 2017 and 2023, but the English Basketball Champions League results table lists the club as winner in 2016-17 and 2021-22, as does the French club article (2017 and 2022). The English lead also dates promotion to the Liga ACB to 2014, while the body gives 20 July 2012.
David Korner, known as Barta, founds the Trotskyist group that led to Lutte Ouvrière
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Barta's tiny group, also called Union Communiste, carried out activist work in factories throughout the Second World War and played a key part in the Renault strike of 1947. The effort exhausted it, and it collapsed in 1950.
Notes
Lutte Ouvrière itself dates from 1956, while the infobox and the Origins part of the History section give 1939 for its forerunner, the Barta group, which is the year Wikidata uses. The Origins section also gives the 1947 Renault strike, the group's collapse in 1950 and the founding of Voix Ouvrière in 1956, which took the name Lutte Ouvrière after a ban that followed May '68. The year is stored at medium confidence.
The first Albanian football cup, the King's Cup, is won by Tirana
SportSome details uncertain
The Albanian football cup began as Kupa e Mbretit, the King's Cup. Tirana won the first edition, listed for the 1938-39 season, with Vllaznia as runner-up.
Notes
Dispute over the year: the infobox gives 1938 as the founding year, while the lead says the competition started in 1939 and the table of finals results lists the first season as 1938-39, a round robin with Tirana as winner and Vllaznia as runner-up. The lead says the cup was then suspended for eight years and restarted in 1948 as the Republic Cup. The year 1939 is stored, matching Wikidata, at medium confidence.
Production of the AEC Regent III RT double-decker bus for London Transport begins
Everyday lifeSome details uncertain
London Transport ordered 338 chassis, later cut to 150, which were in production when war broke out. Production stopped during the war and resumed after it, into the 1950s.
Notes
The infobox gives production from 1939 with no day, and the English body shows the order already in production by September 1939. Wikidata gives 1939 for the start and a year-only end of 1954. The infobox gives postwar production from 1945, while the body says it recommenced in late 1946. The infobox gives Southall as the place of assembly.
The basketball club that became Le Mans Sarthe Basket is founded
SportSome details uncertain
Léopold Gouloumés and Bernard Gasnal had founded the Goulou Club sports club in 1938. After war broke out in September 1939, women persuaded the club to create a basketball team.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 1939. The history section places the creation of the basketball team after war broke out in September 1939, and dates the change of name to Modern Sporting Club to 1941, so the year is stored at medium confidence.
The Polish-Romanian alliance ends with the outbreak of the Second World War
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Poland and Romania had signed a series of treaties in the interwar period, the first in 1921, which underpinned good relations until the war began. With no Western help arriving, the Polish high command ordered its units to evacuate to France.
Notes
The lead says the alliance lasted until the war began in 1939; the body mentions the invasion of 1 September and the Soviet attack of 17 September but gives no formal end date for the alliance. Wikidata gives 1 September 1939, so only the year is stored at medium confidence.
Poland's policy of Prometheism, backing non-Russian independence movements, ends
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Józef Piłsudski started Prometheism as a project of the Second Polish Republic to weaken Russia, later the Soviet Union, by backing the independence movements of non-Russian peoples. It ran alongside his Intermarium federation idea.
Notes
The body describes the policy as running from 1918 to 1939 and ending with the outbreak of war, with no day stated. Wikidata gives the year 1939.
Blohm & Voss establishes its Finkenwerder aircraft works in Hamburg
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
The shipbuilder had entered aircraft manufacturing in 1933 through its subsidiary Hamburger Flugzeugbau. The Finkenwerder site was heavily damaged in the Second World War and later became part of Airbus.
Notes
The English history section gives 1939 for the works and the airfield, so the year is stored at medium confidence; Wikidata gives the year 1939. The German article says the airfield itself dates from 1954, as the works airfield of Hamburger Flugzeugbau, so the airfield date is disputed. The manufacturing section says about 15,000 people work at the site. The history section says Blohm & Voss moved into aircraft manufacturing in 1933 and set up Hamburger Flugzeugbau as a subsidiary.
The air-force base that became Jyväskylä Airport is founded
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
The site of today's Jyväskylä Airport, in the centre of the Finnish Lake District, began as a base for the air force. Commercial flights followed in 1945.
Notes
The history section gives 1939 for the founding of the air-force base and 1945 for the first commercial flight. Wikidata gives the year 1939, so the year is stored at medium confidence.
Over the Rainbow, sung by Judy Garland, is released
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Harold Arlen wrote the music and Yip Harburg the words of the ballad, made for The Wizard of Oz. Garland sang it as Dorothy Gale and it became her signature song.
Notes
The infobox gives 1939 for publication and release without a day, and the body says the composition was copyrighted in 1938, so confidence is medium.
Ernst Lubitsch produced and directed the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer comedy starring Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas. Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch wrote the script from a story by Melchior Lengyel.
Notes
The English infobox gives 9 November 1939 and the English body says late 1939, while the French infobox gives a Hollywood world premiere on 6 October 1939 and a New York premiere on 3 November 1939, so only the year is stored. The English lead counts the Best Actress nomination as her fourth and the French article as her third.
Alfred A. Knopf published the hardboiled crime novel, set in Los Angeles, which first features the detective Philip Marlowe. It is known for a tangled plot of double-crosses.
Notes
The infobox and lead give only the year 1939, so confidence is medium.
Kahlo painted the double self-portrait, in which one figure wears a white Victorian-style dress and the other a traditional Tehuana dress. It was exhibited in January 1940 at the International Surrealist Exhibition.
Notes
The body and infobox give only the year 1939. Same-year context: Kahlo's divorce from Rivera in 1939.
· Memphis, Tennessee, United States · North America
The Colonial Revival house at Graceland is built in Memphis
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
A couple, Ruth and Thomas, put up the Colonial Revival house on the property, with Furbringer and Ehrman as architects. A horse stable was added the same year.
Notes
The infobox and body give only the year 1939 for construction, so confidence is medium.
Alfred Lion and Max Margulis found Blue Note Records
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Lion and Margulis, emigrants from Germany, founded the jazz label, which began with traditional jazz and small-group swing and shifted toward modern jazz around 1947.
Notes
The lead and infobox give the year without a day or month, so confidence is medium. The infobox lists Francis Wolff among the founders alongside Lion and Margulis, while the lead names only Lion and Margulis.
The Methodist Episcopal Church merges with two other bodies to form the Methodist Church
Religion & philosophySome details uncertain
The Methodist Episcopal Church, founded in 1784, had been the biggest and longest-established Methodist body in the US. It rejoined the Methodist Protestant Church and Methodist Episcopal Church, South, which had split off earlier.
Notes
The article gives only the year 1939 for the merger, so confidence is medium. Wikidata gives only the year.
Jack Northrop founds the Northrop Corporation in Hawthorne, California
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
Northrop Corporation built aircraft from its formation until it merged with Grumman in 1994. Jack Northrop set it up in Hawthorne on a site found by co-founder Moye Stephens.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body give only the year 1939, matching Wikidata, so confidence is medium.
The runways and terminal of Toronto's island airport open
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
The paved runways and terminal building opened at the island airport, which had a seaplane base from 1938. In April Toronto Council named it Port George VI Island Airport, ahead of the king's May visit.
Notes
Disputed year: the lead and body give 1939 for the opening of the runways and terminal, while a passage on an accident says the airport opened in 1938, when the seaplane base began use. The year 1939 is stored at medium confidence, matching Wikidata. The first commercial flight is dated 8 September 1939.
Peterbilt Motors Company opens in Oakland, California
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
T. A. Peterman, a Tacoma lumberman, bought the Fageol truck company for $50,000, and its former Oakland plant opened as Peterbilt Motors Company. In April it put its first trucks on sale.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 1939 for the founding, and the history section gives April 1939 for the first trucks offered for sale, so only the year is stored at medium confidence. The history section says Peterbilt built 16 vehicles by the end of 1939 and 83 in 1940.
Walt Disney Productions made 75 musical animated shorts under the Silly Symphony name between 1929 and 1939. Seven of them won the Oscar for animated short film.
Notes
The lead gives 1929 to 1939 and the body says RKO kept distributing the shorts through the series' final year, 1939; no day is stated. Wikidata gives the year 1939.
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings's The Yearling won for the novel and Robert E. Sherwood's Abe Lincoln in Illinois for drama. Carl Van Doren's Benjamin Franklin won for biography.
Notes
The article lists the 1939 winners without a date for the announcement, so only the year is stored at medium confidence.
The National Association of Broadcasters founds Broadcast Music, Inc.
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
The broadcasters founded BMI as a cheaper alternative to ASCAP, which had announced a big rise in the licence share that broadcasters must pay.
Notes
The infobox and the history section give 1939, as does Wikidata, so the year is stored at medium confidence. The infobox's New York City is the present headquarters. The history section says most US radio stations and all three networks would not renew ASCAP licences for 1941.
Pupils at a Talladega school form the group that became the Blind Boys of Alabama
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Pupils at a Talladega school for Black deaf and blind children began singing together as a school chorus. Its founding members included Clarence Fountain, George Scott and Johnny Fields.
Notes
The lead, infobox and body give only the year 1939, so confidence is medium. Wikidata gives the same year.
· New York, New York, United States · North America
The thong is said to make its American debut at the New York World's Fair
Everyday lifeSome details uncertain
Some fashion historians say that Americans first saw a thong in public at New York's 1939 World's Fair. The garment has a thin waistband and a narrow strip of material at the back.
Notes
The body attributes the claim to some fashion historians, so it is not settled. Wikidata gives the year 1939.
· Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States · North America
Albuquerque Municipal Airport begins operating
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
The city's municipal airport began operating with two paved runways and a terminal in Pueblo Style. The project, proposed in 1935 as a Works Progress Administration scheme, had secured US$520,500 in funding.
Notes
The English History section gives only the year 1939 for the opening, and Wikidata gives the year too. The same section gives the 1935 suggestion of an airport paid for with Works Progress Administration money, the US$520,500 in funding, the groundbreaking on 28 February 1937 and the old terminal's 1988 entry on the National Register of Historic Places.
The airport was set up one year after the Aérodrome Saint-Louis closed. It lies on Quebec City's western side, within the borough of Sainte-Foy-Sillery-Cap-Rouge.
Notes
The history section gives 1939 for the founding, and Wikidata gives the same year, so the year is stored at medium confidence. The lead gives 1,819,553 passengers in 2025.
The 7th Women's World Chess Championship is played in Buenos Aires
SportSome details uncertain
The seventh Women's World Chess Championship was played in Buenos Aires during the 1939 Chess Olympiad. Sonja Graf, who was stateless, finished second.
Notes
The English lead gives only the year 1939. The separate article on the 8th Chess Olympiad dates the Olympiad to 21 August to 19 September 1939 and says the women's championship was held at the same time and venue.
· British Malaya and Brunei (now Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei) · Asia
The Malayan dollar is introduced, replacing the Straits dollar
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
The Malayan dollar was money in the British-ruled colonies and protectorates across Malaya and Brunei until the early 1950s. It replaced the Straits dollar at an equal rate, and one dollar was worth two shillings and four pence sterling.
Notes
The lead gives the year 1939 for the introduction, and the body says the currency board began issuing in 1939; confidence is medium. The English lead says the currency lasted until 1953, matching Wikidata's end date, while the French article says until 1952, so the end is described as the early 1950s and is not stored.
· Straits Settlements (now Singapore and Malaysia) · Asia
The Malayan dollar replaces the Straits dollar
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
The Straits dollar had been the money of the Straits Settlements since 1898, and was also used in the Malay States, Sarawak, Brunei and British North Borneo. The Malayan dollar replaced it at par.
Notes
The lead and body give 1939 only, with no day. Wikidata gives the year 1939.
The Imperial Japanese Army introduces the Type 99 Arisaka rifle
TechnologySome details uncertain
Fighting in China showed the army that its 7.7 mm machine-gun round outperformed the 6.5 mm rifle round. The Type 99 was meant to replace the Type 38 and put the army on a single rifle cartridge.
Notes
The infobox gives 1939 for the design and the start of service, while the long rifle part of the Variants section dates production of the long rifle, the first version made, to summer 1940 to spring 1941. The Japanese service part of the History section describes the move from the 6.5 mm cartridge of the Type 38 to the 7.7 mm round. Only the year is stored, at medium confidence.
· Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu, British Malaya (now Malaysia) · Asia
The King George V National Park, now Taman Negara, is established in British Malaya
Everyday lifeSome details uncertain
Theodore Hubback approached the rulers of Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan, and the park resulted. Each state passed its own enactment: Kelantan in 1938, Pahang and Terengganu in 1939.
Notes
Dispute over the year: the infobox and lead give 1938 and 1939, and the Kelantan enactment is from 1938 while the Pahang and Terengganu enactments are from 1939. The year 1939 is stored, matching Wikidata, at medium confidence.
Sri Lanka's football governing body was founded as the Ceylon Football Association and renamed the Football Federation of Sri Lanka in 1972. It joined FIFA in the early 1950s.
Notes
The English history section gives 1939, as does Wikidata, so the year is stored at medium confidence. The German article says the association was founded on 3 April 1939 at a meeting in the Galle Face Hotel. The English and German articles give 1952 for joining FIFA and 1954 for joining the Asian Football Confederation, while the French article gives 1950 and 1969; the German article calls 1950 a mistake. The history section's part on the 2023 FIFA suspension dates the suspension from 21 January 2023 and its lifting to 29 August 2023.
Palestinian Arabs had risen against British rule, seeking independence and an end to British backing for Zionism and Jewish immigration. The revolt was suppressed, and Britain issued the White Paper of 1939.
Notes
The end of the revolt is disputed: the English infobox gives 26 August 1939 (as does Wikidata), the English Outcome section says it concluded in September 1939, and the French infobox gives March 1939, so only the year is stored.
The Fifth Aliyah brought between 225,000 and 300,000 Jews from Europe and Asia to Mandatory Palestine from 1929 to 1939. Nazi persecution turned it into a mass migration from 1933 on.
Notes
The lead gives 1929 to 1939 for the wave, with no end day. Wikidata gives the year 1939.
· Tell Atchana (ancient Alalakh), Hatay, Turkey · Middle East
Leonard Woolley finds the Statue of Idrimi at Tell Atchana
ScienceSome details uncertain
Woolley found the statue among the ruins of a temple at ancient Alalakh. It dates from the 15th century BC and bears a long Akkadian inscription about King Idrimi.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body give only the year 1939, so confidence is medium. The infobox and body name the finder as Charles Woolley while the lead names Sir Leonard Woolley; the facts use Leonard Woolley. The place is given by its present-day name because no month is stated to show whether the site was then in Hatay State or Turkey.
Yechiel Michel Schlesinger and Boruch Kunstadt found Yeshivas Kol Torah in Jerusalem
Religion & philosophySome details uncertain
Both founders came from Germany: Schlesinger was born in Hamburg and Kunstadt was a rabbinical judge from Fulda. Shlomo Zalman Auerbach headed the yeshiva after Schlesinger's death until 1995.
Notes
The history section gives 1939, as does Wikidata, so the year is stored at medium confidence. The history section says no mainstream Haredi yeshiva had taught in Hebrew before it. It gives Schlesinger's dates as 1898-1948 but also says he died in 1949. The history section says Auerbach headed the yeshiva after Schlesinger's death until his own death in 1995.
British contractor Balfour Beatty built the barrage across the Tigris from 1934 to 1939, using about 2,500 Arab and Kurdish workers. A major Tigris flood in 1936 submerged the site and briefly halted work.
Notes
The infobox and the history section give 1939 for completion, as does Wikidata, so the year is stored at medium confidence. The history section gives the workforce of 2,500 and the 1936 flood, and the technical section gives 56 gates.
The pendant, with a ring for hanging, came from the mound of the Susa acropolis and dates to roughly 3300-3100 BCE. It was among the finds of R. de Mecquenem's excavation of the ancient city.
Notes
The history section dates the discovery to 1939, as do the German article and Wikidata. The infobox gives 1.4 by 1.5 cm, while the description section and the German article give a length of 1.5 cm.
· Tufanbeyli, Adana Province, Turkey · Middle East
The Hittite rock relief at Hanyeri is found in Turkey
ScienceSome details uncertain
Ali Rıza Yalgın, director of the Adana Archaeology Museum, found the relief, which dates to the 13th century BC and stands in Tufanbeyli district. It shows the bull-god Sarruma carried by two mountain goddesses.
Notes
The description section dates the discovery to 1939, as do the German article and Wikidata, so the year is stored at medium confidence. The description section says that by 2013 the monument was no longer recognisable.
The Zionist weekly Israël, published in Cairo, folds
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
Israël was a weekly Zionist magazine published in Cairo in Arabic, French and Hebrew, founded by Albert Mosseri in 1920. Its French edition, edited by Mathilde Mosseri after 1933, folded in 1939.
Notes
The infobox gives 1939 as the final year and the history section says the French edition, the last one, folded in 1939, so the year is stored at medium confidence. The history section dates the end of the Hebrew edition to 1923 and of the Arabic edition to 1933; Wikidata's end date of 1933 matches the Arabic edition.
· Union of South Africa (now South Africa) · Africa
Solomon Linda and the Evening Birds record Mbube
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Linda and his a cappella group recorded the song in their second session at Gallo's studio, finishing it in three takes without rehearsal. In 1961 the Tokens reworked the melody with English words into The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
Notes
Only the year is given for the recording, so confidence is medium. The song is also dated 1939 as its first release, but Wikidata gives no more precise date.
Maurice Egerton, 4th Baron Egerton of Tatton, gave a land grant of 740 acres to establish the school, whose first purpose was to train white European youth for careers in farming. It grew into Egerton University.
Notes
The infobox and the History section give 1939, as does Wikidata; only the year is known, so confidence is medium. The History section gives the 740-acre land grant. The English lead and the German article both call it Kenya's oldest institution of higher education.
A small landing site is created at Misrata in Italian Libya
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
The landing site later grew into Misrata International Airport, which also serves as an air base and training centre.
Notes
The history section gives 1939 for the small landing site, so the year is stored at medium confidence. The infobox gives 1998 as the opening year of the present international airport. The history section says a fire destroyed the passenger terminal on 3 August 2020.
· Lubumbashi, Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) · Africa
The Congolese football club FC Saint-Éloi Lupopo is founded
SportSome details uncertain
The professional club is based in Lubumbashi and hosts matches at Stade Kibassa Maliba. It has won the Linafoot league several times, the first in 1958.
Notes
The infobox gives 1939, as does Wikidata, so the year is stored at medium confidence. The honours list gives six Linafoot titles, the first in 1958. The English article says its player Pierre Mwana Kasongo was the first African to become top scorer in Belgium; the German article calls him the club's best-known player and says he played for RCS Verviers and KAA Gent from 1961 to 1967.
· Tadjourah Region, French Somaliland (now Djibouti) · Africa
Day Forest National Park is established in Djibouti
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
The park, set among the Goda Mountains in the Tadjourah Region, is the largest forest in Djibouti and one of the country's very few forested areas.
Notes
The infobox gives 1939, and the German article also dates the declaration as a national park to 1939 but adds that this status is no longer valid; the year is stored at medium confidence. Wikidata gives the same year. The flora section says the juniper stand grows above 950 m.
The first passenger flights leave the airfield that became Gold Coast Airport
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
The airfield began in 1936 as three grass strips, meant as an emergency landing ground for airmail aircraft. Passenger flights first took off from the grass field at the present Coolangatta site.
Notes
The History section dates the first passenger flights to 1939 and the original three grass strips to 1936. The lead says the main runway crosses the Queensland-New South Wales border. Wikidata gives the year 1939.
The United States Antarctic Service Expedition, Byrd's third, begins
ExplorationSome details uncertain
The expedition, jointly sponsored by the Navy, State Department, Interior Department and Treasury, ran from 1939 to 1941. Some 125 men sailed in two ships, and 59 of them wintered in Antarctica.
Notes
The lead dates the expedition to 1939-1941, so the start year is stored at medium confidence. The bases were evacuated between February and March 1941 and the ships reached Boston in May 1941; Wikidata gives 1 January 1941 as the end. The background part of the expedition description says 125 men left the United States in the two ships and 59 wintered in Antarctica.
Freud finished his last original work in the summer, and Katherine Jones's English translation came out from Hogarth Press the same year. He suggested Moses was born into an Egyptian household and may have been a priest of Akhenaten.
Notes
The infobox gives 1939 for both the original and the English edition, with no month or day, so confidence is medium.
The 6SN7 is a vacuum tube that puts two triodes in one envelope, mounted on an eight-pin octal base, with a medium gain of 20 dB. It is essentially two 6J5 triodes in a single envelope.
Notes
The body gives only the year 1939 for the original release, so confidence is medium.
One email when the Everywhere Then app is ready, and nothing else. Your address is optional, used only for that, and you can ask for it to be deleted at any time. Privacy