1939

1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year beginning on a Sunday according to the Gregorian calendar.

This year began the largest and deadliest war conflict in the history of humanity, World War II, after the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany on September 1 and would cause most of the nations of the world to were involved, the conflict would last for the next six years and deeply mark the coming decade and the century in general.

Events

German invasion of Poland of 1939.

January

• January 1st: in Spain it becomes a duty for all young women under the age of 25, to perform for one year with the compulsory labour service.
• January 5: In Argentina, Lisandro de la Torre committed suicide.
• 13 January: Hungary accedes to the Antikomintern Pact.
• January 13: In Victoria, Australia, the forest fires of Black Friday, the worst natural disaster in Australia's history. Nearly 20 000 km2 of land were destroyed by flames, and 71 people died. They were unleashed by high temperatures from December 1938 to February 1939, which killed 438 people by heat stroke.
• January 15: In Peru, the 15th edition of the Copa América begins.
• January 24: In Chillán (Chile) an earthquake of magnitude 8.3 MS destroys almost the entire city causing 30,000 deaths, the city of Concepción is also affected.
• January 26: In Spain, the Francoist troops enter Barcelona.

February

• 1 February: a decree orders the expulsion of Czechoslovakia from all foreign Jews.
• February 1st: In Brunswick the 2nd German Air Fleet is formed under the command of General Hellmuth Felmy.
• 2 February: Soviet Union and Hungary break their diplomatic relations.
• February 2: the Francoist government decrees the illegality of all religions in Spain except the Catholic one.
• February 3: the head of the Belgian Rexist Party, Léon Degrelle, arrives in Burgos.
• 4 February: premiere One night at the operaof the Marx Brothers.
• February 4th: the singer and actor Frank Sinatra hires nupcias with Nancy Barbato. The ceremony was held in the Church of "Our Lady of Pain", located at 93 Clerk Street, in Jersey City, New Jersey.
• February 6: the politicians of the government of the Second Spanish Republic begin their flight to France.
• February 7: José Miaja and Segismundo Casado send emissaries to the dictator Franco offering surrender.
• 10 February: Pope Pius XI died in Vatican City
• 11 February: the Francoist troops consolidate power throughout Catalonia.
• February 12: in Lima (Peru) The Copa América and the Peruvian team win their First America Cup after winning 2-1 to the Uruguayan team.
• 14 February: it is proceeded in Kiel to the Bismarck booth, the largest battleship of the German Navy.
• February 21st: British battleship K King George V is launched in Newcastle.
• February 27: France and the United Kingdom recognize the government of Francisco Franco in Spain.

March

• 1 March: by resignation from Azaña, Diego Martínez Barrio has passed, under the constitutional precept, to occupy the presidency of the Spanish Republic.
• March 1-2: in Rome, the conclave takes place to choose a new pontiff after the death of Pope Pius XI.
• March 1st witness of alien sighting in Madrid.
• 2 March: in Rome, Cardinal Pacelli is elected Pope with the name of Pius XII.
• March 2: Petain is appointed Ambassador of France to Spain.
• March 3: In the United States the film of John Ford The diligence, model in western gender.
• 6 March: in Spain, General José Miaja takes power.
• 6 March: the Czech government dissolves the autonomy of Slovakia.
• 7 March: In the framework of the Spanish civil war, the sinking of the coastal defenses of Cartagena of the merchant ship, used as the transport of troops, Castillo de Olite, becomes the sinking of a single vessel with the most deadly victims of the history of Spain; 1476 died.
• 14 March: In Slovakia, the provincial assembly proclaims independence under the protection of Germany. The priest Jozef Tiso is appointed president.
• March 15: The Nazis occupy Bohemia and Moravia; Adolf Hitler occupies the rest of Czechoslovakia, which ceases to exist. The hostilities leading to World War II begin.
• March 16: Mohammad Reza Pahlaví, the Crown Prince of Iran, married Princess Fawzia of Egypt.
• 17 March: Spain and Portugal sign the Iberian Treaty.
• March 18: Stalin calls for a coalition against Germany.
• March 21: Germany claims Danzig to Poland.
• 22 March: Germany claims the territory of Memel to Lithuania.
• 23 March: German troops occupy the city of Memel.
• 27 March: Spain adheres to the Antikomintern Pact.
• March 28: in Spain, the troops of Francisco Franco enter Madrid.
• March 28: Poland rejects the claims of Germany and this denunciation of its pact with Poland.
• March 31st: Great Britain offers support to Poland.

• In Bombay, India, Mohandas Gandhi begins a fast in protest against the British government.

April

• April 1: Day of Victory, in Spain when Valencia fell, the last bastion of the republican government. The Spanish civil war ends and the Franco dictatorship begins.
• April 2: The United States recognizes Franco's dictatorship after France and Great Britain have already done so.
• April 3: Nazi Germany begins the preparation of the White Plan for the invasion of Poland.
• The governments of France and Great Britain begin their military cooperation.
• April 5: Albert Lebrun is re-elected President of France.
• April 6: Benito Mussolini invades Albania.
• 6 April: the French and the British sign a cooperation agreement.
• April 7: In Albania, Italian troops invade the country in a week. King Zog flees.
• April 9: In the United States, singer Marian Anderson sings to 75 000 people at the Lincoln Monument in Washington (after the U.S. Revolution Daughters prohibited him from using the Constitutional Chamber.
• April 13: Franco-British aid agreement to Greece and Romania.
• April 15: President Roosevelt seeks assurances from Germany and Italy that they will not attack another European country.
• April 24: Gaby, Fofó and Miliki say they form a trio offering their first performances at the Teatro Circo Price in Madrid.
• April 25: trade agreement between France and Italy.
• April 28: Adolf Hitler denounces the 1934 non-aggression pact with Poland.
• April 28: Parliament approves compulsory military service in Britain.
• 29 April: Chile promulgates Act No. 6.334 establishing Corporations for the Promotion of Production (CORFO) and Reconstruction and Help.
• April 30: there is a public burning of books at the University of Madrid.

May

• 1 May: In Japan, an earthquake of 6.8 leaves 27 dead, 52 injured and more than 400 destroyed houses.
• May 3: Viacheslav Mólotov is appointed Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union.
• May 10: The interview between Halifax and Daladier is held in Paris.
• May 12: UK and Turkey sign a pact.
• May 14: In Peru, the 5-year-old girl Lina Medina gives birth to a baby, becoming the youngest mother in the history of medicine.
• 19 May: France, Poland and the United Kingdom hold a military convention.
• May 22: Germany and Italy sign the Steel Pact.
• May 23: In Germany, Adolf Hitler announced his strategy of war with the military commanders.
• 28 May: The Netherlands announces its general mobilization.
• May 30: the 27th issue of Detective Comics is published, which was the first appearance of Batman created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger
• May 30: the Condor Legion returns to Germany after its participation in the Spanish civil war.
• May 31: Germany and Denmark sign a non-aggression pact.

• In the United States, Batman—created by Bob Kane (e, unofficially, by Bill Finger)—is making his first appearance in issue 27 of the magazine Detective Comics.

June

• June 4: The U.S. Government Denies Florida Ship Entrance St. Louis with 963 Jewish refugees. Forced to return to Europe, almost all of these people will die in concentration camps of the Nazi Germans.
• 17 June: in France the last public sharpening takes place.
• June 20: Philippe Pétain is unanimously elected as a member of the French Academy, where he replaces the field marshal Foch.
• June 22: In Djúpivogur (Island) the highest temperature is recorded in the History of that country: 30.5 °C (86.9 °F).
• June 23: Turkey invades and annexes the province of Hatay (Syria), with capital in Antioch.
• 24 to 27 June: the kingdom of Siam becomes Thailand.

July

• July 1st: new Japanese offensive in China.
• 2 July: Japanese forces in Manchukuo cross the outer Mongolia (incident Nomonhan).
• 4 July: in Germany the Neuengamme concentration camp becomes autonomous.
• July 6: In Germany, the Nazis close the last companies of Jewish people.
• 6 July: The United States denounces the trade agreement with Japan.
• July 13: talks between dictator Francisco Franco and Count Galeazzo Ciano of Italy.
• July 18: the reconstruction of Cerro de los Angeles begins.

August

• August 2: Albert Einstein writes to President Roosevelt about the atomic bomb. This would lead to the creation of the Manhattan project.
• August 5: In Spain, the Thirteen Roses are shot by the Francoist dictatorship.
• 9 August: formation of the Second Government of Spain (1939-1941).
• August 11: meeting of Adolf Hitler, Galeazzo Ciano and Burckhardt of the League of Nations for the Danzig problem.
• 12 August: military meeting of France, Great Britain and the Soviet Union.
• August 15: Hindu troops arrive to strengthen British forces in Egypt.
• August 17: In the United States the film is released The magician of Oz by Victor Fleming (started by Judy Garland).
• 206.o. German Infantry Division.
• August 18: trade agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union.
• August 19: German submarine flotillas begin patrols across the Atlantic Ocean.
• 21 August: the Soviet Union breaks the military talks with France and Britain.
• August 23: Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Adolf Hitler and Iosif Stalin are distributed Eastern Europe: Finland, Baltic countries and Eastern Poland become Soviet and Western Poland will be for Hitler.
• August 24: Forster is proclaimed head of Danzig.
• August 25: In England, an Irish Republican Army bomb explodes in Coventry, killing five people.
• The 7th Army is made up of General Friedrich Dollmann.
• Great Britain and Poland signed a mutual assistance treaty.
• August 26: Germany guarantees the neutrality of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
• August 27: British troops arrive in France.
• Opening flight of the Heinkels 178, the first jet plane.
• August 30: Germany presents an ultimatum to Poland.
• August 30: Poland announces the general mobilization.
• August 30: Turkey denounces its trade agreement with Germany.
• August 31: The British fleet is alerted.
• Simulated attack on the radio station in Gleiwitz, it gives the excuse to start the invasion of Poland by the Germans.

September

The Wehrmacht crossing the Polish border on September 1, 1939.

• September 1: Poland: German troops invade Western Poland, starting World War II.
• September 3: Europe: the UK and France declare war on Nazi Germany.
• September 5: In the United States, President Roosevelt declared himself neutral.
• 14 September: Mexico: Manuel Gómez Morín inaugurates the Constitutive Assembly that would give rise to the National Action Party (PAN).
• September 16: Japan: ceasefire with Soviet forces in Manchukuo.
• 17 September: Poland: Soviet troops invade East Poland (see the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact).
• September 27: Poland: the city of Warsaw is surrendered, besieged and bombed by the Nazi troops.

October

• 6 October: the Germans have conquered Poland
• October 15: New York City Municipal Airport (now La Guardia Airport) is opened in the United States.

November

• 4 November: in the United States President Roosevelt orders the Neutrality Act, which allows the sale of weapons to participants of the Second World War.
• 6 November: United States: debuts Hedda Hopper ShowWith Hollywood Hedda Hopper's gossip expert. The show lasted until 1951 and made Hopper a powerful figure in the lamp
• 6 November: United Kingdom is published the famous book of Agatha Cristie “Ten Negritos”
• November 8: Germany: in Munich, Adolf Hitler is free of an attempted murder.
• 9 November: Venlo Incident, two British secret agents are captured by the Germans in the Netherlands.
• 12 November: holidays in Lima, commemorating the third centenary of the death of the then Blessed, San Martín de Porres.
• 13 November: a dreadful fire destroyed the palatial village of Lagunillas de Agua in Venezuela with a balance of more than 200 dead.
• 16 November: In the United States, Al Capone is released from Alcatraz Prison.
• November 27: the film María de la O is premiered in the cinemas of the Palacio de la Prensa e Imperial in Madrid after the delay of three years caused by the Spanish civil war.
• November 30: The Soviet Union invades Finland, starting the Winter War. Finland is not supported by Western powers, as was done with Poland.

December

• December 8: in Peru, Manuel Prado Ugarteche assumes the presidency of the republic.
• 14 December: the League of Nations expelled the Soviet Union because of its attack on Finland.
• December 15: in Atlanta (Georgia) the film is released What the wind took (with Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable).
• December 26: in Borinage (Belgium) a strike of miners begins.
• 27 December: in Turkey, at 1:57 h, an earthquake of magnitude 7.9 MW destroys the city of Erzincan (in eastern Anatolia), leaving a balance of 32,968 victims.

Unknown date

• In the United States, two scientists (Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn) independently discover the nuclear fission process.
• In the Soviet Union, Semyon Kirlian invents Kirlian photography.
• In Warsaw (capital of Poland) a group of Polish mathematicians created a “cryptological bomb”, the first machine to decipher the Enigma code. In August it was announced the operation of the machine.
• The 18th German Army is created in Germany.

Births

January

• 2 January: Parmenio Medina, journalist and Colombian radio broadcaster (f. 2001).
• January 3: Bobby Hull, Canadian hockey player.
• January 3: Gene Summers, American singer.
• January 6: Valery Lobanovsky, Ukrainian footballer (f. 2002).
• January 8: Walter Ciccione, Italian journalist.
• January 9: Kiko Argüello, Spanish painter founder of the Neocatechumenal Way.
• January 9: Malcolm Bricklin, pioneer of American motorism.
• January 10: Sal Mineo, American actor (f. 1976).
• January 10: William Toomey, American athlete.
• January 17: Maury Povich, American presenter.
• January 19: Phil Everly, American musician.
• January 20: Chandra Wickramasinghe, astronomer and British poet.
• January 21: Wolfman Jack, American actor and disk jockey (f. 1995).
• January 22: Encarnita Polo, Spanish singer.
• January 22: Ray Stevens, American musician.
• January 29: Germaine Greer, Australian writer.

February

• 1 February: Claude François, Egyptian singer (f. 1978).
• February 6: Mike Farrell, American actor.

February 7: Leopoldo Murillo, pilot and intellectual. Caracas Venezuela

• February 9: Ireland Mora, Mexican actress (f. 2010).
• February 10: Adrienne Clarkson, Canadian general governor.
• February 10: Roberta Flack, American singer.
• February 10: Peter Purves, British actor and TV presenter.
• February 12: Ray Manzarek, U.S. Keyboard (f. 2013).
• February 12: Frank Ramírez, Colombian actor (f. 2015).
• February 13: Beate Klarsfeld, German Nazi hunter.
• February 14: Percy Fernández, Bolivian civil and political engineer.
• February 15: William Van Horn, American hysterist.
• February 15: Isaiah Duarte Cancino, Colombian bishop (f. 2002).
• February 19: Alfredo Bryce Echenique, Peruvian writer.
• February 28: Daniel Chee Tsui, Chinese physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics in 1998.

March

• March 1: Leo Brouwer, Cuban composer and guitarist.
• March 5: Carlos Di Fulvio, singer, guitarist and Argentine folk composer.
• March 5: Johnny Jenkins, American musician (f. 2006).
• March 6: Margarita de Borbón, Spanish aristocrat.
• March 6: Canelita Medina, Venezuelan singer of son.
• March 8: Robert Tear, British tenor (f. 2011).
• March 13: Neil Sedaka, American singer.
• March 14: Pilar Bardem, Spanish actress.
• March 15: Alicia Freilich, a Venezuelan writer and journalist.
• 17 March: Alejandro Lozano, Spanish artist (f. 2003).
• March 19: Renee Taylor, American actress.
• March 20: Brian Mulroney, Canadian Prime Minister.
• March 29: Terence Hill, Italian actor.
• March 31: Zviad Gamsakhurdia, Georgian President (f. 1993).
• March 31: Volker Schlöndorff, German filmmaker.

April

• 2 April: Marvin Gaye, American singer and musician (f. 1984).
• April 4: Frits Bolkestein, Dutch politician.
• April 4: Hugh Masekela, South African musician.(f.2018).
• April 6: John Sculley, American businessman.
• April 7: Francis Ford Coppola, American filmmaker.
• April 7: Sir David Frost, personality of British television (f. 2013).
• April 13: Seamus Heaney, Irish writer, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995.(2013).
• April 13: Paul Sorvino, American actor (f. 2022).
• April 16: Dusty Springfield, British singer (f. 1999).
• April 17: María del Rosario Molina, a Guatemalan writer and journalist.
• April 20: Gro Harlem Brundtland, Norwegian politics.
• April 21: Ian Gibson, Irish-Spanish hypnist, specialist in contemporary history.
• April 22: Jason Miller, playwright and American actor (f. 2001).
• April 23: Jorge Fons, Mexican filmmaker.
• April 25: David Kinsley, American indologist and professor (f. 2000).

May

• May 1st: Judy Collins, American singer.
• May 1st: Wilhelmina Cooper, American model and entrepreneur (f. 1980).
• May 3: Luis Burgos Flor, Ecuadorian painter.
• 4 May: Amos Oz, an Israeli writer (f.2018).
• 7 May: Sidney Altman, Canadian chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1989.
• May 7: Guillermo Ceniceros, Mexican painter.
• 7 May: Ruud Lubbers, Dutch Prime Minister (f. 2018).
• May 9: Ralph Boston, American athlete.
• May 9: Ricardo Aguirre. Venezuelan teacher, musician and announcer. (f. 1969)
• May 11: Carlos Lyra, Brazilian singer.
• May 13: Harvey Keitel, American actor.
• May 19: Livio Berruti, an Italian athlete.
• May 20: Giovanni Falcone, Italian judge killed by the mafia (f. 1992).
• May 21: Heinz Holliger, oboist and Swiss composer.
• May 25: Ian McKellen, British actor.
• May 29: Al Unser, American motorist.
• May 30: Michael J. Pollard, American actor (f.2019).

June

• 2 June: Antonio Alegre Cremades, Spanish painter and engraver (f. 2006).
• June 3: Ian Hunter, British singer of Mott the Hoople.
• June 6: Louis Andriessen, Dutch composer.
• June 8: Norman Davies, British historian.
• June 9: Ileana Cotrubaş, Romanian soprano.
• June 9: Dick Vitale, American sports commentator.
• June 11: Jackie Stewart, British motorist.
• June 21: Salomé, Spanish singer winner of the Eurovision Song Festival in 1969.
• June 22: Ada Yonath, Israeli chemistry and biologist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009.
• June 23: Alvaro Pombo, Spanish poet and novelist.
• June 25: Guillermo Ortiz Camargo, Mexican footballer (f. 2009).
• June 30: José Emilio Pacheco, Mexican writer (f. 2014).

July

• July 8: Juan José Gámez, soccer player and Costa Rican coach (f. 1997).
• July 9: Domingo Siazón, Filipino diplomat (f. 2016).
• July 14: Karel Gott, Czech singer (f. 2019).
• 17 July: Seyyyed Ali Jameneí, religious, political and head of the Iranian state since 1989.
• July 17: Milva, singer and Italian theatre actress.
• July 18: Brian Auger, British jazz and rock tech.
• July 21: Chacho Echenique, Argentine folk composer and author of the Salteño Duo.
• July 21: John Negroponte, American diplomat.
• July 23: Betiana Blum, Argentine actress.
• July 23: Andrés Percivale, TV presenter and Argentine journalist.
• July 24: Daniel Viglietti, Uruguayan musician.(f.2017).
• July 26: John Howard, Australian Prime Minister from 1996 to 2007.
• July 28: Carlos Mauro Hoyos, jurist and Colombian politician (f. 1988).
• July 29: Terele Pávez, Spanish actress (f. 2017).
• July 31: Jules Lagadeau, soccer player and Surinamese coach (f. 2019).

August

• August 2: Wes Craven, American writer and filmmaker (f. 2015).
• August 4: Piper Pimienta, Colombian singer-songwriter (f. 1998).
• August 5: Irene from the Netherlands, aristocrat of the Netherlands.
• August 7: Eduardo Soto Kloss, Chilean jurist.
• August 11: Gerry Weil, a pianist and jazz composer born in Austria and based in Venezuela since 1957.
• August 16: David Santalla, Bolivian actor and comic.
• August 17: Luther Allison, American musician (f. 1997).
• August 19: Ginger Baker, British drummer, gang cream (f. 2019).
• August 21: James Burton, American guitarist.
• August 21st: Festus Mogae, President of Botswana.
• August 21, Clarence Williams III, American actor.
• August 22: Carl Yastrzemski, American baseball player.
• August 23: Fernando Luján, Mexican actor.("f. 2019).
• August 23: Evaristo Márquez, Colombian film actor.
• August 28: Dina Sfat, Brazilian actress (f. 1989).
• August 29: Joel Schumacher, an American filmmaker and producer (f.2020).
• August 30: John Peel, British disk jockey (f. 2004).

September

• September 1st: Lily Tomlin, American actress and comedian.
• September 6: David Allan Coe, actor and songwriter of American country music.
• September 6: Francisco Frutos, Spanish politician.
• [September 8]: Susumu Tonegawa, Japanese molecular biologist, Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1987.
• September 13: Arleen Augér, American soprano.
• September 16: Breyten Breytenbach, a South African writer and painter.
• September 18: Frankie Avalon, American musician.
• September 18: Jorge Sampaio, Portuguese president between 1996 and 2006.
• September 22: Luisa María Payán, Spanish actress and entrepreneur.
• September 26: Lisandro Meza, Colombian singer.
• September 30: Jean-Marie Lehn, a French chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1987.

October

• October 4: Lucero Galindo, Colombian actress (f. 2013).
• October 5: Carmen Salinas, actress, imitator, comedian, politics and Mexican theatre entrepreneur (f. 2021).
• October 5: Marie Laforêt, French actress and singer (f. 2019).
• October 7: John Hopcroft, American scientist and computer.
• October 7: Harold Kroto, British chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996.
• October 7: Enrique Pinti, actor, humorist, theatrical director, writer and Argentine playwright; precursor of the stand up theatre (f. 2022)
• October 9: Luis Ramos, Uruguayan ex-futbolist.
• October 13: Melinda Dillon, American actress.
• October 13: Eduardo Jozami, human rights activist, journalist and Argentine writer.
• October 14: Ralph Lauren, American fashion designer.
• October 17: Amancio Amaro, Spanish footballer.
• October 20, Jay siegel, American singer.
• October 24: F. Murray Abraham, American actor.
• October 24: Jorge Heraud Pérez, Peruvian scientist.
• October 27: John Cleese, British actor.
• October 30: Leland H. Hartwell, American scientist, Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2001.
• October 30: Grace Slick, American singer, from the Jefferson Airplane band.
• October 31: Ron Rifkin, American actor.

November

• November 1st: Barbara Bosson, American actress.
• 5 November: Isela Vega, Mexican actress (f. 2021).
• November 6: Carlos Emilio Morales, Cuban guitarist (f. 2014).
• November 14: Wendy Carlos, American composer.
• 14 November: Ramiro Corzo, Colombian actor.
• 15 November: Dinorah Varsi, Uruguayan pianist of classical music (f. 2013).
• November 19: Brenda Vaccaro, an Italian American actress.
• 21 November: Budd Dwyer, American politician (f. 1987).
• November 24: Martina Iñíguez, poetisa y letrista argentina de tangos.
• 26 November: Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, a Malaysian politician.
• November 26: Tina Turner, American singer.
• November 27: Laurent-Désiré Kabila, guerrilla, political and Congolese president between 1997 and 2001 (f. 2001).
• 29 November: Concha Velasco, actress, singer, dancer and Spanish TV presenter.

December

• 2 December: Yael Dayan, Israeli writer and politician.
• December 5: Ricardo Bofill Levi, Spanish architect.
• December 8: James Galway, Irish flute.
• December 16: Philip Langridge, British tenor (f. 2010).
• December 17: María Elena Velasco, Mexican actress (f. 2015).
• December 18: Michael Moorcock, British writer.
• December 18: Harold E. Varmus, American scientist, Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1989.
• December 20: Kathryn Joosten, American actress (f. 2012).
• December 23: Gustavo Quintero, Colombian singer of tropical music (f. 2016).
• December 25: Claudio Huepe, Chilean engineer and politician.
• December 25: Bob James, American jazz-rock pianist and keyboardist.
• December 26: Phil Spector, American musician and producer (f. 2021).
• December 27: Miguel Alcobendas, Spanish filmmaker.
• December 27: John Amos, American actor.
• December 29: Clementina Anuarite, a Congolese religious woman murdered in 1964.
• December 31: Liza Willert, Mexican actress (f. 2009).

Deaths

January

• January 5: Lisandro de la Torre, an Argentine politician (n. 1868).
• January 24: Manuel Penella, Spanish composer (n. 1880).
• January 26: Jaime Mendoza Gonzáles, doctor, poet, philanthropist, Bolivian writer and geographer (n. 1874).
• January 28: William Butler Yeats, Irish poet, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923 (n. 1865).

February

• 10 February: Pius XI, Italian Pope (n. 1857).
• February 22: Antonio Machado, Spanish poet (n. 1875).
• February 27: Nadezhda Krúpskaya, revolutionary Russian Marxist, wife of Lenin (n. 1869)

March

• March 2: Howard Carter, British archaeologist (n. 1874).
• 6 March: Miron Cristea, first patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church (n. 1868).
• 6 March: Carl Louis Ferdinand von Lindemann, German mathematician (n. 1852).
• 16 March: Josep Abril, a Spanish politician and writer (n. 1869).

April

• April 22: José Aranguren, Spanish general (n. 1875).
• April 25: John Foulds, British composer (n. 1880).
• April 25: Georges Ricard-Cordingley, French painter (n. 1873).

May

• May 5: Eliseo Gómez Serrano (49), Spanish teacher and politician (n. 1889), executed by the Francoists.
• May 10: Víctor Larco Herrera, Peruvian archaeologist (n. 1870).

June

• June 14: Ercilia Pepín, was the first master and intellectual woman in the Dominican Republic.
• June 23: Toribio Martínez Cabrera, Spanish military (n. 1874).
• June 30: Eduardo López Bustamante, Venezuelan lawyer and journalist.

August

• August 4: Jaume Garcias, a Spanish socialist politician (n. 1894).
• August 5: The Thirteen Red Roses are shot by the Francoist dictatorship.
• August 6: José Cabrera Díaz, journalist, essayist and Spanish designer.
• August 12: Eulalio Gutiérrez Ortiz, Mexican President.
• August 15: Federico Gamboa, journalist, narrator and Mexican dramatic author (n. 1864).

September

• September 23: Sigmund Freud, Austrian physician, creator of psychoanalysis (n. 1856).

October

• October 20: Otto siffling, German footballer (n. 1912).

November

• 29 November: Philipp Scheidemann, German politician (n. 1865).

December

• December 16: Juan Demóstenes Arosemena (n. 1879)
• December 23: Anthony Fokker, Dutch aircraft manufacturer (n. 1890).
• December 31: Raimundo Lanas, Navarre jotero.

Art and literature

• April 14: The novel is published in the United States The grapes of wrath (The grapes of wrath) by John Steinbeck (who would then be Nobel Prize in Literature).
• Publication Finnegans Wake, the latest novel by Irish writer James Joyce, ambitious innovation of the genre.
• Brecht writes his “Schlechte Zeit für Lyrik” (“bad times for lyrical”) in his exile in Denmark.
• December 22: In Bogotá, Colombia, the Gold Museum, the largest pre-Hispanic collection in the world, is inaugurated.
• Frida Kahlo paints The two Fridas.
• Raymond Chandler: The eternal dream (new).
• Agatha Christie: Ten blacks, Killing is easy, Problem in Pollensa.
• William Faulkner: Wild palms.
• James Joyce: Finnegans Wake.
• George Orwell: Get in the air.
• Dalton Trumbo: Johnny Got His Gun.
• Bertolt Brecht: The Life of Galileo, Mother Corage and her children.
• T. S. Eliot: The book of the skilled cats of the old Possum.
• Superhero Batman is created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger debuting at Detective Comics #27 under the name "The Bat-Man."

Science and technology

• At the beginning of the year, Mexican aviator Francisco Sarabia breaks all speed marks with his plane Conqueror of Heaven.
• Bronislaw Malinowski (anthropologist, philosopher, mathematician and Polish physicist, 1884-1942) publishes The group and the individual within a functional analysis.
• In the United States the brief slip is created.

Sports

• Uruguayan Football Championship: National is dedicated champion for the fourteenth time.

Cinema

• Goodbye, Mr. Chips (Goodbye, Mr. ChipsSam Wood.
• Yellow victory (Dark victoryEdmund Goulding.
• Arizona (Destry Rides AgainGeorge Marshall.
• Knight without sword (Mr. Smith goes to WashingtonFrank Capra.
• Indomitable hearts (Drums along the Mohawk- John Ford.
• The four feathers (The Four FeathersZoltan Korda.
• Stolen summits (Wuthering heightsWilliam Wyler's.
• The diligence (Stagecoach- John Ford.
• Dodge, city without law (Dodge CityMichael Curtiz.
• Emerald, the zíngara (The Hunchback of Notre DameWilliam Dieterle.
• Eternally yours (Eternally YoursTay Garnett.
• Gunga Din (Gunga DinGeorge Stevens.
• The story of Irene Castle (The story of Vernon and Irene CastleH.C. Potter.
• History of the Last Crysanthemum (Zangiku monogatariKenji Mizoguchi.
• Young Lincoln (Young Mr. Lincoln- John Ford.
• Sacred link (Made For Each OtherJohn Cromwell.
• What the wind took (Gone With The Wind), by Victor Fleming (also fragments filmed by George Cukor and Sam Wood) (USA).
• The magician of Oz (The Wizard of OzVictor Fleming.
• Mom by force (Bachelor MotherGarson Kanin.
• Midnight (MidnightMitchell Leisen.
• Ninotchka (NinotchkaErnst Lubitsch.
• The little princess (The little princessWalter Lang.
• Posada Jamaica (Jamaica InnAlfred Hitchcock.
• The rule of the game (Jeu's groinJean Renoir.
• Only angels have wings (Only Angels Have WingsHoward Hawks.
• Audacious land (Jesse JamesHenry King.
• You and me. (Love Affair- Leo McCarey.
• One afternoon at the circus (At the circus) of Edward Buzzell (with the Marx Brothers).
• The private life of Elizabeth and Essex (The Private Lives of Elizabeth and EssexMichael Curtiz.
• The Violent Years 20 (The roaring twentiesRaoul Walsh.
• The ugly duck (1939) Walt Disney.

Music

• Jimmy Yancey records "The Fives", one of the emblematic themes of boogie-woogie.
• Harry James records the simple "From the Bottom of My Heart and Melancholy Mood", the first singles where the singer Frank Sinatra made his debut. Published on July 13th.
• In November, singer Frank Sinatra left "Harry James Band" and joined "Tommy Dorsey Band".

Television

Nobel laureates

• Physics: Ernest Orlando Lawrence.
• Chemistry: Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt and Leopold Ruzicka.
• Medicine: Gerhard Domagk.
• Literature: Frans Eemil Sillanpää.
• Peace: one third for the main fund and two thirds for the special fund of this section of the prize.