What Happened in 1939
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Japanese Occupy Swatow Port to Establish Blockade of Guangdong
The Swatow Operation, (June 21–27,1939) was part of a campaign by Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War to blockade China to prevent it from... Read more
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Lou Gehrig Delivers His "Luckiest Man" Farewell Speech
Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the... Read more
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Ronald Reagan Appears as Jim Donohue in "Hell's Kitchen"
Hell's Kitchen is a 1939 Warner Bros. film starring Ronald Reagan and The Dead End Kids. Plot Buck Caesar (Stanley Fields) is a paroled... Read more
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"The Rules Of The Game" Is Released
The Rules of the Game (original French title: La Règle du jeu, "the rule of the game") is a 1939 film directed by Jean Renoir about upper-class... Read more
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New York City's Hippodrome Theater Closes
On August 16, 1939, New York City's Hippodrome Theater closed its doors for the last time. Built in 1905 with a seating capacity of 5,200, for a... Read more
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Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (Treaty of Non-Aggression between the Third German Reich and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, colloquially named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von... Read more
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The Cincinnati Reds and Brooklyn Dodgers Play the First Televised Major League Baseball Game
It was on W2XBS, later known as WNBC, where Red Barber called the Brooklyn Dodgers-Cincinnati Reds doubleheader on Saturday, August 26, 1939 from... Read more
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Test Flight of the Heinkel He 178, the First Jet Aircraft
The Heinkel-produced He 178 has the distinct honor of becoming the world's first aircraft to fly solely with a turbojet engine. The aircraft was... Read more
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"Human Kindness" Airs
Although descriptive not only of August 29, this 1939 interview "Human Kindness," by author Anne Stevens, recorded a typical day at the Graham... Read more
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Gleiwitz Incident
The Gleiwitz incident was a staged attack by Nazi forces posing as Poles on 31 August 1939, against the German radio station Sender Gleiwitz in... Read more
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Battle of Grudziądz
Battle of Grudziądz was a military engagement between German and Polish forces during the Invasion of Poland in 1939. It started on September 1 and... Read more
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Battle of Mława
At noon on September 1, 1939 the Polish line of defence manned by the 20th Infantry Division was attacked by the 1st Army Corps under General... Read more
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Battle of Mława Begins
The Battle of Mława, otherwise known as the Defence of the Mława position, took place to the north of the town of Mława in northern Poland between... Read more
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Battle of Mokra
On September 1, at 0500, the German Tenth Army of Army Group South crossed the Polish border and initiated the invasion of Poland. The German 31st... Read more
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Battle of Westerplatte
The Battle of Westerplatte was the very first battle that took place after Germany invaded Poland and World War II began in Europe. During the... Read more
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Bombing of Wieluń
The bombing of Wieluń refers to the indiscriminate bombing of the Polish town of Wieluń by the German Luftwaffe on 1 September 1939, five minutes... Read more
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Charge at Krojanty
In the early morning hours of September 1, 1939, military forces of Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Later that day, events unfolded that would lead to... Read more
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Defense of the Polish Post Office in Danzig
At 04:00 Germans cut the phone and electricity lines to the building. At 04:45, just as the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein started shelling... Read more
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Fall Weiss: Germany Attacks Poland - First Battle of World War 2
Fall Weiss ("Case White", German spelling Fall Weiß) was a German strategic plan for a war with Poland prepared before 1939 and put into action on... Read more
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Slovak Forces Begin Attack on Poland in Concert with Nazi Invasion
The attack started on September 1, 1939 at 05:00. The 1st division occupied the village Javorina, town Zakopane and continued toward Nowy Targ... Read more
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Construction on Stutthof Concentration Camp is Completed
In September 1939, the Germans established the Stutthof camp in a wooded area west of Stutthof (Sztutowo), a town about 22 miles east of Danzig... Read more
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Winston Churchill is Re-Appointed First Lord Of The Admiralty
After the Tories were defeated in 1929, Churchill fell out with Baldwin over the question of giving India further self-government. Churchill became... Read more
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Battle of the Atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign of World War II, (though some say it was a series of naval military... Read more
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France Launches Saar Offensive
French patrols cross the frontier into Germany near Saarbrucken, marking the beginning of the Saar offensive. A total of 11 divisions advance along... Read more