After transcribing the 1940 census I became curious about the temperament of the people in that time. Since we all know that WWII started in the European theater in 1939, I wondered what kinds on things people would be reading in the newspapers, or talking to friends and family about over the course of the year before the census.
Well.... there was a lot of stuff to talk about in 1939: So much so I had a really hard time just narrowing it down to this epic list:
| Timeline 1939 | ||
| 1939 | ||
| Jan | ||
| Superman Comic Strip Debuts | 6 | |
| 30 | Hitler threatens the Jews during his speech to the German Reichstag | |
| Feb | ||
| Spanish Gov't Flees to France | 6 | |
| 9 | Belgian Gov't Falls | |
| Bette Davis and Spencer Tracy win Academy Awards for "You Can’t Take it With You: | 11 | |
| 15 | German battleship Bismark is launched | |
| Mar | ||
| Glamour magazine begins publishing | 7 | Guy Lombardo records "Auld Lang Syne" |
| Nazi Germany occupies Chechoslovakia | 16 | |
| 20 | 7000 Jews flee German occupied Memel Lithuania | |
| Lithuania surrenders Memel to Germany | 22 | |
| 28 | Spanish civil War Ends | |
| Britain & France agree to support Poland if invaded by Germany | 31 | |
| Apr | ||
| 5 | Membership in Hitler Youth becomes obligatory | |
| Great Britian and Poland sign military pact | 6 | |
| 7 | Italy invades Albania | |
| Marian Anderson sings before 75,000 at Lincoln Memorial after being rejected by the DAR to sing at their constitutional Hall due to the fact she is Black, Causing thousands of DAR members to resign including Eleanor Roosevelt | 9 | |
| 14 | John Steinbeck novel "The Grapes of Wrath" published | |
| Stalin requests British, French & Russian anti-Nazi pact | 16 | |
| 19 | Connecticut finally approves Bill of Rights (148 years late) | |
| Whitestone Bridge connecting the New York boroughs of Bronx and Queens open | 29 | |
| First public TV with FDR opening the NY worlds Fair | 30 | New York Worlds Fair Opens (2 years) |
| May | ||
| Batman Comics published | 1 | |
| 2 | Lou Gehrig ends 2,130 game streak, Yanks beat Tigers 22-2 | |
| Germany & Italy announce alliance Rome-Berlin Axis | 7 | |
| 13 | SS St. Louis departs Hamburg with 937 Jewish Fugitives | |
| First Food Stamps are issued | 16 | |
| 20 | 1st Transatlantic airmail (NY-Marsseille) | |
| Hitler & Mussolini sign "Pact of Steel" | 22 | |
| 23 | British parliament plans to make Palestine independent by 1949 | |
| Jun | ||
| 1st televised boxing match - Lon Nova defeats Max Baer | 1 | British submarine Thetis sinds in Liverpool Bal with all 99 on board |
| George VI & Elizabeth become the 1st King & Queen of Britain to visit USA | 7 | |
| 17 | Last public guillotining in France | |
| Test flight of 1st rocket plane using liquid propellants | 20 | |
| 21 | Lou Gehrig retires after ALS diagnosis | |
| Pan Ams 1st US to England flight | 24 | |
| Jul | ||
| Lou Gehrig Day - Makes "Luckiest Man" speech | 3 | |
| 13 | Frank Sinatra makes his recording debut | |
| Clara Adams (NYC) is 1st woman to complete round world flight | 15 | "Wizard of Oz" Premiers at Grauman's Chinese Theater |
| Aug | ||
| USSR & Germany sign a non-aggression pact | 23 | |
| 26 | Belgium Mobilizes | |
| Netherland mobilizes | 28 | |
| 30 | Poland mobilizes | |
| Japanese army driven out of Mongolia | 31 | |
| Sept | ||
| Switzerland proclaims neutrality then mobilizes | 1 | Hitler orders extermination of mentally ill |
| 1 | WW2 starts, Germany invades Poland, takes Danzig | |
| German submarine U-30 sinks British passenger ship SS Athenia 117 people die (28 Americans) | 3 | Britain declares war on Germany. Then 6 hours later France and then Austrailia, New Zealand, South Africa & Canada |
| Netherlands and Belguim declare neutrality | 4 | |
| 5 | FDR declares US neutrality | |
| 1st German air attack on Great Britain | 6 | |
| 7 | NY WRUL begins radio transmission | |
| Iraq & Saudi Arabia declare war on Nazi Germany | 11 | |
| 17 | German U-29 sinks British aircraft carrier Corageous, 519 die | |
| German regular army Wehrmacht murder 100 Jews in Lukov Poland | 19 | |
| 28 | Soviet-German treats gives Lithuania to USSR | |
| 1st televised football game (Fordham vs Waynesburg at NYC) | 30 | |
| 30 | 41 U boats are sunk in Sept | |
| Oct | ||
| Hitler announces plans to "regulate" Jewish problem | 6 | Hitler denies he intends to go to war against France & Britain |
| Albert Einstein informs FDR of possibilities of atomic bomb | 11 | |
| 14 | German U-47 sinks British battleship HMS royal Oak, 833 die | |
| Laguardia Airport opens in NCY | 15 | |
| 17 | "Mr Smith goes to Washington" Premiers starring Jimmy Stewart and Jean Arthur | |
| Nazi requires wearing of Star of David by all Jews | 24 | Nylon Stockings go on sale for the first time |
| Polish Jews forced into obligatory work service | 26 | |
| 31 | 27 U boats are sunk in October | |
| Nov | ||
| First animal conceived by artificial insemination (rabbit) | 1 | |
| 4 | US allows "cash & carry" arms sales during WW2 | |
| WRGB TV channel 6 in Schenectady-Albany-Troy NY (CBS) 1st broadcast | 6 | |
| 8 | Failed assassination attempt on Hitler in Burgerbraukeller, Munich | |
| FDR lays cornerstone of Jefferson Memorial in Wash DC | 15 | Nazis begin mass murder of Warsaw Jews |
| US Social Security Administration approves 1st unemployment check | ||
| USSR invades Finland | 30 | 21 U Boats sunk in November |
| Dec | ||
| "Gone With the Wind" Premiers in Atlanta | 15 | |
| 26 | Montgomery Ward introduces Rudolph the 9th Reindeer | |
| First flight of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber prototype | 29 | |
| 31 | 25 U Boats sunk in December |
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