1939
From Multiversal Omnipedia
Contents |
Events
Dated Events
- Real World: January 24. In Chile, an earthquake results in the death of 30,000 people.
- Real World: January 26. Barcelona is captured by troops loyal to Francisco Franco.
- Real World: February 2. Hungary joins the Anti-Comintern Pact.
- Real World: February 27. Borley Rectory, reputed to be the most haunted house in England, burns down. One witness claimed to have seen ghosts moving around within the burning building.
- Real World: March 2. Pius XII becomes the Pope.
- Real World: March 3. Gandhi begins to fast in protest against the injustices of British rule in India.
- Real World: March 14. Slovakia splits from Czechoslovakia.
- Real World: March 15. German forces occupy the remainder of Czechoslovakia (save newly independent Slovakia).
- Real World: March 22. Lithuania transfers the Klaipeda region to German control.
- Real World: March 28. The Spanish Civil War ends with Franco's conquest of Madrid. Adventurer Richard Halliburton makes his last contact before disappearing.
- Real World: April 7. Albania is invaded by Italy.
- Real World: April 11. Hungary withdraws from the League of Nations.
- DC (Pre-Crisis Earth-2): May. The first recorded case of The Bat-Man, when he stops the Chemical Syndicate from gaining control of Apex Chemicals. (Detective Comics #27, Secret Origins #6)
- Real World: May 7. Spain withdraws from the League of Nations.
- DC (Generations): Summer. Batman and Superman team up for the first time (in their current identities) to defeat the Ultra-Humanite at the Metropolis World's Fair. The Ultra-Humanite switches brains with his henchman Ell, alias Lex Luthor. Luthor's brain is preserved by the Ultra-Humanite's robot servants, who spend the next 69 years repairing it. (Superman & Batman: Generations, Superman & Batman: Generations II)
- Real World: June 4. The S.S. St. Louis- with 963 European Jewish refugees on board- is turned away from Florida after already being denied permission to land in Cuba. The ship returns to Europe, and most of the passengers are later killed while in Nazi concentration camps.
- Real World: August 2. Albert Einstein writes a letter- discussing the need to develop a uranium-based atomic bomb- to U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt.
- Real World: August 23. Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin come to an agreement- the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact- to divide eastern Europe between them.
- Real World: September 1. Germany invades western Poland, marking the beginning of World War II.
- Real World: September 3. Australia, France and the United Kingdom declare war on Germany.
- Real World: September 5. The United States declares itself neutral in the war with Germany.
- Real World: September 6. South Africa declares war on Germany.
- Real World: September 10. Canada declares war on Germany.
- Real World: September 17. The Soviet Union invades eastern Poland.
- Real World: October 8. Western Poland is annexed by Germany.
- Real World: November 8. Two agents of the British Secret Intelligence Service are captured by the Germans, leading to many British agents throughout German-occupied territories being found and arrested. Adolf Hitler escapes an assassination attempt.
- Real World: November 16. Al Capone is released from Alcatraz.
- Real World: November 30. The Soviet Union invades Finland.
- Real World: December 14. The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for its invasion of Finland.
Undated Events
- DC (Pre-Crisis Earth-2), DC (Generations): Batman makes his debut. (Detective Comics #265, Secret Origins #6, Superman & Batman: Generations II)
- Universal Monsters: Events of Son of Frankenstein.
- Real World: Nuclear fission is discovered.
- Real World: Kirlian photography is invented.
New Fictional Works
Notable Books
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, The Outsider and Others by H.P. Lovecraft.
Notable Films
Another Thin Man, Buck Rogers: Destination Saturn (serial), The Cat and the Canary, Charlie Chan at Treasure Island, Charlie Chan in City in Darkness, Charlie Chan in Honolulu, Charlie Chan in Reno, Clouds Over Europe (serial), Dick Tracy's G-Men (serial), Gulliver's Travels, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Man in the Iron Mask, The Man They Could Not Hang, The Phantom Creeps (serial), The Return of Dr. X, The Saint in London, The Saint Strikes Back, Son of Frankenstein, Tarzan Finds a Son, Topper Takes a Trip, The Wizard of Oz, Wuthering Heights, Zorro's Fighting Legion.
Notable Comic Books
Motion Picture Funnies #1 (first Sub-Mariner), Detective Comics #27 (first Batman), Superman #1, Marvel Comics #1 (first Human Torch).
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