1939

Events from the year **1939 in the United States**.

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: Bibb Graves (Democratic) (until January 17), Frank M. Dixon (Democratic) (starting January 17)
* Governor of Arizona: Rawghlie Clement Stanford (Democratic) (until January 2), Robert Taylor Jones (Democratic) (starting January 2)
* Governor of Arkansas: Carl Edward Bailey (Democratic)
* Governor of California: Frank Merriam (Republican) (until January 2), Culbert Olson (Democratic) (starting January 2)
* Governor of Colorado: Teller Ammons (Democratic) (until January 10), Ralph Lawrence Carr (Republican) (starting January 10)
* Governor of Connecticut: Wilbur Lucius Cross (Democratic) (until January 4), Raymond E. Baldwin (Republican) (starting January 4)
* Governor of Delaware: Richard C. McMullen (Democratic)
* Governor of Florida: Fred P. Cone (Democratic)
* Governor of Georgia: Eurith D. Rivers (Democratic)
* Governor of Idaho: Barzilla W. Clark (Democratic) (until January 2), C. A. Bottolfsen (Republican) (starting January 2)
* Governor of Illinois: Henry Horner (Democratic)
* Governor of Indiana: M. Clifford Townsend (Democratic)
* Governor of Iowa: Nelson G. Kraschel (Democratic) (until January 12), George A. Wilson (Republican) (starting January 12)
* Governor of Kansas: Walter A. Huxman (Democratic) (until January 9), Payne Ratner (Republican) (starting January 9)
* Governor of Kentucky: Happy Chandler (Democratic) (until October 9), Keen Johnson (Democratic) (starting October 9)
* Governor of Louisiana: Richard W. Leche (Democratic) (until June 26), Earl K. Long (Democratic) (starting June 26)
* Governor of Maine: Lewis O. Barrows (Republican)
* Governor of Maryland: Harry W. Nice (Republican) (until January 11), Herbert R. O'Conor (Democratic) (starting January 11)
* Governor of Massachusetts: Charles F. Hurley (Democratic) (until January 5), Leverett Saltonstall (Republican) (starting January 5)
* Governor of Michigan:
	+ until January 1: Frank Murphy (Democratic)
	+ January 1 – March 16: Frank Fitzgerald (Republican)
	+ starting March 16: Luren Dickinson (Republican)
* Governor of Minnesota: Elmer A. Benson (Farmer-Labor) (until January 2), Harold E. Stassen (Republican) (starting January 2)
* Governor of Mississippi: Hugh L. White (Democratic)
* Governor of Missouri: Lloyd C. Stark (Democratic)
* Governor of Montana: Roy E. Ayers (Democratic)
* Governor of Nebraska: Robert Leroy Cochran (Democratic)
* Governor of Nevada: Richard Kirman Sr. (Democratic) (until January 2), Edward P. Carville (Democratic) (starting January 2)
* Governor of New Hampshire: Francis P. Murphy (Republican)
* Governor of New Jersey: A. Harry Moore (Democratic)
* Governor of New Mexico: Clyde Tingley (Democratic) (until January 1), John E. Miles (Democratic) (starting January 1)
* Governor of New York: Herbert H. Lehman (Democratic)
* Governor of North Carolina: Clyde R. Hoey (Democratic)
* Governor of North Dakota: William Langer (Republican) (until January 5), John Moses (Democratic) (starting January 5)
* Governor of Ohio: Martin L. Davey (Democratic) (until January 9), John W. Bricker (Republican) (starting January 9)
* Governor of Oklahoma: Ernest W. Marland (Democratic) (until January 9), Leon C. Phillips (Democratic) (starting January 9)
* Governor of Oregon: Charles H. Martin (Democratic) (until January 9), Charles A. Sprague (Republican) (starting January 9)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: George Howard Earle III (Democratic) (until January 17), Arthur James (Republican) (starting January 17)
* Governor of Rhode Island: Robert E. Quinn (Democratic) (until January 3), William Henry Vanderbilt III (Republican) (starting January 3)
* Governor of South Carolina: Olin D. Johnston (Democratic) (until January 17), Burnet R. Maybank (Democratic) (starting January 17)
* Governor of South Dakota: Leslie Jensen (Republican) (until January 3), Harlan J. Bushfield (Republican) (starting January 3)
* Governor of Tennessee: Gordon Browning (Democratic) (until January 16), Prentice Cooper (Democratic) (starting January 16)
* Governor of Texas: James V. Allred (Democratic) (until January 17), W. Lee O'Daniel (Democratic) (starting January 17)
* Governor of Utah: Henry H. Blood (Democratic)
* Governor of Vermont: George David Aiken (Republican)
* Governor of Virginia: James H. Price (Democratic)
* Governor of Washington: Clarence D. Martin (Democratic)
* Governor of West Virginia: Homer A. Holt (Democratic)
* Governor of Wisconsin: Philip La Follette (Wisconsin Progressive) (until January 2), Julius P. Heil (Republican) (starting January 2)
* Governor of Wyoming: Leslie A. Miller (Democratic) (until January 2), Nels H. Smith (Republican) (starting January 2)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of Alabama: Thomas E. Knight (Democratic) (until January 17), Albert A. Carmichael (Democratic) (starting January 17)
* Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas: Robert L. Bailey (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of California: George J. Hatfield (Republican) (until January 2), Ellis E. Patterson (Democratic) (starting January 2)
* Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: Frank J. Hayes (Democratic) (until January 10), John Charles Vivian (Republican) (starting January 10)
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: T. Frank Hayes (Democratic) (until January 4), James L. McConaughy (Republican) (starting January 4)
* Lieutenant Governor of Delaware: Edward W. Cooch (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Idaho: Charles C. Gossett (Democratic) (until January 2), Donald S. Whitehead (Republican) (starting January 2)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: John H. Stelle (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Henry F. Schricker (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: John K. Valentine (Democratic) (until January 12), Bourke B. Hickenlooper (Republican) (starting January 12)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: William M. Lindsay (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Carl E. Friend (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Keen Johnson (Democratic) (until October 9), Rodes K. Myers (political party unknown) (starting October 9)
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Earl K. Long (Democratic) (until June 26), Coleman Lindsey (Democratic) (starting June 26)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Francis E. Kelly (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan:
	+ until month and day unknown: Leo J. Nowicki (Democratic)
	+ month and day unknown: Luren D. Dickinson (Republican)
	+ starting month and day unknown: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: Gottfrid Lindsten (Republican) (until January 2), C. Elmer Anderson (Republican) (starting January 2)
* Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: Jacob Buehler Snider (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Frank Gaines Harris (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Montana: Hugh R. Adair (political party unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: Nate M. Parsons (Democratic) (until January 5), William E. Johnson (Republican) (starting January 5)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Fred S. Alward (political party unknown) (until January 2), Maurice J. Sullivan (Democratic) (starting January 2)
* Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico: Hiram M. Dow (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), James Murray, Sr. (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: Charles Poletti (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Wilkins P. Horton (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota: Thorstein H. H. Thoresen (Republican) (until January 5), Jack A. Patterson (Republican) (starting January 5)
* Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: Paul P. Yoder (Democratic) (until January 9), Paul M. Herbert (Republican) (starting January 9)
* Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma: James E. Berry (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Thomas Kennedy (Democratic) (until January 17), Samuel S. Lewis (Democratic) (starting January 17)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Raymond E. Jordan (Democratic) (until January 3), James O. McManus (Republican) (starting January 3)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Joseph Emile Harley (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota: Donald McMurchie (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: Bryan Pope (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Blan R. Maxwell (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Walter Frank Woodul (Democratic) (until January 17), Coke Robert Stevenson (Democratic) (starting January 17)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: William H. Wills (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Saxon W. Holt (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Washington: Victor A. Meyers (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Herman L. Ekern (Progressive) (until January 2), Walter S. Goodland (Republican) (starting January 2)

## Events

### January

* January 1
	+ The Hewlett-Packard Company is founded.
	+ Texas A&M University wins its only football national championship.
* January 5 – Amelia Earhart is officially declared dead after her 1937 disappearance.

### February

* February 6 – Raymond Chandler's hardboiled California private detective Philip Marlowe is introduced in his first full-length work of crime fiction, *The Big Sleep*, published by Alfred A. Knopf.
* February 20 – A Nazi rally was organized by the German American Bund at Madison Square Garden. More than 20,000 people attended, and Fritz Julius Kuhn was a featured speaker.
* February 21 – The Golden Gate International Exposition opens in San Francisco.
* February 23 – The 11th Academy Awards are presented at Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles without an official host, with Frank Capra's *You Can't Take It with You* winning the Academy Award for Outstanding Production. The film is receives the most nominations with seven, with Capra winning his third Best Director award. Michael Curtiz and William Keighley's *The Adventures of Robin Hood* receives the most awards with three.
* February 27 – Sitdown strikes are outlawed by the Supreme Court of the United States.

### March

* March 3 – Students at Harvard University demonstrate the new tradition of swallowing goldfish to reporters.
* March 28 – American adventurer Richard Halliburton delivers a last message from a Chinese junk, before he disappears on a voyage across the Pacific Ocean.

### April

* April 9 – African-American singer Marian Anderson performs before 75,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., after having been denied the use both of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution, and of a public high school by the federally controlled District of Columbia. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigns from the DAR because of their decision.
* April 10 – *Alcoholics Anonymous* ("The Big Book") is first published.
* April 14 – John Steinbeck's novel *The Grapes of Wrath* is first published.
* April 16 – The Boston Bruins defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs in the fifth and final game of the Stanley Cup Finals to capture their second championship.
* April 30 – The 1939 New York World's Fair opens.

### May

* May 1 – Batman makes his first appearance in Detective Comics #27.
* May 2 – Major League Baseball's Lou Gehrig, the legendary Yankee first baseman known as "The Iron Horse", ends his 2,130 consecutive games played streak after contracting amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The record stands for 56 years before Cal Ripken Jr. plays 2,131 consecutive games.
* May 20 – Pan American Airways begins trans-Atlantic mail service with the inaugural flight of its Boeing 314 flying boat Yankee Clipper from Port Washington, New York to Marseille.

### June

* June 1 – *Superman* begins publication.
* June 4 – The SS *St. Louis*, a ship carrying a cargo of 907 Jewish refugees, is denied permission to land in Florida after already having been turned away from Cuba. Forced to return to Europe, many of the passengers later die in Nazi death camps during the Holocaust.
* June 6 – The first Little League Baseball game is played in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
* June 12 – The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is officially dedicated in Cooperstown, New York.
* June 21 – The New York Yankees announce first baseman Lou Gehrig's retirement, after doctors reveal he has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

### July

* July 2
	+ The 1st World Science Fiction Convention opens in New York City.
	+ The newly-sculpted head of Theodore Roosevelt is dedicated at Mount Rushmore, by Harlan J. Bushfield and William S. Hart.
* July 4 – Lou Gehrig gives his "Farewell to Baseball" speech at Yankee Stadium. In it, he says, "Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth."
* July 8 – The Pan American Airways Boeing 314 flying boat *Yankee Clipper* inaugurates the world's first heavier-than-air North Atlantic air passenger service between the United States (Port Washington, New York) and Britain.

### August

* August 2 – Albert Einstein writes to President Franklin Roosevelt about developing the atomic bomb using uranium. This leads to the creation of the Manhattan Project.
* August 15 – MGM's classic musical film *The Wizard of Oz*, based on L. Frank Baum's famous novel, and starring Judy Garland as Dorothy, premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

### September

* September 5 – World War II: The United States declares its neutrality in the war.
* September 11 – Mark Twain National Forest is established.
* September 21 – Radio station WJSV in Washington, D.C. records an entire broadcast day for preservation in the National Archives.
* September 29 – Gerald J. Cox, speaking at an American Water Works Association meeting, becomes the first person to publicly propose the fluoridation of public water supplies in the United States.
* September 30 – 1939 Waynesburg vs. Fordham football game, the first televised American football game, between college teams Fordham University and Waynesburg College at Randall's Island, New York.

### October

* October 8 - The New York Yankees defeat the Cincinnati Reds in the fourth and final game of the World Series, to capture their fourth consecutive championship.
* October 11 – Manhattan Project: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt is presented a letter signed by Albert Einstein, urging the United States to rapidly develop the atomic bomb.
* October 15 – The New York Municipal Airport (later renamed La Guardia Airport) is dedicated.
* October 24 – Nylon stockings go on sale for the first time anywhere in Wilmington, Delaware.
* October 25 – *The Time of Your Life*, a drama by William Saroyan, debuts in New York City.

### November

* November 4 – World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the United States Customs Service to implement the Neutrality Act of 1939, allowing cash-and-carry purchases of weapons to non-belligerent nations.
* November 6 – *Hedda Hopper's Hollywood* debuts on radio with Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper as host (the show runs until 1951, making Hopper a powerful figure in the Hollywood elite).
* November 8 – CBS television station W2XAB resumes test transmission with an all-electronic system broadcast from the top of the Chrysler Building in New York City.
* November 15 – In Washington, D.C., U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial.

### December

* December 2 – La Guardia Airport opens for business in New York City.
* December 15 – The film *Gone with the Wind*, starring Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Olivia de Havilland and Leslie Howard, premieres at Loew's Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. It is based on Margaret Mitchell's best-selling novel. It is the longest American film made up to this time (nearly four hours).
* December 22 – The second cel-animated feature film and the first produced by an American studio other than Walt Disney Productions, *Gulliver's Travels* (by Fleischer Studios, and very loosely based upon the book by Jonathan Swift), is released.

## Memoriam

* January 8 – Charles Eastman, Native American author, physician, reformer, helped found the Boy Scouts of America (aged 80; Detroit, MI, USA)
* January 13 – Arthur Barker, son of Ma Barker and a member of the Barker-Karpis gang (aged 39; San Francisco, CA, USA)
* January 25 – Helen Ware, stage and screen actress (aged 61; Carmel, CA, USA)
* January 26
	+ Joseph I. France, U.S. Senator from Maryland from 1917 to 1923 (aged 65; Port Deposit, MD, USA)
	+ Newell Sanders, businessman and politician (aged 88; Lookout Mountain, TN, USA)
* February 17 – Fred Gamble, actor (aged 70; Hollywood, CA, USA)
* March 19 – Lloyd L. Gaines, civil rights activist (aged 28; Chicago, IL, USA)
* April 6 – Bennie Dickson, bank robber (aged 27; Topeka, KS, USA)
* April 28 – Anne Walter Fearn, American physician (aged 71; Berkeley, CA, USA)
* May 2 – Phillips Smalley, actor and director (aged 73; Hollywood, CA, USA)
* May 10 – James Parrott, actor (aged 41; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* May 14 – Fanny Searls, American botanist (aged 87; Santa Barbara, CA, USA)
* May 20
	+ Joseph Carr, 2nd president of the National Football League (aged 59; Columbus, OH, USA)
	+ John M. Parker, 37th Governor of Louisiana (aged 76; Pass Christian, MS, USA)
* May 23 – Witmer Stone, ornithologist and botanist (aged 72; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
* May 27 – Alfred A. Cunningham, first United States Marine Corps aviator (aged 58; Sarasota, FL, USA)
* May 30 – Floyd Roberts, race car driver (aged 39; Indianapolis, IN, USA)
* June 4 – Tommy Ladnier, jazz trumpeter (aged 39; Manhattan, NY, USA)
* June 6 – George Fawcett, actor (aged 78; Nantucket, MA, USA)
* June 9 – Owen Moore, actor (aged 52; Beverly Hills, CA, USA)
* June 16 – Chick Webb, musician (aged 34; Baltimore, MD, USA)
* June 19 – Grace Abbott, social worker and activist (aged 60; Chicago, IL, USA)
* June 28
	+ James William McCarthy, judge (aged 66; Jersey City, NJ, USA)
	+ Bobby Vernon, actor (aged 42; Hollywood, CA, USA)
* July 7 – Deacon White, baseball player and MLB Hall of Famer (aged 91; St. Charles Township, IL, USA)
* August 2 – Harvey Spencer Lewis, mystic (aged 55; San Jose, CA, USA)
* August 23 – Sidney Howard, writer (aged 48; Tyringham, MA, USA)
* September 13 – Eugene Foss, 45th Governor of Massachusetts (aged 80; Boston, MA, USA)
* September 15 – Lawrence Yates Sherman, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1913 to 1921 (aged 80; Daytona Beach, FL, USA)
* October 1 – Conway Tearle, actor (aged 60; Hollywood, CA, USA)
* October 3 – Fay Templeton, musical comedy star (aged 73; San Francisco, CA, USA)
* October 7 – Harvey Cushing, neurosurgeon (aged 70; New Haven, CT, USA)
* October 13 – Ford Sterling, actor (aged 55; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* October 23 – Zane Grey, writer (aged 67; Altadena, CA, USA)
* October 28 – Alice Brady, actress (aged 46; New York City, NY, USA)
* October 29 – Dwight B. Waldo, educator and historian (aged 75; Kalamazoo, MI, USA)
* November 13 – Lois Weber, actress (aged 60; Hollywood, CA, USA)
* November 16 – Pierce Butler, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (aged 73; Washington, DC, USA)
* December 11 – John Harron, actor (aged 36; Seattle, WA, USA)
* December 12 – Charles Rudolph Walgreen, businessman (aged 66; Chicago, IL, USA)
* December 12 – Douglas Fairbanks, actor (aged 56; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
* December 19 – Reginald F. Nicholson, United States Navy admiral (aged 87; Bethesda, MD, USA)
* December 22 – Ma Rainey, blues singer (aged 53; Columbus, GA, USA)
* December 26 – Blanche Butler Ames, First Lady of Mississippi (aged 92; Volusia County, FL, USA)