December 1939 in History

Events in History

Event of Interest

Dec 1 SS-Fuhrer Himmler begins deportation of Polish Jews

Leading Nazi and Reichsführer of the SS Heinrich Himmler

Dec 2 British Imperial Airways & British Airways merge to form BOAC
Dec 2 NY's La Guardia Airport began operations as an airliner from Chicago lands, 1 minute after midnight
Dec 9 Russian air raid on Helsinki
Dec 10 KNVB celebrates 50th anniversary
Dec 12 Russ Indigirka capsizes in blizzard off Japanese coast; 750 die
Dec 13 Battle of the River Plate - 3 British cruisers vs German pocket battleship Graf Spee
Dec 14 Soviet Union attacks Finland-League of Nations drops Soviet Union
Dec 15 1st commercial manufacture of nylon yarn in Seaford, Delaware
Dec 17 German pocket battleship Graf Spee scuttled by its crew off Uruguay
Dec 18 Finnish army recaptures Agläjärvi (Karelia)
Dec 19 Russian air & ground attack against Finnish positions near Summa
Dec 20 Radio Australia begins overseas shortwave service

Appointment of Interest

Dec 21 Adolf Hitler names Adolf Eichmann leader of "Referat IV B", responsible for evictions and Jewish immigration

Nazi SS Officer and War Criminal Adolf Eichmann

Dec 22 Finnish counter offensive at Petsamo
Dec 22 Freight train and passenger train head-on collision kills 101 at Markdorf, Germany
Dec 22 Genthin, Germany rail disaster - 186 die in train wreck as an express has a rear-end collision with a train stopped at the station
Dec 23 Finnish counter offensive at Summa
Dec 23 South Australia score 7-821 against Queensland

Event of Interest

Dec 24 World War II: Pope Pius XII makes a Christmas Eve appeal for peace.

Dec 25 Grimmett & Ward rip through Qld except Bill Brown (156)
Dec 25 Montgomery Ward introduces Rudolph the 9th red-nosed reindeer
Dec 26 Earthquake in East Anatolia Turkey
Dec 26 Mine strikes in Borinage Brussels
Dec 27 1st American skimobiles (North Conway, NH)
Dec 27 Between 20,000 and 40,000 die in magnitude 8 earthquake in Erzincam, Turkey
Dec 29 First flight of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber prototype
Dec 30 O'Reilly takes 14-45 (8-23 & 6-22) as NSW crush Qld in 2 days
Dec 31 Dutch national debt hits ƒ4,218,553,180.99

Birthdays in History

Dec 2 Francis Fox, Canadian politician (member of the Senate of Canada), born in Montreal, Quebec

Harry Reid (1939-2021)

Dec 2 American attorney and politician (U.S. Senator from Nevada, 1987-2017; U.S. House of Representatives, 1983-87), born in Searchlight, Nevada [1]

Dec 2 Yael Dayan, Israeli writer and politician, born in Nahalal, Israel
Dec 5 Jack Whitten, American abstract painter, born in Bessemer, Alabama (d. 2018)
Dec 8 Lynn Wilson, contractor and multi-millionaire
Dec 9 Patricia Stephens Due, African-American civil rights activist (FAMU jail-in), born in Quincy, Florida (d. 2012)
Dec 10 Barry Cunliffe, English archaeologist and university professor, born in Portsmouth, England
Dec 11 Thomas McGuane, American writer (Colf Feet, Tom Horn, Missouri Breaks), born in Wyandotte, Michigan
Dec 11 Tom Hayden, American civil rights and antiwar activist and politician (Rep-D-Ca), born in Royal Oak, Michigan (d. 2016)
Dec 17 Charles V. Bush, African-American pioneer (1st African-American US Air Force Academy Graduate and US Supreme Court Page), (d. 2012)
Dec 18 Christoffel "Stoffel" van de Merwe, South African minister of Education
Dec 18 Harold E. Varmus, American scientist (1989 Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology for cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes.), born in Oceanside, New York
Dec 18 Michael J. Moorcock, English sci-fi author (Alien Heat, Bull & Spear), born in London, England
Dec 20 Dianne Arndt, American artist and photographer, born in Springfield, Massachusetts
Dec 21 Lloyd Axworthy, Canadian politician, born in North Battleford, Canada
Dec 25 Christopher Wates, English real estate developer/multi-millionaire
Dec 26 Lynn Martin, American politician, (Secretary of Labor, 1991-93; US Congress, 1981-91), born in Evanston, Illinois
Dec 28 Philip Anschutz, American businessman
Dec 29 Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Maldivian politician & Islamic scholar, born in Malé, Maldives
Dec 30 Doeke Eisma, Dutch sociologist and politician (D66)
Dec 30 Glenda Adams (née Fenton), Australian novelist (Dancing on Coral; Longlegs), and playwright (The Monkey Trap), born in Ryde, New South Wales, Australia (d. 2007)
Dec 31 Hugh Lewin, South African anti-apartheid activist and writer (Bandiet: Seven Years in a South African Prison), born in Lydenburg, South Africa (d. 2019)

Deaths in History

Dec 18 Heywood Broun, American journalist (1st President of American Newspaper Guild), dies of pneumonia at 51
Dec 19 Karl Wagenfeld, Low German writer (Lucifer, Death & Devil), dies at 70
Dec 20 Hans Langsdorff, German Kriegsmarine (navy) captain commits suicide after scuttling his ship, the 'Admiral Graf Spee,' due to damage from the Battle of the River Plat (near Argentina)