October 1939 in History

Events in History

Oct 1 After a one-month Siege of Warsaw, hostile forces entered the city.

Event of Interest

Oct 1 Winston Churchill calls Russia a "riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma"

Oct 3 Lemmer-Urk Dike closes
Oct 4 Last Polish troops surrender

Event of Interest

Oct 6 Adolf Hitler announces plans to regulate Jewish problem

Oct 6 Adolf Hitler denies he intends to go to war against France and Britain
Oct 6 Last Polish army is defeated in World War II.
Oct 8 Germany annexes Western Poland

Event of Interest

Oct 11 Albert Einstein informs FDR of the possibilities of an atomic bomb

Oct 11 NAACP organized Legal Defense & Education Fund
Oct 14 German U-47 sinks British battleship HMS Royal Oak, 833 killed
Oct 15 LaGuardia Airport opens in NYC
Oct 15 Yeshiva of Mir closes after 124 years
Oct 16 Sugar rationing begins in Netherlands

Event of Interest

Oct 19 Hermann Goering begins plunder through Nazi's occupied areas

Catholic Encyclical

Oct 20 Pope Pius XII publishes his 1st encyclical Summi pontificatus

Oct 24 Nylon stockings go on sale for first time (Wilmington, Delaware)
Oct 25 William Saroyan's "Time of Your Life" premieres in NYC
Oct 26 Polish Jews forced into obligatory work service
Oct 28 Anti-German demonstrations and strikes in Czechoslovakia
Oct 28 Spitfire shoots German Heinkel-111 down above Scotland
Oct 29 Golden Gate International Exposition closes (1st closure)
Oct 30 German U boat fails on attack of English battleship Nelson with Winston Churchill, Dudley Pound & Charles Forbes aboard
Oct 30 USSR & Germany agree on partitioning Poland, Adolf Hitler deports Jews

Birthdays in History

Oct 2 Yury Glazkov, Soviet Air Force officer and cosmonaut (Soyuz 24), born in Moscow (d. 2008)
Oct 4 Henson Moore, American politician (Rep-R-LA, 1975-87), born in Lake Charles, Louisiana
Oct 5 Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, Filipino Supreme Court jurist, born in Binangonan, Rizal, Philippines
Oct 5 Marie-Claire Blais, French Canadian author and playwright, born in Quebec, Canada
Oct 5 Walter Wolf, Slovenian-Canadian industrialist, born in Graz, Austria
Oct 6 Doug Bereuter, American politician (Rep-R-Nebraska, 1979-2004), born in York, Nebraska
Oct 6 John LaFalce, American politician (Rep-D-NY, 1975-2003), born in Buffalo, New York
Oct 7 Harold Kroto, English chemist and Nobel laureate (1996), born in Wisbech (d. 2016)
Oct 7 John Hopcroft, American computer scientist, born in Seattle, Washington
Oct 8 Harvey Pekar, American comic book writer (American Splendor), born in Cleveland, Ohio (d. 2010)
Oct 8 Lynne Stewart, American defense attorney (known for representing controversial, poor, and often unpopular defendants), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2017)
Oct 9 Pierre Mertens, French-Belgian writer (Lettres Clandestines), born in Brussels, Belgium
Oct 10 Joe Pitts, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania), born in Lexington, Kentucky
Oct 11 Franklin Sonn, South African union leader (South African workers), born in Vosburg, South Africa
Oct 12 Carolee Schneemann, American performance artist, born in Fox Chase, Philadelphia
Oct 13 T. J. Cloutier, American poker player, born in Albany, California

Ralph Lauren (83 years old)

Oct 14 American fashion designer (Chaps, Polo Ralph Lauren), born in The Bronx, New York

Oct 18 Flavio Cotti, member of the Swiss Federal Council

Lee Harvey Oswald (1939-1963)

Oct 18 American assassin of JFK, born in New Orleans, Louisiana

Oct 22 Joaquim Chissano, president of Mozambique (1986- )
Oct 26 Vladimir Mikhailovich Beloborodov, Russian cosmonaut, born in Oloviyanna, Chita Region, Russia
Oct 30 Emily Howell Warner, American pilot, 1st woman to captain a commercial American airline plane, born in Denver, Colorado (d. 2020)
Oct 30 Leland H. Hartwell, American scientist (Nobel 2001 - discoveries of protein molecules that control the division (duplication) of cells), born in Los Angeles, California

Deaths in History

Oct 7 Harvey Cushing, American neurosurgeon (blood pressure studies), dies at 70
Oct 23 Zane Grey, American western novelist (Spirit of the Border), dies at 67
Oct 25 Cornelis JK van Aalst, president Dutch Business Society, dies at 73
Oct 29 Dwight B. Waldo, American educator (first President of Western Michigan University), dies at 75
Oct 31 Otto Rank [Rosenfeld], Austria psychoanalyst (Trauma of Geburt), dies