Timeline December 1939

Events in December 1939 9

• 1883 – 1939 Douglas Fairbanks (1883-1939) Died 12 December 1939, aged 56 Fairbanks was an American actor, and swashbuckling films such as The Mark of Zorro and Robin Hood made him a silent film star. He co-founded United Artists. He was also a founder and the first president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
• 1939 First Hallucinations At the age of ten, began experiencing the vivid hallucinations that would define her art: flashing lights, fields of dots, and flowers that spoke to her. Patterns in fabric would come alive, multiply, and threaten to engulf her — a process she later called 'self-obliteration'. Her earliest known dotted artwork, a drawing of her mother's kimono covered in spots, dates from this year.
• 1939 Charlie Parker's breakthrough on Cherokee New York Finds his new harmonic approach while jamming on Cherokee.
• 1939 – 1940 Battle of Suomussalmi Winter War battle in which outnumbered Finnish ski troops encircled and destroyed the Soviet 163rd and 44th divisions, capturing large amounts of equipment.
• 1939 Battle of the River Plate British cruisers engage the Admiral Graf Spee Three British cruisers attacked the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee off the coast of Uruguay. The damaged Graf Spee took refuge in Montevideo and was scuttled on 17 December. It was the first major naval battle of the war.
• 1939 Soviet Union expelled from the League of Nations The League responds to the attack on Finland The League of Nations expelled the Soviet Union for invading Finland. It was the only time the League expelled a member. By then the organisation had little influence left.
• 1939 Gone with the Wind premieres Selznick's Civil War epic opens in Atlanta The film of Margaret Mitchell's novel premiered in Atlanta and starred Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable. Adjusted for inflation, it became the highest-grossing film ever made. It won eight competitive Academy Awards, and Hattie McDaniel became the first African American to win an Oscar.
• 1939 Erzincan earthquake A massive earthquake devastates eastern Turkey A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck eastern Anatolia in severe winter weather and destroyed the city of Erzincan. About 33,000 people died. It is one of the deadliest earthquakes in Turkish history.
• 1939 – present Vienna New Year's Concert Neujahrskonzert An annual tradition broadcast globally, featuring the music of the Strauss family.