Timeline September 1939

Events in September 1939 25

• 1856 – 1939 Freud Father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud founded psychoanalysis and introduced concepts like the unconscious mind, repression, and the Oedipus complex.
• 1856 – 1939 Sigmund Freud Father of Psychoanalysis Founded the clinical method of treating psychopathology through dialogue between patient and psychoanalyst.
• 1867 – 1939 Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) Died 6 September 1939, aged 71 Rackham was an English book illustrator of the golden age of illustration. He illustrated Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Grimm's Fairy Tales. His last work was The Wind in the Willows.
• 1867 – 1939 Carl Laemmle (1867-1939) Died 24 September 1939, aged 72 Laemmle was a German-born film pioneer who founded Universal Pictures. The studio produced Dracula, Frankenstein and All Quiet on the Western Front. He sponsored affidavits that helped hundreds of German Jews emigrate to the United States.
• 1880 – 1939 Werner von Fritsch (1880-1939) Died 22 September 1939, aged 59 Fritsch was Commander-in-Chief of the German Army until 1938, when false homosexuality charges forced him out. He was killed near Warsaw during the invasion of Poland. He was one of the first German generals to die in the war.
• 1885 – 1939 Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885-1939) Died 18 September 1939, aged 54 Witkacy was a Polish playwright, painter, novelist and philosopher and one of the major figures of the interwar avant-garde. He fled east after the German invasion. He took his own life on hearing of the Soviet invasion.
• 1935 – 1939 The Hoboken Four -- first radio exposure Sinatra performs with a vocal group called the Hoboken Four on Major Bowes Amateur Hour in September 1935, winning the contest and beginning a touring engagement with Bowes's traveling show. He leaves the group, begins performing solo in New Jersey clubs and catches the attention of bandleader Harry James, who hires him in 1939. Sinatra is 23, unknown outside New Jersey, and already possessed of a musical intelligence that James immediately recognises. His recordings with the Harry James Orchestra are his first commercially released records -- modest sellers but evidence of extraordinary promise.
• 1939 Battles of Khalkhin Gol Soviet and Mongolian forces defeat Japan on the Mongolian border An undeclared border war between Soviet-Mongolian and Japanese forces ended with a decisive Soviet victory under Georgy Zhukov in late August. A ceasefire took effect on 16 September. The defeat pushed Japan away from war with the Soviet Union and towards expansion southward.
• 1939 Battle of Westerplatte Polish garrison holds out against German assault The battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on the Polish Military Transit Depot at Westerplatte in Danzig, firing some of the first shots of the war. Fewer than 200 defenders held out for a week. The battle became a symbol of Polish resistance.
• 1939 German invasion of Poland Germany attacks Poland without a declaration of war German forces crossed into Poland on 1 September, and the invasion is usually taken as the start of the Second World War in Europe. Polish forces were overwhelmed by attacks from the west, north and south. The last Polish field units surrendered on 6 October.
• 1939 Germany invades Poland World War II begins — September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland at dawn on September 1, 1939, using Blitzkrieg tactics. Britain and France issued ultimatums and declared war on Germany two days later, beginning World War II.
• 1939 Invasion of Poland Start of WWII Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland, marking the beginning of the Second World War.
• 1939 Operation Pied Piper Mass evacuation of British children begins The British government began moving schoolchildren, mothers and others out of cities it expected to be bombed. About 1.5 million people were evacuated in the first days. Many returned home during the Phoney War.
• 1939 Britain and France declare war Ultimatum to Germany expires Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, after Hitler ignored their ultimatum to withdraw from Poland. Neville Chamberlain announced the declaration in a radio broadcast.
• 1939 Britain and France declare war on Germany The Western Allies respond to the invasion of Poland Germany ignored an ultimatum to withdraw from Poland, so Britain declared war on the morning of 3 September and France followed that afternoon. Neville Chamberlain announced the declaration in a radio broadcast. Australia and New Zealand declared war on the same day.
• 1939 Sinking of SS Athenia A U-boat torpedoes a British liner on the first day of the war The German submarine U-30 sank the passenger liner Athenia off the Hebrides hours after Britain declared war. 117 civilians and crew died, including 28 Americans. Germany falsely denied responsibility for years.
• 1939 Reports to Bletchley Park The day after the declaration Turing arrives at Bletchley Park the day after Britain declares war. He is put on naval Enigma, generally reckoned the hardest of the German ciphers and the one others have abandoned as unbreakable. Within months he has redesigned the Polish bomba into something fundamentally different.
• 1939 – 2026 Claudette Colvin (1939-2026) Died 13 January 2026, aged 86 American civil rights figure who at fifteen refused to give up her bus seat to a white woman in Montgomery, Alabama, nine months before Rosa Parks did the same.
• 1939 – 2026 Susumu Tonegawa Japanese Molecular Biologist Japanese molecular biologist who was awarded the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering V(D)J recombination, the genetic mechanism by which the immune system generates millions of different antibodies from a limited set of genes. Born in Nagoya, he solved one of biology's oldest puzzles while working in Switzerland, then spent over 40 years at MIT, where he reinvented himself as a neuroscientist pioneering the use of optogenetics to identify and manipulate memory cells in the brain.
• 1939 Susumu Tonegawa born in Nagoya Born Susumu Tonegawa in Nagoya, Japan. His father was a textile engineer whose job moved the family frequently, so Susumu was sent to live with an uncle in Tokyo to attend the renowned Hibiya High School.
• 1939 Siege of Warsaw The Polish capital surrenders after heavy bombardment German forces surrounded Warsaw and bombarded it from the air and with artillery. The city suffered heavy civilian casualties and widespread destruction. The garrison surrendered on 28 September.
• 1939 Sikorsky VS-300 first flight Sikorsky's pioneering helicopter leaves the ground Igor Sikorsky made the first tethered flight of the VS-300 in Stratford, Connecticut. It was the first practical single main rotor helicopter with a tail rotor. The design became the standard layout for helicopters.
• 1939 First Battle of Changsha Chinese forces repel a Japanese offensive in Hunan Japanese troops advanced on Changsha, the capital of Hunan, and were forced back by the National Revolutionary Army. It was the first big Chinese defensive success after the fall of Wuhan. Chinese morale improved as a result.
• 1939 Soviet Union invades Poland USSR attacks from the east The Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east on September 17, 1939, under the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany. Poland was divided between the two powers.
• 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland The Red Army invades eastern Poland Under the secret terms of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Soviet forces entered eastern Poland on 17 September. Germany and the Soviet Union then divided the country between them. Hundreds of thousands of Polish soldiers were taken prisoner.