WHAT ALL HAPPENED JANUARY TO JULY 1939
Find out what all happened January to July 1939

The Grapes of Wrath, by American author John Steinbeck is first published by the Viking Press. (14. April 1939)

Spanish Civil War: Generalissimo Francisco Franco conquers Madrid after a three-year siege. (28. March 1939)

World War II: Italy invades Albania. (7. April 1939)

Spanish Civil War: Generalísimo Francisco Franco of the Spanish State announces the end of the Spanish Civil War, when the last of the Republican forces surrender. (1. April 1939)

Shooting begins on Paramount Pictures' Dr. Cyclops, the first horror film photographed in three-strip Technicolor. (12. June 1939)

Carpatho-Ukraine declares itself an independent republic, but is annexed by Hungary the next day. (15. March 1939)

The Irish Republican Army (IRA) begins a bombing and sabotage campaign in England. (16. January 1939)

World War II: German troops occupy the remaining part of Bohemia and Moravia; Czechoslovakia ceases to exist. (15. March 1939)

Siam is renamed Thailand by Plaek Pibulsonggram, the country's third prime minister. (24. June 1939)

The Columbia Lions and the Princeton Tigers play in the United States' first televised sporting event, a collegiate baseball game in New York City. (17. May 1939)

First flight of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning. (27. January 1939)

The U.S. Navy submarine USS Squalus sinks off the coast of New Hampshire during a test dive, causing the death of 24 sailors and two civilian technicians. The remaining 32 sailors and one civilian naval architect are rescued the following day. (23. May 1939)

Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanchang between the Kuomintang and Japan begins, (17. March 1939)

Slovakia declares independence under German pressure. (14. March 1939)

From Prague Castle, Hitler proclaims Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate. (16. March 1939)

Faisal II becomes King of Iraq. (4. April 1939)

Judge Joseph Force Crater, known as the "Missingest Man in New York", is declared legally dead. (6. June 1939)

The Black Friday bush fires burn 20,000 square kilometers of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people. (13. January 1939)

In Mumbai, Mohandas Gandhi begins to fast in protest at the autocratic rule in India. (3. March 1939)

Spanish Civil War: The Nationalists conclude their conquest of Catalonia and seal the border with France. (10. February 1939)