March 1939

• A munitions dump exploded in Hirakata, Osaka, Japan. Early estimates put the dead at over 200 people and almost 500 wounded.{{cite news |last=Sheba |first=Kimpei |date=March 2, 1939 |title=Arsenal Blow Up; 200 Die | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=1 }}
• The Papal conclave to elect a new pope began.
• The drama film The Little Princess starring Shirley Temple premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.{{cite web |url=http://www.graumanschinese.org/1939.html |title=1939 |website=GraumansChinese.org |access-date=November 7, 2015 }}
• Born: Leo Brouwer, composer and guitarist, in Havana, Cuba

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• Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli was elected the new pope. He took the name of Pius XII.
• France named 82-year-old Philippe Pétain as the ambassador to Francoist Spain.{{cite news |date=March 2, 1939 |title=France Names Marshal Petain Envoy to Spain |newspaper=Brooklyn Eagle |page=1}}
• A book titled The Strange Death of Adolf Hitler was published in the United States, immediately drawing worldwide attention. Written anonymously, the book claimed that high officials within the Nazi Party assassinated Hitler the night before the Munich Conference by arranging for his omelette to be poisoned. The book claimed that Hitler was now being impersonated by body doubles.{{cite news |url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1939/3/3/author-declares-he-impersonated-hitler-pnew/ |title=Author Declares He Impersonated Hitler |date=March 3, 1939 |newspaper=The Harvard Crimson |access-date=November 7, 2015}}{{cite news |date=March 14, 1939 |title="Hitler Dead" Book's Amazing Claim |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article49454160 |newspaper=The Northern Standard |location=Darwin |page=8}} The book was made into a film of the same name in 1943.
• Died: Howard Carter, 64, English archaeologist

• Nazi Germany issued twelve commandments for the country's health. Among them were abstinence of youth from alcohol and tobacco, abstinence from drinking and driving and physical exercise for the entire nation. Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach presented Adolf Hitler, who neither smoked nor drank alcohol, as a role model for all Germans to follow.{{cite news |date=March 4, 1939 |title=Nazis Lay Down Twelve Rules in War on Drinking | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=6 }}
• Mahatma Gandhi began a fast in favour of administrative reform.{{cite web|url=http://musicandhistory.com/music-and-history-by-the-year/200-1939.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20140605024431/http://musicandhistory.com/music-and-history-by-the-year/200-1939.html |archive-date=June 5, 2014 |title=1939 |website=MusicAndHistory |access-date=November 7, 2015 }}
• Born: Bill Frindall, cricket scorer and statistician, in Epsom, Surrey, England (d. 2009)

• The Cartagena Uprising began.
• Hedy Lamarr and Gene Markey eloped in Mexico.{{cite news |date=March 5, 1939 |title=Hedy Lamarr Weds Markey in Elopement | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=1 }}
• "Deep Purple" by Bess Wain & Larry Clinton topped the American pop charts as compiled by Your Hit Parade.{{cite web |url=http://hitsofalldecades.com/chart_hits/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2503&Itemid=52 |title=Your Hit Parade (USA) Weekly Single Charts From 1939 |last=Kowal |first=Barry |date=December 22, 2014 |website=Hits of All Decades |access-date=November 7, 2015 }}
• Born: Jack Fisher, baseball player, in Frostburg, Maryland; Carlos Vereza, actor, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

• Segismundo Casado conducted a coup against the Juan Negrín government and formed the National Defense Council.{{cite book |date=1982 |editor-last=Cortada |editor-first=James W. |title=Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939 |location=Westport, Connecticut |publisher=Greenwood Press |pages=513–514 |isbn=0-313-22054-9 }}
• In Cartagena, the Spanish destroyer Sánchez Barcáiztegui was bombed by the Nationalists and severely damaged.
• Born: Benyamin Sueb, comedian, actor and singer, in Batavia, Dutch East Indies (d. 1995)
• Died: Herbert Mundin, 40, English actor (auto accident)

• United Automobile Workers amended its constitution to bar communists and any other advocates of totalitarianism from union offices and future membership.{{cite news |last=Ator |first=Joseph |date=March 7, 1939 |title=Reds, Nazis and Fascists Barred from Auto Union | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=3 }}
• Born: Cookie Rojas, baseball player, in Havana, Cuba
• Died: Patriarch Miron of Romania, 70, Romanian cleric and politician

• The Cartagena Uprising was suppressed. The merchant steamship Castillo de Olite carrying over 2,000 Nationalist troops was sunk by shore batteries.
• Armand Călinescu became Prime Minister of Romania.
• Gandhi ended his four-day fast and accepted an invitation from Viceroy of India the Marquess of Linlithgow to attend a political conference in New Delhi.

• Generalissimo Francisco Franco declared a total blockade of all remaining Republican-held ports. All ships entering the three-mile limit were to be seized regardless of nationality, or torpedoed if sighted near Cartagena.{{cite news |last=Brewer |first=Sam |date=March 9, 1939 |title=Franco's Fleet Blockades All Loyalist Ports |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |page=1}}
• During construction of the Bronx–Whitestone Bridge, 38-year-old construction worker Victor Weikko fell {{Convert|105|ft}} to his death.{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/24771183/falls-105-feet-dies/ |title=Falls 105 Feet, Dies |newspaper=New York Daily News |date=March 9, 1939 |page=45 |access-date=January 2, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}}
• Born: Jim Bouton, baseball player and author, in Newark, New Jersey (d. 2019); Lidiya Skoblikova, speed skater and coach, in Zlatoust, USSR; Robert Tear, tenor singer, teacher and conductor, in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales (d. 2011)

• The United States and Brazil signed a series of agreements through which the Brazilians received economic assistance.{{cite web |url=http://www.indiana.edu/~league/1939.htm |title=Chronology 1939 |date=2002 |website=indiana.edu |access-date=November 7, 2015 }}
• Born: Malcolm Bricklin, automobile entrepreneur, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

• Czechoslovak president Emil Hácha deposed Jozef Tiso as premier of the autonomous province of Slovakia and declared martial law.
• 20 members of the Irish Republican Army were sentenced to 20 years in prison for conspiring to cause terrorist explosions.{{cite book |date=1989 |editor-last=Mercer |editor-first=Derrik |title=Chronicle of the 20th Century |location=London |publisher=Chronicle Communications Ltd. |page=508 |isbn=978-0-582-03919-3 }}

• A new cabinet was formed in Slovakia without including a single member of the old Tiso government.{{cite news |last=Schultz |first=Sigrid |author-link=Sigrid Schultz |date=March 12, 1939 |title=Slovak Cabinet Formed; Victory Seen for Nazis | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=4 }}
• Died: William Miller, 92, Australian multisport athlete

• The coronation ceremony for Pope Pius XII was held.{{cite news |date=March 12, 1939 |title=Hundreds of Thousands Kneel In reverence to Pope Pius XII As He Ascends Throne Today |journal=Brooklyn Eagle |page=1 }}
• Born: Johnny Callison, baseball player, in Qualls, Oklahoma (d. 2006)

• Jozef Tiso went to Berlin and met with Adolf Hitler. Tiso agreed to call a meeting of the Slovak parliament and proclaim independence.{{cite book |last=Dill |first=Marshall |date=1970 |title=Germany: A Modern History |url=https://archive.org/details/germanymodernhis00dill/page/388 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/germanymodernhis00dill/page/388 388] |isbn=978-0-472-07101-2 |url-access=registration }}
• The Pan-German League was dissolved.{{cite web |url=http://www.chroniknet.de/daly_de.0.html?year=1939&month=3&day=13 |title=Tageseinträge für 13. März 1939 |website=chroniknet |access-date=November 7, 2015 }}
• Born: Neil Sedaka, singer, pianist and record producer, in Brooklyn, New York
• Died: Otto Rahn, 35, German writer, medievalist and SS officer (found frozen to death, ruled suicide)

• Tiso returned to Bratislava and addressed the Slovak parliament, which then unanimously approved the declaration of an independent Slovak Republic.{{cite book |last=Thompson |first=Wayne C. |date=2015 |title=Nordic, Central, and Southeastern Europe 2015–2016 |location=Lanham, Maryland |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |page=367 |isbn=978-1-4758-1883-3 }}
• Czechoslovak president Emil Hácha went to Berlin to see Hitler, arriving shortly before midnight.{{cite book |last=Bryant |first=Chad Carl |date=2007 |title=Prague in Black: Nazi Rule and Czech Nationalism |publisher=Harvard University Press |pages=28–29 |isbn=978-0-674-02451-9 }}
• The first trial of the Philadelphia poison ring case began. Herman Petrillo, one of four defendants charged with a total of fifty counts of murder, conspiracy and fraud, was the first to go on trial.{{cite journal |url=https://journals.psu.edu/phj/article/viewFile/25642/25411 |title=Arsenic and No Lace: The Bizarre Tale of a Philadelphia Murder Ring |last=Young |first=Robert James Jr. |journal=Pennsylvania History |year=2000 |volume=67 |issue=3 |pages=397–414 |pmid=17654814 |access-date=November 7, 2015 }}

• Adolf Hitler and Emil Hácha met in the Reich Chancellery after midnight. Hitler announced that the German army had orders to invade Czechoslovakia at 6:00 a.m. and unless Hácha ordered the Czechoslovak military to refrain from offering any resistance, the country would face massive destruction. Hácha collapsed during the harangue, but recovered enough to sign a document claiming that he had "confidently placed the fate of the Czech people and country in the hands of the Führer and German Reich." At 4:30 a.m. Hácha broadcast a radio message to his people urging them to remain calm.
• The Nazis marched unopposed into Czechoslovakia. That evening, Hitler and other Nazi leaders entered Prague.
• The Ruthenian region of Czechoslovakia declared independence as Carpatho-Ukraine.
• Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and Fawzia Fuad of Egypt were married in Cairo.{{cite web |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10162842/Princess-Fawzia-Fuad-of-Egypt.html |title=Princess Fawzia Fuad of Egypt |date=July 5, 2013 |website=The Telegraph |access-date=November 7, 2015 }}
• Born: Alicia Freilich, writer, in Caracas, Venezuela

• The dismemberment of Czechoslovakia was completed with the proclamation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
• Hungarian soldiers marched into the Carpatho-Ukrainian capital of Khust with little resistance.{{cite news |date=March 17, 1939 |title=Hungary Takes Ruthenia; Army Seizes Capital | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=6 }}
• German troops marched into Prešov. There had been some question as to whether the city was Slovak or Ruthenian territory, but the Germans settled the matter by getting there before the Hungarians did.
• The Reich Propaganda Ministry sent a confidential note to the German daily press explaining that the term "Großdeutsches Weltreich ("Greater German Empire") was undesirable because it was "reserved for future opportunities."{{cite web |url=http://www.chroniknet.de/daly_de.0.html?year=1939&month=3&day=16 |title=Tageseinträge für 16. März 1939 |website=chroniknet |access-date=November 7, 2015 }}
• Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí discovered that the store window display he had designed for Bonwit Teller on Fifth Avenue had been altered without his knowledge. Two mannequins, one of which had been scantily attired in a negligee of green feathers, had been replaced by mannequins dressed in suits. Dalí cursed out the management, entered his window display and pulled a bathtub (which was also part of the display) free from its moorings, accidentally causing the tub to slip free and crash through the window along with Dalí himself. The artist was arrested for mischief but later cleared of charges.{{cite web |url=http://onthisdayinfashion.com/?p=12135 |title=How Much is That Dali in the Window? |last=Lloyd |first=Kristine |date=March 16, 2011 |website=On This Day in Fashion |access-date=November 7, 2015 }}
• Principal photography of The Wizard of Oz ends.
• Born: Carlos Bilardo, footballer and manager, in Buenos Aires, Argentina

• The Battle of Nanchang began in the Second Sino-Japanese War.
• British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain made a speech in Birmingham condemning Hitler for breaking the word he gave at the Munich Conference and warning that Britain would resist any further territorial expansion by Germany.{{cite news |date=March 18, 1939 |title=Britain and U.S. Lash Hitler | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|pages=1–2 }}
• Portugal and Francoist Spain signed a non-aggression pact known as the Iberian Pact.
• The London Conference on Palestine ended in failure.
• Born: Jim Gary, sculptor, in Sebastian, Florida (d. 2006); Giovanni Trapattoni, footballer and manager, in Cusano Milanino, Italy
• Died: Rufus Payne, 56, American blues musician

• The French Chamber of Deputies voted 321-264 to grant Prime Minister Édouard Daladier the power to rule by decree until November 30.{{cite news |last=Taylor |first=Edmond |date=March 19, 1939 |title=Daladier Voted Dictator Power to Rule France | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=5 }}
• The Western Australian state election was held. The Labor Party led by John Willcock won a third term in office.
• This is the cover date of the issue of The New Yorker in which the James Thurber short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" appeared.

• Egyptologist Pierre Montet announced the discovery of the tomb of Psusennes I a few miles from Port Said.{{cite news |date=March 20, 1939 |title=Find Rich Tomb of Pharaoh Who Ruled in 950 B.C. | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=3 }}
• Lloyd L. Gaines, the plaintiff in Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada, mysteriously disappeared and was never found.

• Germany issued an ultimatum to Lithuania demanding the Klaipėda Region, also known as the Memel Territory.
• Casado's representatives met with Nationalists at an airport near Burgos to discuss an armistice.
• The United States withdrew its ambassador to Germany over the Nazi seizure of Czechoslovakia.
• More than 5,000 works of "Degenerate Art" were allegedly burned in the yard of the Berlin fire station. However, there are no official records of the event (in contrast to the Nazi book burnings, which were held in public and well documented), and so little is known about the burning that it is not even certain whether it actually took place.{{cite web |url=http://www.dw.com/en/conspiracies-swirl-in-1939-nazi-art-burning/a-17510022 |title=Conspiracies swirl in 1939 Nazi art burning |website=Deutsche Welle |access-date=November 7, 2015 }}
• Born: Brian Mulroney, 18th Prime Minister of Canada, in Baie-Comeau, Quebec (d. 2024)

• The Lithuanian cabinet decided to give in to the German ultimatum and cede the Memel Territory to Germany.{{cite news |date=March 22, 1939 |title=Return Memel to Germany | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=1 }}
• The National University of Cuyo was established in Argentina.
• Born: Tommy Davis, baseball player, in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2022)
• Died: Evald Aav, 39, Estonian composer

• Lithuania ceded the Memel Territory (the Klaipėda Region) to Germany. Adolf Hitler, Admiral Erich Raeder and General Wilhelm Keitel boarded the pocket battleship {{warship|German cruiser|Deutschland||2}} at Swinemünde that evening and sailed with a fleet toward Germany's newest territorial acquisition.{{cite news |last=Schultz |first=Sigrid |author-link=Sigrid Schultz |date=March 23, 1939 |title=Hitler Arrives at Memel | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=1 }}
• The jury in the first Philadelphia poison ring trial returned a verdict of guilty and recommended the death penalty for Herman Petrillo. The sheer number of charges in the case meant that the trials of the other defendants would take another year to complete.
• In the U.S., undefeated LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds men's basketball team topped undefeated Loyola of Chicago in the championship game of the second annual National Invitation Tournament, 44–32. LIU's 24–0 final record was the first perfect season of college basketball's postseason tournament era.
• Born: Rafael Cruz, Cuban-American pastor, in Matanzas, Cuba{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-IedBAAAQBAJ&dq=rafael+cruz+march+22+1939&pg=PT28 | title=A Time for Truth: Reigniting the Promise of America | isbn=978-0-06-236563-7 | last1=Cruz | first1=Ted | date=30 June 2015 }}

• Between 5 and 7 a.m. German troops crossed into Memel. 31 ships of the German fleet arrived at the port at 10:20 a.m. Aboard the Deutschland, Hitler signed the decree formally turning the Territory over to Germany.{{cite book |last=Liekis |first=Šarūnas |date=2010 |title=1939: The Year that Changed Everything in Lithuania's History |location=Amsterdam |publisher=Rodopi B.V. |pages=104–105 |isbn=978-90-420-2762-6 }}
• Hungarian troops marched into the Slovak Republic.

• The 1939 Liechtenstein putsch takes place; approximately 40 members of the VBDL starting from Nendeln march towards Vaduz with the intention of overthrowing the government and provoking Liechtenstein's annexation into Germany.{{Cite web |last=Büchel |first=Donat |date=31 December 2011 |title=Anschlussputsch |url=https://historisches-lexikon.li/Anschlussputsch |access-date=14 November 2023 |website=Historisches Lexikon des Fürstentums Liechtenstein |language=de}}
• Romania signed an agreement with Germany for the development of Romanian oil, timber and mineral resources.{{cite book |last1=Polmar |first1=Norman |last2=Allen |first2=Thomas B. |date=2012 |title=World War II: the Encyclopedia of the War Years, 1941–1945 |publisher=Dover Publications |page=703 |isbn=978-0-486-47962-0 }}
• Workman won the Grand National horse race.
• The romantic drama film Wuthering Heights starring Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, David Niven and Geraldine Fitzgerald premiered in Hollywood.{{cite book |date=1993 |editor-last=Hanson |editor-first=Patricia King |title=The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States: Feature Films, 1931–1940 |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles |publisher=University of California Press |page=2476 |isbn=0-520-07908-6 }}
• The musical comedy film Three Smart Girls Grow Up was released.
• Born:
• George Michael, broadcaster and host of The George Michael Sports Machine, in St. Louis, Missouri (d. 2009)
• Lynda Baron, British actress in Urmston, Lancashire (d. 2022)

• Italy gave Albania an ultimatum demanding that a protectorate be established over the country and Italian troops be stationed within Albanian borders.{{cite book |last=Berend |first=Tibor Iván |date=1998 |title=Decades of Crisis: Central and Eastern Europe Before World War II |location=Berkeley and Los Angeles |publisher=University of California Press |pages=326–327 |isbn=978-0-520-20617-5 }}
• Born: Toni Cade Bambara, author, filmmaker and activist, in New York City (d. 1995)

• The Nationalists launched the Final offensive of the Spanish Civil War.
• Commercial oil was discovered in England at Eakring.

• Nazi Germany began an anti-Polish propaganda campaign against "oppression of Germans in German lands now controlled by Poles."{{cite news |last=Schultz |first=Sigrid |author-link=Sigrid Schultz |date=March 28, 1939 |title=German Threats Hit Poland | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=1 }}
• Francoist Spain joined the Anti-Comintern Pact.
• The first-ever NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament ended with Oregon defeating Ohio State 46-33 in the Final.
• Born: Leila Kasra, poet and lyricist, in Tehran, Iran (d. 1989)

• The three-year Siege of Madrid ended with the Nationalist capture of the city.
• Casado's National Defense Council was dissolved.
• Died: Francis Matthew John Baker, 35 or 36, Australian politician (motor accident); Mario Lertora, 41, Italian artistic gymnast

• The Nationalists took Cuenca, Ciudad Real, Jaén and Albacete.
• The Neville Chamberlain government unveiled plans to double the size of the Territorial Army.

• The Lithuanian parliament ratified the treaty ceding the Memel Territory to Germany.{{cite news |date=March 31, 1939 |title=Lithuanuan Diet Ratifies Pact Giving Memel to Nazis | work=Chicago Daily Tribune|page=4 }}
• According to copyright records in the Library of Congress, this is the publication date of Detective Comics issue #27 (cover date of May), notable for the first appearance of Batman.{{cite web |url=http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/03/30/happy-birthday-batman-today-is-the-75th-anniversary-of-the-release-of-his-first-appearance-in-detective-comics-27/ |title=Happy Birthday, Batman: Today Is The 75th Anniversary Of The Release Of His First Appearance In Detective Comics #27 |last=Seifert |first=Mark |date=March 30, 2014 |website=Bleeding Cool |access-date=November 7, 2015 }}
• In New York, Adolf Hitler's nephew William called his uncle "a menace."

• The Chamberlain government pledged Anglo-French support if Polish independence was threatened by Germany.
• Born: Zviad Gamsakhurdia, 1st President of Georgia, in Tbilisi (d. 1993); Volker Schlöndorff, filmmaker, in Wiesbaden, Germany
• Died: Ioannis Tsangaridis, 51 or 52, Greek general

{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Events by month links}}

1939

*1939-03