Date in year · 1939 · The 1930s

August 31, 1939

On August 31, 1939, nazi Germany mounts a false flag attack on the Gleiwitz radio station, creating an excuse to attack Poland the following day, thus starting World War II in Europe. Clay Shaw, Ali Khamenei, Karel Gott would arrive in the same year.

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1939

1930s

Around 1939

The year in brief

1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1939th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 939th year of the 2nd millennium, the 39th year of the 20th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1930s decade.

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What happened

On August 31, 1939

  1. 1939 Nazi Germany mounts a false flag attack on the Gleiwitz radio station, creating an excuse to attack Poland the following day, thus starting World War II in Europe.

    German state from 1933 to 1945

    Nazi Germany, officially the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictatorship. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", referred to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and the German Empire (1871–1918). The Third Reich, which the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich, ended in May 1945, after 12 years, when the Allies defeated Germany and entered the capital, Berlin, ending World War II in Europe.

Elsewhere that year

Other moments from 1939

The class of 1939

Others born in 1939

Clay Shaw 1939– American accountant, judge, and politician (died 2013)
Ali Khamenei 1939– Supreme Leader of Iran (died 2026)
Karel Gott 1939– Czech singer-songwriter and actor (died 2019)
George Edgar Slusser 1939– American scholar and author (died 2014)
Louis Andriessen 1939– Dutch pianist and composer (died 2021)
Yuli Turovsky 1939– Russian-Canadian cellist, conductor and educator (died 2013)

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