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| | | | World History timeline |
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| 1939 September 4 |
| | | Jan Smuts defeats J.B.M. Hertzog in a vote on neutrality, and takes Hertzog's place as South African premier | |
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| 1939 September 4 |
| | | Jan Smuts brings South Africa into the war in support of Britain | |
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| 1939 September 17 |
| | | A German U-boat sinks the British aircraft carrier Courageous off the coast of Ireland | |
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| 1939 September 19 |
| | | Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark jointly declare their neutrality | |
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| 1939 September 27 |
| | | Warsaw falls, after a brave resistance, whereupon Germany and Russia carve up Poland | |
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| 1939 September |
| | | Nazi murder squads (Einsatzgruppen) kill Poland's elite | |
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| 1939 October 14 |
| | | A German U-boat sinks the British battleship Royal Oak at anchor in Scapa Flow | |
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| 1939 November |
| | | Adolf Hitler orders the 'mercy killing' of all those with specified categories of infirmity, beginning with newborn babies and young children | |
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| 1939 November 30 |
| | | Soviet troops cross the borders of Finland, beginning the brief Russo-Finnish War, in keeping with the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact | |
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| 1939 December |
| | | Phoney War, Bore War, drôle de guerre and Sitzkrieg are comments on the lack of military action from any side so far | |
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| 1939 December 6-22 |
| | | The Finns win spectacular victories in counter-attacks against the Russian invaders, destroying four Soviet divisions | |
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| 1939 December 13 |
| | | The German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled after a battle with Allied ships near the river Plate | |
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| 1939 December 14 |
| | | The USSR is expelled from the League of Nations because of the Soviet invasion of Finland | |
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| 1939 |
| | | T.S. Eliot gives cats a poetic character in Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats | |
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| 1940 |
| | | American Ballet Theatre, directed by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant, begins its first season in New York | |
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| 1940 |
| | | English potter Bernard Leach publishes an influential manual, A Potter's Book | |
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| 1940 |
| | | Mohammed Ali Jinnah puts forward the concept of independent Muslim states within India | |
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| 1940 |
| | | Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen design an 'organic chair' for mass production in moulded plywood and aluminium | |
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| 1940 |
| | | The Conservative Colorados recover power in Paraguay and reimpose military rule | |
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