German physicists, led by Otto Hahn, announce their discovery of nuclear fission

W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood emigrate together to the USA, later becoming US citizens

James Joyce's Finnegans Wake is published after 17 years in the making

US author Henry Miller publishes in Paris Tropic of Capricorn, about his adolescence in New York

Eugenio Pacelli is elected pope and takes the name Pius XII

Madrid falls to the Nationalist forces, bringing the Spanish Civil War to an end and Franco to power

Tommy Handley has a huge success in the British comedy radio programme ITMA (It's That Man Again)

Irish author Flann O'Brien publishes his first novel, At Swim-Two-Birds

Archaeological treasures are discovered in an Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo, in Suffolk

Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears give a series of recitals in the USA at the start of a lifelong partnership

British racing driver Malcolm Campbell sets a new water speed record of 141 mph

Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan becomes music director of the Berlin State Opera

British author Christopher Isherwood publishes his novel Goodbye to Berlin, based on his own experiences in the city

Igor Stravinsky moves to the USA from Paris, his home for nearly 30 years, and settles in Hollywood

Joaquin Rodrigo's concerto for guitar and orchestra, the Concierto de Aranjuez, has its first performance in Barcelona

De Valera declares that Eire will be neutral in any forthcoming European war

Hungary aligns itself with the Axis powers, signing Germany and Japan's Anti-Comintern Pact

Hitler's armies smash their way into Czechoslovakia and enter Prague, against all his previous promises

The recent fate of Czechoslovakia prompts France and Britain to guarantee the security of Poland

Stalin appoints Vyacheslav Molotov as People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs for the USSR

A Franco-British military mission arrives in Moscow to persuade Stalin to join a pact in defence of Poland

Helped by the results of Polish cryptographers, Bletchley Park begins to gain invaluable access to German military secrets

Ribbentrop flies to Moscow to sign a Nonaggression Pact with Molotov, depriving Britain and France of an ally

A secret protocol, attached to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, divides Poland and the Baltic states between Germany and Russia

The He-178, designed by Hans von Ohain, becomes the first jet engine to fly, with a test flight lasting five minutes