Events, Verisoph

1938 Frank Buchman founds Moral Re-Armament ai_extracted 1 cit. no story American evangelist Frank Buchman founded the Moral Re-Armament movement, which Nkrumah says later spent heavily to advocate collaboration between colonial rulers and the peoples they oppressed. ●●

c. March 1938 Nazi Germany seizes control of Interpol 0 cit. After Germany annexed Austria in March 1938, the Vienna-based International Criminal Police Commission came under Nazi control along with the rest of the Austrian state apparatus. By 1940 the organization's presidency and headquarters had passed to senior SS and Reich Security Main Office officials, including Reinhard Heydrich and later Ernst Kaltenbrunner, and historians have documented that its files and networks were used to help track down political dissidents and Jews during the war. politics / war ●●●

December 1938 Himmler's decree against the 'Gypsy plague' 0 cit. In December 1938 Heinrich Himmler issued a decree on combating what it called the Gypsy plague, ordering that the Roma be registered and handled on racial grounds. It pulled earlier local persecution into a single national, racial framework. The decree marked a step from harassment toward the systematic policy that led to genocide. politics / society ●●●

4 March 1938 Oil found in commercial quantities at Dammam No. 7 0 cit. After years of dry holes, well number seven at Dammam finally strikes oil in commercial volumes, proving Saudi Arabia sat atop enormous reserves. It began the transformation of a poor desert kingdom into the world's swing producer. economy / technology ●●●

18 March 1938 Mexico nationalizes its oil and creates Pemex 0 cit. President Lázaro Cárdenas expropriates the foreign oil companies after a labor dispute and hands their assets to the new state firm Pemex. It was the first major nationalization of oil and became a model for producer states that followed. economy / politics ●●●

18 March 1938 Mexico nationalizes oil and creates Pemex 0 cit. President Lazaro Cardenas expropriated the assets of foreign oil companies and placed the industry under a new state firm, Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex). Oil became a national asset run by the government rather than by private investors. The move became a model for developing states that wanted to own their own natural resources. economy / politics ●●●

1938 Facing Mount Kenya Published 0 cit. Kenyatta published Facing Mount Kenya, an anthropological account of Kikuyu life drawn from his LSE work and issued under the name Jomo Kenyatta. The book defended Kikuyu land tenure, initiation customs, and social structure as a rational way of life and made a nationalist argument for African self-determination. It became a landmark text of African intellectual assertion and is read as both scholarship and political manifesto. culture / politics ●●●

c. 1938 The Radical Anti-Colonial of the London Years 0 cit. By the end of his British years Kenyatta was a known radical, writing pamphlets against colonial rule, associating with communists and Pan-Africanists, and campaigning against land theft and the colour bar. This period is documented fact and stands in tension with the cautious, order-preserving leader he later became. Historians who debate his legacy point to the gap between the militant of London and the conservative president of independent Kenya. politics ●●

1938 Facing Mount Kenya defends the custom as social order 0 cit. In Facing Mount Kenya Kenyatta argued that irua, including the female rite, was woven into the whole Kikuyu order of marriage, age-sets, law, and belonging, so that banning it by missionary fiat would unravel the society. His purpose was to defend cultural sovereignty against what he called missionary imperialism, not to praise the physical cutting for its own sake. Read today, the argument is a claim about the right of a people to define its own institutions, which does not settle the separate question of the bodily harm the female rite caused. culture / politics ●●●

c. 1938 Cultural sovereignty versus missionary imperialism 0 cit. The Kikuyu defenders framed the fight not as a defense of cutting but as a stand for the right of a people to govern its own customs against outsiders who held power over their schools, jobs, and churches. In their telling the missionaries were agents of a foreign order trying to remake Kikuyu society from above. This framing let the movement claim the high ground of self-determination while leaving the underlying harm of the practice unaddressed. culture / politics ●●

1938 Facing Mount Kenya is published under the name Jomo Kenyatta 0 cit. In 1938 his LSE work appeared as Facing Mount Kenya: The Tribal Life of the Gikuyu, with an introduction by Malinowski. The cover carried the name Jomo Kenyatta, the persona he had built in London, and a photograph of the author in a skin cloak holding a spear. It was one of the first full ethnographies of an African people written by one of its own. culture / politics / science ●●●

1938 The book's argument: land, culture, and self-rule 0 cit. The book presented Kikuyu society as a coherent, self-governing order with its own religion, land system, and law, wrecked by European settlement rather than uplifted by it. Its heart was the claim that land was held communally and stolen by the settlers. Under the anthropology sat a plain political case for Kikuyu land rights and eventual self-rule. culture / economy / politics ●●●

1938 The chapter on initiation and irua 0 cit. One chapter defended irua, the initiation rite that included female circumcision, a practice missionaries were then trying to stamp out. Kenyatta argued it was central to Kikuyu identity and law and should not be judged by outside standards. The defence made the book contentious then and remains one of its most criticised passages today. culture / religion / society ●●

c. 1938 British intelligence watches C.L.R. James 0 cit. The Trinidadian writer and revolutionary C.L.R. James was tracked by British intelligence during his years in London and later expelled from the United States during the McCarthy era. His pan-African and Marxist writings marked him as a subversive in official eyes. The security services filed his contacts and movements across two continents. politics / society ●

c. 1938 A Storyteller and a Showman 0 cit. Contemporaries described Kenyatta as a magnetic, theatrical figure, given to elaborate dress and long, vivid stories about Africa. In his London years he lectured British audiences and the Workers' Educational Association and told African tales that drew crowds, and as president he cultivated a commanding image with his beaded cap, fur cloak, and flywhisk. The persona was a deliberate act of self-fashioning that helped build his mythic authority as Mzee, the grand old man of the nation. politics / society ●●

1938 Kenyatta writes Facing Mount Kenya from the seminar 0 cit. Jomo Kenyatta, later the first leader of independent Kenya, studied social anthropology under Malinowski at the LSE and produced the ethnography Facing Mount Kenya, published in 1938 with an introduction by Malinowski. The book described Kikuyu society from the inside and defended it against colonial contempt. It shows how the School's anthropology could serve an African nationalist cause. politics / science ●●●

1938 Launches the journal International African Opinion 0 cit. The International African Service Bureau launched its journal, International African Opinion, in 1938. It carried anti-colonial argument and news across the diaspora and into the colonies. Padmore's prolific journalism gave the movement a steady public voice. culture / politics / society ●●

c. October 1938 The J stamp for Jewish passports 0 cit. Swiss authorities negotiated an arrangement with Nazi Germany under which the passports of German Jews were marked with a red letter J. The stamp let Swiss border guards identify and turn back Jewish refugees while keeping the frontier open to other Germans. The Swiss request for a way to single out Jewish travellers is documented; historians describe it as an act of state antisemitism in refugee policy. politics / society ●●●

July 1938 The Kamba resist forced destocking 0 cit. In 1938 the colonial government ordered the Kamba to sell off large numbers of cattle, claiming their herds were destroying the land. The Ukamba Members Association, led by Muindi Mbingu, organised protests and a march of around two thousand people who camped in Nairobi to demand a hearing. The campaign forced the government to back down, a rare early victory against colonial rule. economy / politics ●●

July 1938 Muindi Mbingu and the Ukamba destocking protest 6 cit. Samuel Muindi Mbingu led the Ukamba Members Association against a colonial policy that forced Kamba herders to sell off cattle the government judged to be surplus. In July 1938 he led about three thousand livestock owners on a march to Nairobi, where they camped in protest. The government arrested him in October and deported him to Lamu, but the pressure worked and compulsory destocking was dropped by the end of the year. He became a lasting figure of Kamba resistance. economy / politics ●●

1938 Moi moves through Kapsabet mission and government schooling 1 cit. By the late 1930s Moi had moved from Kabartonjo to Africa Inland Mission schooling at Kapsabet and then to Government African School at Kapsabet. This placed him inside both mission and colonial-government education rather than inside independent African schooling or the forest-resistance world. religion / society ●●

1939 to 1944 World War II in Albania wikidata 0 cit. no story involvement of Albania in World War II ●●●●

30 November 1939 to 13 March 1940 Winter War wikidata 0 cit. no story 1939-1940 war between the Soviet Union and Finland ●●●●

23 August 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact 0 cit. Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact with a secret protocol dividing eastern Europe between them. politics ●●●●

1 September 1939 Invasion of Poland 0 cit. Germany invades Poland; Britain and France declare war two days later. The Second World War begins in Europe. war ●●●●●

April 1939 Dividend increase permits required ai_extracted 1 cit. Beginning in April 1939, firms with dividend rates of 10 percent or more needed a Ministry of Finance permit to raise their dividend rate, making stock investment less attractive. ●●

1939 Hitler dismisses Schacht and nationalizes the Reichsbank ai_extracted 1 cit. In 1939 Hitler sacked Schacht as Reichsbank president after disagreements and took more direct control over the central bank through a new law; he nationalized the Reichsbank the same year. ●●●

January 1939 Reichsbank renamed and subordinated to the Reich government ai_extracted 1 cit. In January 1939 the Reichsbank Law was changed, renaming the bank the Deutsche Reichsbank and making it directly accountable and subordinate to the Reich government rather than private shareholders or the Reparations Commission. ●●●

22 May 1939 Pact of Steel 0 cit. Full military and political alliance between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, committing each to join the other's wars. It bound Italy to Germany on the eve of the Second World War. diplomacy / politics / war ●●●

28 September 1939 German-Soviet Boundary and Friendship Treaty 0 cit. Treaty dividing conquered Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union after their September invasions, with secret protocols adjusting spheres of influence and pledging suppression of Polish resistance. It supplemented the earlier Nazi-Soviet pact. diplomacy / politics / war ●●

1 January 1939 Founding of Hewlett-Packard 0 cit. Bill Hewlett and David Packard formalize their partnership, working from a Palo Alto garage now marked as the birthplace of Silicon Valley. HP grows into a leading maker of instruments, computers, and printers. economy / technology ●●●

8 September 1939 Creation of the Executive Office of the President 0 cit. Following the Brownlow Committee's warning that the president needs help, Roosevelt's Executive Order 8248 creates the Executive Office of the President and moves the Budget Bureau into it. The modern institutional presidency, with its large White House staff, dates from this reorganization. politics ●●●

1 April 1939 Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War 0 cit. Francisco Franco declares victory over the Spanish Republic after three years of civil war fought with German and Italian support. His authoritarian regime rules Spain until his death in 1975. politics / war ●●●●

1 September 1939 to 1945 The Second World War and the Empire 0 cit. The empire again mobilized on a vast scale, but the war drained Britain's wealth and strength. Victory came at the cost of the resources and prestige needed to hold the empire together. war ●●●●●

17 September 1939 Soviet Invasion of Poland 0 cit. Following the secret protocol, the Red Army invaded eastern Poland weeks after Germany attacked from the west. The Soviets annexed the territory, including western Ukrainian and Belarusian lands. politics / war ●●●

30 November 1939 to 1940 Winter War with Finland 0 cit. The Soviet Union attacked Finland after it refused territorial demands, meeting fierce resistance and heavy Soviet losses. Finland ceded land in the peace but kept its independence. war ●●●

May 1939 The 1939 White Paper 0 cit. Britain's 1939 White Paper sharply limited Jewish immigration and land purchase in Palestine. It angered the Zionist movement, especially as Jews sought refuge from Europe. politics ●●●

1 September 1939 to 1941 Nazi T4 program begins murdering disabled people 1 cit. Under the T4 "euthanasia" program, Nazi doctors murdered more than 70,000 disabled and mentally ill people they judged unworthy of life. The killing methods pioneered here were later used in the death camps. politics / science ●●●

1939 to 1945 Pius XII and the Church during the Second World War 0 cit. Pope Pius XII led the Church through the war and the Holocaust, avoiding open condemnation of Nazi genocide while the Vatican sheltered some refugees. His silence remains one of the most debated questions in modern Church history. politics / religion / war ●●●

21 March 1939 Transfer of Czechoslovak gold through the BIS 1 cit. After Germany occupied Czechoslovakia, the BIS acted on instructions to move gold held for the Czech National Bank into an account controlled by Germany's Reichsbank. The episode became the most documented controversy about the bank's wartime conduct. economy / politics / war ●●●●

20 January 1939 Schacht dismissed from the Reichsbank 0 cit. Hitler dismissed Schacht as Reichsbank President after he and the bank's directors warned that runaway military spending would bring inflation. His removal cleared the last check on financing the coming war. economy / politics ●●●

1939 Sanger launches the Negro Project 0 cit. In 1939 Sanger's organization began the Negro Project to expand birth control access in the segregated South, working with Black ministers and doctors. Her private writings about the effort are frequently quoted in later debates, sometimes accurately and sometimes out of context. politics / society ●●

1939 Federation of British Industries seeks pact with Germany ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In 1939 the Federation of British Industries sought an agreement with Germany to divide markets and fix prices across most economic activities, an example Quigley cites of Britain's drift into cartelized bilateralism. ●●

1939 Prevention of Violence Act of 1939 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quigley argues the erosion of civil liberties reached its most dangerous stage with the Prevention of Violence Act of 1939, which let a secretary of state arrest without warrant and deport without trial. ●●

1939 Britain and France recognize Franco's government ai_extracted 1 cit. no story England and France recognized the Franco government on 27 February 1939; after Madrid's surrender the Axis troops were evacuated from Spain following a triumphal march through the capital in June 1939. ●●

1939 Toll of the Spanish Civil War ai_extracted 1 cit. no story When the war ended much of Spain was wrecked and at least 450,000 Spaniards had been killed, of which 130,000 were rebels and the rest Loyalists, with an unpopular military dictatorship imposed by non-Spanish forces. ●●

1939 Germany captures Czechoslovakia's arsenal ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quigley argues Britain did not yield to superior force at Munich: in March 1939 when Germany overran Czechoslovakia it captured 469 superior tanks, 1,500 planes, 43,000 machine guns, and over a million rifles. ●●

1939 Germany seizes Memel and Italy seizes Albania ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Days after occupying the Czech rump, Germany seized Memel from Lithuania on 22 March 1939, and Italy seized Albania on 7 April 1939. ●●

1939 Czech gold reserves handed to Germany ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quigley reports that in May 1939 six million pounds of Czech gold reserves held in London were turned over to Germany, with the untrue excuse that the British government could not give orders to the Bank of England. ●●

1939 FBI-Reichsgruppe Industrie cartel agreement ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quigley describes British economic appeasement: a coal agreement was signed at Britain's request in late January 1939, and a general agreement between the Federation of British Industries and the Reichsgruppe Industrie was signed on 16 March 1939. ●●

1939 Hitler's 'export or die' speech ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In his speech of 30 January 1939 Hitler declared that Germany must export or die, reflecting the critical German economic situation caused by the speed of rearmament and shortage of foreign exchange. ●●

1939 British unilateral guarantee to Poland ai_extracted 1 cit. no story When news reached London of Hitler's demands on Poland, Britain suddenly issued a unilateral guarantee of Poland on 31 March 1939, later extended to Romania and Greece after Italy's attack on Albania. ●●

1939 Hitler's secret war conference on living space ai_extracted 1 cit. no story On 23 May 1939 Hitler told a secret conference of his generals that Danzig was not the real issue, but rather expanding Germany's living space in the East, and that war with Poland and a life-and-death struggle with England lay ahead. ●●

1939 Wilson's secret offer to abandon Poland ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quigley cites Dirksen's report that in July 1939 Sir Horace Wilson, Chamberlain's personal representative, told the German official Wohlthat that a nonaggression pact would enable Britain to rid herself of her commitments to Poland. ●●

1939 Soviet Union replaces Litvinov with Molotov ai_extracted 1 cit. no story To show its displeasure at British delays and quibbling over an alliance, the Soviet Union replaced foreign minister Litvinov, who favored the Western powers, with Molotov on 3 May 1939, a signal the West failed to heed. ●●

1939 Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Ribbentrop signed a nonaggression pact with Molotov in Moscow; its published portion barred aggressive action between the signers, while a secret protocol delimited spheres of interest in eastern Europe and gave Russia a free hand in Bessarabia. ●●

1939 German invasion of Poland ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The German invasion of Poland at 4:45 a.m. on 1 September 1939 began the Second World War; Polish resistance collapsed by 16-17 September, and Britain and France declared war two days after the invasion. ●●

1939 German invasion of Poland begins ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Germany opened World War II in Europe with a dawn air assault on Poland on September 1, 1939, wiping out the Polish air force largely on the ground. Armored spearheads and dive-bombers broke Polish resistance into isolated fragments. ●●

1939 German submarine sinks the liner Athenia ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In open disobedience to Hitler's orders, a German submarine torpedoed the passenger liner Athenia in the Atlantic on September 3, 1939, killing 112 people. It came the same day Britain and France declared war. ●●

1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement divides Poland ai_extracted 1 cit. no story On September 28, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed a new agreement partitioning Poland. Lithuania shifted into the Soviet sphere and the German-Soviet boundary was drawn along the Bug River near the old Curzon Line. ●●

1939 Nazi-Soviet Trade Agreement ai_extracted 1 cit. no story On August 19, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed a trade agreement under which Germany extended 200 million marks in credit for machinery in exchange for Russian raw materials. It set up an economic partnership that lasted until the German invasion. ●●

1939 Japan defeated at Nomonhan; truce signed ai_extracted 1 cit. no story A major Japanese defeat by Soviet forces at Nomonhan on the Manchurian-Mongolian frontier ended with a truce on September 16, 1939, one day before Soviet forces entered Poland. The defeat helped turn Japanese expansion southward rather than against Siberia. ●●

1939 The Venlo incident ai_extracted 1 cit. no story At Venlo on the Dutch frontier on November 8, 1939, S.S. Security Police posing as anti-Hitler negotiators shot a Dutch officer and abducted two British intelligence agents into Germany. The episode suggested Britain was seeking a way out of the war. ●●

1939 Anglo-French mutual-assistance pact with Turkey ai_extracted 1 cit. no story France and Britain signed a mutual-assistance pact with Turkey on October 19, 1939. A secret clause excused Turkey from taking up arms against Russia, which left the Soviet Union unreassured. ●●

1939 Soviet Union attacks Finland ai_extracted 1 cit. no story After Finland rejected Soviet territorial demands, the Soviet Union attacked at several points on November 28, 1939, launching the Winter War. The Finns, though outnumbered, used terrain and winter weather to devastate early Soviet assaults. ●●

1939 Soviet Union expelled from the League of Nations ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In its most efficient act, the League condemned the Soviet Union in eleven days in December 1939 and expelled it as an aggressor over Finland. Quigley notes the contrast with the fifteen months it had spent on Japanese aggression, which brought no punishment. ●●

1939 British radar chain begins continuous operation ai_extracted 1 cit. no story A chain of British radar stations, laid out in 1937, began continuous operation in April 1939 and could detect aircraft up to 100 miles away. Superior British scientific inventions, especially radar, were decisive in the Battle of Britain. ●●

1939 Neutrality Acts revised for cash-and-carry ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In November 1939 Congress revised the Neutrality Acts to let the Entente powers buy supplies, repealing the munitions embargo and putting all belligerent purchases on a cash-and-carry basis. Loans were still forbidden and Americans barred from belligerent ships. ●●

1939 U.S. cancels its 1911 commercial treaty with Japan ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In September 1939 Washington gave the required six-month notice to cancel its 1911 commercial treaty with Japan. This opened the door to a range of economic pressures, and the 'moral embargo' was extended to raw materials vital to Japan's war machine. ●●

1939 Frisch and Meitner name nuclear 'fission' ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In February 1939 Frisch and Meitner reported quantitative results of uranium fission in Nature, introducing the word 'fission' and the Atomic Age. ●●

1939 Roosevelt reads Einstein's atomic warning ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Szilard, Wigner, and Teller prompted Einstein to warn Roosevelt about a possible atomic bomb; the President read the memorandum on 11 October 1939. ●●

1939 Colonial subjects at the start of World War II, 1939 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quigley notes that when World War II began in 1939, roughly six hundred million people, a quarter of humanity and mostly nonwhite, were colonial subjects of European states. ●●

1939 Hodson leaves Round Table for the Ministry of Information (1939) ai_extracted 1 cit. no story When the Second World War broke out in 1939, H. V. Hodson left the Round Table editorship for the Ministry of Information. Quigley asserts that ministry was completely controlled by the Milner Group. ●●

1939 1939 White Paper reverses Palestine policy (May 1939) ai_extracted 1 cit. no story After the failed London conference, the government issued a new policy statement (Cmd. 6019) in May 1939. Quigley calls it a drastic reversal of previous statements and a turn in favor of the Arabs. ●●

1939 Clarence Streit launches Union Now ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Streit first presented his federal-union plan in lectures at Swarthmore College and in his book Union Now. Quigley links the effort to the Rhodes Scholarship network and Milner Group figures like Aydelotte. ●●

1939 Occupation of Bohemia and Moravia as a turning point ai_extracted 1 cit. Quigley marks Germany's March 1939 occupation of Bohemia and Moravia as the point where the Milner Group turned against appeasement, while the Chamberlain group did not. ●●

1939 National Service Act of 1939 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quigley says Amery, Grigg, Lothian, and The Times drove the conscription campaign that produced the National Service Act, the Group's chief post-March 1939 cause. ●●

1939 Lady Astor turns on Chamberlain in the Commons ai_extracted 1 cit. no story After the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia, Lady Astor pressed Chamberlain to condemn Germany's action and was met with the retort "You caused it yourself," a sign Quigley reads as the Group's shift away from appeasement. ●●

1939 Chamberlain's guarantee to Poland ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Quigley reads Chamberlain's unilateral guarantee to Poland as a gesture to voters, worded to cover Polish independence but not territorial integrity so that frontier revision could still proceed. ●●

1939 British and German industry sign the Dusseldorf cartel agreement ai_extracted 1 cit. no story A master agreement between British and German industry, negotiated at Dusseldorf, was signed in London. Quigley frames it as part of the Chamberlain group's economic concessions to Germany. ●●

1939 German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Only after the Nazi-Soviet pact did Halifax turn Britain's unilateral guarantee to Poland into a formal mutual-assistance pact, meant to warn Hitler that public opinion would force Britain into war. ●●

1939 Lothian named Ambassador to the United States ai_extracted 1 cit. no story As war began, Lord Lothian was sent to Washington. Quigley says the Group, having built its foreign policy on closer union with the US, stationed more than a dozen members there to draw America into the war. ●●

1939 U.S. defense budget in 1939 ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Gatto states that in 1939, on the eve of war, the U.S. defense budget was $11 billion in year-2000 dollars, and that by his writing it was twenty-four times higher in peacetime. He uses the comparison to argue the leadership fears its own people. ●●

1939 CFR's 1939 War and Peace Studies ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The book cites the 1939 War and Peace Studies as evidence of the Council on Foreign Relations' power within the State Department. It presents the CFR as an evolution of the Network's earlier group, The Inquiry. ●●

1939 Franco dictatorship takes over Spain ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The book covers the arc from the Spanish-American War of 1898 to the Franco dictatorship that took over Spain in 1939. It presents Franco's victory as the result of non-Spanish forces and a deceptive nonintervention policy. ●●

1939 The 1939 Battle of Poland ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The book states that in the 1939 Battle of Poland millions of Polish civilians were executed or murdered. It presents Hitler's attack on Poland as finally forcing the Network's hand toward World War II. ●●

1939 Operation Himmler and the 1939 attack on Poland ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The book describes Operation Himmler, in which Nazis staged fake Polish attacks using concentration camp prisoners in German uniforms. It says these were used to justify attacking Poland in 1939. ●●

1939 Soviets execute thousands of Polish officers at Katyn ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The preponderance of available evidence in this still-controversial episode points to the conclusion that Soviet security troops executed approximately 8,000 nationalist Polish army officers taken prisoner during 1939, then stacked the bodies like cordwood in mass graves at an isolated outpost. ●●

1939 Soviet Union relocates half a million khutor farmers ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Beginning in 1939, the Soviet state forcibly relocated khutor dwellers who had been living on individual farmsteads outside collective villages. This resettlement affected more than half a million peasants and deprived them of their dispersed holdings. ●●

1939 Discovery of delayed neutrons in fission ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The “most significant fact assuring us that the chain reaction could be controlled,” says Compton, was one of the Richard Roberts team’s earliest discoveries at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism following Bohr’s announcement of the discovery of fission in 1939—in Compton’s words, that “a certain small fraction of the neutrons associated with the fission process are not emitted at once but come off a few seconds after fission occurs.”1680 With a pile operating at k only marginally above 1.0, such delayed neutrons would slow the response sufficiently to allow time for adjustment.1681 For once Compton made a quick decision: with control seemingly assured, he allowed Fermi to build CP-1 in the west stands. ●●

1939 League of Nations expels the Soviet Union ai_extracted 1 cit. no story The last act of the League of Nations, which no longer contained Germany, Japan, or Italy, was to expel the Soviet Union after it attacked Finland in ●●

1939 Bohr announces the discovery of fission ai_extracted 1 cit. no story and had attended the conference there on January 25 at which Niels Bohr announced the discovery of fission. ●●

1939 Turing joins the Bletchley Park codebreakers ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In September of 1939, Turing joined the Foreign Office’s Government Code and Cypher School, sequestered at a Buckinghamshire estate known as Bletchley ●●

1939 Frick decree compels German twins to register ai_extracted 1 cit. no story llnesses.” He listed rheumatism, stomach ulcers, cancer, heart defects, anemia and leukemia as the conditions he was focusing on. Verschuer assured, “A good deal of material has been collected.”60 In 1939, Interior Minister Frick issued a public decree compelling all twins to register with their loc ●●

1939 Nazi-Soviet pact and invasion of Poland ai_extracted 1 cit. Zuboff traces how just one week after propaganda whitewashed Stalin's regime, he signed a pact with Hitler, attacked Poland in September, and invaded Finland in November. ●●

1939 Allied empires outproduce Axis in GDP by 60% ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In 1939, as the war started, the combined GDP of the British and French empires exceeded that of Germany and Italy by 60 per cent. ●●

1939 Krauch launches the Schnellplan emergency programme ai_extracted 1 cit. no story To reach World War I levels by the end of 1939, Krauch launched the Schnellplan, a short-range emergency programme with absolutely top priority amongst all the Wehrmacht’s many programmes. ●●

1939 Reich adopts the New Finance Plan ai_extracted 1 cit. no story To ease its cash flow problems the Reich adopted a new expedient in the form of the New Finance Plan (Neuer Finanzplan) of 20 March 1939. ●●

1939 Ribbentrop signs the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact ai_extracted 1 cit. no story In the early hours of 24 August 1939, Hitler’s Foreign Minister Ribbentrop signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, which included secret provisions for the division of Eastern Europe into separate spheres of influence. ●●

1939 Roosevelt signs the Cash and Carry Act ai_extracted 1 cit. no story Within weeks of the outbreak of war, the isolationists lost the argument in Congress.** On 3 November 1939 President Roosevelt signed into law the ‘cash and carry’ bill that lifted the strict American neutrality provisions banning the sale of weapons ●●