Famous Deaths for Year 1939

Months in Year 1939: January February March April May June July August September October November December

Deaths 1 - 131 of 131

Jan 2nd - Roman Dmowski, Polish politician (b. 1864)
Jan 5th - Amelia Earhart, American aviator declared dead after disappearance in 1937. (b. 1897)
Jan 6th - Albert Ward, cricketer (England batsman in 7 Tests 1893-95), dies
Jan 9th - Johann Strauss, Austrian conductor/Royal ball director, dies at 72
Jan 10th - Jameson Thomas, actor (Piccadilly, Farmer's Wife), dies at 50
Jan 10th - Julius Bittner, Austria composer (Missa Austriaca), dies at 64
Jan 13th - Jacob Ruppert, CEO (NY Yankees, 1915-39), dies
Jan 16th - Albert Fish, mass murderer, executed
Jan 19th - Cliff Heathcote, American baseball player (b. 1898)
Jan 23rd - Matthias Sindelar, Austria soccer star, commits suicide
Jan 24th - Maximilian Bircher-Benner, Swiss physician and nutritionist (b. 1867)
Jan 26th - Armand Calinescu, Romania's PM, assassinated by the iron guard
Jan 28th - William Butler Yeats, Irish poet (Nobel), dies in France at 73
Jan 31st - George Thornton, cricketer (1 Test for South Africa 1902, 1* & 1-20), dies
Feb 4th - Edward Sapir, US linguist/cultural antropologist (indian), dies at 55
Feb 4th - Henri W A Deterding, Dutch oil magnate (Royal Oil, Shell), dies at 72
Feb 7th - Boris Grigoriev, Russian painter (b. 1886)
Feb 10th - Pius XI, [Ambrogio D A Ratti], Italian Pope (1922-39), dies at 81
Feb 11th - Franz Schmidt, Austrian composer, dies at 64
Feb 15th - Foppe G Scheltema, Dutch lawyer, dies at 47
Feb 15th - Henri Jaspar, premier of Belgium (1926-31), dies at 68
Feb 15th - Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Russian painter (b. 1878)
Feb 16th - Jura Soyfer, writer, dies at 26
Feb 17th - Willy Hess, German violinist (b. 1859)
Feb 18th - Ludwig Bonvin, composer, dies at 89
Feb 22nd - Antonio Machado, Spanish poet (b. 1875)
Feb 27th - Nadezjda K Krupskaya, Russian revolutionary/wife of Lenin, dies at 70
Archaeologist and Discoverer of Tutankhamun Howard Carter (Mar 2nd) Mar 2nd - Howard Carter, Brit archaeologist/Egyptologist (King Tut), dies at 65
Mar 6th - [Carl L] Ferdinand von Lindemann, German mathematician, dies at 86
Mar 7th - Amadeo Roldan, composer, dies at 38
Mar 7th - John Jules Barrish, Irish writer (b. 1885)
Mar 18th - Henry Simpson Lunn, English humanitarian and religious leader (b. 1859)
Mar 19th - Lloyd L. Gaines, American civil rights activist
Mar 21st - Evald Aav, composer, dies at 39
Mar 27th - Constance Lindsay Skinner, author (Rivers of America), dies at 57
Mar 28th - Francis Matthew John Baker, Australian politician (b. 1903)
Apr 5th - William Cooper, cricketer (two Tests for Australia 1882-84), dies
Apr 6th - Robert Courtneidge, British theater producer, dies
Apr 7th - Joseph Lyons, tenth Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1879)
Apr 9th - Emilio Serrano y Ruiz, composer, dies at 89
Apr 10th - Alfredo Panzini, Ital author (Il Bacio de Lesba), dies at 75
Apr 11th - SS Van Dine, [William Huntingdon Wright], detective writer, dies at 50
Apr 18th - Theo Mann, actress (Pink Bernd, Hedda Gabler), dies at 88
Apr 21st - Herman Finck, composer, dies at 66
Apr 24th - John Foulds, composer, dies at 58
May 3rd - [Karl Eduard] Wilhelm Groener, German general, dies at 71
May 11th - Evgenii Miller, Russian counter-revolutionary (b. 1867)
May 20th - Joe Carr, NFL hall of famer/NFL president (1921-39), dies at 59
May 22nd - Ernst Toller, writer, dies at 45
May 22nd - Jiri Mahen, Czech author (b. 1882)
May 26th - Charles H Mayo, US surgeon/co-founder (Mayo Clinic), dies at 74
May 26th - Cornelis J Cutters, supreme commander of Navy (1910-18), dies
May 27th - Joseph Roth, Austria journalist (Fluctuate ohne Ende), dies at 44
May 29th - Ursula Julia Ledochowska, Polish-Austrian Catholic saint (b. 1865)
May 30th - Floyd Roberts, Auto racer, killed during 1939 Indianapolis 500 (b. 1904)
Jun 4th - Tommy Ladnier, American musician (b. 1900)
Jun 5th - Elijah Beardsworth, world quick shaving champion, dies
Jun 5th - Frank Van de Goes, writer/marxist theorist, dies
Jun 6th - Ford Madox Ford, writer, dies at 65
Jun 9th - Owen Moore, actor (She Done Him Wrong), commits suicide at 52
Jun 13th - Arthur Coningham, cricketer (one Test for Australia 1894), dies
Jun 13th - Volter A Kilpi, Finnish writer (Suljetuilla Porteilla), dies at 64
Jun 16th - Chick Webb, American jazz drummer and big band leader (b. 1905)
Jun 17th - Eugene Weldman, last guillotined in France
Jun 17th - Allen Sothoron, American baseball player (b. 1893)
Jun 18th - French LM "Sas" van Aerschot, Flemish actor, dies at 73
Jun 19th - Grace Abbott, social worker (US Children Bureau), dies at 60
Jun 26th - Ford M Ford, [Hueffer], British writer, (Tietjens Saga) dies at 65
Jul 1st - Louis Davids [Simon David], cabaret performer/chorus performer, dies
Jul 2nd - Alfred R Zimmerman, mayor of Rotterdam (1906-22), dies
Jul 7th - James Deacon White, ball player jumped teams in 1876 (Chi), dies at 91
Jul 8th - [Henry] Havelock Ellis, English sexologist (Man & Woman), dies at 80
Jul 14th - Alphonse Mucha, Czech painter, decorative artist (b. 1860)
Jul 15th - Johon Mellanby, physiologist, dies
Jul 15th - Percy Scott Worthington, architect, dies
Jul 16th - Beatrice Erskine Lane Suzuki, Zen student, dies
Jul 18th - Witold Maliszewski, composer, dies at 65
Jul 19th - Tom Hayward, cricketer (35 Tests for England, 1999 runs), dies
Jul 19th - Rose Hartwick Thorpe, American poet (b. 1850)
Jul 20th - Joseph Mendes da Costa, sculptor, dies
Jul 28th - William J Mayo, US surgeon/co-founder Mayo Clinic, dies at 78
Aug 2nd - Harvey Spencer Lewis, American Rosicrucian mystic (b. 1883)
Aug 3rd - Eugust Enna, composer, dies at 80
Aug 11th - Jean Bugatti, Italian automobile designer (b. 1909)
Aug 16th - Ron Oxenham, cricketer (7 Tests for Australia, 14 wickets), dies
Aug 23rd - Sidney Coe Howard, playwright (Silver Cord, Pulitzer 1925), dies at 48
Aug 24th - W H Moule, cricketer (Australia v England 1880)/High Court judge, dies
Aug 25th - Babe Siebert, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1904)
Sep 5th - Cornelis J "Cor" van Ast, Dutch actor/director (Two Boys), dies at 67
Sep 6th - Arthur Rackham, artist/illustrator (Grimm's Fairy Tales), dies at 71
Sep 7th - Kyoka Izumi, Japanese novelist (b. 1873)
Sep 9th - S M Tretjakow, writer, dies at 47 [or Aug 9]
Sep 18th - Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Polish writer, painter, and photographer (b. 1885)
Sep 20th - Paul Bruchési, French Canadian Catholic archbishop of Montreal (b. 1855)
Sep 21st - Armand Calinescu, premier of Romania, murdered
Father of Psychology Sigmund Freud (Sep 23rd) Sep 23rd - Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist and creator of psychoanalysis, dies at 83
Sep 24th - Carl Laenmie, film producer, dies
Sep 28th - Felicjan Szopski, composer, dies at 74
Sep 29th - Dickstein, mathematician, dies
Oct 7th - Harvey (William) Cushing, US neurologist, dies at 70
Oct 10th - Eleanor Rigby, a real person whose name may have suggested the title to The Beatles song (b. 1895)
Oct 16th - Carl Henrik Ludolf Nielsen, composer, dies at 63
Oct 21st - Nummy Deane, cricketer (628 runs in 17 Tests for South Africa), dies
Oct 23rd - Zane Grey, US western writer (Spirit of the Border), dies at 67
Oct 25th - Cornelis JK van Aalst, president Dutch Business Society, dies at 73
Oct 28th - Alice Brady, actress (My Man Godfrey, Gay Divorcee), dies at 46
Oct 29th - Dwight B. Waldo, American educator and historian (b. 1864)
Oct 31st - Otto Rank, [Rosenfeld], Austria psychoanalyst (Trauma of Geburt), dies
Nov 4th - Charles Arnold Tournemire, composer, dies at 69
Nov 6th - Adolphe Max, Belgian liberal MP, dies at 69
Nov 9th - Dirk Klop, Dutch intelligence lt, shot by German Abwehr
Nov 11th - Jan Opletal, Czech student, victim of Nazi violence in Prague
Nov 12th - (Ernest YY) Oscar Tourniaire, actor (Bluejackets), dies at 59
Nov 12th - Norman Bethune, Canadian doctor and humanitarian (b. 1890)
Nov 13th - George Nicholls Jr, actor (Finishing School), dies at 42
Nov 16th - Pierce Butler, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1866)
Nov 20th - Marie Joseph Leon Desire Paque, composer, dies at 72
Inventor James Naismith (Nov 28th) Nov 28th - James Naismith, creator of basketball, dies at 78
Nov 29th - Philipp Scheidemann, German MP (SPD)/mayor of Kassel, dies at 74
Dec 1st - Max Fiedler, composer, dies at 79
Dec 8th - Ernest Schelling, composer, dies at 63
Dec 10th - Wilhelm Grosz, composer, dies at 45
Dec 12th - Douglas Fairbanks, actor (Zorro, 3 Musketeers, Robin Hood), dies at 56
Dec 15th - Tom McKibbin, cricketer (5 Tests for Aust 1895-1898, 17 wkts), dies
Dec 18th - Matthew Brown, Journalist, dies at 51
Dec 19th - Eric Fogg, composer, dies at 36
Dec 19th - Karl Wagenfeld, Low German writer (Lucifer, Death & Devil), dies at 70
Dec 19th - Willem Benoy, Flemish actor/director (The White), dies at 57
Dec 20th - Hans Langsdorff, German capt (Graaf Spee), commits suicide
Dec 22nd - Ma Rainey, "Mother of the Blues", US blues singer/composer, dies at 53
Dec 23rd - Anthony H G Fokker, Dutch airplane builder (Spider), dies at 49