1939 NCAA Basketball Championship Game, Game summary
In the first minute of the second half, Hull scored a pair of field goals to reduce the Buckeyes' deficit to a single point, 21–20. Afterwards, the Webfoots made the next four baskets, including a pair by Dick, to extend their lead to nine, about three minutes into the second half. The teams exchanged scores until Anet gave Oregon a 40–29 advantage. By this time, the Webfoots had entered into a stall, keeping the ball away from Ohio State.


1939 NCAA Basketball Championship Game, Game summary
The Webfoots kept the lead in double digits for the rest of the game, and claimed the NCAA championship by a final score of 46–33. On behalf of the Webfoots, Anet was given the championship trophy in what Dick called "a two-handed trophy presentation". During the game, Anet had chased after a loose ball by the boundary, near the area where members of the media were located. He accidentally knocked the trophy off of a table, breaking a basketball player figure.


1939 NCAA Basketball Championship Game, Statistical summary
According to unofficial statistics, the Webfoots were 17-for-63 on their field goal attempts in the game. Dick scored five of the field goals and added five free throws for 15 points, the most by a player on either team. Anet added 10 points, while Johansen had 9 points and Gale added 8. With 4 points, Wintermute was the only other Oregon player to score. Ford Mullen and Matt Pavalunas also saw action for the Webfoots, but neither player added any points. The Webfoots did not call a timeout during the contest; in contrast, Ohio State stopped play five times. When asked by Hobson why he had not used a timeout, Anet said that he was reacting to pre-game instructions by Hobson that Oregon only call a timeout if they were fatigued.


1939 NCAA Basketball Championship Game, Statistical summary
The Buckeyes' shooting was less effective than that of Oregon, as Ohio State converted just 14 of its 83 field goal attempts. Despite Hull dealing with an ankle injury that he later said caused him a high level of discomfort, he topped the Buckeyes with 12 points. The team's next-highest scorers were Lynch and William Sattler, each of whom scored seven points. Four other Ohio State players added either one or two points. The Buckeyes made five of their nine free throw attempts; both figures fell short of the Webfoots' 12-for-16 free throw shooting totals.


1939 NCAA Basketball Championship Game, Aftermath
The 1939 NCAA Tournament's attendance figures were not high enough for the NABC to avoid losses on the event. The reported loss was $2,531; Hobson said in regard to the attendance estimate, "I think they gave half the tickets away." Lacking reserve funds, the NABC reached a deal with the NCAA in which the latter organization would take over organizing duties and provide financial backing for the tournament in later years, in exchange for underwriting the 1939 loss. Had such an agreement not taken place, the NABC intended to avoid staging a tournament in 1940. Instead, the move paved the way for the event to continue.


1939 NCAA Basketball Championship Game, Aftermath
Ohio State finished 8–4 in Big 10 play in the 1939–40 season and did not qualify for the NCAA Tournament. The Buckeyes did not return to the tournament until 1944, when they began a three-year streak in which they reached the national semifinals annually. The team next played in the NCAA Tournament final in 1960, winning their only championship in men's college basketball. The Buckeyes have made three further appearances in national championship games, in 1961, 1962, and 2007.


1939 NCAA Basketball Championship Game, Aftermath
The Webfoots were second in their division in 1939–40 before tying for third the next season. The 1945 NCAA Tournament was the next one in which the team appeared; Oregon lost in their first game. As of 2018, Oregon has not returned to the NCAA championship game. The program's deepest run in the tournament since 1939 came in 2017, when Oregon reached the national semifinals. Seventy-six years after the 1939 NCAA Basketball Championship Game, Oregon and Ohio State also met on January 12, 2015, in the first College Football Playoff National Championship, a game in which Ohio State defeated Oregon.


1939 NCAA Basketball Tournament
The 1939 NCAA Basketball Tournament involved eight schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. It was the first NCAA basketball national championship tournament, although it was operated by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) at the time.


1939 NCAA Basketball Tournament
The tournament began on March 17 and ended with the championship game on March 27 on Northwestern University's campus in Evanston, Illinois. A total of eight games were played, including a single third place game in the West region. The East region did not hold a third place game until 1941, and there was no national third place game until 1946.


1939 NCAA Basketball Tournament
Oregon, coached by Howard Hobson, won the national title with a 46–33 victory in the final game over Ohio State, coached by Harold Olsen. Jimmy Hull of Ohio State was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.


1939 NCAA Basketball Tournament
Despite its success in this first tournament, Oregon would not make another Final Four until 2017.


1939 NCAA Basketball Tournament, Locations
The following are the sites selected to host each round of the 1939 tournament:


1939 NCAA Basketball Tournament, Locations, Championship Game
The 1939 Championship Game was held on the campus of Northwestern University in the Chicago suburb of Evanston. (Ironically, it took until 2017 for the host team to make the tournament.) It would be the first of two times the university would host the Final Four on its campus; the Final Four would return in 1956 to McGaw Memorial Hall, which replaced the second Patten Gymnasium, which in turn replaced this one in 1940. The regionals were held on the east and west coasts.


1939 NCAA Basketball Tournament, Locations, Championship Game
The East was hosted by the University of Pennsylvania at the Palestra, which would go on to host 19 times. The West was hosted at the California Coliseum on the grounds of the Golden Gate International Exposition, then going on to Treasure Island in San Francisco. Within two years, both Patten Gym and the California Coliseum would be demolished, the former for academic expansion, the latter for the creation of the Naval Station Treasure Island on the island. Only the Palestra remains, still the home of the Penn Quakers.


1939 NCAA Basketball Tournament, Locations, Championship Game
The tournament would not return to any of the host cities for several years - Chicago in 1952, Philadelphia in 1953 and the San Francisco suburb of Daly City in 1955; to date the tournament has not held games within the city limits of San Francisco again, a streak which will finally end in 2022 when the Chase Center is used for the first time.


1939 NCAA Cross Country Championships
This is the current revision of this page, as edited by Paul2520 (talk | contribs) at 18:37, 17 November 2019 (Adding short description: "1939 cross-country running meet of the NCAA" (Shortdesc helper)). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this version.


1939 NCAA Cross Country Championships
The 1939 NCAA Cross Country Championships were the second annual cross country meet to determine the team and individual national champions of men's collegiate cross country running in the United States.


1939 NCAA Cross Country Championships
Since the current multi-division format for NCAA championship did not begin until 1973, all NCAA members were eligible. In total, 19 teams and 67 individual runners contested this championship.


1939 NCAA Cross Country Championships
The meet was hosted by Michigan State College at the Forest Akers East Golf Course in East Lansing, Michigan for the second consecutive time. Additionally, the distance for the race was 4 miles (6.4 kilometers).


1939 NCAA Cross Country Championships
The team national championship was won by the Michigan State Spartans, their first, while the individual championship was won by Walter Mehl from Wisconsin, with a time of 20:30.9.


1939 NCAA Golf Championship
The 1939 NCAA Golf Championship was the first annual NCAA-sanctioned golf tournament to determine the individual and team national champions of men's collegiate golf in the United States. The tournament was held at the Wakonda Country Club in Des Moines, Iowa.


1939 NCAA Golf Championship
Stanford captured in the inaugural team championship and Vincent D'Antoni, from Tulane, won the individual title. The Indians were coached by Eddie Twiggs. The Indians had also won the last collegiate golf championship, held at Oakmont Country Club in 1938, before the beginning of NCAA sponsorship.


1939 NCAA Golf Championship
Sid Richardson of Northwestern, with a score of 144, was named the tournament's medalist.


1939 NCAA Men's Basketball All-Americans
The consensus 1939 College Basketball All-American team, as determined by aggregating the results of four major All-American teams. To earn "consensus" status, a player must win honors from a majority of the following teams: the Helms Athletic Foundation, Converse, Collyer's News Bureau, and Madison Square Garden.


1939 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships
The 1939 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships were contested March 24, 1938 at the third annual NCAA-sanctioned swim meet to determine the team and individual national champions of men's collegiate swimming and diving in the United States.


1939 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships
This year's event was hosted at the Intramural Sports Building at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.


1939 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships
For the third consecutive year, Michigan topped rivals Ohio State in the team standings, earning the host Wolverines their third national title. Michigan were coached by Matt Mann.


1939 NCAA Track and Field Championships
The 1939 NCAA Track and Field Championships was the 18th NCAA track and field championship. The event was held at the University of Southern California's Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in June 1939. The University of Southern California won its fifth consecutive team title.


1939 NCAA Track and Field Championships
The individual high scorers at the meet were William Watson of Michigan, who scored in three events, and double hurdles champion Fred Wolcott of Rice. Both finished with 20 points.


1939 NCAA Track and Field Championships
Additionally, the NCAA hosted the first ever separate cross country national championships during the 1938–39 season. The 1938 NCAA Men's Cross Country Championships were held in November 1938 in East Lansing, Michigan; Indiana won the team event and Greg Rice, from Notre Dame, won the individual event.


1939 NCAA Track and Field Championships, Track events
100-yard dash  1. Mozel Ellerbe, Tuskegee - 9.8 seconds2. Clyde Jeffrey, Stanford3. Willis, USC4. Jordan, USC5. Ledford, Washington State


1939 NCAA Track and Field Championships, Track events
120-yard high hurdles1. Fred Wolcott, Rice - 14.2 seconds2. Smith, Wisconsin3. Corpening, North Carolina4. Wright, Oklahoma A&M5. Kinzle, Duke 6. Gatewood, Texas


1939 NCAA Track and Field Championships, Track events
220-yard dash 1. Clyde Jeffrey, Stanford - 21.1 seconds2. Ledford, Washington State3. Pettichord, Washington State4. Jordan, USC5. Ohl, Pitt


1939 NCAA Track and Field Championships, Track events
220-yard low hurdles 1. Fred Wolcott, Rice - 23 seconds2. Earl Vickery, USC3. Cochran, Indiana4. Marshall, Butler5. Hawkins, Stanford


1939 NCAA Track and Field Championships, Track events
440-yard dash 1. Erwin Miller, USC - 47.5 seconds2. Watts, California3. Simmons, Nebraska4. Upton, USC5. Breidenbach, Michigan


1939 NCAA Track and Field Championships, Track events
880-yard run 1. John Woodruff, Pitt - 1:51.32. Giddings, NYU3. Dale, Washington State4. Moore, Stanford5. Storli, Oregon


1939 NCAA Track and Field Championships, Track events
One-mile run 1. Louis Zamperini, USC - 4:13.6 2. Walter Mehl, Wisconsin 3. John Munski, Missouri 4. Holderman, Purdue5. Girard, Stanford


1939 NCAA Track and Field Championships, Track events
Two-mile run 1.Gregory Rice, Notre Dame - 9:02.6 (NCAA record)2. Ralph Schwarzkopf, Michigan3. Efaw, Oklahoma A&M4. Dodds, Ashland5. Garner, Washington State


1939 NCAA Track and Field Championships, Field events
Broad jump 1. Judson Atchison, Texas - 24 feet, 9¼ inches2. Billy Brown, LSU - 24 feet, 8 inches3. Turner, UCLA - 24 feet, 5½ inches4. William Watson, Michigan - 24 feet, 1/2 inch5. Manuel, California - 24 feet


1939 NCAA Track and Field Championships, Field events
High jump 1. Johnny Wilson, USC - 6 feet, 6 inches2. Mallery, USC2. Diefenthaler, Illinois4. Burke, Marquette4. Arrington, Michigan State4. Lincoln, Stanford4. Du Fresne, Oregon State


1939 NCAA Track and Field Championships, Field events
Pole vault 1. Ganslen, Columbia - 14 feet, 5 inches2. Day, USC2. Padway, Wisconsin2. Varoff, Oregon


1939 NCAA Track and Field Championships, Field events
Discus throw 1. Pete Zagar, Stanford - 164 feet, 1/4 inch2. William Watson, Michigan - 161 feet, 9¾ inches3. Harris, Indiana4. White, Tulane5. Faymonville, Notre Dame


1939 NCAA Track and Field Championships, Field events
Javelin 1. Bob Peoples, USC - 220 feet, 6½ inches2. Boyd Brown, Oregon3. DeGroot, USC4. Vukmanic, Penn5. Graham, Texas


1939 NCAA Track and Field Championships, Field events
Shot put 1. Elmer Hackney, Kansas State - 55 feet, 10⅜ inches (NCAA and American record)2. William Watson, Michigan - 54 feet, 6½ inches3. Williams, Xavier New Orleans4. Andersen, Stanford5. Wohl, Stanford


1939 NCAA Wrestling Championships
The 1939 NCAA Wrestling Championships were the 12th NCAA Wrestling Championships to be held. Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania hosted the tournament at the Mayser Physical Education Center.


1939 NCAA Wrestling Championships
Oklahoma A&M took home the team championship with 33 points and having three individual champions.


1939 NCAA baseball season
The 1939 NCAA baseball season, play of college baseball in the United States organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) began in the spring of 1939. Play largely consisted of regional matchups, some organized by conferences, and ended in June. No national championship event was held until 1947.


1939 NCAA baseball season, Conference winners
This is a partial list of conference champions from the 1939 season.


1939 NCAA football rankings
One human poll comprised the 1939 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) football rankings. Unlike most sports, college football's governing body, the NCAA, does not bestow a national championship, instead that title is bestowed by one or more different polling agencies. There are two main weekly polls that begin in the preseason—the AP Poll and the Coaches' Poll. The Coaches' Poll began operation in 1950; in addition, the AP Poll did not begin conducting preseason polls until that same year.


1939 NCAA football rankings, AP Poll
The final AP Poll was released on December 11, at the end of the 1939 regular season, weeks before the major bowls. The AP would not release a post-bowl season final poll regularly until 1968.


1939 NFL Championship Game
The 1939 National Football League Championship Game was the seventh league championship game of the National Football League (NFL), held on December 10 at Wisconsin State Fair Park in West Allis, Wisconsin, a suburb west of Milwaukee.


1939 NFL Championship Game
The New York Giants (9–1–1) were the defending champions and traveled west to Wisconsin to play the Western Division champion Green Bay Packers (9–2). The teams had met in the previous year's title game in New York City, which the Giants won by six points, but did not play each other in the 1939 regular season. For the title game in Wisconsin, the Packers were favored by ten points.


1939 NFL Championship Game
The host Packers scored a touchdown in the first quarter and led 7–0 at halftime. They dominated in the second half to win 27–0 and secure their fifth title—two more than any other franchise. At the time, it was the highest attended sporting event in the Milwaukee area.


1939 NFL Championship Game
The "Dairy Bowl" football stadium was dedicated at halftime with the breaking of a bottle of milk. On hand were Governor Julian Heil and Mayor Daniel Hoan of Milwaukee.


1939 NFL Championship Game, Officials
The NFL had only four game officials in 1939; the back judge was added in 1947, the line judge in 1965, and the side judge in 1978.


1939 NFL Championship Game, Attendance and receipts
The Packers moved the game from Green Bay to the larger metropolitan area of Milwaukee in hopes of increasing attendance; 32,279 paid to watch. The gross gate receipts of $83,510.35 set a new record.


1939 NFL Championship Game, Attendance and receipts
The title game tickets went on sale at noon on Monday, six days before the game, in both Green Bay and Milwaukee and were nearly sold out in the first 24 hours. Face value prices ranged from $1.10 to $4.40 per seat.


1939 NFL Championship Game, Pro football in Milwaukee
The Green Bay Packers played several games a year in Milwaukee for 62 seasons, from 1933 through 1994. The team played at Borchert Field in 1933, State Fair Park (in West Allis) from 1934 through 1951, Marquette Stadium in 1952, and then moved to County Stadium when it opened in 1953.


1939 NFL Championship Game, Pro football in Milwaukee
The 1939 game was the only NFL championship game played in the Milwaukee area; under head coach Vince Lombardi, the 1961, 1965, and 1967 title games were played in Green Bay at Lambeau Field ("City Stadium" in 1961). A tiebreaker playoff game was also played in Green Bay in 1965 against the Baltimore Colts to determine the Western Conference champion. In 1967, the NFL expanded to 16 teams in four divisions and all the winners went to the playoffs. In the first round, Green Bay (9–4–1) hosted the Los Angeles Rams (11–1–2) in Milwaukee at County Stadium. Under Lombardi, the Packers won all five playoff games in Wisconsin.


1939 NFL Championship Game, Pro football in Milwaukee
In 1940 and 1941, the Dairy Bowl at State Fair Park also served as the home of the Milwaukee Chiefs of the third American Football League. The 50-yard line sat where the start-finish line is currently located. The city's own entry in the NFL, the Milwaukee Badgers, lasted just five seasons, from 1922 to 1926, and played at Athletic Park, renamed Borchert Field in 1928.


1939 NFL Draft
The 1939 National Football League Draft was held on December 9, 1938, at the New Yorker Hotel in New York City, New York.


1939 NFL season
The 1939 NFL season was the 20th regular season of the National Football League. Before the season, NFL president Joseph Carr died, and Carl Storck was named to replace him.


1939 NFL season
An NFL game was televised for the first time when NBC broadcast the October 22 Philadelphia Eagles at  Brooklyn Dodgers game at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn (the Dodgers won 23-14). The experimental broadcast was broadcast only to viewers in New York and Albany; regular broadcasting of NFL games would not begin until 1951.


1939 NFL season
The season ended when the Green Bay Packers defeated the New York Giants in the NFL Championship Game.


1939 NFL season, Draft
The 1939 NFL Draft was held on December 9, 1938 at New York City's New Yorker Hotel. With the first pick, the Chicago Cardinals selected center Ki Aldrich from Texas Christian University.


1939 NFL season, Division races
Though both the Giants and the Packers finished a game ahead of their closest division rivals, both clinched their divisions on December 3, the final day of the 11-game regular season. The New York Giants and Washington Redskins had played to a 0–0 tie earlier in the season, and both had 8–1–1 records when they met at New York's Polo Grounds before a crowd of 62,404. The Giants did not reach the end zone, but three field goals were enough for a 9–7 win and the division title.


1939 NFL season, Division races
The Western Division race was between the Lions, Bears and Packers. Detroit was unbeaten after four games, but on October 22, Green Bay beat them 26–7 to give both teams records of 4–1–0. The same day, the 4–1 Bears lost 16–13 to the Giants to fall to 4–2. In Week Nine (November 5), the Lions beat the Giants 18–14, while the Bears beat the Packers 30–27, giving Detroit the lead at 6–1–0.


1939 NFL season, Division races
The next week (November 12), the Bears beat the Lions 23–13, and the Packers beat the Eagles 23–16, tying Detroit and Green Bay at 6–2–0, half a game ahead of the 6–3–0 Bears. On November 19, the Lions lost to the Rams, 14–3, while the Packers and Bears both won. On November 26, the Bears closed their season at 8–3–0 after a 48–7 win over the Cardinals, while the Packers edged the Rams, 7–6 to reach 8–2–0. Green Bay was behind 7–3 at halftime in its season ender at Detroit, and a loss would have forced a playoff for the Western Division, but Clarke Hinkle's touchdown in the final quarter gave the Packers a 12–7 win and the division title.


1939 NFL season, Final standings
Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.


1939 NFL season, NFL Championship Game
Green Bay 27, N.Y. Giants 0, at State Fair Park, West Allis, Wisconsin, December 10, 1939


1939 NFL season, Stadium changes
The Cleveland Rams moved from Shaw Stadium to Cleveland Municipal Stadium


1939 NSWRFL season
The 1939 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the thirty-second season of Sydney’s top-level rugby league club competition, Australia’s first. Eight teams from across the city contested the premiership during the season, which lasted from April until September  and culminated in Balmain’s victory over South Sydney in the final.


1939 NSWRFL season, Season summary
This was to be the St. George club’s final season at Earl Park, Arncliffe, the following season moving back to Hurstville Oval.


1939 NSWRFL season, Season summary, Teams
32nd seasonGround: North Sydney OvalCoach: Bob Williams Captain: Roy Thompson


1939 NSWRFL season, Season summary, Teams
32nd seasonGround: Pratten Park Coach: Jim Craig Captain: Albert McGuiness


1939 NSWRFL season, Finals
In the two semi finals, minor premiers Balmain narrowly defeated Canterbury whilst fourth-placed South Sydney beat second-placed St. George.


1939 NSWRFL season, Finals, Premiership Final
The decider was played on the weekend when the world’s future altered dramatically with the invasion of Poland by Germany leading to England, Australia and the world going to war.


1939 NSWRFL season, Finals, Premiership Final
The match was played at the Sydney Cricket Ground and refereed by George Bishop in front of 26,972. The game was tight in the first half with the Tigers scoring one try to lead 7–2 at the break.


1939 NSWRFL season, Finals, Premiership Final
In the second-half Balmain ran away with it, scoring six further tries to South Sydney’s none for a crushing seventh premiership title and the Tigers’ first since 1924. Star Balmain players of the time included Sid Goodwin, Frank Hyde, Tom Bourke, Athol Smith, Billy Bischoff, George Watt and Jim Quealey.


1939 NSWRFL season, Finals, Premiership Final
Balmain 33 (Tries: Tom Bourke 2, Frank Hyde, J. Redman, Jim Quealey, D. Buckley, A. Smith. Goals: H. Day 5, W. Johnson )


1939 NYU Violets football team
The 1939 NYU Violets football team represented New York University in the 1939 college football season. In Mal Stevens's 6th season at NYU, the Violets compiled a 5–4 record, and managed to secure a place on the AP poll for the first and only time in program history for three weeks. They also defeated #15 Carnegie Tech 6–0 for their 2nd and final win over a ranked college football program, the other victory coming against #8 Fordham in 1936.


1939 National Challenge Cup
The 1939 National Challenge Cup was the annual open cup held by the United States Football Association now known as the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.


1939 National Football League All-Star Game
The 1939 National Football League All-star Game was the professional football league's first-ever all-star game, sponsored by the Los Angeles Times as a charity game to benefit the Salvation Army. It pitted the New York Giants, the league's champion for the 1938 season, against a team of all-stars. The game was played on Sunday, January 15, 1939, at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, California in front of 15,000 fans; although 30,000 spectators were expected, bad weather led to the poor attendance. The Giants defeated the all-stars by a score of 13–10.


1939 National Football League All-Star Game
The players on the all-star squad were selected by fan balloting. For the only time in the game's history, players from teams outside the NFL were invited; five players from the Los Angeles Bulldogs and Hollywood Stars, two local teams in what would eventually become the Pacific Coast Professional Football League, were among the members of the All-Star team.


1939 National Invitation Tournament, Selected teams
Below is a list of the six teams selected for the tournament.


1939 Navy Midshipmen football team
The 1939 Navy Midshipmen football team represented the United States Naval Academy during the 1939 college football season. In their first season under head coach Swede Larson, the Midshipmen compiled a 3–5–1 record and were outscored by their opponents by a combined score of 107 to 88.


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden
On February 20, 1939, a Nazi rally took place at Madison Square Garden, organized by the German American Bund. More than 20,000 people attended, and Fritz Julius Kuhn was a featured speaker. The Bund billed the event, which took place two days before George Washington's Birthday, as a pro-"Americanism" rally; the stage at the event featured a huge Washington portrait with swastikas on each side.


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, Background
The German American Bund was a pro-Hitler organization in the United States before World War II. The group promoted Nazi propaganda in the United States, combining Nazi imagery with American patriotic imagery.


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, Background
The largely decentralized Bund was active in a number of regions, but attracted support only from a minority of German Americans. The Bund was the most influential of a number of pro-Nazi German groups in the United States in the 1930s; others included the Teutonia Society and Friends of New Germany (also known as the Hitler Club). Alongside allied groups, such as the Christian Front, these organizations were virulently antisemitic.


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, Background
The pro-Nazi organizations in the U.S. were actively countered by anti-Nazi organizations led by American Jews, Americans, and others who opposed Hitlerism and supported a boycott of German goods. The Joint Boycott Committee held a rally at Madison Square Garden in 1937.


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, Preparation for rally
Mayor LaGuardia realized the dangers posed by this rally and dispatched the highest number of police to a single event in the city's history. 1,700 uniformed police officers patrolled outside the venue as well as 600 undercover detectives and non-uniformed officers scattered throughout the hall, and even 35 firefighters, armed with a heavy-duty fire hose in preparation of a riot. Bomb squads also combed the arena in response to a threat received a week earlier, boasting of a series of time activated devices to explode during the event.


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, Preparation for rally
New York was ready for the influx of Nazi ralliers and was prepared to protect their guaranteed rights at all costs. Chief Inspector Louis F. Costuma illustrated this commitment to safety, telling the press, "We had enough police here to stop a revolution' in an interview in preparation for the rally."


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, Preparation for rally
While Madison Square Garden had prepared itself for the German Bund, many around New York City considered the Nazi sect less welcome in their city. About 100,000 anti-Nazi protesters gathered around the arena in protest of the Bund, carrying signs stating "Smash Anti- Semitism" and "Drive the Nazis Out of New York."


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, Preparation for rally
A total of three attempts were made to break the arm-linking lines of police, the first of these, a group of World War One Veterans, wrapped in Stars and Stripes, were held off by police on mounted horseback, the next, a 'burly man carrying an American flag' and finally, a Trotskyist group known as the Socialist Workers Party, who like those before, had their efforts halted by police. Chief Inspector Costuma's Police force acting security was exposed to an odd form of protest as well, characterized by the New York Times as:


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, Preparation for rally
"One of the most mystifying disturbances came from a blaring speaker set up in a second-floor room of a rooming house at the southern corner of Forty-ninth Street and Eight Avenue. Shortly before 8 o'clock it began blaring out a denunciation of Nazis and urging "Be American, Stay at Home." Upon investigation, the room was found untenanted: the voice of these 'denunciations' came from a record, timed to go off at 7:55 pm.


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, Preparation for rally
Full of dramatics, the night's main act saw Joseph Goldstien, a former New York magistrate, exit a taxi cab in front of the rally holding a summons for the arrest of Fritz Julius Kuhn in relation to a criminal libel suit filed earlier. Goldstien, like all other opposing efforts to gain admittance to the Garden, was stopped by police, this time Inspector Costuma himself, denying the former magistrate entry based on the failure to present a ticket. As the night went on, outside Madison Square Garden, a total of 13 people were arrested in protest of the rally. Their names, ages, charges and sentences (if available) are included below:


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, Rally
The rally took place at a time when the German American Bund's membership was dropping; Kuhn hoped that a provocative high-profile event would reverse the group's declining fortunes. The pro-Nazi Bund was unpopular in New York City, and some called for the event to be banned. Mayor Fiorello La Guardia allowed the event to go forward, correctly predicting that the Bund's highly publicized spectacle would further discredit them in the public eye.


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, Rally
The event was highly choreographed in the fascist style, with uniformed Bund members carrying American and Nazi flags, the display of the Nazi salute, and the playing of martial music and German folk songs.


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, Rally
The rally began at 8 pm with a rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner", sung by Margarete Rittershaush. Next, James Wheeler-Hill, national secretary of the Bund, opened the night with the statement that "if George Washington were alive today, he would be friends with Adolf Hitler." Calling upon his fellow Americans, Wheller-Hill challenged Bund members to restore America to the 'True Americans' while condemning President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Secretary of the Interior, Harold L. Ickes for attacking Nazi officials.


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, Rally
Midwestern Gau leader, George Froboese was next to speak, pushing themes of 'Jewish world domination' blaming the 'oriental cunning of the Jew Karl Marx-Mordecais for the class warfare felt across the country.'


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, Rally
West Coast leader, Hermann Schwinn chose to denounce the Jewish control of Hollywood and news industries, following a common theme of the night with a fantastically anti-semitic run-on sentence, "Everything inimical to those Nations which have freed themselves of alien domination is 'News' to be played up and twisted to fan the flames of hate in the hearts of Americans, whereas the Menace of Anti-National, Gold-Hating Jewish-Bolshevism, is deliberately minimized"


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, Rally
Last to speak, the Bundersfuhrer himself, Fritz Kuhn continued to push the anti-Semitic theme, going as far as to refer to President Roosevelt as 'Rosenfield' and the man to which he promised to make no anti-Semitic remarks, Fiorello "Jew Lumpen" LaGuardia himself. All came to an immediate halt as in the middle of Kuhn's final speech, a man dressed in blue broke through the lines of OD men and ran onto the stage and charged at the speaker.


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, Rally
Quickly swarmed by the Ordnungsdienst, he was subdued in an effective routine of punches and stomps exemplifying an 'uncanny replication of Nazi thuggery' [ as] a pack of uniformed men blaste[ed] away with fists and boots on a lone Jewish victim." Later identified as 26-year-old plumbing assistant Isadore Greenbaum, the lone victim was pulled away by a team of police, saving the young man from serious injury. Attempting to control the riled-up crowd, Kuhn delivered his rousing finish, advocating for an America ruled by White Gentiles, free from a Jewish Hollywood and news.


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, Rally
"The Bund is open to you, provided you are sincere, of good character, of White Gentile Stock, and an American Citizen imbued with patriotic zeal. Therefore: Join!" As Kuhn exited the stage, 20 thousand Bund members chanted "Free America! Free America! Free America!" in the biggest Nazi rally in United States history.


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, Rally
At 11:15, members of the Bund buttoned up their overcoats, conveniently hiding their uniforms, and were escorted through police lines along Fifty-Second amid the crowds of protesters waiting outside. Ralliers were greeted with a roar of catcalls, jeers, and even a few punches, but by midnight, all was quiet, or as quiet as it could be in downtown New York.


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, Rally
Isadore Greenbaum never intended to run onto the stage. A former deck engineer and chief petty officer, Greenbaum snuck into the rally, but his anger quickly took hold of him as he listened to Kuhn speak. Speaking years later in 1989, Greenbaum characterized his actions as "I went down to the Garden without any intention of interrupting, but being that they talked so much against my religion and there was so much persecution I lost my head and I felt it was my duty to talk".


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, Rally
When asked about the cause of his actions, Greenbaum quickly rebutted with "Gee, what would you have done if you were in my place listening to that s.o.b. hollering against the government and publicly kissing [Adolf] Hitler's behind - while thousands cheered? Well, I did it." For his actions in disturbing the biggest Nazi rally in the United States, Greenbaum was sentenced to 10 days in jail, but instead paid a $25 fine.


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, Aftermath
Shortly after the rally, the Bund rapidly declined. Two months after the rally, the film Confessions of a Nazi Spy was released by Warner Brothers, ridiculing the Nazis and their American sympathizers. The Bund also came under investigation. After its financial records were seized in a raid on the group's Yorkville, Manhattan headquarters, authorities discovered that $14,000 (about $250,000 in 2018 dollars) raised by the Bund in the rally was unaccounted for, having been spent by Kuhn on his mistress and various personal expenses. Kuhn was convicted of embezzlement in December 1939 and sent to Sing Sing prison.


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, Aftermath
Kuhn's successor as Bund leader was Gerhard Wilhelm Kunze, a spy for German military intelligence who fled the United States in November 1941. The final Bund national leader was George Froboese, who was in charge of the organization when Germany declared war on the United States. Froboese committed suicide in 1942, after receiving a federal grand jury subpoena.


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, In popular culture
The rally was featured in Frank Capra's wartime documentary series Why We Fight.


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, In popular culture
Actual footage of the rally was incorporated into a fictional newsreel created for the 2004 Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Storm Front," illustrating an alternate history in which the Nazis invaded and occupied the United States with the help of aliens from the future.


1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, In popular culture
The short 2017 documentary film A Night at the Garden is about the rally.


1939 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team
The 1939 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team was an American football team that represented the University of Nebraska in the Big Six Conference during the 1939 college football season. In its third season under head coach Biff Jones, the team compiled a 7–1–1 record (4–1 against conference opponents), finished second in the Big Six, and was ranked No. 18 in the final AP Poll. The Cornhuskers outscored opponents by a total of 115 to 70. The team played its home games at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska.


1939 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team, Before the season
Coach Jones was under some scrutiny upon the start of his third year at the helm of the program, as it wasn't entirely clear if his successful first year in 1937 was a product of his leadership or a remnant of former head coach Dana X. Bible's legacy. After suffering a 3-5-1 campaign in 1938, the most losses in a single season since 1899, coach Jones needed to get the program back on its feet.


1939 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team, Roster
Abel, George #47  GAlfson, Warren #22  GAshburn, Jack #55  EBehm, Forrest #33  TBlue, Wayne #39  HBBurruss, Robert #49  CCarper, Charles #58  EDeFruiter, Robert #46  HBDobson, Adna #53  GFrancis, Vike #38  FBFuenning, Sam #57  GHaynes, Edgar #36  THerndon, Clarence #34  THerrmann, William #29  GHopp, Harry #37  FBKahler, Robert #35  HBKahler, Royal #42  TKelly, Howard #56  CKlum, Arlo #51  GKnickrehm, Hubert #40  TKnight, George #21  QBLeik, Francis #60  TLudwick, Robert #30  ELuther, Walter #27  HBMeier, Fred #20  C


1939 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team, Roster
Monsky, Hubert #45  GMuskin, Leonard #43  TMyers, Lynn #64  GNelson, Jack #65  TPetsch, Roy #13  QBPorter, George #18  HBPreston, Fred #52  EProchaska, Jerome #32  EProchaska, Ray #31  ERamey, Robert #16  CRohn, Henry #15  FBRohrig, Herman #25  HBRubottom, Don #10  HBSchwartzkopf, Ed #17  GSchwartzkopf, Sam #54  TSeeman, George #41  ESimmons, Kenneth #19  HBStearns, George #48  GThompson, Marvin #44  HBThompson, Theos #26  HBVincent, Jack #23  HBWaddick, Donald #24  EZiegler, Donald #50  EZorn, Howard #68  G


1939 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team, Game summaries, Indiana
Indiana scored first and held Nebraska off with the narrow 7-0 lead for most of the rest of the game. Finally, as time was running out, the Cornhuskers pulled up to the Hoosier 1 yard line. After two subsequent scoring attempts were turned away, Nebraska executed a reverse around the right and scored with less than 90 seconds remaining to play. Indiana responded valiantly, quickly driving from their own 35 to the Nebraska 10 before a turnover ended their last hope with 35 seconds still on the clock. Indiana thus remained winless against Nebraska in all four of their attempts.


1939 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team, Game summaries, Minnesota
Nebraska brought old nemesis Minnesota to Lincoln and attacked the Gophers with a powerful running offense, while the Cornhusker defense put up an outstanding effort to keep Minnesota off the scoreboard all day long. Nebraska threw only a single pass during the contest, and made their lone score using the same play that slipped past Indiana in the previous game. The rare win was savored by the Cornhuskers, but Nebraska had a long way to go if they ever hoped to even up the series, as the Gophers still held a dominating edge of 15-4-2 over the Cornhuskers.


1939 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team, Game summaries, Iowa State
Nebraska opened the 1939 conference slate with a relatively easy win over Iowa State, running out to a 10-0 lead by the start of the 4th quarter. The Cyclones did manage a late rally to put up 7 late points, but the Cornhuskers successfully avenged the previous year's upsetting loss to Iowa State and padded the series lead over the Cyclones to 28-5-1.


1939 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team, Game summaries, Baylor
Baylor met Nebraska for the first time in what was presented initially as a marquee matchup of two highly touted lines. The day belonged to Nebraska all the way, however, as the Cornhuskers pulled up to a 6-0 lead by the half before breaking away with two more touchdowns in the 3rd quarter on their way to blanking the Bears in Lincoln.


1939 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team, Game summaries, Kansas State
Kansas State found the scoreboard first on an early field goal, but a punt returned for a touchdown turned the tide, and two Wildcat fumbles later on handed additional points to the Cornhuskers, who never looked back. It was Nebraska's fourth straight win over Kansas State as the series was advanced to 20-2-2 all time.


1939 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team, Game summaries, Kansas State
The game was the second televised college football game of all time, and the first ever televised homecoming game.


1939 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team, Game summaries, Missouri
Missouri handed Nebraska its first and only loss of the season in Columbia, easily holding Nebraska off  by a two-touchdown margin to hold onto the Missouri-Nebraska Bell. It was the second straight Tiger victory, but Missouri still lagged in the series 8-22-3.


1939 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team, Game summaries, Kansas
The Cornhuskers wasted no time in finding the scoreboard early on, but wasted two scoring attempts soon afterward to lost fumbles. The game remained fairly evenly matched thereafter, until a late spirited attack by the Jayhawks put a brief minor scare in Nebraska before being warded off. This was the 14th straight game dropped to the Cornhuskers, and the Jayhawks fell to 9-34-3 against the Cornhuskers in the series.


1939 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team, Game summaries, Pittsburgh
The bitter rivalry with Pittsburgh was continued when the Cornhuskers arrived for the game at Pitt Stadium with hopes to end the long streak of Nebraska futility against the Panthers. The Cornhuskers battled to a slim 7-6 halftime lead, a margin which would eventually prove enough for the win after both teams each managed a second half touchdown apiece. Nebraska's six-game losing streak and twelve-game winless streak against Pittsburgh, both all-time program records to date, were snapped at last. Still, this was only Nebraska's second win against Pittsburgh in all 14 attempts, leaving a long way for the Cornhuskers to go to catch up.


1939 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team, Game summaries, Oklahoma
Oklahoma, a recent source of frustration to Nebraska after defeating the Cornhuskers in the previous year and drawing up a tie the year before that, once again fell to Nebraska as the Cornhuskers wrapped up the conference slate with just one loss overall, to Big 6 champion Missouri. Though the Sooners scored early, Nebraska promptly answered before the half to take the lead, and no further scores were attained by either team afterwards. Nebraska improved in the series to 13-3-3.


1939 Nebraska Cornhuskers football team, After the season
Coach Jones redeemed himself in a convincing manner following the disappointing 1938 season. Although Nebraska did not bring home a conference title this year, the Cornhuskers were able to defeat both bitter rivals Minnesota and Pittsburgh in the same season for the first time ever, and wrapped up the season with a defeat of #14 Oklahoma to move into the rankings themselves in the postseason poll. Coach Jones saw his overall career record at Nebraska bounce back substantially, to 16-7-4 (.667), while his conference total also improved to 9-4-2 (.667). The Cornhuskers now owned an overall record of 286-96-31 (.730) and a Big 6 conference record of 96-15-11 (.832).


1939 Nevada Wolf Pack football team
The 1939 Nevada Wolf Pack football team was an American football team that represented the University of Nevada in the Far Western Conference (FWC) during the 1939 college football season. In their first season under head coach Jim Aiken, the team compiled a 5–4 record (3–0 against conference opponents) and won the conference championship. Bob Robinett was a prominent player.


1939 Nevada Wolf Pack football team
This was the Wolf Pack's last year as a member of the FWC as they went independent for the 1940 season.


1939 Nevada Wolf Pack football team, Previous season
The Wolf Pack finished the 1938 season 2–3–1 and 1–2 in FWC play to finish in third place. Head coach Doug Dashiell resigned and was replaced by Jim Aiken.


1939 New Brunswick general election
The 1939 New Brunswick general election was held on November 20, 1939, to elect 48 members to the 39th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly, the governing house of the province of New Brunswick, Canada. The Liberal government of Allison Dysart was re-elected with a reduced majority.


1939 New Hampshire Wildcats football team
The 1939 New Hampshire Wildcats football team was an American football team that represented the University of New Hampshire as a member of the New England Conference during the 1939 college football season. In its third year under head coach George Sauer, the team compiled a 3–5 record, being outscored by their opponents 126–71. The team played its home games at Lewis Field (also known as Lewis Stadium) in Durham, New Hampshire.


1939 New Hampshire Wildcats football team, Schedule
The Harvard team was captained by "Torby" Macdonald, roommate of John F. Kennedy, who would go on serve in the United States House of Representatives from 1955 to 1976. The 1939 game remains the last time that the Harvard and New Hampshire football programs have met.


1939 New Hampshire Wildcats football team, Schedule
New Hampshire captain Burton Mitchell was inducted to the university's athletic hall of fame in 1998.


1939 New Mexico A&M Aggies football team
The 1939 New Mexico A&M Aggies football team was an American football team that represented New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts (now known as New Mexico State University) as a member of the Border Conference during the 1939 college football season. In its eleventh and final year under head coach Jerry Hines, the team compiled a 3–6 record (1–4 against conference opponents), finished sixth in the conference, and was outscored by a total of 141 to 92. The team played its home games at Quesenberry Field in Las Cruces, New Mexico.


1939 New Mexico Lobos football team
The 1939 New Mexico Lobos football team represented the University of New Mexico in the Border Conference (Border) during the 1939 college football season. In their third season under head coach Ted Shipkey, the Lobos compiled an 8–2 record (4–2 against Border opponents) and outscored all opponents by a total of 167 to 98.


1939 New Year Honours
The 1939 New Year Honours were appointments by King George VI to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the United Kingdom and British Empire. They were announced on 30 December 1938.


1939 New Year Honours
The recipients of honours are displayed here as they were styled before their new honour, and arranged by honour, with classes (Knight, Knight Grand Cross, etc.) and then divisions (Military, Civil, etc.) as appropriate.


1939 New Year Honours (New Zealand)
The 1939 New Year Honours in New Zealand were appointments by King George VI to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by New Zealanders. The awards celebrated the passing of 1938 and the beginning of 1939, and were announced on 3 January 1939.


1939 New Year Honours (New Zealand)
The recipients of honours are displayed here as they were styled before their new honour.


1939 New York City Council election
An election was held on November 7, 1939 for the members of the New York City Council. Although the results of the election were not in by the next day, The Brooklyn Citizen was willing to predict that all the candidates endorsed by Judge Samuel Seabury and Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia were defeated as they had been in the other municipal contests that day, due in large part to the domestic popularity of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The reduced turnout compared to 1937 threatened to wipe out at least 9 of the Council's then-26 seats, given that 75,000 votes were required for each seat.


1939 New York Film Critics Circle Awards
The 5th New York Film Critics Circle Awards, announced on 27 December 1939, honored the best filmmaking of 1939.


1939 New York Giants (MLB) season
The 1939 New York Giants season was the franchise's 57th season. The team finished in fifth place in the National League with a 77–74 record, 18½ games behind the Cincinnati Reds.


1939 New York Giants (MLB) season, Player stats, Batting, Starters by position
Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in


1939 New York Giants (MLB) season, Player stats, Batting, Other batters
Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in


1939 New York Giants (MLB) season, Player stats, Pitching, Starting pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1939 New York Giants (MLB) season, Player stats, Pitching, Other pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1939 New York Giants (MLB) season, Player stats, Pitching, Relief pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1939 New York Giants season
The 1939 New York Giants season was the franchise's 15th season in the National Football League.


1939 New York Giants season, Game Summaries, Week 7: vs. Chicago Bears
CHB – Joe Maniaci – 15 CAR, 102 YDS, TD


1939 New York Giants season, Standings
Note: Tie games were not officially counted in the standings until 1972.


1939 New York World's Fair
The 1939–40 New York World's Fair was a world's fair held at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York, United States. It was the second-most expensive American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. Many countries around the world participated in it, and over 44 million people attended its exhibits in two seasons. It was the first exposition to be based on the future, with an opening slogan of "Dawn of a New Day", and it allowed all visitors to take a look at "the world of tomorrow".


1939 New York World's Fair
When World War II began four months into the 1939 World's Fair, many exhibits were affected, especially those on display in the pavilions of countries under Axis occupation. After the close of the fair in 1940, many exhibits were demolished or removed, though some buildings were retained for the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair, held at the same site.


1939 New York World's Fair, Planning
In 1935, at the height of the Great Depression, a group of New York City businessmen decided to create an international exposition to help lift the city and the country out of its economic woes. Not long after, these men formed the New York World's Fair Corporation, whose office was placed on one of the higher floors in the Empire State Building. The NYWFC, which elected former chief of police Grover Whalen as president, also included Winthrop Aldrich, Mortimer Buckner, Floyd Carlisle, Ashley T. Cole, John J. Dunnigan, Harvey Dow Gibson, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, Percy S. Straus, and many other business leaders.


1939 New York World's Fair, Planning
Over the next four years, the committee planned, built, and organized the fair and its exhibits, with countries around the world taking part in creating the biggest international event since World War I. Working closely with the Fair's committee was New York City Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, who saw great value to the city in having the World's Fair Corporation (at its expense) remove a vast ash dump in Queens that was to be the site for the exposition. This event turned the area into a City park after the exposition closed.


1939 New York World's Fair, Planning
Edward Bernays directed public relations of the fair in 1939, which he called "democracity." Grover Whalen, a public relations innovator, saw the Fair as an opportunity for corporations to present consumer products, rather than as an exercise in presenting science and the scientific way of thinking in its own right, as Harold Urey, Albert Einstein, and other scientists wished to see the project. "As events transpired," reported Carl Sagan, whose own interest in science was nevertheless sparked by the Fair's gadgetry, "almost no real science was tacked on to the Fair's exhibits, despite the scientists' protests and their appeals to high principles."


1939 New York World's Fair, Planning
Promotion of the Fair took many forms. During the 1938 Major League Baseball season, the Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Giants, and New York Yankees promoted the event by wearing patches on the left sleeve of their jerseys featuring the Trylon, Perisphere, and "1939." The same year, Howard Hughes flew a special World's Fair flight around the world to promote the fair.


1939 New York World's Fair, Planning
While the main purpose of the fair was to lift the spirits of the United States and drive much-needed business to New York City, it was also felt that there should be a cultural or historical association. It was therefore decided for the opening to correspond to the 150th anniversary of George Washington's first inauguration as President of the United States, and WPA artists painted murals which appeared in The New York Times Magazine.


1939 New York World's Fair, Planning
The eyes of the Fair are on the future—not in the sense of peering toward the unknown nor attempting to foretell the events of tomorrow and the shape of things to come, but in the sense of presenting a new and clearer view of today in preparation for tomorrow; a view of the forces and ideas that prevail as well as the machines. To its visitors the Fair will say: "Here are the materials, ideas, and forces at work in our world. These are the tools with which the World of Tomorrow must be made. They are all interesting and much effort has been expended to lay them before you in an interesting way. Familiarity with today is the best preparation for the future.


1939 New York World's Fair, Grand opening
On April 30, 1939, a very hot Sunday, the fair had its grand opening, with 206,000 people in attendance. The April 30 date coincided with the 150th anniversary of George Washington's inauguration, in Lower Manhattan, as the first President of the United States. Although many of the pavilions and other facilities were not quite ready for this opening, it was put on with pomp and great celebration.


1939 New York World's Fair, Grand opening
Plans for the United States Navy Fleet to visit New York City for the opening of the fair following maneuvers in the Caribbean were canceled, however, due to aggressive moves being made by Japan in the South China Sea, and the fleet instead transferred to the Pacific via the Panama Canal in April.


1939 New York World's Fair, Grand opening
David Sarnoff, then president of RCA and a strong advocate of television, chose to introduce television to the mass public at the RCA pavilion. As a reflection of the wide range of technological innovation on parade at the fair, Franklin D. Roosevelt's speech was not only broadcast over the various radio networks but also was televised along with other parts of the opening ceremony and other events at the fair. That day, the opening ceremony and President Roosevelt's speech were seen on black and white television sets with 5 to 12-inch tubes. NBC used the event to inaugurate regularly scheduled television broadcasts in New York City over their station W2XBS (now WNBC). An estimated 1,000 people viewed the Roosevelt telecast on about 200 television sets scattered throughout the New York metropolitan area.


1939 New York World's Fair, Grand opening
In order to convince skeptical visitors that the television sets were not a trick, one set was made with a transparent case so that the internal components could be seen. As part of the exhibit at the RCA pavilion, visitors could see themselves on television. There were also television demonstrations at the General Electric and Westinghouse pavilions. During this formal introduction at the fair, television sets became available for public purchase at various stores in the New York City area.


1939 New York World's Fair, Grand opening
After Albert Einstein gave a speech that discussed cosmic rays, the fair's lights were ceremonially lit. Dignitaries received a special Opening Day Program which contained their names written in Braille.


1939 New York World's Fair, Grand opening
This 1940 general admission ticket also included visits to "5 concessions" (listed on backside)


1939 New York World's Fair, Exhibits
One of the first exhibits to receive attention was the Westinghouse Time Capsule, which was not to be opened for 5 millennia (the year 6939). The time capsule was a tube containing writings by Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann, copies of Life Magazine, a Mickey Mouse watch, a Gillette safety razor, a kewpie doll, a dollar in change, a pack of Camel cigarettes, millions of pages of text on microfilm, and much more.


1939 New York World's Fair, Exhibits
The capsule also contained seeds of foods in common use at the time: (alfalfa, barley, carrots, corn, cotton, flax, oats, rice, soy beans, sugar beets, tobacco, and wheat, all sealed in glass tubes). The time capsule is located at , at a depth of 50 feet (15 m). A small stone plaque marks the position. Westinghouse also featured "Elektro the Moto-Man": the 7-foot (2.1 m) tall robot that talked, differentiated colors, and even "smoked" cigarettes.


1939 New York World's Fair, Exhibits
On July 3, 1940, the fair hosted "Superman Day". Notable was the crowning of the "Super-Boy and Super-Girl of the Day" following an athletic contest, and a public appearance by Superman, played by an unidentified man. Broadway actor Ray Middleton, who served as a judge for the contest, is often credited with having appeared in the Superman costume on Superman Day, but he did not; however, he may have played Superman during a live radio broadcast from the scene. Although the unknown man in the costume is often said to have been the first actor ever to play Superman, Bud Collyer had been performing the role on the Superman radio series since the preceding February.


1939 New York World's Fair, Exhibits
The fair was also the occasion for the 1st World Science Fiction Convention, subsequently dubbed "Nycon 1".


1939 New York World's Fair, Exhibits
Ralph Vaughan Williams composed his work for harp and string orchestra Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus on commission from the World's Fair. The first performance was at Carnegie Hall in June 1939, conducted by Adrian Boult. In addition, the British Council commissioned a piano concerto from Arthur Bliss for the British Week at the World's Fair. Adrian Boult conducted the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall on June 10, 1939, with Solomon as the soloist.


1939 New York World's Fair, Exhibits
Ceramic sculptor Waylande Gregory created The Fountain of the Atom, which displayed the largest ceramic sculptures in modern times. It included the four Elements, each measuring 72 inches (180 cm) high and each weighing over a ton. There were also eight electrons, which were illustrated in Life Magazine (March 1939). Gregory also created two exhibitions featuring his ceramic sculptures for the General Motors Building, American Imports and American Exports.


1939 New York World's Fair, Exhibits
Nylon fabric, the View-Master, and Scentovision (an early version of Smell-O-Vision) were introduced at the Fair. Other exhibits included Vermeer's painting The Milkmaid from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, a streamlined pencil sharpener, a diner (still in operation as the White Mana in Jersey City, New Jersey), a futuristic car-based city by General Motors, the first fully constructed computer game, and early televisions. There was also a huge globe/planetarium located near the center of the fair. Bell Labs' Voder, a keyboard-operated speech synthesizer, was demonstrated at the Fair.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones
The fair was divided into seven geographic or thematic zones, five of which had "Focal Exhibits", as well as two Focal Exhibits housed in their own buildings. Virtually every structure erected on the fairgrounds was architecturally distinguished, and many of them were experimental in many ways. Architects were encouraged by their corporate or government sponsors to be creative, energetic and innovative. Novel building designs, materials and furnishings were the norm.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones
Many of the zones were arranged in a semicircular pattern, centered on the Wallace Harrison and Max Abramovitz-designed Theme Center, which consisted of two all-white, landmark monumental buildings named the Trylon (over 700 feet (210 m) tall) and the Perisphere which one entered by a moving stairway and exited via a grand curved walkway named the "Helicline". Inside the Perisphere was a "model city of tomorrow that visitors" viewed from a moving walkway high above the floor level. The zones were distinguished by many color cues, including different wall colors and tints and differently colored lighting.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones
The showcases were not only intended to get people to buy the sponsor's products, they were also intended to educate and inform the populace about basic materials and processes that were then very new and not well known. Many experimental product concepts and new materials were shown that were not currently available for purchase but became available in various ways over the next few years. In many ways, the fair pavilions more resembled a modern-day government-sponsored science fair exhibit than they resembled modern corporate advertising and sales promotions.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Communications and Business Systems Zone
Fairgoers walking to the north of the Theme Center on the Avenue of Patriots would encounter the Communications and Business Systems exhibits. The focal point of this area was the Communications Building, a large structure with a pair of 160-foot-high (49 m) pylons flanking it.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Communications and Business Systems Zone
At the AT&T Pavilion the Voder, a mechanized, synthetic voice, spoke to attendees, foretelling the widespread use of electronic voices decades later. The Business Systems and Insurance Building, an L-shaped structure, housed numerous companies such as Aetna, MetLife, and IBM. In particular, the IBM pavilion displayed electric typewriters and an "electric calculator" that used punched cards.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Communications and Business Systems Zone
Next door to these business exhibits, on the "Street of Wheels", was the "Masterpieces of Art" building housing 300 priceless works of the Old Masters, from the Middle Ages to 1800. Whalen and his team were able to borrow paintings and sculptures from Europe. Thirty five-galleries featured great works from DaVinci and Michelangelo to Rembrandt, from Hals to Caravaggio and Bellini.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Community Interest Zone
The Community Interest Zone was located just east of the Communications & Business Systems Zone. The region's exhibits showcased several trades or industries that were popular among the public at the time. It included buildings dedicated to home furnishings, plumbing, contemporary art, cosmetics, gardens, the gas industry, fashion, jewelry, and religion. Organizations such as the American Standard Companies, Christian Science, Johns Manville, Works Progress Administration, and YMCA also had buildings in the Community Interest Zone. In addition, there was also the "Electrified Farm", a working farm, and the Town of Tomorrow, which included 15 "demonstration homes" on a bowling green adjacent to the World's Fair station of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Government Zone
The Government Zone was located at the east end of the fair, on the eastern bank of the Flushing River. It contained 21 pavilions, several smaller buildings, a centrally located Court of Peace, a Lagoon of Nations, and a smaller Court of States. The 60 foreign governments contributed a wide diversity of creatively designed pavilions housing a myriad of cultural offerings to fairgoers.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Government Zone, British Pavilion
The Pavilion of Great Britain and the British Colonial Empire consisted of two buildings with a first-floor connection. The copy of Magna Carta belonging to Lincoln Cathedral also left Britain in 1939 for the first time to be in the British Pavilion at the fair. Within months Britain joined World War II and it was deemed safer for it to remain in America until the end of hostilities. It therefore remained in Fort Knox, next to the original copy of the American constitution, until 1947. The pavilion included a collection of stamps celebrating Rowland Hill, and the 100th anniversary of the postage stamp. One of the stamps was the British Guiana 1c magenta.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Government Zone, French Pavilion
The French pavilion, on the Court of Peace that was the grand open space northeast of the Theme Center, was a two-story structure whose facade featured enormous windows with "majestic curves". Its restaurant was so celebrated that after the fair closed and World War II ended, the restaurant remained in New York City as one of the city's finest French dining establishments: Le Pavillon.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Government Zone, Greek Pavilion
The Greek pavilion was in the Hall of Nations and was a mirror of how the Metaxas quasi-fascist regime wanted to show Greece to the world. The interior rooms were designed by Nelly, the famous Greek photographer. Nelly's collages expressed four aspects of Greece: the legacy of ancient Greece, the Christian spirituality, picturesque landscapes and the Greek racial continuity. On one of its outside walls there were four big murals featuring four historic episodes of Greek history, authored by Gerasimos Steris. After the Fair concluded, the pavilion was dismantled and parts of it were donated for the construction of the Greek Orthodox cathedral of Saint Nicholas in Tarpon Springs, Florida.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Government Zone, Italian Pavilion
The Italian pavilion attempted to fuse ancient Roman splendor with modern styles, and a 200-foot (61 m) high waterfall dedicated to Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of the radio defined the pavilion's facade. The pavilion occupied 100,000 square feet of space on plot GJ-1 at Presidential Row North and Continental Avenue and cost more than $3 million. Italy paid for the right to use another ten thousand feet of space in the fair's Hall of Nations.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Government Zone, Italian Pavilion
There, the mosaic floor was to be graced by a high pillar upon which rested the ubiquitous She-Wolf, mother of Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome. Above Nino Giordano's Capitoline She-Wolf extended the lines of a Roman triumphal arch. The long side walls, adorned with emblems of ancient and modern Rome and maps of its new colonial 'empire' were divided into three sections by columns with rostra rising on a plinth of black marble and accentuated by Roman stucco of a velvety-white color. These walls sheltered Romano Romanelli's bronze statue of Mussolini which stood tall upon a black marble pedestal in the very center of the room.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Government Zone, Italian Pavilion
The pavilion's popular restaurant was designed in the shape of the nation's luxury cruise line ships.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Government Zone, Japanese Pavilion
The Japanese pavilion was designed by the Japanese-American architect Yasuo Matsui to resemble a traditional Shinto shrine, set within a Japanese garden. It offered tea ceremony and Japanese flower arrangement exhibits. The interior had a "Diplomat room", which featured a reproduction of the Liberty Bell made out of Japanese pearls and diamonds, worth $1 million. This room also featured a photomontage mural across which was written the motto "Dedicated to Eternal Peace and Friendship between America and Japan".


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Government Zone, Japanese Pavilion
The interior of the pavilion was designed by the Japanese architect and photographer Iwao Yamawaki, who studied at the Bauhaus school in Germany in the early 1930s.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Government Zone, Jewish Palestine Pavilion
The Jewish Palestine Pavilion introduced the world to the concept of a modern Jewish state, which a decade later became Israel. The pavilion featured a monumental hammered copper relief sculpture on its facade titled The Scholar, The Laborer, and the Toiler of the Soil by the noted Art Deco sculptor Maurice Ascalon.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Government Zone, Netherlands Pavilion
This exhibit presented a comprehensive survey of the cultural importance of the three parts of the empire: the Kingdom of Europe, the Dutch East Indies and the territories of Suriname and Curaçao in South America.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Government Zone, Pan American Union Pavilion
The 21 countries of the Pan-American Union, as well as several communications companies, were represented in the Pan American Union Pavilion. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico, and Nicaragua were among the cooperating countries.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Government Zone, Pan American Union Pavilion
The Good Neighbor policy at the 1939 World's Fair was an extension of Franklin D. Roosevelt's Good Neighbor policy, which sought to redefine negative Latin American stereotypes. Each country seized the opportunity to showcase their country and to make it more appealing to those around the world, especially in the United States. In their bid to increase cultural awareness at the World's Fair, the countries promoted tourism and strove to compare itself to the United States in an effort to appeal to Americans.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Government Zone, Polish Pavilion
The Polish Pavilion was composed of a boxy tower. The Second Polish Republic prepared some 200 tons of artifacts, including a royal carpet of King Casimir IV, seven paintings presenting important events of Polish history, 150 contemporary Polish paintings, a gunmetal monument of Józef Piłsudski, armor of a Polish hussar from Kórnik Castle, ancient Polish weaponry (14th–18th centuries), a bell manufactured for the purpose of the Fair, folk costumes, house furniture from different regions of Poland, and over 200 examples of Polish inventions.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Government Zone, USSR Pavilion
The USSR (Soviet) Pavilion was a semicircular structure with two wings partially enclosing a courtyard. Exhibitions included the life-size copy of the interior of the showcase Mayakovskaya station of the Moscow Metro, whose designer Alexey Dushkin was awarded Grand Prize of the 1939 World's Fair. The USSR Pavilion's courtyard contained a statue on a pylon, which was 260 feet (79 m) tall. The pavilion was only open for 1939 and was razed at the end of that year.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Government Zone, United States (Federal) Building
The United States Federal Building's main building was set between two 150-foot (46 m) pylons. The Federal Building and several surrounding structures contained a combined 23 exhibits, dedicated to 22 states and Puerto Rico.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Food Zone
Southwest of the Government Zone was the Food Zone, composed of 13 buildings in total (excluding the Turkey and Sweden exhibits, which were physically located within the Food Zone but considered part of the Government Zone). Its Focal Exhibit was Food No. 3, a rhomboidal structure with four shafts representing wheat stalks.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Food Zone
Among the many unique exhibits was the Borden's exhibit, that featured 150 pedigreed cows (including the original Elsie) on a Rotolactor that allowed bathing them, drying them, and milking them in a highly mechanized way. While no such complete system ever became common in milk production, many of its features came into everyday use in today's rotary milking parlors. Next door was the Continental Baking building, presenting a vast, continuous process of baking breads and other products, and was fashioned in the shape of a huge packaged bread loaf.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Production and Distribution Zone
The Production and Distribution Zone was dedicated to showcasing industries that specialized in manufacturing and distribution. The focal exhibit was the Consumers Building, a L-shaped structure occupying a triangular plot on the Avenue of Pioneers, illustrated with murals by Francis Scott Bradford. Numerous individual companies hosted exhibitions in this region. There were also pavilions dedicated to a generic industry, such as electrical products, industrial science, pharmaceuticals, metals, and men's apparel.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Transportation Zone
The Transportation Zone was located west of the Theme Center, across the Grand Central Parkway. Perhaps the most popular of the Transportation Zone pavilions was the one built for General Motors (GM), which contained the 36,000-square-foot (3,300 m2) Futurama exhibit, designed by famed industrial designer and theater set designer Norman Bel Geddes, which transported fair visitors over a huge diorama of a fictional section of the United States with miniature figures. Along the way, visitors would encounter increasingly larger figures until they exited into a representation of a life-size city intersection. Stores in the GM Pavilion included an auto dealership and an appliance store where visitors could see the latest GM and Frigidaire products.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Transportation Zone
Adjacent to the GM Pavilion was the Ford Pavilion, where race car drivers drove on a figure eight track on the building's roof endlessly, day in and day out. Not far from GM and Ford was the focal exhibit of the Transportation Zone, a Chrysler exhibit group. In the focal exhibit, an audience could watch a Plymouth being assembled in an early 3D film in a theater with air conditioning, then a new technology. Other structures included an aviation and marine transport building, as well as exhibits for the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company and Goodrich Corporation.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Transportation Zone
Another large building was the Eastern Railroads Presidents' Conference, dedicated to rail transport. The centerpiece of the Railroad Conference exhibits (on seventeen acres) was "Railroads on Parade", a spectacular live drama re-enacting the birth and growth of railroads. It had music by Kurt Weil and choreography by Bill Matons. In addition to the show, there were important historical objects on display by the various railroads and manufacturing companies, such as the Tom Thumb engine.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Transportation Zone
The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) had its S1 engine on display, mounted on rollers under the driver wheels and running continuously at 60 mph (97 km/h) all day long. The British London Midland & Scottish Railway sent their Coronation Scot express train with a locomotive LMS Princess Coronation Class 6229 Duchess of Hamilton, (disguised as sister locomotive 6220 Coronation), to the fair. GM's Electro-Motive Division had a display of their then new streamlined diesel-electric passenger locomotives. The Italian state railways displayed one of their record-setting ETR 200 electric multiple unit cars.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Amusement Area
Beyond the corporate and government zones, the wildly popular but less uplifting Amusements Area was not integrated into the thematic matrix, and was classified as an Area rather than a Zone. It was located south of the World's Fair Boulevard, along 230 acres (93 ha) on the east shore of Fountain Lake. Despite the high-minded educational tone that Grover Whalen attempted to set, the Amusements Area was the most popular part of the Fair.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Amusement Area
The attractions included a roller coaster, a Flying Turns-style bobsled, a Life Savers-branded parachute tower called the Parachute Jump (later moved to Coney Island, where it is standing but not operating), the 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge Gimbels Flyer train ride, (later purchased by Kennywood, where it still runs today), and carnival acts such as a "Little Miracle Town" with dwarves. Other attractions included a "winter wonderland" called Sun Valley, a Theatre of Time and Space, and a replica of Victoria Falls.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Amusement Area
Frank Buck exhibited his "Frank Buck's Jungleland", which displayed rare birds, reptiles and wild animals along with Jiggs, a five-year-old trained orangutan. In addition, Buck provided a trio of performing elephants, an 80-foot (24 m) "monkey mountain" with 600 monkeys, and an attraction that had been popular at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair: camel rides. A number of the shows provided spectators with the opportunity of viewing women in very revealing costumes or topless, such as the "Frozen Alive Girl", the Living Pictures, and the Dream of Venus building.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Amusement Area
This last attraction was a pavilion designed by the Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dalí which contained within it a number of unusual sculptures and statues as well as live nearly-nude performers posing as statues. While there were a number of protests by prominent politicians over the course of the fair about the "low minded entertainment", and the New York Vice Squad raided shows in the area on several occasions, the public generally accepted this form of entertainment.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Amusement Area, Bendix Lama Temple girlie show
The Bendix Lama Temple was a 28,000-piece full-sized replica of the 1767 Potala temple in Jehol, Manchuria, commissioned and brought back by the industrialist and explorer Vincent Bendix. The Temple had previously been exhibited at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, called "Century of Progress". In New York, the Temple contained a girlie show.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Amusement Area, Aquacade
Billy Rose's Aquacade was a spectacular musical and water extravaganza foreshadowing the form of many popular Hollywood musicals in the ensuing years. The show was presented in a special amphitheater seating 10,000 people and included an orchestra to accompany the spectacular synchronised swimming performance. It featured Johnny Weissmuller and Eleanor Holm, two of the most celebrated swimmers of the era, and dazzled fairgoers with its lighting and cascades and curtains of water, pumped in waterfalls at 8,000 gallons a minute. The cost of admission was 80 cents.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Amusement Area, Aquacade
The Aquacade facility itself served as an entertainment venue in the park for many years afterward, including the 1964–65 World's Fair, but fell into disrepair in the 1980s and was finally demolished in 1996.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Standalone focal exhibits
There were two focal exhibits that were not located within any of the 1939 Fair's "zones". The first was Medical and Public Health Building, which was located on Constitution Mall and the Avenue of Patriots (immediately northeast of the Theme Center). This structure contained a massive "Hall of Man" dedicated to the human body, and a "Hall of Medical Science" dedicated to medical professions and devices.


1939 New York World's Fair, Zones, Standalone focal exhibits
The other was the Science and Education Building, located on a curved portion of Hamilton Place between the Avenue of Patriots and Washington Square, just north of the Medical and Public Health Building. The building was not used to teach science, but it contained an auditorium and several exhibits on science and education.


1939 New York World's Fair, Themes
The colors blue and orange were chosen as the official colors of the fair, as they were the colors of New York City, and featured prominently. Only the Trylon and Perisphere were all white; avenues stretching out into the zones from the Theme Center were designed with rich colors that changed the further one walked from the center of the grounds. For example, the exhibits and other facilities along the Avenue of Pioneers were in a progression of blues, starting with pale tints and ending in deep ultramarine.


1939 New York World's Fair, Themes
Outdoor public lighting was at the time of a very limited and pedestrian nature, perhaps consisting of simple incandescent pole lamps in a city and nothing in the country. Electrification was still relatively new and had not reached everywhere in the US. The fair was the first public demonstration of several lighting technologies that became common in the following decades. These technologies included the introduction of the first fluorescent light and fixture. General Electric Corporation held the patent to the fluorescent light bulb at the time. Approximately a year later, the original three major corporations, Lightolier, Artcraft Fluorescent Lighting Corporation, and Globe Lighting, located mostly in the New York City region, began wide-scale manufacturing in the US of the fluorescent light fixture.


1939 New York World's Fair, Themes
Another theme of the fair was the emerging new middle class, leading a hoped-for recovery from the Great Depression. The fair promoted the "Middleton Family"—Babs, Bud, and their parents—who appeared in ads showing them taking in the sights of the fair and the new products being manufactured to make life easier and affordable, such as the new automatic dishwasher.


1939 New York World's Fair, Themes
Each day at the fair was a special theme day, for which a special button was issued; for example, May 18, 1939, was "Asbury Park, New Jersey Day". Some of these buttons are very rare and all are considered collectibles.


1939 New York World's Fair, Themes
In 1940, the theme of the fair was changed to "For Peace and Freedom" as war in Europe escalated. One poster from that year's fair, issued by Borden's Milk, had Elsie the Cow proclaiming "makes you proud to be an American".


1939 New York World's Fair, Transportation
A special subway line, the Independent Subway System (IND) World's Fair Line, was built to serve the fair. World's Fair (now Mets–Willets Point) station on the IRT Flushing Line was rebuilt to handle fair traffic on the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) and Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit (BMT) systems. A Long Island Rail Road station (now Mets–Willets Point) was built next to the Flushing Line station. The IND extension departed the IND Queens Boulevard Line east of the Forest Hills–71st Avenue station and before the 75th Avenue station.


1939 New York World's Fair, Transportation
The World's Fair station was at the east side of the Meadowlands at Horace Harding Boulevard. The period system route map and Fair maps display this temporary extension. The World's Fair station was a terminus of the G train (alternate E trains also ran to World's Fair Station), and ran at ground level, separated from the Fair grounds by a fence, past the Jamaica Yard, which is still in use.


1939 New York World's Fair, Transportation
For the 1939–40 Fair, a special fleet of 50 "World's Fair Steinway" cars were delivered in late 1938 by the St. Louis Car Company for Flushing Line service. Car #5655 survives in the New York Transit Museum fleet.


1939 New York World's Fair, Closure and current status
The fair was open for two seasons, from April to October each year, and was officially closed permanently on October 27, 1940. To get the fair's budget overruns under control before the 1940 season and to augment gate revenues, Whalen was replaced by banker Harvey Gibson. In addition, much greater emphasis was placed on the amusement features and less on the educational and uplifting exhibits. The great fair attracted over 45 million visitors and generated roughly $48 million in revenue. Since the Fair Corporation had invested 67 million dollars (in addition to nearly a hundred million dollars from other sources), it was a financial failure, and the corporation declared bankruptcy.


1939 New York World's Fair, Closure and current status
Many of the rides from the World's Fair were sold after its closure to Luna Park at Coney Island, which was allowed to call itself the New York World's Fair of 1941. The Life Savers Parachute Jump was sold that same year and relocated to Steeplechase Park in Coney Island, where it was renamed the "Parachute Jump".


1939 New York World's Fair, Closure and current status
The Unisphere, built as the theme symbol for the 1964/1965 World's Fair, now stands on the site occupied by the Perisphere during the earlier Fair.


1939 New York World's Fair, Closure and current status, World War II
Although the United States did not enter World War II until the end of 1941, the fairgrounds served as a window into the troubles overseas. The pavilions of Poland and Czechoslovakia, for example, did not reopen for the 1940 season. Also on July 4 that same year, two New York City Police Department officers were killed by a blast while investigating a time bomb left at the British Pavilion. The bombing has never been solved, but there is evidence that bombing was an inside job by William Stephenson, a British agent based in New York.


1939 New York World's Fair, Closure and current status, World War II
Countries under the thumb of the Axis powers in Europe in 1940 like Poland, Czechoslovakia, and France ran their pavilions with a special nationalistic pride. The only major world power that did not participate for the 1939 season was Germany, citing budget pressures. The USSR Pavilion was dismantled after the first season, leaving an empty lot called "The American Commons". When the fair closed, many among the European staff were unable to return to their home countries, so they remained in the US and in some cases exercised a tremendous influence on American culture. For example, Henri Soulé moved from the French Pavilion at the fair to open Le Pavillon restaurant, retaining Pierre Franey as head chef.


1939 New York World's Fair, Closure and current status, World War II
World War II presented additional problems with what to do with the exhibits on display in the pavilions of countries under Axis occupation. In the case of the Polish Pavilion, most of the items were sold by the Polish Government in exile in London to the Polish Museum of America and shipped to Chicago. A notable exception was made for a monument of the Polish–Lithuanian King Jagiełło to which Mayor Fiorello La Guardia took such a liking that he helped spearhead a campaign to have it installed in Central Park, where it still stands today.


1939 New York World's Fair, Closure and current status, Belgian Pavilion
Another building saved from 1940 was the Belgian Building designed by Henry Van de Velde. It was awarded to Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia, and shipped to Richmond in 1941. The school still uses the building for its home basketball games.


1939 New York World's Fair, Closure and current status, Bendix Lama Temple
After the Fair, the Temple was again disassembled, and placed in storage for many years. There were proposals to erect it at Oberlin College, Harvard University, Indiana University, and elsewhere, but they all failed for lack of funding. In 1984, the approximately 28,000 pieces were shipped to the Museum of Ethnography in Stockholm, Sweden, with plans to rebuild it in a nearby park, but objections from the neighboring Chinese Embassy have stalled the project indefinitely.


1939 New York World's Fair, Closure and current status, New York City Building
Some of the buildings from the 1939 fair were used for the first temporary headquarters of the United Nations from 1946 until it moved in 1951 to its permanent headquarters in Manhattan. The former New York City Building was used for the UN General Assembly during that time. This building was later refurbished for the 1964 fair as the New York City Pavilion, featuring the Panorama of the City of New York, an enormous scale model of the entire city. It became the home of the Queens Center for Art and Culture (later renamed the Queens Museum of Art, and now called the Queens Museum), which still houses and occasionally updates the Panorama.


1939 New York World's Fair, Closure and current status, New York City Building
One other structure from the 1939-40 Fair remains in original location: the New York City Subway's Mets–Willets Point station, rebuilt for the Fair. It also served the 1964-65 events and continues to serve New York Mets games and US Open Tennis.


1939 New York World's Fair, Cultural references
The 1939 World's Fair made a strong impression on attendees and influenced a generation of Americans. Later generations have attempted to recapture the impression it made in fictional and artistic treatments.


1939 New York World's Fair, Archives
An archive of documents and films from the 1939 New York World's Fair is maintained at the New York Public Library (NYPL). This collection of official corporate records from the fair is one of the richest and most heavily used collections at NYPL. Extensive highlights from the collection can be viewed online, or via an award-winning free iPad app.


1939 New York World's Fair, Archives
In October 2010, the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. opened an exhibition titled Designing Tomorrow: America's World's Fairs of the 1930s. This exhibition, which was available for view until September 2011, prominently featured the 1939 New York World's Fair.


1939 New York Yankees season
The 1939 New York Yankees season was the team's 37th season in New York, and its 39th overall. The team finished with a record of 106–45, winning their 11th pennant, finishing 17 games ahead of the Boston Red Sox. New York was managed by Joe McCarthy. The Yankees played their home games at Yankee Stadium. In the World Series, they beat the Cincinnati Reds in 4 games. This marked the first time any team had won four consecutive World Series and the first season for the team's radio gameday broadcasts.


1939 New York Yankees season, Regular season
The 1939 New York Yankees are one of only three Yankees teams (the 1927 and 1998 Yankees being the others) to ever finish the regular season with over a .700 winning percentage, lead the league in runs scored and fewest runs allowed, and go on to sweep the World Series. The 1939 Yankees are the only team to ever outscore their regular season opponents by over 400 runs (967–556).


1939 New York Yankees season, Regular season, "The Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth"
The 1939 season would be the final time Yankees fans saw the team's starting veteran first baseman Lou Gehrig in action and in the uniform of the team he played for many years, given his declining health. On June 21, the New York Yankees announced his official retirement and proclaimed July 4, 1939, "Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day" at Yankee Stadium. Between games of the Independence Day doubleheader against the Washington Senators, the poignant ceremonies were held on the diamond.


1939 New York Yankees season, Regular season, "The Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth"
In its coverage the following day, The New York Times said it was "Perhaps as colorful and dramatic a pageant as ever was enacted on a baseball field [as] 61,808 fans thundered a hail and farewell". Dignitaries extolled the dying slugger and the members of the 1927 Yankees World Championship team, known as "Murderer's Row", attended the ceremonies. New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia called Gehrig "the greatest prototype of good sportsmanship and citizenship" and Postmaster General James Farley concluded his speech by predicting, "For generations to come, boys who play baseball will point with pride to your record."


1939 New York Yankees season, Regular season, "The Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth"
Yankees manager Joe McCarthy, struggling to control his emotions, then spoke of Lou Gehrig, with whom there was a close, almost father and son-like bond. After describing Gehrig as "the finest example of a ballplayer, sportsman, and citizen that baseball has ever known", McCarthy could stand it no longer.


1939 New York Yankees season, Regular season, "The Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth"
Turning tearfully to Gehrig, the manager said, "Lou, what else can I say except that it was a sad day in the life of everybody who knew you when you came into my hotel room that day in Detroit and told me you were quitting as a ballplayer because you felt yourself a hindrance to the team. My God, man, you were never that."


1939 New York Yankees season, Regular season, "The Luckiest Man on the Face of the Earth"
The Yankees retired Gehrig's uniform number "4", making him the first player in history to be afforded that honor. Gehrig was given many gifts, commemorative plaques, and trophies. Some came from VIPs; others came from the stadium's groundskeepers and janitorial staff. Footage of the ceremonies shows Gehrig being handed various gifts, and immediately setting them down on the ground, because he no longer had the arm strength to hold them.


1939 New York Yankees season, Player stats, Batting, Starters by position
Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in


1939 New York Yankees season, Player stats, Batting, Other batters
Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in


1939 New York Yankees season, Player stats, Pitching, Starting pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1939 New York Yankees season, Player stats, Pitching, Other pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1939 New York Yankees season, Player stats, Pitching, Relief pitchers
Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts


1939 New York Yankees season, 1939 World Series
AL New York Yankees (4) vs. NL Cincinnati Reds (0)


1939 New York Yankees season, Awards and honors, Greatest teams of all time rank
The book Baseball Dynasties: The Greatest Teams of All Time ranked the 1939 New York Yankees the greatest MLB team of all time. 538 also ranked the 1939 New York Yankees greatest MLB team of all time, according to ELO. Joe DiMaggio won his first of three Most Valuable Player (MVP) Awards, though he only played 120 games due to injury. He batted .381 and averaged over one RBI per game.


1939 New York Yankees season, Awards and honors, All-Stars
The Yankees, who hosted the All-Star Game that year in Yankee Stadium, were represented by Red Ruffing, Joe DiMaggio, Joe Gordon, Bill Dickey, Lefty Gomez, Hank Greenberg, Frankie Crosetti, George Selkirk and Johnny Murphy. Lou Gehrig only attended the game as part of the AL reserves.


1939 New York state election
The 1939 New York state election was held on November 7, 1939, to elect the Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals. Besides, an amendment to the State Constitution proposed to legalize Parimutuel betting on horse-race tracks, and was accepted.


1939 New York state election, History
In 1939, there was only one state officer to be elected statewide: The Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals, to succeed Frederick E. Crane, who would reach the constitutional age limit at the end of the year.


1939 New York state election, History
The revised State Constitution of 1938, ratified by the electorate the previous year, increased the term in the New York State Assembly to two years, so that there were no assembly elections anymore in odd-numbered years.


1939 New York state election, History
The Democratic State Committee met on September 27, and nominated associate judge Irving Lehman for Chief Judge.


1939 New York state election, History
The American Labor State Committee met on September 30 and endorsed the Democratic nominee Irving Lehman.


1939 New York state election, History
The Republican State Committee met on October 3, and endorsed the Democratic and American Labor nominee Irving Lehman.


1939 New Zealand rugby league season
The 1939 New Zealand rugby league season was the 32nd season of rugby league that had been played in New Zealand.


1939 New Zealand rugby league season, International competitions
New Zealand embarked on a tour of Great Britain and France. The tour was cancelled without any Test matches being play due to the outbreak of World War II.


1939 New Zealand rugby league season, International competitions
An "Easts Combined" team from the New South Wales Rugby League traveled to Auckland and lost 17-16 to the Auckland Rugby League's Richmond.


1939 New Zealand rugby league season, National competitions, Northern Union Cup
West Coast again held the Northern Union Cup at the end of the season. They successfully defended it against Inangahua 11-8.


1939 New Zealand rugby league season, Club competitions, Auckland
Mt Albert won the Auckland Rugby League's Fox Memorial Trophy and the Stormont Shield. The Marist Brothers won the Roope Rooster, Otahuhu won the Sharman Cup and Richmond won the Norton Cup.


1939 New Zealand rugby league season, Club competitions, Auckland
George Mitchell and Dave Solomon played for Richmond, while Ponsonby included Sydney's Frank Bell. Bob Banham was Mount Albert's player-coach.


1939 New Zealand rugby league season, Club competitions, Other Competitions
Greymouth Marist defeated Addington 20-19 to win the Thacker Shield.