Fission Theory
Works with Bohr on the theory of nuclear fission.
Permanent historical records · Updated 2026-11-03
1939 in United States of America — Page 2
Explore 64 historical events and records for United States of America in 1939.
Historical records for United States of America in 1939
Sorted by month and day. Records with no month are shown last. Showing 24 of 64 unique records.
64Unique records
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22Named events on this page
18Named people on this page
7Places on this page
Other events (month unknown)
Fission Theory with Bohr
With Niels Bohr, develops a liquid-drop description of fission and neutron-induced uranium reactions.
Franklin Medal in Physics
The Franklin Institute awards Edwin Hubble the 1939 Franklin Medal in Physics for his extensive studies of nebulae beyond the Milky Way and the resulting enlargement of the known scale of the universe.
Gravitational Collapse
Oppenheimer analyzes continued gravitational collapse as an implication of general relativity
Gravitational Collapse
Publishes work with Snyder on continued gravitational contraction of massive stars.
Gravitational Collapse
Snyder coauthors the relativistic collapse model showing how a massive star can pass within its Schwarzschild radius
Manhattan Project
President Franklin Roosevelt calls on Lyman Briggs of the National Bureau of Standards to head "The Uranium Committee" to undertake nuclear research, as a result of the Einstein-Szilard letter
Marooned off Vesta Debut
Asimov's story Marooned off Vesta appeared in Amazing Stories, marking his first professional fiction publication.
Motion of the Galactic System Among the Nebulae
Hubble analyses residual radial motions of nebulae after removal of the systematic redshift trend in order to estimate the motion of the Milky Way system relative to external galaxies.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Stars in, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". Stars in, "Its a Wonderful World". Stars in, "Destry Rides Again"
Neutron Magnetic Moment Measurement
With Felix Bloch, uses magnetic resonance to measure the neutron magnetic moment.
New Stellar Systems in Sculptor and Fornax
Edwin Hubble and Walter Baade publish observations of newly recognised stellar systems in Sculptor and Fornax, helping establish these faint systems as nearby members of the Local Group environment.
Nobel Prize
Receives the Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing and developing the cyclotron and for results obtained with artificially produced radioactive elements.
Oppenheimer-Snyder Collapse
Coauthors the relativistic model of gravitational collapse to a black-hole-like state.
Pullitzer Prize
Winner of the Pullitzer Prize for "Grapes of Wrath"
Raffles
Directs Raffles. Directs Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Relativistic Neutron-Star Equilibrium
Develops relativistic stellar-structure equations used in theoretical descriptions of neutron stars.
Requests Congress to amend the Neutrality Act to sell arms
Requests Congress to amend the Neutrality Act to sell arms. The outbreak of war & the Russo-German non-aggression pact change US attitudes
Second World War News Expansion
Germany's invasion of Poland began a new European war and made international correspondents central to newspaper reporting.
Spherical Cluster Relativity Analysis
Studies a stationary spherical system of gravitating particles and argues that such configurations do not naturally form the Schwarzschild-type singular surface then under discussion.
The Grapes of Wrath
Publication of "The Grapes of Wrath"
The Nature of the Chemical Bond
Publication of "The Nature of the Chemical Bond"
Third Locks Project
Roosevelt authorises preliminary work for a third set of locks to increase wartime capacity.
Wuthering Heights
Directs, Wuthering Heights
How these records were prepared
Generated from the World History Database historical_events table. Identical display records are collapsed; descriptions otherwise retain the stored text. Coverage and source quality vary. Check primary and specialist sources before citing individual historical claims.