What Else Happened In 1939 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Superman

Superman was a daily newspaper comic strip which began on January 16, 1939, having arrived a year earlier in Action Comics. A separate Sunday strip was added on November 5, 1939. They ran until May 1966. Batman first appeared in Detective Comics in the same year, but this magazine was published monthly. March 1941 saw the first appearance of Iron Man in Better Comics and Spider-Man swung into action in Marvel's Amazing Fantasy comic book in August 1962.

Answer: Roger Bannister

It would be 15 years later on 6th May 1954 that Bannister ran a mile in 3:59.4 - the first man to run a sub-four minute mile. His record lasted just a couple of weeks before Australian John Landy shaved a second off it. Today the current record is 3:43.13.

Answer: Hitler Youth

The National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) (NSDAP) became known as the Nazi Party - and whilst it was probably advisable to join as an adult, it was only mandatory for all higher civil servants and bureaucrats.

However, in 1939 it was compulsory for all youth aged 10 to 18 to join the youth wing of the Nazi Party, know to us as Hitler Youth.

Answer: George VI and Queen Elizabeth

George V died in 1936. Wallis Simpson never became Queen - much to Edward's disappointment. Instead he abdicated the throne and left it to his poor stammering brother who became George VI, the father of our current queen. George and Elizabeth visited Canada on their Royal Tour in May 1939 and then moved on to the USA where they met Franklin Roosevelt in Washington DC.

Answer: The IRA (Irish Republican Army)

The Sabotage Plan was carried out through 1939 and 1940 by the IRA against civil, economic and military targets in England. This was the first time England had been attacked by the IRA (Wales and Scotland would never be attacked). It would not be the last with many years of conflict to come.

The last explosion (attributable to a splinter group of the provisional IRA - known as the Real IRA) was a car bomb injuring seven people in West London in 2001.

Answer: Neville Chamberlain

Stanley Baldwin served until 1937 and Winston Churchill became PM in 1940. It fell to Neville Chamberlain to make the famous speech at 11am on 3rd September 1939: I am speaking to you from the cabinet room at 10 Downing Street. This morning the British ambassador in Berlin handed the German government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany.

Answer: Guillotine

The guillotine gained notoriety during the French Revolution, but it continued to be used. Our six-times murderer here was the last man to be guillotined in public in 1939 in front of a large crowd who, no doubt, brought a bit of gateaux and a blanket to enjoy the spectacle.

A number of problems with that execution (inappropriate behaviour by spectators, incorrect assembly of the apparatus, and the fact that it was secretly filmed) caused the French government to order that future executions be conducted in private in the prison courtyard and they continued until 1977.

Answer: Hound of the Baskervilles

Basil Rathbone (Holmes) and Nigel Bruce (Watson) appeared in fourteen films from 1939 through to 1946. The Hound of the Baskervilles was released in March 31st 1939 and written by Arthur Conan Doyle in 1901-2.

Answer: Hunger strike

A leader in the Indian campaign for home rule, Gandhi worked all his life to spread his own brand of passive resistance across India and the world. In 1939 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi began a hunger strike in protest of the British government's decision to separate India's electoral system by caste.

His Salt March took place in 1930, as a peaceful civil disobedience against the British Salt Act which prevented Indians from collecting or selling salt.

Answer: Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind had its first showing in December 1939 in Atlanta, Georgia, while all the other films debuted in 1940 ... I gave you a clue, don't complain.