On this day

January 9, 1939

Revisit the news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.

Portrait 1080 × 1920 PNG · created on your device

Filter by:

Headlines from January 9, 1939

Notable Births

Susannah York

1939Susannah York, English actress and activist (died 2011)[†]

Susannah Yolande Fletcher, known professionally as Susannah York, was an English actress. Her appearances in various films of the 1960s, including Tom Jones (1963) and They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), formed the basis of her international reputation. An obituary in The Telegraph characterised her as "the blue-eyed English rose with the china-white skin and cupid lips who epitomised the sensuality of the swinging sixties", who later "proved that she was a real actor of extraordinary emotional range".

Notable Deaths

Johann Strauss III

1939Johann Strauss III, Austrian violinist, composer, and conductor (born 1866)[†]

Johann Maria Eduard Strauss III was an Austrian composer whose father was Eduard Strauss, whose uncles were Johann Strauss II and Josef Strauss, and whose grandfather was Johann Strauss I. Born in Vienna, he was unofficially entrusted with the task of upholding his family's tradition after the dissolution of the Strauss Orchestra by his father in 1901. His talents were not fully realized during his lifetime as musical tastes had changed in the Silver Age with more popular composers such as Franz Lehár and Oscar Straus dominating the Viennese musical scene with their operettas, although his uncle, Johann Strauss II, supervised his development as a musician, a fact disputed by Eduard Strauss.