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The year 1939 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Contents 1 Astronomy 2 Medicine 3 Physics 4 Technology 5 Awards 6 Births 7 Deaths

[edit] Astronomy

• Robert Oppenheimer and H. Snyder predict the existence of a new type of celestial objects that would come to be called black holes (Phys.Rev. 56, 455-459, 1939).
• Robert Oppenheimer and G. Volkoff first calculate the structure of neutron stars, a new type of celestial object (Phys.Rev. 55, 374-381 1939).

[edit] Medicine

• John H. Lawrence used beams of energized neutrons from a particle accelerator to treat a patient with leukemia.

[edit] Physics

• Nuclear fission is discovered independently by Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn.

[edit] Technology

• January 11 - First flight of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
• December 9 - First flight of the Consolidated XB-24 "Liberator" bomber prototype.
• Kirlian photography is invented by Semyon Kirlian.

[edit] Awards

• Nobel Prizes
  • Physics - Ernest Lawrence
  • Chemistry - Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt, Lavoslav Ruzicka
  • Medicine - Gerhard Domagk

[edit] Births

• May 19 - Dick Scobee (d. 1986), astronaut.
• October 7 - John Hopcroft, American theoretical computer scientist.

[edit] Deaths

• October 7 - Harvey Cushing (b. 1869), American neurosurgeon.