1939 in France

Incumbents

• President: Albert Lebrun
• President of the Council of Ministers: Édouard Daladier

  Events

• 27 February - United Kingdom and France recognize Franco's government in Spain.
• 17 June - Last public guillotining in France - murderer Eugen Weidmann.
• 3 September - United Kingdom, France, New Zealand and Australia declare war on Germany.

  Sport

• 10 July - Tour de France begins.
• 30 July - Tour de France ends, won by Sylvère Maes of Belgium.

  Births

• 1 February - Claude François, singer and songwriter
• 29 March - Roland Arnall, businessman and diplomat in the United States
• 3 April - François de Roubaix, film score composer
• 9 May - Pierre Desproges, humorist
• 24 June - Brigitte Fontaine, singer, writer and poet
• 31 July - France Nuyen, actress
• 30 September - Jean-Marie Lehn, chemist, shared Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1987
• 10 November - Maia Simon, actress

  Deaths

• 23 February - Jules-Felix Coutan, sculptor
• 29 March - Henri Bénard, physicist
• 16 September - Otto Wels, German politician
• 14 October - Polaire, singer and actress
• 5 November - Charles Barrois, geologist and palaeontologist