1939 - Religion

Religion

Pope Pius XI dies at Rome February 10 at age 81 after a 17-year reign in which he has warned of Nazism's evils; he is succeeded by Rome-born Cardinal Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli, now 62, who is elected in the shortest conclave since 1623 and will reign until his death in 1958 as Pius XII.

The Oxford Group's Moral Rearmament movement gains a wide following in Britain (see 1921).

The United Jewish Appeal (UJA) is founded at New York to raise funds for Jewish relief.

Chicago's archbishop George Cardinal Mundelein dies at Mundelein, Ill., October 2 at age 67 (the town has been named in his honor).