* 1939 – 1945, the Second Battle of the Atlantic.

Subsequent formalizations were framed as attempts to define " effective calculability " or " effective method "; those formalizations included the Gödel – Herbrand – Kleene recursive functions of 1930, 1934 and 1935, Alonzo Church's lambda calculus of 1936, Emil Post's " Formulation 1 " of 1936, and Alan Turing's Turing machines of 1936 – 7 and 1939.

* 1890 – Anthony Fokker, Dutch aviation engineer ( d. 1939 )

* 1939 – André Ouellet, French-Canadian politician

* 1852 – Ferdinand von Lindemann, German mathematician ( d. 1939 )

* 1939 – Alan Ayckbourn, English writer

* 1939 – Johnny Raper, Australian rugby league footballer

* 1939 – The 1939-40 New York World's Fair opens.

* 1939 – NBC inaugurates its regularly scheduled television service in New York City, broadcasting President Franklin D. Roosevelt's N. Y. World's Fair opening day ceremonial address.

* 1939 – First flight of the turbojet-powered Heinkel He 178, the world's first jet aircraft.

* 1939 – William Least Heat-Moon, American author

* 1939 – Edward Patten, American singer-songwriter and producer ( Gladys Knight & the Pips ) ( d. 2005 )

* 1939 – Bulle Ogier, French actress

* 1939 – Romano Prodi, Italian politician and statesman

* 1939 – Hércules Brito Ruas, Brazilian footballer

* 1939 – Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd write a letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging him to begin the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear weapon.

* 1939 – Benjamin Barber, American theorist

* 1939 – Wes Craven, American director

* 1939 – John W. Snow, American politician, 73rd United States Secretary of the Treasury

* 1984 – Marvin Gaye, American singer ( The Moonglows ) ( b. 1939 )

* 2001 – Trinh Cong Son, Vietnamese composer ( b. 1939 )

Eastern European theorists include Pyotr Stolypin ( 1862 – 1911 ) and Alexander Chayanov ( 1888 – 1939 ) in Russia ; Adolph Wagner ( 1835 – 1917 ), and Karl Oldenberg in Germany, and Bolesław Limanowski ( 1835 – 1935 ) in Poland.

From 1938 to 1945, he held a succession of positions, first becoming senior history master at Blundell's School in Tiverton, Devon in 1938 ( and also a Captain in the school's OTC ), then instructor at the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth in 1939.

From 1935 to 1940 he lectured at the University of Rochester and wrote The Clinical Treatment of the Problem Child ( 1939 ), based on his experience in working with troubled children.

From 1931 until his death in 1939, Sapir taught at Yale University, where he became the head of the Department of Anthropology.

From Logical Investigations ( 1900 / 1901 ) to Experience and Judgment ( published in 1939 ), Husserl expressed clearly the difference between meaning and object.

From 1939 he collaborated with Eugen Fink at the Husserl-Archives in Leuven.

From 1935 to 1939 Germany and Italy escalated their demands for territorial claims and greater influence in world affairs.

From a private letter from journalist Susan Myrick to Margaret Mitchell in February 1939: " George finally told me all about it.

* Esdaile, Charles J. Spain in the Liberal Age: From Constitution to Civil War, 1808 – 1939 ( 2000 ) excerpt and text search

Spain: From Dictatorship to Democracy, 1939 to the Present ( 2007 ) excerpt and text search

From 1939 to 1942, Simon acted as director of a research group at the University of California, Berkeley.

Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939 – 1953.

From 1936 to 1939, Hitler, while professing his desire for peace, led Germany firmly and deliberately towards a confrontation.

From 1930 to 1939, Maroger started to work at the Louvre Museum in Paris as Technical Director of the Louvre Laboratory.

From early 1939 onwards, Ribbentrop had become the leading advocate within the German government of reaching an understanding with the Soviet Union as the best way of pursuing both the short-term anti-Polish, and long-term anti-British foreign policy goals.

From 1936 to 1939 she carried out important excavations at the Jewry Wall in the city of Leicester.

From 1933-1947 Hollywood produced three talking films: Fighting with Kit Carson, a serial ( 1933 ), revised as a single movie: The Return of Kit Carson ( 1947 ); Overland with Kit Carson ( 1939 ); and Kit Carson ( 1940 ), starring Jon Hall in the title role.

From 1939 onward he was one of the leaders of the Czech resistance.

From November 1939 through 1947, the atoll had resident Federal Government representatives, the island commanders.

From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or subdued much of continental Europe.

< imagemap > File: 1940s decade montage. png | Above title bar: events during World War II ( 1939 – 1945 ): From left to right: Troops in an LCVP landing craft approaching " Omaha " Beach on " D-Day "; Adolf Hitler visits Paris, soon after the Battle of France ; The Holocaust occurred during the war as Nazi Germany carried out a programme of systematic state-sponsored genocide, during which approximately six million European Jews were killed ; The Japanese attack on the American naval base of Pearl Harbor launches the United States into the war ; An Observer Corps spotter scans the skies of London during the Battle of Britain ; The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the first uses of nuclear weapons, killing over a quarter million people and leading to the Japanese surrender ; Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the Japanese Government, on board USS Missouri, effectively ending the war.

< imagemap > File: 1930s decade montage. png | From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Thompson show the effects of the Great Depression ; Due to the extreme drought conditions, the farms become dry and the Dust Bowl spreads through America ; The Battle of Wuhan during the Second Sino-Japanese War ; Aviator Amelia Earhart becomes an American national icon ; German dictator Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party attempted to establish a New Order of absolute Nazi German hegemony in Europe, which culminated in 1939 when Germany invaded Poland, leading to the outbreak of World War II ; The Hindenburg explodes over a small New Jerseian airfield, effectively ending commercial airship travel ; Mohandas Gandhi walks to the Indian Ocean in the Salt March of 1930 .| 420px | thumb

From then until his wife's death in 1939, Stravinsky led a double life, spending some time with his first family and the rest with Vera.

From 1936 to 1939, after following up on Birkhoff's suggestion, Ulam spent summers in Poland and academic years at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA.

From 1939 to 1947, he taught at Laval University in Quebec City ( Canada ), where he was founding chairman of the physics department.