* 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.

In 1939, Duvalier married Simone Ovide, with whom he had four children: Marie Denise, Nicole, Simone and Jean-Claude.

Jean-Claude Germain ( born in Montreal, 18 June 1939 ) is a playwright, author, journalist and historian.

* Jean-Claude Berejnoï ( born in 1939 ), rugby player born in Decazeville.

Carson married four times: Elizabeth Lindy ( married 1938, divorced 1939 ), Kay St. Germain ( m. 1941, div.

* 1939 – The Grapes of Wrath, by American author John Steinbeck is first published by the Viking Press.

* 1939 – Helen Prejean, American author and activist

* 1939 – Glenda Adams, Australian author ( d. 2007 )

Raymond Chandler, who debuted as a novelist with The Big Sleep in 1939, soon became the most famous author of the hardboiled school.

* 1860 – Nienke van Hichtum, Dutch author ( d. 1939 )

* 1939 – R. C. Sproul, American theologian and author

* 1939 – Jane Yolen, American author

In 1939, Nagib Mahfuz wrote the novel Khufu's Wisdom, which leans on the stories of Papyrus Westcar ; In 1997, French author Guy Brachet composed the novel series Le roman des pyramides, including five volumes, of which the first two ( Le temple soleil and Rêve de pierre ) are picking out Khufu and his tomb as a theme.

* 2003 – Larry Burkett, American author and radio host ( b. 1939 )

* 1939 – Jon Tolaas, Norwegian poet and author ( d. 2012 )

* 2001 – Auberon Waugh, British author and journalist ( b. 1939 )

* 1939 – David Horowitz, American author and political commentator

* 1939 – Ernst Toller, German author ( b. 1893 )

* 1939 – Jiri Mahen, Czech author ( b. 1882 )

* 1939 – Toni Cade Bambara, American author ( d. 1995 )

* 1939 – Adam Osborne, British author and computer designer ( d. 2003 )

* 1939 – Jim Bouton, American baseball player and author

* 1939 – Auberon Waugh, English author ( d. 2001 )

* 1939 – Goli Taraqqi, Iranian author

* 1939 – Harvey Pekar, American author ( d. 2010 )

* 2011 – Jun Henmi, Japanese author and poet ( b. 1939 )

* 1939 – Carol Lynn Pearson, American poet and author

* 1939 – Fred Willard, American comedian, actor, and author