* 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.

The feat is depicted in various movies, including the 1939 film Union Pacific, starring Joel McCrea and Barbara Stanwyck and directed by Cecil B. DeMille, which depicts the fictional Central Pacific investor Asa Barrows obstructing attempts by the Union Pacific from reaching Ogden, Utah.

John L. Sullivan ( Joel McCrea ), a popular young Hollywood director fresh from a string of very profitable, but shallow comedies ( e. g. Ants in Your Plants of 1939 ), tells his studio boss, Mr. Lebrand ( Robert Warwick ), that he is dissatisfied and wants his next project to be a serious exploration of the plight of the downtrodden, to be based on the socially-conscious novel O Brother, Where Art Thou?

* Conner, Janis and Joel Rosenkranz, Rediscoveries in American Sculpture, Studio Works 1893 – 1939, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 1989

Joel T. Schumacher ( born August 29, 1939 ) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer.

In the original stage production, the Wizard was played by Cabaret star Joel Grey, who also played the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz in Concert: Dreams Come True, a 1995 concert staging of the 1939 film musical.

Joel Carver Whitburn ( born November 29, 1939 ; Wauwatosa, Wisconsin ) is an American author and music historian.

She next appeared in two films opposite Joel McCrea, Youth Takes a Fling ( 1938 ) and They Shall Have Music ( 1939 ), for the first time playing the lead female role.

Joel Elias Spingarn ( May 17, 1875 – July 26, 1939 ) was an American educator, literary critic, and civil rights activist.

* Conner, Janis and Joel Rosenkranz, Rediscoveries in American Sculpture, Studio Works 1893 – 1939, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 1989

Joel Wachs ( born 1939 ) is president of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts in New York City.

* Kurt Schumacher, in Dachau since July 1935, sent to Flossenbürg concentration camp in 1939, returned to Dachau in 1940, released due to extreme illness 16 March 1943

Symbolically, Marian Anderson ( a noted opera singer of her day ) sang a rendition of " America the Beautiful " on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939 after being refused use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution because of her skin color.

* 2008 – Skip Caray, American sportscaster ( b. 1939 )

* 1939 – Anjanette Comer, American actress

* 1939 – Alexander Watson, American ambassador and diplomat

* 1939 – Phil Balsley, American singer-songwriter ( The Statler Brothers )

* 1939 – Billy Joe Shaver, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

* 1939 – Michael D. Antonovich, American politician

* 1939 – Skip Caray, American sportscaster ( d. 2008 )

* 1939 – George Hamilton, American actor

* 1939 – James Burton, American guitarist ( TCB Band )

* 1939 – Harold Reid, American singer-songwriter ( The Statler Brothers )

* 1939 – Clarence Williams III, American actor

* 1939 – John Badham, American director

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

* 1939 – Anthony Lake, American political figure

* 1939 – Marian Anderson sings at the Lincoln Memorial, after being denied the right to sing at the Daughters of the American Revolution's Constitution Hall.

* 1939 – Elizabeth Ashley, American actress

* 1939 – Thomas J. Moyer, American judge