* 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.

Sidney Altman ( born May 7, 1939 ) is a Canadian American molecular biologist, who is currently the Sterling Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and Chemistry at Yale University.

In 1938 and 1939 the researchers / writers of the first book of jazz history, Jazzmen, interviewed several prominent musicians of the time, including Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, and Clarence Williams, who spoke very highly of Bunk in the old days in New Orleans.

Sidney Luckman, known as Sid Luckman, ( November 21, 1916 – July 5, 1998 ) was an American football quarterback for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League ( NFL ) from 1939 to 1950.

* Sir Sidney Herbert, 1st Baronet ( 1890 – 1939 )

* The Zero Hour ( 1939 film ), an American film directed by Sidney Salkow

Eddy married Ann Denitz Franklin, former wife of noted director Sidney Franklin, on January 19, 1939.

Sidney " Sid " Davidoff ( born July 18, 1939 ) is an American lawyer who was one of 20 people on Nixon's Enemies List.

Other appearances on Broadway included: W. Somerset Maugham's The Letter ( 1927 ), Sidney Howard's The Alien Corn ( 1933 ), Juliet in Romeo and Juliet ( 1934 ), Maxwell Anderson's The Wingless Victory ( 1936 ), S. N. Behrman's No Time for Comedy ( 1939 ), a Tony Award-winning Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra ( 1947 ), and a revival of Maugham's The Constant Wife ( 1951 ).

Sidney Kibrick ( born July 2, 1928 ) is an American former child actor, most notable for appearing in the Our Gang short subjects series from 1935 to 1939.

Produced by Jack Chertok for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by George Sidney, the one-reel short was released to theaters in January 1939 by MGM.

In addition to these classical roles, Scott's credits in contemporary drama have included the premieres of Emlyn Williams ' A Murder Has Been Arranged ( directed by the author in 1930 ), MacLeish's Panic ( 1936 ), Morna Stuart's Traitor's Gate ( 1938 ) and Sidney Howard's Alien Corn ( 1939 ).

( 1939 ) Music and Lyrics by Roger Edens Performed by Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Sidney Miller, William Tracy and chorus at the dance Reprised by the cast in the finale

** A. Sidney Camp ( D ), from August 1, 1939

* Sidney Dean Townley and Maxwell Wilford Allen, " Descriptive catalogue of earthquakes of the Pacific Coast of the United States, 1769 to 1928 ", 1939, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 29.

* Sidney Altman ( born 1939 ), Canadian biologist

Altman was born on May 7, 1939 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

In 1939, Shternberg along with Moyshe Altman sneaked across the Dniester and became a Soviet citizen.

Jeremy Northam, who played a character based on Ivor Novello in the 2001 Robert Altman movie, Gosford Park, sang " I Can Give You the Starlight " from The Dancing Years, Hassall's and Novello's 1939 musical.

* 1939 – Roy Romanow, Canadian politician

* 1885 – Édouard Fabre, Canadian runner ( d. 1939 )

* 1939 – Lise Thibault, Canadian civil servant, 27th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec

* 1939 – Red Berenson, Canadian ice hockey player

* 1939 – Francis Fox, Canadian politician, member of the Senate

* 1939 – Jean Beaudin, Canadian film director and screenwriter

* 1939 – Raôul Duguay, Canadian artist, poet, musician, and political activist

* John Ford Messer ( 1889 – 1949 ), Canadian local-level legislator ; served as Conservative member of New Brunswick Legislative Assembly from 1939 to 1944

* 1939 – Anne Heggtveit, Canadian alpine skier

* 1939 – J. C. Tremblay, Canadian ice hockey player ( d. 1994 )

* 1939 – Cesare Maniago, Canadian ice hockey player

* 1939 – Gordon O ' Connor, Canadian politician

* 1939 – The Canadian National War Memorial is unveiled by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in Ottawa.

* 1939 – Bill Graham, Canadian politician

* 1939 – Margaret Atwood, Canadian poet, novelist, critic and essayist

* 1939 – Norman Bethune, Canadian doctor and humanitarian ( b. 1890 )

* 1861 – James Naismith, Canadian inventor of basketball ( d. 1939 )

* 1939 – Robin Spry, Canadian filmmaker and producer ( d. 2005 )

* 1939 – Len Cariou, Canadian actor

First lady Dolley Madison rescued a painting of George Washington, and in 1939, a Canadian man returned a jewelry box to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, claiming that his grandfather had taken it from Washington.

His government also made the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation a crown corporation in 1936, created Trans-Canada Airlines ( the precursor to Air Canada ) in 1937, and formed the National Film Board of Canada in 1939.

In the lead-up to World War II in 1939, King affirmed Canadian autonomy by saying that the Canadian Parliament would make the final decision on the issue of going to war.

" Double Vision: Ernest Lapointe, Mackenzie King and the Quebec Voice in Canadian Foreign Policy, 1935-1939 ," Journal of Canadian Studies 1999 34 ( 1 ): 93-111 ; argues Lapointe guided the more imperialist Mackenzie King through three explosive situations: the Ethiopian crisis of 1935, the Munich crisis of 1938, and the formulation of Ottawa's ' no-neutrality-no-conscription ' pact in 1939.