* 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.

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

* Skip Caray ( 1939 – 2008 ), baseball broadcaster

Harry Christopher " Skip " Caray, Jr. ( August 12, 1939 – August 3, 2008 ) was an American sportscaster, best known for his long career as a radio and television play-by-play announcer for the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball.

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.

* 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 – 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 – Joel Schumacher, American director

* 1939 – Elizabeth Ashley, American actress

* 1939 – Thomas J. Moyer, American judge