* 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.

* An almost shot-for-shot remake of the 1939 production, Destry ( 1954 ), was also directed by George Marshall and stars Audie Murphy and Thomas Mitchell.

* 1939 – Thomas McGuane, American writer

In 1939 The Map of Love appeared as a collection of 16 poems and seven of the 20 short stories published by Thomas in magazines since 1934.

Early films, including those from the silent era, which feature the station include Traffic in Souls ( 1913 ), which starred Matt Moore ; The Yellow Passport ( 1916 ), starring Clara Kimball Young ; My Boy ( 1921 ), starring Jackie Coogan ; Frank Capra's The Strong Man ( 1926 ), starring Harry Langdon ; We Americans ( 1928 ), starring John Boles ; The Mating Call ( film ), 1928, co-starring Thomas Meighan and Renée Adorée ; Ellis Island ( 1936 ), starring Donald Cook ; Paddy O ' Day ( 1936 ), starring Jane Withers ; Gateway ( 1938 ), starring Don Ameche ; Exile Express ( 1939 ), which starred Anna Sten ; I, Jane Doe ( 1948 ), starring Ruth Hussey and Vera Ralston, and Gambling House ( 1951 ), starring Victor Mature

* Thomas Ifor Rees produced a Welsh translation, published in Mexico City in 1939.

* John Thomas McCarthy ( born 1939 ), U. S. ambassador

It was Grace Toof's niece, Ruth Moore, who, in 1939 together with her husband Dr. Thomas Moore, built the present American " colonial " style mansion.

The first attested use of the term sociolinguistics was by Thomas Callan Hodson in the title of a 1939 paper.

The concrete brick and stone fifth and final courthouse was completed in 1939 by architect Arthur E. Thomas.

The Smothers Brothers are Thomas (" Tom "-born February 2, 1937 ) and Richard (" Dick "-born November 20, 1939 ), American singers, musicians, comedians and folk heroes.

* Thomas W. Greelish ( 1939 – 91 ), United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey from 1985 to 1987.

In January 1939 Merton had heard good things from friends of his about a part-time teacher on campus named Daniel Walsh, so he decided to take a course on Thomas Aquinas with Walsh.

Sir Thomas Beecham conducted the opening concert on 20 June 1939.

Thomas Handforth won the second Caldecott Medal in 1939, for Mei Li, which he also wrote.

Further experimental proof of the dual nature of lichens was obtained when Eugen Thomas published his results in 1939 on the first successful re-synthesis experiment.

* Dictionary of Hamilton Biography ( Vol III, 1925 – 1939 ): Thomas Melville Bailey ( W. L.

Thomas Patrick John Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield ( 25 April 1939 – 11 November 2005 ) was an English photographer.

Thomas Patrick John Anson was born 25 April 1939.

On 6 October 1939, Morshead was selected by Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Blamey to command the 18th Infantry Brigade in the new 6th Division.

* Thomas E. Mahl, Desperate Deception: British Covert Operations in the United States, 1939 – 44, ( Brassey's Inc., 1999 ) 1574882236.

Anticipating the Second World War, Thomas J. Bata, the founder's son, together with over 100 families from Czechoslovakia, moved to Canada in 1939 to develop the Bata Shoe Company of Canada, including a shoe factory and engineering plant, centred in a town that still bears his name, Batawa, Ontario.

*( Thomas ) Patrick John Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield ( 1939 – 2005 )

Thomas Mann lived in Küsnacht between 1933 and 1939, after he was forced to leave Germany by the Nazis.

* Angel ( Thomas Halloway ), a Marvel Comics superhero originally appearing in 1939