* 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.

Yaël Dayan (, born 2 December 1939 ) is an Israeli politician and author.

* Ada Yonath ( born 1939 ), Israeli biochemist

* 1939 – Gila Almagor, Israeli actress

* Yehoram Gaon ( born 1939 ), Israeli singer and actor

* 1939 – Moshe Weinberg, Israeli wrestling coach ( d. 1972 )

** Moshe Weinberg, Israeli wrestling coach ( b. 1939 )

In 1948, Charles Winters, Al Schwimmer and Herman Greenspun were convicted under the 1939 Act after smuggling B-17 Flying Fortress bombers from Florida to the nascent state of Israel during the 1948 Arab – Israeli War.

* Amos Oz ( born 1939 ), an Israeli author

Baruch Kimmerling (, October 16, 1939 – May 20, 2007 ) was an Israeli scholar and professor of sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Amos Oz () ( born May 4, 1939, birth name Amos Klausner ) is an Israeli writer, novelist, and journalist.

Zvi Mazel ( born 4 March 1939 ) is an Israeli diplomat.

Joshua Sobol, also known as Yehoshua Sobol ( יהושע סובול ) ( born in Tel Mond in 1939 ), is an Israeli playwright, writer, and director at theatres in Israel and abroad.

Gila Almagor () ( born Gila Alexandrowitz on July 22, 1939 ) is an Israeli actress, film star, and author.

* Siona Shimshi ( born 1939 ), Israeli painter, sculptor, ceramist, textile designer

* Joshua Sobol ( born 1939 ), Israeli playwright, writer, and director

* Micha Ullman ( born 1939 ), an Israeli sculptor, professor of art

* Siona Shimshi ( born 1939 ), Israeli painter, sculptor, ceramist, and textile designer

Ada E. Yonath (, ) ( born 22 June 1939 ) is an Israeli crystallographer best known for her pioneering work on the structure of the ribosome.

Dov Frohman ( Hebrew: דב פרוהמן, also known as Dov Frohman-Bentchkowsky ; born March 28, 1939 ) is an Israeli electrical engineer and business executive.

Reuven " Rubi " Rivlin (, ; born 9 September 1939 ) is an Israeli lawyer and politician currently serving as speaker of the Knesset.

* Reuven Rivlin ( b. 1939 ), Israeli politician

Joseph Raz (; born 21 March 1939 ) is an Israeli legal, moral and political philosopher.