* 1939 – John W. Snow, American politician, 73rd United States Secretary of the Treasury

* 1939 – John Badham, American director

* 1939 – John Peel, English radio host and producer ( d. 2004 )

* 1939 – The Grapes of Wrath, by American author John Steinbeck is first published by the Viking Press.

* 1939 – John Amos, American actor

* 1939 – John Grieb, American gymnast and athlete ( b. 1879 )

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

John Dewey and English Education ( 1895 – 1939 ).

On 25 January 1939, a Columbia University team conducted the first nuclear fission experiment in the United States, which was done in the basement of Pupin Hall ; the members of the team were Herbert L. Anderson, Eugene T. Booth, John R. Dunning, Enrico Fermi, G. Norris Glasoe, and Francis G. Slack.

* 1939 – John Fahey, American steel-string acoustic guitarist ( d. 2001 )

Other leading films included Mr. Deeds Goes to Town ( 1936 ), Lost Horizon ( 1937 ), You Can't Take It With You ( 1938 ), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington ( 1939 ), Meet John Doe ( 1941 ), Arsenic and Old Lace ( 1944 ), It's a Wonderful Life ( 1946 ) and State of the Union ( 1948 ).

In 1939, John Vincent Atanasoff and Clifford E. Berry of Iowa State University developed the Atanasoff – Berry Computer ( ABC ), The Atanasoff-Berry Computer was the world's first electronic digital computer.

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

* 1939 – John Howard, Australian politician, 25th Prime Minister of Australia

John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE ( 30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004 ), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist.

* 1939 – John Negroponte, American diplomat, 1st Director of National Intelligence

In order to enter at a talent competition at University High School, Berry and Torrence helped form a doo-wop group known as " The Barons " ( named after their high school's Hi-Y club, where they were members ), which comprised fellow University High students William " Chuck " Steele ( lead singer ), Arnold P. " Arnie " Ginsburg ( born November 19, 1939 ) ( 1st tenor ), Wallace S. " Wally " Yagi ( born 20 July 1940 ) ( 2nd tenor ), John ' Sagi " Seligman ( 2nd tenor ), with Berry singing bass, and Torrence providing falsetto.

* John Brown ( American football ) ( born 1939 ), NFL player

* John Nash ( footballer ) ( 1867 – 1939 ), English footballer

* John Walker ( painter ) ( born 1939 ), nominee for the Turner Prize in 1985

Lee Harvey Oswald ( October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963 ) was, according to four government investigations, the sniper who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963.

* 1903 – John Harron, American actor ( d. 1939 )

* 1879 – John Grieb, American gymnast and athlete ( d. 1939 )

") Mencken's influence is apparent when the term appears in John Fante's 1939 novel Ask the Dust: " The church must go, it is the haven of the booboisie, of boobs and bounders and all brummagem mountebanks.

In 1980, he wrote the introduction for the reprint of Fante's 1939 novel Ask the Dust.

* Ask a Policeman ( 1939 ) ( uncredited )

In 1939, it was used as a location for the Will Hay film, Ask a Policeman.

* Ask A Policeman ( 1939 )

The film was a remake of an earlier picture called Ask a Policeman, released in 1939, which Guest himself had co-written.

* John Fante, Ask the Dust, 1939

( 1937 ), Old Bones of the River ( 1938 ), Ask a Policeman ( 1939 ) and Where's That Fire?

* Ask a Policeman ( 1939 )

Rural flight from the Great Plains has been depicted in literature, such as John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath ( 1939 ), in which a family from the Great Plains migrates to California during the Dust Bowl period of the 1930s.

< imagemap > File: 1930s decade montage. png | From left, clockwise: Dorothea Lange's photo of the homeless Florence Thompson show the effects of the Great Depression ; Due to the extreme drought conditions, the farms become dry and the Dust Bowl spreads through America ; The Battle of Wuhan during the Second Sino-Japanese War ; Aviator Amelia Earhart becomes an American national icon ; German dictator Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party attempted to establish a New Order of absolute Nazi German hegemony in Europe, which culminated in 1939 when Germany invaded Poland, leading to the outbreak of World War II ; The Hindenburg explodes over a small New Jerseian airfield, effectively ending commercial airship travel ; Mohandas Gandhi walks to the Indian Ocean in the Salt March of 1930 .| 420px | thumb

The work of independent artists, such as American novelist John Steinbeck's novels Of Mice and Men ( 1937 ) and The Grapes of Wrath ( 1939 ), and the music of folk singer Woody Guthrie, was also influenced by the crises of the Dust Bowl and the Depression.

It became the First National Bank in 1903, but was liquidated in 1939, having failed due to the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression.

* Dust Be My Destiny ( 1939 )

Besides providing the lyrics to Hoagy Carmichael's " Star Dust ", the two collaborated on standards such as " Riverboat Shuffle " and " One Morning in May ".< ref > He wrote the lyrics to the Glenn Miller ballad " Sometime " from 1939, co-written with Glenn Miller and John Chummy MacGregor.

Following the film's release, she was cast in the drama comedy Star Dust in December 1939.

* Dust Be My Destiny ( 1939 )

* Dust Be My Destiny ( 1939 )

* Dust Be My Destiny ( 1939 ) ( uncredited ), reporter

* Dust Be My Destiny ( 1939 )

According to the Oxford Companion to African-American Literature, her theatre works included Deep Rivers ( 1939 ), a musical ; It's Morning ( 1940 ), a one-act tragedy about a slave mother who contemplates infanticide ; I Gotta Home ( 1940 ), a one-act drama ; Track Thirteen ( 1940 ), a comedy for radio and her only published play ; Elijah's Raven ( 1941 ), a three-act comedy ; and Dust to Earth ( 1941 ), a three-act tragedy.