October 31, 1939

1939Ali Farka Touré, Malian singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2006)^[†]

Ali Ibrahim "Ali Farka" Touré was a Malian singer and multi-instrumentalist, and one of the African continent's most internationally renowned musicians. His music blends traditional Malian music and its derivative, African American blues and is considered a pioneer of African desert blues. Touré was ranked number 76 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and number 37 on Spin magazine's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".

1939Otto Rank, Austrian psychologist, author, and educator (born 1884)^[†]

Otto Rank was an Austrian psychoanalyst, writer, and philosopher. Born in Vienna, he was one of Sigmund Freud's closest colleagues for 20 years, until publishing his theory on the Trauma of Birth, which marked the beginning of an ideological split from Freudism. Rank was a prolific writer on psychoanalytic themes, editor of the two leading analytic journals of the era, including Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse, managing director of Freud's publishing house, and a creative theorist and therapist. In 1926, Rank left Vienna for Paris and, for the remainder of his life, led a successful career as a lecturer, writer, and therapist in France and the United States.