1938

This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on 1938 is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:

Related Sponsors

BM Pharmacy Generic pharmaceuticals at unbeatable prices. Insomnia, men's health, hair health, pain control. bmpharmacy.com

Online Pharmacy Carisoprodol, tadalafil, sildenafil, vardenafil and more... xlpharmacy.com

MedBasket.com Discreet. Inexpensive. Fast shipping. Great selection. What more can we say? medbasket.com

Frugalmed 2000 reasons to shop with us first. frugalmed.com

Ads by Tiva

Centuries:	19th century - 20th century - 21st century
Decades:	1900s 1910s 1920s - 1930s - 1940s 1950s 1960s
Years:	1935 1936 1937 - 1938 - 1939 1940 1941

1938 by topic:
Subject: Archaeology - Architecture - Art
Aviation - Film - Literature (Poetry) Meteorology - Music (Country) Rail transport - Radio - Science
Sports - Television
Countries: Australia - Canada - India - Ireland - Malaysia - New Zealand - Norway - Singapore South Africa - Soviet Union - UK - Zimbabwe
Leaders: Sovereign states - State leaders
Religious leaders - Law
Categories: Births - Deaths - Works - Introductions
Establishments - Disestablishments - Awards v • d • e

Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events of 1938

January-February

January 20: King Farouk

January 16: Benny Goodman in NYC.

January 1 – New Constitution of Estonia enters into force.
January 1 - The Merrie Melodies cartoon short Daffy Duck and Egghead is released.
January 3 - The March of Dimes is established by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
January 11 - Frances Moulton is named the first female president of a U.S. national bank.
January 16 - Two landmark live recordings this day: the very first of Mahler's Ninth by the Vienna Philharmonic under Bruno Walter in the face of dire circumstance; and Benny Goodman and his orchestra become the first jazz musicians to headline a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
January 20 - Wedding of King Farouk of Egypt and Queen Farida Zulficar in Cairo.
January 22 - Thornton Wilder's play Our Town is performed for the first time anywhere in Princeton, New Jersey. It premieres in New York City on February 4.
January 27 - The Niagara Bridge at Niagara Falls, New York collapses due to an ice jam.
January 28 - The first ski tow in America begins operation in Vermont.
January 31 - Crown princess Beatrix is born in Netherlands.

January 27: Niagara Bridge collapses in ice.

February 4 - Adolf Hitler creates the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (High Command of the Armed Forces), giving him direct control of the German military, and sacks political and military leaders considered unsympathetic to his philosophy or policies.
February 6 - Black Sunday at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia: 300 swimmers dragged out to sea in three freak waves; 80 lifesavers save all but 5.
February 10 - Carol II of Romania takes dictatorial powers.
February 12 - Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg of Austria meets Adolf Hitler at Berchtesgaden and, under threat of invasion, is forced to yield to German demands for greater Nazi participation in the Austrian government.
February 14 - The British naval base at Singapore begins operations.
February 20 - Anthony Eden resigns as foreign minister of Great Britain, and is succeeded by Lord Halifax.
February 24 - A nylon bristle toothbrush becomes the first commercial product to be made with nylon yarn.

March-April

March - Italian mathematician Ettore Majorana disappears.
March 3 - Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia.
March 12 - Anschluss: German troops occupy Austria; annexation declared the following day.
March 14 - French Premier Leon Blum reassures the Czech government that France will honor its treaty obligations to aid Czechoslovakia in event of German invasion.
March 15 - Soviet Union announces officially that Nikholai Bukharin has been executed.
March 17 - Poland presents an ultimatum to Lithuania; Poland demands to establish normal diplomatic relations that were severed over the Vilnius Region
March 18 - Mexico nationalizes all foreign-owned oil properties within its borders.
April 10 - Edouard Daladier becomes prime minister of France. He appoints as Foreign Minister a leading advocate of the policy of appeasement, Georges Bonnet, effectively negating Blum's reassurances of March 14.
April 24 – Konstantin Päts becomes president of Estonia.
April 25 - U.S. Supreme Court delivers opinion in Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins and overturns a century of federal common law.
April 28 - The towns of Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott in Massachusetts are disincorporated to make way for the Quabbin Reservoir.

May-June

May 5 - Vatican recognizes Franco's government in Spain
May 9 - Kaarel Eenpalu becomes prime minister of Estonia
May 14 - Chile withdraws from the League of Nations
May 17 - Information Please debuts on NBC Radio.
May 20 - Czechoslovakia orders a partial mobilization of its armed forces along the German border.
May 23 - Temporarily frustrated by the Czech mobilization and international diplomatic unity in the face of German demands over the Sudetenland, Hitler orders the Foreign Office to assure the Czechs that he has no demands on their territory. The world at large mistakenly believes the crisis is averted.
May 25 - Bombing of Alicante, Spain, in the Spanish Civil War, with 313 dead.
May 28 - In a conference at the Reichs Chancellery, Hitler declares his decision to destroy Czechoslovakia by military force, and orders the immediate mobilization of 96 Wehrmacht divisions
June 11 - Fire destroys 212 buildings in Ludes, Latvia
June 12-18 - Roma and Sinti in Germany and Austria are rounded up, beaten up and jailed.
June 15 - László Bíró patents the ballpoint pen in Britain.
June 19 - Italy beat Hungary 4-2 to win the 1938 World Cup
June 22 - Heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis knocks out Max Schmeling in the first round of their rematch at Yankee Stadium in New York City.
June 23
- The Civil Aeronautics Act is signed into law, forming the Civil Aeronautics Authority in the United States.
- Marineland opens near St. Augustine, Florida.
June 24 - A 450 metric ton meteorite strikes the earth in an empty field near Chicora, Pennsylvania.
June 25 - Dr. Douglas Hyde is elected the first President of Ireland.
June 30 - Action comics #1 is published, this is the first publication featuring the comic book character known as Superman

July-August

July - Building of the concentration camp Mauthausen
July 3 - Steam locomotive "Mallard" sets the world speed record for steam by reaching 126 mph.
July 3 - The last reunion of the Blue and Gray commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
July 5 - The Non-Intervention Committee reaches an agreement to a withdrawal of all foreign volunteers from the Spanish Civil War. The agreement is respected by most Republican foreign volunteers, notably by those from England and the United States, but is ignored by the governments of Germany and Italy,
July 12 - Kurdish Genocide in Dersim, Turkey by the Turkish army.
July 14 - Howard Hughes sets a new record by completing a 91 hour airplane flight around the world.
July 18 - Wrong Way Corrigan takes off from New York, ostensibly heading for California. He lands in Ireland instead.
July 28 - A revolt against the Ioannis Metaxas dictatorship is put down in Chania,
July 30 - The first ever issue of The Beano
August - In the face of overwhelming Japanese military pressure, Chiang Kai-shek undertakes the withdrawal of his government to Chungking.
August 4 - Lord Runciman arrives in Prague to act as Neville Chamberlain's special envoy in the continuing Sudetenland disturbances.
August 6 - The Looney Tunes animated short Porky & Daffy is released.
August 18
- The Thousand Islands Bridge, connecting the United States with Canada, is dedicated by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
- Colonel General Ludwig Beck, convinced that Hitler's decision to sieze Czechoslovakia by force will lead to a general European war, resigns his position as Chief of the Army General Staff in protest.
- Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin arrives in England in a last minute attempt to peacefully defuse the looming crisis over the Sudetenland. His private mission is dismissed by Neville Chamberlain as unimportant (Chamberlain refers to von Kleist as a "Jacobite"), but he finds a sympathetic if powerless audience in Winston Churchill.
August 23 - Hitler, hosting a dinner on board the ocean liner Patria in Kiel Bay, tells the Regent of Hungary, Admiral Horthy, that action against Czechoslovakia is imminent and that "he who wants to sit at the table must at least help in the kitchen," a reference to Horthy's designs on Carpathian Ruthenia.
August 28 - Lord Runciman's mission to mitigate the Sudetenland crisis begins to break down. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain recalls the British Ambassador Nevile Henderson from Berlin, to instruct Henderson to set up a personal meeting between Chamberlain and Hitler.
August 31 - Winston Churchill, still believing France and Britain mean to honor their promises to defend Czechoslovakia against Nazi aggression, suggests in a personal note to Neville Chamberlain that His Majesty's Government may want to set up a broad international alliance including the United States (specifically mentioning U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as possibly receptive to the idea) and the Soviet Union.

September-October

September - European crisis over German demand for annexation of Sudeten borderland of Czechoslovakia.
September 2 - Soviet Ambassador to Britain Ivan Maisky calls on Winston Churchill to tell him that Soviet Foreign Commissar Maxim Litvinov has expressed to the French charge d'affiars in Moscow that Russia is willing to fight over the territorial integrity of Czechoslovakia.
September 5 - The President of Czechoslovakia, Edvard Beneš, invites mid-level representatives of the Sudeten Germans to the Hradcany palace to tell them he will accept whatever demands they care make, provided the Sudetenland remains part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.
September 6 - What will eventually prove to be the last of the "Nuremburg Rallies" begins. It draws world-wide attention because it is widely assumed Hitler, in his closing remarks, will signal whether there will be peace with or war over Czechoslovakia.
September 7 - The Times publishes a lead article which calls on Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland to Germany.
September 10 - Goering, in a speech at Nuremburg, calls the Czechs a "miserable pygmy race" who are "harrasing the human race." That same eveing, Edvard Beneš, President of Czechoslovakia, makes a broadcast in which he issues an appeal for calm.
September 12 - Hitler makes his much-anticipated closing address at Nuremburg, in which he vehemently attacks the Czech people and President Beneš. American news commentator Hans von Kaltenborn begins his famous marathon of broadcast bulletins over the CBS radio network with a summation of Hitler's address.
September 13 - The followers of Konrad Henlein begin an armed revolt against the Czech government in Sudetenland. Martial law is declared and after much bloodshed on both sides order is temporarily restored. Neville Chamberlain personally sends a telegram to Hitler urgently requesting the two meet.
September 15 - Neville Chamberlain arrives in Berchtesgaden to begin negotiations with Hitler over the Sudetenland.
September 17 - Neville Chamberlain returns temporarily to London to confer with his cabinet.
September 18 - During a meeting between Neville Chamberlain and the recently-elected Premier of France, Édouard Daladier, and Daladier's Foreign Minister, Georges Bonnet, it becomes apparent that neither the English nor the French governments are prepared to go to war over the Sudetenland.

September 21

In the early hours of the day, representatives of the French and British governments call on Czech President Edvard Beneš to tell him France and Britain will not fight Hitler if he decides to annex the Sudetenland by force.
Winston Churchill warns of grave consequences to European security if Czechoslovakia is partitioned. The same day, Soviet Foreign Commissar Maxim Litvinov makes a similar statement in the League of Nations.
A large hurricane (the New England Hurricane of 1938) strikes Long Island and southern New England, killing over 300 along the Rhode Island shoreline and 600 altogether.
September 29
- Munich agreement of German, Italian, British and French leaders agrees to German demands regarding annexation of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. The Czech government is largely excluded from the negotiations and is not signatory to the agreement.
- Republic of Hatay declared in Syria
September 30 - Neville Chamberlain returns to Britain from meeting with Adolf Hitler and declares "Peace In Our Time"
October - During this month the Japanese Imperial Army largely overruns Canton.
October 1 - German troops march into Sudetenland.
October 2 - Tiberias massacre: Arabs murder 20 Jews.
October 4 - The Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War begin withdrawing their foreign volunteers from combat as agreed on July 5.
October 5 - Edvard Beneš, president of Czechoslovakia, resigns.
October 10 - The Blue Water Bridge opens, connecting Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario
October 16 - Winston Churchill, in a broadcast address to the United States, condemns the Munich Agreement as a defeat and calls upon America and western Europe to prepare for armed resistance against Hitler.
October 17 - Jan Syrovy's government begins in Czechoslovakia
October 21 - In direct contravention of the recently signed Munich Agreement, Hitler circulates among his high command a secret memorandum stating that they should prepare for the "liquidation of the rest of Czechoslovakia" and the occupation of Memel.
October 24
- Minimum wage established by law in the United States
- At a "friendly luncheon" in Berchtesgaden, German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop tells Jozef Lipski, the Polish ambassador to Germnany, that control of Danzig must revert to Germany and that the Germans must be given extra-territorial rights in the Polish Corridor.
October 27 - Du Pont announced a name for its new synthetic yarn: "nylon".
October 30 - Orson Welles's radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds is broadcast, causing panic in various parts of the United States.
October 31 - Great Depression: In an effort to try restore investor confidence, the New York Stock Exchange unveils a fifteen-point program aimed to upgrade protection for the investing public.

November-December

November 1 - Horse Racing: Seabiscuit defeats War Admiral by four lengths in their famous match race at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland.
November 9 - Holocaust: Kristallnacht begins - In Germany, the "night of broken glass" begins as Nazi troops and sympathizers loot and burn Jewish businesses (the all night affair saw 7,500 Jewish businesses destroyed, 267 synagogues burned, 91 Jews killed, and at least 25,000 Jewish men arrested).
November 10 - On the eve of Armistice Day, Kate Smith sings Irving Berlin's God Bless America for the first time on her weekly radio show.
November 10 - The founder of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, dies.
November 13- The people of New York City held a fruit tasting contest held by managers.
November 18 - Trade union members elect John L. Lewis as the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
November 30 - Czech parliament elects Emil Hácha as the new president of Czechoslovakia.
December - President Roosevelt agrees to loan $25 million to Chiang Kai-shek, cementing the US-Sino relationship and angering the Japanese miliary government.
December 11 - Kingdom of Yugoslavia parliamentary election - Opposition gains votes but not seats
December 13 - The Neuengamme concentration camp opens near Hamburg.
December 16 - MGM releases its successful film version of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. The film was originally intended to star Lionel Barrymore as Ebenezer Scrooge, but Barrymore, ill with arthritis, is replaced by Reginald Owen.
December 23 - A Coelacanth, a fish thought to have been extinct, is caught off the coast of South Africa near Chalumna River.
December 27 - 87 killed, a construction worker of domitory site hit avalanche by heavy massivie snow at Kurobe, Japan.

Undated

In West Java, Daeng Soetigna tunes the traditional angklung to play the diatonic scale.
Adolf Hitler is Time magazine's "Man of the Year" , an award that usually goes to the most influential person of the year.
Walther P38 is introduced.
The first cartoon to feature a prototypical Bugs Bunny, Porky's Hare Hunt, is released.
The Schomburgk's Deer becomes extinct by this date.
Siam is renamed Thailand.

Ongoing

Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).
Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945).