1938

Years:
1935 1936 1937 – 1938 – 1939 1940 1941

Decades:
1900s 1910s 1920s – 1930s – 1940s 1950s 1960s

Centuries:
19th century – 20th century – 21st century

1938 in topic:
Arts
Architecture - Art - Film - Literature - Music - Television
Science and technology
Aviation - Rail transport - Science
Other topics
Canada – Ireland – South Africa – Sport

Lists of leaders:
State leaders - Religious leaders

1938 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar).

1 Events
2 Year in topic
3 Births
4 Deaths
5 Nobel Prizes

Events

January-May

January 5 – H.R.H. Prince Juan Carlos of Spain is born.
January 3 – The March of Dimes is established by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
January 11 – Frances Moulton is the first woman to become president of a US national bank.
January 20 – Wedding of King Farouk I of Egypt and Queen Farida Zulficar in Cairo
January 28 – The first ski tow in America begins operation in Vermont.
January 31 – Crown princess Beatrix is born in Netherlands
February 4 – Thornton Wilder's play Our Town opens (New York City).
February 10 – Carol II of Romania takes dictatorial powers
February 12 – World War II: German troops enter Austria
February 24 – A nylon bristle toothbrush becomes the first commercial product to be made with nylon yarn.
March 3 – Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia.
March 12 – Anschluss: German troops occupy Austria; annexation declared the following day.
March 15 – Soviet Union announces officially that Nikholai Bukharin has been executed
March 18 – Mexico nationalizes all foreign-owned oil properties within its borders.
April 12 – Edouard Daladier becomes president of France
April 28 – The towns of Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott in Massachusetts are disincorporated to make way for the Quabbin Reservoir.
May 5 – Vatican recognizes Franco's government in Spain

June-September

June 1 – Action Comics issues the first Superman comic.
June 11 – Fire destroys 212 buildings in Ludes, Latvia
June 23 – The Civil Aeronautics Act is signed into law, forming the Civil Aeronautics Authority in the United States.
June 23 – Marineland opens near St. Augustine, Florida.
June 25 – Dr. Douglas Hyde is elected the first President of Ireland.
June 28 – A 450 metric ton meteorite struck the earth in a empty field near Chicora, Pennsylvania
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 commemerates the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
July 10 – Howard Hughes sets a new record by completing a 91 hour airplane flight around the world.
July – Building of the concentration camp Mauthausen
August 18 – The Thousand Islands Bridge, connecting the United States with Canada, is dedicated by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
September – European crisis over German demand for annexation of Sudeten borderland of Czechoslovakia.
September 21 – A large hurricane strikes Long Island, killing 600 people.
September 29 – Munich agreement of German, Italian, British and French leaders agrees to German demands regarding annexation of Sudetenland.

October-December

October 1 – German troops march into Sudetenland
October 5 – Eduard Benes, president of Czechoslovakia, resigns
October 10 – The Blue Water Bridge opens, connecting Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario
October 17 – Jan Syrovy's government begins in Czechoslovakia
October 30 – Orson Welles's radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds is broadcast, causing mass panic in the eastern 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 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 18 – Trade union members elect John L. Lewis as the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg.

November 30 – Czech parliament elects Emil Hácha as the new president of Czechoslovakia.
December 23 – Coelacanth caught off the coast of South Africa.

unknown dates

Italian mathematician Ettore Majorano disappears
In Québec, the St. Jean Baptiste Society raised a petition of 128,000 names, demanding restrictions on Jews living in Quebec. Abbe Groulx, the spiritual father of modern Quebec, denounced Jews as a race that refused to be assimilated.
In West Java, Daeng Soetigna tuned traditional angklung to play also diatonic scale.

Ongoing events

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

Year in topic

1938 in film
- January – MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of "Dorothy" in the upcoming The Wizard of Oz motion picture. Ray Bolger is cast as the "Tinman" and Buddy Ebsen is cast as the "Scarecrow". At Bolger's insistence, the roles are switched between the two actors.
- April 5 – Noel Langley completes the first script for The Wizard of Oz.
- May 7 – Lyricist Edgar Yipsel Harburg and composer, Harold Arlen, begin work on the musical score for The Wizard of Oz.
- July 25 – MGM announces that Bert Lahr has been cast as the "Cowardly Lion" in The Wizard of Oz.
- October 13 – Filming starts on The Wizard of Oz.
- October 21 – Buddy Ebsen suffers from a near fatal allergic reaction to the aluminum dust used in his "Tinman" make-up on the set of The Wizard of Oz. Ebsen is replaced by Jack Haley.
- December 23 – Margaret Hamilton is severely burned during a mishap on the set of The Wizard of Oz. Hamilton, who was cast in the role of the "Wicked Witch", left the film for six weeks.
1938 in literature
1938 in music
- January 16 – Benny Goodman plays Carnegie Hall
1938 in rail transport
1938 in sports
1938 in television
- May 31 – W2XBS telecasts the film The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel, starring Leslie Howard. The staff projectionist accidentally played the last reel out of order, ending the film 20 minutes early. NBC was unable to obtain the rights to first run movies for many years to follow.
- November 15 – NBC's W2XBT airs what was the first telecast of an unscheduled event, a fire which broke out on Ward's Island.

Births

January

January 2
- Hans Herbjørnsrud, Norwegian author
- Ian Brady, British serial killer
January 5 – His Majesty King Juan Carlos I of Spain
January 8 – Bob Eubanks, game show host
January 10
- Donald Knuth, American mathematician and computer scientist
- Willie McCovey, Baseball Hall of Famer
January 14 – Jack Jones, singer, actor
January 18 – Curt Flood, baseball star (d. 1997)
January 23 – Georg Baselitz, painter and sculptor
January 25 – Etta James, singer
January 31 – Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands

February-March

February 1 – Sherman Hemsley, comedian, actor
February 11 – Boris Majorov, Soviet ice hockey player
February 11 – Yevgeniy Majorov, Soviet ice hockey player
February 11 – Bevan Congdon, New Zealand cricket player
February 11 – Willy Correa de Oliveira, composer
February 11 – Manuel Noriega, Panamanian general and dictator
February 12 – Judy Blume, author
February 13 – Oliver Reed, actor (d. 1999)
February 18 – Istvan Szabo, director
February 24 – Phil Knight,founder of Nike, Inc.
February 25 – Herb Elliott, Australian runner
February 28 – Klaus Staeck, graphic artist
March 4 – Don Perkins, American football player
March 13 – Erma Franklin, singer (d. 2002)
March 17 – Rudolf Nureyev, dancer and choreographer (d. 1993)
March 7 – Janet Guthrie, automobile racer
March 18 – Charley Pride, country musician
March 25 – Hoyt Axton, musician, actor (d. 1999)

April-July

April 4 – A. Bartlett Giamatti, president of Yale Univ. and baseball commissioner (d. 1989)
April 8 – Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations
April 10 – Don Meredith, American football player and broadcaster
April 11 – Kurt Moll, German bass
April 26 – Duane Eddy, musician
April 29 – Larry Niven, author
May 22 – Richard Benjamin, actor
May 26 – William Bolcom, American composer
May 26 – Teresa Stratas, Canadian soprano
May 28 – Osvaldo Romberg, painter, architect
May 31 – Johnny PayCheck, country music singer (d. 2003)
May 31 – Peter Yarrow, singer
June 5 – Karin Balzer, East German athlete
June 7 – Goose Gonsoulin, American football player
June 15 – Billy Williams, Baseball Hall of Famer
June 19 – Wahoo McDaniel, American football player and wrestler (d. 2002)
June 28 – Moy Yat, Chinese martial artist
July 4 – Bill Withers, singer and songwriter
July 20 – Natalie Wood, actress (d. 1981)
July 23 – Bert Newton, actor and TV show host
July 27 – Gary Gygax, author

August-November

August 9 – Ezola Broussard Foster, U.S. Vice President candidate for the Reform Party
August 9 – Rod Laver, Australian tennis player
August 15 – Janusz A. Zajdel, Polish science-fiction writer
August 19 – Diana Muldaur, actress
August 22 – Paul Maguire, American football player
August 28 – Maurizio Costanzo, Italian television anchorman
August 28 – Paul Martin, Prime Minister of Canada
August 31 – Martin Bell, British journalist and politician
September 3 – Ryoji Noyori, Japanese chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
September 10 – Karl Lagerfeld, fashion designer and photographer
September 22 – Gene Mingo, American football player
September 25 – Jonathan Motzfeldt, first Prime Minister of Greenland
September 29 – Wim Kok, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
October 4 – Kurt Wüthrich, Swiss chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
October 9 – Heinz Fischer, Austrian politician
October 14 – Farah Diba, Empress of Iran
October 23 – H. John Heinz III, member U.S. Senate (d. 1991)
November 2 – Patrick Joseph Buchanan, conservative journalist, television political commentator and Reform Party USA Presidential candidate
November 6 – Mack Jones, Major League Baseball player (d. 2004)
November 13 – Jean Seberg, actress
November 16 – Robert Nozick, (philosopher)

December

December 4 – Andre V. Marrou, United States Libertarian Party Presidential candidate
December 4 – Yvonne Minton, Australian soprano
December 15 – Billy Shaw, Pro Football Hall of Famer
December 16 – Liv Ullmann, Norwegian actress
December 17 – Peter Snell, New Zealand athlete

Deaths

January 20 – Émile Cohl, French caricaturist and animator (b. 1857)
January 21 – Georges Méliès, French film director
February 2 – Frederick William Vanderbilt, railway magnate
February 7 – Harvey Firestone, manufacturer
February 19 – Edmund Landau, German mathematician (b. 1877)
March 1 – Gabriele D'Annunzio, Italian writer, war hero, and politician (b. 1863)
March 2 – Ben Harney, American composer and pianist (b. 1871)
March 13 – Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, Soviet politician and intellectual
March 13 – Clarence Darrow, attorney
April 8 – Joe "King" Oliver, jazz musician (b. 1885)
April 12 – Feodor Chaliapin, Russian bass (b. 1873)
April 16 – Steve Bloomer, English footballer (b. 1874)
April 21 – Allama Iqbal, philosopher and poet
April 26 – Edmund Husserl, philosopher (b. 1859)
May 26 – John Jacob Abel – American, pharmacologist
August 7 – Konstantin Stanislavski, Russian stage actor
August 16 – Robert Johnson, blues musician
September 17 – Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet (b. 1901)
October 22 – May Irwin, actress and singer
October 24 – Ernst Barlach, German sculptor, graphic artist, and poet (b. 1870)
October 27 – Lascelles Abercrombie, English poet and critic
November 10 – Kemal Atatürk, first President of Turkey (b. 1881)
December 25 – Karel Čapek, Czech author (b. 1890)
December 28 – Florence Lawrence, actress

Nobel Prizes

Physics – Enrico Fermi
Chemistry – Richard Kuhn
Medicine – Corneille Jean François Heymans
Literature – Pearl S. Buck
Peace – Nansen International Office For Refugees, Geneva.

Categories: 1938