1938

Decades: 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s - 1930s - 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s

Years: 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 - 1938 - 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943

Events

• 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 28 - The first ski tow in America begins operation in Vermont.
• February 4 - Thornton Wilder's play Our Town opens (New York City).
• 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 18 - Mexico nationalizes all foreign-owned oil properties within its borders.
• June 1 - Superman first published in comic book form.
• July 3 - Steam locomotive "Mallard" sets the world speed record for steam by reaching 126 mph.
• June 25 - Dr. Douglas Hyde is elected the first President of Ireland.
• 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 29 - Munich agreement of German, Italian, British and French leaders agrees to German demands.
• 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.
• December 13 - 100 deportees from Sachsenhausen built the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg.
• December 23 - Coelacanth caught off the coast of South Africa.

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 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 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 5 - King Juan Carlos of Spain
• January 10 - Donald Knuth, American mathematician and computer scientist
• January 10 - 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 - Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
• 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 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 4 - A. Bartlett Giamatti, president of Yale Univ. and baseball commissioner who banned Pete Rose. (d. 1989)
• April 8 - Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations
• April 26 - Duane Eddy, musician
• April 29 - Larry Niven, author
• May 22 - Richard Benjamin, actor
• May 28 - Osvaldo Romberg, painter, architect
• May 31 - Peter Yarrow (singer)
• June 28 - Moy Yat, Chinese Sealmaker, Martial Artist
• July 4 - Bill Withers, singer/songwriter
• July 27 - Gary Gygax, author
• August 9 - Rod Laver, Australian tennis player
• August 15 - Janusz A. Zajdel, Polish science-fiction writer
• August 28 - Paul Martin, Prime Minister of Canada
• August 31 - Martin Bell, British journalist and politician
• September 10 - Karl Lagerfeld, fashion designer and photographer
• September 25 - Jonathan Motzfeldt, first Prime Minister of Greenland
• September 29 - Wim Kok, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
• 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 13 - Jean Seberg, actress
• November 16 - Robert Nozick, (philosopher)
• December 17 - Peter Snell, New Zealand athlete

Deaths

• January 21 - Georges Méliès, French film director, allegedly the first.
• February 7 - Harvey Firestone, manufacturer
• March 13 - Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, Soviet politician and intellectual
• March 13 - Clarence Darrow, attorney
• April 21 - Allama Iqbal, philosopher-poet
• August 16 - Robert Johnson, blues musician
• November 11 - Mary Mallon, Irish domestic servant and cook , famous carrier of Typhoid fever.
• December 28 - Florence Lawrence, Hollywood's first "star"

Nobel Prizes

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

Referenced By