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1938

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.

[edit] Events of 1938

[edit] January-February

Scene from Daffy Duck and Egghead.

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 - 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 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.

[edit] 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 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.
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.

[edit] 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 25 - Bombing of Alicante, Spain, in the Spanish Civil War, with 313 dead.
June - Action Comics issue #1 is published, presenting the first appearance of Superman, considered the first superhero.
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.

[edit] 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 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 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.

[edit] September-October

September - European crisis over German demand for annexation of Sudeten borderland of Czechoslovakia.
September 21 - 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 Sudetenland.
- 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 1 - German troops march into Sudetenland
October 2 - Tiberias massacre: Arabs murder 20 Jews.
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 24 - Minimum wage established by law in the United States
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.

[edit] 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 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.

[edit] 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 becames extinct by this date.
Siam is renamed Thailand.

[edit] Ongoing

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