1938

Published on Wednesday, October 11th 2006. Edited by Lax Jamtinask, Serra, Italy.

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

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

Years: 1935 1936 1937 – 1938 – 1939 1940 1941

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

20 January: King Farouk

16 January: Benny Goodman in NYC.

1 January – New Constitution of Estonia enters into force.
1 January – The Merrie Melodies cartoon short Daffy Duck and Egghead is released.
3 January – The March of Dimes is established by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
11 January – Frances Moulton is named the first female president of a U.S. national bank.
16 January – 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.
20 January – Wedding of King Farouk of Egypt and Queen Farida Zulficar in Cairo.
22 January – Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town is performed for the first time anywhere in Princeton, New Jersey. It premieres in New York City on 4 February.
27 January – The Niagara Bridge at Niagara Falls, New York collapses due to an ice jam.
28 January – The first ski tow in America begins operation in Vermont.
31 January – Crown princess Beatrix is born in Netherlands.

27 January: Niagara Bridge collapses in ice.

4 February – 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.
6 February – Black Sunday at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia: 300 swimmers dragged out to sea in three freak waves; 80 lifesavers save all but 5.
10 February – Carol II of Romania takes dictatorial powers.
12 February – 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.
14 February – The British naval base at Singapore begins operations.
20 February – Anthony Eden resigns as foreign minister of Great Britain, and is succeeded by Lord Halifax.
24 February – A nylon bristle toothbrush becomes the first commercial product to be made with nylon yarn.

March-April

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

May-June

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

July-August

July – Building of the concentration camp Mauthausen
3 July – Steam locomotive “Mallard” sets the world speed record for steam by reaching 126 mph.
3 July – The last reunion of the Blue and Gray commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
5 July – 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,
12 July – Kurdish Genocide in Dersim, Turkey by the Turkish army.
14 July – Howard Hughes sets a new record by completing a 91 hour airplane flight around the world.
18 July – Wrong Way Corrigan takes off from New York, ostensibly heading for California. He lands in Ireland instead.
28 July – A revolt against the Ioannis Metaxas dictatorship is put down in Chania,
30 July – 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.
4 August – Lord Runciman arrives in Prague to act as Neville Chamberlain’s special envoy in the continuing Sudetenland disturbances.
6 August – The Looney Tunes animated short Porky & Daffy is released.
18 August
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.
23 August – 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.
28 August – 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.
31 August – Winston Churchill, still believing France and Britain mean to honour 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.
2 September – 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.
5 September – 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 to make, provided the Sudetenland remains part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.
6 September – 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.
7 September – The Times publishes a lead article which calls on Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland to Germany.
10 September – 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.
12 September – 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.
13 September – The followers of Konrad Henlein begin an armed revolt against the Czechoslovak 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.
15 September – Neville Chamberlain arrives in Berchtesgaden to begin negotiations with Hitler over the Sudetenland.
17 September – Neville Chamberlain returns temporarily to London to confer with his cabinet.
18 September – 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.
21 September
In the early hours of the day, representatives of the French and British governments call on Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš to tell him France and Britain will not fight Hitler if he decides to annex the Sudetenland by force. Late in the afternoon the Czechoslovak government capitulates to the French and British demands.
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.
22 September
Unable to survive the previous day’s capitualtion to the demands of the English and French governments, the Czechoslovak premier, Milan Hodža resigns. His place as premier is taken by General Jan Syrovy.
Neville Chamberlain arrives in the city of Godesberg for another round of talks with Hitler over the Sudetenland crisis. Hitler raises his demands to include occupation of all German Sudeten territories by October 1. That night after a telephone conference, Chamberlain reverses himself and advises the Czechoslovaks to mobilize.
Olsen and Johnson’s musical comedy revue Hellzapoppin' begins its three-year run on Broadway.
23 September – The Czechoslovak army mobilizes.
24 September – At 1:30 AM, Hitler and Neville Chamberlain conclude their talks on the Sudetenland. Chamberlain agrees to take Hitler’s demands, codified in the Godesberg Memorandum, personally to the Czech Government. The Czech Government rejects the demands, as does Chamberlain’s own cabinet. The French Government also initially rejects the terms and orders a partial mobilizaton of the French army.
26 September – In a vitriolic speech at Berlin’s Sportpalast, Hitler defies the world and implies war with Czechoslovakia will begin at any time.
28 September – As his self-imposed October 1st deadline for occupation of the Sudetenland approaches, Hitler invites Italian Duce Benito Mussilini, French Premier Edourd Deladier, and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to one last conference in Munich. The Czechs themselves are not invited.
29 September
Munich agreement of German, Italian, British and French leaders agrees to German demands regarding annexation of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovak government is largely excluded from the negotiations and is not signatory to the agreement.
Republic of Hatay declared in Syria
30 September – 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.
1 October – German troops march into Sudetenland.
2 October – Tiberias massacre: Arabs murder 20 Jews.
4 October – The Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War begin withdrawing their foreign volunteers from combat as agreed on 5 July.
5 October – Edvard Beneš, president of Czechoslovakia, resigns.
10 October – The Blue Water Bridge opens, connecting Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario
16 October – 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.
17 October – Jan Syrovy’s government begins in Czechoslovakia
21 October – 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.
24 October
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.
27 October – Du Pont announced a name for its new synthetic yarn: “nylon”.
30 October – Orson Welles’s radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds is broadcast, causing panic in various parts of the United States.
31 October – 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

1 November – Horse Racing: Seabiscuit defeats War Admiral by four lengths in their famous match race at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland.
9 November – 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).
10 November – On the eve of Armistice Day, Kate Smith sings Irving Berlin’s God Bless America for the first time on her weekly radio show.
10 November – The founder of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, dies.
13 November- The people of New York City held a fruit tasting contest held by managers.
18 November – Trade union members elect John L. Lewis as the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
30 November – 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.
11 December – Kingdom of Yugoslavia parliamentary election – Opposition gains votes but not seats
13 December – The Neuengamme concentration camp opens near Hamburg.
16 December – 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.
23 December – A Coelacanth, a fish thought to have been extinct, is caught off the coast of South Africa near Chalumna River.
27 December – 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).

Births

1938 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar 1938 MCMXXXVIII

Ab urbe condita 2691

Armenian calendar 1387 ԹՎ ՌՅՁԷ

Bahá'í calendar 94 – 95

Berber calendar 2888

Buddhist calendar 2482

Burmese calendar 1300

Byzantine calendar 7446 – 7447

Chinese calendar 丁丑年十一月三十日 (4574/4634-11-30)

— to —

戊寅年十一月初十日 (4575/4635-11-10)

Coptic calendar 1654 – 1655

Ethiopian calendar 1930 – 1931

Hebrew calendar 5698 – 5699

Hindu calendars

- Vikram Samvat 1993 – 1994

- Shaka Samvat 1860 – 1861

- Kali Yuga 5039 – 5040

Holocene calendar 11938

Iranian calendar 1316 – 1317

Islamic calendar 1356 – 1357

Japanese calendar Shōwa 13 (昭和13年)

Korean calendar 4271

Thai solar calendar 2481

January-February

1 January
Robert Jankel, British coachbuilder (d. 2005)
Frank Langella, American actor
2 January – Hans Herbjørnsrud, Norwegian author
Ian Brady, British serial killer
Goh Kun, Mayor of Seoul
5 January – King Juan Carlos I of Spain
6 January – Mario Rodríguez Cobos, Silo, Argentine author and spiritual Guide
7 January – Roland Topor, French illustrator (d. 1997)
8 January – Bob Eubanks, American game show host
10 January
Donald Knuth, American mathematician and computer scientist
Willie McCovey, baseball player
11 January – Fischer Black, American economist (d. 1995)
12 January
Noel McNamara, Australian justice campaigner and commentator
Lewis Fiander, Australian actor
14 January – Jack Jones, American singer and actor
18 January – Curt Flood, baseball player (d. 1997)
20 January – Derek Dougan, Northern Irish footballer (d. 2007)
21 January – Wolfman Jack, American disc-jockey and actor (d. 1995)
23 January – Georg Baselitz, German painter and sculptor
25 January
Etta James, American singer
Vladimir Vysotsky, Russian singer-songwriter, poet, actor (d. 1980)
31 January – Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
1 February – Sherman Hemsley, American comedian and actor
2 February – Max Alvis, baseball player
8 February – Prentice Gautt, American football player
11 February
Bevan Congdon, New Zealand cricketer
Simone de Oliveira, Portuguese actress and singer
Manuel Noriega, Panamanian general and dictator
12 February – Judy Blume, American author
13 February – Oliver Reed, English actor (d. 1999)
14 February – Lee Chamberlin, African-American film and television actress
18 February – Istvan Szabo, Hungarian director
24 February
James Farentino, American actor
Phil Knight, American sportswear entrepreneur
25 February – Herb Elliott, Australian runner

March-April

4 March
Don Perkins, American football player
Angus MacLise, original drummer for the Velvet Underground (d. 1979)
7 March
David Baltimore, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Janet Guthrie, American race car driver
13 March – Erma Franklin, American singer (d. 2002)
17 March
Rudolf Nureyev, Russian-born dancer and choreographer (d. 1993)
Keith Michael Patrick O'Brien, Northern Irish clergyman
18 March – Charley Pride, American baseball player and musician
23 March – Maynard Jackson, mayor of Atlanta, Georgia (d. 2003)
25 March – Hoyt Axton, American actor and country music singer-songwriter (d. 1999)
26 March – Anthony James Leggett, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
31 March – Joel Godard, announcer for Late Night with Conan O'Brien
1 April – John Quade, American actor
2 April – John Larsson, the 17th General of The Salvation Army
3 April – Jeff Barry, American record producer and songwriter
4 April – A. Bartlett Giamatti, American president of Yale University and baseball commissioner (d. 1989)
7 April – Freddie Hubbard, jazz trumpeter
8 April – Kofi Annan, Ghanaian Secretary General of the United Nations, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
10 April
Viktor Chernomyrdin, Russian politician
Don Meredith, American football player and broadcaster
11 April
Michael Deaver, Reagan Administration Deputy White House Chief of Staff (d. 2007)
Kurt Moll, German bass
12 April – Roger Caron, Canadian author
15 April – Claudia Cardinale, Tunisian-born, Italian actress
17 April – Kerry Wendell Thornley, American counterculture figure, writer, and co-founder of Discordianism
22 April
Talal Abu-Ghazaleh born in Jaffa
Adam Raphael, English journalist and editor
26 April
Duane Eddy, American musician
Maurice Williams, American musician
29 April – Larry Niven, American author

May-June

2 May – Paramount Chief Moshoeshoe II of Lesotho (d. 1996)
17 May – Jason Bernard, American actor (d. 1996)
22 May – Richard Benjamin, American actor
26 May
William Bolcom, American composer
Teresa Stratas, Canadian soprano
Pauline Parker, New Zealandic murderess
28 May – Jerry West, American basketball player and executive
31 May – Johnny PayCheck, American singer (d. 2003)
31 May – Peter Yarrow, American singer
5 June – Karin Balzer, German athlete
6 June – Prince Luís of Orléans-Braganza, pretender to the Brazilian throne
7 June – Goose Gonsoulin, American football player
12 June – Tom Oliver, Australian actor
15 June – Billy Williams, baseball player
19 June
Wahoo McDaniel, American football player and professional wrestler (d. 2002)
Ian Smith, Australian actor
28 June – Moy Yat, Chinese martial artist

July-August

3 July – Bolo Yeung, Hong Kong actor
4 July – Bill Withers, American singer and songwriter
6 July – Tony Lewis, English cricketer
12 July – Wieger Mensonides, Dutch swimmer
18 July – Paul Verhoeven, Dutch film director
19 July – Jayant Narlikar, Indian astrophysicist
20 July – Natalie Wood, American actress (d. 1981)
20 July – Diana Rigg, English actress
23 July
Juliet Anderson, American actress
Bert Newton, Australian actor and television show host
24 July – Eugene J. Martin, American painter, artist
27 July – Gary Gygax, American author and game designer (d. 2008)
28 July – Alberto Fujimori, President of Peru
29 July – Peter Jennings, Canadian-born television news reporter (d. 2005)
3 August – Terry Wogan, British/Irish TV and radio broadcaster
8 August – Connie Stevens, American actress and singer
9 August
Ezola Broussard Foster, U.S. Vice Presidential Candidate
Rod Laver, Australian tennis player
15 August – Janusz A. Zajdel, Polish writer
16 August – Bill Masterton, Canadian hockey player (d. 1968)
19 August – Diana Muldaur, American actress
20 August – Alain Vivien, French politician
21 August – Kenny Rogers, American country singer
22 August – Paul Maguire, American football player
24 August
Halldór Blöndal, Icelandic politician
David Freiberg, American musician (Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Starship)
28 August
Maurizio Costanzo, Italian television news reporter
Paul Martin, Prime Minister of Canada
29 August – Robert Rubin, American banker who served as the 70th United States Secretary of the Treasury
31 August – Martin Bell, British journalist and politician

September-October

1 September – Per Kirkeby, Danish artist
2 September – Clarence Felder, American actor
3 September – Ryoji Noyori, Japanese chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
8 September – Kenichi Horie, Japanese adventurer
10 September
David Hamilton, radio and TV personality
Karl Lagerfeld, German fashion designer and photographer
13 September – John Smith, Scottish politician (d. 1994)
18 September – Poornachandra Tejaswi, Kannada writer (d. 2007)
22 September – Gene Mingo, American football player
23 September – Tom Lester, American actor and evangelist
25 September – Jonathan Motzfeldt, Prime Minister of Greenland
28 September – Ben E. King, American singer
29 September – Wim Kok, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
3 October – Eddie Cochran, American singer (d. 1960)
4 October – Kurt Wüthrich, Swiss chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
9 October – Heinz Fischer, Austrian politician
14 October
Farah Diba, Empress of Iran
Ron Lancaster, Canadian Football League quarterback and coach
15 October – Fela Kuti, Nigerian musician and activist (d. 1997)
16 October – Carl Gunter Jr, Louisiana State Representative (d. 1999)
17 October – Evel Knievel, American motorcycle daredevil (d. 2007)
20 October – Iain Macmillan, Abbey Road photographer (d. 2006)
22 October – Christopher Lloyd, American actor
23 October – H. John Heinz III, U.S. Senator (d. 1991)
28 October – Anne Perry, English-born novelist
29 October
Ralph Bakshi, Israeli cartoonist, film director, and video producer
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia

November-December

2 November – Patrick Joseph Buchanan, American journalist and Presidential candidate
5 November
Joe Dassin, French singer (d. 1980)
Enéas Carneiro, Brazilian politician (d. 2007)
6 November
Mack Jones, baseball player (d. 2004)
Dumitru Rusu, Romanian painter
13 November – Jean Seberg, American actress (d. 1979)
16 November – Robert Nozick, American philosopher (d. 2002)
17 November – Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian folk singer
19 November – Ted Turner, modern entrepreneur
26 November – Porter J. Goss, American politician and Central Intelligence Agency director
4 December
Andre V. Marrou, U.S. Presidential candidate
Yvonne Minton, Australian soprano
5 December – J. J. Cale, American singer
8 December – Ken Delo, American singer, The Lawrence Welk Show
12 December – Connie Francis, American singer and actress
15 December – Billy Shaw, American football player
16 December
Liv Ullmann, Norwegian actress
Frank Deford, American sportswriter
17 December
Peter Snell, New Zealand athlete
Carlo Little, British drummer (d.2005)
20 December – John Harbison, American composer
23 December – Bob Kahn, American Internet pioneer
24 December – Bobby Henrich, American baseball player
25 December – Duane Armstrong, American painter
29 December – Jon Voight, American actor

Date unknown

Neila Sathyalingam, Singaporean classical Indian dancer, choreographer and instructor

Deaths

January – June

8 January – Johnny Gruelle, American cartoonist and children’s book author (b. 1880) (Raggedy Ann)
20 January – Émile Cohl, French caricaturist and animator (b. 1857)
21 January – Georges Méliès, French film director (b. 1861)
28 January – Bernd Rosemeyer, German racing driver (b. 1909)
2 February – Frederick William Vanderbilt, American railway magnate (b. 1856)
7 February – Harvey Firestone, American manufacturer (b. 1868)
18 February – David King Udall, American politician (b. 1851)
19 February – Edmund Landau, German mathematician (b. 1877)
1 March – Gabriele D'Annunzio, Italian writer, war hero, and politician (b. 1863)
2 March – Ben Harney, American composer and pianist (b. 1871)
13 March – Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, Soviet politician (b. 1888)
13 March – Clarence Darrow, American attorney (b. 1857)
8 April – Joe “King” Oliver, American jazz musician (b. 1885)
12 April – Feodor Chaliapin, Russian bass (b. 1873)
16 April – Steve Bloomer, English footballer (b. 1874)
21 April – Allama Iqbal, Indian philosopher and poet (b. 1877)
25 April – Aleksander Świętochowski – Polish writer (b. 1849)
26 April – Edmund Husserl, Austrian philosopher (b. 1859)
4 May – Carl von Ossietzky, German pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1889)
9 May – Thomas B. Thrige, Danish industrialist (b. 1866)
13 May – Charles Edouard Guillaume, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1861)
26 May – John Jacob Abel, American pharmacologist (b. 1857)

July – December

4 July – Otto Bauer, Austrian Social Democratic politician (b. 1881)
1 August – Edmund Charles Tarbell, American artist (b. 1862)
7 August – Constantin Stanislavski, Russian theatre practitioner (b. 1863)
14 August – Hugh Trumble, Australian test cricketer (b. 1876)
16 August – Robert Johnson, American blues singer (b. 1911)
1 September – Nikolai Bryukhanov, Soviet statesman and political figure who served as People’s Commissar of Finances (b. 1878)
17 September – Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet (b. 1901)
25 September – Paul Olaf Bodding, Norwegian missionary to India and creator of Santali latin alphabet (b. 1865)
2 October – Alexandru Averescu, Romanian soldier and politician (b. 1859)
13 October E.C. Segar, American comics artist (Popeye)
17 October – Karl Kautsky, Marxist theoretician (b. 1854)
22 October – May Irwin, Canadian actress and singer (b. 1862)
24 October – Ernst Barlach, German sculptor and poet (b. 1870)
27 October – Lascelles Abercrombie, English poet and critic (b. 1881)
9 November – Vasily Blyukher, Soviet military commander (b. 1889)
10 November – Kemal Atatürk, President of Turkey (b. 1881)
20 November – Maud of Wales, queen of Haakon VII of Norway (b. 1869)
30 November – Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, Romanian fascist, leader of the Iron Guard (executed along other Guard activists) (b. 1899)
11 December – Christian Lous Lange, Norwegian pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1869)
20 December – Annie Armstrong US missionary leader (b. 1850)
25 December – Karel Čapek, Czech author (b. 1890)
28 December – Florence Lawrence, Canadian actress (b. 1886)

Nobel prizes

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

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1938”