1938 - What happened in 1938 ?

January 1938

Monday 03:

The March of Dimes is established by Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Tuesday 11:

Frances Moulton is the first woman to become president of a US national bank.

Sunday 16:

Benny Goodman plays Carnegie Hall.

Friday 28:

The first ski tow in America begins operation in Vermont.

February 1938

Friday 04:

Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released, and it went on to become a major box-office success, making more money than any other motion picture in 1938.

Friday 11:

BBC Television produces the world's first ever science fiction television programme, an adaptation of a section of the Karel Capek play R.U.R. (This play coined the term 'robot.')

Saturday 12:

Anschluss: German troops enter Austria.

Thursday 24:

A nylon bristle toothbrush becomes the first commercial product (DuPont) to be made with nylon yarn.

March 1938

Thursday 03:

Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia.

Saturday 12:

Anschluss: German troops occupy Austria; annexation declared the following day.

Friday 18:

Mexico nationalizes all foreign-owned oil properties within its borders.

Sunday 27:

Britain supports Peter II of Yugoslavia in a coup in Yugoslavia.

April 1938

Tuesday 19:

RCA–NBC begins regular television broadcasts.

Monday 25:

U.S. Supreme Court delivers opinion in Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins and overturns a century of federal common law.

Saturday 30:

The cartoon short Porky's Hare Hunt debuts in movie theaters, introducing Bugs Bunny.

May 1938

Monday 16:

A fire at the Terminal Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, kills 35 people.

Thursday 26:

The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its first session.

June 1938

Wednesday 01:

Baseball: Protective helmets are worn by batters for the very first time.

Tuesday 07:

The Douglas DC-4 makes its first test flight.

Thursday 23:

Marineland opens near St. Augustine, Florida.

Saturday 25:

Dr. Douglas Hyde is elected the first President of Ireland.

Tuesday 28:

A 450 metric ton meteorite struck the earth in a empty field near Chicora, Pennsylvania

July 1938

Sunday 03:

World record for a steam railway locomotive is set in England, by the "Mallard", which reaches a speed of 203 km/h (126 mph).

Sunday 10:

Howard Hughes sets a new record by completing a 91 hour airplane flight around the world.

Monday 18:

Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan arrives in Ireland.

August 1938

Monday 08:

The Mauthausen concentration camp opens.

Thursday 18:

The Thousand Islands Bridge, connecting New York State, United States with Ontario, Canada over the St. Lawrence River, is dedicated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

September 1938

Monday 12:

Adolf Hitler demands autonomy for the Germans of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia.

Tuesday 27:

Ocean liner Queen Elizabeth launched in Glasgow.

Thursday 29:

Britain, France, Nazi Germany and Italy sign the Munich Agreement, allowing Germany to occupy the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia.

Friday 30:

The League of Nations unanimously outlaws "intentional bombings of civilian populations"

October 1938

Saturday 01:

Germany annexes the Sudetenland.

Friday 07:

1938 - Germany demands all Jewish passports stamped with letter J.

Monday 10:

World War II: The Munich Agreement cedes the Sudetenland to Germany.

Tuesday 25:

The Archbishop of Dubuque, Francis J. L. Beckman, denounces Swing music as "a degenerated musical system... turned loose to gnaw away at the moral fiber of young people", warning that it leads down a "primrose path to hell".

Sunday 30:

Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, causing a nationwide panic.

November 1938

Wednesday 09:

Kristallnacht, Nazi Germany's first large-scale act of physical anti-Jewish violence, begins.

Thursday 10:

Kate Smith, on her weekly radio show, sings Irving Berlin's God Bless America for the first time.

Saturday 12:

Hermann Göring announces Nazi Germany plans to make Madagascar the "Jewish homeland", an idea that actually was first considered by 19th century journalist Theodor Herzl.

Friday 18:

Trade union members elect John L. Lewis as the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

December 1938

Tuesday 13:

100 deportees from Sachsenhausen build the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg