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

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.

Wednesday 12:

Filming starts on The Wizard of Oz

Sunday 30:

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

Monday 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 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