Directory

1938 CE

The Anschluss sees Nazi Germany annex Austria, escalating Hitler's expansionist agenda; Kristallnacht erupts across Germany and Austria, with Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues destroyed, thousands of Jewish people killed or arrested; the Munich Agreement is signed as Britain and France appease Hitler by allowing the annexation of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia; the 1938 FIFA World Cup is held in France, with Italy winning their second consecutive title; the 1938 Yellow River flood in China, caused by intentional dike breaches during the Second Sino-Japanese War, displaces millions; and Orson Welles broadcasts "The War of the Worlds", causing panic among listeners.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • February 4 – Adolf Hitler abolishes the War Ministry and creates the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (High Command of the Armed Forces), giving him direct control of the German military. In addition, he dismisses political and military leaders considered unsympathetic to his philosophy or policies. General Werner von Fritsch is forced to resign as Commander of Chief of the German Army following accusations of homosexuality, and replaced by General Walther von Brauchitsch. Foreign Minister Baron Konstantin von Neurath is dismissed, and replaced by Joachim von Ribbentrop.source
  • March 3 – Sir Nevile Henderson, British Ambassador to Germany, presents a proposal to Hitler for an international consortium to rule much of Africa (in which Germany would be assigned a leading role), in exchange for a German promise never to resort to war to change her frontiers; Hitler rejects the British offer.source
  • March 17 – Poland presents an ultimatum to Lithuania, to establish normal diplomatic relations that were severed over the Vilnius Region.source
  • April 10 – Édouard 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 March 14.source
  • April 10 – In a result that astonishes even Hitler, the Austrian electorate in a national referendum approves Anschluss by an overwhelming 99.73%.source
  • June 25 – Dr. Douglas Hyde takes office as the first President of Ireland.source
  • July 5 – The Non-Intervention Committee reaches an agreement to withdraw all foreign volunteers from the Spanish Civil War. The agreement is respected by most Republican International Brigades, notably those from England and the United States, but is ignored by the governments of Germany and Italy.source
  • July 22 – Britain rejects a proposal from its ambassador in Berlin, Nevile Henderson, for a four-power summit on Czechoslovakia consisting of Britain, France, Germany and the U.S.S.R., as London will under no circumstances accept the U.S.S.R. as a diplomatic partner.source
  • September 5 – Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš invites mid-level representatives of the Sudeten Germans Hradčany Palace, to tell them he will accept whatever demands they care to make, provided the Sudetenland remains part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.source
  • September 16 – Lord Runciman is recalled to London from Prague, in order to brief the British government on the situation in the Sudetenland.source
  • September 18 – During a meeting between Neville Chamberlain, the recently elected Premier of France, Édouard Daladier, and Daladier's Foreign Minister, Georges Bonnet, it becomes apparent that neither the British nor the French governments are prepared to go to war over the Sudetenland. The Soviet Union declares it will come to the defence of Czechoslovakia only if France honours her commitment to defend Czechoslovak independence.source
  • September 21 – 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.source
  • September 28 – As his self-imposed October 1 deadline for occupation of the Sudetenland approaches, Adolf Hitler invites Italian Duce Benito Mussolini, French Premier Édouard Daladier, and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to one last conference in Munich. The Czechs themselves are not invited.source
  • September 29 – Munich Agreement: German, Italian, British and French leaders agree to German demands regarding annexation of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovak government is largely excluded from the negotiations, and is not a signatory to the agreement.source
  • October 2 – Disgusted with Neville Chamberlain's conduct at Munich, Duff Cooper resigns his post as First Lord of the Admiralty. With his resignation, formal debate begins in the Parliament of the United Kingdom on the Munich Agreement, but with Chamberlain at the peak of his popularity, there can be little doubt His Majesty's Government will receive a vote of confidence.source
  • October 5 – Edvard Beneš, president of Czechoslovakia, resigns.source
  • October 24 – At a "friendly luncheon" in Berchtesgaden, German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop tells Józef Lipski, the Polish ambassador to Germany, that the Free City of Danzig must return to Germany, that the Germans must be given extraterritorial rights in the Polish Corridor, and that Poland must sign the Anti-Comintern Pact.source
  • November 2 – Arising from The Munich Agreement, Hungary is "awarded" the Felvidek region of South Slovakia and Ruthenia.source
  • November 25 – French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet informs Léon Noël, the French Ambassador to Poland, that France should find an excuse for terminating the 1921 Franco-Polish alliance.source
  • November 30 – The Czechoslovak parliament elects Emil Hácha as the new president of Czechoslovakia.source
  • November 30 – Benito Mussolini and his Foreign Minister, Count Galeazzo Ciano, order "spontaneous" demonstrations in the Italian Chamber of Deputies, demanding that France cede Tunisia, Nice, Corsica and French Somaliland to Italy. This begins an acute crisis in Franco-Italian relations, that lasts until March 1939.source
  • December 6 – German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop visits Paris, where he is allegedly informed by French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet that France now recognizes all of Eastern Europe as being in Germany's exclusive sphere of influence. Bonnet's alleged statement (he subsequently always denies making the remark) to Ribbentrop is a major factor in German policy in 1939.source
  • December 11 – Kingdom of Yugoslavia parliamentary election: The opposition gains votes but not seats.source
  • December – Adolf Hitler is Time magazine's "Man of the Year", as the most influential person of the year.source

Conflict & Security

  • February 10 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Bombing of Chongqing begins.source
  • 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.source
  • February 22 – The Battle of Teruel ends in a Nationalist victory with recapture of the city, a turning point in the Spanish Civil War.source
  • March 12 – Anschluss: German troops occupy Austria; annexation is declared the following day.source
  • March 28 – At a meeting with Hitler in Berlin, Konrad Henlein is instructed to make increasing demands concerning the status of the Sudetenland, but to avoid reaching an agreement with Czechoslovak authorities.source
  • May 21 – Tsuyama massacre: Matsuo Toi kills 30 people in a village in Okayama, Japan, in the world's worst spree killing by an individual until 1957.source
  • May 23 – No evidence of German troop movements against Czechoslovakia is found, and the May Crisis subsides. Germany is, nevertheless, perceived to have backed down in the face of Czechoslovak mobilization and international diplomatic unity, but the issue of the future of the Sudetenland is far from resolved.source
  • May 28 – In a conference at the Reich Chancellery, Hitler declares his decision to destroy Czechoslovakia by military force, and orders the immediate mobilization of 96 Wehrmacht divisions.source
  • 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.source
  • July 3 – The last reunion of the Blue and Gray commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.source
  • July 6 – The Evian Conference on Refugees is convened in France. No country in Europe is prepared to accept Jews fleeing persecution, and the United States will take only 27,370.source
  • July 28 – 1938 Greek coup d'état attempt: A revolt against the Ioannis Metaxas dictatorship in Greece is put down in Chania.source
  • August 18 – Colonel General Ludwig Beck, convinced that Hitler's decision to attack Czechoslovakia will lead to a general European war, resigns his position as Chief of the Army General Staff in protest.source
  • August 23 – 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.source
  • August – In the face of overwhelming Japanese military pressure, Chiang Kai-shek withdraws his government to Chungking.source
  • September 13 – 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 that they both meet.source
  • September 21 – 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.source
  • September 29 – Colonel Graham Christie, former British military attaché in Berlin, is told by Carl Friedrich Goerdeler that the mobilization of the Royal Navy has badly damaged the popularity of the Nazi regime, as the German public realizes that Fall Grün is likely to cause a world war.source
  • September 29 – The Republic of Hatay is declared in Syria; it lasts for less than a year.source
  • September – The European crisis over German demands for annexation of the Sudeten borderland of Czechoslovakia becomes increasingly severe.source
  • 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.source
  • October 21 – In direct contravention of the recently signed Munich Agreement, Adolf 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.source
  • October 24 – French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet carries out a major purge of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, dismissing or exiling a number of anti-appeasement officials such as Pierre Comert and René Massigli.source
  • November 7 – Ernst vom Rath, the Third Secretary at the German Embassy in Paris, is assassinated by Herschel Grynszpan.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • March 27 – Italian mathematician Ettore Majorana disappears suddenly under mysterious circumstances, while travelling by ship from Palermo to Naples.source
  • July 24 – The north face of the Eiger in the Alps is first ascended.source
  • September 25 – British Royal Navy is ordered to sea.source

Religion & Belief

  • March 30 – Italy's Duce Benito Mussolini is granted equal power over the Italian military to that of King Victor Emmanuel III, as First Marshal of the Empire.source
  • Majlis Khuddam-ul Ahmadiyya is established by Khalifat-ul Masih II, Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad, the second Caliph of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.source

Economy & Finance

  • February 6 – Black Sunday at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia: 300 swimmers are dragged out to sea in 3 freak waves; 80 lifesavers save all but 5.source
  • November 12 – French Finance Minister Paul Reynaud brings into effect a series of laws aiming at improving French productivity (thus aiming to undo the economic weaknesses which led to Munich), and undoes most of the economic and social laws of the Popular Front.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 1 – State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS).source
  • January 27 – The Honeymoon Bridge at Niagara Falls, New York, collapses as a result of an ice jam.source
  • February 24 – A nylon bristle toothbrush becomes the first commercial product to be made with nylon yarn.source
  • March 1 – Lee Byung-chul establishes a trucking business in Daegu, South Korea, which he names Samsung Trading Co, the forerunner to Samsung.source
  • June 15 – László Bíró patents the ballpoint pen in Britain.source
  • July 3 – The steam locomotive Mallard sets the world speed record for steam, by reaching 125.88 mph on the London and North Eastern Railway.source
  • July – The Mauthausen concentration camp is built in Austria.source
  • September 12 – Hitler makes his much-anticipated closing address at Nuremberg, in which he vehemently attacks the Czech people and President Beneš. American news commentator H. V. Kaltenborn begins his famous marathon of broadcast bulletins over the CBS Radio Network, with a summation of Hitler's address.source
  • December 13 – The Neuengamme concentration camp opens near Hamburg.source

Science & Discovery

  • April 18 – Superman first appears in Action Comics #1 (cover date June). The date is established in court documents released during the legal battle over the rights to Superman (on April 18, 2018, DC Comics released Action Comics #1000).source
  • July 14 – Howard Hughes sets a new record, by completing a 91-hour airplane flight around the world.source
  • July 18 – Wrong Way Corrigan takes off from New York, ostensibly heading for California. He lands in Ireland instead.source
  • October 27 – DuPont announces a name for its new synthetic yarn: "nylon".source
  • December 17 – Otto Hahn discovers the nuclear fission of uranium, the scientific and technological basis of nuclear power, which marks the beginning of the Atomic Age.source
  • Herbert E. Ives and G. R. Stilwell execute the Ives–Stilwell experiment, showing that ions radiate at frequencies affected by their motion.source

Health & Medicine

  • February 10 – Carol II of Romania takes dictatorial powers.source
  • September 10 – Hermann Göring, in a speech at Nuremberg, calls the Czechs a "miserable pygmy race" who are "harassing the human race". That same evening, Edvard Beneš, President of Czechoslovakia, makes a broadcast in which he appeals for calm.source
  • October 18 – The German government expels 12,000 Polish Jews living in Germany; the Polish government accepts 4,000 and refuses admittance to the remaining 8,000, who are forced to live in the no-man's land on the German-Polish frontier.source
  • November 16 – LSD is first synthesized by Albert Hofmann from ergotamine, at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel.source

Crime & Justice

  • October 2 – Tiberias massacre: Arab raiders murder 19 Jewish immigrants.source
  • October 5 – Nuremberg Laws: In Nazi Germany, Jews' passports are invalidated, and those who need a passport for emigration purposes are given one marked with the letter J ("Jude" – "Jew").source
  • November 30 – Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, leader of the Romanian fascist Iron Guard, is murdered on the orders of King Carol II of Romania. Officially, Codreanu and the 13 other Iron Guard leaders are "shot while trying to escape".source
  • The last Schomburgk's deer in the wild is said to have been killed.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • March 3 – The Santa Ana River in California, United States, spills over its banks during a rainy winter, killing 58 people in Orange County, and causing trouble as far inland as Palm Springs.source
  • June 11 – Fire destroys 214 buildings in Ludza, Latvia.source
  • July 28 – Pan Am flying boat Hawaii Clipper disappears with 6 passengers and 9 crew members, en route from Guam to Manila.source
  • November 9 – Holocaust – Kristallnacht: In Germany, the "night of broken glass" begins as Nazi activists and sympathizers loot and burn Jewish businesses (the all night affair sees 7,500 Jewish businesses destroyed, 267 synagogues burned, 91 Jews killed and at least 25,000 Jewish men arrested). One of several significant events on 9 November in German history.source

Climate & Environment

  • June 5 & 7 – The 1938 Yellow River flood is created by the Nationalist government in central China, breaching embankments during the early stage of the Second Sino-Japanese War, in an attempt to halt the rapid advance of Japanese forces. The flood kills at least 400,000, covers and destroys thousands of square kilometers of farmland, and shifts the mouth of the Yellow River hundreds of kilometers to the south.source
  • September 21 – The 1938 New England hurricane in the United States strikes Long Island and southern New England, killing over 300 along the Rhode Island shoreline and 600 altogether.source
  • December 23 – A coelacanth, a fish thought to have been extinct, is caught off the coast of South Africa, near the Chalumna River.source
  • December 27 – A massive avalanche of snow hits a construction worker dormitory site in Kurobe, Japan, killing 87 people.source

Culture & Society

  • January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Safinaz Zulficar, who becomes Queen Farida, in Cairo.source
  • February 4 – Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first cel-animated feature in motion picture history, is released in the United States, following a premiere on December 21 of the previous year.source
  • June 19 – Italy beats Hungary 4–2, to win the 1938 FIFA World Cup.source
  • June 27 – Kathryn Beaumont, British actresssource
  • July 1 – The South African Press Association is established, with offices in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Durban, Bloemfontein and Pretoria.source
  • November 30 – A general strike is called in France by the French Communist Party, to protest the laws of November 12.source
  • December 24 – Leading Korean dancer Choi Seung-hee arrives in Le Havre, France after her tour in the United States. This is to begin her European tour in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. She is the first Korean Wave entertainer.source

Births

  • January 14 – Morihiro Hosokawa, Japanese politician, 50th Prime Minister of Japansource
  • January 25 – Vladimir Vysotsky, Russian singer-songwriter, poet and actor (d. 1980)source
  • March 7 – David Baltimore, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2025)source
  • March 17 – Rudolf Nureyev, Russian-born dancer, choreographer (d. 1993)source
  • March 30 – Klaus Schwab, German economist, founder of the World Economic Forumsource
  • May 28 – Jerry West, American basketball player and executive (d. 2024)source
  • July 21 – Janet Reno, American lawyer, U.S. Attorney General under Bill Clinton (d. 2016)source
  • August 15 – Stephen Breyer, former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Statessource
  • August 28 – Paul Martin, 21st Prime Minister of Canadasource
  • September 29 – Wim Kok, Dutch politician, 48th Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1994 until 2002 (d. 2018)source
  • October 3 – Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Peruvian entrepreneur and politician, 66th President of Perusource
  • October 29 – Ralph Bakshi, Israeli cartoonist, film director, and video producersource
  • November 2 – Pat Buchanan, American conservative political operative, journalist, pundit and one-time presidential candidatesource
  • November 19 – Ted Turner, American entrepreneur and cable television pioneer (d. 2026)source

Deaths

  • January 9 – Johnny Gruelle, American cartoonist and children's book author (b. 1880)source
  • March 15 – Alexei Rykov, Premier of Russia and Premier of the Soviet Union (executed) (b. 1881)source
  • March 26 – Lakshminath Bezbaroa, Indian writer, dramatist, novelist, poet and editor (b. 1864)source
  • April 21 – Sir Muhammad Iqbal, Indian philosopher, poet (b. 1877)source
  • May 4 – Carl von Ossietzky, German pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1889)source
  • May 6 – Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire, British politician and Governor General of Canada (b. 1868)source
  • June 26 – James Weldon Johnson, American author, politician, and diplomat (b. 1871)source
  • August 7 – Konstantin Stanislavsky, Soviet theatre practitioner (b. 1863)source
  • September 6 – Alfonso de Borbón y Battenberg, Prince of Asturias, former heir apparent to the throne of Spain (b. 1907)source
  • October 2 – Alexandru Averescu, Romanian general, politician, and 24th Prime Minister of Romania (b. 1859)source
  • October 4 – José Luis Tejada Sorzano, Bolivian lawyer, politician and 34th President of Bolivia (b. 1882)source
  • October 5 – Faustina Kowalska, Polish nun and saint, the Secretary of Divine Mercy (b. 1905)source
  • November 11 – Mary Mallon (Typhoid Mary), first known (in the United States) asymptomatic carrier of the pathogen associated with typhoid fever (b. 1869)source
  • November 30 – Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, Romanian fascist politician, leader of the Iron Guard (executed along other Guard activists) (b. 1899)source