1938

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1900s  1910s  1920s  – 1930s –  1940s  1950s  1960s
Years:	1935 1936 1937 – 1938 – 1939 1940 1941

1938 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1938 MCMXXXVIII
Ab urbe condita	2691
Armenian calendar	1387 ԹՎ ՌՅՁԷ
Assyrian calendar	6688
Bahá'í calendar	94–95
Balinese saka calendar	1859–1860
Bengali calendar	1345
Berber calendar	2888
British Regnal year	2 Geo. 6 – 3 Geo. 6
Buddhist calendar	2482
Burmese calendar	1300
Byzantine calendar	7446–7447
Chinese calendar	丁丑年 (Fire Ox) 4634 or 4574     — to — 戊寅年 (Earth Tiger) 4635 or 4575
Coptic calendar	1654–1655
Discordian calendar	3104
Ethiopian calendar	1930–1931
Hebrew calendar	5698–5699
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1994–1995
- Shaka Samvat	1859–1860
- Kali Yuga	5038–5039
Holocene calendar	11938
Igbo calendar	938–939
Iranian calendar	1316–1317
Islamic calendar	1356–1357
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 13 (昭和１３年)
Javanese calendar	1868–1869
Juche calendar	27
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4271
Minguo calendar	ROC 27 民國27年
Nanakshahi calendar	470
Thai solar calendar	2480–2481
Tibetan calendar	阴火牛年 (female Fire-Ox) 2064 or 1683 or 911     — to — 阳土虎年 (male Earth-Tiger) 2065 or 1684 or 912

1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday in the Gregorian calendar.

Events

• January 3 – The March of Dimes is established by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
• January 11 – Frances Moulton is the first woman to become president of a US national bank.
• January 20 – Wedding of King Farouk I of Egypt and Queen Farida Zulficar in Cairo
• January 28 – The first ski tow in America begins operation in Vermont.
• January 31 – Crown princess Beatrix is born in Netherlands
• February 4 – Thornton Wilder's play Our Town opens (New York City).
• February 10 – Carol II of Romania takes dictatorial powers
• February 12 – World War II: German troops enter Austria
• February 24 – A nylon bristle toothbrush becomes the first commercial product to be made with nylon yarn.
• 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 18 – Mexico nationalizes all foreign-owned oil properties within its borders.
• April 12 – Edouard Daladier becomes president of France
• April 28 – The towns of Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott in Massachusetts are disincorporated to make way for the Quabbin Reservoir.
• May 5 – Vatican recognizes Franco's government in Spain
• June 1 – Action Comics issues the first Superman comic.
• June 11 – Fire destroys 212 buildings in Ludes, Latvia
• June 23 – The Civil Aeronautics Act is signed into law, forming the Civil Aeronautics Authority in the United States.
• June 23 – Marineland opens near St. Augustine, Florida.
• June 25 – Dr Douglas Hyde is elected the first President of Ireland.
• June 28 – A 450-tonne meteorite struck the earth in an empty field near Chicora, Pennsylvania
• November 9-10: Kristallnacht happens in Nazi Germany. The Nazis deport about 30,000 Jews to concentration camps, and destroy over 1,500 synagogues.

Births

January

Juan Carlos I of Spain

Beatrix of the Netherlands

• January 1 - Frank Langella, American actor
• January 5 - Juan Carlos I of Spain
• January 31 - Beatrix of the Netherlands

February

• February 21 - Lester Bird, former Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda (d. 2021)

April

• April 26 – Duane Eddy, American guitarist

May

• May 22 - Richard Benjamin, American actor and director
• May 31 - John Prescott, British politician

July

Natalie Wood

Kenny Rogers

• July 7 - Abdoulaye Djiba, Senegalese judoka
• July 13 - David Mitton, English model-maker (d. 2008)
• July 20 – Natalie Wood, American actress (d. 1981)

August

• August 21 – Kenny Rogers, American singer (d. 2020)
• August 29 – Elliott Gould, American actor

October

• October 23 – H. John Heinz III, American Senator (d. 1991)
• October 29 - Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia

November

• November 14 – John Gebbia Sr., American businessman
• November 17 – Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian singer
• November 19 - Hank Medress, American singer (The Tokens) (d. 2007)

December

• December 29 - Jon Voight, American actor

Deaths

• January 20 – Émile Cohl, French caricaturist and animator (b. 1857)
• January 21 – Georges Méliès, French movie director (b. 1861)
• January 28 – Bernd Rosemeyer, German racing driver (b. 1909)
• February 2 – Frederick William Vanderbilt, American railway magnate (b. 1856)
• February 7 – Harvey Firestone, American manufacturer (b. 1868)
• February 18 – David King Udall, American politician (b. 1851)
• February 19 – Edmund Landau, German mathematician (b. 1877)
• March 1 – Gabriele D'Annunzio, Italian writer, war hero, and politician (b. 1863)
• March 2 – Ben Harney, American composer and pianist (b. 1871)
• March 13 – Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, Soviet politician (b. 1888)
• March 13 – Clarence Darrow, American attorney (b. 1857)
• March 21 - Oscar Apfel, American actor, director, screenwriter, producer (b. 1878)
• April 8 – Joe "King" Oliver, American musician (b. 1885)
• April 12 – Feodor Chaliapin, Russian bass (b. 1873)
• April 16 – Steve Bloomer, English footballer (b. 1874)
• April 21 – Muhammad Iqbal, Pakistani philosopher and poet (b. 1877)
• April 26 – Edmund Husserl, Austrian philosopher (b. 1859)
• May 4 – Carl von Ossietzky, German pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1889)
• May 9 – Thomas B. Thrige, Danish industrialist (b. 1866)
• May 13 – Charles Edouard Guillaume, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1861)
• May 26 – John Jacob Abel, American pharmacologist (b. 1857)
• August 1 – Edmund Charles Tarbell, American artist (b. 1862)
• 18 July - Marie of Romania Queen of Romania wife of King Ferdinand I of Romania
• August 7 – Konstantin Stanislavski, Russian actor (b. 1863)
• August 14 – Hugh Trumble, Australian Test Cricketer (b. 1876)
• August 16 – Robert Johnson, American musician (b. 1911)
• September 17 – Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet (b. 1901)
• October 22 – May Irwin, Canadian actress and singer (b. 1862)
• October 24 – Ernst Barlach, German sculptor and poet (b. 1870)
• October 27 – Lascelles Abercrombie, English poet and critic (b. 1881)
• October 31 - Robert Woolsey, American actor and Comedian in a Double Act with Bert Wheeler (b. 1888).
• November 9 – Vasily Blyukher, Soviet military commander (b.1889)
• November 10 – Kemal Atatürk, President of Turkey (b. 1881)
• November 30 – Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, Romanian fascist, leader of the Iron Guard (executed along other Guard activists) (b. 1899)
• December 11 – Christian Lous Lange, Norwegian pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1869)
• December 25 – Karel Čapek, Czech writer (b. 1890)
• December 28 – Florence Lawrence, Canadian actress (b. 1886)

Nobel Prize

• Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine won by Belgian doctor, Corneille Heymans