1938

Events of 1938

January-February

 January 1 – New Constitution of Estonia enters into force. 
 January 1 - The Merrie Melodies cartoon short Daffy Duck and Egghead is released.
 January 3 - The March of Dimes is established by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
 January 11 - Frances Moulton is named the first female president of a U.S. national bank.
 January 16 - 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.
 January 20 - Wedding of King Farouk of Egypt and Queen Farida Zulficar in Cairo.
 January 22 - Thornton Wilder's play Our Town is performed for the first time anywhere in Princeton, New Jersey.  It premieres in New York City on February 4. 
 January 27 - The Niagara Bridge at Niagara Falls, New York collapses due to an ice jam.
 January 28 - The first ski tow in America begins operation in Vermont.
 January 31 - Crown princess Beatrix is born in Netherlands.
 February 4 - 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.
 February 6 - Black Sunday at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia: 300 swimmers dragged out to sea in three freak waves; 80 lifesavers save all but 5.
 February 10 - Carol II of Romania takes dictatorial powers.
 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.
 February 14 - The British naval base at Singapore begins operations.
 February 20 - Anthony Eden resigns as foreign minister of Great Britain, and is succeeded by Lord Halifax.
 February 24 - A nylon bristle toothbrush becomes the first commercial product to be made with nylon yarn.
March-April
March - Italian mathematician Ettore Majorana disappears.
 March 3 - Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia.
 March 12 - Anschluss: German troops occupy Austria; annexation declared the following day.
 March 14 - French Premier Leon Blum reassures the Czechoslovak government that France will honor its treaty obligations to aid Czechoslovakia in event of German invasion.
 March 15 - Soviet Union announces officially that Nikholai Bukharin has been executed.
 March 17 - Poland presents an ultimatum to Lithuania; Poland demands to establish normal diplomatic relations that were severed over the Vilnius Region
 March 18 - Mexico nationalizes all foreign-owned oil properties within its borders.
 April 10 - 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 March 14.
 April 24 – Konstantin Päts becomes president of Estonia.
 April 25 - U.S. Supreme Court delivers opinion in Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins and overturns a century of federal common law.
 April 28 - The towns of Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott in Massachusetts are disincorporated to make way for the Quabbin Reservoir.
May-June
 May 5 - Vatican recognizes Franco's government in Spain
 May 9 - Kaarel Eenpalu becomes prime minister of Estonia
 May 14 - Chile withdraws from the League of Nations
 May 17 - Information Please debuts on NBC Radio.
 May 20 - Czechoslovakia orders a partial mobilization of its armed forces along the German border.
 May 23 - 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. 
 May 25 - Bombing of Alicante, Spain, in the Spanish Civil War, with 313 dead.
 May 28 - 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
 June 11 - Fire destroys 212 buildings in Ludes, Latvia
 June 12- - Roma and Sinti in Germany and Austria are rounded up, beaten up and jailed.
 June 15 - László Bíró patents the ballpoint pen in Britain.
 June 19 - Italy beat Hungary 4-2 to win the 1938 World Cup
 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.
 June 23
 The Civil Aeronautics Act is signed into law, forming the Civil Aeronautics Authority in the United States.
 Marineland opens near St. Augustine, Florida.
 June 24 - A 450 metric ton meteorite strikes the earth in an empty field near Chicora, Pennsylvania.
 June 25 - Dr. Douglas Hyde is elected the first President of Ireland.
 June 30 - 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
 July 3 - Steam locomotive "Mallard" sets the world speed record for steam by reaching 126 mph.
 July 3 - The last reunion of the Blue and Gray commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
 July 5 - 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, 
 July 12 - Kurdish Genocide in Dersim, Turkey by the Turkish army.
 July 14 - Howard Hughes sets a new record by completing a 91 hour airplane flight around the world.  
 July 18 - Wrong Way Corrigan takes off from New York, ostensibly heading for California.  He lands in Ireland instead.
 July 28 - A revolt against the Ioannis Metaxas dictatorship is put down in Chania, 
 July 30 - 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.
 August 4 - Lord Runciman arrives in Prague to act as Neville Chamberlain's special envoy in the continuing Sudetenland disturbances.
 August 6 - The Looney Tunes animated short Porky & Daffy is released.
 August 18 
 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.
 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.
 August 28 - 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.
 August 31 - Winston Churchill, still believing France and Britain mean to honor 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.
 September 2 - 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. 
 September 5 - 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.
 September 6 - 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.
 September 7 - The Times publishes a lead article which calls on Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland to Germany.
 September 10 - 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.
 September 12 - 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.
 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 the two meet.   
 September 15 - Neville Chamberlain arrives in Berchtesgaden to begin negotiations with Hitler over the Sudetenland.
 September 17 - Neville Chamberlain returns temporarily to London to confer with his cabinet.
 September 18 - 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. 
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.
 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.
September 22
 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.
 September 23 - The Czechoslovak army mobilizes.
 September 24 - 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.
 September 26 - In a vitriolic speech at Berlin's Sportpalast, Hitler defies the world and implies war with Czechoslovakia will begin at any time.
 September 28 - 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.
 September 29
 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
 September 30 - 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.
 October 1 - German troops march into Sudetenland. The Polish government gives the Czech government an ultimatum stating that Teschen must be handed over within twenty-four hours. The Czechs have little choice but to comply. Hungary's Regent Admiral Horthy presents his demands for Carpathian Ruthenia, which are also promptly if reluctantly complied with.
 October 2
 Tiberias massacre: Arabs murder 20 Jews.
 Disgusted with Chamberlain's conduct at Munich, Duff Cooper resigns his post as First Lord of the Admiralty. With his resignation, formal debate begins in Parliament 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.
 October 4 - The Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War begin withdrawing their foreign volunteers from combat as agreed on July 5.
 October 5 - Edvard Beneš, president of Czechoslovakia, resigns.
 October 10 - The Blue Water Bridge opens, connecting Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario
 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.
 October 17 - Jan Syrovy's government begins in Czechoslovakia 
 October 21 - 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.
 October 24
 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 Germany, that control of Danzig must revert to Germany and that the Germans must be given extra-territorial rights in the Polish Corridor.
 October 27 - Du Pont announced a name for its new synthetic yarn: "nylon".
 October 30 - Orson Welles's radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds is broadcast, causing panic in various parts of the United States.
 October 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-December
   
November 1 - Horse Racing: Seabiscuit defeats War Admiral by four lengths in their famous match race at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland.
 November 9 - 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).
 November 10 - On the eve of Armistice Day, Kate Smith sings Irving Berlin's God Bless America for the first time on her weekly radio show.
 November 10 - The founder of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, dies.
 November 13- The people of New York City held a fruit tasting contest held by managers.
 November 18 - Trade union members elect John L. Lewis as the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
 November 30
 Czechoslovak parliament elects Emil Hácha as the new president of Czechoslovakia.
 Benito Mussolini and his Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano order "spontaneous" demonstrations in the Italian Chamber of Deputies demanding that France cede Tunisia, Corsica and French Somaliland to Italy. Beginning of acute crisis in Franco-Italian relations that was to last until March 1939. 
 December - President Roosevelt agrees to loan $25 million to Chiang Kai-shek, cementing the US-Sino relationship and angering the Japanese miliary government.
 December 6 The German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop visits Paris, where he was allegedly informed by the French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet that France now recognized all of Eastern Europe as being in Germany’s exclusive sphere of influence. 
 December 11 - Kingdom of Yugoslavia parliamentary election - Opposition gains votes but not seats
 December 13 - The Neuengamme concentration camp opens near Hamburg.
 December 16 - 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. 
 December 23 - A Coelacanth, a fish thought to have been extinct, is caught off the coast of South Africa near Chalumna River.
 December 27 - 87 killed, a construction worker of dormitory site hit avalanche by heavy massive 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 (-).
 Sino-Japanese War (-).
Births
January-February
   
 January 1 
 Robert Jankel, British coachbuilder (d. )
 Frank Langella, American actor
 January 2 - Hans Herbjørnsrud, Norwegian author
 Ian Brady, British serial killer
 Goh Kun, Mayor of Seoul
 January 5 - King Juan Carlos I of Spain
 January 6 - Mario Rodríguez Cobos, Silo, Argentine author and spiritual Guide
 January 7 - Roland Topor, French illustrator (d. )
 January 8 - Bob Eubanks, American game show host
 January 10
 Donald Knuth, American mathematician and computer scientist
 Willie McCovey, baseball player
 January 11 - Fischer Black, American economist (d. )
 January 12
 Noel McNamara, Australian justice campaigner and commentator
 Lewis Fiander, Australian actor
 January 14 - Jack Jones, American singer and actor
 January 18 - Curt Flood, baseball player (d. )
 January 20 - Derek Dougan, Northern Irish footballer (d. )
 January 21 - Wolfman Jack, American disc-jockey and actor (d. )
 January 23 - Georg Baselitz, German painter and sculptor
 January 25
 Etta James, American singer
 Vladimir Vysotsky, Russian singer-songwriter, poet, actor (d. )
 January 31 - Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands
 February 1 - Sherman Hemsley, American comedian and actor
 February 2 - Max Alvis, baseball player
 February 8 - Prentice Gautt, American football player
 February 11 
 Bevan Congdon, New Zealand cricketer
 Simone de Oliveira, Portuguese actress and singer
 Manuel Noriega, Panamanian general and dictator
 February 12 - Judy Blume, American author
 February 13 - Oliver Reed, English actor (d. )
 February 14 - Lee Chamberlin, African-American film and television actress
 February 18 - Istvan Szabo, Hungarian director
 February 24
 James Farentino, American actor
 Phil Knight, American sportswear entrepreneur
 February 25 - Herb Elliott, Australian runner
March-April
   
 March 4 
 Don Perkins, American football player
 Angus MacLise, original drummer for the Velvet Underground (d. )
 March 7
 David Baltimore, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
 Janet Guthrie, American race car driver
 March 13 - Erma Franklin, American singer (d. )
 March 17
 Rudolf Nureyev, Russian-born dancer and choreographer (d. ) 
 Keith Michael Patrick O'Brien, Northern Irish clergyman
 March 18 - Charley Pride, American baseball player and musician
 March 23 - Maynard Jackson, mayor of Atlanta, Georgia (d. )
 March 25 - Hoyt Axton, American actor and country music singer-songwriter (d. )
 March 26 - Anthony James Leggett, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
 March 31 - Joel Godard, announcer for Late Night with Conan O'Brien
 April 1 - John Quade, American actor
 April 2 - John Larsson, the 17th General of The Salvation Army
 April 3 - Jeff Barry, American record producer and songwriter
 April 4 - A. Bartlett Giamatti, American president of Yale University and baseball commissioner (d. )
 April 7 - Freddie Hubbard, jazz trumpeter
 April 8 - Kofi Annan, Ghanaian Secretary General of the United Nations, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
 April 10 
 Viktor Chernomyrdin, Russian politician 
 Don Meredith, American football player and broadcaster
 April 11
 Michael Deaver, Reagan Administration Deputy White House Chief of Staff (d. )
 Kurt Moll, German bass
 April 12 - Roger Caron, Canadian author
 April 15 - Claudia Cardinale, Tunisian-born, Italian actress
 April 17 - Kerry Wendell Thornley, American counterculture figure, writer, and co-founder of Discordianism
 April 22
 Talal Abu-Ghazaleh born in Jaffa
 Adam Raphael, English journalist and editor
 Issey Miyake, Japanese fashion designer
 April 26
 Duane Eddy, American musician
 Maurice Williams, American musician
 April 29 - Larry Niven, American author
May-June
   
 May 2 - Paramount Chief Moshoeshoe II of Lesotho (d. ) 
 May 17 - Jason Bernard, American actor (d. )
 May 22 - Richard Benjamin, American actor
 May 26
 William Bolcom, American composer
 Teresa Stratas, Canadian soprano
 Pauline Parker, New Zealandic murderess
 May 28 - Jerry West, American basketball player and executive
 May 31 - Johnny PayCheck, American singer (d. ) 
 May 31 - Peter Yarrow, American singer
 June 5 - Karin Balzer, German athlete
 June 6 - Prince Luís of Orléans-Braganza, pretender to the Brazilian throne
 June 7 - Goose Gonsoulin, American football player
 June 12 - Tom Oliver, Australian actor
 June 15 - Billy Williams, baseball player
 June 19
 Wahoo McDaniel, American football player and professional wrestler (d. )
 Ian Smith, Australian actor
 June 28 - Moy Yat, Chinese martial artist
July-August
   
 July 3 - Bolo Yeung, Hong Kong actor
 July 4 - Bill Withers, American singer and songwriter
 July 6 - Tony Lewis, English cricketer
 July 12 - Wieger Mensonides, Dutch swimmer
 July 18 - Paul Verhoeven, Dutch film director 
 July 19 - Jayant Narlikar, Indian astrophysicist
 July 20 - Natalie Wood, American actress (d. )
 July 20 - Diana Rigg, English actress
 July 23
 Juliet Anderson, American actress
 Bert Newton, Australian actor and television show host
 July 24 - Eugene J. Martin, American painter, artist
 July 27 - Gary Gygax, American author and game designer (d. )
 July 28 - Alberto Fujimori, President of Peru
 July 29 - Peter Jennings, Canadian-born television news reporter (d. )
 August 3 - Terry Wogan, British/Irish TV and radio broadcaster
 August 8 - Connie Stevens, American actress and singer
 August 9 
 Ezola Broussard Foster, U.S. Vice Presidential Candidate
 Rod Laver, Australian tennis player
 August 15 - Janusz A. Zajdel, Polish writer
 August 16 - Bill Masterton, Canadian hockey player (d. )
 August 19 - Diana Muldaur, American actress
 August 20 - Alain Vivien, French politician
 August 21 - Kenny Rogers, American country singer
 August 22 - Paul Maguire, American football player
 August 24 
 Halldór Blöndal, Icelandic politician
 David Freiberg, American musician (Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Starship)
 August 28
 Maurizio Costanzo, Italian television news reporter
 Paul Martin, Prime Minister of Canada
 August 29 - Robert Rubin, American banker who served as the 70th United States Secretary of the Treasury 
 August 31 - Martin Bell, British journalist and politician
September-October
   
 September 1 - Per Kirkeby, Danish artist
 September 2 - Clarence Felder, American actor
 September 3 - Ryoji Noyori, Japanese chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
 September 8 - Kenichi Horie, Japanese adventurer
 September 10
 David Hamilton, radio and TV personality
 Karl Lagerfeld, German fashion designer and photographer
 September 13 - John Smith, Scottish politician (d. )
 September 18 - Poornachandra Tejaswi, Kannada writer (d. )
 September 22 - Gene Mingo, American football player
 September 23 - Tom Lester, American actor and evangelist 
 September 25 - Jonathan Motzfeldt, Prime Minister of Greenland
 September 28 - Ben E. King, American singer
 September 29 - Wim Kok, Prime Minister of the Netherlands
 October 3 - Eddie Cochran, American singer (d. )
 October 4 - Kurt Wüthrich, Swiss chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
 October 9 - Heinz Fischer, Austrian politician
 October 14 
 Farah Diba, Empress of Iran
 Ron Lancaster, Canadian Football League quarterback and coach
 October 15 - Fela Kuti, Nigerian musician and activist (d. )
 October 16 - Carl Gunter Jr, Louisiana State Representative (d. )
 October 17 - Evel Knievel, American motorcycle daredevil (d. )
 October 20 - Iain Macmillan, Abbey Road photographer (d. )
 October 22 - Christopher Lloyd, American actor
 October 23 - H. John Heinz III, U.S. Senator (d. )
 October 28 - Anne Perry, English-born novelist
 October 29 
 Ralph Bakshi, Israeli cartoonist, film director, and video producer
 Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia
November-December
   
 November 2 - Patrick Joseph Buchanan, American journalist and Presidential candidate
 November 5
 Joe Dassin, French singer (d. )
 Enéas Carneiro, Brazilian politician (d. )
 November 6 
 Mack Jones, baseball player (d. )
 Dumitru Rusu, Romanian painter
 November 13 - Jean Seberg, American actress (d. )
 November 16 - Robert Nozick, American philosopher (d. )
 November 17 - Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian folk singer
 November 19 - Ted Turner, modern entrepreneur 
 November 26 - Porter J. Goss, American politician and Central Intelligence Agency director
 December 4 
 Andre V. Marrou, U.S. Presidential candidate
 Yvonne Minton, Australian soprano
 December 5 - J. J. Cale, American singer
 December 8 - Ken Delo, American singer, The Lawrence Welk Show
 December 12 - Connie Francis, American singer and actress
 December 15 - Billy Shaw, American football player
 December 16
 Liv Ullmann, Norwegian actress
 Frank Deford, American sportswriter
 December 17
 Peter Snell, New Zealand athlete
 Carlo Little, British drummer (d.)
 December 20 - John Harbison, American composer
 December 23 - Bob Kahn, American Internet pioneer
 December 24 - Bobby Henrich, American baseball player
 December 25 - Duane Armstrong, American painter
 December 29 - Jon Voight, American actor
Date unknown
 Neila Sathyalingam, Singaporean classical Indian dancer, choreographer and instructor
Deaths
January-June
   
 January 8 - Johnny Gruelle, American cartoonist and children's book author (b. ) (Raggedy Ann)
 January 20 - Émile Cohl, French caricaturist and animator (b. )
 January 21 - Georges Méliès, French film director (b. )
 January 28 - Bernd Rosemeyer, German racing driver (b. )
 February 2 - Frederick William Vanderbilt, American railway magnate (b. )
 February 7 - Harvey Firestone, American manufacturer (b. )
 February 18 - David King Udall, American politician (b. )
 February 19 - Edmund Landau, German mathematician (b. )
 March 1 - Gabriele D'Annunzio, Italian writer, war hero, and politician (b. )
 March 2 - Ben Harney, American composer and pianist (b. ) 
 March 13 - Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, Soviet politician (b. )
 March 13 - Clarence Darrow, American attorney (b. )
 April 8 - Joe "King" Oliver, American jazz musician (b. )
 April 12 - Feodor Chaliapin, Russian bass (b. )
 April 16 - Steve Bloomer, English footballer (b. )
 April 21 - Allama Iqbal, Indian philosopher and poet (b. )
 April 25 - Aleksander Świętochowski - Polish writer (b. )
 April 26 - Edmund Husserl, Austrian philosopher (b. )
 May 4 - Carl von Ossietzky, German pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. )
 May 9 - Thomas B. Thrige, Danish industrialist (b. )
 May 13 - Charles Edouard Guillaume, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. )
 May 26 - John Jacob Abel, American pharmacologist (b. )

July-December
   
 July 4 - Otto Bauer, Austrian Social Democratic politician (b. )
 August 1 - Edmund Charles Tarbell, American artist (b. )
 August 7 - Constantin Stanislavski, Russian theatre practitioner (b. )
 August 14 - Hugh Trumble, Australian test cricketer (b. )
 August 16 - Robert Johnson, American blues singer (b. )
September 1 - Nikolai Bryukhanov, Soviet statesman and political figure who served as People's Commissar of Finances (b. )
 September 17 - Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet (b. )
 September 25 - Paul Olaf Bodding, Norwegian missionary to India and creator of Santali latin alphabet (b. 1865) 
 October 2 - Alexandru Averescu, Romanian soldier and politician (b. )
 October 13 E.C. Segar, American comics artist (Popeye)
 October 17 - Karl Kautsky, Marxist theoretician (b. ) 
 October 22 - May Irwin, Canadian actress and singer (b. )
 October 24 - Ernst Barlach, German sculptor and poet (b. )
 October 27 - Lascelles Abercrombie, English poet and critic (b. )
 November 9 - Vasily Blyukher, Soviet military commander (b. )
 November 10 - Kemal Atatürk, President of Turkey (b. )
 November 20 - Maud of Wales, queen of Haakon VII of Norway (b. )
 November 30 - Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, Romanian fascist, leader of the Iron Guard (executed along other Guard activists) (b. )
 December 11 - Christian Lous Lange, Norwegian pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. )
 December 20 - Annie Armstrong US missionary leader (b. 1850)
 December 25 - Karel Čapek, Czech author (b. )
 December 28 - Florence Lawrence, Canadian actress (b. )
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.
External links
 The 1930s Timeline: 1938 — from American Studies Programs at The University of Virginia
 1938 Coin Pictures