Historical Events in 1938

Events 1 - 200 of 304

• Jan 2 Book publisher Simon and Schuster founded

• Jan 10 Eduard van Beinum debuts as conductor of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Netherlands

• Jan 10 Paul Vincent Carroll's "White Seed" premieres in NYC
• Jan 11 Don Bradman scores a second innings 113 vs Qld after a ton in the 1st innings
• Jan 11 Frances Moulton elected 1st woman president of a US national bank
• Jan 13 The Church of England accepts the theory of evolution
• Jan 14 National Society for Legalization of Euthanasia forms (NY)

• Jan 17 Supreme Soviet elects Michail Kalinin as presidium chairman
• Jan 18 Pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander is elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
• Jan 19 General Motors begins mass production of diesel engines
• Jan 21 Dutch government starts obligatory unemployment insurance

• Jan 25 Ian Hay's "Bachelor Born" premieres in NYC
• Feb 3 Paul Osborn's "On Borrowed Time" premieres in NYC
• Feb 4 "Our Town" a play by Thornton Wilder opens on Broadway, NYC (later awarded Pulitzer Prize for Drama)

• Feb 5 Hans Engnestangen skates world record 500m (41.8 sec)
• Feb 5 III British Empire Games open in Sydney, Australia
• Feb 10 King Carol II of Romania drives out dictator Goga

• Feb 12 3rd British Empire Games close in Sydney, Australia
• Feb 12 Austrian chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg visits Adolf Hitler in Berchtesgaden

• Feb 16 US Federal Crop Insurance program authorized
• Feb 17 1st public experimental demonstration of Baird color TV (London)
• Feb 19 Soviet arctic ice research station North Pole 1 evacuated, Denmark
• Feb 20 Adolf Hitler announces his support for Japan during the Sino-Japanese War

• Feb 24 Du Pont begins commercial production of nylon toothbrush bristles
• Feb 25 Lord Halifax becomes British Foreign Secretary
• Feb 26 1st passenger ship equipped with radar
• Feb 26 Rie Van Veen swims world record 200m free style (2:24.6)
• Mar 1 Federal Trade Commission orders 8 manufacturers and the PGA of America to end their practice of golf ball price-fixing
• Mar 2 Landslides & floods cause over 200 deaths (Los Angeles California)
• Mar 2 Trials of Soviet leaders begins in the Soviet Union
• Mar 3 American Bowling Congress' largest tournament (24,765 competitors)

• Mar 11 Artur Seyss-Inquart replaces Kurt von Schuschnigg as Chancellor of Austria; German troops also entered the country
• Mar 12 Nazi Germany invades Austria (Anschluss)
• Mar 13 In a process known as Anschluss, Austria is annexed into Nazi Germany
• Mar 13 World News Roundup is broadcast for the first time on CBS Radio in the United States.

• Mar 16 Temple defeats Colorado to win 1st NIT

• Mar 18 NY 1st requires serological blood tests of pregnant women
• Mar 18 President Cardena of Mexico nationalizes US & British oil companies
• Mar 19 NHL Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Americans combine to score 8 goals in just under 5 minutes; Toronto wins game 8-5

• Mar 27 The Battle of Taierzhuang takes place.
• Apr 1 Nescafé introduces their flagship brand in Switzerland
• Apr 1 World heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis KOs Harry Thomas in 5th round of their title bout in Chicago; 3rd defense by Louis
• Apr 6 Teflon invented by American chemist Roy J. Plunkett at DuPont [1]

• Apr 10 Austria becomes a state of Germany
• Apr 10 NY makes syphilis test mandatory in order to get a marriage license

• Apr 12 1st US law requiring medical tests for marriage licenses (New York)
• Apr 12 Stanley Cup Final, Chicago Stadium, Chicago, IL: Chicago Black Hawks beat Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-1 for a 3-1 series win; only team to win Cup with losing regular season record
• Apr 13 Clifford Goldsmith's play "What a Life" premieres at The Biltmore Theater, NYC
• Apr 15 Anti-Jewish riots break out in in Dąbrowa Tarnowska, Poland
• Apr 16 Great Britain recognizes Italian annexation of Abyssinia
• Apr 18 Headless Mad Butcher victim found in Cleveland
• Apr 19 Baker Bowl, Philadelphia: Phillies infielder Emmett "Heine" Mueller & Brooklyn Dodger outfielder Ernie Koy both homer in their 1st MLB at bats

• Apr 26 Austrian Jews required to register property above 5,000 Reichsmarks

• May 2 Pulitzer prize awarded to Thornton Wilder for his play "Our Town"
• May 3 Concentration camp at Flossenburg goes into use
• May 3 Lefty Grove defeats Tigers 4-3 for 1st of record 20 consecutive wins at his home field Fenway Park; he doesn't lose there until May 12 1941
• May 4 Douglas Hyde, a protestant, becomes 1st president of Eire
• May 5 MLB Philadelphia Phillies Harold Kelleher pitcher faces 16 batters in 6th, as Cubs score 12 runs, both marks are NL records off one hurler in a single inning
• May 6 Dutch court sentences writer Maurits Dekker to 50 days imprisonment for "offending a friendly head of state" - Adolf Hitler
• May 7 Dutch Minister of Justice Goseling calls fugitives of Nazi-Germany "undesired strangers"
• May 8 Stravinsky's "Dumbarton Oaks" premieres in Washington, D.C.
• May 10 Banning speech on anti-fascism demonstration in Amsterdam

• May 12 Sandoz Labs begins manufacturing LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide)

• May 14 England soccer team beats Nazi-Germany, 6-3

• May 15 Paul-Henri Spak forms red coalition of Belgium
• May 16 1st animal breeding society forms (NJ)
• May 16 38 die in a fire at Terminal Hotel Atlanta, Georgia
• May 16 Australian cricketer Donald Bradman scores 278 vs MCC in 349 mins with 35 fours and 1 six
• May 17 Radio quiz show "Information Please!" debuts on NBC Blue Network
• May 17 US Congress approves Vinson Naval Act, which funds a two-ocean navy
• May 21 Batsman Don Bradman scores 143 for Australia v Surrey, in 198 mins, with 11 fours
• May 22 Dodgers announce contracts to install lights at Ebbets Field
• May 25 Spanish Civil War: The bombing of Alicante takes place, with 313 deaths
• May 26 US House of Representatives Committee on un-American Activities forms
• May 27 Cricket batting genius Don Bradman scores 145 not out for Australia v Hampshire at Southampton, completing 1,000 runs before the end of May for the second time, the only touring batsman to England ever to perform the feat
• May 28 Foundation for Tel Aviv harbor laid

• May 30 New York Yankees sweep arch rival Boston Red Sox, 10-0 & 5-4 in front of 83,533 at Yankee Stadium
• May 30 Walter Piston's dance work, The Incredible Flutist, written for the Boston Pops Orchestra, which premieres it, Arthur Fiedler conducting
• May 31 Bill Edrich scores his 1,000th run of cricket season, all at Lord's
• Jun 3 German law on "Entartete Art" legalizes art robbery

• Jun 7 1st play telecast with original Broadway cast, "Susan & God"
• Jun 7 Boeing 314 Clipper flying boat 1st flown (Eddie Allen)

• Jun 8 Gert Terblanche, a local school boy, discovers fossils of an unknown 'robust-type' human ancestor, later named Paranthropus robustus by Robert Broom, at Kromdraai, Blaauwbank River Valley in South Africa
• Jun 10 English cricketer Charlie Barnett makes 98 by lunch in England v Australia test match at Trent Bridge (closest any Englishman has come to scoring 100 runs before lunch)
• Jun 11 5.0 Earthquake in Belgium kills 2, strongest in 45 years
• Jun 11 Cincinnati Red Johnny Vander Meer no-hits Boston Braves, 3-0
• Jun 11 Compton scores 1st Test Cricket ton (102 v Aust) aged 20 yrs 19 days
• Jun 11 England cricket team declare at 8 for 658 v Australia at Trent Bridge
• Jun 13 Great Cricket innings of 232 by Stan McCabe v England at Trent Bridge
• Jun 13 Jews injured & property destroyed in Przemyal, Poland
• Jun 14 Bradman scores 144* in 1st Test Cricket at Trent Bridge
• Jun 14 Chlorophyll patented by Benjamin Grushkin
• Jun 14 Dorothy Lathrop wins 1st Caldecott Medal (kid books author)
• Jun 15 1st night game at Brooklyn Ebbets Field (Reds 6, Dodgers 0) as Cincinnati Red Johnny Vander Meer hurls unprecedented 2nd consecutive no-hitter

• Jun 17 Japan declares war on China

• Jun 19 "Olympian Flyer" express train crashes in Montana, killing 47
• Jun 19 FIFA World Cup Final, Stade Olympique de Colombes, Paris, France: Luigi Colausig & Silvio Piola each score 2 goals as Italy beats Hungary, 4-1
• Jun 19 Reds Johnny Vander Meer extends his string of hitless baseball innings to 21 2/3 before Debs Garms singles for Boston in 4th
• Jun 21 Baseball's Pinky Higgins gets 12th straight hit
• Jun 21 Bradman scores 101* in 77 minutes, Australia v Lancashire
• Jun 22 Joe Louis scores a stunning 1st round KO of German Max Schmeling at Yankee Stadium, NYC to retain his world heavyweight boxing title
• Jun 23 Civil Aeronautics Authority (US) established
• Jun 23 Marineland opens in Florida-1st aquarium
• Jun 24 500 ton meteorite lands near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Jun 25 "A Tisket A Tasket" by Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb hits #1
• Jun 25 US federal minimum wage law guarantees workers 25 cents per hour (rising to 40 cents by 1945) and a maximum 44 hour working week
• Jun 26 Cincinnati Red Lonny Frey hits 8 doubles in a doubleheader
• Jun 28 Bradman scores 102* in drawn 2nd Test cricket at Lord's
• Jun 30 Final game at Philadelphia's Baker Bowl, Giants beat Philadelphia 14-1
• Jun 30 Superman 1st appears in DC Comics' Action Comics Series issue #1
• Jul 1 The South African Press Association (SAPA) is established as a non-governmental institution by South Africa's major newspapers to facilitate the sharing of news, both national and international
• Jul 3 British East Coast Main Line locomotive No. 4468 "Mallard" reached a speed of 202.6 km/h (126 mph) setting new record for steam powered trains

• Jul 4 France-Turkish friendship treaty
• Jul 4 Phillies complete move to Shribe Park in Philadelphia, lose 10-5 to Boston Bees
• Jul 5 Herb Caen's 1st column in San Francisco Chronicle
• Jul 8 Would be start of England v Australia Test Cricket at Old Trafford Washout
• Jul 10 "Yankee Clipper" completes 1st passenger flight over Atlantic

• Jul 13 Kroller-Muller museum opens in Holland

• Jul 15 Arthur Fagg becomes first batsman in first-class cricket history to score double centuries in both innings of a match; 244 and 202 for Kent v Essex at Colchester
• Jul 17 Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan leaves NY flying for LA, winds up in Ireland supposedly by mistake

• Jul 20 IOC awards Helsinki, Finland 1940 Summer Olympic Games after Tokyo, Japan withdraws (Second Sino-Japanese War)
• Jul 21 Paul Hindemith and Leonide Massine's ballet Nobilissima Visione premieres in London
• Jul 23 Australian cricketer Don Bradman scores 103 in 178 mins on a Headingley sticky, 3rd Test
• Jul 25 Jewish artisans not allowed in Germany
• Jul 25 Revolutionary offensive of Ebro Spain (Hollander Piet)
• Jul 26 1st radio broadcast of "Young Widder Brown" on NBC
• Jul 28 34,000-ton Cunard-White Star liner Mauretania launched at Birkenhead
• Jul 28 Don Bradman scores 202 Australia v Somerset, 225 mins, 32 fours
• Jul 29 Olympic National Park established in Washington state, longest undeveloped coastline in America
• Jul 31 Archaeologists discover engraved gold and silver plates from King Darius in Persepolis.
• Jul 31 MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis suspends New York Yankees outfielder Jake Powell after he said on Chicago radio he kept in shape by "cracking" African Americans over the head with his nightstick
• Aug 2 MLB conducts the first test of bright yellow baseballs during Dodgers vs Cardinals doubleheader

• Aug 7 Nazis close theologic department of Innsbruck university
• Aug 8 Great Trek Centenary Celebrations commence; the Great Trek was a migration involving Boers leaving the Cape Colony and settling in the interior of South Africa
• Aug 10 119°F (48°C), Pendleton, Oregon (state record)
• Aug 14 BBC's 1st feature film on TV (Student of Prague)
• Aug 17 1st aircraft owned by US Forest Service in service (Oakland)
• Aug 17 Henry Armstrong wins his 3rd concurrent boxing championship
• Aug 18 FDR dedicates Thousand Islands Bridge connecting US & Canada

• Aug 21 Italy bars all Jewish teachers in Public & High School

• Aug 23 England score 7-903 declared v Australia, Len Hutton scores 364
• Aug 24 England beat Australia by an innings & 579 runs at The Oval
• Aug 24 Virgil Trucks strikes out his 418th batter, highest season total in organized ball-for Andalusia in an Alabama-Florida League game
• Aug 26 British leaders & Arabians fight in Palestine
• Aug 26 Montreal Maroons dropped from NHL

• Aug 27 Two NYC subway trains collide at 116th Street killing 2 and injuring 51
• Aug 28 Mauthausen concentration camp opens in Austria
• Aug 28 Northwestern University awards honorary degree to dummy Charlie McCarthy
• Aug 28 On Connie Mack Day at Philadelphia's Shibe Park, the A's win a doubleheader
• Aug 31 5th NFL Chicago All-Star Game: All-Stars 28, Washington 16 (74,250)
• Sep 1 Benito Mussolini cancels civil rights of Italian Jews
• Sep 3 1940 Olympic site is changed from Tokyo, Japan to Helsinki, Finland because of the Second Sino-Japanese War; WWII causes eventual cancellation

• Sep 12 Adolf Hitler demands self-determination for Sudeten Germans in Czech

• Sep 15 John Cobb sets world auto speed record at 350.2 MPH (lasts 1 day)
• Sep 15 Only time brothers hit back-to-back HRs (Lloyd & Paul Waner, Pitts)

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