1938

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 
 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)

 March 

 April 
 April 26 – Duane Eddy, American guitarist

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

 June 

 July 
 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

 September 

 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