Our records for 1938 hold 500 events from 10 regions; the best-ranked is “Nazi Germany annexes Austria in the Anschluss”.
This page lists all 500 events in our records for 1938: 361 dated to the day, 90 from outside Europe and North America. The biggest come first, then every event month by month, grouped by region.
How sure we are: events with no label are high confidence. A grey label such as Exact day uncertain says why one detail is less certain; a yellow label such as Sources differ on the date marks a low-confidence event where the sources disagree or are thin. The notes say where. Dates are in the Gregorian calendar; where a country still used another calendar, the notes give the original. How events are checked
The biggest stories of 1938
Ranked by how widely known each event is today, one card per happening, at least a third from outside Europe and North America.
Politics & diplomacyWidely known
Nazi Germany annexes Austria in the Anschluss
· Austria · Europe
Some details uncertain.
On 12 March 1938 Austria was absorbed into Nazi Germany, realising the old idea of a Greater Germany. Nazi agents in Austria had encouraged pro-union feeling there beforehand.
Why it is interesting. The peace treaties signed in 1919 had expressly banned any union between Austria and Germany.
Notes and dating details
The lead gives 12 March 1938 for the annexation. The body says the annexation was given legal effect by a legislative act of 13 March, and Wikidata gives 13 March, so confidence is medium. The German article says German troops marched in on 12 March and the Seyss-Inquart government enacted the union law on 13 March, which it calls the legal date of the Anschluss.
The Great Purge peaks under NKVD chief Yezhov and turns on its own chiefs in 1938
· Soviet Union · Europe
Some details uncertain.
The Great Purge, carried out largely by the NKVD, sent accused spies, wreckers and saboteurs to be shot or to Gulag labour camps. In 1938 Stalin reversed course and criticised the secret police over mass executions; two of its chiefs, Yagoda and Yezhov, were eventually put to death.
Why it is interesting. In 1938 Stalin turned on the secret police that had carried out the purge, criticising it for its mass executions.
Notes and dating details
The infobox gives a main phase from 9 March 1936 to 10 January 1939; the lead says 1936 to 1939, puts the peak between September 1936 and August 1938, and says Stalin reversed course in 1938. Wikidata gives 1938 as the date and 17 November 1938 as an end date, and its description says August 1936 to March 1938. The sources differ on when the purge ended, so only the year 1938 is stored. The English lead puts the death toll at 700,000 to 1.2 million; the German article says about 1.5 million people were arrested between July 1937 and mid-November 1938, about half of whom were shot.
Germany, Britain, France and Italy sign the Munich Agreement
· Munich, Germany · Europe
Some details uncertain.
At Munich, four powers agreed that Germany could annex the Sudetenland, a Czechoslovak borderland home to three million people, most of them ethnic Germans. Czechoslovakia's representatives were in the city but took no part in the talks.
Why it is interesting. Czechoslovakia's own representatives were in Munich while the four powers settled the fate of its borderland without them.
Notes and dating details
The lead and infobox give 30 September 1938; the formal title in the infobox says September 29, and the lead says the meeting ran 29-30 September. Wikidata gives 30 September 1938.
Kristallnacht: pogrom against Jews across Nazi Germany
· Germany · Europe
On 9 and 10 November 1938, SA and SS forces, joined by Hitler Youth members and some civilians, attacked Jews across Germany while the authorities looked on. Synagogues and Jewish businesses were wrecked, and 30,000 Jewish men were taken into custody and sent off to concentration camps.
Why it is interesting. Its other name, the Night of Broken Glass, refers to the shards of glass left by the smashing of Jewish shops, buildings and synagogues.
Notes and dating details
The lead and the Wikidata description give 9-10 November 1938; Wikidata's date field gives only November 1938. The lead gives vom Rath's assassination as 9 November. Death tolls differ: early reports counted 91 Jews murdered, while the English body says that with deaths from maltreatment after arrest and suicides the total runs much higher, and the German article says several hundred Jews were murdered between 7 and 13 November and estimates all Jewish deaths from the pogroms at 1,000 to 2,000. The French article cites a report by Heydrich of 11 November 1938 giving 36 dead.
The Nanjing Massacre ends after months of atrocities by Japanese troops
· Nanjing, Republic of China (now China) · Asia
Some details uncertain.
After Japanese troops entered Nanjing on 13 December 1937, civilians and prisoners of war were killed and raped in the city until around March 1938. Soldiers burned a third of Nanjing, and neither General Matsui nor Prince Asaka acted to halt the violence.
Why it is interesting. A third of the city was set alight by the occupying troops.
Notes and dating details
The lead says the killings ran from December 1937 to March 1938, and the infobox says atrocities in the Nanjing area ended on 28 March 1938. The infobox also gives a traditional six weeks from 13 December 1937. Wikidata gives the end as 2 February 1938. The sources disagree on the end, so only the month March 1938 is stored, with medium confidence.
Chinese army breaks the Yellow River levees at Huayuankou
· Huayuankou, Henan, Republic of China (now China) · Asia
Some details uncertain.
In June 1938 Chinese forces broke the Yellow River levees at Huayuankou in Henan, and the first wave of floodwater reached Zhongmu County on 13 June. Commanders meant the water as a defensive barrier to slow Japanese forces advancing toward Wuhan.
Why it is interesting. Chinese commanders flooded their own countryside on purpose, and estimates of the people drowned in the immediate aftermath range from 30,000 to 89,000.
Notes and dating details
The English lead gives 13 June 1938 for the first wave of floodwater at Zhongmu County, and the English body says the Huayuankou dike was destroyed on 5 and 7 June; the Chinese article gives 9 June for the breach. The breach day is therefore disputed and only the month is stored. Wikidata gives June 1938. The English lead puts the immediate drowning deaths at 30,000 to 89,000 and all deaths from drowning, famine and plague at 400,000 to 500,000; the body says a Nationalist relief figure of 893,303 from 1948 was discredited. The waters stayed until the dikes were repaired in January 1947.
The Évian Conference on Jewish refugees opens in France
· Évian-les-Bains, France · Europe
Delegates from 32 countries met at Évian-les-Bains in July 1938, at the initiative of US President Roosevelt, to discuss Jewish refugees fleeing Germany and Austria. Only the Dominican Republic offered to accept any of them, with Costa Rica following later.
Why it is interesting. Golda Meir represented Mandatory Palestine at the conference but could only watch the proceedings.
Notes and dating details
The lead gives 6-15 July 1938, matching Wikidata's start of 6 July and end of 15 July.
Superman, created by the writer Jerry Siegel and the artist Joe Shuster, first appeared in Action Comics #1, which reached American readers on 18 April 1938. Raised by the Kents of Smallville, Kansas, he was born on the doomed planet Krypton.
Why it is interesting. He helped popularise the superhero genre, and for decades, until the 1980s, no superhero sold better in American comics.
Notes and dating details
The infobox, lead and body give 18 April 1938 as the publication day, with a cover date of June 1938. Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
The 10th Academy Awards ceremony takes place in Los Angeles
· Los Angeles, California, United States · North America
Hosted by Bob Burns on 10 March 1938, the ceremony honoured films of 1937 and named The Life of Emile Zola Best Picture. The Los Angeles flood of 1938 had pushed it back from 3 March.
Why it is interesting. Luise Rainer won the Best Actress award for her role in The Good Earth, giving her a second Oscar in a row.
Notes and dating details
The infobox and lead give 10 March 1938, the same as Wikidata. The ceremony was originally set for 3 March 1938.
· Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) · Europe
Karel Čapek, the Czech writer, playwright, critic and journalist best known for science fiction, died in Prague as the Second World War loomed. His works include the novel War with the Newts and the play R.U.R.
Why it is interesting. He brought the word robot into use in his play R.U.R.
Notes and dating details
The infobox and lead agree on 25 December 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Prague as the place of death; Wikidata names Vinohrady.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, a field marshal and statesman, died in Istanbul in 1938, having led Turkey since 1923 as the first president of the republic he had founded.
Why it is interesting. Under his reforms Turkey became an industrialising nation, and his policies and theories came to be called Kemalism.
Notes and dating details
The infobox and lead give 10 November 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Istanbul as the place of death; Wikidata names Dolmabahçe Palace. The lead gives his birth year as c. 1881.
The Battle of Wuhan begins in the Second Sino-Japanese War
· Wuhan, Republic of China (now China) · Asia
From 11 June to 27 October 1938, Chinese forces under Chiang Kai-shek, over a million strong, fought Japan's Central China Area Army across five provinces. Japan captured Wuhan but took its heaviest losses of the war, and the conflict then settled into a stalemate of local fights.
Why it is interesting. Within the war it stands out as the largest, longest and bloodiest battle, and Soviet volunteer pilots flew in support of the Chinese forces.
Notes and dating details
The infobox gives 11 June to 27 October 1938, and Wikidata gives the end day 27 October 1938. The lead describes the battle as lasting four and a half months.
SNCF, the national railway company of France, begins operations
Economy & trade
France's state-owned railway operator SNCF took effect on 1 January 1938, formed by nationalising the country's main railway companies under an agreement reached on 31 August 1937 among the government, the private companies and the railway unions.
Notes
The infobox gives 1 January 1938 as the founding date and the lead says it became effective that day, matching Wikidata's year. The infobox gives Saint-Denis as the headquarters.
The Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée railway is absorbed into the new SNCF
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
The PLM, one of France's main railway companies, dated from 1857. On 1 January 1938 the nationalisation of French railways created the SNCF, a majority state-owned company that took in the PLM and used its former head office as its own headquarters.
Notes
The lead, body and Wikidata give 1 January 1938, while the short description at the top of the infobox gives the company's years as 1857 to 1937. The sources differ, so confidence is medium.
Juan Carlos, future King of Spain, is born in Rome
Lives
Juan Carlos was born in Rome on 5 January 1938; his father was Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona, and his grandfather was Alfonso XIII. Franco chose him as his heir, but as king from 1975 until he abdicated in 2014 he steered Spain towards democracy.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 5 January 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Rome as his birthplace.
The Supreme Soviet of the USSR holds its opening session
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The Soviet Union's top legislative body, a two-chamber Supreme Soviet, held its opening session in January 1938, after its first election on 12 December 1937. It replaced the Congress of Soviets as the highest organ of state authority.
Notes
The infobox gives an establishment date of 12 January 1938, matching Wikidata, and the body says the first session was held in January 1938. The lead dates the body from 1936, the year of the constitution that created it, so confidence is medium. The infobox lists the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow as the meeting place.
Gösta Ekman, a Swedish actor, director and singer born in Stockholm on 28 December 1890, died there after a stage and screen career that ran from 1911 to 1937.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 12 January 1938, which is also Wikidata's main date, but Wikidata lists 12 February 1938 as an alternative, so confidence is medium. The infobox gives Stockholm as the place of death.
The Minsk region is created in the Byelorussian SSR
Politics & diplomacy
Founded on 15 January 1938 on the basis of an amendment to the USSR's Constitutional Law, the Minsk region already covered 20 districts by 20 February.
Scotland wins the 1938 Home Nations rugby championship
Sport
Scotland won the Home Nations Championship, played among England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales from 15 January to 19 March 1938, claiming its 12th title.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 15 January to 19 March 1938, matching Wikidata. Matches were played in four countries, so no single place is stored.
The Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme opens in Paris
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
André Breton and Paul Éluard organised the exhibition at the Galerie Beaux-Arts in Paris, which showed paintings, objects, decorated rooms and redesigned mannequins in three sections. The catalogue named Marcel Duchamp generator and arbitrator, with Dalí and Ernst as technical advisers.
Notes
The lead gives 17 January to 24 February 1938, matching Wikidata's dates. The body says the gallery opened on 24 January 1938 with a Jean Cocteau exhibition, which may be a separate show, so the start is not fully settled and confidence is medium.
Anthony Giddens became an English sociologist and has written over 34 books. A 2007 ranking put him fifth among the most-cited authors in the humanities.
Émile Cohl, a French caricaturist and cartoonist of the Incoherent Movement, died at Villejuif. He worked as an animator and is called the Father of the Animated Cartoon.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 20 January 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Villejuif as the place of death.
Georges Méliès, who worked as a filmmaker, actor, magician and toymaker in France, died of cancer in Paris. His trick films made his name for special effects such as dissolves, multiple exposures and time-lapse shots, and A Trip to the Moon (1902) ranks among his best.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 21 January 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Paris as the place of death.
Georg Baselitz is born Hans-Georg Kern in Deutschbaselitz
Lives
Born Hans-Georg Bruno Kern in what is now part of Kamenz in Saxony, Baselitz worked in painting, sculpture and graphic art and held ties to both Germany and Austria. From 1969 he painted his subjects upside down, in a style labelled neo-expressionism.
Notes
Wikidata names Kamenz, which the body gives as the municipality Deutschbaselitz is now part of. Wikidata's day matches the infobox, lead and body.
Vladimir Vysotsky was born in Moscow on 25 January 1938, in a maternity hospital on 3rd Meshchanskaya Street. He grew into a Soviet singer, poet and actor whose slangy, humorous songs carried social and political commentary.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 25 January 1938, matching Wikidata.
Beatrix, future Queen of the Netherlands, is born at Soestdijk Palace
Lives
Beatrix was born at Soestdijk Palace in Baarn while her grandmother Wilhelmina was on the throne. She became heiress presumptive in 1948 when her mother Juliana succeeded, and was queen from 30 April 1980 until abdicating in 2013.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 31 January 1938, matching Wikidata.
Henry King directed In Old Chicago, an American disaster musical drama that fictionalises the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, with Alice Brady as Mrs. O'Leary and her sons played by Tyrone Power and Don Ameche.
Notes
The day comes from the infobox release date, which matches Wikidata.
· New York City, New York, United States · North America
The 1937 New York Film Critics Circle Awards are presented
Stage, music & film
The third New York Film Critics Circle Awards, honouring the best filmmaking of 1937, were presented on 9 January 1938, with The Life of Émile Zola named Best Picture.
Notes
The lead says the winners were announced on 30 December 1937 and the awards were presented on 9 January 1938, matching Wikidata's date. The stored date is the presentation.
· Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States · North America
Donald Knuth is born in Milwaukee
Lives
Donald Ervin Knuth, born in Milwaukee on 10 January 1938, became a computer scientist and mathematician and is now a professor emeritus at Stanford. He won the ACM Turing Award in 1974 and is best known for the multi-volume The Art of Computer Programming.
· Bridger Mountains, Gallatin County, Montana, United States · North America
Northwest Airlines Flight 2 crashes in Montana's Bridger Mountains
Disasters
A Lockheed Super Electra flying east from Seattle toward Chicago hit the Bridger Mountains near Bozeman on 10 January 1938, killing all ten people aboard. It had swung north after Butte to avoid a dust storm near Bozeman Pass.
· Gander, Dominion of Newfoundland (now Canada) · North America
The first landing is made at Gander airport in Newfoundland
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
Captain Douglas Fraser flew an Imperial Airways Fox Moth for the first landing at Gander airport on 11 January 1938, the year the airport opened. The Government of Newfoundland ran it from 1938 to 1942.
Notes
The body says the airport opened in 1938 with a first landing on 11 January, so the official opening day is uncertain and confidence is medium. Wikidata holds the year alone.
Astronomer William Henry Pickering dies in Jamaica
LivesSome details uncertain
William Henry Pickering, an American astronomer who built and set up several observatories, died in Mandeville, Jamaica, where he had spent much of his later life at his own observatory.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body give 16 January 1938, but Wikidata gives 17 January 1938 as the main date and also holds 16 January, so confidence is medium.
· Princeton, New Jersey, United States · North America
Thornton Wilder's play Our Town premieres in Princeton
Art & literature
Thornton Wilder's three-act play Our Town was first performed at Princeton's McCarter Theatre in New Jersey. It is set in an invented small town, Grover's Corners, over the years 1901 to 1913.
Notes
The day comes from the infobox premiere date, which matches Wikidata. Wikidata also lists only the year 1938 as an inception, which is not used.
· Los Angeles, California, United States · North America
Etta James is born in Los Angeles
Lives
Born Jamesetta Hawkins, she began her career in 1954 and ranged across gospel, blues, jazz and soul as well as R&B and rock and roll. Her best-known recordings include At Last in 1960 and I'd Rather Go Blind in 1967.
Nozomu Matsumoto founds the Tokyo firm that became Pioneer
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
Nozomu Matsumoto began a business in Tokyo repairing radios and speakers, in a company whose origins go back to 1937, when he developed the A-8 dynamic speaker. The firm he established in 1938 was named Fukuin Shōkai Denki Seisakusho.
Notes
The lead and body say the firm was established in January 1938; the infobox shows 1 January 1938 and Wikidata matches it, but the text gives no day, so only the month is stored.
· Calcutta, British India (now Kolkata, India) · Asia
Bengali novelist Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay dies in Calcutta
Lives
Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, who wrote novels and short stories in Bengali, died at the Park Nursing Home in south Calcutta. He is regarded as one of India's greatest writers.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 16 January 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Calcutta as the place of death.
The Trautmann mediation to end the Sino-Japanese war ends
Politics & diplomacy
German ambassador Oskar Trautmann had tried since November 1937 to broker peace between Japan and Chiang Kai-shek's government. On 16 January 1938 Konoe announced the First Konoe Statement, refusing further talks with Chiang's government.
Notes
The lead and body agree on 16 January 1938, matching Wikidata.
Islam Karimov, future first president of Uzbekistan, is born in Samarkand
Lives
Islam Karimov was born in Samarkand. He led the Uzbek Communist Party from 1989 to 1991, became president of the Uzbek SSR in March 1990, and remained president of independent Uzbekistan until he died in Tashkent in 2016.
The Palestine Archaeological Museum opens in Jerusalem
Architecture
The museum, next to Herod's Gate, opened to the public on 13 January 1938 to house finds from excavations in Mandatory Palestine. A donation from John D. Rockefeller Jr. paid for it, and Austen Harrison designed it.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 13 January 1938, matching Wikidata. The museum was called the Palestine Archaeological Museum from 1938 to 1967.
Don Budge and Dorothy Bundy Cheney win the 1938 Australian Championships
Sport
The 31st Australian Championships, played on grass at Memorial Drive in Adelaide from 21 to 31 January 1938, opened the Grand Slam year, with Americans Don Budge and Dorothy Bundy Cheney taking the singles titles.
Notes
The lead gives 21 to 31 January in the article on the 1938 edition. Wikidata holds the year alone.
The Fatima Storm lights up skies from Europe to the Americas with aurora
DisastersSome details uncertain
A strong geomagnetic storm produced bright aurora on 25 and 26 January 1938, seen across Europe, the Americas and Oceania, from northern Canada to Southern California and Bermuda and from Scotland to Gibraltar and Portugal. Some Catholics link it to a prophecy made by the Carmelite nun Sister Lúcia Santos.
Notes
The article's name, Wikidata's start and end dates and the aurora reports give 25 to 26 January 1938, while the infobox and lead give the storm as 16 to 26 January, with peaks on 22, 25 and 26 January. The stored dates are the two nights of the great aurora, so confidence is medium. Wikidata's main date is the month only.
The ice hockey club Frölunda HC is founded in Gothenburg
Sport
Frölunda HC began on 3 February 1938 as the ice hockey section of Västra Frölunda IF. It is now a professional club in Gothenburg playing in the Swedish Hockey League.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 3 February 1938. Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
The 1938 World Figure Skating Championships are held in Stockholm and Berlin
Sport
The ladies' event was held in Stockholm on 4 and 5 February 1938, and the men's and pairs events two weeks later in Berlin. Felix Kaspar won the men's title, Megan Taylor the ladies' and Maxi Herber and Ernst Baier the pairs.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on the dates, and Wikidata's start and end dates match. The lead gives the pairs event as 18 February only. The first date is the ladies' event; the men's and pairs events came two weeks later in a different city.
Hitler takes personal command of the Wehrmacht, ending the Reichswehr Ministry
Politics & diplomacy
The German defence ministry had existed since 1919, based in the Bendlerblock in Berlin and growing out of the Prussian Ministry of War. After the Blomberg-Fritsch affair, a decree dated 4 February 1938 put Hitler in direct command of the armed forces, and the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht took the ministry's place.
Notes
Wikidata holds the year alone; the day comes from the infobox and body.
· Alfambra, Teruel province, Aragon, Spain · Europe
The Battle of Alfambra during the Battle of Teruel
War & conflictSome details uncertain
On 5 February 1938 a large Nationalist force broke through Republican lines north of Teruel, in a counteroffensive to retake the city after the Republican army had captured it. The battle ended in a Nationalist victory.
Notes
The infobox gives 5 to 7 February 1938, as does Wikidata, but the lead says 5 to 8 February, so the end date is not settled and confidence is medium.
Axel Paulsen, who skated for Norway in both figure skating and speed skating, died at Nesodden. He invented the Axel jump.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 9 February 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Nesodden as the place of death. The infobox's speed skating years read 1882 to 1990, an apparent typo, so the lead's 1882 to 1890 is used.
Kazimierz Twardowski, a Polish philosopher, psychologist and logician who served as rector of the University of Lwów, died there. He began in the Graz School of object theory around Alexius Meinong.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 11 February 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Lwów, Poland (now Lviv, Ukraine) as the place of death.
Nationalists retake Teruel, ending the Battle of Teruel
War & conflict
The fight for Teruel in the Spanish Civil War ended on 22 February 1938, with Nationalist forces recapturing a city that had changed hands several times. The battle came to be seen as the war's military turning point.
Notes
The infobox gives 15 December 1937 to 22 February 1938, the same end day as Wikidata; the lead says December 1937 to February 1938. The lead puts the combined casualties of both sides at 110,000 over the two months.
On 24 and 25 February 1938 voters filled all 80 seats of the Riigivolikogu, and the pro-government National Front took 64 of them, with sixteen independents also elected.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 24 and 25 February 1938. Wikidata gives the same span.
The fourth Central American and Caribbean Games open in Panama City
Sport
Athletes from ten nations competed in sixteen sports at the fourth Central American and Caribbean Games, held at the Estadio Olímpico Nacional in Panama City from 5 to 24 February 1938. Juan Demóstenes Arosemena opened the games.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 5 to 24 February 1938. The lead counts 1,216 athletes while the infobox counts 1,540, so the athlete total is not given here. Wikidata holds the year alone.
The Big Broadcast of 1938 is released in the United States
Stage, music & film
Mitchell Leisen directed this Paramount Pictures musical comedy starring W. C. Fields, with Bob Hope in a supporting part. It closed a series of Big Broadcast films built as variety-show anthologies.
Notes
The day comes from the infobox release date. Wikidata holds the year alone.
Howard Hawks directed the RKO screwball comedy starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, in which a paleontologist stumbles from one mishap to the next because of a scatterbrained heiress and her pet leopard, Baby.
Notes
The infobox gives 16 February 1938 for the release at the Golden Gate Theatre. Wikidata gives 18 February 1938 and also holds 18 March 1966, so confidence is medium.
· New York City, New York, United States · North America
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is released in New York
Stage, music & film
David O. Selznick produced and Norman Taurog directed The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, an adaptation of Mark Twain's 1876 novel with Tommy Kelly as Tom, and Jackie Moran and Ann Gillis in the cast.
Notes
The day comes from the infobox, which names New York City for the 17 February 1938 release. Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
· Pasadena, California, United States · North America
Astronomer George Ellery Hale dies in Pasadena
Lives
George Ellery Hale, an American astrophysicist best known for finding magnetic fields in sunspots, died in Pasadena, California. He helped plan and build leading telescopes, among them the 40-inch refractor at Yerkes, the Mount Wilson reflectors and the 200-inch Hale telescope at Palomar.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 21 February 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Pasadena as the place of death, and the body says he died at the Las Encinas Sanitarium.
Leopoldo Lugones, an Argentine poet, essayist, novelist, playwright, historian and diplomat, took his own life at the river resort of El Tigre. His poetry is often seen as a founding work of modern Spanish-language poetry.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 18 February 1938, matching Wikidata. The lead says some sources do not count his work as modernismo, while others call him its father.
Japanese aircraft make their first air raid on Chongqing
War & conflict
On 18 February 1938 Japanese aircraft carried out their first, exploratory raid on Chongqing, China's provisional wartime capital. The raids grew far heavier from 1939, and by incomplete counts the city suffered 268 air raids, some by more than 150 bombers.
Notes
The English infobox and lead give 18 February 1938 as the start, and the body calls the strikes from that day exploratory and sporadic until Operation 100 began on 3 May 1939. The German article says the first raid, on 18 February 1938, used nine bombers and killed three people, and that the strategic bombing campaign was ordered on 2 December 1938. The English infobox ends the bombing on 19 December 1944 while Wikidata gives 23 August 1943, so no end date is stored.
The third British Empire Games, forerunner of the Commonwealth Games, ran in Sydney from 5 to 12 February 1938, chosen to fit Sydney's 150th anniversary of British settlement. The Sydney Cricket Ground served as the main stadium.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 5-12 February 1938, matching Wikidata's start and end days; Wikidata's main date gives only the year 1938.
· Drifting ice floe near the eastern coast of Greenland · The poles
The crew of the Soviet drifting station North Pole-1 is taken off the ice near Greenland
Exploration
North Pole-1, the first crewed station to drift on the Arctic Ocean, was set up in May 1937 under Ivan Papanin, and on 19 February 1938 the icebreakers Taimyr and Murman took off its crew near eastern Greenland. All four members received the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
Notes
Wikidata's day matches the lead. The lead says the station operated for 9 months.
The third Moscow show trial tries the Bloc of Rightists and Trotskyites
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
In March 1938 the last of Stalin's three Moscow show trials put members of the alleged Bloc of Rightists and Trotskyites on trial. Across the three trials, most defendants were executed.
Notes
The lead dates the third trial to March 1938, matching Wikidata's month. The trials are described as part of Stalin's Great Purge.
Construction of the airfield at Caen-Carpiquet is finished
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
Building work on the airfield at Carpiquet, west of Caen, ran from July 1937 to March 1938, after the idea had first been put forward in 1926. It was formally inaugurated as an air base in August 1939.
Notes
The infobox gives 1938 as the opening year and the body says work ended in March 1938, but the body also gives 17 August 1939 for the base's inauguration, so the date is stored at month precision for the end of construction, with medium confidence. Wikidata holds the year alone.
Gabriele D'Annunzio, an Italian poet, orator, playwright and journalist as well as a First World War army officer, died at Gardone Riviera. His writing belonged to the Decadent movement.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 1 March 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Gardone Riviera, Lombardy, as the place of death.
Polish prime minister Władysław Grabski dies in Warsaw
Lives
Władysław Grabski, a Polish historian, economist and politician of the National Democratic camp, died in Warsaw. He was prime minister in 1920 and again from 1923 to 1925.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 1 March 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Warsaw as the place of death.
Mallard, a streamlined steam locomotive designed by Nigel Gresley and shaped with the help of wind-tunnel tests, left Doncaster Works and entered service with the London and North Eastern Railway on 3 March 1938.
Notes
The infobox and body give 3 March 1938 as the date it was built and entered service. The lead dates the world speed record to 3 July 1938; Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
The Battle of Cape Palos, a night naval clash of the Spanish Civil War
War & conflict
Nationalist cruisers and destroyers that had left Palma de Mallorca on 5 March 1938 met opposing squadrons coming the other way, by chance and in the dark, east of Cape Palos near Cartagena. The Republicans won.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 5-6 March 1938, matching Wikidata's start and end days.
The Nationalist Aragon Offensive begins in the Spanish Civil War
War & conflict
The Nationalist attack opened on 7 March 1938, after heavy artillery and air bombardment, following the Battle of Teruel. It crushed the Republican forces, overran Aragon and took parts of Catalonia and the Levante.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 7 March to 19 April 1938, matching Wikidata's start and end days.
Albert Fert, born in Carcassonne on 7 March 1938, is a French physicist who helped discover giant magnetoresistance, a breakthrough that made gigabyte hard disks possible. He shared the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics with Peter Grunberg.
On 12 March 1938 Austria was absorbed into Nazi Germany, realising the old idea of a Greater Germany. Nazi agents in Austria had encouraged pro-union feeling there beforehand.
Notes
The lead gives 12 March 1938 for the annexation. The body says the annexation was given legal effect by a legislative act of 13 March, and Wikidata gives 13 March, so confidence is medium. The German article says German troops marched in on 12 March and the Seyss-Inquart government enacted the union law on 13 March, which it calls the legal date of the Anschluss.
The Fatherland Front, the governing political body of Austria's Federal State, was dissolved on 13 March 1938. Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss had set it up on 20 May 1933 as the only legally permitted party.
Notes
The infobox gives 13 March 1938 for the dissolution, linked to the Anschluss, matching Wikidata. The lead says Schuschnigg was forced to resign on 11 March 1938 and that Nazi Germany annexed Austria on the following day. The article names no city for the dissolution, so only the state of the time is given.
The Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line becomes a separate Moscow Metro line
Architecture
On 13 March 1938 the branch that had been extended to Kiyevsky railway station in 1937 was split off from the Sokolnicheskaya line as a line of its own, and a stretch joining Alexander Garden and Kursky railway station opened at the same time.
Notes
The infobox and the body timeline give 13 March 1938, matching Wikidata.
Nikolai Bukharin, a Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician and Marxist theorist, was shot by firing squad in Moscow. After the October Revolution he edited Pravda, and he held office in the Soviet government from 1917 until the purge that caught him in 1937.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 15 March 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Moscow as the place of death and execution by firing squad as the cause; Wikidata names the Kommunarka shooting ground, which the infobox lists as the resting place.
Genrikh Yagoda, who directed the NKVD from 1934 to 1936, was shot in Moscow after his arrest in 1937 on charges of wrecking, espionage, Trotskyism and conspiracy. Stalin had appointed him, and he supervised the arrests, show trials and executions of Kamenev and Zinoviev.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 15 March 1938, but Wikidata also holds 15 May 1938, so confidence is medium. The infobox gives Moscow as the place of death; Wikidata names the Kommunarka shooting ground.
Alexei Rykov, a Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet statesman, was premier of Russia from 1924 to 1929 and of the Soviet Union until 1930. Stalin's show trials of the Great Purge numbered him among the accused.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 15 March 1938, as do Wikidata and the German article, but one sentence in the English body says he was executed by firing squad on 14 March 1938, so confidence is medium. The lead says he and Bukharin were found guilty of treason in March 1938 and executed.
From 16 to 18 March 1938 air raids led by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany struck Barcelona in support of Franco's Nationalist army. Estimates of the dead range from at least 700 to 1,300, with 1,200 to 2,000 people wounded.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 16-18 March 1938, matching Wikidata's start and end days. The English lead names Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany and gives up to 1,300 dead and at least 2,000 wounded; the English section on the bombing itself says the raids were by the Italian Aviazione Legionaria flying from Mallorca, with the first raid made by German Heinkel He 51 fighters. The lower figures come from the German article (See- und Luftangriffe auf Barcelona), in its section on the heaviest raids of March 1938: at least 700 dead and 1,200 wounded (Sullivan), about 1,000 dead and 2,000 wounded (Beevor), 1,300 dead and 2,000 wounded (Thomas) and 979 dead and 1,500 wounded (Arnabat Mata).
Nationalists win the Battle of Caspe in the Aragon Offensive
War & conflict
The Battle of Caspe, fought on 16 and 17 March 1938 during the Nationalist Aragon Offensive of the Spanish Civil War, ended in a Nationalist victory. The Republican side included the XV International Brigade.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 16 to 17 March 1938, matching Wikidata's start and end dates.
On 17 March 1938 Poland, emboldened by international acceptance of the annexation of Austria, demanded that Lithuania set up diplomatic relations with Warsaw within 48 hours. Lithuania, preferring peace to war, accepted on 19 March.
Notes
The lead gives 17 March 1938 for delivery, as does Wikidata; the lead also says Poland decided on 12 March to deliver it and Lithuania accepted on 19 March. A border shooting on 11 March 1938, in which a Lithuanian guard killed a Polish soldier, preceded it.
Belgium's Jules Lowie won the sixth Paris-Nice stage race, which ran from Paris to Nice between 23 and 27 March 1938, ahead of Albertin Disseaux in second and Antoon van Schendel of the Netherlands in third.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 23 to 27 March 1938. Wikidata gives the same span.
The Nationalists won the Battle of Lleida, fought in the city of Lleida in western Catalonia between 26 March and 3 April 1938.
Notes
The infobox gives 26 March to 3 April 1938, while Wikidata gives 27 March to 3 April 1938, so the start day is not settled and confidence is medium. The lead says it took place in 1938.
· Camberwell, London, England, United Kingdom · Europe
Anthony Leggett is born in Camberwell, London
Lives
Anthony James Leggett, a British-American theoretical physicist who worked at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, was born in south London. He won the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics for work on superfluidity.
Notes
Wikidata's day matches the infobox, lead and body.
Klaus Schwab, later creator of the World Economic Forum, is born in Ravensburg
Lives
Klaus Martin Schwab, a German mechanical engineer and economist, founded the World Economic Forum and chaired it from January 1971 until he resigned in April 2025.
Notes
Wikidata's day matches the infobox, lead and body. The infobox gives 21 April 2025 as the end of his term as chairman.
· Chicago, Illinois, United States · North America
Lynn Margulis is born in Chicago
Lives
Born Lynn Petra Alexander, she became an evolutionary biologist who championed symbiosis, proposing that eukaryotes arose when bacteria merged symbiotically. Together with Britain's James Lovelock, a chemist, she worked out the Gaia hypothesis.
· Manhattan, New York, United States · North America
David Baltimore is born in Manhattan
Lives
David Baltimore won a share of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, alongside Renato Dulbecco and Howard Temin, for discovering reverse transcriptase. He founded the Whitehead Institute, running it from 1982 to 1990, and later became president of Caltech.
Notes
Wikidata names Manhattan as the place, and the body agrees. The infobox gives New York City. Wikidata's day matches the infobox, lead and body.
· Los Angeles, California, United States · North America
The 10th Academy Awards ceremony takes place in Los Angeles
Stage, music & film
Hosted by Bob Burns on 10 March 1938, the ceremony honoured films of 1937 and named The Life of Emile Zola Best Picture. The Los Angeles flood of 1938 had pushed it back from 3 March.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 10 March 1938, the same as Wikidata. The ceremony was originally set for 3 March 1938.
William Wyler directed this Warner Bros. romantic drama, starring Bette Davis and Henry Fonda, about Julie Marsden, a headstrong young woman in the antebellum South who loses the man she loves. It was adapted from a 1933 play by Owen Davis Sr.
Notes
The infobox lists a New York City release on 10 March 1938 and a United States release on 26 March 1938. Wikidata gives 31 March 1938 and also holds 10 March, 26 March, 14 April and 29 August 1938, so confidence is medium.
· Chicago, Illinois, United States · North America
Lawyer Clarence Darrow dies in Chicago
Lives
Clarence Darrow, an American lawyer and politician, died in Chicago. He first became prominent defending trade union causes, and later appeared in the Scopes "monkey" trial, the Leopold and Loeb murder case and the Ossian Sweet defense.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 13 March 1938, as does Wikidata.
In a radio speech on 18 March 1938, President Lázaro Cárdenas announced the expropriation decree declaring all oil and mineral reserves in Mexico the property of the nation. The state took over the reserves, facilities and foreign oil companies, including US and Anglo-Dutch operators.
Notes
The lead and body agree on 18 March 1938, matching Wikidata. The body dates the decree creating PEMEX to 7 June 1938 and the Mexican Supreme Court's ruling that the expropriation was lawful to 2 December 1939.
· New York City, New York, United States · North America
Economist John Bates Clark dies in New York City
Lives
John Bates Clark, an American neoclassical economist and early figure in the marginalist revolution, died in New York City. He spent most of his working life teaching at Columbia University.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 21 March 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives New York City as the place of death.
Ernst Lubitsch's Bluebeard's Eighth Wife is released
Stage, music & film
Ernst Lubitsch produced and directed this American romantic comedy with Claudette Colbert and Gary Cooper, based on a 1921 French play by Alfred Savoir.
Notes
The day comes from the infobox release date. Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
· Colony of Barbados (now Barbados) · North America
The Barbados Progressive League, now the Barbados Labour Party, is founded
Politics & diplomacy
The Barbados Progressive League, later the Barbados Labour Party, took shape on 31 March 1938 at a first meeting in James Martineau's house, where Chrissie Brathwaite became chairman and Grantley Adams vice-chairman. It kept the League name until 1944.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 31 March 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox lists Sir Grantley Adams as founder; the body says only that he was elected vice-chairman at the first meeting, so the summary describes that. The body says the League name was used until 1944.
The Nanjing Massacre ends after months of atrocities by Japanese troops
War & conflictSome details uncertain
After Japanese troops entered Nanjing on 13 December 1937, civilians and prisoners of war were killed and raped in the city until around March 1938. Soldiers burned a third of Nanjing, and neither General Matsui nor Prince Asaka acted to halt the violence.
Notes
The lead says the killings ran from December 1937 to March 1938, and the infobox says atrocities in the Nanjing area ended on 28 March 1938. The infobox also gives a traditional six weeks from 13 December 1937. Wikidata gives the end as 2 February 1938. The sources disagree on the end, so only the month March 1938 is stored, with medium confidence.
Nikkyō Niwano and Myōkō Naganuma found Risshō Kōsei Kai in Tokyo
Religion & philosophy
Two former members of Reiyūkai, Nikkyō Niwano and Myōkō Naganuma, started this lay Buddhist movement, which centres on the Lotus Sutra and honours ancestors. It went by another name until June 1960.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 5 March 1938, while the lead gives the year 1938. Wikidata holds the year alone.
· Taierzhuang, Republic of China (now China) · Asia
The Battle of Taierzhuang begins as China fights Japan
War & conflictSome details uncertain
Chinese and Japanese armies met at Taierzhuang at the peak of the Xuzhou Campaign. Street fighting at close quarters nullified Japan's advantage in cannon and heavy artillery, and the Japanese withdrew after two weeks with heavy casualties.
Notes
The infobox gives 22 March to 7 April 1938. Wikidata gives 24 March 1938 as the start and 7 April 1938 as the end, so the start day differs and confidence is medium.
Franco's Nationalists set out to take Valencia, a city in Republican hands, and occupied the province of Castellón. The offensive failed because of bad weather and tough Republican resistance at the XYZ line.
Notes
The infobox gives 25 April to 24 July 1938, the lead says the offensive was launched near the end of March 1938, and Wikidata gives 23 April to 25 July 1938. The days are not settled, so only the months of April and July are stored.
The Balaguer Offensive: Republican counterattacks near Balaguer
War & conflictSome details uncertain
After the Aragon Offensive, Republican forces mounted a series of counterattacks around Balaguer, which Nationalist forces had taken on 5 and 6 April 1938, together with its Segre bridge on 10 April. The offensive failed.
Notes
The infobox says April and May 1938, the lead says spring and summer 1938, and Wikidata says May 1938. The History section dates the Nationalist capture of Balaguer to 5-6 April and of the Segre bridge to 10 April, the first Republican counterattacks to 12-15 April and a second series to 22-29 May (a last effort followed on 9-11 August). The date is stored at month precision as April 1938, with medium confidence.
Nationalists win the Battle of Gandesa in the Spanish Civil War
War & conflict
The Battle of Gandesa took place from 1 to 3 April 1938 during the Spanish Civil War and ended in a Nationalist victory over Republican forces that included the XV International Brigade under Robert Hale Merriman.
Notes
The infobox gives 1 to 3 April 1938, matching Wikidata's start and end dates. The lead says April 1938.
The Wehrmacht forms the 3rd Mountain Division in Graz
War & conflict
After the Anschluss, units of the Austrian Army, the 5th and 7th Divisions, were merged into this new division, which was garrisoned at Graz. In 1939 it fought in Poland with Army Group South before moving to the West Wall.
Notes
The day comes from the infobox, which gives 1 April 1938 as the start date. The lead gives the year 1938, and Wikidata holds the year alone.
The Battle of the Segre begins in the Spanish Civil War
War & conflict
The Battle of the Segre was a series of battles along the Segre River, following the Nationalist breakthrough of the Republican lines in the Aragon Offensive. It ended in a Nationalist victory.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 4 April 1938 to 3 January 1939, matching Wikidata's start date. The body says the Republic held the line until early January 1939.
Hitler turns the first sod on the West Autobahn near Salzburg
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
Hitler cut the first sod at Walserberg, with Fritz Todt at his side, to begin work on the first stretches near Salzburg a few weeks after the Anschluss. The road was part of a planned eastward extension of the Reichsautobahn from Munich toward Linz and Vienna.
Notes
The day comes from a picture caption in the body, and the running text says work began a few weeks after the Anschluss, so confidence is medium. Wikidata holds the year alone.
· Chernyi Otrog, Orenburg Oblast, Soviet Union (now Russia) · Europe
Viktor Chernomyrdin is born in Chernyi Otrog
Lives
Viktor Chernomyrdin was born in Orenburg Oblast and rose through the Soviet gas industry, serving as minister from 1985 to 1989 and then becoming the first chairman of Gazprom. He was Russia's prime minister from 1992 to 1998.
The 1st Mountain Division is formed at Garmisch-Partenkirchen
War & conflict
The division grew out of the Mountain Brigade, formed in June 1935, and fought in the Polish campaign of September 1939 with Army Group South. It was later involved in large-scale war crimes.
Notes
The lead gives 9 April 1938. The infobox gives 1938 as the start of its dates, and Wikidata holds the year alone.
Germany holds its last Nazi-era Reichstag election alongside the Anschluss vote
Politics & diplomacy
On 10 April 1938 voters in Germany and newly annexed Austria faced a single question that joined approval of the Nazi list to approval of the annexation. The official results claimed a 99.6% turnout and 99.1% in favour.
Notes
The infobox gives 10 April 1938 and 4 December 1938 (the Sudetenland election); the lead gives 10 April for the main vote. Wikidata gives 10 April 1938.
On 10 April 1938, a month after German troops occupied the country, a sham vote on the Anschluss was held in Austria and in Germany, with officially 99.73% in favour. About 360,000 people, among them Communists, socialists, Roma and Jewish citizens, were barred from voting.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 10 April 1938, matching Wikidata.
Feodor Chaliapin, a Russian opera singer with a deep, expressive bass voice, died in Paris. His career took him to important opera houses around the world, and his last stage performance was as Boris Godunov at Monte Carlo in 1937.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 12 April 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Paris as the place of death.
Gillis Grafström, a Swedish figure skater born in Stockholm, died in Potsdam. He won Olympic gold in men's figure skating three times in a row, in 1920, 1924 and 1928.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 14 April 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Potsdam as the place of death.
The Nazi government forces the merger that creates VfL Bochum
Sport
Under pressure from the Nazi government, three Bochum sports clubs merged in 1938 to form VfL Bochum: Bochumer Turnverein 1848, Turn- und Sport Bochum 1908 and Germania Vorwärts Bochum 1906.
Notes
The body dates the merger to 14 April 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives 26 July 1848 as the founding date, which reflects the oldest predecessor club rather than the 1938 merger.
César Vallejo, a Peruvian poet, writer, playwright and journalist, died in Paris, where he had lived since leaving for Europe after 1923. Only two collections of his poems appeared in print during his life.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 15 April 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Paris as the place of death.
Leni Riefenstahl wrote, directed and produced Olympia, a documentary of the 1936 Berlin Summer Olympics released in two parts, Festival of Nations and Festival of Beauty. The censors approved it on 14 April 1938.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 20 April 1938. Wikidata gives only the year. The article calls it a propaganda and documentary film from the Nazi period.
· Kommunarka shooting ground, Moscow Oblast, Soviet Union (now Russia) · Europe
Writer Boris Pilnyak is executed
Lives
Boris Pilnyak, a Russian and Soviet writer born in Mozhaysk as Boris Vogau, was shot by order of the Soviet authorities on false charges of conspiring to murder Stalin and Yezhov. His trial, guilty plea and execution all took place on one day.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 21 April 1938. Wikidata's alternative date of 21 April 1937 conflicts with the article and is not used. The infobox gives the Kommunarka shooting ground as the place.
Dupuis launches the Belgian comics magazine Spirou
Art & literature
Dupuis began publishing the weekly comics magazine Spirou on 21 April 1938, an anthology that combined brief humorous strips with serialised features. The first issues were large, in French only and sold only in Wallonia.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body give 21 April 1938, as does the Spirou et Fantasio article's body. Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
Estonia's electoral assembly chooses Konstantin Päts as president
Politics & diplomacy
An assembly made up of both chambers of the legislature plus 120 municipal representatives voted on 24 April 1938, and Konstantin Päts, then President-Regent, was the only candidate. He received 219 of the 240 delegates' votes.
Secker and Warburg of London published Orwell's memoir of fighting in the Spanish Civil War, his sixth book, on 25 April 1938. It covers December 1936 to June 1937, from training in Barcelona to boredom on the Aragon front.
Notes
The infobox gives 25 April 1938 as the release date, matching Wikidata; the lead says 1938.
The Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement ends the trade war between Britain and Ireland
Economy & trade
From 1932 the two countries had hit each other with punitive trade restrictions, after Ireland stopped paying land annuities to Britain. The 1938 agreement removed all the tariffs and Britain returned the Treaty Ports to Ireland.
Notes
The end day comes from the infobox, whose range ends on 25 April 1938; the lead gives 1932 to 1938 and the body says an agreement was drawn up in 1938. Wikidata holds the year alone.
Edmund Husserl, the philosopher and mathematician who founded the school of phenomenology, died in Freiburg after an illness, having held a chair there from 1916 until his retirement in 1928.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 27 April 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Freiburg as the place of death.
· New York City, New York, United States · North America
The Adventures of Marco Polo opens in New York
Stage, music & film
Archie Mayo directed this American historical adventure film, with Gary Cooper, Sigrid Gurie and Basil Rathbone in the leading roles. It was released in New York on 7 April 1938.
Notes
The day comes from the infobox, which names New York City for the 7 April 1938 release. Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
· San Francisco, California, United States · North America
Jerry Brown is born in San Francisco
Lives
Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. was California's governor twice, in 1975-1983 and 2011-2019. He was also secretary of state from 1971 to 1975, Oakland's mayor from 1999 to 2007, and state attorney general from 2007 to 2011.
· Savannah, Georgia, United States · North America
Jazz cornetist King Oliver dies in Savannah
LivesSome details uncertain
King Oliver, who played the cornet and led jazz bands in the United States, died in poverty in a Savannah rooming house. He wrote tunes still played today, including Dippermouth Blues, Canal Street Blues and Doctor Jazz.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 10 April 1938, as does Wikidata. The body says he died around April 1938, and a footnote says the date is disputed: his grave marker, John Chilton's Who's Who in Jazz and AllMusic give 8 April, while Peter Hanley quotes 10 April from his Chatham County, Georgia, death certificate. Confidence is medium. The infobox gives Savannah, Georgia, as the place of death.
· New York City, New York, United States · North America
The film Test Pilot is released
Stage, music & film
Victor Fleming directed this American drama, with Clark Gable, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy in the lead roles, about a daredevil test pilot, his wife and his best friend.
Notes
The infobox gives 15 April 1938 for New York City and Los Angeles and 22 April 1938 for the wider US release. Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
Superman, created by the writer Jerry Siegel and the artist Joe Shuster, first appeared in Action Comics #1, which reached American readers on 18 April 1938. Raised by the Kents of Smallville, Kansas, he was born on the doomed planet Krypton.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body give 18 April 1938 as the publication day, with a cover date of June 1938. Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
· Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States · North America
Bernard Madoff is born in Brooklyn
Lives
Bernard Madoff was raised in Laurelton, studied at Hofstra University and started a penny stock brokerage in 1960, later serving as chairman of Nasdaq. He admitted to running the largest Ponzi scheme known and was arrested on 11 December 2008.
Notes
Wikidata names Queens as the place, which the article does not confirm. Wikidata's day matches the infobox and lead.
Muhammad Iqbal, an Islamic philosopher whose Urdu verse ranks among the finest of the 20th century, died in Lahore. Many credit his vision for British India's Muslims with driving the Pakistan Movement.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 21 April 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Lahore as the place of death.
The future UN secretary-general Kofi Annan was born in Kumasi, in what was then the Gold Coast. He served as the UN's seventh secretary-general from 1997 to 2006, and he and the organisation shared the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 8 April 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Kumasi as his birthplace.
· La Goulette, French Tunisia (now Tunisia) · Africa
Claudia Cardinale is born in La Goulette
Lives
Claudia Cardinale, born Claude Joséphine Rose Cardinale in La Goulette on 15 April 1938, became an Italian-Tunisian actress and a leading figure in Italian cinema. She appeared in more than 175 films, mostly in Italy and France, and died in 2025.
· Bletchley, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom · Europe
Admiral Sir Hugh Sinclair buys Bletchley Park for use in wartime
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
In May 1938 Sinclair, an admiral who headed MI6, bought the Bletchley mansion and estate for use if war came, after a builder had bought it planning a housing development. In the Second World War it became the main Allied code-breaking centre.
Notes
The body gives May 1938 for the purchase of the site; the infobox gives other completion dates. Wikidata gives the year 1938.
Nazi Germany creates the Anschluss Commemorative Medal
Politics & diplomacy
The medal marked Germany's takeover of Austria and went to German servicemen and to Austrians who had helped bring the Anschluss about. Awards ended on 31 December 1940, and it was the first in the series of Occupation Medals.
Notes
The body gives 1 May 1938 for the institution, and the infobox gives the same date as the first award. The inscription cites 13 March 1938 as the day of the annexation, whereas troops are said to have crossed the border on 12 March 1938.
The Krymsky Bridge across the Moskva River is completed
Architecture
The steel suspension bridge carries the Garden Ring over the Moskva River south-west of the Kremlin, and was completed on 1 May 1938. V. P. Konstantinov engineered it and A. V. Vlasov was the architect.
Notes
The lead and body agree on 1 May 1938, matching Wikidata.
Agatha Christie's Appointment with Death is published in the UK
Art & literature
The Collins Crime Club first published this Hercule Poirot mystery in the UK on 2 May 1938, and Dodd, Mead and Company brought out the US edition later that year.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 2 May 1938, matching Wikidata.
Leeds City station opens, combining the New and Wellington stations
Architecture
The merged Leeds City station opened on 2 May 1938, bringing the New and Wellington stations together. It was rebuilt in 1967 and again in 2002, and Network Rail now manages it.
Notes
Wikidata holds the year alone; the day comes from the infobox and the history section on the 1938 rebuilding. The infobox lists the rebuildings of 1967 and 2002, and the history section has a part on each; the infobox and lead name Network Rail as manager.
The Flossenbürg concentration camp opens in Bavaria
War & conflict
The SS Main Economic and Administrative Office built Flossenbürg in May 1938, in a remote part of the Fichtel Mountains near the Czechoslovak border. Its first purpose was to make prisoners quarry granite for Nazi building projects.
Notes
The infobox gives 3 May 1938 as the start of operation, and the English body says a transport of 100 prisoners from Dachau arrived that day, establishing the camp; the German article gives the same arrival and the French article gives 3 May 1938 for the first registered prisoner. Wikidata gives May 1938 as a month. The English lead says that between 89,964 and 100,000 prisoners went through the camp and its subcamps, of whom around 30,000 died.
Nobel Peace laureate Carl von Ossietzky dies in police custody
Lives
Carl von Ossietzky, a German journalist and pacifist who won the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize for exposing secret German rearmament, died in a Berlin hospital while still in police custody. He died of tuberculosis and the lasting effects of his mistreatment.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 4 May 1938, as does Wikidata. The body places the death in the Nordend hospital in Berlin-Pankow.
Douglas Hyde is elected unopposed as the first President of Ireland
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The Constitution of Ireland took effect on 29 December 1937 and created the office of president. When nominations closed at noon on 4 May 1938, Douglas Hyde was the only person nominated, and he accepted his election that day; a poll had been set for 31 May in case one was needed.
Notes
The body says Hyde was the only nominee when nominations closed at noon on 4 May 1938 and that he accepted the nominations and his election that day. The infobox gives 31 May 1938 (unopposed), the date the nominations order had set for a poll if one was needed. Wikidata holds the year alone.
The 26th Giro d'Italia, organised by the newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport, ran from 7 to 29 May 1938, starting and finishing in Milan. Giovanni Valetti of the Fréjus team won, ahead of Ezio Cecchi and Severino Canavesi.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 7 to 29 May 1938, matching Wikidata's start and end days.
Giuliano Amato, born in Turin, served twice as Italy's prime minister, in 1992-1993 and 2000-2001. He later became a vice president of the convention that drafted a European constitution.
The Second International Aeronautic Exhibition is held in Helsinki
Technology
Twenty-five countries, among them Czechoslovakia, Germany and Great Britain, took part in the Second International Aeronautic Exhibition at the Helsinki-Malmi Airport from 14 to 22 May 1938. The Bureau International des Expositions recognised it as a specialised exhibition.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 14 to 22 May 1938, matching Wikidata's dates. The lead and infobox give a visitor count of 15 million, which looks implausibly high, so it is not used.
The 1938 FIRA Tournament, third Rugby Union European championship, begins in Bucharest
Sport
Only three teams played in the third European rugby championship, which was organised by the recently created FIRA and played in Bucharest from 15 to 22 May 1938.
Notes
Wikidata gives 15 May 1938 as the start and 22 May as the end, matching the infobox.
Marcel Carné's Port of Shadows is released in France
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Marcel Carné directed this French film, an example of poetic realism, with Jean Gabin, Michel Simon and Michèle Morgan, from Jacques Prévert's screenplay adapting a Pierre Mac Orlan novel.
Notes
The infobox gives 18 May 1938 for France. Wikidata's main date is 17 May 1938, with 18 May and 29 October 1939 as alternatives, so confidence is medium.
The ice hockey club that became Adler Mannheim is founded
Sport
The club began as the Mannheim Ice and Roller Sport Club, known as MERC, and played its first match on 19 February 1939 in the new Friedrichspark Stadium. Today it plays in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga and has won eight German titles.
Notes
The body gives 19 May 1938, while the infobox and lead give the year 1938. Wikidata holds the year alone.
· Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic and Slovakia) · Europe
The May Crisis: a war scare over German troop movements near Czechoslovakia
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
On 19 May 1938 reports of German military concentrations near Czechoslovakia sparked fears of imminent attack, at a time of already high tension after the Anschluss and unrest in the Sudetenland. Anxiety soon eased when no real troop concentrations were found.
Notes
The body dates the first reports to 19 May 1938, and the aftermath directive to 30 May 1938, so the start day is taken from the body with medium confidence. Wikidata holds the year alone.
Ukrainian nationalist leader Yevhen Konovalets is assassinated in Rotterdam
Lives
Yevhen Konovalets, a Ukrainian military commander and nationalist political leader, was assassinated by the Soviet NKVD in Rotterdam. He had led the Sich Riflemen in the Ukrainian War of Independence.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 23 May 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Rotterdam as the place of death.
On 25 May 1938 Italian Aviazione Legionaria bombers based on Mallorca attacked Alicante, and many bombs fell on the central market and nearby streets. Estimates put the civilian dead at between 275 and 393, and reports speak of 1,000 wounded.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 25 May 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox casualty line and the body's section on the bombing give the civilian death toll as a range, 275 to 393, with 1,000 wounded, and the body quotes Preston as saying several hundred civilians were killed. Spanish and French Wikipedia give more than 300 dead (275 in the cemetery register) and more than 1,000 wounded. The English lead's sentence that historians count it among the deadliest raids of the war carries a 'who' tag and names no historian, so it was not used.
Murmansk Oblast was set up on 28 May 1938 using land from Leningrad Oblast and the Karelian ASSR. Today it is a federal subject in northwestern Russia, bordering Finland and Norway.
Notes
The infobox and body give 28 May 1938, as does Wikidata.
Hindemith's opera Mathis der Maler premieres in Zürich
Stage, music & film
Hindemith's opera Mathis der Maler, whose central figure is the painter Matthias Grünewald set against the German Peasants' War of 1524 to 1525, was first performed at the Zürich Opera House under Robert Denzler.
Notes
The infobox and the performance history section agree on 28 May 1938, matching Wikidata. The lead gives the Peasants' War as 1524-25 and says Hindemith finished the opera, with his own libretto, in 1935.
San Marino holds a one-party general election under the Fascists
Politics & diplomacy
The Sammarinese Fascist Party had ruled the country since April 1923, and on 29 May 1938 it was the only party to contest the election, taking all 60 seats.
On 31 May 1938 Italy's Aviazione Legionaria bombed the Catalan town of Granollers during the Spanish Civil War, using Savoia-Marchetti bombers. Between 100 and 224 civilians died.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 31 May 1938, matching Wikidata. The civilian death toll is given as a range, 100 to 224, with most of the dead described as women and children.
The 1938 Pulitzer Prizes were announced on 2 May at the yearly alumni dinner of Columbia's School of Journalism. Columbia's president, Nicholas Murray Butler, and journalism dean Carl W. Ackerman made the presentation, which went out nationwide on NBC's Red Network.
Notes
The lead gives 2 May 1938. Wikidata holds the year alone.
· New York City, New York, United States · North America
The Cloisters museum opens in New York
Architecture
The Cloisters, run by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Upper Manhattan's Fort Tryon Park, opened officially on 10 May 1938, although the public could not visit until four days later. It specialises in European medieval art and architecture.
Notes
The infobox and body give 10 May 1938 for the official opening, matching Wikidata. The body says visitors were admitted four days later, on 14 May.
· Hastings, Nebraska, United States · North America
Ivan Sutherland is born in Hastings, Nebraska
Lives
Ivan Edward Sutherland is widely seen as a pioneer of computer graphics, and in the 1970s he taught the subject with David C. Evans at the University of Utah. He won the 1988 ACM Turing Award for inventing Sketchpad.
· Clatskanie, Oregon, United States · North America
Raymond Carver is born in Clatskanie, Oregon
Lives
Raymond Carver wrote American short fiction and poetry. His 1981 collection about talking of love won him immediate acclaim, and Cathedral, published in 1983, is often regarded as his masterpiece.
· Chelyan, West Virginia, United States · North America
Jerry West is born in Chelyan, West Virginia
Lives
Jerry West spent his professional career with the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA. His silhouette is the basis of the league's logo, which earned him the nickname the Logo, and a buzzer-beating long shot against the Knicks in the 1970 Finals helped win him the name Mr. Clutch.
Integralists attempt a coup against President Vargas in Rio de Janeiro
War & conflict
During the Estado Novo, the Brazilian Integralist Action tried to overthrow President Getulio Vargas, striking on the night of 10 May and into the next morning. Vargas and his daughter Alzira traded gunfire with the rebels outside Guanabara Palace, and the government put the revolt down.
Notes
Wikidata holds the year alone. The lead also mentions an earlier failed Integralist revolt attempt on 10 March 1938, which is a separate episode.
River Plate's Monumental Stadium in the Belgrano neighbourhood of Buenos Aires opened in 1938, after being built between 1936 and 1938 on land the club bought on 31 October 1934.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 26 May 1938, matching Wikidata. Its later capacity is given in the lead as 85,018.
· Shanghai (Pudong), Republic of China (now China) · Asia
The Great Way Government of Shanghai ends by recognising the Reformed Government
Politics & diplomacy
Japanese-backed authorities had proclaimed the puppet state at Pudong in December 1937 to administer occupied Shanghai. On 3 May 1938 its mayor Su Xiwen formally recognised the Reformed Government of China, set up at Nanjing in March, and took on its flag.
· Xiamen (Amoy), Republic of China (now China) · Asia
Japan lands troops at Xiamen in the Amoy Operation
War & conflict
Under cover of a naval bombardment, Japan landed more than 2,000 troops on Amoy Island, with Koichi Shiozawa, commander of the Fifth Fleet, overseeing the operation.
Notes
The infobox gives 10 May 1938. Wikidata gives 10 to 12 May 1938, and the end date is not confirmed by the article.
Tsuyama massacre: a mass murder-suicide in a village in Okayama Prefecture
War & conflict
In the early hours of 21 May 1938, a 21-year-old man in a village near Tsuyama killed 30 people, among them his grandmother, before shooting himself. His suicide notes pointed to revenge for social rejection and the stigma of tuberculosis.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 21 May 1938, matching Wikidata; the infobox gives the time as 1:30 to 3:00 a.m. The lead says he was diagnosed with tuberculosis in May 1937, whereas the body says he contracted pleurisy in May 1937. The place is the village of Kamocho Yukishige near Kamo, in Tsuyama, Okayama Prefecture.
RS Berkane started on 21 May 1938 as Association Sportive de Berkane and took its present name, Renaissance Sportive de Berkane, in 1978. It plays in Morocco's top division, the Botola Pro.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 21 May 1938, while the body and Wikidata give the year.
Judo founder Kanō Jigorō dies aboard the Hikawa Maru
Lives
Kanō Jigorō, a Japanese educator and politician who founded judo, died aboard the ship Hikawa Maru in the Pacific Ocean. He also promoted swimming, athletics, weightlifting and other physical education in Japan.
Notes
The infobox gives 4 May 1938, the same as Wikidata. The infobox places his death in the Pacific Ocean aboard the Hikawa Maru.
· Mostly over the sea, crossing South Georgia and the South Orkney Islands · At sea
A total solar eclipse crosses South Georgia and the South Orkney Islands
Science
The total solar eclipse of 29 May 1938, with a magnitude of 1.0552, followed a path of totality that ran mostly over the sea, crossing the South Orkney Islands and most of South Georgia. A partial eclipse was visible from parts of South America and southern Africa.
Notes
The lead gives Sunday, 29 May 1938, and the body lists the greatest eclipse at 13:50 UTC on 29 May 1938, so the date holds in UTC and across the main path. Wikidata's date matches.
Playwright Ödön von Horváth is killed by a falling branch in Paris
Lives
Ödön von Horváth, who wrote plays and novels in German, was killed in Paris when a branch fell on him in a thunderstorm on the Champs-Élysées, opposite the Théâtre Marigny. He had moved to Paris after Austria's annexation that year.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 1 June 1938, matching Wikidata; the body says June 1938. The infobox gives Paris as the place of death.
The 1938 French Championships are played at Roland-Garros
Sport
The 43rd staging of the tournament now called the French Open was played outdoors on clay in Paris, at the Stade Roland-Garros, from 2 to 11 June 1938. It came second among that year's Grand Slam tournaments.
Notes
The lead gives 2 to 11 June without a year, within the article on the 1938 edition. Wikidata's start and end dates match, and its main date is the year alone.
Olympic hammer thrower John Flanagan dies in Limerick
Lives
John Flanagan, an Irish-American hammer thrower born in Ballinvreena, Ireland, died at home in Limerick.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 3 June 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox and body place his death in Limerick, whereas Wikidata names Kilmallock.
· Voroshilovgrad, Soviet Union (now Luhansk, Ukraine) · Europe
Voroshilovgrad Oblast, now Luhansk Oblast, is created
Politics & diplomacy
Voroshilovgrad Oblast was set up on 3 June 1938 when the Donetsk Oblast was divided between it and the Stalino Oblast. It is now Luhansk Oblast, the easternmost in Ukraine.
Notes
The infobox gives 3 June 1938, the same as Wikidata; the lead and body give the year 1938.
Built between 1934 and 1938 to designs by Yrjö Lindegren and Toivo Jäntti, the Helsinki Olympic Stadium was meant to host the 1940 Summer Olympics, which moved from Tokyo to Helsinki.
Notes
The day comes from the infobox opening date, which matches Wikidata. The body says construction was completed in 1938.
Charles-Édouard Guillaume, the Swiss physicist awarded the 1920 Nobel Prize in Physics, died at Sèvres in France. He had directed the International Bureau of Weights and Measures from 1915 to 1936.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body give 13 June 1938, and the German article and the French article (which cites the Sèvres civil death register) give the same day and Sèvres as the place. Wikidata also holds 13 May 1938, which none of these articles gives. The body places the death in Sèvres, and the infobox gives Paris.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, a German expressionist painter and printmaker who co-founded the artists' group Die Brücke, died in Davos, where he had lived since 1917.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 15 June 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Davos as the place of death; Wikidata names Davos Frauenkirch.
Ireland holds a snap general election after de Valera dissolves the Dáil
Politics & diplomacy
The 9th Dáil was dissolved on 27 May 1938 at Taoiseach Éamon de Valera's request, after the government lost an opposition motion on arbitration in Civil Service labour disputes. The election on 17 June came less than a year after the last one and was the first since the new Constitution took effect.
Eugène Chaboud and Jean Trémoulet won the 15th Grand Prix of Endurance at the Circuit de la Sarthe in a privately entered Delahaye 135 CS. Only 15 of the 42 starters reached the finish.
Notes
The lead gives 18 and 19 June 1938. Wikidata gives only the year. The lead gives the time of Sommer's tyre burst as 12.45 p.m., and the finish and post-race part of the race account repeats it; the lead also gives 15 finishers from 42 starters.
Don Budge and Helen Moody win the 1938 Wimbledon singles titles
Sport
The 58th Wimbledon, the year's third Grand Slam tournament, ran from 20 June to 2 July 1938, with Don Budge taking the men's singles and Helen Moody the women's singles.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 20 June to 2 July 1938, matching Wikidata's start and end dates.
Nikolai Trubetzkoy, a Russian linguist and historian, died in Vienna, where he had been professor of Slavic Philology since 1922. His teaching became the core of the Prague School of structural linguistics.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 25 June 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Vienna, in the State of Austria within Nazi Germany, as the place of death.
The Constitution of Ireland of 1937 established the presidency, and Douglas Hyde became the first president in 1938, taking over from the governor-general of the 1922-1937 Irish Free State.
Notes
The day comes from the infobox formation date, which matches Wikidata. The lead says the first president took office in 1938.
· Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Russia) · Europe
The Russian SFSR elects its Supreme Soviet
Politics & diplomacy
On 26 June 1938 voters in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic elected the 727 members of its Supreme Soviet. Candidates ran through the Bloc of Communists and Non-Partisans, and the Communist Party took 568 seats.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 26 June 1938, matching Wikidata. The lead calls this the first such election after the Soviet Union was founded and the infobox names a 1921 election as the previous one; the background section says the vote followed the USSR constitution of 5 December 1936, which provided for elections to new bodies at all levels. Seat figures are from the infobox and results table.
· Mount Avala, near Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia) · Europe
The Monument to the Unknown Hero is unveiled on Mount Avala
Architecture
Ivan Meštrović designed the memorial, built between 1934 and 1938 over the grave of an unknown Serbian soldier of the First World War. On completion, the soldier's remains were ritually washed with wine, shrouded in linen and moved into a new metal coffin in the crypt.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 28 June 1938. Wikidata holds the year alone.
· New York City, New York, United States · North America
The film Three Comrades is released in New York
Stage, music & film
Frank Borzage directed Three Comrades, an American drama for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and adapted from Erich Maria Remarque's novel. Edward E. Paramore Jr. wrote the script together with F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Notes
The day comes from the infobox, which names New York City for the 2 June 1938 release.
Mexico's state-owned petroleum corporation Pemex was formed in 1938, when the government nationalised every private oil company then operating in the country. President Lázaro Cárdenas, backing oil workers who were on strike against the foreign companies, ordered the expropriation on 18 March 1938.
Notes
The infobox and body give 7 June 1938 for the founding decree, while Wikidata gives only the year. The body dates the expropriation of the foreign oil firms to 18 March 1938, which is a separate event.
· San Francisco, California, United States · North America
Astronomer William Wallace Campbell dies in San Francisco
Lives
William Wallace Campbell, an American astronomer who specialised in spectroscopy, died in San Francisco. He directed Lick Observatory from 1901 to 1930.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 14 June 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives San Francisco as the place of death.
George Cukor directed Holiday, an American romantic screwball comedy starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, adapted from Philip Barry's 1928 play and a remake of a 1930 film. In the United Kingdom it was released as Free to Live.
Notes
The infobox gives 15 June 1938 for the United States release. Wikidata gives the year 1938 and lists 17 March 1939 as an alternative date, probably a release elsewhere, so confidence is medium.
· Lockport, New York, United States · North America
Joyce Carol Oates is born in Lockport, New York
Lives
Joyce Carol Oates brought out her first book in 1963, and the novel Them won her the National Book Award in 1970. Black Water, What I Lived For and Blonde were all Pulitzer Prize finalists, and she won the Jerusalem Prize in 2019.
On 25 June 1938 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the act, which set a minimum wage, overtime pay at one and a half times the usual rate after forty hours, and a ban on oppressive child labor.
Notes
The infobox gives 25 June 1938 for both signing and effective date, while the lead gives 1938. Wikidata gives the year 1938.
Writer and civil rights leader James Weldon Johnson dies
Lives
James Weldon Johnson, an African American author, diplomat, poet, lawyer, songwriter and early civil rights activist, died in Wiscasset, Maine. He began working for the NAACP in 1917 and was its executive secretary from 1920 to 1930.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 26 June 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Wiscasset, Maine as the place of death, and the body says he was on vacation. The infobox lists the end of his NAACP term as 1929 while the lead says 1930.
· Monterey, California, United States · North America
Leon Panetta is born in Monterey, California
Lives
Leon Edward Panetta represented California in the House from 1977 to 1993, ran the CIA from 2009 to 2011 and then served as Secretary of Defense until 2013, after a stint as Clinton-era White House chief of staff in 1994-1997.
· Olympic Peninsula, Washington, United States · North America
Olympic National Park is established in Washington State
Politics & diplomacy
Congress and President Franklin D. Roosevelt made Olympic a national park on 29 June 1938. Theodore Roosevelt had first protected the area in 1909, as Mount Olympus National Monument.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 29 June 1938, the same as Wikidata.
· Huayuankou, Henan, Republic of China (now China) · Asia
Chinese army breaks the Yellow River levees at Huayuankou
DisastersSome details uncertain
In June 1938 Chinese forces broke the Yellow River levees at Huayuankou in Henan, and the first wave of floodwater reached Zhongmu County on 13 June. Commanders meant the water as a defensive barrier to slow Japanese forces advancing toward Wuhan.
Notes
The English lead gives 13 June 1938 for the first wave of floodwater at Zhongmu County, and the English body says the Huayuankou dike was destroyed on 5 and 7 June; the Chinese article gives 9 June for the breach. The breach day is therefore disputed and only the month is stored. Wikidata gives June 1938. The English lead puts the immediate drowning deaths at 30,000 to 89,000 and all deaths from drowning, famine and plague at 400,000 to 500,000; the body says a Nationalist relief figure of 893,303 from 1948 was discredited. The waters stayed until the dikes were repaired in January 1947.
The Battle of Wuhan begins in the Second Sino-Japanese War
War & conflict
From 11 June to 27 October 1938, Chinese forces under Chiang Kai-shek, over a million strong, fought Japan's Central China Area Army across five provinces. Japan captured Wuhan but took its heaviest losses of the war, and the conflict then settled into a stalemate of local fights.
Notes
The infobox gives 11 June to 27 October 1938, and Wikidata gives the end day 27 October 1938. The lead describes the battle as lasting four and a half months.
The planned town of Wolfsburg is founded for Volkswagen's workers
Architecture
Founded on 1 July 1938 and planned around the village of Fallersleben, the town housed the workers who built the factories that would assemble the Volkswagen Beetle. Until 25 May 1945 it was named Stadt des KdF-Wagens.
Notes
The lead and body give 1 July 1938. Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
The zoologist Tadas Ivanauskas established the zoo, which opened with 40 animals and had 150 within a year. It is Lithuania's oldest scientific zoo, and he wanted visitors to learn about protecting nature and endangered species.
Manfred von Brauchitsch wins the 1938 French Grand Prix
Sport
Mercedes-Benz's Manfred von Brauchitsch won the 1938 French Grand Prix, run over 64 laps on 3 July at Reims-Gueux, the 32nd edition of the French club's race.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 3 July 1938, matching Wikidata. The lead gives the 64 laps, the race's formal name, which numbers it XXXII (the 32nd edition), and the 1938 rules capping engines at 4.5 litres, or 3 litres with a supercharger.
Suzanne Lenglen, the French tennis player who was the first world No. 1, from 1921 to 1926, died in Paris. She won six Wimbledon singles titles, five of them in a row from 1919 to 1923.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 4 July 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Paris as the place of death.
Austrian socialist leader Otto Bauer dies in exile in Paris
Lives
Otto Bauer, an Austrian politician and a founder and leading thinker of the Austromarxists, died in Paris. After the Anschluss of 1938 he had emigrated to Brussels.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 4 July 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Paris as the place of death.
The 32nd Tour de France covered 21 stages between 5 and 31 July 1938, and the Italian Gino Bartali won both the overall race and the mountains classification.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 5 to 31 July 1938, matching Wikidata's start and end days. The body says the 1937 problems with riders helping each other led to national teams in 1938.
The Évian Conference on Jewish refugees opens in France
Politics & diplomacy
Delegates from 32 countries met at Évian-les-Bains in July 1938, at the initiative of US President Roosevelt, to discuss Jewish refugees fleeing Germany and Austria. Only the Dominican Republic offered to accept any of them, with Costa Rica following later.
Notes
The lead gives 6-15 July 1938, matching Wikidata's start of 6 July and end of 15 July.
On 11 July 1938 BFW was refounded as Messerschmitt AG, named for its chief designer Willy Messerschmitt, who became its chairman and managing director.
Notes
The body gives 11 July 1938; the lead says from mid-July 1938 and the infobox gives 1938. Wikidata gives the year 1938. The infobox gives Augsburg as the headquarters.
Helene Kröller-Müller founded the museum on the former estate she shared with her husband, in Hoge Veluwe National Park, and Henry van de Velde designed the building, which opened to the public in 1938.
Notes
The infobox gives 13 July 1938 as the establishment date, and Wikidata's inception date is the same. The lead and body say the museum opened in 1938, so it is unclear whether 13 July is the opening day; confidence is medium.
Robert Wiene, who directed, wrote and produced mostly silent German films, died in Paris. Because of his Jewish descent he had gone into exile after the Nazis took power in Germany.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 17 July 1938 as the date of death, and Wikidata lists 17 July as an alternative date. Wikidata's main date is 15 July 1938, so confidence is medium. The infobox gives Paris as the place of death.
Marie, the last queen consort of Romania as wife of King Ferdinand I, died at Pelișor Castle in Sinaia. Born Princess Marie of Edinburgh into the British royal family, she was buried at Curtea de Argeș Cathedral on 24 July 1938.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 18 July 1938, matching Wikidata's main date, but Wikidata also lists 10 July 1938 as an alternative, so confidence is medium. The infobox names Pelișor Castle in Sinaia as the place of death, while Wikidata names Peleș Castle.
In July 1938 Republican forces fought off the Nationalist advance at the XYZ Line, fortifications of trenches and bunkers built in difficult terrain north and northeast of Valencia. It ranks among the final Republican victories of the war.
Notes
The infobox gives 18 to 24 July 1938 for the fighting, while the lead says the line was built in 1938. Wikidata holds the year alone. The infobox result line also mentions the Battle of the Ebro, so the exact scope of the dated fighting is not fully clear and confidence is medium.
Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg was born in the West Riding of Yorkshire and became known as Emma Peel in the television series The Avengers. She also played Countess Teresa di Vicenzo in On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones.
Nationalist forces used a pincer movement to cut off a large Republican salient in Extremadura, trapping one of four Republican divisions.
Notes
The infobox gives 20 to 25 July 1938, and the lead says the campaign took 5 days in July 1938. The body also describes a Nationalist assault on 19 July 1938 on the Tagus bridgehead of Puente del Arzobispo, some 100 km away. Wikidata gives only the month.
· Stepney, London, England, United Kingdom · Europe
Terence Stamp is born in Stepney, London
Lives
Terence Henry Stamp trained at the Webber Douglas Academy in London and became an English actor who often took roles as polished villains. He won a Golden Globe and a Cannes Film Festival award.
Notes
Wikidata's day matches the infobox, lead and body.
The Battle of the Ebro begins in the Spanish Civil War
War & conflict
The Battle of the Ebro ran from 25 July to 16 November 1938, centred on the lower Ebro, in Catalonia's Terra Alta and around Fayón. Tens of thousands of men were killed or wounded, and the Nationalists won.
Notes
The infobox gives 25 July to 16 November 1938, matching Wikidata's start and end days; the lead says July to November 1938. The English body gives estimates of the losses of both sides ranging from 50,000-60,000 to 110,000 casualties.
The Ukrainian SSR's first Supreme Soviet holds its opening session in Kyiv
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The first Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR met for its opening session in Kyiv from 25 to 28 July 1938, a month after the first elections to it on 26 June. Under the 1937 Constitution it took over from the All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets as the legislative authority.
Notes
The lead says the Supreme Soviet was first established on 26 June 1938, the body says the first elections were held on 26 June and the first session met 25-28 July 1938, and Wikidata gives 25 July 1938. Wikidata also holds 24 August 1991, the infobox foundation date of the modern Verkhovna Rada. The 25 July first session is stored, with medium confidence.
Cunard White Star launches the second RMS Mauretania at Birkenhead
Technology
Cammell Laird built the liner at Birkenhead, and she was the biggest ship yet built in England. On 28 July 1938 the launch ceremony was carried out by Mary, wife of the line's chairman Percy Bates.
Notes
The lead and body agree on a launch on 28 July 1938, matching Wikidata, which calls it the opening. The ship entered service in 1939.
A coup attempt against the Metaxas dictatorship breaks out at Chania, Crete
Politics & diplomacy
On 28 July 1938 a coup was launched in Chania against Ioannis Metaxas's dictatorship, with many Cretans, especially Venizelist politicians, joining in. The radio station broadcast a call for King George II to end the dictatorship, but poor organisation brought the attempt down within hours.
Notes
Wikidata's day matches the body; the lead gives only the year 1938.
Bulgaria and the Balkan Entente sign the Salonika Agreement
Politics & diplomacy
On 31 July 1938 Bulgarian Prime Minister Georgi Kyoseivanov signed the treaty for Bulgaria, while Ioannis Metaxas signed for the Balkan Entente, a bloc of Greece, Romania, Turkey and Yugoslavia, in his role as president of its Council.
Notes
Wikidata's day matches the lead. Wikidata names Thessaloniki as the place, in line with the agreement's name.
· Mount Wilson Observatory, California, United States · North America
Seth Nicholson discovers Jupiter's moon Lysithea
Science
At Mount Wilson Observatory in California, Seth Barnes Nicholson spotted Lysithea, a moon of Jupiter. It belongs to the Himalia group and is also called Jupiter X.
Notes
The infobox gives 6 July 1938 as the discovery date, the same as Wikidata.
· Crosley Field, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States · North America
The National League wins the 1938 baseball All-Star Game in Cincinnati
Sport
The sixth All-Star Game between the American and National Leagues was played at Crosley Field on 6 July 1938, and the National League won 4-1. Joe McCarthy managed the American League side and Bill Terry the National.
Notes
Wikidata holds the year alone; the day comes from the infobox and lead.
· Los Angeles, California, United States · North America
MGM's Marie Antoinette premieres in Los Angeles
Stage, music & film
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's historical drama Marie Antoinette, directed by W. S. Van Dyke with Norma Shearer in the title role, drew on Stefan Zweig's 1932 biography of the French queen.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 8 July 1938 for the Los Angeles premiere at the Carthay Circle Theatre. Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
· Port Chester, New York, United States · North America
Supreme Court justice Benjamin Cardozo dies
Lives
Benjamin Cardozo, an American jurist, served on New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals, between 1914 and 1932, and afterwards sat as an associate justice of the US Supreme Court until his death. President Herbert Hoover nominated him to succeed Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 9 July 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Port Chester, New York as the place of death.
· Bridgeport, Connecticut, United States · North America
Brian Dennehy is born in Bridgeport, Connecticut
Lives
Brian Manion Dennehy was an American actor of stage and screen whose honours included two Tonys, an Olivier Award and a Golden Globe. He was once described as arguably the leading living interpreter of Eugene O'Neill's plays.
Notes
Wikidata's day matches the infobox, lead and body.
· San Francisco, California, United States · North America
Natalie Wood is born in San Francisco
Lives
Born Natalie Zacharenko, she began acting at four and co-starred in Miracle on 34th Street at eight. Rebel Without a Cause brought her an Academy Award nomination, and she later appeared in West Side Story and Gypsy.
· New Haven, Connecticut, United States · North America
Astronomer Ernest William Brown dies in New Haven
LivesSome details uncertain
Ernest William Brown, an English mathematician and astronomer who did most of his career work in the United States and became an American citizen in 1923, died in New Haven, Connecticut. His life's work was lunar theory and extremely accurate tables of the Moon's motion.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 22 July 1938, which is also Wikidata's main date, but Wikidata lists 23 July 1938 as an alternative, so confidence is medium. The body says he died in New Haven in 1938.
George B. Seitz directed this romantic comedy, which follows teenage Andy Hardy as he gets tangled up with several girls at once. Lewis Stone, Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland led the cast.
Notes
Wikidata holds the year alone; the day comes from the infobox and lead.
· Mount Wilson Observatory, California, United States · North America
Seth Nicholson discovers Jupiter's moon Carme
Science
In July 1938 Seth Barnes Nicholson found Carme with the instruments at Mount Wilson Observatory in California. The moon gave its name to a whole group of Jupiter's satellites and is also known as Jupiter XI.
Notes
The infobox gives 30 July 1938 as the discovery date, the same as Wikidata; the body gives July 1938.
· Campo de Marte, Santa Ana district, Bogota, Colombia · South America
A Colombian Air Force plane crashes into the crowd at the Santa Ana air show in Bogota
Disasters
During a military review on 24 July 1938, a Curtiss Hawk II biplane flown by Lieutenant Cesar Abadia dived into a grandstand and the crowd beyond. He had misjudged a gap between the presidential and diplomatic stands. Over fifty people died and more than a hundred were injured.
The Great Hanshin flood strikes Kobe and Mount Rokkō
DisastersSome details uncertain
Heavy rain in July 1938 set off floods and landslides around Mount Rokkō in Hyōgo Prefecture, with flash floods and debris flows striking Kobe and Nishinomiya. At least 715 people died.
After Manchukuo troops, backed by Japan, pushed into land the Soviet Union claimed, Japanese forces then took the disputed ground. They withdrew after fierce fighting and a negotiated settlement, with the clash lasting from 29 July to 11 August 1938.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 29 July to 11 August 1938, matching Wikidata's start and end dates; Wikidata's main date gives only the year 1938.
The Pan Am Hawaii Clipper flying boat disappears over the Pacific
DisastersSome details uncertain
Pan Am Flight 229, the Martin M-130 flying boat Hawaii Clipper, vanished on a scheduled San Francisco to Manila service after leaving Guam at 11:39 local time on the final westbound leg. Six passengers and nine crew disappeared with the aircraft.
Notes
The lead, infobox and body give 28 July 1938, while Wikidata gives 29 July 1938, so confidence is medium.
French philosopher Louis Rougier organised a conference of intellectuals in Paris to work out a new liberalism that rejected collectivism, socialism and laissez-faire liberalism. Participants studied the French translation of Walter Lippmann's 1937 book on the good society.
Notes
Wikidata gives the same month, so no day is stored.
· Kommunarka, Moscow Oblast, Soviet Union (now Russia) · Europe
Bolshevik leader Andrei Bubnov is executed
Lives
Andrei Bubnov, a Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet politician and military leader, was executed in 1938 after his arrest in October 1937 during the Great Purge. He had belonged to the Left Opposition and succeeded Lunacharsky as People's Commissar for Education in 1929.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 1 August 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Kommunarka in Moscow Oblast as the place of death. The infobox gives his birth year as 1883, while Wikidata's description says 1884.
Silent-film star Pearl White dies in Neuilly-sur-Seine
Lives
Pearl White, the American stage and film actress nicknamed the Queen of the Serials, died in Neuilly-sur-Seine a day after falling into a coma. She had entered the American Hospital of Paris in early July 1938 with liver trouble.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 4 August 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Neuilly-sur-Seine as the place of death. Her obituaries named a liver ailment.
Hergé's King Ottokar's Sceptre begins weekly serialisation
Art & literature
A conservative Belgian newspaper began running Hergé's eighth Tintin adventure every week in its children's supplement in August 1938. Hergé meant the story, set in the invented Balkan land of Syldavia, as a satire on Nazi expansionism, above all the Anschluss.
Notes
The infobox gives 4 August 1938 to 10 August 1939 for the original serialisation; the lead says August 1938 to August 1939. Wikidata gives 4 August 1938. The infobox gives book publication in black and white in 1939.
Victor Gollancz published Daphne du Maurier's Gothic novel Rebecca, in which a young woman with no name marries a rich widower and finds his household haunted by his dead first wife. Its best-known elements include the housekeeper Mrs. Danvers and the estate Manderley.
Notes
The infobox gives a release date of 5 August 1938, citing a Daily News (London) advertisement of 2 August 1938 announcing the novel for that Friday. Wikidata gives only the year 1938. The body says du Maurier signed a three-book contract with Gollancz in 1937.
Actor Warner Oland, star of the Charlie Chan films, dies in Stockholm
Lives
Warner Oland, a Swedish-American actor with a career on Broadway and in many films, died in a Stockholm hospital. He is best remembered for playing the detective Charlie Chan in 16 films.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 6 August 1938, matching Wikidata. The body announces his divorce settlement on 2 April 1938.
Italy's Giovanni Valetti won the sixth Tour de Suisse, run from 6 to 14 August 1938, ahead of Luxembourg's Arsène Mersch and Italy's Severino Canavesi.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 6 to 14 August 1938, while Wikidata gives 6 to 13 August, so the end date is in dispute and confidence is medium.
Konstantin Stanislavski, an admired Russian and Soviet theatre man whose system for training actors and rehearsing roles shaped later generations, died in Moscow. He had co-founded the Moscow Art Theatre with Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 7 August 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Moscow as the place of death.
The Mauthausen concentration camp begins operating in annexed Austria
War & conflictSome details uncertain
The main Mauthausen camp, on high ground above the town east of Linz, operated from 8 August 1938, a few months after the annexation of Austria, until 5 May 1945. Nearly 100 further subcamps across Austria and southern Germany were attached to it.
Notes
The English lead gives 8 August 1938 for the start of operation, matching Wikidata. The English body says prisoners from Dachau were sent on 9 August 1938 to begin building; the French article says they were sent on 7 August and the German article says the first prisoners arrived from Dachau on 8 August, so confidence is medium. The English lead says that of some 190,000 inmates, half died in the main camp or its subcamps.
The 6th Venice International Film Festival is held
Stage, music & film
The sixth Venice International Film Festival ran from 8 to 31 August 1938 and included a retrospective of French cinema spanning works from 1891 to 1933.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 8 to 31 August 1938. Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
· Chaikyne, Chernihiv Oblast, Soviet Union (now Ukraine) · Europe
Leonid Kuchma, second president of Ukraine, is born in Chaikyne
Lives
Leonid Kuchma was born in Chaikyne in Chernihiv Oblast. He started out as a rocket engineer and then went into business before joining the Verkhovna Rada in 1990 and serving as Ukraine's second president from July 1994 to January 2005.
The Academy of Sciences and Arts, now Slovenia's national academy, is founded
Science
A second draft for the academy had been finished in 1929, but it only came into being in August 1938, first under the name Academy of Sciences and Arts (AZU). Today it is Slovenia's national academy, with leading researchers and artists as members.
Notes
The body gives 11 August 1938 for the founding, while the infobox gives the year 1938. Wikidata holds the year alone.
The World Esperanto Youth Organization is founded in Groet
Politics & diplomacy
At the first International Youth Congress, held in Groet in the Netherlands, participants from many countries decided to create what became the World Esperanto Youth Organization. Its first name was Tutmonda Junular-Organizo, meaning World Youth Organization.
Notes
The day comes from the infobox, which gives 14 August 1938, and the Esperanto-language article also says it was founded on 14 August during the first International Youth Congress in Groet. Wikidata holds the year alone.
· Ružomberok, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) · Europe
Slovak priest and politician Andrej Hlinka dies
Lives
Andrej Hlinka, a Slovak Catholic priest and a leading Slovak public figure in Czechoslovakia, died at Ružomberok. He headed the Hlinka Slovak People's Party and sat in the National Assembly.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 16 August 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Ružomberok as the place of death.
Caracciola wins the 1938 Swiss Grand Prix at Bremgarten
Sport
Rudolf Caracciola won the race near Bern in a Mercedes-Benz in heavy rain on 21 August 1938. Team-mate Richard Seaman took pole position and fastest lap.
· Leningrad, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russia) · Europe
Writer Aleksandr Kuprin dies in Leningrad
Lives
Aleksandr Kuprin, a Russian writer best remembered for The Duel of 1905 and for Yama: The Pit, which appeared in 1915, died in Leningrad after his health worsened from January 1938. He and his wife had left Paris for Moscow in May 1937.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 25 August 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Leningrad as the place of death.
Frederick Forsyth went to Tonbridge School, joined Reuters as a journalist in 1961, and went on to write the thrillers The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File. By 2006 his books had sold over 70 million copies.
Notes
Wikidata's day matches the infobox, lead and body.
Béla Kun, Hungarian communist leader, is executed in Moscow
Lives
Béla Kun, a Hungarian communist revolutionary who governed the Hungarian Soviet Republic in 1919, was executed in Moscow after being accused of Trotskyism during the Great Purge. Captured by Russian forces in 1916, he had later helped found a Hungarian branch of the Russian Communist Party in Moscow and befriended Lenin.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 29 August 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives the Kommunarka shooting ground in Moscow as the place of death, and the lead says he was arrested, tried and executed during the Great Purge.
Joseph Bédier, a historian of medieval France who taught at the University of Fribourg and the Collège de France, died at Le Grand-Serre. He is known for Littérature française.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 29 August 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Le Grand-Serre as the place of death.
· Lenox, Massachusetts, United States · North America
The Koussevitzky Music Shed opens at Tanglewood
Art & literature
The Boston Symphony Orchestra's Music Shed at Tanglewood opened on 4 August 1938. Money for a permanent building had been raised after a thunderstorm interrupted a concert in 1937, and Eliel Saarinen was hired as architect the following year.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 4 August 1938 for the opening of the Music Shed, matching Wikidata. The lead says the orchestra has used Tanglewood as its summer home since 1937, so the 1938 date marks the Shed, not the start of the festival site.
John Cromwell directed Algiers, an American crime drama with a script by John Howard Lawson and a cast led by Charles Boyer, Hedy Lamarr and Sigrid Gurie. It is a remake of the 1937 French film Pépé le Moko.
Notes
The day comes from the infobox, which gives 5 August 1938 for the US release. Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
· New York City, New York, United States · North America
Alexander's Ragtime Band premieres in New York
Stage, music & film
Henry King directed this 20th Century Fox musical, named after Irving Berlin's 1911 song, about a society boy who scandalises his family by choosing a career in ragtime. It traces the history of jazz from ragtime to the acceptance of swing.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 5 August 1938 for the New York premiere at the Roxy Theatre. Wikidata gives only the year.
Michael Curtiz directed Four Daughters, an American romance produced by Warner Bros., about a musical family whose daughters' love lives are upset by a charming young composer.
Notes
The day comes from the infobox release entry for the USA. Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
· San Francisco, California, United States · North America
Stephen Breyer is born in San Francisco
Lives
Stephen Gerald Breyer graduated from Harvard Law School in 1964 and sat on the US Supreme Court from 1994 until he retired in 2022. President Bill Clinton picked him to succeed Harry Blackmun.
· Greenwood, Mississippi, United States · North America
Blues musician Robert Johnson dies
LivesSome details uncertain
Robert Johnson, an American blues musician and songwriter, died in Greenwood, Mississippi. His recording career lasted only seven months, yet his landmark recordings of 1936 and 1937 have influenced later generations of musicians.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 16 August 1938, but Wikidata also holds 13 August 1938, so confidence is medium. The infobox gives Greenwood, Mississippi, as the place of death.
Kenneth Donald Ray Rogers was born in Houston and became an American country singer-songwriter who also worked in pop, rock, folk and jazz. He charted over 120 hit singles and sold more than 100 million records worldwide.
Paul Martin, future Canadian prime minister, is born in Windsor, Ontario
Lives
Paul Martin, son of the senator and former external affairs minister Paul Martin Sr., became president and chief executive of Canada Steamship Lines in 1973 and entered Parliament for LaSalle-Emard in 1988. He was Canada's 21st prime minister and Liberal leader from 2003 to 2006.
· Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States · North America
Elliott Gould is born in New York City
Lives
Born Elliott Goldstein, he broke through in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice in 1969, a part that earned him an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor. Robert Altman then cast him as Trapper John McIntyre in M*A*S*H, and he made The Long Goodbye and California Split with Altman.
Notes
The early-life section names Bensonhurst, in Brooklyn, as his birthplace, and the German and French articles and Wikidata also name Brooklyn. Wikidata's day matches the infobox and lead.
Bogotá hosted the first Bolivarian Games in 1938, marking an anniversary of the city. The games honour Simón Bolívar and are run by the Bolivarian Sports Organization.
Notes
The infobox gives 1938 as the founding year and the body says the first Games were held in Bogotá in 1938. The days 6-22 August come from the body's table of editions. Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
The first match is played at Estadio El Campín in Bogotá
Architecture
The first match at Estadio El Campín was Colombia against Ecuador on 10 August 1938, which Colombia lost 2-1. The stadium was planned to mark the 400th anniversary of Bogotá and to host the 1938 Bolivarian Games.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 10 August 1938, matching Wikidata. The stadium article says Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, then mayor of Bogotá, proposed it in 1934, but his own article gives his term as mayor as June 1936 to March 1937, so the proposal is left out.
· Wanjialing region, Republic of China (now China) · Asia
The Battle of Wanjialing in the Wuhan campaign
War & conflictSome details uncertain
In the Wuhan campaign of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Xue Yue and Wu Qiwei led the National Revolutionary Army against Junrokuro Matsuura's Japanese divisions at Wanjialing. The Japanese 101st and 106th Divisions suffered heavy losses, and the Chinese won.
Notes
The infobox gives 10 August to 10 October 1938, while Wikidata gives 11 October 1938. The lead calls it a two-and-a-half-month battle, a little longer than the infobox span, so the end is not fully settled and confidence is medium.
· Kılıçkaya (Zini Gedik), Erzincan Province, Turkey · Middle East
Alevi-Kurdish civilians are killed at the Zini Rift in Erzincan Province
War & conflict
On 6 August 1938, 95 Alevi-Kurdish civilians were murdered at Kılıçkaya village, also known as Zini Gedik. The killings came after the Dersim rebellion, in the wake of which some people from the region were exiled.
Notes
Wikidata's day matches the lead. The Turkish and French articles give the same day and the figure of 95, and the Turkish article says the villagers were shot. The French article carries warnings about neutrality and missing sources, and the Turkish article's references are Turkish press reports from 2011.
Hans Oster, deputy chief of the Abwehr, joined senior conservative Wehrmacht officers in a plan to remove Hitler and his government if the Sudetenland crisis drove Germany to war with Czechoslovakia. Loyal forces were to storm the Reich Chancellery and arrest or assassinate him.
Notes
The lead dates the conspiracy to 1938 and calls it the September Conspiracy; Wikidata gives September 1938.
Marcel Kint wins the road race at the 1938 UCI Road World Championships
SportSome details uncertain
The 18th UCI Road World Championships were held in Valkenburg in the Netherlands, where Belgium's Marcel Kint won the professional road race. The track cycling world championships ran at the same time in Amsterdam's Olympic Stadium.
Notes
The infobox gives 3 and 5 September 1938 and the lead gives 2 and 5 September 1938. Wikidata gives 3 September as the start and 4 September as the end. The sources differ on the days, so only the month is stored.
· Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) · Europe
Sudeten German Party supporters rise against Czechoslovak authorities
War & conflictSome details uncertain
In September 1938 supporters of Konrad Henlein's Sudeten German Party staged an uprising against Czechoslovak authorities in the Sudetenland, sometimes called Henlein's coup. The Munich Agreement of 30 September practically ended it, though violent incidents continued into October.
Notes
The infobox gives 12/13 September to October 1938 and the lead says September 1938, while Wikidata gives only October 1938. The start day is not settled between 12 and 13 September, so the month is stored. The body places an order to begin protests on 10 September.
· Paris, France, and Vienna, Germany (now Austria) · Europe
The 2nd European Athletics Championships: men in Paris, women in Vienna
Sport
The championships were split between two cities, with the men competing in Paris from 3 to 5 September 1938 and the women in Vienna on 17 and 18 September. Vienna was by then under German rule, following the annexation of Austria earlier in 1938.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 3-5 September (men, Paris) and 17-18 September (women, Vienna). Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
Trotsky's supporters hold the founding conference of the Fourth International
Politics & diplomacy
Leon Trotsky and his supporters, expelled from the Soviet Union and the Comintern, founded the Fourth International at a conference on 3 September 1938 in Alfred Rosmer's home just outside Paris. It lasted until 1953.
Notes
The infobox and body give 3 September 1938 for the founding conference. Wikidata gives only the year 1938. The place is a house just outside Paris.
Martinus Osendarp wins the men's 100 m at the 1938 European Championships
Sport
Martinus Osendarp of the Netherlands won the men's 100 metres sprint on 3 September 1938 at the European Athletics Championships in Paris, with Orazio Mariani of Italy taking silver and Lennart Strandberg of Sweden bronze.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 3 September 1938, matching Wikidata.
Martinus Osendarp of the Netherlands wins the men's 200 m in Paris in 1938
Sport
Martinus Osendarp of the Netherlands won the men's 200 metres at the European Athletics Championships in Paris, with Jakob Scheuring of Germany taking silver and Alan Pennington of Britain bronze.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 4 September 1938. Wikidata holds the year alone.
The Zamoskvoretskaya line of the Moscow Metro opens
Architecture
The first stage of the Zamoskvoretskaya line, opened on 11 September 1938, linked the northwestern districts of Aeroport and Begovoy and the Belorussky terminal with the city centre along Leningradsky Prospekt and Tverskaya Street.
Notes
The infobox and timeline give 11 September 1938, matching Wikidata. The lead says the line opened in 1938.
· Habartov (Habersbirk), Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) · Europe
Czechoslovak gendarmes and Sudeten Germans clash at Habersbirk
War & conflict
On 13 September 1938 a crowd of Sudeten Germans stormed the gendarmerie station at Habersbirk, now Habartov, in the first armed clash between Czechoslovak gendarmes and Sudeten Germans. Several gendarmes and the insurgents' leader, Otto Plass, were killed before reinforcements drove the attackers off.
Notes
The day comes from the infobox and body, which match Wikidata. The infobox classes it as part of the Sudeten German uprising and records a Czechoslovak victory. The body names each gendarme who was killed.
· Kommunarka shooting ground, Moscow Oblast, Soviet Union (now Russia) · Europe
Economist Nikolai Kondratiev is executed
Lives
Nikolai Kondratiev, the Russian Soviet economist known for the Kondratiev waves, a theory of long boom-and-slump cycles in capitalist economies, was tried, sentenced and shot on the same day in September 1938. He had backed the New Economic Policy of small private enterprises.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 17 September 1938, as does Wikidata. The body says his trial, sentence and shooting all took place on one day, at the Kommunarka shooting ground. The cycle length in the theory is given in the lead as 50 to 60 years.
Walasiewicz of Poland wins the 100 m sprint for women at the 1938 European Championships
Sport
Poland's Stanisława Walasiewicz won the women's 100 metres at the Praterstadion in Vienna on 17 September 1938, ahead of Käthe Krauß of Germany in silver and Fanny Blankers-Koen of the Netherlands in bronze.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 17 September 1938. Wikidata holds the year alone. The lead notes that Vienna was at that time part of the German Reich.
Prime Minister Negrín dissolves the International Brigades
War & conflict
On 23 September 1938 Prime Minister Juan Negrín dissolved the International Brigades, volunteer soldiers organised by the Communist International to back the Spanish Republic, hoping to win more support from the liberal democracies. The attempt failed.
Notes
The lead gives 23 September 1938, as does Wikidata.
Born Rosemarie Magdalena Albach to Wolf Albach-Retty and Magda Schneider, she became a German and French actress. Playing Empress Elisabeth in the mid-1950s Sissi trilogy made her a cult figure.
Notes
The infobox gives the birthplace as Vienna, Austria, German Reich. Wikidata's day matches the infobox and lead.
The BBC starts broadcasting to Italy in Italian, known as Radio Londra
Technology
The BBC's Italian-language radio service, which Italians knew as Radio Londra, began on 27 September 1938 and was aimed at the continental Europe dominated by Germany. It continued until 31 December 1981.
Germany, Britain, France and Italy sign the Munich Agreement
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
At Munich, four powers agreed that Germany could annex the Sudetenland, a Czechoslovak borderland home to three million people, most of them ethnic Germans. Czechoslovakia's representatives were in the city but took no part in the talks.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 30 September 1938; the formal title in the infobox says September 29, and the lead says the meeting ran 29-30 September. Wikidata gives 30 September 1938.
Capra's comedy You Can't Take It with You reaches cinemas
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Directed by Frank Capra, this screwball romantic comedy with Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore and James Stewart has a screenplay by Robert Riskin, based on a George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart play that won the Pulitzer Prize. The film won Best Picture and Best Director at the 11th Academy Awards.
Notes
The infobox lists an international press preview on 23 August 1938, a New York City release on 1 September 1938 and a US release on 29 September 1938. Wikidata gives 1 September and also holds 29 September, 13 October and 23 December 1938, so confidence is medium.
Mark Sandrich directed Carefree for RKO, a romantic comedy with Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Ralph Bellamy. Of the pair's films, it is the shortest and has only four musical numbers.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 2 September 1938. Wikidata holds the year alone.
· Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States · North America
The United States beats Australia in the 1938 Davis Cup final
SportSome details uncertain
In the Challenge Round of the 1938 International Lawn Tennis Challenge, as the Davis Cup was then called, the defending champions the United States beat Australia at Philadelphia's Germantown Cricket Club from 3 to 5 September.
Notes
The lead gives 3 to 5 September 1938 for the final. Wikidata gives a whole-competition span from 29 April to 5 September 1938, so the stored dates cover the final only and confidence is medium.
· Forest Hills, New York City, New York, United States · North America
Don Budge wins the 1938 U.S. National Championships and the calendar-year Grand Slam
SportSome details uncertain
At Forest Hills, the year's fourth Grand Slam tournament, Don Budge won the men's singles and became the first player to win a calendar-year Grand Slam. Poor weather from the 1938 New England hurricane stretched the event by a week.
Notes
The lead gives a scheduled start on 8 September and a finish on 24 September after the delay. Wikidata gives 22 August to 24 September 1938, so the start date is not settled and confidence is medium.
· New York City, New York, United States · North America
The film Boys Town premieres in New York City
Stage, music & film
Norman Taurog directed this Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer biographical drama, which draws on the Nebraska home and school that Father Edward J. Flanagan ran for underprivileged boys, with Spencer Tracy as Flanagan and Mickey Rooney also starring.
Notes
The English infobox gives 8 September 1938 with New York City, and the French article gives that day as the New York premiere and 9 September 1938 as the nationwide release. Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
· Baltimore, Maryland, United States · North America
Novelist Thomas Wolfe dies in Baltimore
Lives
Thomas Wolfe, an American novelist and short-story writer whose first novel, Look Homeward, Angel, appeared in 1929 and remains his best-known book, died in Baltimore, Maryland. He was an early practitioner of fiction drawn from his own life.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 15 September 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Baltimore, Maryland, as the place of death.
· Long Island, New York, United States · North America
The 1938 New England hurricane makes landfall on Long Island
Disasters
The storm that formed off the African coast on 9 September 1938 struck Long Island as a Category 3 hurricane on Wednesday 21 September. An estimated 682 people died, and more than 57,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.
Notes
The lead gives landfall on 21 September 1938; the infobox gives formation on 9 September, extratropical on 22 September and dissipation on 23 September. Wikidata gives September 1938 as the date, with 9 and 23 September as start and end.
· Henderson, North Carolina, United States · North America
Ben E. King is born in Henderson, North Carolina
LivesSome details uncertain
Born Benjamin Earl Nelson, he made his name in soul and R&B and became a principal lead singer of the Drifters, fronting There Goes My Baby and This Magic Moment among others. As a soloist he is best known for Stand by Me.
Notes
The infobox, lead and Wikidata give 28 September 1938, as do the German and French articles, while the English body says he was born on 29 September 1938. The sources disagree by a day, so the first date is stored with medium confidence.
Work on Pacaembu Stadium began on 17 September 1938 and lasted until 1940, to a design by the Ramos de Azevedo firm working with Severo and Villares. President Getúlio Vargas attended its inauguration on 27 April 1940.
Notes
The infobox gives 17 September 1938 for the groundbreaking and 27 April 1940 for the opening. Wikidata's 17 September 1938 date matches the groundbreaking, not the inauguration.
Turkish military operations in Dersim come to an end
War & conflictSome details uncertain
In 1937 and 1938 Turkey's army mounted three operations in the province of Dersim, later called Tunceli, against Alevi Kurdish rebels and civilians. Thousands died, and many survivors were driven out to other parts of Turkey.
Notes
The infobox gives 1 May 1937 to 1 September 1938, the same end day as Wikidata; the lead names the years 1937 and 1938. Death toll estimates vary widely: the infobox gives 13,806 to 70,000; a 1938 Interior Ministry document counts 13,160 civilians dead (Wikidata also holds 13,160); a contemporary British estimate was 40,000, which one source calls possibly exaggerated; and one suggested total is 7,594. Taken together the figures in the article run from 7,594 to 70,000.
· Sanjak of Alexandretta (now Hatay Province, Turkey) · Middle East
The Hatay State becomes independent of French-mandated Syria
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Hatay State, a transitional state in the Sanjak of Alexandretta that was part of the French Mandate of Syria, came into being on 2 September 1938 and lasted until 29 June 1939. A new statute of November 1937 had made the sanjak distinct but not separate from Syria.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 2 September 1938 for the start, but Wikidata gives 7 September 1938, so confidence is medium. The infobox lists 29 June 1939 as the end of the state and 23 July as the date of union with Turkey; the lead gives 7 July 1939 for the de facto change.
Tel Aviv's mayor Israel Rokach asked the British authorities in 1937 for permission to build an airport, wanting to spare Jews the dangerous road journey through Arab areas to Lydda during the Arab revolt. Works began on land north of the Yarkon River.
Notes
The infobox gives 23 September 1938 for the opening, matching Wikidata, but the body says the works were completed in October 1938, when regular flights to Haifa began. The lead says the airport opened in 1938, so the day is not settled and confidence is medium.
The Divisão dos Transportes Aéreos, forerunner of TAAG Angola Airlines, is formed
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
The government set up the airline in Portuguese Angola as the Divisão dos Transportes Aéreos in 1938, inside the Portuguese West Africa body that ran railways, harbours and air transport.
Notes
The infobox, body and Wikidata all give September 1938, so confidence is medium. The infobox says the airline began operating on 17 July 1940.
The British Army forms the Mobile Division in Egypt
War & conflictSome details uncertain
After rising tension with the Axis powers, the British Army formed the Mobile Division (Egypt) to reinforce Britain's presence in Egypt and defend the Suez Canal. It was renamed the 7th Armoured Division in February 1940.
Notes
The lead gives 27 September 1938 for the formation, while the infobox dates the unit to 1937-1958, so confidence is medium. Wikidata holds the year alone.
Nazi Germany expels Polish Jews in the Polenaktion
War & conflictSome details uncertain
In October 1938 the Nazi authorities arrested about 17,000 Polish Jews living in Germany and expelled them in an action they called Polenaktion, ordered by Gestapo head Reinhard Heydrich. Poland at first refused them entry, leaving the deportees in makeshift shelters along the border.
Notes
The lead gives October 1938, matching Wikidata's month.
An Indian-style ivory statuette, the Pompeii Lakshmi, is found
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
The Italian scholar Amedeo Maiuri unearthed an ivory statuette among the ruins of Pompeii, beside the Casa dei Quattro Stili. Scholars place it in the 1st century CE and think it shows an Indian goddess of fertility and feminine beauty.
Notes
The body gives October 1938 and the lead gives 1938. Wikidata gives 24 October 1938, so only the month is stored.
Alexandru Averescu, a Romanian marshal, diplomat and populist politician, died in Bucharest. He commanded Romania's armed forces in the First World War and served as prime minister in three separate cabinets.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 2 October 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Bucharest as the place of death.
Faustina Kowalska, a Polish Catholic nun and mystic born Helena Kowalska, died in Kraków. She recorded visions of Jesus in a diary later published as Divine Mercy in My Soul, which inspired the Catholic devotion to Divine Mercy.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 5 October 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Kraków as the place of death.
Pygmalion, a British film of George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play adapted for the screen by Shaw himself, casts Leslie Howard as Professor Henry Higgins opposite Wendy Hiller's Eliza Doolittle. It won the Oscar for Best Screenplay.
Notes
The English infobox gives 6 October 1938, and the French article gives the same day as the world premiere in London. Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes has its London premiere
Stage, music & film
Alfred Hitchcock's British mystery thriller, starring Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave, premiered in London on 7 October 1938. Adapted from Ethel Lina White's 1936 novel The Wheel Spins, it follows an English tourist on a train whose older companion vanishes while fellow passengers deny she ever existed.
Notes
The infobox and body give a London premiere on 7 October 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox lists a United States release on 1 November 1938, and Wikidata also holds that date.
· Slovakia, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) · Europe
The Hlinka Guard is officially founded in Slovakia
Politics & diplomacy
The militia grew up on its own during the Sudetenland crisis of summer 1938 and was officially established on 8 October, a week after the Munich settlement. Karol Sidor was its first commander.
Notes
The lead gives 8 October 1938 for the official setup, and the body adds a decree of 29 October 1938 that gave it formal status. Wikidata gives 8 October 1938.
· Chocholowska Valley, Tatra Mountains, Poland · Europe
Poland's stratospheric balloon Gwiazda Polski catches fire while being filled
Exploration
Polish planners wanted Gwiazda Polski (Star of Poland) to climb to about 30 kilometers and break the 1935 altitude record set by Explorer II. On 14 October 1938 the balloon's hydrogen-filled bag caught fire during the launch preparations, so the flight never got going.
Notes
Wikidata gives 14 October 1938, matching the lead. The sources differ on where the fire began: the English lead says the balloon caught fire less than 100 feet above the ground, while the English body says the bag went up in flames at about 4 a.m. while being filled with hydrogen, and no one was hurt. German Wikipedia says the hydrogen ignited while the balloon was being filled, and Polish Wikipedia describes a static discharge igniting the hydrogen near the end of filling, with the bag lying on the ground. The account here follows the English body and the German and Polish editions.
Born Christa Päffgen, Nico worked as a German singer, songwriter, actress and model, and she turned up in Fellini's La Dolce Vita and Warhol's Chelsea Girls. In 1967 she sang lead on three tracks of the Velvet Underground's debut album.
Notes
Wikidata's day matches the infobox, lead and body.
Karl Kautsky, an Austrian-born Marxist theorist, died in Amsterdam. For decades he was the leading theorist of the German Social Democratic Party and the Second International, and he edited the journal Die Neue Zeit, which he started in 1883, for 35 years.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 17 October 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Amsterdam as the place of death.
The medal was for those who took part in the October 1938 occupation of the Sudetenland. A bar for the occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939 was added later, and it was the second of the Occupation Medals.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 18 October 1938, matching Wikidata.
· Leytonstone, Essex, England, United Kingdom · Europe
Derek Jacobi is born in Leytonstone, Essex
Lives
Derek George Jacobi, an English actor of stage and screen, studied at St John's College, Cambridge, and was a founding member of the National Theatre under Laurence Olivier. He was knighted for services to theatre in 1994.
Ernst Barlach, a German sculptor in the expressionist style who also made medals and prints and wrote, died of heart failure in Rostock. Fighting in the First World War turned him against it, and his best-known works are sculptures protesting war.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 24 October 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Rostock as the place of death.
T Cowie Ltd, the origin of Arriva, is established in Sunderland
Economy & trade
Arriva began as T Cowie Ltd, which TSK Cowie set up in Sunderland on 24 October 1938 to sell motorcycles. Tom Cowie relaunched the business soon after the Second World War ended.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 24 October 1938, while the body and Wikidata give the year.
Portugal holds a legislative election with only one party allowed
Politics & diplomacy
Portugal voted for its parliament on 30 October 1938 under a single-party system. Only the National Union fielded candidates, since no opposition was permitted, and António de Oliveira Salazar stayed on as prime minister.
The present Capitol is the third home of Oregon's state government in Salem, after fires destroyed its predecessors in 1855 and 1935. New York architects Trowbridge & Livingston gave it an Art Deco, stripped classical design, and it was dedicated on 1 October 1938.
Notes
The body gives 18 June 1938 as the completion date and 1 October 1938 as the dedication, which matches Wikidata. The date stored is the dedication.
· Albert Lea, Minnesota, United States · North America
Eddie Cochran is born in Albert Lea, Minnesota
Lives
Edward Ray Cochran became an American rock and roll musician, whose songs include Summertime Blues and C'mon Everybody. Even on his first singles he experimented with multitrack recording and overdubbing.
· Santa Monica, California, United States · North America
Popeye creator E. C. Segar dies
Lives
E. C. Segar, the American cartoonist who created Popeye in 1929, died in Santa Monica, California. Popeye first appeared in his comic strip Thimble Theatre, which by 1938 ran in a great many newspapers worldwide.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 13 October 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Santa Monica, California as the place of death.
Two hunters from Oakland, California, found an iron meteorite of the IAB-sLL group at Goose Lake, and the United States National Museum acquired it in 1939.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 13 October 1938. Wikidata holds the year alone.
In 1938 an Act of Congress created a District Flag Commission, which chose the flag with help from the Commission of Fine Arts. It has a white field, two red bars and three red stars above them.
Notes
The infobox gives 15 October 1938 as the adoption date. Wikidata gives the same date and lists 25 October 1938 as an alternative, so confidence is medium. The body dates the Act of Congress that created the flag commission to June 1938.
· New York, New York, United States · North America
Orson Welles's radio drama The War of the Worlds is broadcast
Stage, music & film
Orson Welles directed and narrated a Halloween episode of the CBS series The Mercury Theatre on the Air, adapted by Howard Koch from H. G. Wells's novel. Its first half imitated a live news broadcast describing a Martian invasion.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body all give 30 October 1938, matching Wikidata. The article says the scale of the panic is disputed.
Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy, which grew out of the Fritzi Ritz strip, gained a Sunday strip on 30 October 1938. Nancy, Fritzi's niece, had appeared since 1933 and gradually became the focus.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 30 October 1938 for the start of the Sunday strip titled Nancy. The body says the daily strip was renamed in 1938, and Wikidata gives the year alone, so confidence is medium.
Alfonsina Storni, a Swiss-born Argentine poet and playwright from the modernist era, took her own life at the shore in Mar del Plata after her breast cancer returned in 1938. Her last book, Mascarilla y trébol, marks the peak of her poetic experimentation.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 25 October 1938, as does Wikidata. The body dates her death to about 1:00 a.m.
Pedro Aguirre Cerda wins the 1938 Chilean presidential election
Politics & diplomacy
Radical Party candidate Pedro Aguirre Cerda, head of the Popular Front alliance, defeated Gustavo Ross of the Liberal Party in Chile's 1938 presidential election.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 25 October 1938, matching Wikidata. The lead gives the winner's share as 50.5 percent or 50.3 percent depending on the count; the infobox lists 50.45 percent.
Abdurauf Fitrat, a leading Uzbek public thinker and an influential ideological leader of the Jadid reform movement, was arrested and prosecuted during Stalin's Great Purge and executed in 1938.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 4 October 1938, but Wikidata gives 5 October 1938, so confidence is medium. The lead describes the death as an execution during the Great Purge. The birth year is given as 1886 in the infobox and lead.
· Canton (Guangzhou), Republic of China (now China) · Asia
Japan launches the Canton Operation
War & conflictSome details uncertain
Japan's Canton Operation in the Second Sino-Japanese War aimed to blockade China and cut it off from imports of arms and supplies. Taking Canton and the Pearl River Delta would give Japan a base for the blockade of Guangdong, and it ended in a Japanese victory.
Notes
The infobox gives 12 to 29 October 1938. Wikidata gives a start in October 1938 and an end on 1 December 1938, so the end date is not settled and confidence is medium.
· Primorsky Krai, Soviet Union (now Russia) · Asia
Primorsky Krai is formed from the Far-Eastern Krai
Politics & diplomacy
In 1938 the Far-Eastern Krai was split up and Primorsky Krai created, reflecting a policy under Stalin of breaking big regions into smaller ones. Its administrative centre is Vladivostok, where the Russian Navy's Pacific Fleet is based.
Notes
The infobox gives 20 October 1938, the same as Wikidata. The Khabarovsk Krai article gives the same day for the split of the Far Eastern Krai into the Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krais.
Khabarovsk Krai is created by splitting the Far Eastern Krai
Politics & diplomacy
On 20 October 1938 the Far Eastern Krai was divided into the Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krais, creating Khabarovsk Krai. It lies in the Russian Far East and is governed from the city of Khabarovsk.
Notes
The infobox and body give 20 October 1938, as does Wikidata.
On 2 October 1938 attackers came into Tiberias from both north and south, severed communication lines and struck at government buildings, the synagogue and houses. After reaching the Jewish Kiryat Shmuel neighbourhood they killed 19 Jews, 11 of them children, and burned Jewish homes.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 2 October 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives 15 Jewish guards on the defending side and the time as 21:00.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was born in Monrovia on 29 October 1938 and trained as an economist at Harvard. She served as Liberia's 24th president from 2006 to 2018, the first woman elected head of state anywhere in Africa.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 29 October 1938, matching Wikidata.
An Australian National Airways DC-2 flying from Adelaide to Melbourne began its approach to Essendon Airport in thick fog on 25 October 1938 and hit the western slopes of Mount Dandenong. All 18 people aboard died.
The NKVD's Polish Operation against Poles in the Soviet Union ends
War & conflictSome details uncertain
In 1937 and 1938, as part of the Great Purge, the NKVD carried out an operation across the Soviet Union, ordered by the Politburo against alleged Polish spies but taken by officials to cover all Poles. It led to the sentencing of 139,835 people, including summary executions of 111,091 Poles.
Notes
The body says the operation ran approximately from 25 August 1937 to 15 November 1938, and the infobox and lead give 1937-1938, so only the month of the approximate end is stored. Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
· Ravensbrück, Fürstenberg/Havel, Germany · Europe
Work begins on the Ravensbrück concentration camp for women
War & conflictSome details uncertain
In November 1938 SS leader Heinrich Himmler ordered construction to start on Ravensbrück, a camp north of Berlin intended to hold only women. Its first prisoners arrived in May 1939, women moved there by the SS from the Lichtenburg camp in Saxony.
Notes
The English body dates the start of construction to November 1938. The German article says the camp was built from December 1938 to April 1939 by prisoners from Sachsenhausen, with women prisoners also made to work on it from 11 November 1938. The infobox gives May 1939 for the start of operation and the lead gives 1939 to 1945 for the camp's existence. Wikidata gives only the year 1938. The English lead cites the camp memorial's estimate of 132,000 women held during the war and says about 50,000 of the women who passed through died; the German article says about 28,000 prisoners were murdered there.
The NKVD's national operations of the Great Purge come to an end
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The national operations targeted ethnic groups seen as foreign, such as Poles, Latvians, Germans and Romanians. Between about 335,000 and 350,000 people were convicted, and 247,157 of them were sentenced to be shot.
Notes
The English article dates the NKVD arrests in the national operations to August 1937 to October 1938, and the album and special-troika decisions to 25 August 1937 to 17 November 1938; a decree of 17 November 1938 prohibited mass arrest operations, and an NKVD order of 26 November 1938 cancelled most of the mass-operation orders and suspended death sentences. Wikidata gives July 1937 to November 1938. Only November 1938 is stored, with medium confidence. The totals differ: the lead gives 340,000 to 350,000 sentenced, while the body counts 346,713 cases decided and 335,513 convictions, with 247,157 of the convicted given death sentences. Russian Wikipedia gives the same 335,513 and 247,157 figures.
· Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) · Europe
Radola Gajda's Czechoslovak National Fascist Community joins the Party of National Unity
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Gajda's movement, founded in March 1926 and based in Prague, took Mussolini's fascism as its model and carried out the only fascist coup attempt in Czechoslovakia's history. In November 1938 it was folded into the Party of National Unity, although it kept its own structure into 1939.
Notes
The English infobox gives 22 November 1938 for the dissolution, which matches Wikidata. The Czech article says the party became part of the Party of National Unity on 20 November 1938 but kept its own structure and ended in 1939, when it merged into the National Partnership, and the English body says its demise was sealed in late 1939. The two November days differ, so only the month is stored.
Francis Jammes, a French poet who spent most of his life in Béarn and the Basque Country, died at Hasparren. His lyrical poetry celebrates the pleasures of simple rural life.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 1 November 1938, as does Wikidata.
· Moreira de Cónegos, Guimarães, Portugal · Europe
The football club Moreirense F.C. is founded
Sport
Moreirense is a Portuguese professional football club from Moreira de Cónegos, in the Guimarães area. Its first season in the second division was in 1995, and its first in the Primeira Liga was in 2002.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 1 November 1938, while the body and Wikidata give the year 1938.
First Vienna Award gives southern Slovak and Carpathian Rus' lands to Hungary
Politics & diplomacy
Signed at Vienna's Belvedere Palace on 2 November 1938, the award stripped Czechoslovakia of territory in the south of Slovakia and the south of Carpathian Rus', populated mostly by Hungarians, and gave it to Hungary. Hungary's claims had German and Italian backing.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 2 November 1938, the same as Wikidata.
King Vidor directed The Citadel, a drama made at Denham Studios for MGM's British arm, produced by Victor Saville, with Robert Donat and Rosalind Russell starring. It adapts A. J. Cronin's 1937 novel.
Notes
The day comes from the infobox release date. Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
The Slovak Football Association, which governs football in Slovakia and runs the national football and futsal teams, was founded on 4 November 1938 and joined FIFA in 1939.
Notes
The body gives 4 November 1938 for the founding, while Wikidata holds the year alone. Slovakia was then part of Czechoslovakia.
· Sudetenland, Germany (now Czech Republic) · Europe
The Sudeten German Party is dissolved into the Nazi Party
Politics & diplomacy
The pro-Nazi party Konrad Henlein founded in 1933 as the Sudeten German Homeland Front, which openly sought to split Czechoslovakia and join the Reich, merged into the NSDAP on 5 November 1938.
Notes
The infobox gives 5 November 1938 for the dissolution, matching Wikidata, and the body says the Munich Agreement brought the German annexation of the Sudetenland in September 1938. The infobox lists the membership as 1.35 million for 1938.
The AVRO chess tournament gathers the world's eight strongest players
SportSome details uncertain
The Dutch broadcaster AVRO sponsored a double round-robin in which the world's eight strongest players each faced every rival twice. Reuben Fine and Paul Keres ended on equal points, and a tiebreak gave Keres first place.
Notes
The body gives 6 to 27 November 1938. Wikidata gives 2 November 1938 as the start and 27 November as the end, so the start day differs and confidence is medium.
Poland holds its last parliamentary election before the Second World War
Politics & diplomacy
Voters elected the Sejm on 6 November 1938 and the Senate a week later, under the April Constitution of 1935, which had been written to favor the Sanation movement. Adam Koc's Camp of National Unity won 164 of the 208 Sejm seats, and opposition parties boycotted the vote.
On 7 November 1938 Republican SB-2 bombers raided the town of Cabra in Andalusia, several kilometres behind the front. Between 101 and 109 civilians were killed and at least 200 wounded.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 7 November 1938, matching Wikidata. The lead gives 109 civilian dead and more than 200 wounded, the infobox result line gives 107 dead, and the body's section on the attacks gives 101 to 109 dead and 200 wounded. The background section names Seville and Valladolid among the Nationalist-held cities the Republican air force bombed that year.
Kristallnacht: pogrom against Jews across Nazi Germany
War & conflict
On 9 and 10 November 1938, SA and SS forces, joined by Hitler Youth members and some civilians, attacked Jews across Germany while the authorities looked on. Synagogues and Jewish businesses were wrecked, and 30,000 Jewish men were taken into custody and sent off to concentration camps.
Notes
The lead and the Wikidata description give 9-10 November 1938; Wikidata's date field gives only November 1938. The lead gives vom Rath's assassination as 9 November. Death tolls differ: early reports counted 91 Jews murdered, while the English body says that with deaths from maltreatment after arrest and suicides the total runs much higher, and the German article says several hundred Jews were murdered between 7 and 13 November and estimates all Jewish deaths from the pogroms at 1,000 to 2,000. The French article cites a report by Heydrich of 11 November 1938 giving 36 dead.
Marshal Vasily Blyukher dies after arrest in the Soviet military purges
Lives
Vasily Blyukher, a Marshal of the Soviet Union who had commanded the Far East Front at the Battle of Lake Khasan, was arrested in 1938 on a charge of spying. He died of injuries after Beria and his men tortured and blinded him.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 9 November 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Moscow as the place of death and the nickname Red Napoleon.
German diplomat Ernst vom Rath dies after being shot in Paris
Lives
Ernst vom Rath, a German diplomat in Paris, died on 9 November 1938 after being shot on the morning of 7 November by Herschel Grynszpan, a Polish Jewish teenager who had learned that his parents had been deported from Germany.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 9 November 1938 as the date of death, matching Wikidata. The body dates the shooting to 7 November 1938.
The Leopoldstädter Tempel synagogue in Vienna is largely destroyed on Kristallnacht
Religion & philosophy
The main hall of the synagogue on Tempelgasse in Vienna's Leopoldstadt district was destroyed in the night of 9 to 10 November 1938, during Kristallnacht. Ludwig Förster had designed it in Moorish Revival style and it was completed in 1858.
Notes
Wikidata holds the year alone; the day comes from the infobox and body, which give 10 November 1938. The German and French articles say the main hall was destroyed in the night of 9 to 10 November while the side wings stayed standing.
Würzburg, Bavaria, saw the division formed as the lead unit of a second wave of new German armoured divisions, after the 2nd Panzer Division had left for Vienna. It fought in Poland, France and the Soviet Union and surrendered to Soviet forces at the end.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 10 November 1938. Wikidata holds the year alone.
Bacteriologist Hans Christian Gram dies in Copenhagen
Lives
Hans Christian Gram, the Danish bacteriologist who developed the Gram stain, died in Copenhagen, fifteen years after retiring from the University of Copenhagen.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 14 November 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Copenhagen as the place of death.
Oppeln, today Opole in Poland, was where the division was raised, in the second batch of new German armoured divisions. It saw action in Poland, France, the Balkans and the Soviet Union, and surrendered in 1945 to both Soviet and Western Allied forces.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 15 November 1938, and the lead gives the year 1938. Wikidata holds the year alone.
On 16 November 1938 the USSR All-Union Sports Committee formally recognised sambo, a martial art and combat sport of Soviet origin, as an official sport.
Notes
The infobox and body give 16 November 1938, as does Wikidata.
Lev Shestov, a Russian existentialist and religious philosopher born Yeguda Lev Shvartsman in Kyiv, died in Paris. He criticised both philosophical rationalism and positivism.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 19 November 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Paris as the place of death.
Maud, queen consort of Norway since November 1905, died in 1938. The youngest surviving child of Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, she had married her cousin Prince Carl of Denmark in 1896, and he became King Haakon VII.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 20 November 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox puts her death in Marylebone, London, but Wikidata names Sandringham House, so the place is not fully settled and confidence is medium.
Playing White at the AVRO tournament in Rotterdam on 22 November 1938, Mikhail Botvinnik beat José Raúl Capablanca in the eleventh round, in a Nimzo-Indian Defence.
Notes
The lead gives 22 November 1938, matching Wikidata. The date is stated directly in the lead.
Iron Guard leader Corneliu Zelea Codreanu is killed
Lives
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, the Romanian fascist politician who founded the Iron Guard, died in an extrajudicial execution on 30 November 1938.
Notes
The lead gives 30 November 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Tâncăbești, Snagov, as the place of death and extrajudicial execution as the cause.
Patrick Joseph Buchanan worked as an assistant and consultant to Presidents Nixon, Ford and Reagan, and was Reagan's White House Communications Director from 1985 to 1987. He is an influential figure in paleoconservatism.
· Dearborn, Michigan, United States · North America
Ford launches the Mercury car brand
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
Edsel Ford created Mercury to sit between the Ford and Lincoln lines in the company's range, naming it for a Roman deity after beginning work on the brand in 1937. Mercury cars were sold for the 1939 to 2011 model years.
Notes
The infobox gives a founding date of 4 November 1938, and the body says Edsel Ford introduced the first Mercury Eight body styles at the New York Auto Show in November 1938. The lead and the German article say 1938, while the French article says the brand was founded in 1939, its first model year. Wikidata gives the year alone.
The Great Waltz, a Hollywood film about Johann Strauss II, is released
Stage, music & film
The Great Waltz is a very loose film biography of composer Johann Strauss II, with Luise Rainer, Fernand Gravet and Miliza Korjus in the cast. Julien Duvivier is the credited director.
Notes
The day comes from the infobox release date. Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
Republicans gain eight seats in the 1938 United States Senate elections
Politics & diplomacy
Republicans took eight seats from the Democrats in the 1938 Senate elections, held midway through Franklin D. Roosevelt's second term, though the Democrats still held more than two-thirds of the chamber. Regular contests were for the 32 Class 3 seats, with special elections for vacancies.
Notes
Most contests were on 8 November 1938. The infobox also lists a few earlier special-election dates, such as 4 January and 14 September 1938, so the stored date is the general election day.
· North Brother Island, New York, United States · North America
Mary Mallon, known as Typhoid Mary, dies on North Brother Island
Lives
Mary Mallon, an Irish-born cook who moved to the United States when young, died on North Brother Island, where she had been forcibly quarantined at Riverside Hospital in 1907. She was the first person in the US recognised as a symptomless carrier of typhoid bacteria.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 11 November 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives North Brother Island, New York, as the place of death.
· Marshalltown, Iowa, United States · North America
Jean Seberg is born in Marshalltown, Iowa
Lives
Jean Dorothy Seberg appeared in 34 films on both sides of the Atlantic, and Godard's Breathless in 1960 turned her into a face of the French New Wave. The FBI's COINTELPRO programme singled her out, and she became one of its best-known targets.
Notes
Wikidata's day matches the infobox and lead. The English and French articles give 30 August 1979 as the date of death, while the infobox gives 8 September 1979 as the date her body was discovered.
· Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada · North America
The Lions Gate Bridge opens to traffic in Vancouver
Architecture
The Lions Gate Bridge, officially the First Narrows Bridge, carries traffic across Burrard Inlet between Vancouver and the North Shore, and opened on 14 November 1938. The suspension bridge had been under construction since 31 March 1937.
Notes
The stored date is the opening to traffic. The body gives 26 May 1939 as the official opening and the lead gives only the year 1938. Wikidata gives the same day as the infobox.
· New York City, New York, United States · North America
Robert Nozick is born in New York City
Lives
Robert Nozick became an American philosopher and Harvard professor, best known for Anarchy, State, and Utopia, published in 1974. The book argues that only a minimal state is a legitimate form of government.
Notes
Wikidata names Brooklyn as the place, which the article does not confirm. Wikidata's day matches the infobox and lead.
Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. grew into a Canadian singer-songwriter with an international following and was a leading voice of the 1970s singer-songwriter era.
Notes
Wikidata's day matches the infobox, lead and body.
Robert Edward Turner III built CNN into cable's earliest round-the-clock news channel and also founded WTBS, the pioneer of the superstation concept. His networks also include TNT, TBS, the Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies.
· Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States · North America
Physicist Edwin Hall, discoverer of the Hall effect, dies
Lives
Edwin Hall, who discovered in 1879 the effect that now bears his name, died in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He also did research on thermoelectricity and wrote many physics textbooks and laboratory manuals.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 20 November 1938, matching Wikidata. The body places his death in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Leopold Godowsky, a teacher, composer and virtuoso pianist whose birthplace lies in present-day Lithuania, died of stomach cancer after health problems through much of 1937 and 1938. He became a United States citizen in 1891.
Notes
The lead and body agree on 21 November 1938, matching Wikidata. Wikidata names New York City.
· Charlotte, Tennessee, United States · North America
Oscar Robertson is born in Charlotte, Tennessee
Lives
Oscar Palmer Robertson, nicknamed the Big O, played in the NBA for the Cincinnati Royals and the Milwaukee Bucks. He was named most valuable player in 1964 and in 1962 became the first NBA player to average a triple-double across a season.
Walt Disney Productions made the animated short, which RKO Radio Pictures distributed. Dick Rickard directed it from Munro Leaf's 1936 book The Story of Ferdinand, and it won the Academy Award for best cartoon short.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 25 November 1938. Wikidata holds the year alone.
Michael Curtiz directed this Warner Bros. gangster film starring James Cagney and Pat O'Brien, with Humphrey Bogart and the Dead End Kids. It follows the gangster Rocky Sullivan and his childhood friend Jerry Connolly, now a priest working to keep local youths away from Rocky's example.
Notes
The infobox gives 26 November 1938, matching Wikidata. Wikidata also holds 7 May 1965.
· Durham, North Carolina, United States · North America
Psychologist William McDougall dies in Durham, North Carolina
Lives
William McDougall, a British-born psychologist who taught at University College London, Oxford, Harvard and Duke, died in Durham, North Carolina. He wrote influential textbooks and helped develop instinct theory and social psychology in the English-speaking world.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 28 November 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Durham, North Carolina as the place of death.
The Woodhead Commission report rejects the Peel partition plan for Palestine
Politics & diplomacy
Britain's Woodhead Commission, set up to draft a detailed plan for dividing Mandatory Palestine, published its report on 9 November 1938 and called the earlier Peel plan impracticable. It preferred a revised partition that kept Galilee, and a strip joining Jaffa to Jerusalem, under British rule.
Notes
The lead and body give 9 November 1938 for publication of the report. Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, a field marshal and statesman, died in Istanbul in 1938, having led Turkey since 1923 as the first president of the republic he had founded.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 10 November 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Istanbul as the place of death; Wikidata names Dolmabahçe Palace. The lead gives his birth year as c. 1881.
The Turkish Assembly elects Ismet Inonu president after Atatürk's death
Politics & diplomacy
The day after Mustafa Kemal Atatürk died on 10 November 1938, the Grand National Assembly voted, with 348 members taking part, and chose Ismet Inonu unanimously. Both men belonged to the Republican People's Party.
Notes
Wikidata's day matches the infobox and lead. The article names the Grand National Assembly as the venue but does not name the city.
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkey's first president, died at Dolmabahçe Palace on 10 November 1938, and a state funeral followed in Ankara on 21 November, with dignitaries from seventeen nations present.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 21 November 1938, matching Wikidata.
· Visible from Northeast Asia, Hawaii and western North America
A partial solar eclipse is seen from Northeast Asia, Hawaii and North America
Science
The partial solar eclipse of 21 November 1938, with a magnitude of 0.7781, could be seen from Hawaii, western North America and northeastern Asia.
Notes
The lead dates the eclipse to 21 and 22 November 1938; the body's timing table gives first contact at 21:45 UTC and greatest eclipse at 23:52 UTC on 21 November, and last contact at 01:59 UTC on 22 November. Wikidata gives 21 November.
Sergei Eisenstein directed this Soviet historical drama, with Dmitri Vasilyev as co-director, about Prince Alexander Nevsky defeating the Teutonic Knights as they try to invade Novgorod in the 13th century. Sergei Prokofiev composed the score.
Notes
The infobox gives 1 December 1938 and the body says December 1938. Wikidata gives 25 November 1938 and also holds 1 December 1938 and 22 March 1939, so confidence is medium.
The Arts Hall opens in Zagreb, later the Meštrović Pavilion
Architecture
Ivan Meštrović designed the building, which opened on 1 December 1938 with a large retrospective of Croatian art. It was an art gallery until the Second World War, was converted into a mosque while the Independent State of Croatia existed, and after the war it turned into the Museum of the Revolution.
Notes
The infobox gives 1941 as the completion year of the building as a mosque, which refers to the conversion. Wikidata also holds only the year 1938.
Marcel Carné directed this French work of poetic realism about working-class lives, with Arletty, Louis Jouvet and Annabella in the cast. It follows two couples in Paris: a prostitute and her pimp, and two young lovers without regular work.
Notes
The day comes from the infobox release date. Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
Nobel Peace laureate Christian Lous Lange dies in Oslo
Lives
Christian Lous Lange, a Norwegian historian, teacher and political scientist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1921, died in Oslo. He was one of the world's leading voices for internationalism, in theory and in practice.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 11 December 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Oslo as the place of death.
· Yugoslavia (now several successor states) · Europe
Yugoslavia holds its last parliamentary election before the Second World War
Politics & diplomacy
In the Yugoslav parliamentary election of 11 December 1938, the governing Yugoslav Radical Union, on Milan Stojadinović's list, won 306 of the 373 seats in the National Assembly.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 11 December 1938, matching Wikidata.
The Neuengamme concentration camp is founded near Hamburg
War & conflict
Neuengamme began as a subcamp of Sachsenhausen, when 100 prisoners were sent to build it and run the brickworks, and grew into the largest concentration camp in northwest Germany. More than 100,000 prisoners passed through the main camp and its subcamps.
Notes
The history section gives 13 December 1938 for the camp's start. Wikidata holds the year alone. Place is the camp site in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg.
On 16 December 1938 Hitler issued a decree in Berlin creating the Mother's Cross, a Nazi decoration honouring mothers of large families. The first awards were not made until 21 May 1939.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 16 December 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox records the first award as 21 May 1939.
· Slovak Land, Czecho-Slovakia (now Slovakia) · Europe
Slovakia holds a parliamentary election after declaring autonomy
Politics & diplomacy
Voters went to the polls on 18 December 1938, a little over two months after Slovakia declared autonomy on 6 October, with Hlinka's Slovak People's Party the dominant force and Jozef Tiso its leader and prime minister. The new Diet of the Slovak Land first met on 18 January 1939.
Notes
Wikidata's day matches the infobox and lead. In December 1938 Slovakia was an autonomous land of the Second Czecho-Slovak Republic (autonomy confirmed by a constitutional change in late November 1938), so the place gives the state of the time. The article describes the vote as a single-list ballot.
Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot's Christmas is published in the UK
Art & literature
The Collins Crime Club first published the Hercule Poirot mystery in the UK on 19 December 1938, at a price of seven shillings and sixpence. The first edition is copyright dated 1939.
Notes
The lead and infobox agree on 19 December 1938, matching Wikidata.
Swedish unions and employers sign the Saltsjöbaden Agreement
Politics & diplomacy
On 20 December 1938 Sweden's union confederation LO and the employers' association SAF signed the agreement, which cemented the Swedish norm that both sides settle terms without government interference.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 20 December 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Saltsjöbaden as the place of signing.
The Nationalist Catalonia Offensive begins in the Spanish Civil War
War & conflict
From 23 December 1938 the Nationalist army swept rapidly across Republican Catalonia. Barcelona fell on 26 January 1939, and thousands of civilians who fled across the border into France ended up in internment camps.
Notes
The infobox gives 23 December 1938 to 10 February 1939, matching Wikidata's start day.
Jean Renoir directed this French crime drama, loosely based on Émile Zola's 1890 novel of the same name and starring Jean Gabin and Simone Simon. Part of it takes place on a train that works almost like a main character.
Notes
The day comes from the infobox release entry for France, matching Wikidata's day-level date.
· Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) · Europe
Karel Čapek dies
Lives
Karel Čapek, the Czech writer, playwright, critic and journalist best known for science fiction, died in Prague as the Second World War loomed. His works include the novel War with the Newts and the play R.U.R.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 25 December 1938, as does Wikidata. The infobox gives Prague as the place of death; Wikidata names Vinohrady.
The Soviet title Hero of Socialist Labour is created
Politics & diplomacy
On 27 December 1938 the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet introduced by decree the title Hero of Socialist Labour, the USSR's highest distinction for exceptional achievement in industry and culture. Unlike the Hero of the Soviet Union, it was not awarded to foreign citizens.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 27 December 1938, matching Wikidata. The first award is dated 20 December 1939 in both the infobox and body.
Émile Vandervelde, a Belgian socialist politician nicknamed le patron, the boss, died in Ixelles. A prominent leader of the Belgian Labour Party and of international socialism, he served as Belgium's foreign minister from 1925 to 1927.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 27 December 1938, matching Wikidata. The infobox gives Ixelles as the place of death, while Wikidata gives Brussels; Ixelles lies within the Brussels area.
· Brno, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic) · Europe
Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet is staged in full for the first time in Brno
Stage, music & film
Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet, composed in 1935 and based on Shakespeare's play, had its full premiere at the Mahen Theatre in Brno. Ivo Váňa-Psota choreographed it and danced Romeo, with Zora Šemberová as Juliet.
Notes
The body gives 30 December 1938, matching Wikidata, while the infobox gives 1938. The lead says the ballet was composed in 1935.
Orson Welles's The Campbell Playhouse begins on CBS
Art & literature
Orson Welles directed and starred in the live hour-long CBS drama series The Campbell Playhouse, which continued The Mercury Theatre on the Air after that programme's last broadcast on 4 December 1938. Its first episode adapted Daphne du Maurier's novel Rebecca.
Notes
The infobox and body agree on 9 December 1938. Wikidata holds the year alone.
· Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States · North America
Edgar End and Max Nohl make the first deliberate saturation dive
Technology
On 22 December 1938 Edgar End and Max Nohl breathed air under pressure for more than a day in a recompression chamber at a Milwaukee hospital, in the earliest deliberate saturation dive.
Notes
The body gives 22 December 1938, the same as Wikidata. The dive took place in a hospital's recompression chamber in Milwaukee.
W. S. Van Dyke directed Sweethearts, with Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy in the leads, and Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell wrote the script around a play-within-a-play. It was the first colour picture for both singers and MGM's first in three-strip Technicolor.
Notes
The day comes from the infobox release date. Wikidata gives the same day.
· Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States · North America
Robert Kahn is born in Brooklyn
Lives
Robert Elliot Kahn is an American electrical engineer who, together with Vint Cerf, first proposed the TCP and IP protocols that underpin the Internet. The pair received the Turing Award for this work in 2004.
Notes
The infobox gives New York City as the birthplace, while the body names Brooklyn. Wikidata's day matches the infobox and lead.
Edmund Goulding directed this American war film, a remake of the 1930 film of the same title, in which Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone and David Niven play pilots of the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War.
Notes
The day comes from the infobox release date. Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
· Yonkers, New York, United States · North America
Jon Voight is born in Yonkers, New York
Lives
Jon Voight was born Jonathan Paul Voight in Yonkers. He won the best actor Oscar for Coming Home (1978) and received the National Medal of Arts in 2019.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 29 December 1938, matching Wikidata.
The National Stadium in Santiago, Chile, is inaugurated
Architecture
Chile's National Stadium opened on 3 December 1938, after work began in February 1937, with a design modelled on Berlin's Olympiastadion. In the first match, a friendly, Colo-Colo beat São Cristóvão of Brazil 6-3.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body agree on 3 December 1938, matching Wikidata's day-level date. Wikidata also holds an inception of only the year 1938, which is not used.
Wilpattu had been a sanctuary since 1905 and became a national park in 1938, making it one of the oldest in Sri Lanka. It is known for its natural lakes, called willus.
Notes
The day comes from the infobox, and the body confirms the year 1938. Wikidata holds the year alone.
· Vtoraya Rechka transit camp near Vladivostok, Soviet Union (now Russia) · Asia
Poet Osip Mandelstam dies in a transit camp
Lives
Osip Mandelstam, a Russian and Soviet poet and one of the foremost Acmeists, died at a transit camp near Vladivostok. Earlier that year he had been seized while on holiday at a rest home and sentenced to five years in a labour camp.
Notes
The infobox and lead agree on 27 December 1938, as does Wikidata, and the German and French articles give the same day, near or at Vladivostok. The infobox gives the transit camp near Vladivostok as the place of death.
Events we can place in 1938 but not in a particular month.
Europe 67
· Soviet Union · Europe
The Great Purge peaks under NKVD chief Yezhov and turns on its own chiefs in 1938
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The Great Purge, carried out largely by the NKVD, sent accused spies, wreckers and saboteurs to be shot or to Gulag labour camps. In 1938 Stalin reversed course and criticised the secret police over mass executions; two of its chiefs, Yagoda and Yezhov, were eventually put to death.
Notes
The infobox gives a main phase from 9 March 1936 to 10 January 1939; the lead says 1936 to 1939, puts the peak between September 1936 and August 1938, and says Stalin reversed course in 1938. Wikidata gives 1938 as the date and 17 November 1938 as an end date, and its description says August 1936 to March 1938. The sources differ on when the purge ended, so only the year 1938 is stored. The English lead puts the death toll at 700,000 to 1.2 million; the German article says about 1.5 million people were arrested between July 1937 and mid-November 1938, about half of whom were shot.
Qualifying, which had begun in June 1937, finished in 1938. Thirty-seven teams entered for 16 places in the finals, with hosts France and holders Italy placed without playing; Austria qualified but was then annexed by Germany, so only 15 teams took part.
Notes
The infobox gives 16 June 1937 to 1 May 1938. The body says two intercontinental play-offs had been set for 29 May 1938, though the United States withdrew in April 1938. Wikidata gives the year 1938, which is stored because the qualifying began in 1937.
Heinrich Vollmer designed the MP 40 in 1938, building on its predecessor, the MP 38. Developed in Nazi Germany, the gun fires the 9×19mm Parabellum cartridge and was used heavily by infantry squad and platoon leaders, paratroopers and armoured vehicle crews.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 1938 for the design. The body says Vollmer submitted a prototype in 1938 that was adopted as the MP 38, and the infobox gives production from 1940. Wikidata gives only the year 1938.
At Vinnytsia in Ukraine, the NKVD shot more than 9,000 people in the terror of 1937 and 1938. German occupiers found the graves in 1943, and Nazi propaganda later used the massacre against the Soviet Union.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 1937-1938 for the executions; no end day is stated. Wikidata gives the years 1937 and 1938 as start and end. The English article gives over 9,000 victims and says 9,432 bodies were exhumed in 1943, with the digging at one site unfinished and more bodies thought to be buried there; Wikidata holds two death tolls, 9,000 and 11,000.
Nausea, Sartre's first novel, was published by Gallimard in 1938 as a philosophical novel in diary form. Its isolated narrator, Antoine Roquentin, lives in Bouville, a town resembling Le Havre, and feels a growing revulsion as people and things lose their familiar qualities.
Notes
The body says the publisher accepted the manuscript in 1937. Wikidata gives the year 1938.
Mount Olympus is declared Greece's first national park
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
In 1938 Mount Olympus was declared a national park, the first in Greece. Its peak, Mytikas, is the highest point in the country, and in Greek myth the mountain is where the gods live.
Notes
The lead gives 1938 for the national park; Wikidata holds the year alone.
The Soviet song Katyusha is composed and first performed
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Matvey Blanter composed Katyusha in 1938 to Russian words by the poet Mikhail Isakovsky, and Valentina Batishcheva gave its first official performance in the Column Hall of the House of the Unions in Moscow. The song tells of a girl bidding farewell to a soldier.
Notes
The article dates the composition to 1938 and the first official performance to the autumn of 1938. Wikidata gives the day-level date 27 November 1938; the stored precision follows the article.
Dutch historian Johan Huizinga first published Homo Ludens, a study of the part play takes in culture and society, in Dutch in 1938. He suggests that play comes first and is necessary for culture to arise, though not enough alone.
The Ara Pacis is rebuilt beside the Mausoleum of Augustus in Rome
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
Italy's Cabinet commissioned the digging up and rebuilding of the Ara Pacis in February 1937, and in 1938 the rebuilt altar was set near the Mausoleum of Augustus inside a pavilion by Vittorio Ballio Morpurgo.
Notes
The body gives 23 September 1938 only as the deadline for finishing the reconstruction, not as an opening date, and says the altar was placed near the mausoleum in 1938. Wikidata holds the year alone, so only the year is stored.
Vladimir Bartol's novel Alamut is published in Slovenian
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
Vladimir Bartol's historical novel Alamut was first published in Slovenian in 1938. It deals with Hassan-i Sabbah and his Hashshashin, whose fortress at Alamut gives the book its name.
Notes
Wikidata holds the year alone. The infobox lists the country as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia; the English edition came out in 2004.
Organisation Todt, a civil and military engineering body in Nazi Germany, was named after its founder Fritz Todt, who had built the Autobahn network as roads inspector from 1933. The group proper was created in 1938; Todt led it until his death in an air crash in February 1942, and it lasted until 1945.
Notes
The body says the Organisation Todt group proper was created in 1938, whereas the infobox gives 1933 as the year it was formed and the lead describes it as operating from 1933 to 1945. Wikidata gives 1938. The sources disagree, so confidence is medium and no day is stored.
· Kharkov, Soviet Union (now Kharkiv, Ukraine) · Europe
The UPTI Affair: arrests of physicists at the Kharkov institute
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
As part of the Great Purge, state security repressed scholars at the Kharkov physics institute known as UPTI. Lev Shubnikov and other leading staff were arrested and executed in 1937, and Yuri Rumer, Moisey Korets and Lev Landau were arrested in April 1938.
Notes
The lead places the affair during 1938, while the body also records related 1937 events, so no single date is stored. Wikidata holds the year alone.
Production of the DShK heavy machine gun begins in the Soviet Union
TechnologySome details uncertain
Wanting a heavy machine gun comparable to the American M2 Browning, the Soviet Union began development in 1929. Vasily Degtyaryov finalised the first design in 1931, Georgy Shpagin revised it into a belt-fed gun, and production began in 1938 as the DShK 1938.
Notes
The infobox gives 1938 as the design year and the start of production and service; the body says production began in 1938. Wikidata gives the year 1938.
Ayn Rand's novella Anthem is first published in England
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
Cassell brought out the first edition of Ayn Rand's dystopian novella Anthem in England in 1938, the year after she wrote it in the summer of 1937. Its hero, Equality 7-2521, rebels against a collectivist society by carrying out secret scientific research.
The Little Entente of Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia collapses
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The three states had formed the alliance in 1920 and 1921 to defend themselves against Hungarian revisionism and a Habsburg return. Rising German power brought it down in 1938, and it never went into operation in wartime.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 1938 as the year of the collapse; Wikidata gives the year 1938.
The Popular Front, an alliance of the Communist Party, the Socialists and the Radical-Socialists, won the May 1936 election and had Léon Blum form the first government. By autumn 1938 it had broken up, split by the Spanish Civil War, right-wing hostility and economic trouble.
Notes
According to the lead, the alliance broke itself up during the autumn of 1938, while the infobox gives the year 1938. Wikidata gives November 1938, so only the year is stored with medium confidence.
Hispano-Suiza, founded in 1904 as a car maker by Marc Birkigt and others, ran several plants in Spain and one in France by the 1930s. The French company stopped building cars in 1938 and concentrated on aircraft engines.
Notes
The body says the French company ceased automobile production in 1938. The Spanish parent company was not dissolved; Wikidata's 1938 date matches only the French arm's change.
In 1938 Germany settled on Carl Walther's 9 mm semi-automatic P38 as the Wehrmacht's service pistol, ending a search for a replacement for the costly Luger P08 that had begun in 1927.
Notes
The infobox gives a design date of 1938 and the body says the P38 was chosen in 1938; Wikidata holds the year alone. The infobox dates production to 1939-1945 for the wartime model.
The Nazis shut down Hakoah Vienna, the Jewish sports club
SportSome details uncertain
Hakoah Wien was a Jewish sports club famed for its all-Jewish football team. A liquidator ordered it on 31 March 1938 to hand over its assets, and in November police were asked to raid it. It re-formed in 1945.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 1938 for the closure. The body records the liquidation order of 31 March 1938 and a raid request of 16 November 1938, so no single day is stored. Wikidata holds the year alone.
Finland gives out its first maternity packages to low-income families
Everyday lifeSome details uncertain
The first packages went to low-income parents in 1938, containing a blanket, crib sheets, diapers and fabric for sewing baby clothes. The social security institution Kela now gives one to every expectant mother, as it has since 1949, and the package is known abroad as the baby box.
The photojournalism magazine Picture Post is launched in Britain
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
Picture Post appeared in Britain from 1938 to 1957 and was an instant success, and within two months its weekly sales reached 1,000,000 copies. It is seen as a pioneering example of photojournalism and has been called the UK's counterpart to Life magazine.
Time Transfixed is an oil painting by the Belgian surrealist René Magritte, one of several he made for his patron Edward James. It was the second picture delivered for James's London ballroom, after the portrait Not to be Reproduced, and the Art Institute of Chicago bought it from James in 1970.
Notes
The infobox and lead give only the year 1938, and Wikidata holds the year alone. The place shown is the artist's country; the painting is now in Chicago.
The Soviet Union accepts Tokarev's rifle as the SVT-38
TechnologySome details uncertain
In 1938 Fedor Tokarev's semi-automatic rifle was taken on by the Soviet Union for production as the SVT-38, in the hope that it would become the Red Army's new standard-issue rifle. Production began at the Tula Arsenal in July 1939.
Notes
The body and infobox give 1938 for acceptance and design, with the updated SVT-40 following in 1940. Wikidata gives 1938 and lists 17 July 1939 as an alternative, which fits the body's July 1939 start of production at Tula rather than acceptance.
The League of Nations had the Palace of Nations built in Geneva from 1929 to 1938 as its headquarters, with construction beginning on 7 September 1929. The League's Assembly moved into the Assembly Hall in 1937.
Notes
The infobox gives 1938 as the completion year, and Wikidata holds the year alone. The body says the Assembly was already using the hall in 1937.
The first edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam is completed
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
The first edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, published by Brill in English, German and French editions, appeared from 1913 to 1938 in several volumes plus a supplement. Its last volume, Taghlib to Ziryab, is dated 1938.
Notes
The article gives the first edition as 1913-1938 and dates the final volume to 1938. Wikidata holds the year alone, so only the year is stored.
The first Hoogovens chess tournament is held in Beverwijk
SportSome details uncertain
The tournament now called the Tata Steel Chess Tournament began in 1938 as the Hoogovens Tournament, in the town of Beverwijk. Early editions were tiny, starting with four-player groups, and only Dutch players could enter.
Notes
The venue is the town of Beverwijk, as the body names it, before the move to Wijk aan Zee in 1968. Wikidata holds the year alone.
Chagall painted this oil on canvas, which shows the Crucifixion, while living in Paris, and he made it in response to Kristallnacht. It now hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body give only the year 1938, and Wikidata holds the year alone. The body links the work to Kristallnacht on 9 to 10 November 1938.
The French MAS-38 submachine gun was designed in the 1930s, with 1938 as its design date, and grew out of a small-arms programme run between 1918 and 1922. French and German forces used it in the Second World War.
Notes
The infobox gives 1938 as the design date and lists production from 1938, but the body says mass production did not start until 1939 and the lead says the 1930s. Only the year of design is stored, with medium confidence.
Casterman publishes the album of Tintin's The Black Island
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
In 1938 Éditions Casterman collected Hergé's The Black Island, volume seven of the Tintin series, into a single hardcover volume titled L'Île noire.
Notes
The infobox and body give 1938 for the black-and-white album. The infobox lists the original serial as 15 April 1937 to 16 June 1938, while the lead and body say the first serialisation ran from April to November 1937, so only the year of the album is stored.
The International Federation of Film Archives is founded in Paris
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
Four institutions, the Cinémathèque Française, the British Film Institute, New York's Museum of Modern Art and Berlin's Reichsfilmarchiv, set up FIAF in Paris in 1938. It works to preserve films.
Notes
Wikidata gives 17 June 1938 as the founding date, so only the year is stored.
Stolichnaya, a vodka distilled from wheat and rye, began in the Soviet Union in 1938, although a trademark registration of the same year is sometimes cited as its birth. Since the Soviet breakup a Russian state-owned company and the private SPI Group have disputed who owns it.
Notes
The lead says the vodka originated in 1938, the body says a 1938 trademark registration is sometimes quoted as a birth date, and the infobox gives 1901 as the year it was introduced, so confidence is medium. Wikidata holds the year alone.
The Comintern's International Lenin School in Moscow closes
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The Communist International ran the International Lenin School in Moscow from May 1926 until 1938, training thousands of communist students from dozens of countries.
Notes
The lead says 1938 and the body says mid-1938 for the closure. Wikidata holds the year alone.
Estonia's new constitution creates the office of President of the Republic
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
A new constitution enacted in 1938 renamed the head of state President of the Republic and gave the office very broad executive power. Konstantin Päts was the first president under it.
Notes
The body says a new constitution was enacted in 1938 and renamed the head of state President of the Republic. The infobox gives a formation date of 24 April 1938, matching Wikidata, but the text does not tie any event to that day, so only the year is stored. The infobox lists the Presidential Palace in Tallinn as the residence.
For the 1938-39 season the Campeonato de Portugal, played every season since 1921-22, was renamed the Taça de Portugal, now the premier knockout football competition in Portugal.
Notes
The lead says the cup has been held since 1938, and the infobox gives 1938 as the founding year, with 1922 for its predecessor, the Campeonato de Portugal. The body dates the rename to the 1938-39 season, so confidence is medium.
The enlargement of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Luxembourg City is completed
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
A 1935-1938 enlargement of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Luxembourg City, which began as a Jesuit church with a foundation stone laid in 1613, added its east and central towers.
Notes
The infobox gives 1938 as the completion year, and the body dates the enlargement to 1935-1938. Wikidata holds the year alone, so no day is stored. The cathedral itself dates from the early 1600s, so 1938 marks the end of the enlargement, not its founding.
The first airfield on the site of Cologne Bonn Airport is built
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
The first airfield on the site now occupied by Cologne Bonn Airport was built for the German Luftwaffe in the late 1930s.
Notes
The body dates the first airfield to 1938, but the infobox gives 1939 for the build and 18 July 1957 for the opening of the present airport, so the year is not fully settled and confidence is medium. Wikidata holds the year 1938 alone.
The cave site near Aranđelovac was found around 1938, when the quarry there began operating, but its size and importance went unrecognised until the old quarry reopened in 1950. It is linked to Mousterian culture and Neanderthal occupants, with excavations in 1953.
Notes
The body says the site was discovered around 1938, so the year is approximate and confidence is medium. Wikidata holds the year alone.
The Central Executive Committee of the USSR is dissolved
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The Central Executive Committee, which existed from 1922 to 1938 and was elected by the Congress of Soviets, was the USSR's top governing organ whenever the All-Union Congress of Soviets was not meeting. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet succeeded it.
Notes
Wikidata holds the year alone. The infobox lists the Kremlin Senate in Moscow as its meeting place.
The 1938 European Figure Skating Championships are held in St. Moritz
SportSome details uncertain
Skaters competed in men's, ladies' and pairs events in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Felix Kaspar won the men's title, Cecilia Colledge the ladies' and Maxi Herber and Ernst Baier the pairs.
Notes
The article gives the season as 1937-38 and the year 1938, and Wikidata holds the year alone.
Air Schools Limited, forerunner of British Midland Airways, is founded
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
Captain Roy Harben set up Air Schools Limited in 1938 to train pilots for the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. The airline began flying in 1949 as Derby Aviation.
Franco Anelli discovers the Castellana Caves in Apulia
ExplorationSome details uncertain
In 1938 the speleologist Franco Anelli discovered the Castellana Caves, a karst system in Apulia in southern Italy.
Notes
The infobox and body give 1938 for the discovery, matching Wikidata. The infobox also gives 1932 as the year the show cave opened, which does not fit a 1938 discovery.
Flugplatz Breslau-Schöngarten, as it was first called, went up in 1938 for German military purposes before the Second World War, at a time when Breslau belonged to Germany.
Notes
The body gives 1938 for the building of the airfield. Wikidata holds the year alone.
The Dutch state acquired all remaining shares in 1938 and merged the railway companies into NS, without nationalising it. Its predecessors were the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij and the state-operated railway company.
Notes
The English lead and History section give 1938, when the state bought the remaining shares and the companies were merged to form NS. Dutch Wikipedia says the company N.V. Nederlandsche Spoorwegen was first set up on 2 August 1937 and that the full merger of the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij and the state railway company followed in 1938. Wikidata holds two inception values, 2 August 1937 and 1938 (year only). The year of the full merger, 1938, is stored.
Kalamaki Airfield, later Ellinikon Airport, is built in Athens
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
Ellinikon, first called Kalamaki Airfield, was built in 1938 south of Athens near Glyfada and took its name from the village of Elliniko. It served as Athens' international airport until 2001.
A separate Bulgarian Cup tournament is held for the first time
SportSome details uncertain
From 1938 to 1942 a separate knockout tournament decided the Bulgarian cup champion. Until 1937 the cup had simply gone to whichever team won the Bulgarian State Football Championship.
Notes
The infobox gives 1938 as the founding year, while the body says the cup was founded in 1924 and awarded to the championship winner until 1937. Because the sources differ, the stored event is the first separate tournament in 1938, with medium confidence. Wikidata holds the year alone.
Engineer Nikolai Kalmykov completes the Bolshoy Kamenny Bridge in Moscow
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
The steel arch bridge across the Moskva River, next to the western end of the Kremlin, was finished in 1938. The bridge that came before it had been the first lasting stone crossing in Moscow.
Notes
Wikidata holds the year alone. The lead gives 1938 as the completion year and the body gives 1935 to 1938 for the design and construction.
Republican forces are pushed out of the Aragon front
War & conflictSome details uncertain
During the Spanish Civil War Aragon formed its own front of operations, and in 1938 the Republican Army was forced out of it. The outcome was a Nationalist victory.
Notes
The sources disagree on the end: the lead says the front lasted until spring 1938, the infobox says until August 1938, and Wikidata gives 19 April 1938. Only the year is stored, with medium confidence.
The first Estonian Cup football competition is held
SportSome details uncertain
The Estonian Cup is Estonia's national football knockout tournament, and the first final listed is for 1938, won by Sport after extra time.
Notes
The infobox gives 1938 as the founding year, and the finals table starts with the 1938 final. Wikidata holds the year alone. The finals table shows Sport as the winner of the 1938 final.
J. P. Sauer & Sohn of Suhl produced the compact semi-automatic Sauer 38H in Nazi Germany from 1938 until soon after the war in Europe ended. The H stands for hahn, referring to its internal hammer.
The first ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships are held at Vaxholm
SportSome details uncertain
The first world championships in canoe sprint, organised by the International Canoe Federation, took place at Vaxholm in 1938. They are usually held in years without an Olympic Games.
Notes
The infobox and the list of editions give the year 1938 and the host as Vaxholm, Sweden, and the infobox date reads mid-year. Wikidata holds the year alone.
The Swedish retailer ICA begins as Inköpscentralernas aktiebolag
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
ICA started out under that name, using a model that Hakonbolagen had introduced in 1917. Today it is a food and health retailer headquartered in Solna, active in Sweden and the Baltic states.
The School for Industrial Studies, now the University of Piraeus, is founded
ScienceSome details uncertain
Industrialists and tradesmen came together to found the School for Industrial Studies in Piraeus. It was meant to give managers advanced training, and it is now a public university for business, economics, finance and maritime studies.
The Rimini club dated back to 1912 but went bankrupt, and in 1938 it was reconstituted as Rimini Calcio. It most recently played in Serie C, the third tier, at the Stadio Romeo Neri.
São Bento Mansion stands in the grounds of the palace where Portugal's parliament meets. Salazar moved in during 1938, and every premier since has lived there officially.
Notes
The infobox gives 1938 as the completion year of the palace and the body gives 1938 for Salazar's move. Wikidata holds the year alone.
· Gorky, Soviet Union (now Nizhny Novgorod, Russia) · Europe
A new airport at Strigino, serving Gorky, is completed
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
Gorky's population was growing so fast that a new aerodrome beyond the city limits was ordered in 1937 by the Council of Ministers of the USSR, and building was finished the following year.
Notes
Wikidata gives the year 1938. Gorky was the official name of Nizhny Novgorod from 1932 to 1990, per the body.
Cambridge City Airport opens, replacing the airfield at Fen Ditton
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
Cambridge City Airport opened in 1938 on the eastern edge of the city, near the village of Teversham, taking over from the older Fen Ditton airfield. Marshall Aerospace owns and operates it.
Notes
The infobox and body give only the year 1938 for the opening, and Wikidata holds the year alone.
Craiova Airport is established by decree of King Carol II
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
King Carol II issued the decree that set up Craiova Airport in 1938. It sits east of the city in south-west Romania and has the headquarters of Avioane Craiova, builder of the IAR-93 and IAR-99, in its area.
Notes
The infobox and body give only the year 1938, and Wikidata holds the year alone.
The Academy of Agriculture is established at Jelgava, Latvia
ScienceSome details uncertain
Latvia's Academy of Agriculture was set up in Jelgava Palace, which had been renovated for the purpose. After an intermediate name, Latvia University of Agriculture, it took its present title and teaches agricultural science, forestry and food technology.
Notes
The infobox gives 1938 as the year established, while the body says it became an independent institution in 1939 and the infobox lists a former name from 1936. Wikidata gives 23 December 1938. The sources conflict, so only the year is stored with medium confidence.
The first International Youth Congress of Esperanto meets at Groet
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The first International Youth Congress of Esperanto was held in 1938 at Groet in the Netherlands, with more than 300 people registered. The meeting was repeated many times afterwards, and the World Esperanto Youth Organization now organises it, usually in a different country each time.
Notes
Wikidata gives 10 August 1938, unsourced; the English article's list of congresses gives only the year, 1938. The list shows 304+ registrations and 203 participants for 1938, Groet as host of both 1938 and 1948, no congresses between 1939 and 1947, and online-only events in 2020 and 2021, so a claim of one congress every year was not used.
In 1938 Congress created the Federal National Mortgage Association, known as Fannie Mae, by amending the National Housing Act as part of Roosevelt's New Deal. Its purpose was to widen the secondary mortgage market.
Notes
Wikidata also holds the year alone. The infobox gives Washington, D.C. as the headquarters.
The Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe first appears in print
Everyday lifeSome details uncertain
Massachusetts chef and hotelier Ruth Graves Wakefield is generally credited with inventing the chocolate chip cookie, whose recipe first reached print as Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookies, in the 1938 Toll House Tried and True Recipes.
Notes
The body gives 1938 for the first publication of the recipe, adding that it had already been circulating, and the lead credits the invention to the 1930s. Wikidata holds the year alone, so no day is stored.
The American Enterprise Association, forerunner of the AEI, is founded
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
A group of businessmen from New York set up the American Enterprise Association in 1938, and the American Enterprise Institute grew out of it. Today the institute is a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C.
The Montreal Maroons suspend operations in the NHL
SportSome details uncertain
Money problems from the Great Depression ended the Maroons' time in the league, which began in 1924. Their final game was a defeat by the Canadiens on 17 March 1938, and the club was allowed a year's pause that became permanent when the franchise was cancelled in 1947.
Notes
The sources give a last game on 17 March 1938 and a league meeting on 22 June 1938 but no single day for the end, so only the year is stored. Wikidata holds the year alone. The infobox and lead give 1947 for the cancelled franchise.
The Socialist Workers Party is formed in the United States
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
The Socialist Workers Party was formed in the United States by supporters of Leon Trotsky, with James P. Cannon listed as its founder. For most of its history it was the largest Trotskyist group in the country.
Notes
The lead says the party was created in 1938, but the body places the expulsion and the party's formation in 1937 and names the Socialist Party of America, not the Communist Party USA, as the expelling body. The sources disagree, so only the year 1938 from the lead and Wikidata is stored, with medium confidence.
National City Lines begins taking over US transit systems
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
From 1938 to 1950 National City Lines and its subsidiaries gained control of transit systems in about 25 US cities, with investment from Firestone, General Motors, Mack Trucks, Phillips Petroleum and Standard Oil of California. General Motors and related firms were later convicted of monopolising bus and supply sales to the company.
Notes
The infobox gives 1938 to 1950 and the lead says between 1938 and 1950. Wikidata gives the year 1938. The article calls the conspiracy to dismantle streetcars alleged, and the convictions concerned monopolising bus sales.
The Caldecott Medal, which the Association for Library Service to Children awards each year to the illustrator of the best American children's picture book of the year before, has a first list of winners and honour books dated 1938, headed by Animals of the Bible.
Notes
The infobox gives 1938 as the year and the winners table starts at 1938; the body says the medal was proposed and designed in 1937. Wikidata holds the year alone.
· Buffalo, New York, United States · North America
The Pierce-Arrow car company closes
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
Pierce-Arrow built motor vehicles in Buffalo, New York, from 1901 until it closed in 1938, and was best known for expensive luxury cars. The company offered a V-12 engine from 1931.
Paul Lamfrom founds the company that becomes Columbia Sportswear in Portland
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
Paul Lamfrom, whose daughter was Gert Boyle, started the business after his family left Nazi Germany in 1937 and quickly bought a hat distributor in Portland. It now sells outerwear, sportswear and footwear from offices near Beaverton, Oregon.
· Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States · North America
Eugene Power founds University Microfilms in Ann Arbor
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
Eugene Power started the company in 1938 to put works held by the British Museum onto microfilm, working that June from rented rooms above a funeral parlour in downtown Ann Arbor. It began publishing doctoral dissertations in 1939 and later became ProQuest.
· Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States · North America
The Hershey Bears join the league that became the American Hockey League
SportSome details uncertain
Hershey has competed in the American Hockey League since the 1938-39 season and is its longest continuously operating club still in its original city. Before that the Bears played in the Eastern Amateur Hockey League from 1936 to 1938.
Notes
The infobox dates the club's founding to 1932 and its entry into the league later known as the AHL to 1938. Only the 1938-39 season is given, with no day, and Wikidata holds the year alone, so the stored event is the league entry.
D. W. Griffith receives the first Directors Guild of America award
Stage, music & filmSome details uncertain
The Directors Guild of America gave its first award in 1938, an honorary life membership for the silent-film pioneer D. W. Griffith. The guild's awards are now issued every year, and the statuettes are made by a New York firm called Society Awards.
Notes
The English lead gives 1938 for the first award, an Honorary Life Member award to D. W. Griffith, and says the awards are issued annually without saying since when. The article's list of the feature-film directing award starts with 1948 (listed as 'since 1948/49'), and Wikidata gives 1938 as the inception but 1949 as the start of the awards. Wikidata holds the year alone for 1938, so no day is stored.
· New York City, New York, United States · North America
Godfrey Lowell Cabot establishes the Maria Moors Cabot Prizes for journalism
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
The Boston industrialist and philanthropist Godfrey Lowell Cabot set up the prizes in 1938 as a memorial to his late wife. Columbia University's trustees give them out each fall to journalists in the Western hemisphere who stand up for press freedom and Inter-American understanding.
Notes
The body gives the year 1938 for the establishment and 1939 for the first annual award, with no day, and Wikidata holds the year alone.
Norman Z. McLeod directed Merrily We Live, an American comedy produced by Hal Roach and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with Constance Bennett and Brian Aherne starring.
Notes
Three release days conflict: the English infobox gives 8 February 1938, Wikidata gives 2 March 1938 and the French article gives 4 March 1938 for the United States. They fall in different months, so only the year is stored.
· Detroit, Michigan, United States · North America
Detroit Diesel is founded
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
Detroit Diesel has built diesel engines since 1938. It is now a subsidiary of Daimler Truck North America and makes heavy-duty truck engines and chassis parts.
· San Dimas, California, United States · North America
California Polytechnic opens a southern campus at San Dimas
Everyday lifeSome details uncertain
In 1938 the California Polytechnic School opened a southern campus on the San Dimas farm and school that Charles and Jerry Voorhis donated. It grew into Cal Poly Pomona.
· Norfolk, Virginia, United States · North America
Norfolk Municipal Airport is established, now Norfolk International
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
The airport was built on the site of the old Truxton Manor Golf Course. Its passenger terminal was completed in 1940, and it now serves the Hampton Roads area and part of northeast North Carolina.
· Pascagoula, Mississippi, United States · North America
Robert Ingalls Sr. founds Ingalls Shipbuilding at Pascagoula
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
Robert Ingersoll Ingalls Sr. founded the shipbuilding company, whose yard now builds ships for the United States Navy. It belongs to HII and is Mississippi's largest private employer.
Antonio Bonet and Juan Kurchan, working with a third colleague, designed a chair with a metal frame and a sling hung from its highest points. The architects had worked in Le Corbusier's studio and then formed a collective in Buenos Aires.
Notes
The body gives 1938 for the design. Wikidata holds the year alone.
· Taikyu, Empire of Japan (now Daegu, South Korea) · Asia
Lee Byung-chul founds Samsung as a trading company
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
Lee Byung-chul, who came from a large landowning family, moved to Taikyu and set up the Mitsuboshi Trading Company, known as Samsung Sanghoe, in 1938. Over the next three decades it grew into food processing, textiles, insurance, securities and retail.
The Xuzhou campaign of the Second Sino-Japanese War
War & conflictSome details uncertain
Japanese and Chinese forces fought for more than three months in early 1938 around Xuzhou, struggling over railway lines and junctions. Japan prevailed in the end yet could not wipe out the Chinese army, which regrouped at Wuhan.
Notes
The infobox gives a single date, 9 February 1938, and the lead says early 1938 and more than three months. Wikidata gives 24 March 1938 as the start and 1 May 1938 as the end. The sources differ on the dates, so only the year is stored.
The Far Eastern Championship Games planned for Osaka are cancelled
SportSome details uncertain
The 1938 edition of the Far Eastern Championship Games, an Asian multi-sport competition thought of as an early version of the Asian Games, was due to be held in Osaka. It was called off because Japan's invasion of China had started the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the series ended.
Notes
The body gives 1938 as the year of the cancelled edition. It dates Japan's invasion of China to September 1937, whereas the Battle of Wuhan article gives the Marco Polo Bridge Incident as 7 July 1937, so no date for the invasion is used. Wikidata gives the year 1938.
· Teshik-Tash Cave, Soviet Union (now Uzbekistan) · Asia
Teshik-Tash 1, a Neanderthal skeleton, is found in Uzbekistan
ScienceSome details uncertain
A. P. Okladnikov unearthed a Neanderthal child's skeleton inside Teshik-Tash Cave, in the Baysuntau range. Five pairs of Siberian ibex horn cores lay in the shallow pit with it, which some researchers see as a ritual burial.
The first legislation for King George V National Park, later Taman Negara
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Taman Negara was created across 1938 and 1939 under the name King George V National Park, once Theodore Hubback had won over three sultans, those of Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan, to set the land aside. Kelantan passed its enactment in 1938, and Pahang and Terengganu followed in 1939.
Notes
The infobox and lead give 1938 and 1939, and the body names the Kelantan enactment as No. 14 of 1938 and the Pahang and Terengganu enactments as 1939. Wikidata holds 1938 alone, so confidence is medium.
· Bombay, British India (now Mumbai, India) · Asia
Larsen & Toubro is founded in Bombay by two Danish engineers
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
Søren Kristian Toubro and Henning Holck-Larsen, Danish engineers in India to represent the dairy equipment maker FLSmidth, went into business together in Bombay on an oral agreement. The firm is now an Indian conglomerate based in Mumbai.
Notes
The lead and body give 1938, while the infobox gives 7 February 1946 as the founding date with a Bombay location. Wikidata holds the year alone, so only the year 1938 is stored with medium confidence.
· Singapore, Straits Settlements (now Singapore) · Asia
Section 377A is added to the penal code of the Straits Settlements
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
In 1938 the colonial government added Section 377A to the Penal Code, criminalising sex between consenting adult men. It stayed in the Singapore Penal Code after the 2007 review.
· Chengdu, Sichuan, Republic of China (now China) · Asia
Shuangguisi Airport opens in Chengdu
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
Chengdu Shuangguisi Airport, predecessor of Chengdu Shuangliu Airport, was built in 1938 and opened as a military-owned airport during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Notes
Wikidata holds the year alone, so no day is stored.
The English-language Deccan Chronicle started in 1938 as a weekly, later became a daily, and takes its name from the Deccan region. It is based in Hyderabad.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body give only the year 1938, and Wikidata holds the year alone. The place follows the lead, which says the paper is based in Hyderabad; the history section says its first owner, Rajagopal Mudaliar, supplied paper to the Nizam of Hyderabad's press.
Haredi Jews who had belonged to World Agudath Israel founded Neturei Karta, a Jewish anti-Zionist organisation, in Jerusalem in 1938. Its opposition to Israel's existence rests on a belief that the Jewish exile must last until the Messiah comes.
Reza Shah directed the building of the Trans-Iranian Railway, begun in 1927 and finished in 1938, which links Tehran with Bandar Shahpur on the Persian Gulf and Bandar Shah on the Caspian Sea. The line runs by way of Ahvaz and Qom.
Notes
Wikidata holds the year alone. The lead notes extensions in later decades, including one in 1961.
The Church of the Beatitudes at Tabgha is completed
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
Antonio Barluzzi designed this Roman Catholic church in a Neo-Byzantine style, and it was built from 1936 to 1938 on the Mount of Beatitudes above the Sea of Galilee. It stands close to the ruins of a fourth-century Byzantine church.
Notes
The infobox gives 1938 as the completion year with no month or day, and Wikidata holds the year alone.
Aviation club planes begin using the site of Tehran's Mehrabad Airport
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
In 1938 aviation club planes began using the site of what is now Mehrabad Airport in Tehran as an airfield. It was originally called Base-J and housed the army's first armoured and mechanised artillery units.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 1938 as the opening year and the body gives 1938 for the first use as an airfield. Wikidata holds the year alone.
The permanent government hospital in Haifa is established
Medicine & epidemicsSome details uncertain
A makeshift hospital founded in 1918 became a permanent institution, the British Government Hospital of Haifa, in 1938 during the British Mandate. It is the forerunner of today's Rambam Health Care Campus.
Notes
The infobox, lead and body give 1938 for the permanent hospital; Wikidata gives the year 1938. The Palestine Post edition of 23 December 1938 reports the opening.
Britain set up the airfield in Arak, then called Sultanabad, and it opened in 1938. It ranks among the oldest airports in Iran and is now an international airport serving the capital of Markazi Province.
Die Stem van Suid-Afrika becomes a co-national anthem of South Africa
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
In 1938 South Africa proclaimed Die Stem van Suid-Afrika a national anthem alongside God Save the King. The two songs shared that status until 1957, when Die Stem became the sole anthem.
· Laayoune, Spanish Sahara (now Western Sahara) · Africa
Laayoune is founded as a Spanish military outpost
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Captain Antonio de Oro of Spain is thought to have founded Laayoune in 1938 as a small military outpost. It soon became the administrative and political centre of the Spanish Sahara and is now the biggest city of Western Sahara.
Notes
The lead says the city is thought to have been founded in 1938 and the infobox gives 1938 as the founding year, with 1934 as the date of settlement. Wikidata gives the year 1938.
· Garamba National Park, Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) · Africa
Garamba National Park is established
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
Garamba National Park was founded in 1938 in the north-east of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and it ranks among the oldest parks in Africa.
Notes
The body gives 1938 for the founding; Wikidata holds the year alone.
· Luangwa Valley, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) · Africa
South Luangwa is established as a game reserve in what is now Zambia
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
South Luangwa began as a game reserve in 1938 in the valley of the Luangwa River, in what is now eastern Zambia, and became a national park in 1972.
Notes
The English lead gives 1938 for the game reserve and the infobox gives 1972 for national park status; German Wikipedia (Südluangwa-Nationalpark) also gives 1938 for the protected area and 1972 for the national park. The English History section says, with a citation-needed tag, that a Luangwa Game Reserve was first created in 1904; the lead and the German article do not support that, so 1938 is stored. Wikidata holds 1938 as a year only, so no day is stored. In 1938 the area belonged to Northern Rhodesia, a British protectorate that became Zambia in 1964, so the place gives the state of the time.
· Ife, Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria (now Nigeria) · Africa
Bronze heads are unearthed at Ife in what is now Nigeria
Art & literatureSome details uncertain
In 1938 eighteen copper-alloy sculptures came to light at Ife, the Yoruba people's royal and religious centre. Builders working on a house found the Ife Head by accident at the Wunmonije Compound.
Notes
Wikidata holds the year alone. The head is now in the British Museum. In 1938 Ife was in the British Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria (1914-1960), so the place gives the state of the time; the English article mentions the colonial authorities passing an export law that year.
· Italian East Africa (now Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia) · Africa
Italian East African lira banknotes are issued
Economy & tradeSome details uncertain
In 1938 banknotes in several denominations of the Italian East African lira were issued for Italy's East African territory, where the currency circulated until 1941.
Notes
Wikidata gives the day-level date 12 September 1938; the stored precision follows the article.
· Asmara, Italian East Africa (now Eritrea) · Africa
The Great Mosque of Asmara is built
ArchitectureSome details uncertain
Guido Ferrazza designed the mosque in the centre of Asmara, and it went up in 1938. Mussolini supported the project as a way to win over the city's Muslims.
Notes
The infobox gives 1938 as the completion year and the lead says it was built in 1938. Wikidata holds the year alone.
· Luangwa Valley, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) · Africa
North Luangwa is founded as a game reserve in what is now Zambia
Politics & diplomacySome details uncertain
North Luangwa began as a game reserve in 1938 and became a national park in 1972. It is the northernmost of three parks in the Luangwa River valley.
Notes
The English lead gives 1938 for the game reserve and the infobox gives 1972 as the year of national park status; Dutch Wikipedia, which follows the English text, repeats this, and German Wikipedia gives only 1972. Wikidata holds 1938 as a year only, so no day is stored. In 1938 the area belonged to Northern Rhodesia, a British protectorate that became Zambia in 1964, so the place gives the state of the time.
The Fiji Football Association, created in 1938, governs football in Fiji and oversees the national team and its leagues.
Notes
The lead and infobox give 1938, and the history section calls 1988 the association's golden jubilee. The same section also says a multiracial national Fiji Football Association was formed in 1961, a sentence marked as needing a citation. Wikidata holds the year alone. In 1938 Fiji was a British colony (1874-1970), so the place gives the state of the time.
Frank Benford publishes his study of the first-digit law
ScienceSome details uncertain
In 1938 the physicist Frank Benford noted again that in many real datasets the leading digit tends to be small, checking the pattern against data from many different fields.
Notes
The body says the phenomenon was noted again in 1938 by Frank Benford, so it had been observed before; the law carries his name because he was credited. Wikidata gives only the year, so no day is stored.
Founded in 1938 with Leslie Mann as its first president, the International Baseball Federation was meant to oversee the growing number of international baseball events. The first Baseball World Cup was organised in London in August 1938.
Notes
Wikidata holds the year alone. The body places the first Baseball World Cup in London in August 1938.
The first Amateur World Series is played, forerunner of the Baseball World Cup
SportSome details uncertain
The first edition of the Amateur World Series, sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation, was contested by just two teams. The event later became the Baseball World Cup.
Maurice Kendall develops the Kendall rank correlation coefficient
ScienceSome details uncertain
In 1938 Maurice Kendall developed a statistic that measures the ordinal association between two measured quantities by comparing how similar their rankings are.
Notes
The lead and body give the year 1938; Wikidata gives the year 1938.
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