1938

1845–1958	Germany [earth sciences]	German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt lays the basis of modern geography with the publication of Kosmos/Cosmos, in which he arranges geographic knowledge in a systematic fashion.
c. 1931–c. 1940	[aircraft]	Aeroplanes undergo radical changes; they become streamlined, are made almost entirely of metal, acquire controllable-pitch propellers, have air-cooled engines and retractable landing gear, and passengers and crew are protected in soundproofed and insulated cabins.
c. 1931–c. 1940	[technology]	The development of facsimile machines is made possible with the discovery of a dry chemical copying process.
1937–1939	USA [computing]	US mathematician and physicist John V Atanasoff invents an electromechanical digital computer for solving systems of linear equations. It uses punched cards and is the first electronic calculator using electronic vacuum tubes.
1938	UK, Scotland [clothing and fashion]	Y-fronts are available in Britain, manufactured under licence by Lyle & Scott in Hawick of Scotland.
1938	UK [schools]	The Spens Report in England and Wales recommends the division of secondary education into grammar, technical, and modern schools.
1938	Austria [solo and chamber music]	The Austrian composer Anton Webern completes his String Quartet, Opus 28.
1938	USA [statistics and demography]	During 1938, there are 32,000 automobile-related deaths in the USA, one-third involving pedestrians.
1938	Germany [technology]	The German inventor Konrad Zuse constructs the first binary calculator using a binary code (Boolean algebra); it is the first working computer.
1938	Germany, Switzerland [opera]	The opera Mathis der Maler/Matthias the Painter by the German composer Paul Hindemith is first performed, in Zürich, Switzerland.
1938	England [orchestral music]	The English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams completes his Serenade to Music.
1938	USA [orchestral music]	The US composer Samuel Barber writes his Adagio for Strings, which he has adapted from his String Quartet of 1936.
1938	Belgium [painting]	The Belgian artist Paul Delvaux paints The Call of the Night.
1938	Netherlands [psychology]	The Dutch historian Johan Huizinga publishes Homo Ludens, which analyses the role of play in human culture.
1938	France [art]	The French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson takes Sunday, Bank of the Marne.
1938	Russia, USSR, Czechoslovakia [ballet]	The ballet Romeo i Dzhulyetta/Romeo and Juliet, by the Russian composer Sergey Prokofiev, is first performed, in Brno, USSR. The choreography is by the Czech choreographer Ivo Vána Psoda.
1938	England [cinema and film]	The film The Lady Vanishes, directed by the English film-maker Alfred Hitchcock, is released. Adapted from the novel by Daphne du Maurier, it stars Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave.
1938	UK [cinema and film]	The film Pygmalion, directed by Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard, is released in the UK. Based on the play by George Bernard Shaw, it stars Howard as Professor Higgins and Wendy Hiller as Eliza Doolittle.
1938	USA [comics]	Superman appears in Action Comics, in the USA. Cartoonists Jerry Siegel and Joseph Shuster created the super-hero character while still in high school.
1938	France [fiction]	The French philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre publishes his novel Nausée/Nausea. It becomes one of the classics of the philosophy of existentialism.
1938	Ireland, France [fiction]	The Irish writer Samuel Beckett publishes his first novel, Murphy.
1938	England [fiction]	The English writer Graham Greene publishes his novel Brighton Rock.
1938	England [fiction]	The English writer Daphne du Maurier publishes her highly successful romantic melodrama Rebecca.
1938	Switzerland [food and drink]	The Swiss food company Nestlé produces instant coffee in response to a coffee surplus in Brazil.
1938	UK [health and medicine]	The British chemist Charles Dodds creates the first synthetic oestrogen and Schering Pharmaceutical chemists create an oestrogen contraceptive pill.
1938	UK [everyday life]	In the UK, the Amulree Committee report recommends the extension to most workers of a week's paid annual holiday, on grounds of social justice and industrial efficiency.
1938	Germany [technology]	A scanning electron microscope is demonstrated by German physicist Manfred von Ardenne.
1938	USA, England, France, Australia [tennis]	Donald Budge of the USA becomes the first tennis player to achieve the Grand Slam, holding all four major tournaments (Wimbledon and the US, French, and Australian championships) simultaneously.
1938	France [theatre criticism]	The French writer and actor Antonin Artaud publishes Le Théâtre et son double/The Theatre and Its Double in which he proposes a ‘theatre of cruelty’.
1938	USA [work and unemployment]	The Fair Labor Standard Act is passed in the USA, limiting working hours and confirming statutory minimum wage and overtime rates.
4 February 1938	Germany [administration]	The German war minister and Wehrmacht (army) commander, Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg, resigns following a personal domestic scandal. The Führer formally declares himself commander with Wilhelm Keitel as chief of staff. Joachim von Ribbentrop is appointed foreign minister.
20 February 1938	UK [political events]	The British foreign minister Anthony Eden resigns in protest at Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy.
2 March - 14 March 1938	USSR [political events]	The former leading communist Nikolai Bukharin and other political leaders are put on trial in the USSR. Bukharin is falsely accused of counterrevolutionary activities and espionage, found guilty, and shot on 14 March.
12 March 1938	Austria, Germany [political events]	German troops are ordered to invade Austria to prevent a vote for continued independence in the referendum proposed by the Austrian chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg; the referendum is called off before they enter Austrian territory.
13 March 1938	Austria, Germany [political events]	Austria is declared part of the German Reich, after the cancellation of a proposed referendum on unity with Germany (Anschluss or ‘Annexation’).
6 April 1938	USA [materials]	US chemist Roy Plunkett discovers the stable and slippery substance polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) (a synthetic resin), marketed by DuPont as Teflon. The most slippery substance known, it becomes commercially available in 1947–48 and is used for electrical insulation and to produce nonstick coatings.
14 May 1938	UK, Germany [football]	On the advice of the Football Association and the British Ambassador, the English team give the Nazi salute during the playing of ‘Deutschland über Alles’ before an international football match with Germany in Berlin, Germany. England win the game 6–3.
17 August 1938	USA [boxing]	US boxer Henry ‘Homicide Hank’ Armstrong becomes the first boxer to hold three world professional titles simultaneously: featherweight, welterweight, and lightweight.
26 September 1938	UK [wars]	Gas-masks are issued to civilians in Britain.
30 September 1938	Germany, Czechoslovakia, UK, France, Italy [diplomacy]	The Munich Agreement is signed in Munich, Germany, by the British prime minister, the French prime minister, the German Führer, and the Italian prime minister. It permits Germany to annex the Sudetenland in western Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain returns to London, England, speaking of ‘peace with honour’ and ‘peace in our time’.
2 October 1938	Japan [Sino–Japanese War (1933–40)]	Japan withdraws from the League of Nations in protest at its identification by the League as the aggressor in the Sino-Japanese war.
4 October 1938	France [political events]	The Popular Front government falls in France when the socialists and communists abstain from a vote of confidence because they are opposed to government economic policy (particularly the devaluation of the franc).
9 November - 10 November 1938	Germany [anti-Semitism]	Following the assassination of a Nazi diplomat in Paris, France, the Nazis organize a night of violence in Germany against Jews and their property. The assault is known as Kristallnacht (‘crystal night’), because of the litter of broken glass.
10 November 1938	Turkey [births and deaths]	Kemal Atatürk, Turkish soldier, statesman, and reformer, founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey 1923–38, dies in Istanbul, Turkey (57).

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‘Ringuet’ Abubakar, Siddiq Adams, Grantley Herbert Adler, Kurt Herbert Alexander Nevsky Ameche, Don Anthony, John Antonio e Cleopatra Armstrong, Henry Arnold, Thurman Atatürk, Kemal Baxevanos, Peter Beatrix Bedier, Charles Marie Joseph Beriya, Lavrenti Pavlovich Berle, A A Berry, Mary Frances Berutti, Arturo Berzin, Jan			THE DERBY was first screened by BBC television in 1938, when French raider Bois Roussel sprang a 20-1 shock on just his second career start. Seventy-two years of the Derby on terrestrial TV by The Racing Post (London, England) The record stands at eight successive defeats in the old Division Two between October and December 1938. Worst run is not here yet by Liverpool Echo (Liverpool, England) in 1938, and the author had changed the names of locations and people in these true stories. Doctor at timberline; true tales, travails, and triumphs of a pioneer ... by Reference & Research Book News			1917 1918 1919 192 192 BC 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 193 193 BC 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 194 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 195 BC 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1955 BC 1956 1957 1958 1959 196			193 193 AD 193 BC 193 BCE 1930 1930 BD 1930 BD 1930 BD 1930 eruption of Stromboli 1930 eruption of Stromboli 1930 eruption of Stromboli 1930's 1930s 1931 1932 1932 Lindbergh baby kidnapping 1932 Siamese coup d'état 1933 1933 Act 1933 Banking Act 1933 Banking Act 1934 1934 Act 1935 1935 Labor Relations Act 1935 Yangtze river flood 1935 Yangtze river flood 1936 1936 Summer Olympics 1937 1938 1938 USDA soil taxonomy 1938 USDA soil taxonomy 1939 1939-1945 Germany 194 194 AD 1940 1940 AD 1940's 1940s 1941 1941 Reich experiment 1941 Reich-Einstein experiment 1942 1943 1944 1945 1945-46 NBA season 1946 1947 1947 AK47 1947 italia-jugoslavija 1948 1949 1949 Geneva Conventions