1938 in the United States

Incumbents

Federal Government">Federal government of the United States">Federal Government

• President: Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Vice President: John Nance Garner
• Chief Justice: Charles Evans Hughes
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: William B. Bankhead
• Senate Majority Leader: Alben W. Barkley
• Congress: 75th

  Governors

Lieutenant Governors

Events

January–March

• January 1
• * The California Golden Bears defeat the Alabama Crimson Tide in this year's Rose Bowl Game in college football, with a final score of 13-0.
• * The Merrie Melodies cartoon short Daffy Duck & Egghead is released, being the first cartoon to give Daffy Duck his continuing name, as well as his second appearance.
• January 3 - The March of Dimes is established as a foundation to combat infant polio by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• January 11 - Leading Korean dancer Choi Seung-hee arrives in San Francisco to begin her international tour in the United States. She is the first Korean Wave entertainer.
• January 16 - The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert is recorded live when Benny Goodman and his orchestra become the first jazz musicians to headline a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
• January 22 - Thornton Wilder's play Our Town is performed for the first time anywhere in Princeton, New Jersey. It premieres in New York City on February 4.
• January 27 - The Niagara Bridge at Niagara Falls, New York collapses due to an ice jam.
• January 28 - The first ski tow in America begins operation in Vermont.
• February 4 - Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first cel-animated feature in motion picture history, is released in the U.S. following last year's premiere.
• March 3 - The Santa Ana River in California spills over its banks during a rainy winter, killing 58 people in Orange County and causing trouble as far inland as Palm Springs.

  April–June

• April 15 - Huey, Dewey and Louie make their first appearance, in the Disney animated short Donald's Nephews.
• April 18 - First appearance of comic book superhero Superman, in Action Comics #1.
• April 25 - Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins: The Supreme Court of the U.S. holds that federal courts do not have the judicial power to create general federal common law when hearing state law claims under diversity jurisdiction, overturning almost a century of federal civil procedure case law.
• April 28 - The towns of Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott in Massachusetts are disincorporated to make way for the Quabbin Reservoir.
• April 30 - The first cartoon to feature a prototypical Bugs Bunny, Porky's Hare Hunt, is released.
• May 12
• * U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull rejects the Soviet Union's offer of a joint defence pact, to counter the rise of Nazi Germany.
• * USS Enterprise is commissioned.
• May 17 - Information Please debuts on NBC Radio.
• June 22 - Heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis knocks out Max Schmeling in the first round of their rematch at Yankee Stadium in New York City.
• June 23
• *The Civil Aeronautics Act is signed into law, forming the Civil Aeronautics Authority in the U.S..
• *Marineland opens near St. Augustine, Florida.
• June 24 - A meteorite explodes about above the earth near Chicora, Pennsylvania.
• June 25 - Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act is signed into law by president Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• June 29 – Olympic National Park is established in Washington state.

  July–September

• July 3 - The last reunion of the Blue and Gray commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
• July 5 - The Non-Intervention Committee reaches an agreement to withdraw all foreign volunteers from the Spanish Civil War. The agreement is respected by most Republican foreign volunteers, notably by those from England and the United States, but is ignored by the governments of Germany and Italy.
• July 6 - The Evian Conference on Refugees is convened in France. No country in Europe is prepared to accept Jews fleeing persecution, and the United States will take only 27,370.
• July 14 - Howard Hughes sets a new record, by completing a 91-hour airplane flight around the world.
• July 18 - Wrong Way Corrigan takes off from New York City, ostensibly heading for California. He lands in Ireland instead.
• July 28 - Pan Am flying boat Hawaii Clipper disappears with 6 passengers and 9 crew members en route from Guam to Manila.
• August 6 - The Looney Tunes animated short Porky & Daffy is released.
• August 18 - The Thousand Islands Bridge, connecting the United States with Canada, is dedicated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• August 31 - Winston Churchill, still believing France and Britain mean to honor their promises to defend Czechoslovakia against Nazi aggression, suggests in a personal note to Neville Chamberlain that His Majesty's Government may want to set up a broad international alliance including the United States and the Soviet Union.
• September 1 - Haggar debuts a new pant concept, "Slacks", as the appropriate pant to wear during a man's "Slack Time."
• September 4 - During the ceremony marking the unveiling of a plaque at Pointe de Grave, France celebrating Franco-American friendship, U.S. Ambassador William Bullitt in a speech states, "France and the United States were united in war and peace", leading to much speculation in the press that if war did break out over Czechoslovakia, then the United States would join the war on the Allied side.
• September 9 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt disallows the popular interpretation of Bullitt's speech at a press conference at the White House. Roosevelt states it is “100% wrong” the U.S. would join a “stop-Hitler bloc” under any circumstances, and makes it quite clear that in the event of German aggression against Czechoslovakia, the U.S. would remain neutral.
• September 12 - Hitler makes his much-anticipated closing address at Nuremberg, in which he vehemently attacks the Czech people and President Beneš. American news commentator H. V. Kaltenborn begins his famous marathon of broadcast bulletins over the CBS Radio Network with a summation of Hitler's address.
• September 20 - The first patents for nylon are granted in the name of Wallace Carothers to DuPont, which on October 27 announces the new product's name. The first items produced in the new material are toothbrush bristles.
• September 21 - The New England Hurricane of 1938 strikes Long Island and southern New England, killing over 300 along the Rhode Island shoreline and approximately 600 in total.
• September 22 - Olsen and Johnson's musical comedy revue Hellzapoppin' begins its 3-year run on Broadway.

  October–December

• October 3 - Production of the Jefferson nickel begins, replacing the buffalo nickel. The new nickel is released on November 15.
• October 9 - The New York Yankees defeat the Chicago Cubs, 4 games to 0, to win their 7th World Series Title.
• October 10 - The Blue Water Bridge opens, connecting Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario.
• October 16 - Winston Churchill, in a broadcast address to the United States, condemns the Munich Agreement as a defeat and calls upon America and western Europe to prepare for armed resistance against Adolf Hitler.
• October 24 - The minimum wage is established by law in the U.S.
• October 30 - Orson Welles's radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds is broadcast, causing panic in various parts of the United States.
• October 31 - Great Depression: In an effort to try restore investor confidence, the New York Stock Exchange unveils a 15-point program intended to upgrade protection for the investing public.
• November 1 - Horse racing: Seabiscuit defeats War Admiral by four lengths in their famous match race at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland.
• November 10 - On the eve of Armistice Day, Kate Smith sings Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" for the first time on her weekly radio show.
• November 18 - Trade union members elect John L. Lewis as the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
• December - President Franklin Roosevelt agrees to lend $25 million to Chiang Kai-shek, cementing the Sino-American relationship and angering the Japanese government.

  Undated

• The Dictionary of Occupational Titles is established; it will run until 1998, when it is replaced with the online Occupational Information Network.
• Herbert E. Ives and G. R. Stilwell execute the Ives–Stilwell experiment, showing that ions radiate at frequencies affected by their motion.

  Ongoing

• New Deal
• Recession of 1937–1938

  Births

• January 2 - Dana Ulery, computer scientist
• January 4 - Eddie Southern, hurdler
• January 6 - William E. Connolly, political scientist, theorist and academic
• January 7
• * Lou Graham, golfer
• * Fred Whitfield, baseball player
• January 9
• * Peter Edelman, lawyer and educator
• * Stuart Woods, author and critic
• January 14 - Allen Toussaint, R&B musician, songwriter/composer and record producer
• January 18 - Paul G. Kirk, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts from 2009 to 2010
• February 4 - Donald W. Riegle, Jr., U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1976 to 1995
• March 5 - Lynn Margulis, biologist
• March 7 - David Baltimore, biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1975
• April 3 - John Darley, social psychologist
• April 7 - Jerry Brown, Governor of California
• April 13 - Frederic Rzewski, composer
• April 23 - Steve Symms, U.S. Senator from Idaho from 1981 to 1993
• April 25 - Roger Boisjoly, rocket engineer
• May 10 - Henry Fambrough, soul singer
• May 11 - Bruce Langhorne, folk guitarist
• May 15 - Nancy Garden, author
• May 21 - Ross Hagen, screen and voice actor, director, screenwriter and producer
• June 3 - David L. Mills, computer scientist and engineer
• June 7 - Goose Gonsoulin, American football player
• June 16 - Joyce Carol Oates, novelist
• June 24 - Lawrence Block, crime writer
• June 28 - Leon Panetta, 23rd United States Secretary of Defense
• July 4 - Bill Withers, African American singer-songwriter
• July 6 - Manny Mashouf, Iranian-born businessman and philanthropist
• July 15 - Ronnie Self, singer
• July 20 - Natalie Wood, actress
• July 21 - Janet Reno, United States Attorney General from 1993 to 2001
• August 15 - Stephen Breyer, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the U.S. from 1994
• August 20 - Kaneaster Hodges, Jr., U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1977 to 1979
• August 21 - Kenny Rogers, country singer
• September 6 - Dennis Oppenheim, artist
• September 8 - Sam Nunn, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1972 to 1997
• September 26 - Jonathan Goldsmith, actor
• October 6 - Peter F. Donnelly, arts patron, vice-chairman of Americans for the Arts
• October 7 - Mary Ann Glendon, academic lawyer and bioethicist
• October 22 - Christopher Lloyd, actor and entrepreneur
• November 3 - Terrence McNally, playwright, librettist and screenwriter
• November 12 - Terry "Buzzy" Johnson, singer-songwriter and music producer
• November 16 - Robert Nozick, philosopher
• November 19 - Ted Turner, entrepreneur
• November 24
• *Oscar Robertson, African American basketball player
• *Charles Starkweather, spree killer
• December 11 - McCoy Tyner, jazz pianist
• December 12 - Connie Francis, singer
• December 23 - Bob Kahn, Internet pioneer
• December 29 - Jon Voight, actor

  Deaths

• January 1 - George H. Collin, politician
• January 8 - Johnny Gruelle, cartoonist and children's book author
• February 2 - Frederick William Vanderbilt, railway magnate
• February 7 - Harvey Firestone, tire manufacturer
• February 10 - Richard A. Whiting, composer
• February 17 - T. D. Crittenden, silent film actor
• February 18 - David King Udall, politician
• March 2 - Ben Harney, composer and pianist
• March 6 - Walt McDougall, cartoonist
• March 13 - Clarence Darrow, attorney
• March 21 - Oscar Apfel, film actor and director
• April 8 - Joe "King" Oliver, jazz cornet player
• April 24 - George Grey Barnard, sculptor
• May 16
• * Fred Baker, physician and naturalist
• * Joseph Strauss, bridge engineer
• May 22 - William Glackens, realist painter
• May 23 - Frederick Ruple, painter
• May 26 - John Jacob Abel, pharmacologist
• June 13 - Beverly Thomas Galloway, plant pathologist
• June 17 - George E. Barnett, economist
• June 26 - James Weldon Johnson, author, politician and diplomat
• July 9 - Benjamin N. Cardozo, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
• July 19 - Harvey Clark, actor
• July 21 - Owen Wister, Western fiction writer and historian
• August 1 - Edmund C. Tarbell, impressionist painter
• August 4 - Pearl White, film actress
• August 9 - W. W. Conner, politician
• August 16 - Robert Johnson, blues singer
• September 10 - Andrew Breen, Roman Catholic priest and reverend
• September 15 - Thomas Wolfe, author
• September 19 - Pauline Frederick, stage and film actress
• September 21 - Andrew Arbuckle, actor
• September 28 - Con Conrad, songwriter
• October 3 - Richard Teller Crane II, diplomat
• October 13 - E. C. Segar, comics artist, creator of Popeye
• October 21 - Dorothy Hale, socialite, suicide
• October 27 - Alma Gluck, soprano
• October 28 - Fred Kohler, actor
• October 30 - Robert Woolsey, film comedian
• November 1 - Charles Weeghman, restaurateur and owner of Chicago Cubs
• November 4 - Samuel W. Bryant, admiral
• December 16 - Ed Davis, criminal
• December 20
• * Annie Armstrong, missionary leader
• * Edwin Hall, physicist