1938

1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday in the Gregorian calendar.

• January 3 – The March of Dimes is established by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
• January 11 – Frances Moulton is the first woman to become president of a US national bank.
• January 20 – Wedding of King Farouk I of Egypt and Queen Farida Zulficar in Cairo
• January 28 – The first ski tow in America begins operation in Vermont.
• January 31 – Crown princess Beatrix is born in Netherlands
• February 4 – Thornton Wilder's play Our Town opens (New York City).
• February 10 – Carol II of Romania takes dictatorial powers
• February 12 – World War II: German troops enter Austria
• February 24 – A nylon bristle toothbrush becomes the first commercial product to be made with nylon yarn.
• March 3 – Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia.
• March 12 – Anschluss: German troops occupy Austria; annexation declared the following day.
• March 15 – Soviet Union announces officially that Nikholai Bukharin has been executed
• March 18 – Mexico nationalizes all foreign-owned oil properties within its borders.
• April 12 – Edouard Daladier becomes president of France
• April 28 – The towns of Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott in Massachusetts are disincorporated to make way for the Quabbin Reservoir.
• May 5 – Vatican recognizes Franco's government in Spain
• June 1 – Action Comics issues the first Superman comic.
• June 11 – Fire destroys 212 buildings in Ludes, Latvia
• June 23 – The Civil Aeronautics Act is signed into law, forming the Civil Aeronautics Authority in the United States.
• June 23 – Marineland opens near St. Augustine, Florida.
• June 25 – Dr Douglas Hyde is elected the first President of Ireland.
• June 28 – A 450-tonne meteorite struck the earth in an empty field near Chicora, Pennsylvania
• November 9-10: Kristallnacht happens in Nazi Germany. The Nazis deport about 30,000 Jews to concentration camps, and destroy over 1,500 synagogues.

• January 1 - Frank Langella, American actor
• January 5 - Juan Carlos I of Spain
• January 31 - Beatrix of the Netherlands

• February 21 - Lester Bird, former Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda (d. 2021)

• April 26 – Duane Eddy, American guitarist

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

• July 7 - Abdoulaye Djiba, Senegalese judoka
• July 13 - David Mitton, English model-maker (d. 2008)
• July 20 – Natalie Wood, American actress (d. 1981)

• August 21 – Kenny Rogers, American singer (d. 2020)
• August 29 – Elliott Gould, American actor

• October 23 – H. John Heinz III, American Senator (d. 1991)
• October 29 - Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia

• November 14 – John Gebbia Sr., American businessman
• November 17 – Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian singer
• November 19 - Hank Medress, American singer (The Tokens) (d. 2007)

• December 29 - Jon Voight, American actor

• January 20 – Émile Cohl, French caricaturist and animator (b. 1857)
• January 21 – Georges Méliès, French movie director (b. 1861)
• January 28 – Bernd Rosemeyer, German racing driver (b. 1909)
• February 2 – Frederick William Vanderbilt, American railway magnate (b. 1856)
• February 7 – Harvey Firestone, American manufacturer (b. 1868)
• February 18 – David King Udall, American politician (b. 1851)
• February 19 – Edmund Landau, German mathematician (b. 1877)
• March 1 – Gabriele D'Annunzio, Italian writer, war hero, and politician (b. 1863)
• March 2 – Ben Harney, American composer and pianist (b. 1871)
• March 13 – Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, Soviet politician (b. 1888)
• March 13 – Clarence Darrow, American attorney (b. 1857)
• March 21 - Oscar Apfel, American actor, director, screenwriter, producer (b. 1878)
• April 8 – Joe "King" Oliver, American musician (b. 1885)
• April 12 – Feodor Chaliapin, Russian bass (b. 1873)
• April 16 – Steve Bloomer, English footballer (b. 1874)
• April 21 – Muhammad Iqbal, Pakistani philosopher and poet (b. 1877)
• April 26 – Edmund Husserl, Austrian philosopher (b. 1859)
• May 4 – Carl von Ossietzky, German pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1889)
• May 9 – Thomas B. Thrige, Danish industrialist (b. 1866)
• May 13 – Charles Edouard Guillaume, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1861)
• May 26 – John Jacob Abel, American pharmacologist (b. 1857)
• August 1 – Edmund Charles Tarbell, American artist (b. 1862)
• 18 July - Marie of Romania Queen of Romania wife of King Ferdinand I of Romania
• August 7 – Konstantin Stanislavski, Russian actor (b. 1863)
• August 14 – Hugh Trumble, Australian Test Cricketer (b. 1876)
• August 16 – Robert Johnson, American musician (b. 1911)
• September 17 – Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet (b. 1901)
• October 22 – May Irwin, Canadian actress and singer (b. 1862)
• October 24 – Ernst Barlach, German sculptor and poet (b. 1870)
• October 27 – Lascelles Abercrombie, English poet and critic (b. 1881)
• October 31 - Robert Woolsey, American actor and Comedian in a Double Act with Bert Wheeler (b. 1888).
• November 9 – Vasily Blyukher, Soviet military commander (b.1889)
• November 10 – Kemal Atatürk, President of Turkey (b. 1881)
• November 30 – Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, Romanian fascist, leader of the Iron Guard (executed along other Guard activists) (b. 1899)
• December 11 – Christian Lous Lange, Norwegian pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1869)
• December 25 – Karel Čapek, Czech writer (b. 1890)
• December 28 – Florence Lawrence, Canadian actress (b. 1886)

• Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine won by Belgian doctor, Corneille Heymans