1938

Unsorted 1938 Events [Bottom]

JANUARY

09 - |Spanish Civil War ?+| Republican Army capture the city of Teruel from the Nationalists.
15 - |China ?+| Japan begins regular bombing of Chungking.
28 - |USA ?| President Roosevelt calls for U.S. re-armament.
30 - |Spain ?| General Francisco Franco includes first civilians in his government.

FEBRUARY

04 - German Army Chief of Staff Fritsch is removed after false accusations (fabricated by the SS) that he is a homosexual.
12 - Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg meets with Hitler ?+ at Berchtesgaden and yields to the demand that Nazis be allowed to participate in the Austrian government.
14 - Great Britain opens its new naval base at Singapore.
16 - Pro-Nazis are appointed as ministers of internal security and foreign affairs.
20 - Great Britain's Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, resigns to protest the appeasement of the dictators. Lord Halifax succeeds him.
22 - |Spanish Civil War ?+| Nationalist Army recaptures Teruel.

MARCH

Paperback 10.47 I Will Bear Witness: A Diary of the Nazi Years 1933-1941 by Victor Klemperer

00 - |Holocaust ?+| After the Anschluss, the SS is placed in charge of Jewish affairs in Austria with Adolf Eichmann establishing an Office for Jewish Emigration in Vienna. Himmler then establishes Mauthausen concentration camp near Linz.
02 - British Prime Minister Chamberlain publicly rejected the French policy of supporting Czechoslovokia against Germany.
04 - Czechoslovokia says it will fight if attacked by Germany. mar 12 - German troops occupy Austria. Hitler ?+ announces Anschluss (union) with Austria the following day.
16 - The Nazi leader in Czechoslovokia calls for all Germans in that country to join the Nazi Party.
16 - |Spanish Civil War ?+| Italian airforce starts bombing Barcelona.
17 - Leon Blum, back in power again in France, reopens the border with Spain.
24 - Chamberlain informs Parliament that Britain isn't bound to come to France's aid if war breaks out over Czechoslovokia.
25 - The Battle of Taierchuang begins. Japan will lose the battle with 16,000 of 18,000 troops killed; 15,000 Chinese die in the fighting.
28 - |Spanish Civil War| Indalecio Prieto calls for the start of peace negotiations.

APRIL

05 - |Spain ?| Juan Negrin sacks Indalecio Prieto as war minister.
10 - In the Austrian plebiscite, 99% support unification with Germany.
15 - |Spanish Civil War ?+| Spanish Nationalist forces capture the Republican port of Vinaroz, dividing Loyalist forces in the province of Castile.
22 - |Germany ? |Holocaust ?+| Nazis prohibit Aryan 'front-ownership' of Jewish businesses.
26 - |Germany|Holocaust| Nazis order Jews to register wealth and property.

MAY

00 - Japan launches offensives in southern China.
01 - |Spanish Civil War ?+| Juan Negrin proposes a thirteen-point peace terms.
14 - Japan is condemned by the Council of the League of Nations + for the use of poison gas in China.
17 - The U.S. Congress authorizes the expansion of the U.S. Navy.
20 - Partial Czech mobilization in response to a German troop buildup along its border.

JUNE

00 - Superman first published in comic book form.
00 - In an effort to slow the Japanese advance, Chiang Kai-shek orders the destruction of the dikes of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers. Millions are left homeless, and the destruction of crops results in famine.
06 - After a week of fighting, Kaifeng falls to Japanese forces.
00 - Heavy fighting between Japan and China. Japan and the Soviet Union engage in fierce border fighting on the border of Manchukuo near Lake Hassan. Japan loses badly. [u.jul]
14 - |Germany ? |Holocaust ?+| Nazis order Jewish owned businesses to register.
21 - Leon Blum resigns and France's border with Spain is closed again.

JULY

00 - |France| At Evian, the U.S. convenes a League of Nations + conference with delegates from 32 countries to consider helping Jews fleeing Hitler, but results in inaction as no country will accept them.
06 - |Germany ? |Holocaust ?+| Nazis prohibited Jews from trading and providing a variety of specified commercial services.
12 - France restated its guarantee of Czech independence. 23 - |Germany|Holocaust| Nazis order Jews over age 15 to apply for identity cards from the police, to be shown on demand to any police officer.
25 - |Holocaust|Germany| Jewish doctors prohibited by law from practicing medicine.
25 - |Spanish Civil War ?+| 80,000 Republican troops begin crossing the River Ebro.

AUGUST

03 - Italy enacts anti-Semetic laws.
11 - |Holocaust| Nazis destroy the synagogue in Nuremberg.
17 - |Germany ? |Holocaust ?+| Nazis require Jewish women to add Sarah and men to add Israel to their names on all legal documents including passports.
18 - General Beck, Chief of the German general Staff, resigns to protest Hitler's policies.

SEPTEMBER

00 - Renewed border tension between Czechoslovokia and Germany.
00 - European crisis over German demand for annexation of Sudeten borderland of Czecholslovakia.
27 - |Germany ? |Holocaust ?+| Jews are prohibited from all legal practices.
29 - Munich Conference, attended by Chamberlain of Great Britain, Daladier of France, Hitler ?+ and Mussolini +. It is agreed to transfer Sudetenland to Germany, but Czech frontier to be guaranteed.
29 - The Munich Pact is signed by Daladier, Chamberlain, Mussolini, and Hitler. Germany renounces any further territorial claims against its neighbors. Neville Chamberlain proclaims "Peace in our time".

OCTOBER

01 - German troops begin occupying the Sudetenland region (some 11,500 square miles of territory containing important munitions factories) of Czechoslovokia.
03 - |Spanish Civil War ?+| Nationalist Army break through Republican lines at Gandesa.
03 - In the British House of Commons, Labor Party leader argues the Munich accord is a betrayal of the Czech people. Winston Churchill +¢ calls it "a disaster of the first magnitude".
04 - |Spanish Civil War| All foreign troops fighting for the Republican Army leave the frontline.
05 - |Germany ? |Holocaust ?+| Law requires Jewish passports to be stamped with a large red "J."
09 - British troops are dispatched to Palestine to quell rioting in the non-Jewish areas.
10 - Germany occupies Sudetenland.
10 - Japanese troops push to within 60 miles of the Chinese capital (now located at Hankow).
12 - Japanese forces land at Bias Bay (near Hong Kong).
21 - Japanese forces occupy Canton, the last Nationalist Chinese sea port.
21 - |Spanish Civil War| Juan Negrin announces the proposed withdrawal of the International Brigades from Spain.
25 - |China ?+| Hankow falls to Japanese troops.
28 - |Germany|Holocaust| Nazis arrest 17,000 Jews of Polish nationality living in Germany, then expel them back to Poland which refuses them entry, leaving them in 'no-man's land' near the Polish border for several months.
28 - |Spain ?| Trial of POUM leaders starts in Barcelona.
30 - Orson Welles's radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds is broadcast, causing mass panic in the eastern United States.

NOVEMBER

07 - Ernst vom Rath, third secretary in the German Embassy in Paris, is shot and mortally wounded by Herschel Grynszpan, the 17 year old son of one of the deported Polish Jews. Rath dies on nov 09, precipitating Kristallnacht.
09 - |Germany ? |Holocaust ?+| Kristallnacht ['crystal night,' 'The Night of Broken Glass.'] widespread anti-semitic Pogrom in Germany. The night that Nazi's burned synagogues and the homes of Jews.
12 - |Holocaust| Nazis fine Jews one billion marks for damages related to Kristallnacht.
15 - |Holocaust| Jewish pupils are expelled from all non-Jewish German schools.
15 - |Spanish Civil War ?+| International Brigades parade through the streets of Barcelona.
16 - |Spanish Civil War| Nationalist Army win victory at River Ebro.
19 - The French government recognized the Italian Empire (a reward to Mussolini for his role in the Munich accord).
19 - |Spanish Civil War| Francisco Franco grants mining concessions to Germany in return for military aid.
20 - Hungary and Poland take control of Czechoslovokian territory containing mineral resources.
30 - Rumanian Iron Guard leader Codreanu is 'shot while attempting to escape'; Berlin is enraged.

DECEMBER

00 - Cafe Society opened at 2 Sheridan Square, NYC by Barney Josephson as first integrated night spot; Billy Holiday opened it and remained nine months
03 - |Germany ? |Holocaust ?+| Law for compulsory Aryanization of all Jewish businesses.
12 - Chamberlain says Britain is not obligated to come to France's assistance if it is attacked by Italy.
14 - |Holocaust| Hermann Göring takes charge of resolving the "Jewish Question."
23 - Coelacanth caught off the coast of South Africa.
23 - Spanish Nationalists begin an offensive against Catalonia.
31 - The U.S. State Department rejects Tokyo's claim of a "New Order" in Asia.

TOP