Events of 1938

January–February

January 20: King Farouk

January 16: Benny Goodman in NYC.

• January 1

• *The new Constitution of Estonia enters into force.

• * Sir Alexander Cadogan succeeds Sir Robert Vansittart as permanent under-secretary at the British Foreign Office; Vansittart is “kicked outstairs” by being given the new and unimportant office of Chief Diplomatic Advisor to the Government.

• *The Merrie Melodies cartoon short Daffy Duck and Egghead is released.

• January 3 – The March of Dimes is established by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

• January 11 – Frances Moulton is named the first female president of a U.S. national bank.

• January 12 The German War Minister Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg marries Eva Gruhn in Berlin; Hermann Göring is best man at the wedding.

• January 16 – Two landmark live recordings are produced this day: the very first of Mahler's Ninth by the Vienna Philharmonic under Bruno Walter in the face of dire circumstance; and Benny Goodman and his orchestra become the first jazz musicians to headline a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

• January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Queen Farida Zulficar in Cairo.

• 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 25 – A brilliant aurora borealis described variously as "a curtain of fire" and a "huge blood-red beam of light" startles people across Europe and is visible as far south as Gibraltar.

• January 27

• *The Niagara Bridge at Niagara Falls, New York collapses due to an ice jam.

• *German War Minister Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg resigns, following the revelation that his new wife had previously posed for pornographic photos.

• January 28 – The first ski tow in America begins operation in Vermont.

January 27: Niagara Bridge collapses in ice.

• February 4 – Adolf Hitler abolishes the War Ministry and creates the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (High Command of the Armed Forces), giving him direct control of the German military. In addition, Hitler sacks political and military leaders considered unsympathetic to his philosophy or policies. General Werner von Fritsch is forced to resign as Commander of Chief of the German Army following accusations of homosexuality, and replaced by General Walther von Brauchitsch. Foreign Minister Baron Konstantin von Neurath is sacked and replaced by Joachim von Ribbentrop.

• February 6 – Black Sunday at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia: 300 swimmers are dragged out to sea in 3 freak waves; 80 lifesavers save all but 5.

• February 10 – Carol II of Romania takes dictatorial powers.

• February 12 – Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg of Austria meets Adolf Hitler at Berchtesgaden and, under threat of invasion, is forced to yield to German demands for greater Nazi participation in the Austrian government.

• February 14 – The British naval base at Singapore begins operations.

• February 20 – Sir Anthony Eden resigns as British Foreign Secretary following major disagreements with Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain over the best policy to follow in regards to Italy, and is succeeded by Lord Halifax.

• February 24 – A nylon bristle toothbrush becomes the first commercial product to be made with nylon yarn.

March–April

• March – Italian mathematician Ettore Majorana disappears.

• 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.

• *Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia.

• *Sir Nevile Henderson, British Ambassador to Germany, presents a proposal to Hitler for an international consortium to rule much of Africa (in which Germany would be assigned a leading role) in exchange for a German promise never to resort to war to change her frontiers; Hitler rejects the British offer.

• March 12 – Anschluss: German troops occupy Austria; annexation is declared the following day.

• March 14 – French Premier Leon Blum reassures the Czechoslovak government that France will honor its treaty obligations to aid Czechoslovakia in event of German invasion.

• March 15 – Soviet Union announces officially that Nikholai Bukharin has been executed.

• March 17 – Poland presents an ultimatum to Lithuania, to establish normal diplomatic relations that were severed over the Vilnius Region.

• March 18

• *Mexico nationalizes all foreign-owned oil properties within its borders.

• *General Werner von Fritsch is acquitted of charges of homosexuality at his court-martial.

• April 10 – Edouard Daladier becomes prime minister of France. He appoints as Foreign Minister a leading advocate of the policy of appeasement, Georges Bonnet, effectively negating Blum's reassurances of March 14.

• April 24 – Konstantin Päts becomes president of Estonia.

• April 25 – Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins: The U.S. Supreme Court overturns a century of federal common law.

• April 28 – The towns of Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott in Massachusetts are disincorporated to make way for the Quabbin Reservoir.

May–June

• May 5

• *The Vatican recognizes Franco's government in Spain.

• *General Ludwig Beck, Chief of the German Army’s General Staff, submits a memorandum to Hitler opposing Fall Grün (Case Green), the plan for a war with Czechoslovakia, under the grounds that Germany is ill-prepared for the world war likely to result from such an attack.

• May 9 – Kaarel Eenpalu becomes prime minister of Estonia.

• May 14 – Chile withdraws from the League of Nations.

• May 17 – Information Please debuts on NBC Radio.

• May 20 – Czechoslovakia orders a partial mobilization of its armed forces along the German border.

• May 23 – Temporarily frustrated by the Czechoslovak mobilization and international diplomatic unity in the face of German demands over the Sudetenland, Hitler orders the Foreign Office to assure the Czechoslovaks that he has no demands on their territory. The world at large mistakenly believes the crisis is averted.

• May 25 – Spanish Civil War: Alicante, Spain is bombed, resulting in 313 deaths.

• May 28 – In a conference at the Reichs Chancellery, Hitler declares his decision to destroy Czechoslovakia by military force, and orders the immediate mobilization of 96 Wehrmacht divisions.

• June 11 – Fire destroys 212 buildings in Ludes, Latvia.

• June 12–18 – The Roma and Sinti peoples in Germany and Austria are rounded up, beaten up and jailed.

• June 15 – László Bíró patents the ballpoint pen in Britain.

• June 19 – Italy beats Hungary 4–2 to win the 1938 World Cup.

• 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 United States.

• *Marineland opens near St. Augustine, Florida.

• June 24 – A meteorite explodes about above the earth near Chicora, Pennsylvania.

• June 25 – Dr. Douglas Hyde is elected the first President of Ireland.

• June 30 – Action Comics #1 is published, which is the first publication featuring the comic book character Superman.

July–August

• July – The Mauthausen concentration camp is built in Austria.

• July 3

• *The steam locomotive Mallard sets the world speed record for steam by reaching 126 mph.

• *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 12 – The Turkish army carries out the Kurdish Genocide in Dersim, Turkey.

• 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, ostensibly heading for California. He lands in Ireland instead.

• July 24 – First ascent of the Eiger north face.

• July 28 – A revolt against the Ioannis Metaxas dictatorship is put down in Chania, Greece.

• July 30 – The first ever issue of The Beano is published.

• August – In the face of overwhelming Japanese military pressure, Chiang Kai-shek withdraws his government to Chungking.

• August 4 – Lord Runciman arrives in Prague to act as Neville Chamberlain's special envoy in the continuing Sudetenland disturbances.

• August 6 – The Looney Tunes animated short Porky & Daffy is released.

• August 10 At a secret summit with his leading generals, Hitler attacks General Beck’s arguments against Fall Grün, winning the majority of his senior officers over to his point of view.

• August 18

• *The Thousand Islands Bridge, connecting the United States with Canada, is dedicated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

• *Colonel General Ludwig Beck, convinced that Hitler's decision to attack Czechoslovakia will lead to a general European war, resigns his position as Chief of the Army General Staff in protest.

• *Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin arrives in London looking for British support for an anti-Nazi putsch, using the looming crisis over the Sudetenland as a pretext. His private mission is dismissed by Neville Chamberlain as unimportant (Chamberlain refers to von Kleist as a "Jacobite"), but he finds a sympathetic if powerless audience in Winston Churchill.

• August 23 – Hitler, hosting a dinner on board the ocean liner Patria in Kiel Bay, tells the Regent of Hungary, Admiral Horthy, that action against Czechoslovakia is imminent and that "he who wants to sit at the table must at least help in the kitchen," a reference to Horthy's designs on Carpathian Ruthenia.

• August 27 General Beck leaves office as Chief of the General Staff; he is replaced by General Franz Halder.

• August 28 – Lord Runciman's mission to mitigate the Sudetenland crisis begins to break down. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain recalls the British Ambassador Nevile Henderson from Berlin, to instruct Henderson to set up a personal meeting between Chamberlain and Hitler.

• 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 (specifically mentioning U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as possibly receptive to the idea) and the Soviet Union.

September–October

• September – The European crisis over German demands for annexation of the Sudeten borderland of Czechoslovakia heats up.

• September 2 – Soviet Ambassador to Britain Ivan Maisky calls on Winston Churchill, to tell him that Soviet Foreign Commissar Maxim Litvinov has expressed to the French charge d'affaire in Moscow that the Soviet Union is willing to fight over the territorial integrity of Czechoslovakia.

• September 4 – During the ceremony marking the unveiling of a plaque at Pointe de Grave, France celebrating Franco-American friendship, American 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 5 – Czechoslovakian President Edvard Beneš invites mid-level representatives of the Sudeten Germans to the Hradcany palace, to tell them he will accept whatever demands they care to make, provided the Sudetenland remains part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.

• September 6 – What eventually proves to be the last of the "Nuremberg Rallies" begins. It draws worldwide attention because it is widely assumed Hitler, in his closing remarks, will signal whether there will be peace with or war over Czechoslovakia.

• September 7 – The Times publishes a lead article which calls on Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland to Germany.

• 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 10 – Hermann Göring, in a speech at Nuremberg, calls the Czechs a "miserable pygmy race" who are "harassing the human race." That same evening, Edvard Beneš, President of Czechoslovakia, makes a broadcast in which he appeals for calm.

• 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 Hans von Kaltenborn begins his famous marathon of broadcast bulletins over the CBS Radio Network with a summation of Hitler's address.

• September 13 – The followers of Konrad Henlein begin an armed revolt against the Czechoslovak government in Sudetenland. Martial law is declared and after much bloodshed on both sides order is temporarily restored. Neville Chamberlain personally sends a telegram to Hitler urgently requesting that they both meet.

• September 15 – Neville Chamberlain arrives in Berchtesgaden to begin negotiations with Hitler over the Sudetenland.

• September 17 – Neville Chamberlain returns temporarily to London to confer with his cabinet.

• September 18 – During a meeting between Neville Chamberlain and the recently elected Premier of France, Édouard Daladier, and Daladier's Foreign Minister, Georges Bonnet, it becomes apparent that neither the English nor the French governments are prepared to go to war over the Sudetenland.

• September 21

• *In the early hours of the day, representatives of the French and British governments call on Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš to tell him France and Britain will not fight Hitler if he decides to annex the Sudetenland by force. Late in the afternoon the Czechoslovak government capitulates to the French and British demands.

• *Winston Churchill warns of grave consequences to European security if Czechoslovakia is partitioned. The same day, Soviet Foreign Commissar Maxim Litvinov makes a similar statement in the League of Nations.

• *The New England Hurricane of 1938 strikes Long Island and southern New England, killing over 300 along the Rhode Island shoreline and 600 altogether.

• September 22

• *Unable to survive the previous day's capitulation to the demands of the English and French governments, Czechoslovak premier Milan Hodža resigns. General Jan Syrovy takes his place.

• *Neville Chamberlain arrives in the city of Godesberg for another round of talks with Hitler over the Sudetenland crisis. Hitler raises his demands to include occupation of all German Sudeten territories by October 1. That night after a telephone conference, Chamberlain reverses himself and advises the Czechoslovaks to mobilize.

• *Olsen and Johnson's musical comedy revue Hellzapoppin' begins its 3-year run on Broadway.

• September 23 – The Czechoslovak army mobilizes.

• September 24 -

• *Sir Eric Phipps, British Ambassador to France, reports to London that "all that is best in France is against war, almost at any price", being opposed only by a "small, but noisy and corrupt, war group". Phipp's report creates major doubts about the ability and/or willingness of France to go to war.

• *At 1:30 AM, Adolf Hitler and Neville Chamberlain conclude their talks on the Sudetenland. Chamberlain agrees to take Hitler's demands, codified in the Godesberg Memorandum, personally to the Czech Government. The Czech Government rejects the demands, as does Chamberlain's own cabinet. The French Government also initially rejects the terms and orders a partial mobilizaton of the French army.

• September 26 – In a vitriolic speech at Berlin's Sportpalast, Hitler defies the world and implies war with Czechoslovakia will begin at any time.

• September 28 – As his self-imposed October 1 deadline for occupation of the Sudetenland approaches, Adolf Hitler invites Italian Duce Benito Mussolini, French Premier Edourd Deladier, and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to one last conference in Munich. The Czechs themselves are not invited.

• September 29

• *Colonel Graham Christie, assistant British military attaché in Berlin, is informed by Carl Friedrich Goerdeler that the mobilization of the Royal Navy has badly damaged the popularity of the Nazi regime, as the German public realizes that Fall Grün is likely to cause a world war.

• *Munich Agreement: German, Italian, British and French leaders agree to German demands regarding annexation of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovak government is largely excluded from the negotiations and is not a signatory to the agreement.

• *The Republic of Hatay is declared in Syria

• September 30 – Neville Chamberlain returns to Britain from meeting with Adolf Hitler and declares "Peace In Our Time".

• October – The Japanese Imperial Army largely overruns Canton.

• October 1 – German troops march into the Sudetenland. The Polish government gives the Czech government an ultimatum stating that Zaolzie region must be handed over within twenty-four hours. The Czechs have little choice but to comply.

• October 2

• *Tiberias massacre: Arabs murder 20 Jews.

• *Disgusted with Neville Chamberlain's conduct at Munich, Duff Cooper resigns his post as First Lord of the Admiralty. With his resignation, formal debate begins in Parliament on the Munich Agreement, but with Chamberlain at the peak of his popularity, there can be little doubt His Majesty's Government will receive a vote of confidence.

• October 4 – The Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War begin withdrawing their foreign volunteers from combat as agreed on July 5.

• October 5 – Edvard Beneš, president of Czechoslovakia, resigns.

• 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 Hitler.

• October 18 The German government expels 12,000 Polish Jews living in Germany; the Polish government accepts 4,000 and refuses admittance to the remaining 8,000, who are forced to live in the no-man’s land on the German-Polish frontier.

• October 21 – In direct contravention of the recently signed Munich Agreement, Hitler circulates among his high command a secret memorandum stating that they should prepare for the "liquidation of the rest of Czechoslovakia" and the occupation of Memel.

• October 24

• *The minimum wage is established by law in the United States.

• *French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet carries out a major purge of the Qui d'Orsay, sacking or exiling a number of anti-appeasement officials such as Pierre Comert and René Massigli.

• *At a "friendly luncheon" in Berchtesgaden, German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop tells Józef Lipski, the Polish ambassador to Germany, that the Free City of Danzig must return to Germany, that the Germans must be given extraterritorial rights in the Polish Corridor, and that Poland must sign the Anti-Comintern Pact.

• October 27 – Du Pont announces a name for its new synthetic yarn: "nylon".

• 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 aimed to upgrade protection for the investing public.

November–December

• November 1 – Horse Racing: Seabiscuit defeats War Admiral by four lengths in their famous match race at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland.

• November 4 – At a public meeting in Epping, Winston Churchill narrowly survives an attempt by fellow Conservative and constituent Sir Colin Thornton-Kemsley to remove him from Parliament.

• November 7 Ernst vom Rath, the Third Secretary at the German Embassy in Paris, is assassinated by Herschel Grynszpan.

• November 9 – Holocaust – Kristallnacht: In Germany, the "night of broken glass" begins as Nazi activists and sympathizers loot and burn Jewish businesses (the all night affair sees 7,500 Jewish businesses destroyed, 267 synagogues burned, 91 Jews killed, and at least 25,000 Jewish men arrested).

• 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 12 – French Finance Minister Paul Reynaud brings into effect a series of laws aiming to undo the economic and social laws of the Popular Front.

• November 13- The people of New York City hold a fruit tasting contest held by managers.

• November 16 – The first reported "attack" of The Halifax Slasher mass hysteria incident.

• November 18 – Trade union members elect John L. Lewis as the first president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

• November 25 French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet informs Léon Noel, the French Ambassador to Poland, that France should find an excuse for terminating the 1921 Franco-Polish alliance.

• November 30

• *The Czechoslovak parliament elects Emil Hácha as the new president of Czechoslovakia.

• * Benito Mussolini and his Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano order "spontaneous" demonstrations in the Italian Chamber of Deputies, demanding that France cede Tunisia, Nice, Corsica and French Somaliland to Italy. This begins an acute crisis in Franco-Italian relations that lasts until March 1939.

• * Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, leader of the Romanian fascist Iron Guard, is murdered on the orders of King Carol II. Officially, Codreanu and the 13 other Iron Guard leaders are "shot while trying to escape".

• *A general strike is called in France by the French Communist Party to protest the laws of November 12.

• December – President Roosevelt agrees to loan $25 million to Chiang Kai-shek, cementing the Sino-American relationship and angering the Japanese government.

• December 6 – German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop visits Paris, where he is allegedly informed by French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet that France now recognizes all of Eastern Europe as being in Germany’s exclusive sphere of influence. Bonnet's alleged statement (Bonnet always denied making the remark) to Ribbentrop is a major factor in German policy in 1939.

• December 11 – Kingdom of Yugoslavia parliamentary election: The opposition gains votes but not seats.

• December 13 – The Neuengamme concentration camp opens near Hamburg.

• December 16 – MGM releases its successful film version of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. The film is originally intended to star Lionel Barrymore as Ebenezer Scrooge, but Barrymore, ill with arthritis, is replaced by Reginald Owen.

• December 23 – A coelacanth, a fish thought to have been extinct, is caught off the coast of South Africa near Chalumna River.

• December 27 – A massive avalanche of snow hits a construction worker dormitory site in Kurobe, Japan, killing 87.

Undated

• In West Java, Daeng Soetigna tunes the traditional angklung to play the diatonic scale.

• Adolf Hitler is Time Magazine's "Man of the Year", an award that usually goes to the most influential person of the year.

• The Walther P38 pistol is introduced in Germany.

• The first cartoon to feature a prototypical Bugs Bunny, Porky's Hare Hunt, is released.

• The Schomburgk's Deer becomes extinct by this date.

• Family plots produce 22% of all Soviet agricultural produce on only 4% of all cultivated land.

• Women are limited by law to a maximum of 10% of the better-paying jobs in industry and government in Italy.

Ongoing

• Spanish Civil War (1936–1939).

• Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945).

• The Great Depression (1929 – Late 1930s, Early 1940s)

Births

January–February

• January 1

• * Robert Jankel, British coachbuilder (d. 2005)

• * Frank Langella, American actor

• January 2 – Hans Herbjørnsrud, Norwegian author

• * Ian Brady, British serial killer

• * Goh Kun, Mayor of Seoul

• January 5 – King Juan Carlos I of Spain

• January 6 – Mario Rodríguez Cobos, Silo, Argentine author and spiritual guide

• January 7 – Roland Topor, French illustrator (d. 1997)

• January 8 – Bob Eubanks, American game show host

• January 10

• * Donald Knuth, American mathematician and computer scientist

• * Willie McCovey, American baseball player

• January 11 – Fischer Black, American economist (d. 1995)

• January 12

• * Noel McNamara, Australian justice campaigner and commentator

• * Lewis Fiander, Australian actor

• January 13 – Shivkumar Sharma, Indian musician

• January 14 – Jack Jones, American singer and actor

• January 17 – John Bellairs, American writer

• January 18 – Curt Flood, American baseball player (d. 1997)

• January 20 – Derek Dougan, Northern Irish footballer (d. 2007)

• January 21 – Wolfman Jack, American disc-jockey and actor (d. 1995)

• January 23 – Georg Baselitz, German painter and sculptor

• January 25

• * Etta James, American singer

• * Vladimir Vysotsky, Russian singer-songwriter, poet, actor (d. 1980)

• January 31 – Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands

• February 1 – Sherman Hemsley, American comedian and actor

• February 2 – Max Alvis, American baseball player

• February 8 – Prentice Gautt, American football player

• February 11

• * Bevan Congdon, New Zealand cricketer

• * Simone de Oliveira, Portuguese actress and singer

• * Manuel Noriega, Panamanian general and dictator

• February 12 – Judy Blume, American author

• February 13 – Oliver Reed, English actor (d. 1999)

• February 14 – Lee Chamberlin, American film and television actress

• February 18 – Istvan Szabo, Hungarian director

• February 19 – René Muñoz, Cuban actor, screenwriter of telenovelas and the cinema of Mexico (d. 2000)

• February 24

• * James Farentino, American actor

• * Phil Knight, American sportswear entrepreneur

• February 25 – Herb Elliott, Australian runner

• February 27 – Jake Thackray, English singer-songwriter (d. 2002)

March–April

• March 4

• * Don Perkins, American football player

• * Angus MacLise, original drummer for the Velvet Underground (d. 1979)

• March 7

• * David Baltimore, American biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

• * Janet Guthrie, American race car driver

• March 13 – Erma Franklin, American singer (d. 2002)

• March 17

• * Rudolf Nureyev, Russian-born dancer and choreographer (d. 1993)

• * Keith Michael Patrick O'Brien, Northern Irish clergyman

• March 18 – Charley Pride, American baseball player and country musician

• March 23 – Maynard Jackson, American mayor of Atlanta, Georgia (d. 2003)

• March 25 – Hoyt Axton, American actor and country music singer-songwriter

• March 26 – Anthony James Leggett, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

• March 31 – Joel Godard, American announcer

• April 1 – John Quade, American actor

• April 2 – John Larsson, the 17th General of The Salvation Army

• April 3 – Jeff Barry, American record producer and songwriter

• April 4 – A. Bartlett Giamatti, American president of Yale University and baseball commissioner (d. 1989)

• April 7 – Freddie Hubbard, American jazz trumpeter

• April 8 – Kofi Annan, Ghanaian Secretary General of the United Nations, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

• April 10

• * Viktor Chernomyrdin, Russian politician

• * Don Meredith, American football player and broadcaster

• April 11

• * Michael Deaver, Reagan Administration Deputy White House Chief of Staff (d. 2007)

• * Kurt Moll, German bass

• April 12 – Roger Caron, Canadian author

• April 15 – Claudia Cardinale, Tunisian-born Italian actress

• April 17 – Kerry Wendell Thornley, American counterculture figure, writer, and co-founder of Discordianism

• April 22

• * Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, Palestinian chairman of TAGorg

• * Adam Raphael, English journalist and editor

• * Issey Miyake, Japanese fashion designer

• April 26

• * Duane Eddy, American musician

• * Maurice Williams, American musician

• April 29 – Larry Niven, American author

May–June

• May 2 – Paramount Chief Moshoeshoe II of Lesotho (d. 1996)

• May 17 – Jason Bernard, American actor (d. 1996)

• May 22 – Richard Benjamin, American actor

• May 26

• * William Bolcom, American composer

• * Teresa Stratas, Canadian soprano

• * Pauline Parker, New Zealand murderess

• May 28 – Jerry West, American basketball player and executive

• May 31 – Johnny PayCheck, American country singer (d. 2003)

• May 31 – Peter Yarrow, American singer

• June 5 – Karin Balzer, German athlete

• June 6 – Prince Luís of Orléans-Braganza, pretender to the Brazilian throne

• June 7 – Goose Gonsoulin, American football player

• June 12 – Tom Oliver, Australian actor

• June 15 – Billy Williams, American baseball player

• June 16 – James Bolam, British actor

• June 19

• * Wahoo McDaniel, American football player and professional wrestler (d. 2002)

• * Ian Smith, Australian actor

• June 28 – Moy Yat, Chinese martial artist

July–August

• July 3 – Bolo Yeung, Hong Kong actor

• July 4 – Bill Withers, American singer and songwriter

• July 6 – Tony Lewis, English cricketer

• July 6 – Luana Patten, American Actress (d. 1996)

• July 12 – Wieger Mensonides, Dutch swimmer

• July 18 – Paul Verhoeven, Dutch film director

• July 19 – Jayant Narlikar, Indian astrophysicist

• July 20

• *Natalie Wood, American actress (d. 1981)

• *Diana Rigg, English actress

• *Roger Hunt, English footballer

• July 23

• *Juliet Anderson, American actress

• *Bert Newton, Australian actor and television show host

• July 24 – Eugene J. Martin, American painter, artist

• July 27 – Gary Gygax, American author and game designer (d. 2008)

• July 28 – Alberto Fujimori, President of Peru

• July 29 – Peter Jennings, Canadian-born television news reporter (d. 2005)

• August 3 – Terry Wogan, British/Irish TV and radio broadcaster

• August 8 – Connie Stevens, American actress and singer

• August 9

• *Ezola B. Foster, American U.S. Vice Presidential Candidate

• *Rod Laver, Australian tennis player

• *Leonid Kuchma, former President of Ukraine

• August 15 – Janusz A. Zajdel, Polish writer

• August 16 – Bill Masterton, Canadian hockey player (d. 1968)

• August 19 – Diana Muldaur, American actress

• August 20 – Alain Vivien, French politician

• August 21 – Kenny Rogers, American country singer

• August 22 – Paul Maguire, American football player

• August 24

• *Halldór Blöndal, Icelandic politician

• *David Freiberg, American musician (Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Starship)

• August 28

• *Maurizio Costanzo, Italian television news reporter

• *Paul Martin, Prime Minister of Canada

• August 29 – Robert Rubin, American banker who served as the 70th United States Secretary of the Treasury

• August 31 – Martin Bell, British journalist and politician

September–October

• September 1 – Per Kirkeby, Danish artist

• September 2

• * Clarence Felder, American actor

• * Giuliano Gemma, Italian actor

• September 3 – Ryoji Noyori, Japanese chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

• September 8 – Kenichi Horie, Japanese adventurer

• September 10

• *David Hamilton, British radio and TV personality

• *Karl Lagerfeld, German fashion designer and photographer

• September 13 – John Smith, Scottish politician (d. 1994)

• September 18 – Poornachandra Tejaswi, Kannada writer (d. 2007)

• September 22 – Gene Mingo, American football player

• September 23 – Tom Lester, American actor and evangelist

• September 25 – Jonathan Motzfeldt, Prime Minister of Greenland

• September 28 – Ben E. King, American singer

• September 29 – Wim Kok, Dutch politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1994 until 2002

• October 3 – Eddie Cochran, American rock 'n' roll singer (d. 1960)

• October 4 – Kurt Wüthrich, Swiss chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

• October 9 – Heinz Fischer, Austrian politician

• October 14

• *Farah Diba, Empress of Iran

• *Ron Lancaster, Canadian Football League quarterback and coach

• October 15 – Fela Kuti, Nigerian musician and activist (d. 1997)

• October 16 – Carl Gunter Jr, Louisiana State Representative (d. 1999)

• October 17 – Evel Knievel, American motorcycle daredevil (d. 2007)

• October 20 – Iain Macmillan, Abbey Road photographer (d. 2006)

• October 22 – Christopher Lloyd, American actor

• October 23 – H. John Heinz III, U.S. Senator (d. 1991)

• October 28 – Anne Perry, English-born novelist

• October 29

• *Ralph Bakshi, Israeli cartoonist, film director, and video producer

• *Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia

November–December

• November 2 – Patrick Joseph Buchanan, American conservative journalist and Presidential candidate

• November 5

• * Joe Dassin, French singer (d. 1980)

• * Enéas Carneiro, Brazilian politician (d. 2007)

• November 6

• * Mack Jones, American baseball player (d. 2004)

• * Dumitru Rusu, Romanian painter

• November 13 – Jean Seberg, American actress (d. 1979)

• November 16 – Robert Nozick, American philosopher (d. 2002)

• November 17 – Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian folk singer

• November 19 – Ted Turner, American entrepreneur

• November 26 – Porter J. Goss, American politician and Central Intelligence Agency director

• December 2 – Luis Artime, Argentine footballer

• December 4

• * Andre V. Marrou, U.S. Presidential candidate

• * Yvonne Minton, Australian soprano

• December 5 – J. J. Cale, American singer

• December 8 – Ken Delo, American singer

• December 12 – Connie Francis, American singer and actress

• December 15 – Billy Shaw, American football player

• December 16

• * Liv Ullmann, Norwegian actress

• * Frank Deford, American sportswriter

• December 17

• * Peter Snell, New Zealand athlete

• * Carlo Little, British drummer (d. 2005)

• December 20 – John Harbison, American composer

• December 23 – Bob Kahn, American Internet pioneer

• December 24 – Bobby Henrich, American baseball player

• December 25 – Duane Armstrong, American painter

• December 28 – Lagumot Harris, Nauruan politician and former President (d. 1999)

• December 29 – Jon Voight, American actor

Date unknown

• Neila Sathyalingam, Singaporean classical Indian dancer, choreographer and instructor

Deaths

January–June

• January 8 – Johnny Gruelle, American cartoonist and children's book author (b. 1880)

• January 20 – Émile Cohl, French caricaturist and animator (b. 1857)

• January 21 – Georges Méliès, French film 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 tire manufacturer (b. 1868)

• February 10 – Richard A. Whiting, American composer (b. 1890)

• 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 12 – Lyda Roberti, Polish actress (b. 1906)

• March 13

• *Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin, Soviet politician (b. 1888)

• *Clarence Darrow, American attorney (b. 1857)

• March 21 – Oscar Apfel, American actor and director (b. 1878)

• April 8 – Joe "King" Oliver, American jazz musician (b. 1885)

• April 12 – Feodor Chaliapin, Russian bass (b. 1873)

• April 14 – Gillis Grafstrom, Swedish figure skater (b. 1893)

• April 16 – Steve Bloomer, English footballer (b. 1874)

• April 21 – Allama Iqbal, Indian philosopher and poet (b. 1877)

• April 25 – Aleksander Świętochowski, Polish writer (b. 1849)

• 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 22 – William Glackens, American painter (b. 1870)

• May 26 – John Jacob Abel, American pharmacologist (b. 1857)

• June 15 – Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, German painter (b. 1880)

• June 26 – James Weldon Johnson, American author and politician (b. 1871)

July–December

November 10 : Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

• July 4

• *Otto Bauer, Austrian Social Democratic politician (b. 1881)

• *Suzanne Lenglen, French tennis champion (b. 1899)

• July 9 – Benjamin N. Cardozo, United States Supreme Court Justice (b. 1870)

• July 17 – Robert Wiene, German director (b. 1873)

• August 1 – Edmund Charles Tarbell, American artist (b. 1862)

• August 4 – Pearl White, American actress (b. 1889)

• August 6 – Warner Oland, Swedish actor (b. 1879)

• August 7 – Constantin Stanislavski, Russian theatre practitioner (b. 1863)

• August 14 – Hugh Trumble, Australian test cricketer (b. 1876)

• August 16 – Robert Johnson, American blues singer (b. 1911)

• August 29 – Bela Kun, Hungarian Communist leader (b. 1886)

• September 1 – Nikolai Bryukhanov, Soviet statesman and political figure who served as People's Commissar of Finances (b. 1878)

• September 15 – Thomas Wolfe, American author (b. 1900)

• September 17 – Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet (b. 1901)

• September 19 – Pauline Frederick, American stage & screen actress, (b. 1883)

• September 25 – Paul Olaf Bodding, Norwegian missionary to India and creator of the Santali latin alphabet (b. 1865)

• September 28 – Con Conrad, American composer (b. 1891)

• October 2 – Alexandru Averescu, Romanian soldier and politician (b. 1859)

• October 13 – E.C. Segar, American comics artist and creator of Popeye

• October 17 – Karl Kautsky, Austrian Marxist theoretician (b. 1854)

• 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)

• *Alma Gluck, American soprano (b. 1884)

• October 28 – Fred Kohler, American actor (b. 1888)

• October 30 – Robert Woolsey, American film comedian (b. 1888)

• November 9

• *Vasily Blyukher, Soviet military commander (b. 1889)

• *Ernst vom Rath, German diplomat (b. 1909)

• November 10 – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, President of Turkey (b. 1881)

• November 20 – Maud of Wales, queen of Haakon VII of Norway (b. 1869)

• 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 20 – Annie Armstrong, American missionary leader (b. 1850)

• December 25 – Karel Čapek, Czech author (b. 1890)

• December 28 – Florence Lawrence, Canadian actress (b. 1886)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – Enrico Fermi

• Chemistry – Richard Kuhn

• Physiology or Medicine – Corneille Jean François Heymans

• Literature – Pearl S. Buck

• Peace – Nansen International Office For Refugees, Geneva