What Happened in October 1938

Historical Events

Annexation of Sudetenland

Oct 1 Germany annexes Sudetenland (1/3 of Czechoslovakia) following the Munich Agreement

Baseball Record

Oct 2 Future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller strikes out record 18 Detroit Tigers; his Cleveland Indians still lose 4-1 at Cleveland Stadium

  • Oct 2 New York Yankees pitcher Lefty Gomez beats Chicago Cubs, 6-3 in Game 2 at Wrigley Field; sets record of 6 World Series wins without a loss
  • Oct 4 Baseball World Series: NY Yankees win third straight championship; beat Chicago Cubs, 8-3 at Yankee Stadium for 4-0 sweep
  • Oct 7 Germany requires all Jewish passports be stamped with letter J

Fabulous Invalid

Oct 8 George S. Kaufman & Moss Hart's play "Fabulous Invalid" premieres in NYC

  • Oct 9 Cleveland Rams and Chicago Bears play one of only 4 penalty free games in NFL history; Rams win 14-7 at Cleveland Stadium
  • Oct 10 Germany completes its annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland

Music History

Oct 10 Premiere performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's 1st String Quartet

  • Oct 14 Nazis plan Jewish ghettos for all major cities
  • Oct 15 Robert E Sherwood's stage drama "Abe Lincoln in Illinois", starring Raymond Massey, opens at the Plymouth Theatre, NYC; runs for 472 performances

Music History

Oct 16 Aaron Copland's & Eugene Loring's ballet "Billy the Kid" premieres in Chicago

  • Oct 21 Japanese troops occupies Canton
  • Oct 22 Chester Carlson has 1st successful experiment in electrophotography, later sold to the Haloid Company and dubbed "Xerox copying"
  • Oct 22 President of Czechoslovakia Edvard Beneš goes into exile in London, in the aftermath of the Munich agreement and German annexation of Sudetenland
  • Oct 24 US forbids child labor in factories
  • Oct 25 American Archbishop of Dubuque (Iowa), Francis J. L. Beckman, denounces Swing music as "a degenerated musical system... turned loose to gnaw away at the moral fiber of young people", warning that it leads down a "primrose path to hell".
  • Oct 25 Japanese troops occupies Hankou & Wuhan
  • Oct 27 DuPont announces its new synthetic polyamide fiber will be called "nylon"
  • Oct 28 Farewell parade of International Brigade (Barcelona)
  • Oct 31 Great Depression: In an effort to try restore investor confidence, the New York Stock Exchange unveils a fifteen-point program aimed to upgrade protection for the investing public.
1938 History

Famous Birthdays

  • Oct 1 Les Scheinflug, Australian soccer midfielder, coach (Marconi; Australia; 6 caps), born in Bückeburg, Germany
  • Oct 2 Lloyd Turner, journalist (Daily Express), born in Australia (d. 1996)
  • Oct 2 Rex Reed, American movie critic and actor (Myra Breckinridge), born in Fort Worth, Texas
  • Oct 2 Waheed Murad, Pakistani film actor and director (Armaan), born in Sialkot, Punjab, Pakistan (d. 1983)
  • Oct 3 Alessandro Mazzinghi, Italian boxer (WBA and WBC light-middleweight champion 1963–65, 68), born in Pontedera, Italy (d. 2020)
  • Oct 3 Dave Obey, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Wisconsin), born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma
  • Oct 3 Eddie Cochran, American rock vocalist and guitarist ("Summertime Blues"; "C'Mon Everybody"), born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (d. 1960)
  • Oct 3 Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Peruvian economist and 66th President of Peru (2016-present), born in Lima, Peru
  • Oct 3 Tereza Kesovija, Croatian popular music singer, born in Dubrovnik, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now Croatia)
  • Oct 4 Kurt Wüthrich, Swiss chemist, Nobel laureate
  • Oct 5 Carlo Mastrangelo, Italian-American rock vocalist (Dion & The Belmonts; Pulse), born in The Bronx, New York (d. 2016)
  • Oct 5 Teresa Heinz Kerry, American philanthropist (wife of John Kerry), born in Lourenço Marques, Portuguese East Africa
  • Oct 6 Serge Nubret, French bodybuilder

Ann Haydon-Jones (85 years old)

Oct 7 British tennis player (Wimbledon 1969, French Open 1961, 66), born in Birmingham, England

  • Oct 7 Carlos Contreras, Chilean soccer defender (30 caps; Universidad de Chile), born in Santiago, Chile (d. 2020)
  • Oct 8 David Willis, British journalist (BBC World Service) (d. 1993)

Fred Stolle (85 years old)

Oct 8 Australian tennis player, broadcaster (French C'ship 1965, US Nat C'ship 1966), born in Sydney, Australia

  • Oct 8 Penny Pitou, American alpine skier (Olympic silver giant slalom, downhill 1960), born in Bayside, New York
  • Oct 8 Walter Gretzky, father of Wayne Gretzky, born in Canning, Ontario, Canada
  • Oct 9 Heinz Fischer, Austrian politician (11th President of Austria), born in Graz, Austria
  • Oct 9 Olga Szabó-Orbán, Romanian fencer (World C'ship gold women's foil individual 1962, team 1969; Olympic silver individual 1956, bronze team 1968, 72), born in Cluj, Romania (d. 2022)
  • Oct 10 Daidō Moriyama, Japanese photographer, born in Ikeda, Osaka
  • Oct 10 Gloria Coates, American post-minimalist composer ("Music on Open Strings"), born in Wausau, Wisconsin (d. 2023)
  • Oct 10 Marcus Jan Adriani, biologist and director (Weevers' Duin) (d. 1995)
  • Oct 10 Toby Roth, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Wisconsin), born in Strasburg, North Dakota
  • Oct 12 Andrzej Pogorzelski, Polish motorcycle speedway rider (Speedway World Team Cup gold 1965, 66, 69), born in Leszno, Poland (d. 2020)
  • Oct 12 Bob Miller, American NHL broadcaster, born in Chicago, Illinois
  • Oct 13 Enzo Dara, Italian operatic basso buffo (The Barber of Seville - "Don Bartolo"), and author, born in Mantua, Kingdom of Italy (d. 2017)
  • Oct 13 Hugo Young, British journalist (The Guardian), born in Sheffield, England (d. 2003)
  • Oct 13 Jim McMullan, American actor (Dr McDaniel-Ben Casey), born in Long Island, New York
  • Oct 13 Mahboob Shah, Pakistani cricketer (Pakistani Test umpire on intl panel), born in Delhi, India
  • Oct 14 Farah Pahlavi, Queen consort of Iran (1959-61), born in Tehran, Iran
  • Oct 14 John Dean, American attorney (White House counsel, 1970-73), Watergate prosecution witness, author, and political commentator, born in Akron, Ohio
  • Oct 15 Betty Farmer, American jazz and cabaret singer, born in New Orleans, Louisiana (d. 2001)

Fela Kuti (1938-1997)

Oct 15 Nigerian Afrobeat musician and composer, born in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria

  • Oct 15 Marv Johnson, American R&B pianist, songwriter, and singer ("You Got What It Takes"; "(You've Got To) Move Two Mountains"), born in Detroit, Michigan (d. 1993)
  • Oct 15 Rafael Aponte-Ledeé, Puerto Rican composer, born in Guayama, Puerto Rico
  • Oct 16 Carl Gunter Jr, Louisiana State Representative (d. 1999)
  • Oct 16 Nico [Christa Päffgen], German singer-songwriter (Velvet Underground), fashion model, and actress, born in Cologne, Germany (d. 1988)

Evel Knievel (1938-2007)

Oct 17 American motorcycle daredevil (Snake River Canyon), born in Butte, Montana

Dawn Wells (1938-2020)

Oct 18 American actress (Gilligan's Island -"Mary Ann"), born in Reno, Nevada [1]

  • Oct 18 Ronnie Bright, American doo-wop bass vocalist (Johnny Cymbal's "Mr. Bass Man"; The Coasters, 1968-2009), born in New York City (d. 2015)
  • Oct 19 Ton Regtien, Dutch student leader, political activist, and writer (Vietnam Tribunal Stockholm Roskilde), born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1989)
  • Oct 20 Iain Macmillan, Scottish Abbey Road photographer, born in Carnoustie, Scotland (d. 2006)

Christopher Lloyd (85 years old)

Oct 22 American Emmy Award-winning actor (Taxi - "Reverend Jim"; Back to the Future films), born in Stamford, Connecticut

  • Oct 22 Derek Jacobi, British Tony, BAFTA, and Tony Award-winning stage and screen actor and director (I, Claudius; Much Ado About Nothing; Dead Again), born in London, England
  • Oct 23 John Heinz, American businessman and Republican politician (Senator from Pennsylvania, 1977-1991), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 1991)
  • Oct 23 Jordan Christopher, American actor (Secrets of Midland Heights), born in Youngstown, Ohio
  • Oct 24 Bev Dovey, English rugby union prop (2 Tests; Bristol RFC 184 games; Western Counties, Gloucestershire), born in Forest of Dean, England (d. 2024)
  • Oct 24 Fred E. Finn, American pianist (Mickie Finn's), born in San Francisco, California
  • Oct 25 Robert Webster, American diver (Olympic gold 1960, 64), born in Berkeley, California
  • Oct 26 Bernadette Lafont, French actress (Perils of Gwendoline), born in Nimes, France (d. 2013)
  • Oct 26 Charles Stenholm, American politician (Rep-D-Texas, 1979-2005), born in Stamford, Texas
  • Oct 27 Elliot del Borgo, American music educator (SUNY/Crane School of Music, 1966-95) and composer (1980 Winter Olympics), born in Port Chester, New York (d. 2013)
  • Oct 27 Maurice Hinchey, American politician (Rep-D-New York), born in New York City
  • Oct 28 Anne Perry [Juliet Marion Hulme], English-born crime writer (convicted of murder as a child as filmed in "Heavenly Creatures"), born in London, England (d. 2023) [1]
  • Oct 28 David Dimbleby, English TV presenter and political commentator, born in Surrey, England
  • Oct 28 Peter Carlstein, South African cricketer (South African Test batsman 1958-64), born in Klerksdorp, South Africa

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (85 years old)

Oct 29 President of Liberia (2006-2018) and the first elected female head of state in Africa, born in Monrovia, Liberia

  • Oct 29 Peter Stampfel, American musician and songwriter (The Holy Modal Rounders), born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
  • Oct 29 Ralph Bakshi, Krymchak-American animator and film maker (Fritz the Cat; Lord of the Rings (1978); Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures), born in Haifa, Mandatory Palestine
  • Oct 29 Wilbert McClure, American boxer (Olympic gold light middleweight 1960), born in Toledo, Ohio (d. 2020)
  • Oct 30 Ed Lauter, American actor (The Artist, The Number 23), born in Long Beach, New York (d. 2013)
Born in 1938

Famous Weddings

Louis Armstrong

Oct 11 American jazz trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong (37) weds longtime girlfriend Alpha Smith; divorce in 1942

Amon Göth

Oct 23 SS Officer Amon Göth (29) weds Anny Geiger in a civil ceremony


Famous Deaths

  • Oct 2 Alexandru Averescu, Romanian soldier and politician (b. 1859)
  • Oct 3 Viktor Kosenko, Russian-Ukrainian pianist, composer (Moldavian Poem), and educator, dies of kidney cancer at 41
  • Oct 5 Sister Faustina [Helena Kowalska], Polish Roman Catholic saint, nun and mystic, dies of suspected tuberculosis at 33
  • Oct 10 Lord Hawke [Martin Hawke], English cricket batsman (5 Tests; Yorkshire CCC, Cambridge Uni CC, MCC), dies at 78
  • Oct 12 Hugh Massie, Australian cricket batsman and captain (9 Tests; NSW), dies at 84
  • Oct 13 E. C. Segar, American cartoonist (Popeye), dies at 43
  • Oct 18 Karl Kautsky, Austrian philosopher and Marxist theorist (Socialist journal Neue Zeit), dies at 83
  • Oct 22 May Irwin, Canadian comedienne and singer (Hot Time in the Old Town), dies at 76
  • Oct 24 Ernst Barlach, German writer and artist, dies at 68
  • Oct 25 Alfonsina Storni, Argentine poet (La inquietud del rosal), dies at 46
  • Oct 27 Lascelles Abercrombie, English poet and critic (Revaluations), dies at 57