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News and Events of 1938

World Events

population by decade

Nobel Peace Prize:
Office International Nansen pour les Réfugiés (Switzerland)

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Hitler marches into Austria; political and geographical union of Germany and Austria proclaimed.
Munich Pact—Britain, France, and Italy agree to let Germany partition Czechoslovakia.
Nazis destroy Jewish shops, homes, synagogues in Kristallnacht riots; 20,000-30,000 sent to concentration camps.
First oil strike in Kuwait transforms the emirate's economy.

President: Franklin D Roosevelt
Vice President: John N. Garner
Population: 129,824,939

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Orson Welles broadcasts his adaptation of H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds, creating a nationwide panic as listeners believe that aliens have landed in New Jersey (Oct. 30).
Fair Labor Standards Act establishes minimum wage.
Unexpected hurricane wreaks havoc on Long Island, N.Y. and in New England. See U.S. Hurricanes.

Federal spending:   $6.84 billion
Consumer Price Index:   14.1
Unemployment:   19.0%
Cost of a first-class stamp:   $0.03

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NY Yankees d. Chicago Cubs (4-0)

Chicago d. Toronto (3-1)

Women: Helen Moody d. H. Jacobs (6-4 6-0)
Men: Don Budge d. H. Austin (6-1 6-0 6-3)

Lawrin

TCU (11-0-0)

Italy d. Hungary (4-2)

Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: The Late George Apley, John Phillips Marquand
Drama: Our Town, Thornton Wilder

Oscars awarded in 1938
Academy Award, Best Picture: The Life of Emile Zola (Warner Bros.)

Nobel Prize for Literature: Pearl S. Buck (US)

Miss America: Marilyn Meseke (OH)

More Entertainment Awards...

Roy Acuff joins the Grand Ole Opry and brings national recognition to the Nashville-based radio program.
Information Please quiz show debuts on radio.

Chemistry: Richard Kuhn (Germany), for carotenoid study and vitamin research (declined)

Physics: Enrico Fermi (Italy), for identification of new radioactivity elements and discovery of nuclear reactions effected by slow neutrons

Physiology or Medicine: Corneille Heymans (Belgium), for determining importance of sinus and aorta mechanisms in the regulation of respiration

Chester F. Carlson produces the first xerographic print.
Teflon is developed by Roy J. Plunkett at Du Pont.
George and Ladislav Biro invent the ballpoint pen.
U. Cerletti and L. Bini introduce electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), or shock therapy, for the treatment of mental illness.