Top News Stories from 1938
World Events
World Statistics
Population: 4.378 billion
population by decade Nobel Peace Prize: Office International Nansen pour les Réfugiés (Switzerland)
More World Statistics... - 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.
U.S. Events
U.S. Statistics
President: Franklin D Roosevelt
Vice President: John N. Garner
Population: 129,824,939
More U.S. Statistics... - 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.
Economics
Federal spending: $6.84 billion
Consumer Price Index: $14.1
Unemployment: 19.0%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.03
Sports
World Series
NY Yankees d. Chicago Cubs (4-0)Stanley Cup
Chicago d. TorontoWimbledon
Women: Helen Moody d. H. Jacobs (6-4 6-0)Men: Don Budge d. H. Austin (6-1 6-0 6-3)
Kentucky Derby Champion
LawrinNCAA Football Champions
TCU (11-0-0)World Cup
Italy d. HungaryEntertainment
Entertainment Awards
Pulitzer Prizes Fiction:
The Late George Apley, John Phillips Marquand
Drama: Our Town, Thornton Wilder
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... Events
- Roy Acuff joins the Grand Ole Opry and brings national recognition to the Nashville-based radio program.
- Information Please quiz show debuts on radio.
Science
Nobel Prizes in Science
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
More Nobel Prizes in 1998... - 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.
