January 31, 1938 – New Year’s Day in Chinese calendar. Start of the year of the Earth Tiger in Chinese astrology.

June 11, 1938 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Chinese Nationalist government creates the 1938 Yellow River flood to halt Japanese forces. 500,000 to 900,000 civilians are killed.

June 23, 1938 – The Civil Aeronautics Act is signed into law, forming the Civil Aeronautics Authority in the United States.

July 17, 1938 – Douglas Corrigan takes off from Brooklyn to fly the “wrong way” to Ireland and becomes known as “Wrong Way” Corrigan.

July 31, 1938 – Archaeologists discover engraved gold and silver plates from King Darius the Great in Persepolis.

August 18, 1938 – The Thousand Islands Bridge, connecting New York State, United States with Ontario, Canada over the St. Lawrence River, is dedicated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

September 21, 1938 – The Great Hurricane of 1938 makes landfall on Long Island in New York. The death toll is estimated at 500-700 people.

September 27, 1938 – Ocean liner Queen Elizabeth launched in Glasgow.

September 29, 1938 – Munich Agreement: Germany was given permission from France, Italy, and Great Britain to seize the territory of Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia. The meeting occurred in Munich, and leaders from neither the Soviet Union nor Czechoslovakia attended.

October 25, 1938 – The Archbishop of Dubuque, 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”.

March 18, 1938 – Machiko Soga, Japanese voice actress and actress (d. 2006)

April 7, 1938 – Jerry Brown, American politician

May 22, 1938 – Frank Converse, American actor

May 28, 1938 – Jerry West, American basketball player

June 27, 1938 – Bruce Babbitt, American politician and Secretary of the Interior

July 20, 1938 – Tony Oliva, Cuban baseball player

July 23, 1938 – Charles Harrelson, American convicted murderer; father of Woody Harrelson (d. 2007)

September 1, 1938 – Per Kirkeby, Danish artist

September 22, 1938 – Gene Mingo, American football player

October 3, 1938 – David Obey, American politician