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December 1938

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The following events occurred in December 1938:

December 1, 1938 (Thursday)

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  • Britain introduced a "national register" for war service.[1]
  • Two more "victims" of the Halifax Slasher confessed to faking the attacks on themselves. The panic soon wound down as doubts arose as to whether the slasher really existed.[2]

December 2, 1938 (Friday)

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December 3, 1938 (Saturday)

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  • Nazi Germany had a nationwide "day of solidarity" collecting street donations for the Winterhilfswerk fund. Jews were ordered to stay off the streets between noon and 8 p.m. because, according to the order issued by Heinrich Himmler, they had "no share in the solidarity of the German nation."[5]
  • Heinrich Himmler ordered all driver's licenses of Jews invalidated.[6]
  • Died: Félix Córdova Dávila, 60, Puerto Rican political leader and judge

December 4, 1938 (Sunday)

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  • Anti-Italian riots broke out in Tunis over Italy's recent demand that France hand over Tunisia. Windows of an Italian tourist office, newspaper and bookstore were smashed, but police reinforcements prevented any such attack on the Italian consulate. 15 arrests were made.[7]
  • Born: Andre Marrou, politician, in Nixon, Texas; Yvonne Minton, opera singer, in Sydney, Australia

December 5, 1938 (Monday)

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  • Decrees from the Reich Economic Ministry forbade Jews from buying real estate or selling securities such as stocks and bonds or jewelry. All securities were to be placed in a special foreign exchange bank which could only be accessed with government permission.[8]
  • The U.S. Supreme Court decided Lyeth v. Hoey.
  • Born: JJ Cale, musician, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (d. 2013)

December 6, 1938 (Tuesday)

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  • Foreign Ministers Joachim von Ribbentrop and Georges Bonnet signed a treaty in Paris by which Germany and France guaranteed the inviolability of one another's borders and agreed to engage in mutual consultation to resolve all disputes peacefully.[1][9]
  • Italians marched in the streets of Rome, Genoa and Turin shouting "Tunisia and Corsica for Italy".[10]

December 7, 1938 (Wednesday)

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  • British Secretary of State for the Colonies Malcolm MacDonald told the House of Commons that the question of restoring colonies to Germany was not under discussion and "not now an issue in practical politics." A motion calling for the creation of an international pool of colonies under a general mandate was voted upon, but it was defeated 253-127.[11]
  • Died: Anna Marie Hahn, 32, German-born American serial killer (executed by electric chair)

December 8, 1938 (Thursday)

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December 9, 1938 (Friday)

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December 10, 1938 (Saturday)

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December 11, 1938 (Sunday)

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December 12, 1938 (Monday)

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  • A new foreign currency law in Nazi Germany restricted the possessions emigrants could take out of the country (including money and valuables) to only include items of personal use.[17]
  • Comedian George Burns pleaded guilty in a New York federal courtroom to charges of smuggling jewelry. Sentencing was deferred until January, but Burns faced a maximum of 18 years in prison and fines up to $45,000.[18][19]
  • The Daily Express reported that Lloyd's of London was quoting 32 to 1 odds against Britain being involved in a war before December 31, 1939.[20]
  • The U.S. Supreme Court decided Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada.

December 13, 1938 (Tuesday)

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  • Neville Chamberlain spoke to 600 journalists and diplomats at the Foreign Press Association jubilee dinner in London, saying there would be no letup in British rearmament even though he was convinced that the wish of the British and German people remained "still what it was recorded to me in the Munich Agreement – namely, never to go to war with one another again, and to settle any difference that might arise between us by the method of consultation." There were a number of empty seats at the function because the Germans boycotted after seeing an advance copy of the speech, which included a passage criticizing the German press for its tone and for rarely showing "any sign of a desire to understand our point of view."[21]
  • Clark Gable announced he was seeking a divorce from his estranged second wife Rhea. Friends of the actor disclosed that he planned to marry the actress Carole Lombard when the divorce was finalized.[22]
  • The Neuengamme concentration camp opened.
  • Born: Heino, singer, in Düsseldorf-Oberbilk, Germany; Gus Johnson, basketball player, in Akron, Ohio (d. 1987)
  • Died: Leandro Verì, Italian carabiniere, shot in line of duty (b. 1903)[23]

December 14, 1938 (Wednesday)

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  • Nazi Germany cancelled all state contracts with Jewish-owned firms.[24]

December 15, 1938 (Thursday)

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December 16, 1938 (Friday)

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December 17, 1938 (Saturday)

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  • Otto Hahn and his assistant Fritz Strassmann discovered nuclear fission at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin but did not realize it at the time.[27]
  • Italy sent a diplomatic note to France indicating that the Franco-Italian Agreement of 1935 was invalid because ratifications had never been exchanged.[1]
  • Wilhelm Keitel issued a secret directive on behalf of Hitler stating that preparations for the "liquidation of the rump Czech state" were to be carried out "on the assumption that no appreciable resistance is to be expected. Outwardly it must be quite clear that it is only a peaceful action and not a warlike undertaking."[28]
  • Born: Carlo Little, rock drummer, in Shepherd's Bush, London, England (d. 2005); Peter Snell, runner, in Opunake, New Zealand (d. 2019)

December 18, 1938 (Sunday)

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December 19, 1938 (Monday)

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  • Herschel Grynszpan appeared before a magistrate in Paris and explained why he shot Ernst vom Rath. Grynszpan said he did not intend to kill vom Rath but only wanted to shoot him as a protest against the Nazi treatment of Jews.[31]

December 20, 1938 (Tuesday)

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  • New York City Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia was attacked from behind on the steps of City Hall and knocked down by a discharged WPA worker. La Guardia suffered a welt to his right cheekbone but was not seriously hurt. The assailant gave mostly incoherent responses to questioning by authorities and maintained that La Guardia knew the reason for the attack, even though the mayor said he'd never seen him before.[32]
  • Vladimir K. Zworykin received a patent for the iconoscope, fifteen years after filing a patent application.[33]
  • Born: John Harbison, composer, in Orange, New Jersey
  • Died: Annie Armstrong, 88, American Southern Baptist denominational leader

December 21, 1938 (Wednesday)

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December 22, 1938 (Thursday)

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December 23, 1938 (Friday)

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December 24, 1938 (Saturday)

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December 25, 1938 (Sunday)

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December 26, 1938 (Monday)

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December 27, 1938 (Tuesday)

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December 28, 1938 (Wednesday)

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  • The Soviet Union issued a new decree aimed at slackers and frequently absent workers. The new law threatened executives with removal or arrest if they failed to deal harshly with "disorganizers of production". Maternity leave was reduced and workers were to get no vacations until they had been on the job for at least one year.[39]
  • Died: Florence Lawrence, 48 or 52, Canadian-American stage performer and film actress (suicide by poison)

December 29, 1938 (Thursday)

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  • A scandal hit the French film industry when the bankrupt Pathé studio obtained warrants charging Bernard Natan and three other former associates of the company with fraud and conspiracy. The alleged embezzlement was estimated to total at least 140 million francs.[40]
  • Born: Jon Voight, actor, in Yonkers, New York

December 30, 1938 (Friday)

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  • Joseph Goebbels' extramarital affair with Czech actress Lída Baarová was revealed in the international press.[41]
  • Iran broke off diplomatic relations with France over an article in a Paris newspaper about a cat show. Rezā Shāh was insulted by a picture of a cat that carried the caption "His Majesty the cat" (the French word for cat is chat, pronounced the same as shah).[42]

December 31, 1938 (Saturday)

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f "Chronology 1938". indiana.edu. 2002. Archived from the original on June 8, 2019. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
  2. ^ "Haunts of the Halifax Slasher". 2ubh. Archived from the original on September 4, 2015. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
  3. ^ Schultz, Sigrid (December 2, 1938). "Jewish Children Sob as They Quit German Parents". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 4.
  4. ^ "First Kindertransport Arrives in Great Britain". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved September 19, 2015.[permanent dead link]
  5. ^ Schultz, Sigrid (November 30, 1938). "German Police Order All Jews to Stay Off Streets for a Day". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 2.
  6. ^ "Tageseinträge für 3. Dezember 1938". chroniknet. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
  7. ^ "Duce Demands Bring Riots". Chicago Daily Tribune. December 5, 1938. p. 1.
  8. ^ Schultz, Sigrid (December 6, 1938). "Nazis Oust Jews from Economic Life in Germany". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 4.
  9. ^ Shirer, William L. (2011). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 436–437. ISBN 978-1-4516-5168-3.
  10. ^ "Angry Italians Again Cry, 'We Want Tunisia'". Chicago Daily Tribune. December 7, 1938. p. 3.
  11. ^ "Colonial Policy". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). December 7, 1938. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
  12. ^ "New French-Italian Riots". Chicago Daily Tribune. December 9, 1938. p. 1.
  13. ^ French, Lorely (2015). Roma Voices in the German-Speaking World. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 112. ISBN 978-1-5013-0279-4.
  14. ^ Crowe, David M. (2014). War Crimes, Genocide, and Justice: A Global History. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 139. ISBN 978-1-137-03701-5.
  15. ^ a b Mercer, Derrik, ed. (1989). Chronicle of the 20th Century. London: Chronicle Communications Ltd. p. 504. ISBN 978-0-582-03919-3.
  16. ^ Wixom, Robert L.; Gehrke, Charles W., eds. (2010). Chromatography: A Science of Discovery. John Wiley & Sons. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-118-06029-2.
  17. ^ Matthäus, Jürgen; Roseman, Mark (2010). Jewish Responses to Persecution: 1933–1938. AltaMira Press. p. 451. ISBN 978-0-7591-1910-9.
  18. ^ Fulton, William (December 13, 1938). "Actor's Jewel Fraud Told". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1.
  19. ^ Epstein, Lawrence J. (2011). George Burns: An American Life. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 78. ISBN 978-0-7864-8793-6.
  20. ^ "Betting Against War". Tipton Daily Tribune. Tipton, Indiana. December 12, 1938. p. 2.
  21. ^ Darrah, David (December 14, 1938). "Chamberlain Rebukes Nazis; They Snub Him". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1.
  22. ^ "Gable Wants a Divorce to Wed Miss Lombard". Chicago Daily Tribune. December 14, 1938. p. 1.
  23. ^ "VERI Leandro". Le onorificenze della Repubblica Italiana. Presidenza della Repubblica (in Italian). Retrieved 12 February 2022.
  24. ^ a b "Antisemitic Legislation 1933–1939". Holocaust Encyclopedia. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
  25. ^ "Germany Needs a Larger living Space; Goebbels". Chicago Daily Tribune. December 16, 1938. p. 5.
  26. ^ a b Cortada, James W., ed. (1982). Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. p. 512. ISBN 0-313-22054-9.
  27. ^ a b c "1938". MusicAndHistory. Archived from the original on August 28, 2012. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
  28. ^ Faber, David (2008). Munich, 1938: Appeasement and World War II. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 437. ISBN 978-1-4391-4992-8.
  29. ^ Lorman, Thomas (2019). The Making of the Slovak People's Party: Religion, Nationalism and the Culture War in Early 20th-Century Europe. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 216. ISBN 978-1-350-10938-4.
  30. ^ "Mussolini Opens Coal Mining Town on Island of Sardinia". Chicago Daily Tribune. December 19, 1938. p. 5.
  31. ^ "Jew Who Slew Nazi Diplomat Tells His Story". Chicago Daily Tribune. December 20, 1938. p. 10.
  32. ^ "Crank Knocks Mayor Down". Brooklyn Eagle. December 20, 1938. p. 1.
  33. ^ "Iconoscope". Engineering and Technology History Wiki. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
  34. ^ "Air-Raid Shelters". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). December 21, 1938. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
  35. ^ Hoyt, Edwin Palmer (2001). Warlord: Tojo Against the World. Cooper Square Press. p. 114. ISBN 978-0-8154-1171-0.
  36. ^ Tucker, Spencer C. (2010). A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, LLC. p. 1872. ISBN 978-1-85109-672-5.
  37. ^ "2 Christmas Trains Crash in Rumania; 80 Killed, 150 Injured". Chicago Daily Tribune. December 26, 1938. p. 1.
  38. ^ "Grace Moore's Bow to Wally Rekindles Feud". Chicago Daily Tribune. December 29, 1938. p. 9.
  39. ^ "Soviet Clamps Down New Rules in Effort to Speed Up Industry". Chicago Daily Tribune. December 29, 1938. p. 9.
  40. ^ "Uncover Huge French Movie Swindle". Chicago Daily Tribune. December 30, 1938. p. 1.
  41. ^ "Story Involved Goebbels in a Love Scandal". Chicago Daily Tribune. December 30, 1938. p. 1.
  42. ^ "Cat is 'Shah' in French, so Iran Shah is Angry". Chicago Daily Tribune. December 31, 1938. p. 10.
  43. ^ MacDonogh, Giles (2009). 1938: Hitler's Gamble. Basic Books. p. 255. ISBN 978-0-465-02205-2.
  44. ^ Kowal, Barry (December 7, 2014). "Your Hit Parade (USA) Weekly Single Charts From 1938". Hits of All Decades. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
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