| 25th January 1938 | A brilliant aurora borealis, often described as "a curtain of fire”, amazes people across Europe. The light display is visible as far south as Gibraltar. |
| 6th February 1938 | Three-hundred swimmers are dragged out to sea due to three freak waves at Bondi Beach in Sydney. Eighty lifesavers perform heroically, saving all but five people. |
| 14th February 1938 | The British naval base at Singapore begins operations. |
| 3rd March 1938 | Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia. |
| 25th May 1938 | Alicante is bombed during the Spanish Civil war, resulting in 313 deaths. |
| 19th June 1938 | Italy beats Hungary 4-2 to win the 1938 World Cup. |
| 24th June 1938 | A 450-metric-ton meteorite explodes approximately twelve miles above the earth, near Chicora in Pennsylvania. |
| 25th June 1938 | Dr. Douglas Hyde is elected the first President of Ireland. |
| 3rd July 1938 | “Mallard” sets the world speed record for a steam locomotive, by reaching 126 mph. |
| 14th July 1938 | Howard Hughes sets a new record by completing an aircraft flight around the world in just ninety-hours. |
| 24th July 1938 | Swiss climbers Christian Almer and Peter Bohren, and Irishman Charles Barrington, complete the first successful ascent of the Eiger mountain in the Bernese Alps. |
| 30th July 1938 | The first edition of “The Beano” is published. |
| 7th September 1938 | The Times prints a lead article which calls on Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland to Germany. |
| 26th September 1938 | During a venomous speech at Berlin‘s Sportpalast, Hitler implies war with Czechoslovakia will begin at any time. |
| 29th September 1938 | German, Italian, British and French leaders agree to German demands regarding the annexation of Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovak government is largely excluded from the negotiations and is not a signatory to the agreement. |
| 30th September 1938 | Neville Chamberlain returns to Britain following a meeting with Adolf Hitler and declares “Peace in our Time.” Many senior figures, such as Winston Churchill, are disgusted by the outcome of the meeting. Germany marches into Sudetenland on the following morning and demands control of Teschen within a twenty-four hour period. |
| 1st November 1938 | “Seabiscuit” defeats “War Admiral” by four lengths in the famous horse race at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. |