Timeline April 1938

Events in April 1938 13

• 1859 – 1938 Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) Died 27 April 1938, aged 79 Husserl was a German philosopher and the founder of phenomenology. He was barred from university facilities under Nazi racial laws in his final years.
• 1865 – 1938 Suzanne Valadon (1865-1938) Died 7 April 1938, aged 72 Valadon was a French painter and a former artists' model. She was the first woman admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and was the mother of Maurice Utrillo.
• 1873 – 1938 Feodor Chaliapin (1873-1938) Died 12 April 1938, aged 65 Chaliapin was a Russian operatic bass who was famous for the title role in Boris Godunov. He was one of the most celebrated singers of his time.
• 1877 – 1938 Muhammad Iqbal (1877-1938) Died 21 April 1938, aged 60 Iqbal was a poet and philosopher who wrote in Urdu and Persian. His call for a Muslim homeland in north-west India made him the spiritual father of Pakistan.
• 1938 Battle of Taierzhuang The first major Chinese victory of the war with Japan Chinese forces under Li Zongren surrounded and defeated a Japanese force at Taierzhuang in Shandong. The victory greatly boosted Chinese morale.
• 1938 Publishes Nausea A landmark of existentialist literature Sartre's first novel, La Nausée (Nausea), was published in 1938 and is now regarded as one of the foundational literary expressions of existentialist thought. Narrated through the journal of Antoine Roquentin, the novel depicts an overwhelming confrontation with the sheer contingency and absurdity of existence. It established Sartre as a major new literary voice in France.
• 1938 1938 World Snooker Championship Joe Davis Title 12 Winner: Joe Davis; Runner-up: Sidney Smith. Score: 37–24.
• 1938 Nescafé launched Nestlé introduces instant coffee Nestlé launched Nescafé in Switzerland, a soluble coffee powder developed by chemist Max Morgenthaler. It went on to become one of the world's best-known coffee brands.
• 1938 – 1989 A. Bartlett Giamatti (1938-1989) Died 1 September 1989, aged 51 A. Bartlett Giamatti was a Renaissance literature scholar who served as President of Yale University before becoming Commissioner of Major League Baseball. He presided over the investigation that led to Pete Rose's lifetime ban from baseball just before his death. He died of a heart attack days after the Rose decision.
• 1938 Teflon discovered Roy Plunkett accidentally creates PTFE While working on refrigerants at DuPont, Roy Plunkett found that a cylinder of tetrafluoroethylene gas had polymerised into a slippery white solid. Polytetrafluoroethylene was later sold as Teflon.
• 1938 – 2018 Kofi Annan (1938-2018) Died 18 August 2018, aged 80 Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. He shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001 for his work revitalizing the organization and its humanitarian efforts. He remained active in international diplomacy after leaving office.
• 1938 Austrian Anschluss plebiscite Over 99 percent approve union with Germany A referendum held under Nazi control in Germany and Austria approved the annexation with a reported 99.7 percent in favour. Jews and political opponents were barred from voting, and the ballot was openly intimidating.
• 1938 – 2024 Lilly Ledbetter (1938-2024) Died 12 October 2024, aged 86 American activist whose equal-pay lawsuit led to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.