Timeline October 1938

Events in October 1938 8

• 1870 – 1938 Ernst Barlach (1870-1938) Died 24 October 1938, aged 68 Barlach was a German Expressionist sculptor and playwright. The Nazis condemned his work, and many of his public memorials were removed.
• 1938 Battle of Wuhan Japan captures China's temporary capital after months of fighting More than a million Chinese troops fought a long defence of Wuhan against the Japanese advance up the Yangtze. The city fell in October, but the delay allowed the Nationalist government to move to Chongqing.
• 1938 German occupation of the Sudetenland Wehrmacht marches into Czechoslovak border regions Under the terms of the Munich Agreement, German troops occupied the Sudetenland in stages over ten days. Czechoslovakia lost its border fortifications and much of its industry, leaving it unable to defend itself.
• 1938 Poland annexes Zaolzie Poland seizes the Czechoslovak part of Cieszyn Silesia After an ultimatum, Poland took over the Zaolzie region from Czechoslovakia as the country was being carved up after Munich. The annexation badly damaged Poland's reputation in the West.
• 1938 – 1997 Fela Kuti (1938-1997) Died 2 August 1997, aged 58 Fela Kuti was a Nigerian musician and political activist who created the Afrobeat genre, fusing jazz, funk, and traditional Yoruba music. His outspoken criticism of Nigeria's military governments led to repeated arrests and violent raids on his compound. He died of complications from AIDS in Lagos.
• 1938 First xerographic copy Chester Carlson makes the first electrophotographic image Working in a room in Astoria, Queens, Chester Carlson and Otto Kornei produced the first xerographic copy, which read "10-22-38 Astoria". The process later became the basis of the Xerox photocopier.
• 1938 Polenaktion Germany expels Polish Jews The Nazi regime rounded up about 17,000 Jews with Polish citizenship and forced them across the Polish border. Grynszpan's parents were among the deportees, and his response led to Kristallnacht.
• 1938 The War of the Worlds radio broadcast Orson Welles dramatises a Martian invasion on CBS radio The Mercury Theatre on the Air presented H. G. Wells's novel as a series of realistic news bulletins. Newspapers reported widespread panic among listeners, and the broadcast made Orson Welles famous.