- Sep 8 Pan Arab conference about Palestine opens
- Sep 10 2nd American Football League plays 1st game (LA 21, Pittsburgh 0)
- Sep 10 Cleveland (Los Angeles) Rams plays their 1st NFL game, lose 28-0
- Sep 11 US National Championship Men's Tennis, Forest Hills, NY: American Don Budge wins first of 2 straight US titles; beats Gottfried von Cramm of Germany 6-1, 7-9, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1
- Sep 11 US National Championship Women's Tennis, Forest Hills, NY: Anita Lizana of Chile becomes first Latin American to win a major; beats Jadwiga Jędrzejowska of Poland 6-4, 6-2
Historic Event
Sep 14 President Franklin D. Roosevelt bans US ships from trading arms with China or Japan
- Sep 15 Works Progress Administration (WPA) extends L-Taraval streetcar line to San Francisco Zoo, at Sloat Blvd (San Francisco, California)
Sports History
Sep 16 Redskins NFL franchise play first game in Washington at Griffith Stadium; defeat the New York Giants in season opener, 13–3
Historic Publication
Sep 21 J. R. R. Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' is published by George Allen and Unwin in London
- Sep 22 Forest fire kills 14 and injures 50 in Cody, Wyoming
- Sep 22 Spanish Civil War: Peña Blanca is taken; the end of the Battle of El Mazuco.
- Sep 22 Date celebrated as the first International Hobbit Day and the birthdays of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins
- Sep 23 Yankees lose 9-5 but clinch pennant when Red Sox beat Detroit
- Sep 25 "il duce" visits Berlin/named "the Fuhrer" to corporal 1st class
- Sep 25 Battle of P'ing-hsin-kuan Wutai Mountain
- Sep 27 1st Santa Claus Training School opens (Albion NY)
- Sep 27 Balinese Tiger declared extinct.
- Sep 28 FDR dedicates Bonneville Dam on Columbia River (Oregon)
- Sep 29 Frans Slaats cycles a world hour record time (45,563 km)
- Sep 30 Ryder Cup Golf, Southport & Ainsdale GC: US wins 8-4; first time the host team loses the competition
- Oct 1 Pullman Co formally recognizes Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
- Oct 2 FDR visits Grand Coulee Dam construction site in Washington State
- Oct 5 Dutch Minister Carl Romme says unemployment is 25% "quarter of Romme"
- Oct 7 Johan Wagenaar's "Feestmars" premieres in Amsterdam
- Oct 10 Baseball World Series: in second consecutive all-New York WS, Yankees again beat Giants, 4-2 at the Polo Grounds for a 4-1 series victory
- Oct 13 A recorded trace of snow in Central Park, NYC
Historic Publication
Oct 15 Ernest Hemingway's novel "To Have & Have Not" published
- Oct 15 Rather than accept any trade offers, the Yanks release Tony Lazzeri
Historic Event
Oct 21 Francisco Franco's troops occupy Gijon
- Oct 25 Belgian government of Zealand falls due to black money
Sports History
Oct 25 Casey Stengel signs to manage Boston Bees
- Oct 31 Spanish government moves from Valencia to Barcelona
Execution
Nov 1 Stalinists execute by shooting Pastor Paul Hamberg and seven members of Azerbaijan's Lutheran community (including three women).
Historic Event
Nov 5 Adolf Hitler informs his military leaders in a secret meeting of his intentions of going to war
Historic Event
Nov 10 Brazilian dictator Getulio Vargas proclaims "Estado novo"
- Nov 11 German aircraft Messerschmidt ME-109V13 flies a new world air speed record for landplanes with piston engines of 610.95 km/h (379.62 mph)
- Nov 11 Nobel prize for physics awarded to American Clinton Joseph Davisson and Briton George Paget Thomson "for their experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals"
- Nov 13 NBC forms first full-sized symphony orchestra exclusively for radio
- Nov 15 First US congressional session in air-conditioned chambers
- Nov 17 Britain's Lord Halifax visits Germany, beginning of appeasement
Music Premiere
Nov 21 Dmitri Shostakovich's 5th Symphony premieres in Lenningrad, with the ovation lasting over an hour
Theater Premiere
Nov 23 John Steinbeck's play "Of Mice & Men" premieres in NYC
- Nov 25 World's Fair of Paris closes (31.2 million visitors)
- Nov 27 Pro-labor musical revue "Pins & Needles" opens, produced by ILGWU
- Nov 29 Dutch Prince Bernhard injured in auto accident in Netherlands
- Nov 30 3rd Heisman Trophy Award: Clint Frank, Yale (HB)
- Dec 1 Japan recognizes Spain's Franco government
- Dec 7 Dutch Minister Romme proclaims married women are forbidden to work
Contract of Interest
Dec 7 Red Sox acquire the contract of 19-year-old Ted Williams
- Dec 7 Russian chess player Alexander Alekhine recaptures his final world title from Dutch grand master Max Euwe by a large margin (+10−4=11)
- Dec 11 25th CFL Grey Cup, Varsity Stadium, Toronto: Toronto Argonauts claim their 4th Championship; beat Winnipeg Blue Bombers, 4-3
- Dec 11 Italy withdraws from League of Nations
- Dec 12 NBC & RCA sends 1st mobile-TV vans onto the streets of NY
- Dec 12 National Football League Championship, Wrigley Field, Chicago: Washington Redskins beat Chicago Bears, 28-21
- Dec 12 Japanese aircraft shell & sink US gunboat Panay on Yangtze River in China. (Japan apologized & eventually paid US $2.2M in reparations)
- Dec 12 1938 NFL Draft: Corbett Davis from University of Indiana first pick by Cleveland Rams
- Dec 13 Japanese troops conquer and plunder Nanjing (Nanjing Massacre)
- Dec 16 Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe attempt to escape from American federal prison Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay; neither is ever seen again.
- Dec 20 Australian cricket spin bowler Bill O'Reilly takes career best 9-41 for NSW in a Sheffield Shield match against South Australia at Adelaide Oval
- Dec 21 O'Reilly completes 14-98 for cricket match, NSW v South Australia
Film Premiere
Dec 21 "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", the first full-length animated feature film and the earliest in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, premieres at the Carthay Circle Theatre, Los Angeles
- Dec 21 Chicago Black Hawks left wing Paul Thompson becomes first player in NHL history to score a goal against his brother; scores on goaltender Cecil Thompson of the Boston Bruins with just 9 seconds left in regulation; Bruins win though, 2-1
- Dec 22 Lincoln Tunnel, under the Hudson River, opens to traffic, connecting Weehawken, New Jersey to Midtown Manhattan, New York City
- Dec 23 First flight of the Vickers Wellington bomber
- Dec 24 Dutch government recognizes Italian king Emanuel III as emperor of Abyssinia
- Dec 25 Arturo Toscanini conducts 1st "Symphony of the Air" concert over NBC Radio
- Dec 25 Queensland all out for 93 v SA in front of 10,436
- Dec 27 German immigration officials with no explanation bar Juan Carlos Zabala (Arg), 1932 Olympic marathon champion, from entering Germany
