BENCHMARK
September 21-22
Hearing early radio reports of an impending hurricane due to strike
Connecticut and Rhode Island, Jack Henkels and partner Arthur C.
"Buck" Faust telephone New England utilities in the storm’s
projected path and offer their services. The storm has yet to
strike land and Henkels & McCoy crews are alerted by Jack and Buck
to gather more men and to stand by. By the next day, a
Category Three tropical hurricane blasts Long Island and much of New
England, taking 680 lives and wreaking havoc. It is the fourth
deadliest mainland tropical storm in 20th Century America. Roofs
are ripped from homes. Floods wash out roads. A large lighthouse
tending boat lays across railroad tracks. Similarly, a steamship is
tossed 100 feet inland. Water is twenty feet high in the lobby of a
hotel in Providence, Rhode Island. Cities and towns are left without
power or running water or telephone service. Henkels & McCoy
mobilizes over 400 men and trucks and begins emergency tree
clearance and telephone and power restoration work. The crews -- and
Jack Henkels -- stay on the scene for over two months. The ability
to respond quickly in seemingly overwhelming adverse circumstances firmly
establishes Henkels & McCoy as a key player and possibly saves the
company from bankruptcy.
January 3
March of Dimes is established to raise funds to fight polio through
research for a cure or a vaccine.February 20
Hitler announces support for Japan.
March 13
Hitler's Third Reich annexes Austria in what is termed "Anschluss".
In October his troops march into Sudetenland.
June 1
Superman I
Action Comics Issue Number 1 premiers, and features the work of
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster of Cleveland, Ohio. They create the
adventures of a crime fighting being from another world, endowed
with strange powers, faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful
than a locomotive,
able
to leap tall buildings in a single bound...battling for truth,
justice and the American Way. Look... up in the sky. Is it a bird?
Is it a plane? No! It's Superman.
June 22
Superman II
Joe Louis (Barrow), the "Brown Bomber," easily defeats Max Schmeling,
knocking out the German in two minutes and four seconds of the first
round in a long
anticipated rematch, at Yankee Stadium. Previously, Schmeling was
the only person to defeat Louis, in 1936. Joe Louis retains his
title as an undefeated World Heavyweight Champion and will retire in
1949. Due to financial problems, however, he unsuccessfully returns
to the ring in 1950 against Ezzard Charles. In 1951 he will hang up
his gloves after being defeated by Rocky Marciano. When he dies in
1981, Joe Louis is eulogized as one of the greatest prizefighters of
all time by President Ronald Reagan.
July 6
Contract awarded for construction of Shasta Dam in the Central
Valley Project, California.
September 30
Upon returning from a conference with Hitler in Munich, British
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, declares "I believe it is peace
for our time."
October 30
Radio broadcast of H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" creates near
panic when some listeners mistake the live radio play for ongoing
"news coverage" of an actual Martian invasion in New Jersey.
November 10
During Kristallnacht ("Night of Broken Glass"), in Nazi
Germany, over 191 synagogues are set afire, with 76 being destroyed.
More than 7,500 Jewish businesses are looted and over 800 ruined.
Almost 100 Jews are killed or seriously injured. As many as 30,000
Jews will be rounded up and sent to concentration camps.
Also in 1938:
Fair Labor Standards Act is passed, establishing the minimum wage of
25 cents per hour for workers engaged in interstate commerce..
Tape recorder technology is invented.
Xerography is invented, a dry process using no liquid developer.
This is the forerunner of modern photocopying.
Spencer Tracy wins Best Actor Oscar for role of Father Flannigan
in Boys Town.
Roy Acuff joins the Grand Ole Opry.
Yankees sweep the Cubbies in four straight to cinch the World's
Series.
