Salford will end a 51-year wait when they run out at Wembley for Saturday's Challenge Cup final against Leeds and it is 82 years since the club last lifted the famous trophy.
Here the PA news agency takes a look at what was happening in the world in both 1969 and 1938.
1969
Matt Busby steps down as Manchester United manager, Wales beat England 30-9 to clinch their 16th Five Nations Rugby Championship and 11th Triple Crown, Ireland's cricketers dismiss West Indies for just 25 in Londonderry and there is also an upset at Wimbledon where Ann Jones defeated defending champion Billie Jean King in the final.
Harold Wilson is Prime Minister, the first B&Q store opens and Concorde makes its maiden flight, while in the United States Richard Nixon becomes president and in France Charles de Gaulle resigns the presidency.
Neil Armstrong and Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin become the first men to set foot on the moon following the successful Apollo 11 mission.
The Woodstock Festival in New York attracts an audience of around 500,000 to watch, among others, Joe Cocker, and Jimi Hendrix, while the Rock opera "Tommy" is released by The Who.
The Beatles record Abbey Road, their final album together, before making their farewell public appearance while Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang were among the most popular films at the cinema.
1938
The FA Cup final is televised for the first time but, with just 10,000 sets in the country at the time, it is thought there is a bigger audience in the stadium at Wembley (93,000) to watch Preston North End beat Huddersfield 1-0.
Scotland beat England 21-16 at Twickenham to win the Home Nations Rugby Championship, Triple Crown and Calcutta Cup, Joe Louis retains his world heavyweight boxing title and 17-year-old jockey Bruce Hobbs wins the Grand National on 40-1 shot Battleship.
Don Bradman runs riot on Australia's tour of England, Italy beat Hungary 4-1 in the World Cup final in Paris and Helen Wills Moody wins Wimbledon.
Franklin D Roosevelt is president of the United States while the UK Prime Minister is Neville Chamberlain, who signs the Munich Pact with France and Italy agreeing to let Germany partition Czechoslovakia.
Ella Fitzgerald is in the charts and Orson Welles broadcasts his adaptation of HG Wells' War of the Worlds.
