1931
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| Centuries: | 19th century - 20th century - 21st century |
| Decades: | 1900s 1910s 1920s - 1930s - 1940s 1950s 1960s |
| Years: | 1928 1929 1930 - 1931 - 1932 1933 1934 |
| 1931 by topic: |
| Arts |
| Architecture - Art - Film - Literature Music (Country) - Television |
| Science and technology |
| Archaeology - Aviation Meteorology - Rail transport - Science |
| By country |
| Australia - Canada - India Ireland - Malaysia - New Zealand - Singapore - South Africa - UK - Wales - Zimbabwe |
| Other topics |
| Awards - Sport - Law - State leaders - Sovereign states - Religious leaders |
| Birth and death categories |
| Births - Deaths |
| Establishments and disestablishments categories |
| Establishments - Disestablishments |
| Works category |
| Works |
Year 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar).
Contents |
[edit] Events
[edit] January
- January 4 - Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa.
- January 6 - Thomas Edison submits his last patent application.
- January 22 - Sir Isaac Isaacs sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia.
- January 25 - Mohandas Gandhi released again.
- January 27 - Pierre Laval forms a government in France.
[edit] February
- February 3 - Napier earthquake - much of the New Zealand city of Napier is destroyed in an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale.
- February 10 - New Delhi becomes the capital of India.
- February 16 - Pehr Evind Svinhufvud elected president of Finland.
- February 20 - California gets the go-ahead by the U.S. Congress to build the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
- February 21 - Peruvian revolutionaries hijack a Ford Trimotor aeroplane and demand that the pilot drop propaganda leaflets over Lima.
[edit] March
- March 1 - USS Arizona (BB-39) placed back in full commission after a refit.
- March 3 - The Star-Spangled Banner is adopted as the United States National anthem.
- March 4 - British viceroy of India and Mohandas Gandhi negotiate.
- March 7 - New House of Representatives opened in Helsinki, Finland.
- March 11 - Ready for Labour and Defence of the USSR programme, abbreviated as GTO, is introduced in the Soviet Union.
- March 17 - Nevada legalizes gambling.
- March 25 - The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama and charged with rape.
- March 27 - British writer Arnold Bennett dies in Paris when he drinks local water to prove it safe to drink - but is poisoned.
- March 31 - An earthquake destroys Managua, Nicaragua killing 2,000.
[edit] April
- April 6 - Portuguese government declares martial law in Madeira and in the Azores because of an attempted military takeover in Funchal.
- April 9 - Execution of Argentinean anarchist Severino Digiovanni.
- April 14 - 2nd Spanish Republic proclaimed in Spain.
- April 18 - An incorporation of Cheverly, Maryland is made.
- April 22 - Austria, Britain, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Sweden and USA recognize the Spanish Republic.
[edit] May
- May 1 - Construction of the Empire State Building is completed in New York City.
- May 4 - Kemal Atatürk re-elected president of Turkey.
- May 13 - Paul Doumer elected president of France.
[edit] June
- June 12 - Charlie Parker equals J.T. Hearne's record for the earliest date to reach 100 wickets.
- June 14 - Yacht St Philiebert sinks in river Loire in France - over 500 drown
- June 23 - Wiley Post and Harold Gatty take off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island in an attempt to accomplish the first round-the-world flight in a single-engine plane. [1]
[edit] July-September
- July - John Haven Emerson of Cambridge, Massachusetts perfects the Emerson iron lung just in time for the growing polio epidemic
- July 1 - Official opening of Milan Central Station
- July 16 - Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia signs the first constitution of Ethiopia
- Huang He floods kill between 850,000 and 4,000,000 people - the most deadly historic natural disaster.
- August 24 - Labour Government of Ramsay MacDonald resigns in Britain - replaced by National Government of people drawn from all parties also under MacDonald.
- August 31 - Yangtze River floods - 23 million made homeless
- September 5 - John Thomson, soccer player, dies in an accident during a Celtic - Rangers match
- September 15 - The Invergordon Mutiny: Strikes in Royal Navy due to decreased salaries
- September 18
- Mukden Incident. After that, Japan uses it to occupy Manchuria.
- Geli Raubal is found shot dead in Hitler's apartment
[edit] October-December
- November 7 - Chinese People's Republic proclaimed by Mao Tse Tung.
- November 8 - French police launch a large scale raid against Corsican bandits
- November 8 - Panama Canal closed for couple of weeks due to damage caused by a number of earthquakes
- December 10 - Niceto Alcalá-Zamora elected president of Spanish republic
- December 11 - The British Parliament enacts the Statute of Westminster, which establishes a status of legislative equality between the self-governing dominions of the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of Canada, the Irish Free State, Newfoundland, the Dominion of New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa.
- December 13 - Wakatsuki Reijiro resigned as Prime Minister of Japan.
- December 26 - Phi Iota Alpha, the oldest existing Latino fraternity is founded.
[edit] Undated
- Deuterium discovered by Harold Clayton Urey.
- The Castellemmarese War ends with the assassination of Joe "The Boss" Masseria, briefly leaving Salvatore Maranzano as capo di tutti i capi, "boss of all bosses" and undisputed ruler of the American mafia. Maranzano is himself assassinated less than 6 months later, leading to the establishment of the Five Families
- Ust-Abakanskoye becomes Abakan.
- National Committee for Modification of the Volstead Act formed to work for repeal of prohibition in United States.
- Serta, the mattress manufacturer, is founded.
- The Persistence of Memory is put on display for the first time in Paris at the Galerie Pierre Colle.
[edit] Births
| Gregorian calendar | 1931 MCMXXXI |
| Ab urbe condita | 2684 |
| Armenian calendar | 1380 ԹՎ ՌՅՁ |
| Chinese calendar | 4567/4627-11-13 (庚午年十一月十三日) — to —
4568/4628-11-23(辛未年十一月廿三日) |
| Ethiopian calendar | 1923 – 1924 |
| Hebrew calendar | 5691 – 5692 |
| Hindu calendars | |
| - Vikram Samvat | 1986 – 1987 |
| - Shaka Samvat | 1853 – 1854 |
| - Kali Yuga | 5032 – 5033 |
| Iranian calendar | 1309 – 1310 |
| Islamic calendar | 1350 – 1351 |
| Japanese calendar | Shōwa 6 (昭和6年) |
| - Imperial Year | Kōki 2591 (皇紀2591年) |
| - Jōmon Era | 11931 |
| Thai solar calendar | 2474 |
[edit] January-February
- January 5 - Alvin Ailey, American choreographer (d. 1989)
- January 5 - Alfred Brendel, Austrian pianist
- January 5 - Robert Duvall, American actor and director
- January 6 - E. L. Doctorow, American author
- January 8 - Bill Graham, German concert promoter (d. 1991)
- January 10 - Peter Barnes, English playwright and screenwriter (d. 2004)
- January 12 - Roland Alphonso, Jamaican musician (d. 1998)
- January 13 - Charles Nelson Reilly, American actor
- January 14 - Caterina Valente, French singer and actress
- January 16 - Johannes Rau, President of Germany (d. 2006)
- January 17 - James Earl Jones, American actor
- January 19 - Robert MacNeil, Canadian journalist
- January 20 - David Lee, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- January 22 - Sam Cooke, American singer (d. 1964)
- January 27 - Mordecai Richler, Canadian author (d. 2001)
- January 30 - Allan W. Eckert, American historian, naturalist, and author
- January 31 - Ernie Banks, baseball player
- February 1 - Boris Yeltsin, President of Russia
- February 2 - Dries van Agt, Dutch politician
- February 6 - Rip Torn, American actor and director
- February 8 - James Dean, American actor (d. 1955)
- February 10 - Thomas Bernhard, Dutch author (d. 1989)
- February 11 - Larry Merchant, American author and boxing commentator
- February 13 - Geoff Edwards, American actor and game show host
- February 16 - Ken Takakura, Japanese actor
- February 18 - Johnny Hart, American cartoonist
- February 18 - Toni Morrison, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- February 18 - Bob St. Clair, American football player
- February 24 - Brian Close, British cricket player
- February 26 - Ally McLeod, Scottish football manager
- February 28 - Dean Smith, American basketball coach
[edit] March-April
- March 2 - Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the Soviet Union, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- March 2 - Tom Wolfe, American author
- March 11 - Rupert Murdoch, Australian-born publisher
- March 22 - Burton Richter, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- March 22 - William Shatner, Canadian actor
- March 26 - Leonard Nimoy, American actor and director
- March 29 - Aleksei Gubarev, cosmonaut
- April 1 - Rolf Hochhuth, German writer
- April 9 - Larry Gluck, American painter
- April 11 - Johnny Sheffield, American actor
- April 27 - Igor Oistrakh, Ukrainian violinist
- April 29 - Frank Auerbach, German-born painter
- April 29 - Lonnie Donegan, Scottish musician (d. 2002)
[edit] May-June
- May 6 - Willie Mays, baseball player
- May 7 - Teresa Brewer, American singer
- May 13 - Jim Jones, American cult leader (d. 1978)
- May 13 - Jiri Petr, Czech university president
- May 14 - Alvin Lucier, American composer
- May 15 - Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse
- May 15 - Ken Venturi, American golfer
- May 16 - Natwar Singh, Indian politician
- May 18 - Robert Morse, American actor
- May 19 - Eric Tappy, Swiss tenor
- May 20 - Ken Boyer, baseball player (d. 1982)
- May 25 - Georgi Grechko, cosmonaut
- May 31 - John Robert Schrieffer, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- May 31 - Shirley Verrett, American mezzo-soprano
- June 3 - Lindy Remigino, American athlete
- June 7 - Malcolm Morley, English-born painter
- June 9 - Joe Santos, American actor
- June 14 - Ross Higgins, Australian actor
- June 20 - Martin Landau, American actor
- June 27 - Martinus J. G. Veltman, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
[edit] July-August
- July 1 - Leslie Caron, French actress
- July 4 - Stephen Boyd, Irish actor (d. 1977)
- July 10 - Alice Munro, Canadian writer
- July 23 - Te Atairangi Kaahu, Māori Queen (d. 2006)
- July 26 - Fred Foster, American songwriter and record producer
- August 12 - William Goldman, American author
- August 15 - Joe Feeney, American singer
- August 18 - Bramwell Tillsley, General of The Salvation Army
- August 19 - Willie Shoemaker, American jockey (d. 2003)
- August 23 - Hamilton O. Smith, American microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- August 25 - Regis Philbin, American television personality
- August 28 - John Shirley-Quirk, English bass-baritone
- August 31 - Jean Béliveau, Canadian hockey player
[edit] September-October
- September 12 - George Jones, American singer and songwriter
- September 17 - Anne Bancroft, American actress (d. 2005)
- September 21 - Larry Hagman, American actor
- September 22 - Fay Weldon, British author
- September 22 - George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, British politician (d. 2003)
- September 23 - Gerald Stairs Merrithew, Canadian educator and statesman (d. 2004)
- September 29 - James Watson Cronin, American nuclear physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- September 29 - Anita Ekberg, Swedish actress
- September 30 - Angie Dickinson, American actress
- September 30 - Wesley L. Fox, U.S. Marine Corps officer
- October 6 - Riccardo Giacconi, Italian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- October 7 - Cotton Fitzsimmons, American basketball coach (d. 2004)
- October 7 - Desmond Tutu, South African Anglican archbishop and activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- October 13 - Eddie Mathews, baseball player (d. 2001)
- October 15 - Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, President of India
- October 16 - James Chace, American historian (d. 2004)
- October 17 - Ernst Hinterberger, Austrian writer
- October 19 - John le Carré, English novelist
- October 20 - Mickey Mantle, baseball player (d. 1995)
- October 23 - Jim Bunning, baseball player and U.S. Senator
- October 23 - Diana Dors, English actress (d. 1984)
- October 25 - Jimmy McIlroy, Irish footballer and football manager
- October 31 - Dan Rather, American television news reporter
[edit] November-December
- November 5 - Ike Turner, American singer and songwriter
- November 15 - Mwai Kibaki, third President of Kenya
- November 17 - Yaruch Bann, French poet
- November 21 - Malcolm Williamson, Australian composer (d. 2003)
- November 21 - Revaz Dogonadze, Georgian physicist (d. 1985)
- November 23 - Dervla Murphy, Irish author
- November 26 - Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Argentine activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
- November 28 - Hope Lange, American actress (d. 2003)
- December 23 - Ronnie Schell, American actor
- December 24 - Mauricio Kagel, Argentine composer
- December 30 - Skeeter Davis, American singer (d. 2004)
- December 31 - Bob Shaw, Irish writer (d. 1996)
[edit] Month/day unknown
- Clarence "Joe" Teehan, noted Brooklyn Dodgers historian, is born
[edit] Deaths
[edit] January - March
- January 11 - James Milton Carroll, Baptist pastor, historian, and author (b. 1852)
- January 14 - Hardy Richardson, baseball player (b. 1855)
- January 22 - Alma Rubens, American actress (b. 1897)
- January 23 - Anna Pavlova, Russian ballerina (b. 1881)
- February 11 - Charles Algernon Parsons, British inventor (b. 1854)
- February 16 - Wilhelm von Gloeden, German photographer (b. 1856)
- February 26 - Otto Wallach, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1847)
- March 5 - Arthur Tooth, Anglican clergyman (b. 1839)
- March 7 - Akseli Gallén-Kallela, Finnish painter (b. 1865)
- March 11 - F.W. Murnau, German director (b. 1888)
- March 20 - Hermann Müller, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1876)
- March 21 - Bhagat Singh, Indian revolutionary (b. 1908)
- March 31 - Knute Rockne, American football coach (b. 1888)
[edit] April - June
- April 8 - Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1864)
- April 10 - Khalil Gibran Lebanese poet and painter (b. 1883)
- April 30 - Sammy Woods, English cricketer (b. 1867)
- May 9 - Albert Abraham Michelson, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
- May 14 - David Belasco, American writer (b. 1853)
[edit] July - September
- July 4 - Buddie Petit, American jazz musician
- July 12 - Nathan Söderblom, Swedish archbishop, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1866)
- August 6 - Bix Beiderbecke, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1903)
- August 26 - Hamaguchi Osachi, 27th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1870)
- August 27 - Frank Harris, Irish author and editor (b. 1856)
- August 27 - Francis Marion Smith, American businessman (b. 1846)
- September 5 - John Thomson, Scottish footballer (b. 1909)
[edit] October - December
- October 13 - Ernst Didring, Swedish writer (b. 1868)
- October 18 - Thomas Edison, American inventor (b. 1847)
- November 11 - Shibusawa Eiichi, Japanese industrialist (b. 1840)
- December 2 - Vincent d'Indy, French composer (b. 1851)
- December 5 - Vachel Lindsay, American poet (b. 1879)
[edit] Undated
- Joseph Tabrar, British songwriter (b. 1857)
- Dame Nellie Melba, Soprano Singer (b. 1861)
[edit] Nobel prizes
- Physics - not awarded
- Chemistry - Carl Bosch, Friedrich Bergius
- Physiology or Medicine - Otto Heinrich Warburg
- Literature - Erik Axel Karlfeldt
- Peace - Jane Addams, Nicholas Murray Butler
[edit] Ship events
- List of ship launches in 1931
- List of ship commissionings in 1931
- List of ship decommissionings in 1931
- List of shipwrecks in 1931
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