1931

Published on Wednesday, November 12th 2008. Edited by Mop Tabnodbig, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Mexico.

Centuries: 19th century – 20th century – 21st century

Decades: 1900s  1910s  1920s  – 1930s –  1940s  1950s  1960s

Years: 1928 1929 1930 – 1931 – 1932 1933 1934

Year 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1931 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events of 1931

January-February

• 2 January – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics
• 4 January – Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa.
• 6 January – Thomas Edison submits his last patent application.
• 22 January – Sir Isaac Isaacs sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia.
• 25 January – Mohandas Gandhi released again.
• 27 January – Pierre Laval forms a government in France.

25 January: Gandhi freed.

• 3 February – Hawke’s Bay earthquake – much of the New Zealand city of Napier is destroyed in an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale.
• 10 February – New Delhi becomes the capital of India.
• 12 February – Radio Vaticana first broadcast.
• 14 February – The original film version of Dracula with Bela Lugosi is released.
• 16 February – Pehr Evind Svinhufvud elected president of Finland.
• 20 February – California gets the go-ahead by the U.S. Congress to build the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge.
• 21 February – Peruvian revolutionaries hijack a Ford Trimotor aeroplane and demand that the pilot drop propaganda leaflets over Lima.

10 February: New Delhi became capital.

21 February: Ford Trimotor hijacked.

March-April

• 1 March – USS Arizona placed back in full commission after a refit.
• 3 March – The Star-Spangled Banner is adopted as the United States National anthem.
• 4 March – British viceroy of India and Mohandas Gandhi negotiate.
• 7 March – New House of Representatives opened in Helsinki, Finland.
• 11 March – Ready for Labour and Defence of the USSR programme, abbreviated as GTO, is introduced in the Soviet Union.
• 17 March – Nevada legalizes gambling.
• 23 March – Revolt for Independent India leaders Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev are hanged by the British Government.
• 25 March – The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama and charged with rape.
• 27 March – British writer Arnold Bennett dies in Paris when he drinks local water to prove it is safe to drink – but is poisoned.

• 31 March – An earthquake destroys Managua, Nicaragua killing 2000 people.

• 6 April – Portuguese government declares martial law in Madeira and in the Azores because of an attempted military takeover in Funchal.

• 9 April – Execution of Argentinian anarchist Severino Digiovanni.
• 14 April – 2nd Spanish Republic proclaimed in Spain.
• 15 April – 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.
• 18 April – An incorporation of Cheverly, Maryland is made.
• 22 April – Austria, Britain, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Sweden and USA recognize the Spanish Republic.

May-June

1 May: Empire State Building is completed.

• 1 May – Construction of the Empire State Building is completed in New York City.
• 4 May – Kemal Atatürk re-elected president of Turkey.
• 13 May – Paul Doumer elected president of France.
• 12 June – Charlie Parker equals J.T. Hearne’s record for the earliest date to reach 100 wickets.
• 14 June – Overloaded pleasure craft Saint-Philibert, carrying trippers home to Nantes from Île de Noirmoutier, sinks at the mouth of the river Loire in France – over 450 drown
• 23 June – 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.

July-August

• July – John Haven Emerson of Cambridge, Massachusetts perfects the Emerson iron lung just in time for the growing polio epidemic
• 1 July – Official opening of Milan Central Station
• 16 July – 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.
• 24 August – Labour Government of Ramsay MacDonald resigns in Britain – replaced by National Government of people drawn from all parties also under MacDonald.
• 31 August – Yangtze River floods – 23 million made homeless

September-October

• 5 September – John Thomson, soccer player, dies in an accident during a Celtic – Rangers match
• 10 September – The worst hurricane in Belize history kills an estimated 1,500 people.
• 15 September – The Invergordon Mutiny: Strikes in Royal Navy due to decreased salaries
• 18 September – Mukden Incident. Later used by Japan to occupy Manchuria.
• 18 September – Geli Raubal is found shot dead in Hitler’s apartment
• October – The Caltech Department of Physics Faculty and graduate students meet with Albert Einstein as a guest.
• 18 October – Thomas Edison dies at his home in West Orange, New Jersey.

November-December

• 6 November – Indian spiritual leader Meher Baba arrives in America for the first time.
• 7 November – Chinese Soviet Republic proclaimed by Mao Zedong.

• 8 November

• French police launch a large scale raid against Corsican bandits.

• Panama Canal is closed for couple of weeks due to damage caused by a number of earthquakes.

• 10 December – Niceto Alcalá-Zamora elected president of Spanish republic.

• 11 December – 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.
• 12 December – Eta Chapter of Kappa Delta Phi was founded at The University of Maine at Machias
• 13 December – Wakatsuki Reijiro resigned as Prime Minister of Japan.
• 26 December – Phi Iota Alpha, the oldest existing Latino fraternity is founded.

Undated

• Deuterium discovered by Harold Clayton Urey.
• Ust-Abakanskoye becomes Abakan.
• National Committee for Modification of the Volstead Act formed to work for repeal of prohibition in United States.
• The Persistence of Memory is put on display for the first time in Paris at the Galerie Pierre Colle.

Ongoing

• Rise of the NAZI party.

Births

1931 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar 1931 MCMXXXI

Ab urbe condita 2684

Armenian calendar 1380 ԹՎ ՌՅՁ

Bahá'í calendar 87 – 88

Berber calendar 2881

Buddhist calendar 2475

Burmese calendar 1293

Byzantine calendar 7439 – 7440

Chinese calendar 庚午年十一月十三日 (4567/4627-11-13)

— to —

辛未年十一月廿三日 (4568/4628-11-23)

Coptic calendar 1647 – 1648

Ethiopian calendar 1923 – 1924

Hebrew calendar 5691 – 5692

Hindu calendars

 - Vikram Samvat 1986 – 1987

 - Shaka Samvat 1853 – 1854

 - Kali Yuga 5032 – 5033

Holocene calendar 11931

Iranian calendar 1309 – 1310

Islamic calendar 1349 – 1350

Japanese calendar Shōwa 6 (昭和6年)

Korean calendar 4264

Thai solar calendar 2474

January-February

• 5 January

• Alvin Ailey, American choreographer (d. 1989)

• Alfred Brendel, Austrian pianist

• Robert Duvall, American actor and director

• 6 January – E. L. Doctorow, American author

• 8 January – Bill Graham, German concert promoter (d. 1991)
• 10 January – Peter Barnes, English playwright and screenwriter (d. 2004)
• 12 January – Roland Alphonso, Jamaican musician (d. 1998)
• 13 January – Charles Nelson Reilly, American actor (d. 2007)
• 14 January – Caterina Valente, French singer and actress
• 16 January – Johannes Rau, President of Germany (d. 2006)
• 17 January – James Earl Jones, American actor
• 19 January – Robert MacNeil, Canadian journalist
• 20 January – David Lee, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 22 January – Sam Cooke, American singer (d. 1964)
• 26 January – Alfred Lynch, English actor (d. 2003)
• 27 January – Mordecai Richler, Canadian author (d. 2001)
• 30 January – Allan W. Eckert, American historian, naturalist, and author
• 31 January – Ernie Banks, baseball player
• 1 February – Boris Yeltsin, President of Russia (d. 2007)

• 2 February

• Dries van Agt, Dutch politician

• Les Dawson, British comedian (d. 1993)

• 6 February – Rip Torn, American actor and director

• 8 February – James Dean, American actor (d. 1955)
• 9 February – Thomas Bernhard, Dutch author (d. 1989)
• 11 February – Larry Merchant, American author and boxing commentator
• 13 February – Geoff Edwards, American actor and game show host

• 16 February

• George E. Sangmeister, American politician (d. 2007)

• Ken Takakura, Japanese actor

• 18 February – Johnny Hart, American cartoonist (d. 2007)

• 18 February – Toni Morrison, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate
• 18 February – Bob St. Clair, American football player
• 24 February – Brian Close, British cricketer
• 25 February – Eric Edgar Cooke, Western Australian Murderer (d. 1964)
• 26 February – Ally McLeod, Scottish football manager
• 28 February – Dean Smith, American basketball coach

March-April

• 2 March

• Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the Soviet Union, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

• 4 March

• Wally Bruner, American journalist and television host (d. 1997)

• William Henry Keeler, American Roman Catholic Archbishop and Cardinal

• Alice Rivlin, American economist

• 8 March – Neil Postman, American media theorist and cultural critic

• 11 March – Rupert Murdoch, Australian-born publisher

• 22 March

• Burton Richter, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

• William Shatner, Canadian actor

• 26 March – Leonard Nimoy, American actor and director

• 29 March

• Aleksei Gubarev, cosmonaut

• Norman Tebbit, British politician

• 1 April –

• Rolf Hochhuth, German writer

• Ita Ever, Estonian actress

• 6 April – Suchitra Sen (Roma Dasgupta), the legendary Bengali Actress, is born in Pabna (now in Bangladesh).

• 11 April – Johnny Sheffield, American actor
• 27 April – Igor Oistrakh, Ukrainian violinist

• 29 April

• Frank Auerbach, German-born painter

• Lonnie Donegan, Scottish musician (d. 2002)

May-June

• 6 May – Willie Mays, baseball player
• 7 May – Teresa Brewer, American pop and jazz singer (d. 2007)

• 13 May

• Jim Jones, American cult leader (d. 1978)

• Jiri Petr, Czech university president

• 14 May – Alvin Lucier, American composer

• 15 May

• Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Chairman of the National Centre on Addiction and Substance Abuse

• Ken Venturi, American golfer

• 16 May – Natwar Singh, Indian politician

• 18 May – Robert Morse, American actor
• 19 May – Eric Tappy, Swiss tenor
• 20 May – Ken Boyer, baseball player (d. 1982)
• 25 May – Georgi Grechko, cosmonaut
• 30 May – Fr. John O'Brien, Irish priest and musician (d. 2008)

• 31 May

• John Robert Schrieffer, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

• Shirley Verrett, American mezzo-soprano

• 3 June – Lindy Remigino, American athlete

• 7 June – Malcolm Morley, English-born painter
• 9 June – Jackie Mason, American comedian
• June 9 – Joe Santos, American actor
• 13 June – Moysés Baumstein, Brazilian Holographer and artist
• 14 June – Ross Higgins, Australian actor
• 27 June – Martinus J. G. Veltman, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

July-August

• 1 July – Leslie Caron, French actress'
• 4 July – Stephen Boyd, Irish actor (d. 1977)
• 5 July – Ismail Mahomed South African and Namibian Chief Justice (d. 2000)
• 6 July – Della Reese, American singer and actress
• 10 July – Alice Munro, Canadian writer
• 23 July – Te Atairangi Kaahu, Māori Queen (d. 2006)
• 26 July – Fred Foster, American songwriter and record producer
• 27 July – Jerry Van Dyke, American comedian and actor
• 7 August – Charles E. “Charlie” Rice, Legal Scholar and Author
• 12 August – William Goldman, American author
• 15 August – Joe Feeney, American singer (d. 2008)
• 15 August – Florian ZaBach, American musician and TV personality (d. 2006)
• 18 August – Bramwell Tillsley, General of The Salvation Army
• 19 August – Willie Shoemaker, American jockey (d. 2003)
• 23 August – Hamilton O. Smith, American microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• 25 August – Hal Fishman, Los Angeles based local news anchor. (d. 2007)
• 25 August – Regis Philbin, American television personality
• 28 August – John Shirley-Quirk, English bass-baritone
• 30 August – Jack Swigert, American astronaut (d. 1982)
• 31 August – Jean Béliveau, Canadian hockey player

September-October

• 8 September – Jack Rosenthal, English playwright (d. 2004)
• 12 September – George Jones, American singer and songwriter, king of country music
• 17 September – Anne Bancroft, American actress (d. 2005)
• 21 September – Larry Hagman, American actor

• 22 September

• Fay Weldon, British author

• George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, British politician (d. 2003)

• 23 September – Gerald Stairs Merrithew, Canadian educator and statesman (d. 2004)

• 29 September

• James Watson Cronin, American nuclear physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

• Anita Ekberg, Swedish actress

• 30 September

• Angie Dickinson, American actress

• Wesley L. Fox, U.S. Marine Corps officer

• 6 October – Riccardo Giacconi, Italian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

• 7 October

• Cotton Fitzsimmons, American basketball coach (d. 2004)

• Desmond Tutu, South African Anglican archbishop and activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

• 13 October – Eddie Mathews, baseball player (d. 2001)

• 15 October – Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, President of India

• 16 October

• James Chace, American historian (d. 2004)

• Charles Colson, American Watergate conspirator

• Rosa Rosal, Filipino actress and humanitarian

• 17 October – Ernst Hinterberger, Austrian writer

• 19 October – John le Carré, English novelist
• 20 October – Mickey Mantle, baseball player (d. 1995)

• 23 October

• Jim Bunning, baseball player and U.S. Senator

• Diana Dors, English actress (d. 1984)

• 25 October – Jimmy McIlroy, Irish footballer and football manager

• 31 October – Dan Rather, American television news reporter

November-December

• 3 November – Michael Fu Tieshan, Chinese bishop (d. 2007)
• 5 November – Ike Turner, American singer and songwriter (d. 2007)
• 15 November – Mwai Kibaki, third President of Kenya

• 21 November

• Malcolm Williamson, Australian composer (d. 2003)

• Revaz Dogonadze, Georgian physicist (d. 1985)

• 23 November – Dervla Murphy, Irish author

• 26 November – Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Argentine activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• 28 November – Hope Lange, American actress (d. 2003)

• 1 December

• Jimmy Lyons, American musician (d. 1986)

• Jim Nesbitt, singer

• 2 December

• Edwin Meese, American attorney general

• Nigel Calder, British science writer

• 11 December – Rita Moreno, Academy award-winning Puerto Rican actress

• 12 December – Lionel Blair, British actor, choreographer, tap dancer, headmaster and TV presenter
• 23 December – Ronnie Schell, American actor
• 24 December – Mauricio Kagel, Argentine composer
• 30 December – Skeeter Davis, American singer (d. 2004)
• 31 December – Bob Shaw, Irish writer (d. 1996)

Deaths

January – June

• 11 January – James Milton Carroll, Baptist pastor, historian, and author (b. 1852)
• 14 January – Hardy Richardson, baseball player (b. 1855)
• 22 January – Alma Rubens, American actress (b. 1897)
• 23 January – Anna Pavlova, Russian ballerina (b. 1881)
• 11 February – Charles Algernon Parsons, British inventor (b. 1854)
• 16 February – Wilhelm von Gloeden, German photographer (b. 1856)
• 23 February – Dame Nellie Melba, Australian soprano (b. 1861)
• 26 February – Otto Wallach, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1847)
• 5 March – Arthur Tooth, Anglican clergyman (b. 1839)
• 7 March – Akseli Gallén-Kallela, Finnish painter (b. 1865)
• 11 March – F.W. Murnau, German director (b. 1888)
• 20 March – Hermann Müller, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1876)
• 21 March – Bhagat Singh, Indian revolutionary (b. 1908)
• 27 March – Arnold Bennett, novelist (b. 1867)
• 31 March – Knute Rockne, American football coach (b. 1888)
• 8 April – Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1864)
• 10 April – Khalil Gibran, Lebanese poet and painter (b. 1883)
• 30 April – Sammy Woods, English cricketer (b. 1867)
• 9 May – Albert Abraham Michelson, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
• 14 May – David Belasco, American writer (b. 1853)

July – December

• 4 July – Buddie Petit, American jazz musician
• 12 July – Nathan Söderblom, Swedish archbishop, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1866)
• 6 August – Bix Beiderbecke, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1903)
• 26 August – Hamaguchi Osachi, 27th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1870)

• 27 August

• Frank Harris, Irish author and editor (b. 1856)

• Francis Marion Smith, American businessman (b. 1846)

• 5 September – John Thomson, Scottish footballer (b. 1909)

• 13 October – Ernst Didring, Swedish writer (b. 1868)
• 18 October – Thomas Edison, American inventor (b. 1847)
• 11 November – Shibusawa Eiichi, Japanese industrialist (b. 1840)
• 2 December – Vincent d'Indy, French composer (b. 1851)
• 5 December – Vachel Lindsay, American poet (b. 1879)
• date unknown – Joseph Tabrar, British songwriter (b. 1857)

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

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

Table of Contents

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1931”