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 v • d • e

1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar).

Contents 1 Events 1.1 January 1.2 February 1.3 March 1.4 April 1.5 May 1.6 June 1.7 July-September 1.8 October-December 1.9 Unknown date 2 Births 2.1 January-February 2.2 March-April 2.3 May-June 2.4 July-August 2.5 September-October 2.6 November-December 2.7 Month/day unknown 3 Deaths 3.1 January - March 3.2 April - June 3.3 July - September 3.4 October - December 3.5 Month/day unknown 4 Nobel prizes 5 Ship events

Events

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.

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 14 - The original film version of Dracula with Bela Lugosi is released.
• 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.

March

• March 1 - USS Arizona 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 23 - Revolt for Independent India leaders Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev are hanged by the British Government.
• 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. penis

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

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.

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]

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 10 - The worst hurricane in Belize history kills an estimated 1,500 people.
• 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.
• September 18 - Geli Raubal is found shot dead in Hitler's apartment

October-December

• November 6 - Indian spiritual leader Meher Baba arrives in America for the first time.
• November 7 - Chinese Soviet 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.

Unknown date

• 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.
• 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.

Births

1931 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1931 MCMXXXI
Ab urbe condita	2684
Armenian calendar	1380 ԹՎ ՌՅՁ
Bahá'í calendar	87 – 88
Buddhist calendar	2475
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
Holocene calendar	11931
Iranian calendar	1309 – 1310
Islamic calendar	1349 – 1350
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 6 (昭和6年)
- Imperial Year	Kōki 2591 (皇紀2591年)
- Jōmon Era	11931
Julian calendar	1976
Korean calendar	4264
Thai solar calendar	2474
v • d • e

January-February

• January 5
  • Alvin Ailey, American choreographer (d. 1989)
  • Alfred Brendel, Austrian pianist
  • 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 26 - Alfred Lynch, English actor (d. 2003)
• 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
  • Les Dawson, British comedian (d. 1993)
• 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
  • Toni Morrison, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate
  • 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

March-April

• March 2
  • Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the Soviet Union, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
  • Tom Wolfe, American author
• March 4
  • Wally Bruner, American journalist and television host (d. 1997)
  • William Henry Keeler, American Roman Catholic Archbishop and Cardinal
  • Alice Rivlin, American economist
• March 11 - Rupert Murdoch, Australian-born publisher
• March 22
  • Burton Richter, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
  • William Shatner, Canadian actor
• March 26 - Leonard Nimoy, American actor and director
• March 29 - Aleksei Gubarev, cosmonaut

• April 1 - Rolf Hochhuth, German writer
• April 11 - Johnny Sheffield, American actor
• April 27 - Igor Oistrakh, Ukrainian violinist
• April 29
  • Frank Auerbach, German-born painter
  • Lonnie Donegan, Scottish musician (d. 2002)

May-June

• May 6 - Willie Mays, baseball player
• May 7 - Teresa Brewer, American singer
• May 13
  • Jim Jones, American cult leader (d. 1978)
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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 13 - Moysés Baumstein, Brazilian Holographer and artist
• June 14 - Ross Higgins, Australian actor
• June 20 - Martin Landau, American actor
• June 27 - Martinus J. G. Veltman, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate

July-August

• July 1 - Leslie Caron, French actress
• July 4 - Stephen Boyd, Irish actor (d. 1977)
• July 6 - Della Reese, American singer and actress
• 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

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
  • 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
  • Anita Ekberg, Swedish actress
• September 30
  • Angie Dickinson, American actress
  • 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)
  • 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
  • Diana Dors, English actress (d. 1984)
• October 25 - Jimmy McIlroy, Irish footballer and football manager
• October 31 - Dan Rather, American television news reporter

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)
  • 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 1 - Jimmy Lyons, American musician (d. 1986)
• December 2 - Edwin Meese, American attorney general
• December 11 - Rita Moreno, Academy award-winning Puerto Rican actress
• 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)

Month/day unknown

• Clarence "Joe" Teehan, noted Brooklyn Dodgers historian

Deaths

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 23 - Dame Nellie Melba, Australian soprano (b. 1861)
• 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)

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)

July - September

• July 4 - Buddie Petit, American jazz musician