1931
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'''1931''' '''(MCMXXXI)''' is a common year starting on Thursday.
Events
January-March
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 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 Congress of the United States|U.S. Congress to build the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
February 21 - Peruvian revolutionaries hijack a Ford Tri-motor aeroplane and demand that the pilot drop propaganda leaflets over Lima
March 1 - Henry Pu Yi, former Emperor of China, is proclaimed King of the puppet state of Manchukuo by Japan.
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 17 - Nevada legalizes gambling
March 25 - The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama and charged with rape.
March 27 - British writer Arnold Bennet dies in Paris when he drinks local water to prove it safe to drink - but is poisoning|poisoned
March 31 - An earthquake destroys Managua, Nicaragua killing 2,000.
April-August
April 1 - Earthquake destroys Managua, Nicaragua - over 2000 dead
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 - Second_Spanish_Republic|2nd Spanish Republic proclaimed in Spain
April 22 - Austria, United Kingdom|Britain, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Sweden and United States of America|USA recognize the Second Spanish Republic|Spanish Republic
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 12 - Charlie Parker (cricketer)|Charlie Parker equals Jack Hearne (John Thomas Hearne)|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. http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Explorers_Record_Setters_and_Daredevils/Wiley_Post/EX27.htm July 1 - Official opening of Milan Central Station
July 16 - Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia signs the first constitution of Ethiopia
1931 Huang He flood|Huang He floods kill between 850,000 and 4,000,000 people - the most deadly historic natural disaster.
August 24 - Labour Party (UK)|Labour Government of Ramsay MacDonald resigns in Britain - replaced by UK National Government|National Government of people drawn from all parties also under MacDonald.
August 31 - Yangtze River floods - 23 million made homeless
September-December
September 5 - John Thomson Are you Korean??? (footballer)|John Thomson, soccer player, dies in an accident during a Celtic F.C.|Celtic - Rangers F.C.|Rangers match
September 15 - The Invergordon Mutiny: Strike action|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
November 7 - Chinese People's Republic proclaimed by Mao Tse Tung.
November 8 - French gendarmes 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
Undated
Deuterium discovered by Harold Clayton Urey.
The Castellemmarese War ends with the assassination of Joe Masseria|Joe "The Boss" Masseria, briefly leaving Salvatore Maranzano as ''capo di tutti capi'', "boss of all bosses" and undisputed ruler of the United States|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.
Births
January
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 (promoter)|Bill Graham, German concert promoter (d. 1991)
January 10 - Peter Barnes, English playwright and screenwriter (d. 2004)
January 13 - Charles Nelson Reilly, American actor
January 14 - Caterina Valente, French singer and actress
January 16 - Johannes Rau, President of Germany
January 17 - James Earl Jones, American actor
January 19 - Tippi Hedren, American actress
January 19 - Robert MacNeil, Canadian journalist
January 20 - David Lee (physicist)|David Lee, American physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics|Nobe 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-April
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, author and boxing commentator
February 18 - Johnny Hart, American cartoonist
February 18 - Toni Morrison, American writer, Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize laureate
February 18 - Bob St. Clair, American football star
February 24 - Brian Close, British cricket player
February 26 - Ally McLeod, Scottish football manager
February 28 - Dean Smith, American basketball coach
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 in Physics|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 27 - Igor Oistrakh, Ukrainian violinist
April 29 - Frank Auerbach, German-born painter
April 29 - Lonnie Donegan, Scottish musician (d. 2002)
May-August
May 6 - Willie Mays, baseball player
May 7 - Teresa Brewer, American singer
May 13 - Jim Jones, American cult leader (d. 1978)
May 14 - Alvin Lucier, American composer
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 in Physics|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 20 - Martin Landau, American actor
June 27 - Martinus J. G. Veltman, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics|Nobel Prize laureate
July 1 - Leslie Caron, French actress
July 10 - Alice Munro, Canadian writer
July 26 - Fred Foster, American songwriter and record producer
August 12 - William Goldman, American author
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-December
September 17 - Anne Bancroft, American actress (d. 2005)
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 in Physics|Nobel Prize laureate
September 29 - Anita Ekberg, Swedish actress
September 30 - Wesley L. Fox, U.S. Marine Corps officer
October 6 - Riccardo Giacconi, Italian-born physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics|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 20 - Mickey Mantle, baseball player (d. 1995)
October 23 - Jim Bunning, baseball player and U.S. Senator
October 23 - Diana Dors, English actress
November 15 - Mwai Kibaki, Kenya's third president
November 21 - Malcolm Williamson, Australian composer (d. 2003)
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, Ameircan singer (d. 2004)
December 31 - Bob Shaw, British author (d. 1996)
Month/day unknown
Joseph A. Califano, Jr., American politician
Deaths
January 14 - Hardy Richardson, baseball player (b. 1855)
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 in Chemistry|Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1847)
March 7 - Akseli Gallén-Kallela, Finnish painter (b. 1865)
March 11 - F.W. Murnau, German director (b. 1888)
March 21 - Bhagat Singh, Indian revolutionary (b. 1908)
March 31 - Knute Rockne, American football coach (b. 1888)
April 8 - Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize in Literature|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 in Physics|Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
May 14 - David Belasco, American writer (b. 1853)
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 27 - Frank Harris, Irish author and editor (b. 1856)
August 27 - Francis Marion Smith, American borax magnate (b. 1846)
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)
Undated
Joseph Tabrar, British songwriter (b. 1857)
Nobel Prizes
Nobel Prize in Physics|Physics - not awarded
Nobel Prize in Chemistry|Chemistry - Carl Bosch, Friedrich Bergius
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine|Medicine - Otto Heinrich Warburg
Nobel Prize in literature|Literature - Erik Axel Karlfeldt
Nobel Peace Prize|Peace - Jane Addams, Nicholas Murray Butler
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