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
March–April
May–June
- May 1 – Construction of
the Empire State
Building
is completed in New York City
.
- May 4 – Kemal Atatürk is re-elected president of
Turkey
- May 5 – İsmet İnönü forms new
government in Turkey. (7th
government)
- November 21 – Ali Fethi Okyar forms new government in
Turkey. (3rd government)
- May 11 The Creditanstalt, Austria's largest bank,
goes bankrupt, beginning the banking collapse in Central Europe
that causes a worldwide financial meltdown.
- May 13 – Paul Doumer is elected president of France
.
- June 5 – German Chancellor Dr. Heinrich Brüning visits London, where
he warns the British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald that the collapse of the
Austrian banking system, caused by the bankruptcy of the
Creditanstalt, has left the entire German banking system
on the verge of collapse.
- June 12 – Charlie Parker equals J.T. Hearne's record for the
earliest date to reach 100 wickets.
- June 14 – The
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.
- June 19 -In an attempt to stop the
banking crisis in Central Europe from causing a worldwide financial
meltdown, President Herbert Hoover
issues the Hoover Moratorium.
- 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. [6112]
July–August
September–October
November–December
Undated
Ongoing
Births
January–February
- January 5
- 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
(d. 2007)
- January 14 – Caterina Valente, French singer and
actress
- January 16 – Johannes Rau, President of Germany (d. 2006)
- January 17 – James Earl Jones, African-American actor
(Roots: The Next Generations)
- January 18 – Chun Doo-hwan, President of South Korea
- January 19
- Robert MacNeil, Canadian
journalist (MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour)
- Pat Hunt, retired New Zealand
politician from the National Party
- January 20 – David Lee, American physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate
- January 22 – Sam
Cooke, American singer (You Send Me) (d. 1964)
- January 26 – Alfred Lynch, English actor (d. 2003)
- January 27 – Mordecai Richler, Canadian author (d.
2001)
- January 29 – Ferenc Madl, President of Hungary
- January 30 – Allan W. Eckert, American historian, naturalist, and
author
- January 31 – Ernie Banks, American baseball player
- February 1 – Boris Yeltsin, President of Russia (d. 2007)
- February 2
- February 6
- February 8 – James Dean, American actor (Rebel Without A
Cause) (d. 1955)
- February 9 – 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
- February 18 – Johnny Hart, American cartoonist (B.C.)
(d. 2007)
- February 18 – Toni Morrison, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate
- February 18 – Bob St. Clair, American football player
- February 24 – Brian Close, British cricketer
- February 25 –
Eric Edgar Cooke, Western
Australian
Murderer (d. 1964)
- February 26 – Ally McLeod, Scottish football manager
- February 28
March–April
May–June
- May 6 – Willie
Mays, African-American baseball player
- May 7 – Teresa
Brewer, American pop and jazz singer (d. 2007)
- May 13
- May 14 – Alvin
Lucier, American composer
- May 15
- May 16 – Natwar
Singh, Indian politician
- May 18 – Robert
Morse, American actor
- May 19 – Eric
Tappy, Swiss tenor
- May 20 – Ken
Boyer, American baseball player (d. 1982)
- May 25 – Georgi
Grechko, Russian cosmonaut
- May 28 – Carroll
Baker, American actress
- May 30 – Fr. John
O'Brien, Irish priest and musician (d. 2008)
- May 31
- June 3 – Lindy
Remigino, American athlete
- June 3 – Raul
Castro, President of Cuba
- June 7 – Malcolm Morley, English-born painter
- June 9 – Jackie
Mason, American comedian
- June 9 – Joe
Santos, American actor
- June 10 – João Gilberto, Brazilian musician
- June 13 – Moysés Baumstein, Brazilian
holographer and artist
- June 14 – Ross
Higgins, Australian actor
- June 27 – Martinus J. G. Veltman, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
July–August
- July 1 – Leslie
Caron, French actress
- July 2 – Robert
Ito, Canadian actor (Quincy, M.E.)
- July 4 – Stephen
Boyd, Irish actor (d. 1977)
- July 5 – Ismail
Mahomed, South African and Namibian Chief Justice (d. 2000)
- July 6 – Della
Reese, American singer and actress (Touched By An
Angel)
- July 7 – David
Eddings, American novelist (d. 2009)
- July 10
- July 15 – Clive
Cussler, American author
- July 23 – Te Atairangi Kaahu, Māori Queen (d.
2006)
- July 26 – Fred
Foster, American songwriter and record producer
- July 27 – Jerry Van Dyke, American comedian and
actor
- August 7 – Charles E. "Charlie"
Rice, American legal scholar and author
- August 12 – William Goldman, American author
- August 15
- 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
- August 28 – John Shirley-Quirk, English
bass-baritone
- August 30
- August 31
September–October
- September 1
- September 8 – Jack Rosenthal, English playwright (d.
2004)
- September 12
- September 17 – Anne Bancroft, American actress (d. 2005)
- September 21 – Larry Hagman, American actor
(Dallas)
- September 22
- September 23 – Gerald Stairs Merrithew, Canadian
educator and statesman (d. 2004)
- September 29
- September 30
- October 6 – Riccardo Giacconi, Italian-born physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate
- October 7
- October 13 – Eddie Mathews, baseball player (d. 2001)
- October 15 – Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen
Abdul Kalam, President of India
- October 16
- October 17 – Ernst Hinterberger, Austrian writer
- October 19 – John le Carré, English novelist
- October 20 – Mickey Mantle, American baseball player (d.
1995) Morris
Cerullo, American Televangelist
- October 23
- October 25 – Jimmy McIlroy, Irish footballer and football
manager
- October 31 – Dan Rather, American television news reporter
(60 Minutes)
November–December
- November 3
- November 5 – Ike Turner, African-American singer and
songwriter (d. 2007)
- November 15 – Mwai Kibaki, third President of Kenya
- November 21
- November 23 – Dervla Murphy, Irish author
- November 26 – Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Argentine
activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace
Prize
- December 1
- December 2
- December 11 – Rita Moreno, Academy award–winning Puerto Rican
actress (West Side Story)
- December 12 – Lionel Blair, British actor, choreographer, tap
dancer, headmaster and TV presenter
- December 23 – Ronnie Schell, American actor
- December 24 – Mauricio Kagel, Argentine composer (d.
2008)
- December 30 – Skeeter Davis, American singer (The End of
the World) (d. 2004)
- December 31 – Bob Shaw, Irish writer (d. 1996)
Deaths
January–June
- January 3 – Joseph Joffre, French World War I general (b. 1852)
- January 4
- 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 18 – Louis Wolheim, American actor (b. 1880)
- 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 24 – Robert Edeson, American actor (b. 1868)
- March 25 – Ida
Wells,African-American lynching crusader.
- March 27 – Arnold Bennett, English novelist (b. 1867)
- March 28 – Ban
Johnson, American baseball executive (b. 1864)
- March 31 – Knute Rockne, American football coach (b.
1888)
- April 8 – Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1864)
- April 9 – Nicholas Longworth, American politician,
Speaker of the House (b. 1869)
- April 10 – Khalil Gibran, Lebanese poet and painter (b.
1883)
- April 20 – Cosmo Duff-Gordon,
British baronet and Titanic
survivor (b. 1862)
- April 26 – George Herbert Mead, American
philosopher (b. 1863)
- 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)
- June 2 – Joseph
Farnham, American screenwriter (b. 1884)
- June 4 – Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of
Mecca, Arab nationalist
July–December
- 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 15 – Nigar Shikhlinskaya, Azerbaijani
World War I nurse (b. ca. 1878)
- August 26 – Hamaguchi Osachi, 27th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1870)
- August 27
- September 5 – John Thomson, Scottish footballer
(b. 1909)
- September 16 –
Omar Mukhtar, the leader of Libyan
resistance
(b. 1862?)
- October 13 – Ernst Didring, Swedish writer (b. 1868)
- October 18 – Thomas Edison, American inventor (b. 1847)
- November 4 – Buddy Bolden, African-American musician (b.
1877)
- 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)
- December 18 – Jack Diamond, American gangster (b.
1897)
- December 23 – Tyrone Power, Sr., American actor (b.
1869)
- December 26 – Melvil Dewey, American librarian, inventor of
Dewey Decimal
Classification (b. 1851)
- date unknown – Joseph
Tabrar, British songwriter (b. 1857)
Nobel Prizes
Ship events
See also
Notes
External links
Table of Contents
.
: Much of the New Zealand
city of Napier is destroyed in an earthquake
measuring 7.9 on the Richter
scale.
becomes the capital of India
first
broadcasts.
.
gets the go-ahead by the U.S. Congress to build the San Francisco – Oakland Bay
Bridge
.
revolutionaries hijack a Ford Trimotor aeroplane and demand that the
pilot drop propaganda leaflet over Lima
.
is placed back in full commission after a
refit.
National
anthem.
, Finland
.
legalizes
gambling.
Government.
and charged with rape.
when he drinks local water to prove it is safe to
drink, but is poisoned.
, Nicaragua
, killing 2,000 people.
and in the Azores because of
an attempted military takeover in Funchal
.
.
is incorporated.
, Britain
, Germany
, Italy
, Sweden
and the
USA
recognize the Spanish Republic.
perfects the Emerson iron
lung just in time for the growing polio
epidemic.
officially opens in Italy
.
.
floods, leaving 23 million homeless.
history
kills an estimated 1,500 people.
stages the
Mukden Incident as a pretext to
occupy Manchuria.
Department of Physics Faculty and graduate students
meet with Albert Einstein as a
guest.
.
is dedicated; it opens to traffic the following
day.
bandits.
is closed for a couple of weeks due to damage
caused by a number of earthquakes.
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.
becomes Abakan
.
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