1931

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

Decades: 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s - 1930s - 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s

Years: 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 - 1931 - 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936

See also:

Table of contents

1 Events:
2 Art, Culture & Fashion
3 Births:
4 Deaths:
5 Nobel Prizes:

Events:

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
February 10 - New Delhi becomes the capital of India
February 20 - California gets the go-ahead by the United States Congress to build the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
March 1 - Henry Pu Yi, former Emperor of China, is proclaimed King of the puppet state of Manchukuo by Japan.
March 17 - Nevada legalizes gambling
March 25 - The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama and charged with rape.
April 14 - 2nd Spanish Republic proclaimed in Spain
March 3 - "The Star-Spangled Banner" is adopted as the United States National anthem.
March 31 - An earthquake destroys Managua Nicaragua killing 2,000.
July 1 - Official opening of Milan Central Station
Deuterium discovered by Harold Clayton Urey.
Construction of the Empire State Building is completed in New York City.
The Castellemmarese War ends with the assasination of Joe "The Boss" Masseria, briefly leaving Salvatore Maranzano as capo di tutti capi, "boss of all bosses" and undisputed ruler of the American mafia. Maranzano is himself assasinated less than 6 months later, leading to the establishment of the Five Families

Art, Culture & Fashion

1931 in film
- Cimarron
- Frankenstein, starring Boris Karloff
1931 in literature
1931 in music
1931 in sports
1931 in television
- May 1 - The first wedding is broadcast on television, on New York's W2XCR.
- July 21 - CBS's New York station begins broadcasting the first regular seven days a week television schedule in the U. S.. The first broadcast included Mayor James J. Walker, Kate Smith, and George Gershwin.
- October 30 - NBC installs a television transmitter on top of the Empire State Building
- December 22 - NBC begins broadcasting from the Empire State Building transmitter
- Canada's first television station, VE9EC, begins broadcasting in Montreal

Births:

January 5 - Alvin Ailey, choreographer
January 5 - Alfred Brendel, pianist
January 5 - Robert Duvall, actor and director
January 6 - E.L. Doctorow, author
January 8 - Bill Graham, rock music entrepreneur (+ 1991)
January 10 - Viktor Liebermann, violinist (+ 1999)
January 14 - Caterina Valente, singer, actress
January 16 - Johannes Rau, President of Germany
January 17 - James Earl Jones, actor
January 19 - Tippi Hedren, actress
January 19 - Robert MacNeil, journalist
January 22 - Sam Cooke, singer (+ 1964)
January 27 - Mordecai Richler, author (+ 2001)
January 30 - Allan W. Eckert, historian, naturalist and author
January 31 - Ernie Banks, Baseball Hall of Famer
February 1 - Boris Yeltsin, Russian president 1991-1999
February 2 - Dries van Agt, Dutch politician
February 6 - Rip Torn, actor, director
February 8 - James Dean, actor (+ 1955)
February 10 - Thomas Bernhard, author (+ 1989)
February 11 - Larry Merchant, author/boxing commentator.
February 18 - Toni Morrison, writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature 1993
February 18 - Bob St. Clair, American football star
February 18 - Johnny Hart, cartoonist
March 2 - Mikhail Gorbachev
March 2 - Tom Wolfe, author
March 11 - Rupert Murdoch, publisher, entrepreneur
March 22 - William Shatner, (actor)
March 26 - Leonard Nimoy, actor, director
March 29 - Aleksei Gubarev, cosmonaut
April 1 - Rolf Hochhuth, writer
April 29 - Frank Auerbach, painter
April 29 - Lonnie Donegan, musician (+ 2002)
May 6 - Willie Mays, Baseball Hall of Famer
May 7 - Teresa Brewer, singer
May 13 - Jim Jones, cult leader (+ 1978)
May 14 - Alvin Lucier, composer
May 15 - Ken Venturi, golfer
May 18 - Robert Morse, actor
May 20 - Ken Boyer, baseball player (+ 1981)
May 25 - Georgi Grechko, cosmonaut
June 7 - Malcolm Morley, painter
July 1 - Leslie Caron, French actress
July 10 - Alice Munro, Canadian writer
July 26 - Fred Foster, founder of Monument Records
August 12 - William Goldman, author
August 31 - Jean B�liveau, Canadian ice hockey player
September 23 - Gerald Stairs Merrithew, educator, statesman
November 21 - Malcolm Williamson, composer (+ 2003)
November 23 - Dervla Murphy, traveler, author
December 24 - Mauricio Kagel, composer

Deaths:

January 23 - Anna Pavlova, ballerina
February 11 - Charles Algernon Parsons, British inventor of the steam turbine
February 16 - Wilhelm von Gloeden, photographer
March 11 - F.W. Murnau, director
March 31 - Knute Rockne, American football coach
April 10 - Khalil Gibran Lebanese poet and painter
May 14 - David Belasco, writer
August 6 - Bix Beiderbecke, jazz trumpeter
August 27 - Frank Harris, author and editor
October 13 - Ernst Didring, swedish writer
October 18 - Thomas Edison, inventor
December 2 - Vincent d'Indy, composer and teacher
Wilhelm von Gloeden, photographer
Joseph Tabrar, one of the most famous songwriters of British Music Hall.

Nobel Prizes:

Physics - not awarded
Chemistry - Carl Bosch, Friedrich Bergius
Medicine - Otto Heinrich Warburg
Literature - Erik Axel Karlfeldt
Peace - Jane Addams Nicholas Murray Butler