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1931
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1931

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

January 2 - South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics
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 3 - Hawke's Bay 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 12 - Radio Vaticana first broadcast.
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-April

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 is safe to drink - but is poisoned.
March 31 - An earthquake destroys Managua, Nicaragua killing 2000 people.

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-June

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 equals J.T. Hearne's record for the earliest date to reach 100 wickets.
June 14 - 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 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.

July-August

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-October

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. Later used by Japan to occupy Manchuria.
September 18 - 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.
October 18 - Thomas Edison dies at his home in West Orange, New Jersey.

November-December

November 6 - Indian spiritual leader Meher Baba arrives in America for the first time.
November 7 - Chinese Soviet Republic proclaimed by Mao Zedong.
November 8

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.

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 12 - Eta Chapter of Kappa Delta Phi was founded at The University of Maine at Machias
December 13 - Wakatsuki Reijiro resigned as Prime Minister of Japan.
December 26 - 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

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 (d. 2007)
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
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 (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 (d. 2007)
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 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

George E. Sangmeister, American politician (d. 2007)
Ken Takakura, Japanese actor

February 18 - Johnny Hart, American cartoonist (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 - Dean Smith, American basketball coach

March-April

March 2

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

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 8 - Neil Postman, American media theorist and cultural critic
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
Norman Tebbit, British politician

April 1 -

Rolf Hochhuth, German writer
Ita Ever, Estonian actress

April 6 - Suchitra Sen (Roma Dasgupta), the legendary Bengali Actress, is born in Pabna (now in Bangladesh).
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 pop and jazz singer (d. 2007)
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 30 - Fr. John O'Brien, Irish priest and musician (d. 2008)
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 - 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 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
July 10 - Nick Adams, American actor (d. 1968)
July 10 - Alice Munro, Canadian writer
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, Legal Scholar and Author
August 12 - William Goldman, American author
August 15 - Joe Feeney, American singer (d. 2008)
August 15 - Florian ZaBach, American musician and TV personality (d. 2006)
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 - Hal Fishman, Los Angeles based local news anchor. (d. 2007)
August 25 - Regis Philbin, American television personality
August 28 - John Shirley-Quirk, English bass-baritone
August 30 - Jack Swigert, American astronaut (d. 1982)
August 31 - Jean Béliveau, Canadian hockey player
August 31 - Kenny Burrell, American jazz musician

September-October

September 8 - Jack Rosenthal, English playwright (d. 2004)
September 12 - George Jones, American singer and songwriter, king of country music
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