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

• 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.
• Deuterium discovered by Harold Clayton Urey[?].
• Construction of the Empire State Building is completed in New York City.

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 entrepreneut (+ 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
• 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 15 - Ken Venturi[?], golfer
• May 18 - Robert Morse[?], actor
• May 20 - Ken Boyer[?], baseball player (+ 1981)
• June 7 - Malcolm Morley, painter
• July 1 - Leslie Caron, French actress
• August 12 - William Goldman, author
• September 23 - Gerald Stairs Merrithew, educator, statesman
• November 21 - Malcolm Williamson, composer (+ 2003)
• December 24 - Mauricio Kagel, composer

Deaths:

• January 23 - Anna Pavlova, ballerina
• February 11 - Charles Algernon Parsons[?], British inventor of the steam turbine
• 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.
• Wilhelm von Gloeden, photographer.

Nobel Prizes:

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