:1931

{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2019}}

{{About year|1931}}

{{Events by month|1931}}

{{Year nav|1931}}

{{C20 year in topic}}

{{Year article header|1931}}

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Events

=January=

{{Main|January 1931}}

=February=

{{Main|February 1931}}

File:Delhi India Government.jpg: New Delhi becomes India's capital]]

File:Ford Trimotor.jpg: Ford Trimotor hijacked]]

  • February 4 – Soviet leader Joseph Stalin gives a speech calling for rapid industrialization, arguing that only strong industrialized countries will win wars, while "weak" nations are "beaten". Stalin states: "We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they will crush us." The first five-year plan in the Soviet Union is intensified, for the industrialization and collectivization of agriculture.
  • February 10 – Official inauguration ceremonies for New Delhi as the capital of India begin.{{cite news|title=New Delhi: The Inaugural Ceremony|newspaper=The Times|location=London|date=1931-02-11|issue=45744|page=12}}
  • February 16Pehr Evind Svinhufvud is elected president of Finland.
  • February 21Peruvian revolutionaries hijack a Ford Trimotor aeroplane, and demand that the pilot drop propaganda leaflets over Lima.

=March=

{{Main|March 1931}}

=April=

{{Main|April 1931}}

=May=

{{Main|May 1931}}

File:Manhattan at Dusk by slonecker.jpg: Empire State Building is completed.]]

=June=

{{Main|June 1931}}

  • June–November – 1931 China flood: the Yangtze and Huai Rivers flood in a populous region, leaving an estimated 422,000 dead (150,000 drowned) with many more dying of consequential starvation and disease in the aftermath.{{cite book|title=The Nature of Disaster in China The 1931 Yangzi River Flood|first=Chris|last=Courtney|year=2018|publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/9781108278362|isbn=9781108278362|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/nature-of-disaster-in-china/1483BBD53BA764B54EE882EF699B1299}}
  • June 5
  • German Chancellor Heinrich Brüning visits London, where he warns 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.
  • Anti-Chinese rioting occurs in Pyongyang. Approximately 127 Chinese people are killed, 393 wounded, and a considerable number of properties are destroyed by Korean residents.{{cite book|last1=Em|first1=Henry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DxAd2Aw_jP0C|title=The Great Enterprise: Sovereignty and Historiography in Modern Korea, Part 2|date=2013|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0822353720|location=Durham|page=125|access-date=21 August 2017}}
  • June 14Saint-Philibert disaster: The overloaded pleasure craft Saint-Philibert, carrying trippers home to Nantes from the 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, U.S. President Herbert Hoover issues the Hoover Moratorium.
  • The Geneva Convention (1929) relative to the treatment of prisoners of war enters into force.
  • June 23July 1Wiley Post and Harold Gatty accomplish the first round-the-world flight in a single-engine plane, flying eastabout from Roosevelt Field, New York, in 8 days, 15 hours, 51 minutes.{{cite web|url=http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Explorers_Record_Setters_and_Daredevils/Wiley_Post/EX27.htm|publisher=centennialofflight.gov|title=Wiley Post|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121008043851/http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Explorers_Record_Setters_and_Daredevils/Wiley_Post/EX27.htm |archive-date=October 8, 2012}}

=July=

{{Main|July 1931}}

=August=

{{Main|August 1931}}

=September=

{{Main|September 1931}}

File:Jĭuyībā Lìshĭ Bówùguăn九・一八歴史博物館106997.JPG: The Mukden Incident: Incident Museum in Shenyang|230x230px]]

  • September 7 – The Second Round Table Conference on the constitutional future of India opens in London; Mahatma Gandhi represents the Indian National Congress.
  • September 10 – The worst hurricane in British Honduras history kills an estimated 1,500.
  • September 18 – The Japanese military stages the Mukden Incident, an explosion blamed on Chinese dissidents and used as a pretext for the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.{{cite book|author=Sara Rector Smith|title=The Manchurian Crisis, 1931-1932: A Tragedy in International Relations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-dAmAQAAMAAJ|year=1970|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=978-0-8371-3344-7|page=22}}
  • September 19 – The United Kingdom abandons the gold standard.{{cite book|author=Kanti Singh|title=The Great Depression and Agrarian Economy: A Study of an Underdeveloped Region of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xTFffW2iygwC&pg=PA63|date=1 January 1987|publisher=Mittal Publications|pages=63}}
  • September 20 – With a gun literally pointed to his head, the Chinese commander of Kirin province announces the annexation of that territory to Japan.

=October=

{{Main|October 1931}}

=November=

{{Main|November 1931}}

  • November 7
  • The Chinese Soviet Republic is proclaimed by Mao Zedong.
  • Red China News Agency (a predecessor of the Xinhua News Agency) is officially founded, and news wire service start in Ruijin, Jiangxi Province, China.{{cite journal |last1=Jing |first1=Xu |last2=Dengfeng |first2=Wang |title=Dual Identity and Multiple Tasks: Contemporary Chinese Party Media's Involvement in Political Communication |journal=LCM Journal |date=2018 |volume=5 |issue=2}}
  • November 8
  • French police launch a large-scale raid against Corsican bandits.
  • The Panama Canal is closed for a couple of weeks, due to damage caused by earthquakes.
  • November 26 – Heavy hydrogen, later named deuterium, is discovered by American chemist Harold Urey.{{cite book|author=Briton Hadden|title=Time|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QAcfAQAAMAAJ|year=1935|publisher=Time Incorporated|page=54}}

=December=

{{Main|December 1931}}

Births

{{BDToC|births}}

=January=

File:Robert Duvall 2 by David Shankbone.jpg]]

File:Caterina Valente 1966.jpg]]

File:James Earl Jones (8516667383).jpg]]

File:Sam_Cooke_billboard.jpg]]

  • January 1
  • Mona Hammond, Jamaican-born British actress (d. 2022){{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/jul/05/mona-hammond-obituary|title=Mona Hammond obituary|date=July 5, 2022|website=the Guardian}}
  • Mohammad Ali Samatar, 5th Prime Minister of Somalia (d. 2016)
  • January 2Toshiki Kaifu, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 2022){{cite book|title=Japan Report|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zsUwAQAAIAAJ&pg=PP71|year=1989|publisher=Japan Information Center, Consulate General of Japan|pages=71}}
  • January 4
  • Guido Messina, Italian road and track cyclist (d. 2020)
  • William Deane, 22nd Governor-General of Australia{{cite book|author=Roger East|title=Whitaker's Almanack World Heads of State, 1998|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5mCFigy0N6MC|year=1998|publisher=Stationery Office|isbn=978-0-11-702204-1|page=12}}
  • Cleopa Msuya, 3rd Prime Minister of Tanzania (d. 2025){{cite book|author=Raph Uwechue|title=Africa Who's who|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9EAOAQAAMAAJ|year=1991|publisher=Africa Journal Limited|isbn=978-0-903274-17-3|page=1177}}
  • January 5
  • Alvin Ailey, American choreographer (d. 1989){{cite book | title = Chase's Calendar of Events 2019 : the ultimate go -to guide for special days, weeks and months | publisher = Bernan Press | year = 2018 | isbn = 9781641432641 | page=73}}
  • Alfred Brendel, Austrian pianist{{cite book|title=Current Biography Yearbook|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UJIYAAAAIAAJ|year=1978|publisher=H. W. Wilson Company|page=80}}
  • Robert Duvall, American actor and director{{cite magazine|last=Jerome|first=Jim|title=Dance Fever|date=April 14, 2003|magazine=People|volume=59|issue=14|url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20139782,00.html|access-date=June 16, 2015|archive-date=March 4, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304053945/http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20139782,00.html|url-status=dead}}
  • Dave Peterson, American ice hockey coach (d. 1997){{cite news|title=A no-frills coach for Team USA|last=Verdi|first=Bob|author-link=Bob Verdi|date=January 5, 1988|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|location=Chicago, Illinois|page=D1|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/119549206/peterson-1988/}}; {{cite news|title=Verdi (Continued from Page 1)|last=Verdi|first=Bob|author-link=Bob Verdi|date=January 5, 1988|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|location=Chicago, Illinois|page=D5|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/119549337/peterson-1988/}}
  • January 6E. L. Doctorow, American author (d. 2015){{cite book|author1=Joel Shatzky|author2=Michael Taub|author3=Emmanuel Sampath Nelson|title=Contemporary Jewish-American Novelists: A Bio-critical Sourcebook|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X3HN2tYhR0cC&pg=PA54|year=1997|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-29462-4|pages=54}}
  • January 8Bill Graham, German concert promoter (d. 1991)
  • January 10Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, Malaysian politician, Muslim cleric (d. 2015)
  • January 12Roland Alphonso, Jamaican musician (d. 1998)
  • January 14Caterina Valente, French singer and actress (d. 2024){{cite book | last = Jancik | first = Wayne | title = The Billboard book of one-hit wonders | publisher = Billboard Books | location = New York | year = 1998 | isbn = 9780823076222 | page=6}}
  • January 16
  • Shuhrat Abbosov, Uzbek actor, film director, screenwriter, and film producer (d. 2018)
  • Johannes Rau, President of Germany (d. 2006)
  • January 17James Earl Jones, African-American actor (d. 2024)
  • January 20David Lee, American physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics{{cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1996/lee/facts|title=David Lee|website=Nobel Prize|access-date=14 April 2022}}
  • January 22Sam Cooke, African-American singer (d. 1964){{cite book|author1=Bobby Womack|author2=Robert Ashton|title=Midnight Mover: My Autobiography: the True Story of the Greatest Soul Singer in the World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=voA3AQAAIAAJ|year=2006|publisher=John Blake|isbn=978-1-84454-148-5|page=269}}
  • January 24Lars Hörmander, Swedish mathematician (d. 2012)
  • January 25Dean Jones, American actor (d. 2015){{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/03/movies/dean-jones-star-of-disneys-the-love-bug-dies-at-84.html?_r=0|title=Dean Jones, Affable Star in 'Love Bug' and a Disney Fixture, Dies at 84|first=Mike|last=Flaherty|newspaper=The New York Times|date=September 2, 2015|page=B19}}
  • January 27Mordecai Richler, Canadian author (d. 2001){{cite book|author=Reinhold Kramer|title=Mordecai Richler: Leaving St Urbain|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pEZAhyjZPQkC&pg=PA19|date=20 March 2008|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP|isbn=978-0-7735-7477-9|pages=19}}
  • January 28Lucia Bosè, Italian actress (d. 2020)
  • January 29Ferenc Mádl, President of Hungary (d. 2011)

=February=

File:Борис Николаевич Ельцин-1.jpg]]

File:Dries_van_Agt,_2011_(cropped).jpg]]

File:Isabel peron banda presidencial y bastón.png]]

File:James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause.jpg]]

=March=

File:RIAN archive 850809 General Secretary of the CPSU CC M. Gorbachev (close-up).jpg]]

File:Chun Doo-hwan 1983 (cropped).JPEG]]

File:León Febres Cordero.jpg]]

File:Rupert Murdoch - Flickr - Eva Rinaldi Celebrity and Live Music Photographer.jpg]]

File: William Shatner Photo Op GalaxyCon Richmond 2020.jpg]]

File:Leonard Nimoy by Gage Skidmore.jpg]]

=April=

=May=

File:Willie Mays cropped.jpg]]

File:Faten Hamama 1962.jpg]]

File:Carroll Baker headshot for Station Six-Sahara 1962.png]]

=June=

File:Raul-castro-2015 (cropped).jpg]]

File:João Gilberto.jpg]]

File:Marla Gibbs.jpg]]

File:Fhc-color.jpg]]

File:Olympia Dukakis 2019.jpg]]

  • June 2Viktor Tsaryov, Russian footballer (d. 2017)
  • June 3
  • Raúl Castro, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba{{cite book|author=Rafael Fermoselle|title=Cuban Leadership After Castro: Biographies of Cuba's Top Commanders|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9UsYAAAAYAAJ|year=1992|publisher=North-South Center, University of Miami, Research Institute for Cuban Studies|isbn=978-0-935501-35-3|page=79}}
  • Lindy Remigino, American Olympic athlete (d. 2018){{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/12/obituaries/lindy-remigino-olympic-champion-runner-is-dead-at-87.html|title=Lindy Remigino, Olympic Champion Runner, Is Dead at 87|newspaper=The New York Times|date=July 12, 2018|access-date=July 14, 2020}}
  • June 4D. M. Jayaratne, Sri Lankan politician (d. 2019){{cite web|url=http://www.parliament.lk/en/members-of-parliament/directory-of-members/viewMember/92 |publisher=Parliament of Sri Lanka |title=MP profile}}
  • June 8Dana Wynter, German-born American actress (d. 2011)
  • June 10João Gilberto, Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist, pioneer of bossa nova (d. 2019)
  • June 14
  • Marla Gibbs, African-American actress, comedian and singer
  • Junior Walker, American saxophonist, singer (d. 1995)
  • June 16Ivo Petrić, Slovenian composer (d. 2018)
  • June 17John Baldessari, American conceptual artist (d. 2020)
  • June 18Fernando Henrique Cardoso, 34th President of Brazil
  • June 20
  • Olympia Dukakis, American actress (d. 2021)
  • Arne Nordheim, Norwegian composer (d. 2010)
  • June 22Ian Browne, Australian track cyclist (d. 2023)
  • June 23Ola Ullsten, Swedish politician and diplomat (d. 2018)
  • June 24
  • Billy Casper, American golfer (d. 2015){{cite web |title=Billy Casper: Golfer who won prolifically but who became unfairly |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/billy-casper-golfer-who-won-prolifically-who-became-unfairly-overshadowed-big-three-his-generation-a173166.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/billy-casper-golfer-who-won-prolifically-who-became-unfairly-overshadowed-big-three-his-generation-a173166.html |archive-date=May 1, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |website=The Independent |access-date=26 July 2021 |language=en |date=11 February 2015}}{{cbignore}}
  • Gaston Flosse, French Polynesian politician
  • June 25V. P. Singh, Prime Minister of India (d. 2008)
  • June 26Colin Wilson, British novelist and philosopher (d. 2013){{cite news | title=Colin Wilson: Author (Obituary) | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/colin-wilson-author-8991678.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220501/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/colin-wilson-author-8991678.html |archive-date=May 1, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live | newspaper=The Independent | author-link=Marcus Williamson | last=Williamson | first=Marcus | date=8 December 2013 | access-date=17 January 2014 }}{{cbignore}}
  • June 27
  • Graziella Galvani, Italian stage, television and film actress (d. 2022)
  • Martinus J. G. Veltman, Dutch physicist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (d. 2021)
  • June 28
  • Hans Alfredson, Swedish actor, film director, writer and comedian (d. 2017){{cite news |url=http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesbladet/a/d30wz/hans-alfredson-ar-dod |newspaper=Aftonbladet |title=Hans Alfredson är död |first=Torbjörn |last=Ek |date=10 September 2017 |access-date=10 September 2017 |language=sv}}
  • Jenny Glusker, British biochemist and crystallographer
  • June 29Alina Obidniak, Polish actress and theatre director (d. 2021)
  • June 30Gerda Herrmann, German composer and poet (d. 2021)

=July=

File:Leslie Caron-publicity.JPG]]

File:Seyni Kountche 1983 cropped.jpg]]

=August=

File:Don King by Gage Skidmore.jpg]]

File:Life Ball 2013 - magenta carpet Barbara Eden 01 (cropped).jpg]]

=September=

File:Javier Solís in 1966 (cropped).jpg]]

File:Silvia Pinal in Maribel y la extraña familia (1960) (cropped).jpg]]

File:Larry Hagman 2011 (cropped).jpg]]

=October=

File:Desmond Tutu, 1986 Jan (cropped).jpg]]

File:A. P. J. Abdul Kalam in 2008.jpg]]

=November=

File:Mwai Kibaki, October 2003.jpg]]

File:Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, premio Nobel de la Paz en 1980, Visitó al Presidente de la Asamblea Nacional, Fernando Cordero. (5076794488).jpg]]

=December=

File:Rita Moreno face.jpg]]

Deaths

=January =

File:1901-princess-royal-louise.jpg]]

File:Anna Pavlova as the Dying Swan.jpg]]

File:Otto Wallach 1880s.jpg]]

File:Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau.jpg]]

File:Giuseppe „Joe“ Masseria.jpg]]

=February =

=March =

=April =

  • April 4André Michelin, French industrialist and originator of Michelin Guides (born 1854){{cite book|author1=((Chase's Editors))|author2=Contemporary Books|title=Chase's Calendar of Events 2003|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1NnUNBh6jIAC|date=September 2002|publisher=McGraw-Hill|isbn=978-0-07-139098-9|page=55}}
  • April 8Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1864)
  • April 9Nicholas Longworth, American politician, Speaker of the House (b. 1869)
  • April 10Khalil Gibran, Lebanese poet, painter (b. 1883){{cite book|author=Kahlil Gibran|title=Delphi Collected Poetical Works of Kahlil Gibran (Illustrated)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WAMmDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT12|date=1 June 2017|publisher=Delphi Classics|isbn=978-1-78656-214-2|pages=12}}
  • April 15
  • Joe Masseria, Italian-born American gangster (b. 1886){{cite book|first=David|last=Critchley|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uX29UdJJ3qYC|title=The Origin of Organized Crime in America: The New York City Mafia, 1891-1931|publisher=Routledge|location=New York City|date=2008|isbn=978-0-415-99030-1|pages=156, 155–57}}
  • Prince Thomas, Duke of Genoa (b. 1854)
  • Jacob Hägg, Swedish admiral and painter (b. 1839)
  • April 16Rachel Bluwstein, Israeli poet (b. 1890)[https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/rahel-bluwstein Rahel Bluwstein October 29, 1890–April 16, 1931]
  • April 20 – Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon, Scottish landowner, Titanic survivor (b. 1862){{cite book | last = Geller | first = Judith | title = Titanic: women and children first | publisher = Patrick Stephens | location = Sparkford | year = 1998 | isbn = 9781852605940 | page=22}}
  • April 26George Herbert Mead, American philosopher, sociologist and psychologist (b. 1863){{Cite web |title=George Herbert Mead {{!}} Symbolic Interactionism, Social Behaviorism, Pragmatism {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Herbert-Mead |access-date=2025-02-18 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}
  • April 27Albert, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein (b. 1869){{cite book|title=The New International Year Book|publisher=Dodd, Mead and Company|year=1932|page=533}}
  • April 30Sammy Woods, English cricketer (b. 1867)

=May =

File:Patriarch Damian of Jerusalem.jpg]]

File:Hamaguchi Osachi 1.jpg]]

=June =

=July =

=August=

=September=

File:Carl Pietzner - Erzherzog Leopold Salvator von %C3%96sterreich-Toskana, 1905 (LC-DIG-ggbain-06226).jpg]]

File:Omar_Mukhtar_13.jpg]]

=October=

File:Thomas Edison.jpg]]

=November=

=December=

Nobel Prizes

References

{{Reflist}}