1931

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1900s  1910s  1920s  – 1930s –  1940s  1950s  1960s
Years:	1928 1929 1930 – 1931 – 1932 1933 1934

1931 by topic
Arts, history, and science
Archaeology Architecture Art Literature Poetry Music Science
Countries
Lists of leaders
State leaders Colonial governors Religious leaders
Birth and death categories
Births Deaths
Establishments and disestablishments categories
Establishments Disestablishments
Works category
Works

1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday in the Gregorian calendar.

Events

Ferdinand Porsche holding a steering wheel

• January 27 – Pierre Laval forms a government in France
• February 16 – Pehr Evind Svinhufvud is elected president of Finland
• March 31 – An earthquake destroys Managua, Nicaragua, killing 2,000 people
• April 25 – The automobile manufacturer Porsche is founded by Ferdinand Porsche in Stuttgart
• May 1 – Construction of the Empire State Building is completed in New York City
• June 3 – Salvador Dalí's The Persistence of Memory is put on display for the first time
• July 9 – Irish racing driver Kaye Don breaks the world water speed record at Lake Garda, Italy
• July 20 – A violent tornado strikes the city of Lublin, Poland.
• August – Warner Brothers releases the first Merrie Melodies cartoon
• September- The 1931 Belize hurricane strikes Belize (then British Honduras), killing over 2,500 people
• September 22 – The United Kingdom abandons the gold standard
• October 5 – American aviators Clyde Edward Pangborn and Hugh Herndon, Jr. complete the first non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean. They travel from Misawa, Japan to East Wenatchee, Washington in 41½ hours.
• November 7 – The Chinese Soviet Republic is proclaimed by Mao Zedong
• December 10 – Niceto Alcalá-Zamora is elected president of the Spanish Republic

January

Toshiki Kaifu

Johannes Rau

Sam Cooke

• January 2 – Toshiki Kaifu, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 2022)
• January 13 – Charles Nelson Reilly, American actor (d. 2007)
• January 16 – Johannes Rau, President of Germany (d. 2006)
• January 22 – Sam Cooke, American singer (d. 1964)

February

Iajuddin Ahmed

Boris Yeltsin

• February 1 – Iajuddin Ahmed, former President of Bangladesh (d. 2012)
• February 1 – Boris Yeltsin, President of Russia (d. 2007)

April

• April 4 - Adeline Magloire Chancy, Haitian educator, feminist, and politician
• April 7 – Ted Kotcheff, Canadian-Bulgarian film director

May

• May 19 – David Wilkerson, American pastor, evangelist and author (d. 2011)
• May 27 – Faten Hamama, Egyptian producer and actress (d. 2015)

September

Ian Holm

George Jones

Anita Ekberg

• September 12 – Sir Ian Holm, English actor
• September 12 – George Jones, American singer (d. 2013)
• September 29 – Anita Ekberg, Swedish actress (d. 2015)

October

John le Carré

Rubens de Falco

Mickey Mantle

• October 19 – John le Carré, English novelist (d. 2020)
• October 19 – Rubens de Falco, Brazilian actor (d. 2008)
• October 20 – Mickey Mantle, American baseball player (d. 1995)

November

Monica Vitti

Mwai Kibaki

• November 3 – Monica Vitti, Italian actress (d. 2022)
• November 15 – Mwai Kibaki, President of Kenya (d. 2022)

Deaths

Anna Pavlova

• January 23 – Anna Pavlova, Russian ballerina (b. 1881)
• February 11 – Charles Algernon Parsons, British inventor (b. 1854)
• February 26 – Otto Wallach, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1847)
• March 7 – Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Finnish painter (b. 1865)
• April 8 – Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1864)
• April 26 – George Herbert Mead, American philosopher, sociologist and psychologist (b. 1863)
• May 9 – Albert Abraham Michelson, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
• June 2 – Joseph W. Farnham, American screenwriter (b. 1884)
• July 12 – Nathan Söderblom, Swedish archbishop, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1866)
• August 26 – Hamaguchi Osachi, 27th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1870)
• September 12 – Joseph Le Brix, French aviator and naval officer (b. 1899)
• October 21 – Arthur Schnitzler, Austrian author and dramatist (b. 1862)
• November 13 – Ivan Fichev, Bulgarian general, minister of defense, military historian, and academician (b. 1860)
• December 9 – Antonio Salandra, Italian statesman, 21st Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1853)
• December 27 – José Figueroa Alcorta, 16th President of Argentina (b. 1860)

Nobel Prizes

• Nobel Prize in Physics – not awarded
• Nobel Prize in Chemistry won by Carl Bosch, German chemist and engineer, and Friedrich Bergius, German chemist
• Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine won by Otto Heinrich Warburg, German chemist, (1883 – 1970)
• Nobel Prize in Literature won by Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish poet
• Nobel Peace Prize won by Jane Addams, American activist, and Nicholas Murray Butler, American philosopher, diplomat, and educator

Movies released

Norma Shearer

• January 30 – City Lights starring Charlie Chaplin
• February 9 – Cimarron starring Richard Dix and Irene Dunne
• February 14 – The original movie version of Dracula with Bela Lugosi is released in the United States
• December 26 – A Free Soul, winning Best Actor for Lionel Barrymore
• November 21 – Frankenstein starring Boris Karloff, the top-grossing movie of the year
• December 12 – Private Lives starring Norma Shearer
• December 26 – Mata Hari starring Greta Garbo

1931 Media

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  February 10: New Delhi becomes India's capital

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  February 21: Ford Trimotor hijacked

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  May 1: Empire State Building is completed.

• Jĭuyībā Lìshĭ Bówùguăn九・一八歴史博物館106997.JPG

  September 18 History Museum in Shenyang

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  Robert Duvall at Tribeca Film Festival 2010

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  Photo of Caterina Valente from the television program Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall.

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  James Earl Jones

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  Photo of singer Sam Cooke.

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  Screenshot dal film Accadde al commissariato (1954)

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  Official portrait of Boris Yeltsin (Борис Николаевич Ельцин).