1931 - Wikipedia

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:

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.
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[?]