1931

Peace Prize

• Jane Addams
• Nicholas Murray Butler

Literature

• Erik Axel Karlfeldt

Chemistry

• Carl Bosch
• Friedrich Bergius

Physiology or Medicine

• Otto Heinrich Warburg

Top #1 songs in the USA

• Mills Brothers - Nobody's Sweetheart

Events

• 02 Jan 1931 South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics.
• 03 Jan 1931 Albert Einstein begins doing research at the California Institute of Technology, along with astronomer Edwin Hubble.
• 04 Jan 1931 Art Acord, American western actor (Set Free, Spurs and Saddles), dies at age 40.
• 05 Jan 1931 1st woman to purchase a baseball team Lucille Thomas purchases Topeka franchise in the Western League
• 06 Jan 1931 Thomas Edison submits his last patent application.
• 07 Jan 1931 Guy Menzies flies the first solo non-stop trans-Tasman flight (from Australia to New Zealand) in 11 hours and 45 minutes, crash-landing on New Zealand's west coast.
• 08 Jan 1931 Philadelphia Quakers set then NHL record of 15 straight loses
• 21 Jan 1931 Sir Isaac Isaacs is sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia.
• 22 Jan 1931 VARA begins experimental TV broadcast in Diamantbeurs, Amsterdam.
• 26 Jan 1931 Hungary-Austria sign peace treaty
• 28 Jan 1931 Bradman scores 220 NSW vs. Victoria, 308 mins, 13 fours
• 30 Jan 1931 The release of the movie City Lights starring Charlie Chaplin.
• 03 Feb 1931 Arkansas legislature passes motion to pray for soul of H L Mencken after he calls the state the "apex of moronia".
• 04 Feb 1931 National League adopts a deader baseball
• 05 Feb 1931 Maxine Dunlap becomes 1st US women to earn a glider pilot license
• 07 Feb 1931 US opera, Peter Ibbetson, by Deems Taylor premieres at Met Opera, New York City
• 08 Feb 1931 Gas explosion, fire in Fushun-coal mine, Manchuria kills 3,000.
• 10 Feb 1931 Richard Rodgers / Lorenz Harts premieres in New York City
• 12 Feb 1931 ''Radio Vaticana'' first broadcasts.
• 13 Feb 1931 Phil Tobin introduces Assembly Bill 98 in Nevada legislature to allow licensed gambling on a variety of games.
• 14 Feb 1931 Bradman scores 152 Aust vs. WI, 154 minutes, 13 fours 2 fives
• 15 Feb 1931 1st Dracula movie released
• 16 Feb 1931 Extreme right wing Pehr Evind Svinhufvud is elected President of Finland.
• 20 Feb 1931 Congress allows California to build Oakland-Bay Bridge
• 21 Feb 1931 Alka Seltzer introduced
• 28 Feb 1931 Oswald Mosley founds his New Party
• 01 Mar 1931 The USS Arizona is placed back in full commission after a refit.
• 03 Mar 1931 Star Spangled Banner officially becomes US national anthem
• 04 Mar 1931 West Indies beat Australia in cricket for the first time, by 30 runs at Sydney Cricket Ground.
• 05 Mar 1931 The British Viceroy of India, Governor-General Edward Frederick Lindley Wood and Mohandas Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi) sign an agreement envisaging the release of political prisoners and allowing salt to be freely used by the poorest members of the population.
• 10 Mar 1931 British Labour party removes fascist Sir Oswald Mosley.
• 14 Mar 1931 1st theater built for rear movie projection (NYC)
• 15 Mar 1931 SS Viking explodes off Newfoundland, killing 27 of the 147 on board.
• 16 Mar 1931 Genootschap Onze Taal (Our Language) organizes (Netherlands).
• 17 Mar 1931 Nevada legalizes gambling.
• 18 Mar 1931 Juan Bautista Aznar becomes premier of Spain.
• 19 Mar 1931 Nevada legalizes casino gaming and most other forms of gambling. Nevada Governor Fred Balzar signs into law Assembly Bill 98, allowing faro, monte, roulette, keno, fan-tan, twenty-one, blackjack, seven-and-a-half, big injun, klondike, craps, stud poker, draw poker, or any card, dice, machine, at licensed establishments. Licensing fees for social games is set at US$25 per table per month, $50 for each mercantile game, $10 for each slot machine. Legal gambling age set at 21.
• 20 Mar 1931 Bishop Schreiber warns against national-socialism in Berlin.
• 21 Mar 1931 KRO-broadcast studio initiated in Hilversum Holland
• 25 Mar 1931 Hal Kemp and his orchestra record Whistles, with Skinnay Ennis
• 26 Mar 1931 New Delhi replaces Calcutta as capitol of British-Indies.
• 27 Mar 1931 John McGraw says night baseball will not catch on.
• 31 Mar 1931 TWA Flight 599 crashes near Bazaar, Kansas killing 8 including Knute Rockne, head football coach at the University of Notre Dame
• 01 Apr 1931 Earthquake devastate Managua Nicaragua, kills 2,000
• 02 Apr 1931 Teenage girl strikes out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
• 06 Apr 1931 1st broadcast of Little Orphan Annie on NBC-radio
• 07 Apr 1931 Seals Stadium opens in San Francisco
• 08 Apr 1931 White Horse Inn opens in London
• 12 Apr 1931 Spanish voters reject the monarchy.
• 14 Apr 1931 Spain becomes Republic with overthrow of King Alfonso XIII
• 15 Apr 1931 1st walk across American backwards begins
• 20 Apr 1931 British House of Commons agrees to allow sports play on Sunday.
• 22 Apr 1931 Austria, Britain, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the USA recognize the Spanish Republic.
• 26 Apr 1931 Lou Gehrig hits a homerun but is called out for passing a runner, the mistake costs him American League home run crown; he and Babe Ruth tie for season.
• 27 Apr 1931 100 degrees F (38 degrees C), Pahala, Hawaii (record high).
• 28 Apr 1931 Program for woman athletes approved for 1932 Olympics track and field events.
• 29 Apr 1931 Cleveland Indians' Wes Ferrell no-hits Saint Louis Browns, 9-0.
• 01 May 1931 Empire State Building opens in New York City
• 04 May 1931 Mustafa Kemal Pasja becomes Turkish President
• 05 May 1931 İsmet İnönü forms new government in Turkey. (7th government)
• 08 May 1931 Operette Land of Smiles, premieres in London
• 09 May 1931 57th Preakness: George Ellis aboard Mate wins in 1:59.
• 10 May 1931 Golf ball size hail falls in Burlington, New Jersey, USA.
• 13 May 1931 Paul Doumer is elected president of France.
• 15 May 1931 Pope Pius XI publishes encyclical Quadragesimo anno
• 16 May 1931 57th Kentucky Derby: Charley Kurtsinger on Twenty Grand wins in 2:01.8.
• 19 May 1931 Ironclad cruiser Germany launched in Kiel
• 21 May 1931 Belgian Government of Henri Jaspar falls.
• 22 May 1931 Canned rattlesnake meat first goes on sale in Florida.
• 23 May 1931 Whipsnade Zoo opens in Whipsnade Beds England
• 24 May 1931 First air-conditioned train installed - B&O Railroad.
• 27 May 1931 Piccard and Knipfer make first flight into stratosphere, by balloon; first use of pressurized cabin in a balloon.
• 30 May 1931 Phillies Chuck Klein homers off Ben Cantwell (Braves) in both ends DH
• 01 Jun 1931 Rozenburg soccer team forms in Rozenburg
• 05 Jun 1931 Jules Renkin becomes Premier of Belgium
• 06 Jun 1931 There Ought To Be A Moonlight Saving Time by Guy Lombardo hits #1
• 08 Jun 1931 Duke and Duchess of Kent wed
• 09 Jun 1931 1st rocket-powered aircraft design patented (R Goddard)
• 10 Jun 1931 Norway occupies East-Greenland
• 12 Jun 1931 Al Capone is indicted on 5,000 counts of prohibition and perjury
• 13 Jun 1931 63rd Belmont: Charley Kurtsinger aboard Twenty Grand wins in 2:29.6
• 14 Jun 1931 French St Philbert overturns off St. Nazaire France, drowns 450
• 15 Jun 1931 Eddie Collins and Harry Heilmann, retire from baseball
• 16 Jun 1931 Austrian government of Ender falls
• 19 Jun 1931 In an attempt to stop the banking crisis in Central Europe from causing a worldwide financial meltdown, President Herbert Hoover issues the Hoover Moratorium.
• 20 Jun 1931 Karl Buresch becomes chancellor of Austrian
• 22 Jun 1931 RVU, Radio-Volks-University, forms
• 23 Jun 1931 July ndash John Haven Emerson of Cambridge, Massachusetts perfects the Emerson iron lung just in time for the growing polio epidemic.
• 24 Jun 1931 USSR and Afghanistan sign neutrality treaty
• 27 Jun 1931 3rd Ryder Cup: US, 9-3 at Scioto Country Club - Ohio
• 29 Jun 1931 Pope Pius XI encyclical on Nun abbiamo bisogno Mussolini
• 01 Jul 1931 Cleveland Municipal Stadium is completed
• 03 Jul 1931 51st Wimbledon Mens Tennis: Sid Wood Jr beats F X Shields (walkover)
• 04 Jul 1931 1st fireworks are held at Cleveland Stadium
• 06 Jul 1931 35th US Golf Open: Billy Burke shoots a 292 at Inverness Club Ohio
• 09 Jul 1931 Irish racing driver Kaye Don breaks the world water speed record at Lake Garda, Italy.''BBC History'', July 2011, p12
• 10 Jul 1931 In Malinta, Ohio, USA an overhead cometary fragment explosion occurs, producing a crater, a smell of sulfur, windows broken in a farmhouse, and four telephone poles snapped.
• 11 Jul 1931 New York Giants beat Philadelphia Phillies 23-8.
• 12 Jul 1931 45,715 fans in 35,000 seat Sportsman Park St. Louis, help cause many ground ruled doubles, 11 in 1st game and 21 in 2nd game for 32
• 16 Jul 1931 Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia signs the first constitution of Ethiopia.
• 18 Jul 1931 1st air-conditioned ship (Mariposa) launched
• 23 Jul 1931 Ashmore and Cartier Island in Indian Ocean are transferred to Australia.
• 24 Jul 1931 Paavo Nurmi runs world record 2 mile (8:59.6)
• 26 Jul 1931 The millennialist Bible Student movement adopts the name Jehovah's Witnesses at a meeting in Columbus, Ohio.
• 27 Jul 1931 Grasshoppers in Iowa, Nebr and SD destroyed thousands of acres of crops
• 28 Jul 1931 Congress makes Star-Spangled Banner our 2nd national anthem
• 31 Jul 1931 USS Constitution is recommissioned as an active vessel in the US Navy.
• 02 Aug 1931 Spanish Catalonia agrees (99+%) for autonomous status
• 05 Aug 1931 Detroit Tiger Tommy Bridges perfect game is broken up with 2 outs in 9th
• 08 Aug 1931 Workers go on strike at the Hoover dam.
• 12 Aug 1931 Yangtzee River floods after heavy rain crumbles dikes in China
• 13 Aug 1931 Cin Red Tony Cuccinello goes 6 for 6
• 15 Aug 1931 Roy Wilkins joined NAACP as Assistant Secretary
• 18 Aug 1931 Lou Gehrig hitless in Detroit, his 1,000th consecutively played game
• 19 Aug 1931 Lefty Grove wins AL record tying 16th consecutive game
• 20 Aug 1931 45th US Womens Tennis: Helen Moody beats Eileen Whitingstall (64 61)
• 21 Aug 1931 Babe Ruth hits his 600th home run (New York Yankees beat Saint Louis Browns 11-7).
• 23 Aug 1931 45th US Womens Tennis: Helen Moody beats Eileen B Whitingstall (64 61)
• 24 Aug 1931 Resignation of the United Kingdom's Second Labour Government. Formation of the UK National Government.
• 28 Aug 1931 France and Soviet Union sign a treaty of non-aggression.
• 01 Sep 1931 Gehrig hits his 3rd grand slam in 4 days and his 6th HR in consecutive games
• 08 Sep 1931 In Hagerstown, Maryland, USA a meteorite crashes through a roof.
• 10 Sep 1931 Lord Cecil of British Government says War was never so improbable
• 11 Sep 1931 Salvatore Maranzano, American organized crime figure (Born 1868)
• 12 Sep 1931 51st US Mens Tennis: H E Vines beats George M Lott Jr (79 63 97 75)
• 13 Sep 1931 Captain G H Stainworth flies world speed record (655 km/h)
• 15 Sep 1931 British naval fleet mutinies at Invergordon over pay cuts
• 16 Sep 1931 Blimp is moored to Empire State Building (NYC)
• 17 Sep 1931 1st LP record demonstrated (RCA Victor, NYC), venture failed
• 18 Sep 1931 Japan takes Manchuria, renames it Manchukuo
• 19 Sep 1931 14th PGA Championship: Tom Creavy at Wannamoisett Country Club - Rumford, Rhode Island
• 20 Sep 1931 With a gun literally pointed to his head the Chinese commander of Kirin province announces the annexation of that territory to Japan.
• 21 Sep 1931 Britain abandons gold standard / pound devalues 20%
• 22 Sep 1931 United Kingdom abandons gold standard.
• 26 Sep 1931 Earl Claus von Stauffenberg marries Freiin Nina von Lerchenfeld
• 27 Sep 1931 Lou Gehrig completes his 6th straight season, playing in every game (.3486) Jim Bottomley (.3481)
• 28 Sep 1931 Peking (200,000 demonstrators demand declaration of war on Japan)
• 30 Sep 1931 Start of ''Die Voortrekkers'' youth movement for Afrikaners in Bloemfontein, South Africa.
• 01 Oct 1931 Spanish Cortes accept general female suffrage
• 02 Oct 1931 Pope Pius XI encyclical "On the economic crisis".
• 04 Oct 1931 Juan Esteban Montero becomes President of Chile
• 05 Oct 1931 First nonstop transpacific flight, Japan to Washington (Herndon and Pangborn).
• 06 Oct 1931 Js Van Severen forms Verdinaso (Union of Flemish National Solidarists)
• 07 Oct 1931 First infra-red photograph, Rochester, New York.
• 11 Oct 1931 100,000 extreme-right Germans form Harzburger Front
• 14 Oct 1931 1st broadcast of Dutch Radio Peoples University
• 16 Oct 1931 Trunk murderess Winnie Ruth Judd chops first victim.
• 17 Oct 1931 Al Capone convicted of tax evasion, sentenced to 11 years in prison
• 20 Oct 1931 Frankie Frisch of the Cards named MVP
• 21 Oct 1931 The Sakurakai, a secret society in the Imperial Japanese Army, launches an abortive coup d'etat attempt.
• 24 Oct 1931 Gangster Al Capone is sentenced to 11 years for tax evasion
• 30 Oct 1931 W2XB TV channel 1 in NYC, New York (NBC) begins broadcasting
• 01 Nov 1931 Dupont introduces synthetic rubber
• 07 Nov 1931 The Chinese Soviet Republic is proclaimed on the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution.
• 08 Nov 1931 The Panama Canal is closed for a couple of weeks due to damage caused by a number of earthquakes.
• 11 Nov 1931 Cornerstones laid for Opera House and Veterans Building.
• 12 Nov 1931 Maple Leaf Gardens opens in Toronto - Chicago Blackhawks beat Leafs, 2-1
• 13 Nov 1931 Hattie Caraway (D-AK) appointed 1st US woman senator
• 14 Nov 1931 Ottawa Mint Act is proclaimed in England
• 17 Nov 1931 Bradman scores 135 NSW vs. South Africa, 128 mins, 15 fours
• 20 Nov 1931 Commercial teletype service begins (AT&T)
• 23 Nov 1931 Nationally Crisis Committee forms in Hague
• 25 Nov 1931 Heavy Hydrogen, later named Deuterium, is discovered by chemist Harold Clayton Urey.
• 30 Nov 1931 Crystal Palace in Hyde Park London destroyed by fire
• 01 Dec 1931 Ottawa branch of Royal Mint begins operation as Royal Canadian Mint
• 03 Dec 1931 Alka Seltzer goes on sale
• 04 Dec 1931 Frankenstein opens at Mayfair
• 05 Dec 1931 CFL Grey Cup: Mtl AAA beats Regina, 22-0 at Montreal
• 08 Dec 1931 Coaxial cable patented.
• 09 Dec 1931 Baseball cuts squad from 25 to 23 players and NL continues to prohibit uniform numbers
• 10 Dec 1931 Jane Addams (1st US woman) named co-recipient of Nobel Peace Prize
• 11 Dec 1931 Brit Statute of Westminster gives complete legislative independence to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, Newfndlnd
• 12 Dec 1931 Japanese Government of Imukai forms.
• 16 Dec 1931 German SPD begins Eiserne Front against fascism.
• 19 Dec 1931 Joseph A Lyons (Conservative) becomes premier of Australia.
• 23 Dec 1931 Tyrone Power Sr, American actor (Big Trial, Test of Donald Norton), dies at age 62.
• 25 Dec 1931 Albert Lonergan scores 137 South Africa versus Queensland at Adelaide before 5,697.
• 26 Dec 1931 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical play Of Thee I Sing opens on Broadway
• 28 Dec 1931 Lin-Sen succeeds Chiang Kai-shek as President of Nanjing-China.
• 29 Dec 1931 Victoria scores 7 for 435 in second innings to beat New South Wales.
• 31 Dec 1931 The Huang He floods kill between 850,000 and 4,000,000 people (the deadliest historic natural disaster).