1931 in History

• Jan 7 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.

• Jan 22 French government of Steeg falls
• Jan 22 Sir Isaac Isaacs is sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia
• Jan 26 Hungary-Austria sign peace treaty
• Jan 26 Lynn Riggs' "Green Grow the Lilacs" premieres in NYC
• Jan 31 Philip Barry's "Tomorrow & Tomorrow" premieres in NYC
• Feb 2 1st siyyum of Talmud celebrated by Daf Yomi students
• Feb 2 1st use of a rocket to deliver mail (Austria)

• Feb 5 Maxine Dunlap becomes 1st US women to earn a glider pilot license
• Feb 8 Gas explosion Fire in Fushun-coal mine, Manchuria kills 3,000
• Feb 10 New Delhi becomes the capital of India
• Feb 12 Vatican Radio begins broadcasting with the callsign HVJ
• Feb 14 Spanish government of General Damasco Berenguer falls


• Feb 16 Extreme right wing Pehr Evind Svinhufvud becomes President of Finland
• Feb 17 Hockey's Hershey Bears (now with AHL) 1st game
• Feb 20 Congress allows California to build Oakland-Bay Bridge
• Feb 21 Alka Seltzer introduced
• Feb 28 British politician Oswald Mosley founds the New Party
• Mar 4 West Indies beat Australia for the 1st time, by 30 runs at SCG

• Mar 10 Oswald Mosley leaves British Labour party and founds the "New Party"
• Mar 11 Ready for Labour and Defence of the USSR, abbreviated as GTO, is introduced in the Soviet Union
• Mar 16 Genootschap Onze Taal (Our Language) organizes (Netherlands)
• Mar 18 1st electric shavers go on sale in US (Schick)
• Mar 18 Juan Bautista Aznar becomes premier of Spain
• Mar 19 Nevada legalizes gambling
• Mar 20 Bishop Schreiber warns against national-socialism in Berlin
• Mar 21 KRO-broadcast studio initiated in Hilversum Holland

• Mar 25 Scottsboro Boys arrested in Alabama, accused of raping a white woman
• Mar 26 Iraq & Trans-Jordan sign peace treaty
• Mar 26 Leo Bentley bowls 3 consecutive perfect games in Lorain, Ohio
• Mar 26 New Delhi replaces Calcutta as capital of British-Indies


• Mar 31 Brilliant Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne (43) is killed with 7 others when light plane crashes on trip from Kansas City to Los Angeles; record 105-12-5 @ .881 remains best ever
• Apr 1 Earthquake devastate Managua Nicaragua, kills 2,000
• Apr 6 1st Scottsboro (Alabama) trial begins - 9 blacks accused of rape
• Apr 7 Seals Stadium opens in San Francisco
• Apr 8 "White Horse Inn" opens in London
• Apr 12 Spanish voters reject the monarchy
• Apr 14 Spain becomes republic with overthrow of King Alfonso XIII
• Apr 15 1st backwards walk across American begins
• Apr 22 Egypt & Iraq sign peace treaty
• Apr 27 100°F (38°C), Pahala, Hawaii (state record)
• May 1 Empire State Building opens in New York City
• May 1 Norway claims Peter I Island
• May 4 Mustafa Kemal Pasja becomes Turkish president
• May 8 Operette "Land of Smiles" premieres in London
• May 11 Credit-Anstalt, Austria's largest bank, fails, beginning financial collapse of Central Europe
• May 13 Paul Doumer elected president of France
• May 14 Ådalen shootings: five people are killed in Ådalen, Sweden, as soldiers open fire on an unarmed trade union demonstration

• May 19 Cruiser Deutschland launched in Kiel
• May 21 Belgian government of Jaspar falls
• May 22 Canned rattlesnake meat 1st goes on sale in Florida
• May 23 Whipsnade Zoo opens in Bedfordshire, England
• May 24 1st air-conditioned train installed-B&O Railroad
• May 27 1st full scale wind tunnel for testing airplane at Langley Field, Virginia
• May 27 Swiss Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer make 1st flight into stratosphere, by balloon from Augsburg, Germany
• May 31 7.1 magnitude Earthquake destroys Quetta in modern-day Pakistan: 40,000 dead.
• Jun 5 Jules Renkin becomes premier of Belgium
• Jun 8 Suriname Work Committee under Louis Doedel forms in Paramaribo

• Jun 10 Norway occupies East Greenland

• Jun 14 French "St Philbert" overturns off St Nazaire France, drowns 450

• Jun 15 Poland and USSR sign friendship and trade treaty
• Jun 16 Austrian government of Ender falls
• Jun 19 1st photoelectric cell installed commercially West Haven, Connecticut
• Jun 20 Karl Buresch becomes chancellor of Austrian
• Jun 22 RVU, Radio-Volks-University, forms

• Jun 24 USSR & Afghanistan sign neutrality treaty
• Jun 29 109°F (43°C), Monticello, Florida (state record)

• Jul 1 Ice vending machines introduced in Los Angeles 25 lbs, 15 cents
• Jul 1 Trans African Railway in use (Benguela, Angola-Jadotville, Congo)

• Jul 4 1st fireworks are held at Cleveland Stadium
• Jul 4 1st trailside museum opens in Cleveland Metroparks
• Jul 18 1st air-conditioned ship (Mariposa) launched
• Jul 21 Reno race track, becomes 1st in US to use daily double wagering
• Jul 23 Ashmore & Cartier Is in Indian Ocean transferred to Australia
• Jul 24 George Gunn gets 183 and son of a gunn George Vernon 100* same innings
• Jul 24 A fire at a home for the elderly in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania kills 48 people.
• Jul 27 Chilean president Carlos Ibáñez forced out
• Jul 27 Grasshoppers in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota destroyed thousands of acres of crops

• Aug 2 Spanish Catalonia agrees (99+%) for autonomous status
• Aug 12 Yangtzee River floods after heavy rain crumbles dikes in China
• Aug 15 Ernest Lassy completes longest canoe journey without port (6,102 mi)
• Aug 15 Roy Wilkins joined NAACP as asst secretary
• Aug 19 Lefty Grove wins AL record tying 16th consecutive game
• Aug 23 Count Gyula Károlyi becomes premier of Hungary
• Aug 23 Philadelphia A's Lefty Grove, loses 1-0 (Browns) after winning 16 straight
• Aug 24 France & USSR sign neutrality/no attack treaty
• Sep 10 Lord Cecil of British government says War was never so improbable

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Birthdays 1 - 100 of 304

• Jan 1 Siddig El Nigoumi, ceramicist
• Jan 2 Toshiki Kaifu, premier of Japan (1989-91)
• Jan 4 Adi Lady Lala Mara, First Lady of Fiji (d. 2004)
• Jan 4 Sir William Deane, Governor-General of Australia 1996-2001
• Jan 5 Joan Coxsedge, Australian politician, born in Ballarat, Australia
• Jan 6 E. L. Doctorow, American author (Ragtime, Billy Bathgate), born in The Bronx, New York (d. 2015)
• Jan 7 Mack Mattingly, American diplomat and politician (Sen-R-Georgia, 1981-86), born in Anderson, Indiana
• Jan 9 Algis Budrys, Lithuanian-American sci-fi author (Man of Earth), born in Kaliningrad, Russia (d. 2008)
• Jan 10 Alex Boraine, South Africa politician, born in Cape Town, South Africa
• Jan 10 Ron Galella, American celebrity photographer (sued by Jackie O), born in NYC, New York
• Jan 10 Peter Barnes, English writer, born in Manchester, United Kingdom (d. 2004)
• Jan 11 Betty Churcher, director of the National Gallery of Australia
• Jan 14 Frank Costigan, Australian lawyer, born in Melbourne, Australia (d. 2009)
• Jan 15 Derek Meddings, British special effects technician, born in St. Pancras, London (d. 1995)
• Jan 16 Johannes Rau, German politician, born in Wuppertal, Germany (d. 2006)
• Jan 17 Douglas Wilder, American politician, Governor of Virginia (1990-94), 1st African American Governor since Reconstruction, born in Richmond, Virginia
• Jan 19 Ron Packard, (Rep-R-CA, 1983- )
• Jan 20 Sawako Ariyoshi, Japanese writer (Compound Pollution, Doctor's Wife), born in Wakayama, Japan (d. 1984)
• Jan 25 Paavo Haavikko, Finnish poet & writer, born in Helsiniki, Finland (d. 2008)
• Jan 27 Mordecai Richler, Montreal author, (Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz)
• Jan 27 Nigel Vinson, British Lord and inventor, born in Kent, England
• Jan 27 Ronald "Buster" Edwards, British Great Train Robber turned flower-seller, born in London (d. 1994)
• Jan 28 Timothy Kitson, British politician
• Jan 30 Shirley Hazzard, Australian-born author (Transit of Venus), born in Sydney, Australia (d. 2016)
• Jan 30 Stewart McKinney, American politician (Rep-R-CT, 1971- ), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 1987)
• Jan 30 John Crosbie, Canadian politician, born in St. John's, Canada (d. 2020)
• Jan 30 Allan W. Eckert, American historian, naturalist, and author, born in Buffalo, New York
• Jan 31 Jean Burroughs, educationalist
• Jan 31 Nicholas Gordon Lennox, diplomat

• Feb 1 Mark Richmond, CEO (Science & Engineering Research Council)
• Feb 2 Dries van Agt, Dutch Prime Minister (CDA, 1977-82), born in Geldrop, Netherlands
• Feb 2 Judith Viorst, American author
• Feb 4 Isabel Martínez de Perón [Maria Martinez], wife of Juan Perón and President of Argentina (1974-76), born in La Rioja, Argentina
• Feb 9 Robert Morris, American sculptor and painter, born in Kansas City, Missouri
• Feb 10 Thomas Bernhard, Austrian novelist, playwright and poet whose work some describe as "the most significant literary achievement since World War II", born in Heerlen, Netherlands (d. 1989)
• Feb 12 Constance A Morella, (Rep-R-Maryland)
• Feb 12 Janwillem van de Wetering, Dutch author
• Feb 15 W K Reid, British ombudsman
• Feb 16 Alfred Kolleritsch, Austrian writer, born in Eichfeld
• Feb 16 George E Sangmeister, (Rep-D-Illinois)
• Feb 18 Johnny Hart, American cartoonist (B.C., Wizard of Id), born in Endicott, New York (d. 2007)
• Feb 18 Maxwell Thurman, American General
• Feb 18 Swraj Paul, Indian/British industrial/multi-millionaire (Caparo)

• Feb 23 Tom Wesselmann, American collage artist and sculptor (Great American Nudes) (d. 2004)
• Feb 24 Inge Bernstein, British judge
• Feb 24 Lev Vasilyevich Vorobyov, Russian cosmonaut
• Feb 24 Maezumi Hakuyu Taizan Koun, teacher Rinzai/Soto lines of Zen Buddhism
• Feb 24 Marta Marzotto, Italian countess and designer, born in Reggio Emilia (d. 2016)
• Feb 25 Edward Kellett-Bowman, British MEP
• Feb 25 J R Stephenson, Lt-col/secretary (MCC)
• Feb 27 Andrew Sloan, Chief Constable (Strathcourt)
• Feb 28 Gustav Thoni, Italian skier (World Cup-1971, 72, 73, 75)
• Feb 28 Jack Thieuloy, French writer, born in Beaucaire (d. 1996)
• Feb 28 Iajuddin Ahmed, Bikrampur, British Raj, President (Bangladesh, 2002-2009), (d. 2012)
• Mar 2 Duane Graveline, doctor and astronaut, born in Newport Vermont (d. 2016)

• Mar 2 Tom Wolfe, American journalist and author (The Right Stuff), born in Richmond, Virginia (d. 2018)
• Mar 3 Henk Knol, Dutch 2nd chamber member (PvdA)
• Mar 3 Piet [van] Bambergen, Dutch cabaretier (Mounties, Sherlock Jones)
• Mar 4 Han Jansen, Dutch painter (d. 1994)
• Mar 4 Alice Rivlin, American economist
• Mar 5 Fred Othon Aristidès, French comics artist
• Mar 6 David Haddon Whitaker, British publisher (Whitaker's Almanack)
• Mar 6 Hal Needham, American stuntman, (d. 2013)
• Mar 7 Cornelis T "Cor" van de Molen, Dutch journalist (Beehive)
• Mar 8 John McPhee, author (Back to ----)
• Mar 8 Neil Postman, American cultural critic (d. 2003)
• Mar 9 Thore Skogman, Swedish entertainer, born in Hallstahammar, Sweden (d. 2007)
• Mar 11 Peter Walters, CEO (Midland Bank)
• Mar 12 Geoffrey de Bellaigue, director (Royal Collection)
• Mar 12 Herbert Kelleher, Southwest Airlines co-founder
• Mar 13 Marc Dessauvage, Belgian architect, born in Moorslede, Belgium (d. 1984)
• Mar 16 Don Richard Carpenter, American writer (Hard Rain Falling), born in Berkeley, California (d. 1995)
• Mar 17 David Peakall, British scientist (d. 2001)
• Mar 18 Howard Coble, American politician (Rep-R-NC, 1985-2015), born in Greensboro, North Carolina (d. 2015)
• Mar 18 Jürgen Schadeberg, German-born South African photographer who photographed apartheid struggle, born in Berlin, Germany (d. 2020)
• Mar 20 John Rae, British educator (Conscience & Politics)
• Mar 21 Ivan William Hannaford, sociologist
• Mar 22 Igor Hajek, Czech translator and writer, born in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia (d. 1995)
• Mar 22 Leslie Thomas, Welsh writer (The Virgin Soldiers), born in Newport (d. 2014)
• Mar 23 Norman F Lent, (Rep-R-NY, 1971- 93), (d. 2012)
• Mar 27 Bob Bauman, CEO (British Aerospace)
• Mar 29 Evelyn de Rothschild, English banker and multi-millionaire, born in Westminster, London
• Mar 29 James Weatherhead, moderator (General Assembly of Church of Scotland), born in Dundee (d. 2017)
• Mar 29 Norman Tebbit, British Conservative party politician, cabinet minister and life peer, born in Ponders End, England
• Mar 29 Sylvia Law, British town planner (President of the Royal Town Planning Institute), born in Southport, Lancashire
• Mar 30 Aleksey Vasilyevich Sorokin, Russian cosmonaut
• Apr 1 Rolf Hochhuth, German playwright (Der Stellvertreter), born in Eschwege, Germany (d. 2020)
• Apr 1 Charles Price, American Businessman and diplomat, born in Kansas City, Missouri (d. 2012)
• Apr 3 Tom Collins, Canadian ice skating promoter (Champions on Ice), born in Kirkland Lake, Ontario (d. 2019)
• Apr 4 Denis Frank Owen, British ecologist and natural historian, born in London (d. 1996)
• Apr 4 Harold Volkmer, American politician, U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri, born in Jefferson City, Missouri (d. 2011)
• Apr 4 Bobby Ray Inman, American admiral and intelligence director, born in Rhonesboro, Texas
• Apr 5 Denis Lawton, director (London University Institute of Educ)
• Apr 7 Daniel Ellsberg, whistleblower (Pentagon Papers)/patriot
• Apr 7 Donald Barthelme, American writer (Snow White, Sadness), born in Philadelphia, Pa (d. 1989)
• Apr 9 Martin Rogers, director (Farmington Institute for Christian Studies)
• Apr 9 Richard Hatfield, Canadian politician (26th Premier of New Brunswick), born in Hartland, New Brunswick (d. 1991)

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• Sep 26 Earl Claus von Stauffenberg marries Freiin Nina von Lerchenfeld

• Jan 1 Martinus Beijerinck, Dutch microbiologist & botanist (1st to coin the name virus), dies at 79
• Jan 3 Joseph J C Joffre, French marshal, dies at 78
• Jan 9 Claude Anet [Jean Schopfer], French writer (La fille perdue), dies at 62
• Jan 11 James Milton Carroll, American Baptist pastor, leader, historian, and author (b. 1852)
• Jan 14 William Ernst Johnson, British mathematician, dies
• Feb 2 Theodor Batthynyi, Hungarian contra-revolutionary, dies at 71
• Feb 3 Hans Schardt, Swiss geologist, dies at 72
• Feb 11 Charles Algernon Parsons, British inventor (steam turbine), dies at 76
• Feb 12 Samedbey Mehmandarov, Russian general (b. 1855)
• Feb 18 Milan Šufflay, Croatian historian and politician, dies at 51
• Feb 26 Otto Wallach, German chemist (Nobel 1910), dies at 83
• Feb 27 Chandra Sekhar Azad, Indian revolutionary (Hindustan Socialist Republican Army), dies at 24
• Mar 5 Fr. Arthur Tooth SSC, Anglican Clergyman prosecuted and imprisoned for ritualist activities, dies ta 91
• Mar 7 Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Finnish painter, dies at 65
• Mar 7 Theo van Doesburg [Christian Emil Marie Küpper], Dutch painter and architect, dies at 47
• Mar 20 Hermann Müller, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1876)

• Mar 25 Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, American journalist and civil rights activist, dies at 68
• Mar 27 Arnold Bennett, English novelist (Anna of the Five Towns), dies at 63
• Mar 31 Hermann Kutter, Swiss Protestant theologian (founder of Christian Socialism in Switzerland), dies at 67

• Apr 8 Eric Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish poet (Nobel Prize for Literature 1931), dies at 66
• Apr 10 Khalil Gibran, Lebanese poet and painter (b. 1883)
• Apr 16 Rachel Bluwstein, Hebrew poet, dies of tuberculosis at 40
• May 9 A[lbert] A[braham] Michelson, American physicist (1907 Nobel), dies at 78
• May 14 David Belasco, American theatrical producer (b. 1853)
• May 14 Denys Finch Hatton, English big-game hunter, dies at 44
• May 17 Johan [Eliza J] de Master, art critic/writer, dies
• May 17 Timothy Cole, American wood engraver, dies at about 71
• May 31 Felix-Raymond-Marie Rouleau, French Canadian cardinal, archbishop of Quebec (b. 1866)
• Jun 4 Ibn Ali Hussein, King of Hejaz, dies
• Jun 13 Shibasaburo Kitasato, Japanese physician (b. 1851)
• Jun 22 Armand Fallières, French president (1906-13), dies at 89
• Jun 29 Nérée Beauchemin, Quebec poet (b. 1850)

• Jul 2 Stephen Babcock, American agricultural chemist (Babcock test and father of scientific dairying), dies at 87
• Jul 4 Emanuele F duke of Aosta, Italian WW I-general/fascist, dies at 62
• Jul 4 Hussein ibn-Ali, sjarif Mecca/king/kalief of Hedzjaz (1917-24), dies
• Jul 15 Ladislaus Bortkiewicz, Russian mathematician 9Poisson distribution) and economist (b. 1868)
• Jul 16 Alice Pike Barney, American painter, dies at 74
• Jul 18 Oskar Minkowski, German Biologist (pancreas and diabetes), dies at 73
• Jul 24 Willem Treub, Dutch economist and politician, dies at 75
• Jul 27 Auguste-Henri Forel, Swiss entomologist (b. 1848)

• Aug 19 Aristides Agramonte y Simoni, Cuban-American Physician, Pathologist and Bacteriologist (yellow fever), dies at 63
• Aug 27 Willem Hubert Nolens, Dutch priest and ambassador to Vatican, dies at 70
• Aug 27 Frank Harris, Irish-American journalist and writer (My Life & Loves), dies at 75
• Aug 27 Francis Marion Smith, American borax magnate (b. 1846)
• Aug 28 Hugh Mahon, Irish-born Australian politician, dies at 74
• Aug 29 David Abercrombie, Abercrombie & Fitch founder, dies at 64
• Aug 31 Marcel Planiol, French private law scholar, dies
• Sep 9 Lujo [Ludwig J von] Brentano, German economist dies at 86
• Sep 10 Dmitri Egorov, Russian mathematician (b. 1869)
• Sep 11 Salvatore Maranzano, Sicilian-born American organized crime figure, dies at 63

• Sep 18 Hazrat Babajan, a Baloch Muslim saint (b. c. 1806)
• Oct 7 Daniel Chester French, American sculptor (Minute Man), dies at 81
• Oct 7 Charles Ricketts, British artist and illustrator, dies at 65
• Oct 8 Sir John Monash, Australian soldier general (b. 1865)
• Oct 10 Carl von Bach, German mechanical engineer, dies at 84
• Oct 13 Ernst Didring, Swedish author (b. 1868)
• Oct 17 Alfons Maria Jakob, German neurologist, dies at 47

• Oct 21 A Schnitzler, writer, dies at 69
• Nov 2 Arthur James Cook, British trade union leader (coal miners), dies of cancer at 47
• Nov 3 Rudolf Wilhelm Canne, Fries playwright (Peaske), dies at 60
• Nov 11 Shibusawa Eiichi, Japanese industrialist (b. 1840)
• Nov 15 C. A. J. van Dishoeck, Dutch publisher, dies at 68
• Nov 17 John Paulus Lotsy, Dutch botanist and geneticist (Resumptio Genetics), dies at 64
• Nov 17 Hara Prasad Shastri, Indian academic, Sanskrit scholar, archivist and historian of Bengali literature, dies at 77
• Nov 19 Xu Zhimo, Chinese poet (b. 1897)
• Dec 5 Vachel Lindsay, American poet (b. 1879)
• Dec 10 Max Elskamp, Belgian author and poet (Six Chansons), dies at 69
• Dec 13 Gustave le Bon, French psychologist (b. 1840)
• Dec 16 Gustave J Waffelaert, Flemish theologist and bishop of Bruges, dies at 82
• Dec 18 Jack "Legs" Diamond, American gangster and bootlegger, murdered at 34
• Dec 23 Wilson Bentley, American scientist (b. 1865)
• Dec 26 Melvil Dewey, American librarian and educator (created Dewey Decimal System for libraries), dies at 80