1931

This article is about the year 1931. For the number see 1931 (number).

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:

Subject

Archaeology Architecture Art Aviation Awards Comics Film Literature (Poetry) Meteorology Music (Country) Rail transport Radio Science Sports Television

By country

Australia Canada China Ecuador France Germany Greece India Ireland Italy Japan Malaya Mexico New Zealand Norway Palestine Mandate Philippines Singapore South Africa Soviet Union United Kingdom United States

Leaders

Sovereign states State leaders Religious leaders Law

Birth and death categories

Births Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments Disestablishments

Works and introductions categories

Works Introductions

1931 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1931 MCMXXXI
Ab urbe condita	2684
Armenian calendar	1380 ԹՎ ՌՅՁ
Assyrian calendar	6681
Bahá'í calendar	87–88
Bengali calendar	1338
Berber calendar	2881
British Regnal year	20 Geo. 5 – 21 Geo. 5
Buddhist calendar	2475
Burmese calendar	1293
Byzantine calendar	7439–7440
Chinese calendar	庚午年十一月十三日 (4567/4627-11-13) — to — 辛未年十一月廿三日 (4568/4628-11-23)
Coptic calendar	1647–1648
Ethiopian calendar	1923–1924
Hebrew calendar	5691–5692
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1987–1988
- Shaka Samvat	1853–1854
- Kali Yuga	5032–5033
Holocene calendar	11931
Igbo calendar
- Ǹrí Ìgbò	931–932
Iranian calendar	1309–1310
Islamic calendar	1349–1350
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 6 (昭和6年)
Juche calendar	20
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4264
Minguo calendar	ROC 20 民國20年
Thai solar calendar	2474

Year 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1931 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events

January

• January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics.
• January 3 – Albert Einstein begins doing research at the California Institute of Technology, along with astronomer Edwin Hubble.
• January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa.
• January 6 – Thomas Edison submits his last patent application.
• January 22 – Sir Isaac Isaacs is sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia.
• January 25 – Mohandas Gandhi is released again in India.^{[citation needed]}
• January 27 – Pierre Laval forms a government in France.
• January 30 – The release of the movie City Lights starring Charlie Chaplin.

February

• February 3 – Hawke's Bay earthquake: Much of the New Zealand city of Napier is destroyed in an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale.
• February 10 – New Delhi becomes the capital of India.
• February 12 – Radio Vaticana first broadcasts.
• February 14 – The original film version of Dracula with Bela Lugosi is released.
• February 16 – Pehr Evind Svinhufvud is elected president of Finland.
• February 20 – California gets the go-ahead by the U.S. Congress to build the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge.
• February 21 – Peruvian revolutionaries hijack a Ford Trimotor aeroplane and demand that the pilot drop propaganda leaflets over Lima.

February 10: New Delhi becomes India's capital

February 21: Ford Trimotor hijacked

March

• March 1 – The USS Arizona is placed back in full commission after a refit.
• March 3 – The Star-Spangled Banner is adopted as the United States National anthem.
• March 5 – The British viceroy of India and Mohandas Gandhi sign the Gandhi–Irwin Pact.
• March 7 – The new House of Representatives opens in Helsinki, Finland.
• March 11 – The Ready for Labour and Defence of the USSR programme, abbreviated as GTO, is introduced in the Soviet Union.
• March 17 – Nevada legalizes gambling.
• March 23 – Indian revolutionary leaders Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev are hanged by the British Government.
• March 25 – The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama and charged with rape.
• March 27 – British writer Arnold Bennett dies of typhoid in London shortly after returning from a visit to Paris, where he drank local water to prove it was safe.
• March 31 – An earthquake destroys Managua, Nicaragua, killing 2,000 people.

April

• April 6 – The Portuguese government declares martial law in Madeira and in the Azores because of an attempted military takeover in Funchal.
• April 9 – Argentinian anarchist Severino Digiovanni is executed.
• April 14 – The Second Spanish Republic is proclaimed in Madrid.
• April 15 – The Castellemmarese War ends with the assassination of Joe "The Boss" Masseria, briefly leaving Salvatore Maranzano as capo di tutti i capi ("boss of all bosses") and undisputed ruler of the American Mafia. Maranzano is himself assassinated less than 6 months later, leading to the establishment of the Five Families.
• April 22 – Austria, Britain, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the USA recognize the Spanish Republic.

May

May 1: Empire State Building is completed.

• May 1 – Construction of the Empire State Building is completed in New York City.
• May 4 – Kemal Atatürk is re-elected president of Turkey.
• May 5 – İsmet İnönü forms new government in Turkey. (7th government)
• May 11 – The Creditanstalt, Austria's largest bank, goes bankrupt, beginning the banking collapse in Central Europe that causes a worldwide financial meltdown.
• May 13 – Paul Doumer is elected president of France.

June

• June 5 – German Chancellor Dr. Heinrich Brüning visits London, where he warns the 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.
• June 12 – Charlie Parker equals J.T. Hearne's record for the earliest date to reach 100 wickets.
• June 14 – The overloaded pleasure craft Saint-Philibert, carrying trippers home to Nantes from 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, President Herbert Hoover issues the Hoover Moratorium.
• June 23 – Wiley Post and Harold Gatty take off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island in an attempt to accomplish the first round-the-world flight in a single-engine plane.

July

• July – John Haven Emerson of Cambridge, Massachusetts perfects the Emerson iron lung just in time for the growing polio epidemic.
• July 1 – Milan Central Station officially opens in Italy.
• July 9 – Irish racing driver Kaye Don breaks the world water speed record at Lake Garda, Italy.
• July 16 – Emperor Haile Selassie signs the first constitution of Ethiopia.
• July 26 – The millennialist Bible Student movement adopts the name Jehovah's Witnesses at a meeting in Columbus, Ohio.

August

• The 1931 China floods reach their peak in possibly the deadliest natural disaster yet recorded
• August 24 – The Labour Government of Ramsay MacDonald resigns in Britain, replaced by a National Government of people drawn from all parties, also under MacDonald.

September

September 18: The Mukden Incident: Incident Museum in Shenyang

• September 5 – John Thomson, football player, dies in an accident during a Celtic–Rangers match.
• September 7 – 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 Belize history kills an estimated 1,500.
• September 15 – Invergordon Mutiny: Strikes are called in the Royal Navy due to decreased salaries.
• September 16 – Hanging of Omar Mukhtar.
• September 18
  • Japan stages the Mukden Incident as a pretext to occupy Manchuria.
  • Geli Raubal commits suicide in Adolf Hitler's apartment.
• September 20– With a gun literally pointed to his head the Chinese commander of Kirin province announces the annexation of that territory to Japan.
• September 22 – United Kingdom abandons gold standard.
• October – The Caltech Department of Physics Faculty and graduate students meet with Albert Einstein as a guest.

October

• October 4 – Dick Tracy, the comic strip detective character created by cartoonist Chester Gould, makes his debut appearance in the Detroit Mirror newspaper.
• October 5 – American aviators Clyde Edward Pangborn and Hugh Herndon, Jr., complete the first non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean, from Misawa, Japan, to East Wenatchee, Washington, in 41½ hours.
• October 17
  • Leeds Bradford International Airport is opened as Leeds and Bradford Municipal Aerodrome in England.
  • American gangster Al Capone is sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion in Chicago.
• October 24 – The George Washington Bridge is dedicated; it opens to traffic the following day.

November

• November 7 – The Chinese Soviet Republic is proclaimed by Mao Zedong.
• 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 21 – The infamous Red-and-White Party, given by art dealer Arthur Jeffress in Maud Allan’s Regent’s Park townhouse. The event is acknowledged as the death-knell of the Bright Young People subculture in Britain.
• November 25 – Heavy Hydrogen, later named Deuterium, is discovered by chemist Harold Clayton Urey.
  • Ali Fethi Okyar forms a new government in Turkey (third government).
  • Release of James Whale's film of Frankenstein in New York.

December

• December 8 – Carl Friedrich Goerdeler is appointed Reich Price Commissioner in Germany to enforce the deflationary policies of the Brüning government.
• December 10
  • Jane Addams became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
  • Niceto Alcalá-Zamora is elected president of the Spanish Republic.
• December 11 – The British Parliament enacts the Statute of Westminster, which establishes a status of legislative equality between the self-governing dominions of the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of Canada, the Irish Free State, Newfoundland, the Dominion of New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa.
• December 13 – Wakatsuki Reijirō resigns as Prime Minister of Japan.
• December 26 – Phi Iota Alpha, the oldest existing Latino fraternity, is founded.
• December 31 – Statute of Westminster creates the British Commonwealth of Nations.

Date unknown

• Ust-Abakanskoye becomes Abakan.
• The National Committee for Modification of the Volstead Act is formed to work for the repeal of prohibition in the United States.
• Salvador Dalí's The Persistence of Memory is put on display for the first time in Paris at the Galerie Pierre Colle.
• The automobile manufacturer "Porsche" gets founded.

Births

January–February

• January 5
  • Alvin Ailey, American choreographer (d. 1989)
  • Alfred Brendel, Austrian pianist
  • Robert Duvall, American actor and director
• January 6
  • Fern Battaglia, American professional baseball player (d. 2001)
  • E. L. Doctorow, American author
• January 8 – Bill Graham, German concert promoter (d. 1991)
• January 10 – Peter Barnes, English playwright and screenwriter (d. 2004)
• January 12 – Roland Alphonso, Jamaican musician (d. 1998)
• January 13 – Charles Nelson Reilly, American actor (d. 2007)
• January 14 – Caterina Valente, French singer and actress
• January 16
  • Ellen Holly, American actress
  • Johannes Rau, President of Germany (d. 2006)
• January 17 – James Earl Jones, American actor
• January 18 – Chun Doo-hwan, President of South Korea
• January 19
  • Pat Hunt, New Zealand National Party politician
  • Robert MacNeil, Canadian journalist
• January 20 – David Lee, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• January 22 – Sam Cooke, American singer (d. 1964)
• January 24 – Lars Hörmander, Swedish mathematician (d. 2012)
• January 26 – Alfred Lynch, English actor (d. 2003)
• January 27 – Mordecai Richler, Canadian author (d. 2001)
• January 29 – Ferenc Madl, President of Hungary
• January 30 – Allan W. Eckert, American historian, naturalist, and author
• January 31 – Ernie Banks, American baseball player
• February 1
  • Tajuddin Ahmed, former President of Bangladesh
  • Boris Yeltsin, President of Russia (d. 2007)
• February 2
  • Dries van Agt, Dutch politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1977 until 1982
  • Les Dawson, British comedian (d. 1993)
• February 6
  • Rip Torn, American actor and director
  • Mamie Van Doren, American actress and author
• February 8 – James Dean, American actor (d. 1955)
• February 9 – Thomas Bernhard, Dutch author (d. 1989)
• February 11 – Larry Merchant, American author and boxing commentator
• February 13 – Geoff Edwards, American actor and game show host
• February 16
  • George E. Sangmeister, American politician (d. 2007)
  • Ken Takakura, Japanese actor
• February 18
  • Johnny Hart, American cartoonist (d. 2007)
  • Toni Morrison, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate
  • Bob St. Clair, American football player
• February 24 – Brian Close, British cricketer
• February 25 – Eric Edgar Cooke, Australian Murderer (d. 1964)
• February 26 – Ally McLeod, Scottish football manager
• February 28
  • Gavin MacLeod, American actor and Mayor of Pacific Palisades
  • Dean Smith, American basketball coach

March–April

• March 2
  • Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the Soviet Union, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
  • Tom Wolfe, American novelist and journalist
• March 3 – John Smith, American actor (d. 1995)
• March 4
  • Wally Bruner, American journalist and television host (d. 1997)
  • William Cardinal Keeler, American Roman Catholic prelate
  • Alice Rivlin, American economist
• March 8 – Neil Postman, American media theorist and cultural critic
• March 11 – Rupert Murdoch, Australian-born publisher
• March 18 – Shirley Stovroff, American female professional baseball player (d. 1994)
• March 20
  • Hal Linden, American actor and singer
  • Karen Steele, American actress (d. 1988)
• March 22
  • Burton Richter, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
  • William Shatner, Canadian actor
• March 24 – Connie Hines, American actress (d. 2009)
• March 26 – Leonard Nimoy, American actor and director
• March 29
  • Aleksei Gubarev, Russian cosmonaut
  • Norman Tebbit, British politician
• April 1
  • Ita Ever, Estonian actress
  • Rolf Hochhuth, German writer
• April 5 – Héctor Olivera, Argentine film director, producer and screenwriter
• April 6 – Suchitra Sen (Roma Dasgupta), legendary Bengali actress
• April 11
  • Luis Cabral, Guinea-Bissauan President (d. 2009)
  • Mustafa Dagistanli, Turkish free-style wrestler
  • Johnny Sheffield, American child actor (d. 2010)
• April 15 – Helen Maksagak, Canadian, first Inuk and woman to be the Commissioner of both the Northwest Territories and Nunavut (d. 2009)
• April 27 – Igor Oistrakh, Ukrainian violinist
• April 29
  • Frank Auerbach, German-born painter
  • Lonnie Donegan, Scottish musician (d. 2002)

May–June

• May 6 – Willie Mays, African-American baseball player
• May 7 – Teresa Brewer, American pop and jazz singer (d. 2007)
• May 13
  • Jim Jones, American cult leader (d. 1978)
  • Jiri Petr, Czech university president
• May 14 – Alvin Lucier, American composer
• May 15
  • Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse
  • Ken Venturi, American golfer
• May 16
  • Jack Dodson, American actor (d. 1994)
  • Natwar Singh, Indian politician
• May 17 – Marshall Applewhite, Heaven's Gate religious sect founder (d. 1997)
• May 18 – Robert Morse, American actor
• May 19 – Eric Tappy, Swiss tenor
• May 20 – Ken Boyer, American baseball player (d. 1982)
• May 23 – Patience Cleveland, American actress and diarist (d. 2004)
• May 25 – Georgy Grechko, Russian cosmonaut
• May 28 – Carroll Baker, American actress
• May 30 – Fr. John O'Brien, Irish priest and musician (d. 2008)
• May 31
  • John Schrieffer, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
  • Shirley Verrett, American mezzo-soprano (d. 2010)
• June 2 – Larry Jackson, American baseball player (d. 1990)
• June 3
  • Raúl Castro, President of Cuba
  • Lindy Remigino, American athlete
• June 7 – Malcolm Morley, English-born painter
• June 8 – Dana Wynter, German-born American actress (d. 2011)
• June 9
  • Jackie Mason, American comedian
  • Joe Santos, American actor
• June 10 – João Gilberto, Brazilian musician
• June 13 – Moysés Baumstein, Brazilian holographer and artist
• June 14
  • Kenneth Cope, English actor
  • Ross Higgins, Australian actor
  • Marla Gibbs, American comedic actress and singer
  • Junior Walker, American saxophonist and singer (d. 1995)
• June 18 – Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former President of Brazil
• June 20
  • Olympia Dukakis, American actress
  • Arne Nordheim, Norwegian composer (d. 2010)
• June 21 – Margaret Heckler, American Secretary of Health and Human Services
• June 24 – Billy Casper, American golfer
• June 25 – Vishwanath Pratap Singh, former Prime Minister of India (d. 2008)
• June 26 – Colin Wilson, British writer
• June 27 – Martinus J. G. Veltman, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• June 29 – Brian Hutton, Baron Hutton, former Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland and British Lord of Appeal in Ordinary

July–August

• July 1
  • Leslie Caron, French actress
  • Seyni Kountche, former President of Niger (d. 1987)
• July 2 – Robert Ito, Canadian actor
• July 4 – Stephen Boyd, Irish actor (d. 1977)
• July 5 – Ismail Mahomed, South African and Namibian Chief Justice (d. 2000)
• July 6
  • Jean Campeau, French Canadian businessman and politician
  • Robert Dunham, American actor and writer (d. 2001)
  • Della Reese, American actress, singer and evangelist (Touched By An Angel)
• July 7 – David Eddings, American novelist (d. 2009)
• July 10
  • Nick Adams, American actor (d. 1968)
  • Alice Munro, Canadian writer
• July 11 – Tab Hunter, American actor and singer (Damn Yankees)
• July 15 – Clive Cussler, American author
• July 19 – Mary Lou Studnicka, American female professional baseball player
• July 23 – Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, Māori Queen (d. 2006)
• July 26 – Fred Foster, American songwriter and record producer
• July 27 – Jerry Van Dyke, American comedian and actor
• August 7 – Charles E. "Charlie" Rice, American legal scholar and author
• August 9 – Mario Zagallo, Brazilian football player and manager
• August 12 – William Goldman, American author
• August 15 – Joe Feeney, American singer (d. 2008)
• August 18
  • Hans van Mierlo, Dutch politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister (d. 2010)
  • Bramwell Tillsley, General of The Salvation Army
• August 19 – Willie Shoemaker, American jockey (d. 2003)
• August 20 – Don King, American boxing promoter
• August 23 – Hamilton O. Smith, American microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Regis Philbin

• August 25
  • Hal Fishman, Los Angeles based local news anchor (d. 2007)
  • Regis Philbin, American television personality
• August 27

Sri Chinmoy (1931-2007)

• • Sri Chinmoy, Bengali spiritual teacher, poet, artist and athlete who immigrated to the U.S. in 1964 (d. 2007)
• August 28 – John Shirley-Quirk, English bass-baritone
• August 30
  • Jacques Braunstein, Romanian-born Venezuelan economist, publicist and disc jockey (d. 2009)
  • Jack Swigert, American astronaut (d. 1982)
• August 31
  • Jean Béliveau, Canadian hockey player
  • Kenny Burrell, American jazz musician
  • Noble Willingham, American actor (d. 2004)

September–October

• September 1
  • Cecil Parkinson, British politician
  • Javier Solis, Mexican ranchera & bolero singer (d. 1966)
• September 4 – Mitzi Gaynor, American actress, singer and dancer
• September 8 – Jack Rosenthal, English playwright (d. 2004)
• September 10 – Philip Baker Hall, American actor
• September 12
• September 14
  • Dr. Thomas P. Mulcahey, Nuclear Scientist (d. 2011)
  • Sir Ian Holm, British actor
  • George Jones, American country music singer and songwriter (d. 2013)
• September 17 – Anne Bancroft, American actress (d. 2005)
• September 21
  • Gertrude Alderfer, American female professional baseball player
  • Gloria Cordes, American female professional baseball player
  • Larry Hagman, American actor and director (d. 2012)
• September 22
  • Fay Weldon, British author
  • George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, British politician (d. 2003)
• September 23 – Gerald Stairs Merrithew, Canadian educator and statesman (d. 2004)
• September 29
  • James Watson Cronin, American nuclear physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
  • Anita Ekberg, Swedish actress
• September 30
  • Angie Dickinson, American actress
  • Wesley L. Fox, U.S. Marine Corps officer
• October 1 – Alan Wagner, American opera critic
• October 3 – Denise Scott Brown, American architect
• October 6 – Riccardo Giacconi, Italian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• October 7
  • Cotton Fitzsimmons, American basketball coach (d. 2004)
  • Desmond Tutu, South African Anglican archbishop and activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• October 13 – Eddie Mathews, baseball player (d. 2001)
• October 15 – Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, President of India
• October 16
  • James Chace, American historian (d. 2004)
  • Charles Colson, American politician; Watergate conspirator (d. 2012)
  • Rosa Rosal, Filipino actress and humanitarian
• October 17
  • José Alencar, Brazilian politician (d. 2011)
  • Ernst Hinterberger, Austrian writer
• October 19
  • John le Carré, English novelist
  • Manolo Escobar, Spanish singer and actor.
• October 20
  • Morris Cerullo, American televangelist
  • Mickey Mantle, American baseball player (d. 1995)
• October 23
  • Jim Bunning, American baseball player and U.S. Senator
  • Diana Dors, English actress (d. 1984)
• October 25 – Jimmy McIlroy, Irish footballer and football manager
• October 31
  • Isabel Alvarez, Cuban female professional baseball player
  • Dan Rather, American television news reporter

November–December

• November 3
  • Peggy McCay, American actress
  • Michael Fu Tieshan, Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association bishop (d. 2007)
  • Monica Vitti, Italian actress
• November 4 – Marie Mansfield, American professional baseball player
• November 5 – Ike Turner, African-American singer and songwriter (d. 2007)
• November 6 – Mike Nichols, German-American television actor, writer and director
• November 8
  • Darla Hood, American actress (d. 1979)
  • Morley Safer, Canadian journalist
• November 9 – Whitey Herzog, American baseball player
• November 12 – Bob Crewe, American singer, songwriter, manager, and producer
• November 15 – Mwai Kibaki, third President of Kenya
• November 16 – Hubert Sumlin, American blues musician
• November 21
  • Revaz Dogonadze, Georgian physicist (d. 1985)
  • Malcolm Williamson, Australian composer (d. 2003)
• November 23 – Dervla Murphy, Irish author
• November 26 – Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Argentine activist; recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• December 1
  • Jimmy Lyons, American musician (d. 1986)
  • Jim Nesbitt, American country music singer (d. 2007)
• December 2
  • Nigel Calder, British science writer
  • Edwin Meese, American attorney, law professor, and author; 75th Attorney General of the United States (1985–1988)
• December 3 – Jaye P. Morgan, American singer, chanteuse
• December 9 – Ladislav Smoljak, Czech film and theater director, actor and screenwriter
• December 11 – Rita Moreno, Puerto Rican-American actress
• December 12 – Lionel Blair, British actor, choreographer, dancer, headmaster and TV presenter
• December 17 – Dave Madden, Canadian-American actor
• December 23 – Ronnie Schell, American actor
• December 24 – Mauricio Kagel, Argentine composer (d. 2008)
• December 28 – Martin Milner, American actor
• December 30 – Skeeter Davis, American singer (d. 2004)
• December 31 – Bob Shaw, Irish writer (d. 1996)

Date unknown

• Lyle Lahey, American cartoonist

Deaths

January–March

• January 3 – Joseph Joffre, French World War I general (b. 1852)
• January 4
  • Art Acord, American actor (b. 1890)
  • Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife, British royal, eldest daughter of Edward VII (b. 1867)
• January 11 – James Milton Carroll, Baptist pastor, historian, and author (b. 1852)
• January 14 – Hardy Richardson, baseball player (b. 1855)
• January 22 – Alma Rubens, American actress (b. 1897)
• January 23 – Anna Pavlova, Russian ballerina (b. 1881)
• February 11 – Charles Algernon Parsons, British inventor (b. 1854)
• February 16 – Wilhelm von Gloeden, German photographer (b. 1856)
• February 18 – Louis Wolheim, American actor (b. 1880)
• February 23 – Dame Nellie Melba, Australian soprano (b. 1861)
• February 26 – Otto Wallach, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1847)
• February 28 – Thomas S. Rodgers, American admiral (b. 1858)
• March 5 – Arthur Tooth, Anglican clergyman (b. 1839)
• March 7 – Akseli Gallén-Kallela, Finnish painter (b. 1865)
• March 11 – F.W. Murnau, German director (b. 1888)
• March 20
  • Hermann Müller, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1876)
  • Joseph B. Murdock, United States Navy admiral and New Hampshire politician (b. 1851)
• March 21 – Bhagat Singh, Indian revolutionary (b. 1908)
• March 24 – Robert Edeson, American actor (b. 1868)
• March 25 – Ida Wells, African-American lynching crusader.
• March 27 – Arnold Bennett, English novelist (b. 1867)
• March 28 – Ban Johnson, American baseball executive (b. 1864)
• March 31 – Knute Rockne, American football coach (b. 1888)

April–June

• April 8 – Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1864)
• April 9 – Nicholas Longworth, American politician, Speaker of the House (b. 1869)
• April 10 – Khalil Gibran, Lebanese poet and painter (b. 1883)
• April 14 – Richard Armstedt, German historian (b. 1851)
• April 20 – Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon, British baronet and Titanic survivor (b. 1862)
• April 26 – George Herbert Mead, American philosopher (b. 1863)
• April 30 – Sammy Woods, English cricketer (b. 1867)
• May 2 – George Fisher Baker, American financier and philanthropist (b. 1840)
• May 9 – Albert Abraham Michelson, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852)
• May 14 – David Belasco, American Broadway impresario, theater owner and playwright (b. 1853)
• June 2 – Joseph Farnham, American screenwriter (b. 1884)
• June 4 – Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, Arab nationalist

July–September

• July 4 – Buddie Petit, American jazz musician
• July 12 – Nathan Söderblom, Swedish archbishop, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1866)
• August 6 – Bix Beiderbecke, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1903)
• August 15 – Nigar Shikhlinskaya, Azerbaijani World War I nurse (b. ca. 1878)
• August 26 – Hamaguchi Osachi, 27th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1870)
• August 27
  • Frank Harris, Irish author and editor (b. 1856)
  • Francis Marion Smith, American businessman (b. 1846)
• September 5 – John Thomson, Scottish footballer (b. 1909)
• September 16 – Omar Mukhtar, the leader of Libyan resistance (b. 1858)

October–December

• October 3 – Carl Nielsen, Danish composer (b. 1865)
• October 13 – Ernst Didring, Swedish writer (b. 1868)
• October 18 – Thomas Edison, American inventor (b. 1847)
• October 24 – Sir Murray Bisset, South African cricketer and Governor of Southern Rhodesia (b. 1876)
• November 4 – Buddy Bolden, African-American musician (b. 1877)
• November 11 – Shibusawa Eiichi, Japanese industrialist (b. 1840)
• November 20 – Julius Drewe, English businessman, retailer and entrepreneur (b. 1856)
• December 2 – Vincent d'Indy, French composer (b. 1851)
• December 5 – Vachel Lindsay, American poet (b. 1879)
• December 18 – Jack Diamond, American gangster (b. 1897)
• December 23 – Tyrone Power, Sr., American actor (b. 1869)
• December 26 – Melvil Dewey, American librarian, inventor of Dewey Decimal Classification (b. 1851)

Date unknown

• Virginia Frances Sterrett, American artist and illustrator (b. 1900)
• Joseph Tabrar, British songwriter (b. 1857)

Nobel Prizes

• Physics – not awarded
• Chemistry – Carl Bosch, Friedrich Bergius
• Physiology or Medicine – Otto Heinrich Warburg
• Literature – Erik Axel Karlfeldt
• Peace – Jane Addams, Nicholas Murray Butler

References

• The 1930s Timeline: 1931 — from American Studies Programs at The University of Virginia
• 1931: A Glance at the Twentieth Century by Henry Hartshorne