1931 in the United States
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Events from the year 1931 in the United States.
Incumbents
- President: Herbert Hoover (R-California)
- Vice President: Charles Curtis (R-Kansas)
- Chief Justice: Charles Evans Hughes (New York)
- Speaker of the House of Representatives: Nicholas Longworth (R-Ohio) (until March 4), John Nance Garner (D-Texas) (starting December 7)
- Senate Majority Leader: James Eli Watson (R-Indiana)
- Congress: 71st (until March 4), 72nd (starting March 4)
| Governors and Lieutenant Governors |
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Governors2
Lieutenant Governors2
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Events
January–March
- January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics.
- January 6 – Thomas Edison submits his last patent application.
- February 20 – California gets the go-ahead by the U.S. Congress to build the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge.
- 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 17 – Nevada legalizes gambling.
- March 25 – The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama and charged with rape.
April–June
- 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 18 – Cheverly, Maryland is incorporated.
- April 22 – Austria, Britain, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the USA recognize the Spanish Republic.
- May 1 – Construction of the Empire State Building is completed in New York City.
- 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.[1]
July–September
- July – John Haven Emerson of Cambridge, Massachusetts perfects the Emerson iron lung just in time for the growing polio epidemic.
- July 26 – The International Bible Students Association[2] adopts the name Jehovah's Witnesses at a convention in Columbus, Ohio.
October–December
- October – The Caltech Department of Physics Faculty and graduate students meet with Albert Einstein as a guest.
- October 17 – American gangster Al Capone is sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion in Chicago, Illinois.
- October 24 – The George Washington Bridge is dedicated; it opens to traffic the following day.
- December 12 – The Eta Chapter of Kappa Delta Phi is founded at The University of Maine at Machias.
- December 26 – Phi Iota Alpha, the oldest existing Latino fraternity, is founded.
Undated
- Deuterium is discovered by Harold Clayton Urey.
- The National Committee for Modification of the Volstead Act is formed to work for the repeal of prohibition in the United States.
- Elizabeth Dilling begins anti-communist activism.
Ongoing
- Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937)
- U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915–1934)
- Prohibition (1919–1933)
- Great Depression (1929–1933)
- Dust Bowl (1930–1936)
Births
- January 5
- Alvin Ailey, choreographer (d. 1989)
- Robert Duvall, actor and director
- January 6
- Fern Battaglia, baseball player (d. 2001)
- E. L. Doctorow, novelist (d. 2015)
- January 7 – Mack Mattingly, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1981 to 1987
- January 20
- Preston Henn, businessman, founder of Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop
- David Lee, physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1996
- January 27 – Red Bastien, wrestler, trainer and promoter (d. 2012)
- January 29 – Jim Baumer, baseball player and manager (d. 1996)
- February 18
- Johnny Hart, cartoonist (d. 2007)
- Toni Morrison, African American writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993
- Bob St. Clair, American football player
- February 24 – James Abourezk, U.S. Senator from South Dakota from 1973 to 1979
- March 22 – Burton Richter, physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1976
- March 24 – Connie Hines, actress (d. 2009)
- March 26 – Leonard Nimoy, actor and director (d. 2015)
- March 27 – David Janssen, actor (d. 1980)
- April 10 – James L. Dozier, U.S. Army officer
- April 26 – Ted Stanley, businessman and philanthropist (d. 2016)
- May 16 – Lowell P. Weicker, Jr., U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1971 to 1989
- May 28 – Carroll Baker, actress
- May 31
- John Schrieffer, physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1972
- Shirley Verrett, mezzo-soprano (d. 2010)
- June 1 – Hal Smith, baseball player and coach (d. 2014)
- June 2
- William H. Donaldson, banker and businessman, co-founded Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette
- Larry Jackson, baseball player and politician (d. 1990)
- July 4 – Rick Casares, American football player and soldier (d. 2013)
- August 12 – William Goldman, writer
- August 15
- Joe Feeney, singer (d. 2008)
- Richard F. Heck, chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2010 (d. 2015)
- August 23 – Hamilton O. Smith, microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1978
- September 2 – Alan K. Simpson, U.S. Senator from Wyoming from 1979 to 1997
- September 17 – Anne Bancroft, movie actress (d. 2005)
- September 29 – James Watson Cronin, nuclear physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1980
- October 23 – Jim Bunning, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1999 to 2011
- November 5 – Ike Turner, African American rock musician (d. 2007)
- December 20
- Ike Skelton, lawyer and politician (d. 2013)
- Terry Sanders, director, producer, and screenwriter
- December 27 – Scotty Moore, guitarist (d. 2016)
- December 30 – Skeeter Davis, country singer (d. 2004)
Deaths
- January 4
- Art Acord, actor (born 1890)
- Roger Connor, baseball player and MLB Hall of Famer (born 1857)
- January 14 – Hardy Richardson, baseball player (born 1855)
- January 22 – Alma Rubens, actress (born 1897)
- February 18 – Louis Wolheim, actor (born 1880)
- February 28
- Laton Alton Huffman, photographer of the American frontier and Native American life (born 1854)
- Thomas S. Rodgers, admiral (born 1858)
- March 20 – Joseph B. Murdock, United States Navy admiral and New Hampshire politician (born 1851)
- March 24 – Robert Edeson, actor (born 1868)
- March 25 – Ida Wells, African-American lynching crusader
- March 28 – Ban Johnson, baseball executive (born 1864)
- March 31 – Knute Rockne, football coach (born 1888)
- April 9 – Nicholas Longworth, politician, Speaker of the House (born 1869)
- April 26 – George Herbert Mead, philosopher (born 1863)
- May 2 – George Fisher Baker, financier and philanthropist (born 1840)
- May 14 – David Belasco, Broadway impresario, theater owner and playwright (born 1853)
- June 2 – Joseph Farnham, screenwriter (born 1884)
- August 6 – Bix Beiderbecke, jazz trumpeter (born 1903)
- August 27 – Francis Marion Smith, businessman (born 1846)
- September 17 – Marvin Hart, World Heavyweight Boxing Champion (born 1876)
- October 6 – Carrie Babcock Sherman, wife of James S. Sherman, Second Lady of the United States (born 1856)
- October 18 – Thomas Edison, inventor (born 1847)
- October 31 – Charles E. Rushmore, businessman, attorney, namesake of Mount Rushmore (born in 1857)
- November 4 – Buddy Bolden, African-American musician (born 1877)
- November 6 – Jack Chesbro, baseball player and MLB Hall of Famer (born 1874)
- December 5 – Vachel Lindsay, poet (born 1879)
- December 18 – Jack Diamond, gangster (born 1897)
- December 23 – Tyrone Power, Sr., actor (born 1869)
- December 26 – Melvil Dewey, librarian, inventor of Dewey Decimal Classification (born 1851)
See also
References
- ^ "Wiley Post". U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
- ^ Corporations of Jehovah's Witnesses#International Bible Students Association
External links
Media related to 1931 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons
