1931 Timeline

1931 Agatha Christie publishes The Sittaford Mystery
The Sittaford Mystery is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in 1931 under the title of The Murder at Hazlemoor and in U...
1931 Frida Kahlo Paints "Frieda and Diego Rivera"
In 1931, while in San Francisco, Frida painted "Frieda and Diego Rivera", a folkloric style double-portrait that may have been based on a wedding photograph. The painting, shown at the "...
1931 Frida Kahlo Paints "Los Tres Amigos"
As a token of their friendship, and to repay him for his service, Kahlo painted a portrait of Dr. Eloesser in 1931 at his home on Leavenworth Street. Executed in oil on cardboard, it show...
1931
to 1935
Gerald Ford Attends the University of Michigan
1931-1935 Ford attends the University of Michigan and graduates with a B.A. in Economics. He joins the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and is a member of Michigamua, an esteeemed senior ...
1931
to 1936
Hoover Dam Constructed
Hoover Dam, once known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the US states of Arizona and Nevada. It was constr...
1931 Jane Addams and Nicholas Murray Butler Win the Nobel Peace Prize
Born in Cedarville, Illinois, Jane Addams was the youngest of six children born into a prosperous, loving family. Although she was the eighth child, two of her siblings died in infancy, l...
1931 Ronald Reagan Wins Award for Performance in "Aria da Capo"
His mother taught him to read before entering elementary school. He was a good student in high school and a star athlete, playing on the football, basketball, and track teams. As a senior...
1931 'The Pocket Book of Boners' is Published
The Pocket Book of Boners is a book illustrated by Dr. Seuss, originally published as four separate books in 1931 by The Viking Press. In 1941, Readers' League of America compiled these f...
1931 Feb 3 Hawke's Bay Earthquake
The 7.9 earthquake struck at 10.46 on the morning of February 3, 1931, the first day of the school year, a beautiful summer’s day. It was felt as two distinct movements half a minute apar...
1931 Feb 6 "City Lights" (film) is Released
City Lights is a 1931 American silent romantic comedy film starring, written and directed by Charlie Chaplin. It also stars Virginia Cherrill and Harry Myers. Despite the fact that the pr...
1931 Feb 7 Amelia Earhart marries George Putnam
For a while she was engaged to Samuel Chapman, a chemical engineer from Boston, breaking off her engagement on November 23, 1928. During the same period, Earhart and Putnam had spent a gr...
1931 Feb 9 'Sanctuary' Is Published
Sanctuary is a novel by the American author William Faulkner. It is considered one of his more controversial, given its theme of rape. First published in 1931, it was Faulkner's commercia...
1931 Feb 12 "Dracula" Is Released
Dracula is a 1931 United States horror film directed by Tod Browning and starring Béla Lugosi as the title character. The film was produced by Universal Pictures Co. Inc. and is based on ...
1931 Mar 5 Lord Irwin, Viceroy of India, Signs the Gandhi-Irwin Pact
Gandhi–Irwin Pact refers to a political agreement signed by Mahatma Gandhi and the then Viceroy of India, Lord Irwin on 5th March 1931. before this, the viceroy. Lord Irwin announced in O...
1931 Mar 7 Theo van Doesburg Dies
Van Doesburg stayed active in art groups such as Cercle et Carré, Art Concret and Abstraction-Création, which he founded in 1931. At the end of February 1931 he was forced to move to Davo...
1931 Mar 21 Australian National Airways Southern Cloud Crashes into Snowy Moutains, Killing 8
On 21 March 1931, the Southern Cloud departed at 8:10 AM from Sydney for Melbourne. Onboard were six passengers and two crewmembers, including pilot Travis "Shorty" Shortridge. Weather co...
1931 Mar 31 Transcontinental & Western Air Flight 599 Crashes, Killing 8
Transcontinental and Western Air Flight 599 was a Fokker F.10 Trimotor en route from Kansas City, Missouri, to Los Angeles, California, on March 31, 1931. It crashed ten miles south of Co...
1931 Apr 14 Montreal Canadiens win Stanley Cup
The 1931 Stanley Cup Finals was played between between the Montreal Canadiens and the Chicago Black Hawks, making their first Stanley Cup final appearance. The Canadiens, defending champi...
1931 Apr 23 "The Public Enemy" Is Released
The Public Enemy is a 1931 pre-Code American crime drama film starring James Cagney and directed by William A. Wellman. The movie relates the story of a young man's rise in the criminal u...
1931 May 1 Empire State Building Opens
On May 1, 1931, with the press of a ceremonial button in Washington, D.C., President Herbert Hoover turned on the lights of the Empire State Building for the first time. This event offici...
1931 May 11 "M" Is Released
M (German: M - Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder) is a 1931 German drama-thriller directed by Fritz Lang and written by Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou. It was Lang's first sound film, alth...
1931 Jun 14 Sieghardt Rupp Is Born
Sieghardt Rupp (June 14, 1931 in Bregenz, Vorarlberg, Austria) is an Austrian actor who has performed in film and television and later theatre. He has made over 55 film and TV appearan...
1931 Jul 4 James Joyce and Nora Barnacle are Married
On 4 July 1931 - a date chosen as his father’s birthday - Joyce married Nora, though offering a circumstantial story of a previous marriage between them entered into Trieste which was for...
1931 Jul 20 Nikola Tesla Appears on the Cover of Time Magazine
On Nikola Tesla's birthday in mid-July, the electrical term which his name has become is regenerated as a tall, meagre, eagle-headed man. Reporters hunt him out of his hotel cubicle for h...
1931 Aug 4 Jay W. Jensen Is Born
Jay W. Jensen was a Miami Beach, Florida drama teacher known as "The Teacher to the Stars". Jensen is credited with inspiring the acting talents of such well known actors as Andy Garcia a...
1931 Aug 18 China Flood of 1931
On this day in 1931, the Yangtze River in China peaks during a horrible flood that kills 3.7 million people directly and indirectly over the next several months. This was perhaps the wors...
1931 Aug 29 Gandhi Sets Sail for England to Represent the Indian National Congress at the Second Round Table Conference
On August 29, 1931, Gandhi sailed for England in the SS Rajputana to attend the Second Round Table Conference, He went as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress. All the...
1931 Sep 18 Mukden Incident
On the evening of September 18, 1931, an explosion occurred on the tracks of the South Manchurian Railroad north of the Chinese city of Mukden (today Shen-yang). The railroad was owned an...
1931 Sep 21 Kwantung Army Issues Proclamation Installing Colonel Kenji Doihara as Mayor of Mukden (Modern-Day Shenyang)
The provincial government of Liaoning Province had fled west to Chinchow. Governor Zang Shiyi remained in Mukden, but refused to cooperate with the Japanese in establishing a separatist a...
1931 Sep 28 Earl Little (Malcom X's father) fatally struck by streetcar
After they moved to Lansing, their house was burned in 1929, however the family escaped without physical injury. On September 28, 1931, Earl Little was fatally struck by a streetcar in La...
1931 Sep 30 Lieutenant General Xi Qia Delcares Independence of Kirin Province from the Republic of China Under Protection of the Japanese Army
On 23 September 1931, Lieutenant General Xi Qia of the Kirin Army, was invited by the Japanese to form a provisional government for Kirin Province. In Kirin, the Japanese succeeded in ach...
1931 Oct 1
to 1931 Oct 10
 1931 World Series
In the 1931 World Series, the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Athletics in seven games, a rematch and reversal of fortunes of the 1930 World Series. The same two teams faced of...
1931 Oct 12 Christ the Redeemer Opened
A century passes and the mountain is re-baptized to Corcovado, a name derived from its form, which resembles a hump or hunchback. The next recordings of christ the redeemer history is in ...
1931 Oct 18 Al Capone Convicted of Federal Tax Evasion
The U.S. Treasury Department had been developing evidence on tax evasion charges - in addition to Al Capone, his brother Ralph "Bottles" Capone, Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik, Frank Nitti and...
1931 Oct 18 Thomas Edison Dies
Edison was active in business right up to the end. Just months before his death in 1931, the Lackawanna Railroad implemented electric trains in suburban service from Hoboken to Gladstone,...
1931 Nov 4 Resistance at Nenjiang Bridge
The Resistance at Nenjiang Bridge was a small battle fought between forces of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army against the Imperial Japanese Army and collaborationist forces, after...
1931 Nov 10 4th Academy Awards
The 4th Academy Awards were awarded to films completed and screened in 1930/1931, by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
1931 Nov 15 Battle of Tsitsihar
On November 15, 1931, despite having lost more than 400 killed and 300 wounded since November 5, General Ma declined a Japanese ultimatum to surrender Tsitsihar. On the November 17, in su...
1931 Nov 19 "La Chienne" Is Released
La Chienne, is a 1931 French film by director Jean Renoir. It is the second sound film by the director and the twelfth of his career. The literal English translation of the film's titl...
1931 Nov 21 "Frankenstein" Is Released
Frankenstein is a 1931 horror film from Universal Pictures directed by James Whale and very loosely based on the novel of the same name by Mary Shelley as well as the play adapted from it...
1931 Dec 18 À Nous La Liberté
À nous la liberté (English: "Freedom for Us") is a 1931 French film, directed by René Clair. With a memorable score by Georges Auric, this film has more music than any of Clair's early fi...
1931 Dec 21
to 1932 Jan 3
 Chinchow Operation
While the other Japanese forces and collaborationist Manchurian troops spread out from their bases along the South Manchurian Railway rail lines to clear the countryside, from Mukden, the...
1931 Dec 28 Gandhi Arrives in Bombay After His Visit to Europe
While Gandhi was on the high seas, the arrests of Jawaharlal Nehru and Abdul Ghaffar Khan, two of his ablest lieutenants, had created a crisis. Most of the British officers in India had r...
1931 Dec 31 "Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde" Is Released
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) is a horror film directed by Rouben Mamoulian. and starring Fredric March. The film is an adaptation of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), th...