1931


title: "1931" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1931"] topic_path: "general/1931" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1931" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::callout[type=note] 1931 ::

| image_style = border:none;b | perrow = 3/3 | image1 = 0964.a.0730.tif | image2 = Bundesarchiv Bild 102-12023, Berlin, Bankenkrach, Andrang bei der Sparkasse.jpg | image3 = Mukden 1931 japan shenyang.jpg | image4 = 1931 Hawkes Bay Earthquake - Collapsed Building (unidentified) (24655070915) (cropped).jpg | image5 = 3.7inchHowitzerBarzanOperations1932.jpg | image6 = Empire State Building exterior (cropped).jpg | total_width = 350 | footer = From top to bottom, left to right: The catastrophic 1931 China floods submerge vast regions along the Yangtze, Huai, and Yellow Rivers, killing 1–4 million and becoming one of history’s deadliest natural disasters; the European banking crisis of 1931 begins with the collapse of Creditanstalt, spreading financial turmoil across Austria and Germany and deepening the Great Depression; the Mukden Incident in Manchuria sees a staged explosion by Japanese forces used to justify invasion, setting the stage for the Second Sino-Japanese War; the Hawke's Bay earthquake strikes New Zealand’s North Island, killing 256 and prompting a massive Art Deco rebuilding of Napier; the Ahmed Barzani revolt erupts in northern Iraq as Kurdish forces challenge the government, highlighting ethnic tensions; and the Empire State Building opens in New York City, becoming the world’s tallest skyscraper and a symbol of modern ambition.

Events

January

Main article: January 1931

February

Main article: February 1931

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Delhi_India_Government.jpg" caption="[[February 10]]: New Delhi becomes India's capital"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Ford_Trimotor.jpg" caption="[[February 21]]: [[Ford Trimotor]] hijacked"] ::

  • February 4 – Soviet leader Joseph Stalin gives a speech calling for rapid industrialization, arguing that only strong industrialized countries will win wars, while "weak" nations are "beaten". Stalin states: "We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they will crush us." The first five-year plan in the Soviet Union is intensified, for the industrialization and collectivization of agriculture.
  • February 10 – Official inauguration ceremonies for New Delhi as the capital of India begin.
  • February 16Pehr Evind Svinhufvud is elected president of Finland.
  • February 21Peruvian revolutionaries hijack a Ford Trimotor aeroplane, and demand that the pilot drop propaganda leaflets over Lima.

March

Main article: March 1931

April

Main article: April 1931

May

Main article: May 1931

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Manhattan_at_Dusk_by_slonecker.jpg" caption="[[May 1]]: [[Empire State Building]] is completed."] ::

June

Main article: June 1931

  • June–November – 1931 China flood: the Yangtze and Huai Rivers flood in a populous region, leaving an estimated 422,000 dead (150,000 drowned) with many more dying of consequential starvation and disease in the aftermath.
  • June 5
    • German Chancellor Heinrich Brüning visits London, where he warns 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.
    • Anti-Chinese rioting occurs in Pyongyang. Approximately 127 Chinese people are killed, 393 wounded, and a considerable number of properties are destroyed by Korean residents.
  • June 14Saint-Philibert disaster: The overloaded pleasure craft Saint-Philibert, carrying trippers home to Nantes from the Île de Noirmoutier, sinks at the mouth of the River Loire in France; over 450 drown.
  • June 19
  • June 23July 1Wiley Post and Harold Gatty accomplish the first round-the-world flight in a single-engine plane, flying eastabout from Roosevelt Field, New York, in 8 days, 15 hours, 51 minutes.

July

Main article: July 1931

August

Main article: August 1931

September

Main article: September 1931

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Jiǔ-yībā_Lìshǐ_Bówùguǎn九・一八歴史博物館106997.jpg" caption="[[September 18]]: The [[Mukden Incident]]: Incident Museum in [[Shenyang]]"] ::

October

Main article: October 1931

November

Main article: November 1931

December

Main article: December 1931

Births

January

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Robert_Duvall_2_by_David_Shankbone.jpg" caption="[[Robert Duvall"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Caterina_Valente_1966.jpg" caption="[[Caterina Valente"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/James_Earl_Jones_(8516667383).jpg" caption="[[James Earl Jones"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Sam_Cooke_billboard.jpg" caption="[[Sam Cooke"] ::

February

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Борис_Николаевич_Ельцин-1.jpg" caption="[[Boris Yeltsin"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Dries_van_Agt,2011(cropped).jpg" caption="[[Dries van Agt"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Isabel_peron_banda_presidencial_y_bastón.png" caption="[[Rip Torn]]]]-->"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/James_Dean_in_Rebel_Without_a_Cause.jpg" caption="[[James Dean"] ::

March

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/RIAN_archive_850809_General_Secretary_of_the_CPSU_CC_M.Gorbachev(close-up).jpg" caption="[[Mikhail Gorbachev"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Chun_Doo-hwan_1983_(cropped).JPEG" caption="[[Chun Doo-hwan"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/León_Febres_Cordero.jpg" caption="[[León Febres Cordero"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Rupert_Murdoch_-Flickr-_Eva_Rinaldi_Celebrity_and_Live_Music_Photographer.jpg" caption="[[Rupert Murdoch"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/William_Shatner_Photo_Op_GalaxyCon_Richmond_2020.jpg" caption="[[William Shatner"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Leonard_Nimoy_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg" caption="[[Leonard Nimoy"] ::

April

May

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Willie_Mays_cropped.jpg" caption="[[Willie Mays"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Carroll_Baker_headshot_for_Station_Six-Sahara_1962.png" caption="[[Carroll Baker"] ::

June

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Raul-castro-2015_(cropped).jpg" caption="[[Raúl Castro"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/João_Gilberto.jpg" caption="[[João Gilberto"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Marla_Gibbs.jpg" caption="[[Marla Gibbs"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Fernando_Henrique_Cardoso_(1999).jpg" caption="[[Fernando Henrique Cardoso"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Olympia_Dukakis_2019.jpg" caption="[[Olympia Dukakis"] ::

July

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Leslie_Caron-publicity.JPG" caption="[[Leslie Caron"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Seyni_Kountche_1983_cropped.jpg" caption="[[Seyni Kountché"] ::

August

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Don_King_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg" caption="Don King"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Life_Ball_2013_-magenta_carpet_Barbara_Eden_01(cropped).jpg" caption="[[Barbara Eden"] ::

September

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Ian_Holm.jpg" caption="[[Ian Holm"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/Barbara_Bain.jpg" caption="[[Barbara Bain"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Larry_Hagman_2011_(cropped).jpg" caption="[[Larry Hagman"] ::

October

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Desmond_Tutu,1986_Jan(cropped).jpg" caption="[[Desmond Tutu"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/A._P._J._Abdul_Kalam_in_2008.jpg" caption="[[A. P. J. Abdul Kalam"] ::

November

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Mwai_Kibaki,_October_2003.jpg" caption="[[Mwai Kibaki"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Adolfo_Pérez_Esquivel,_premio_Nobel_de_la_Paz_en_1980,_Visitó_al_Presidente_de_la_Asamblea_Nacional,Fernando_Cordero.(5076794488).jpg" caption="[[Adolfo Pérez Esquivel"] ::

December

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Rita_Moreno_face.jpg" caption="[[Rita Moreno"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Mr._Le_Kha_Phieu.jpg" caption="[[Lê Khả Phiêu]]]]-->"] ::

Deaths

January

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/1901-princess-royal-louise.jpg" caption="[[Louise, Princess Royal"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Anna_Pavlova_as_the_Dying_Swan.jpg" caption="[[Anna Pavlova"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Otto_Wallach_1880s.jpg" caption="[[Otto Wallach"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Friedrich_Wilhelm_Murnau.jpg" caption="[[F. W. Murnau"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Giuseppe_„Joe“_Masseria.jpg" caption="[[Joe Masseria"] ::

February

March

April

May

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Patriarch_Damian_of_Jerusalem.jpg" caption="Patriarch [[Damian I of Jerusalem"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Hamaguchi_Osachi_1.jpg" caption="[[Hamaguchi Osachi"] ::

June

July

August

September

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Carl_Pietzner_-Erzherzog_Leopold_Salvator_von%C3%96sterreich-Toskana,1905(LC-DIG-ggbain-06226).jpg" caption="[[Archduke Leopold Salvator of Austria"] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Omar_Mukhtar_13.jpg" caption="[[Omar al-Mukhtar"] ::

October

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Thomas_Edison.jpg" caption="[[Thomas Edison"] ::

November

December

Nobel Prizes

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Nobel_medal.png"] ::

References

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::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

1931