1931: Events

1931: January

• January – The National Committee for Modification of the Volstead Act is formed to work for the repeal of Prohibition in the United States.
• 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 again released from imprisonment in India.
• January 27 – Pierre Laval forms a government in France.
• January 30 – Release of the movie City Lights starring Charlie Chaplin.

1931: February

• February 3 – Hawke's Bay earthquake: Much of the New Zealand cities of Napier and Hastings are destroyed in an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale killing 256 people.
• February 4 – Soviet leader Joseph Stalin gives 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." Intensification of the first five-year plan in the Soviet Union for industrialization and collectivization of agriculture.
• February 10 – Official inauguration ceremonies for New Delhi as the capital of India begin.
• February 11 – National Socialist (NSDAP) and German National People's Party (DNVP) members walk out of the German Reichstag in protest against changes in the parliament's protocol intended to limit heckling.
• February 12 – Vatican Radio first broadcasts.
• February 14 – The original film version of Dracula with Bela Lugosi is released in the United States.
• February 16 – Pehr Evind Svinhufvud is elected president of Finland.
• February 20 – California gets the go-ahead by the United States 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

1931: March

• March 1 – The USS Arizona is placed back in full commission after a refit.
• March 1 – Sir Oswald Mosley founds the New Party as a breakaway from the Labour Party in the United Kingdom.
• 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 19 – Westminster St George's by-election in the U.K. results in the victory of the Conservative candidate Duff Cooper. The by-election has been treated virtually as a referendum on the leadership of the Conservative leader Stanley Baldwin, and Duff Cooper's victory ends the campaign by the press barons Lord Beaverbrook and Viscount Rothermere to oust Baldwin.
• March 23 – Indian revolutionary leaders Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar are hanged for conspiracy to murder in the British Raj.
• March 25 – The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama and charged with rape.
• March 27 – English 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.

1931: April

• April 1 – The Second Encirclement Campaign against Jiangxi Soviet in China is launched by the Kuomintang government to destroy the Communist forces in Jiangxi province.
• April 6 – The Portuguese government declares martial law in Madeira and in the Azores because of the Madeira uprising in Funchal.
• April 9 – Argentine anarchist Severino Digiovanni is executed.
• April 12 – Municipal elections in Spain, which are treated as a virtual referendum on the monarchy, result in the triumph for the republican parties.
• April 14 – The Second Spanish Republic is proclaimed in Madrid. Meanwhile, as a result of the victory of the Republican Left of Catalonia, Francesc Macià proclaims in Barcelona the Catalan Republic, as state of the Iberian Federation.
• April 15 – The Castellammarese War ends with the murder of Joe "The Boss" Masseria, briefly leaving Salvatore Maranzano as capo dei capi ("boss of all bosses") of the American Mafia. Maranzano is himself murdered less than 6 months later, leading to the creation of the Commission.
• April 17 – After the negotiations between the republican ministers of Spain and Catalonia, the Catalan Republic becomes into Generalitat of Catalonia, a Catalan autonomous government inside the Spanish Republic.
• April 22 – Austria, the UK, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the United States recognize the Spanish Republic.
• April 25 – The automobile manufacturer Porsche is founded by Ferdinand Porsche in Stuttgart.

1931: 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 a 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.
• May 14 – Ådalen shootings: Five people are killed in Ådalen, Sweden, when soldiers open fire on an unarmed trade union demonstration.
• May 15
  • The Chinese Communists inflict a sharp defeat on the Kuomintang forces.
  • Pope Pius XI issues the encyclical Quadragesimo anno on the "reconstruction of the social order".
• May 31 – The Second Encirclement Campaign against Jiangxi Soviet ends in defeat of the Kuomintang.

1931: June

• June 3 – Salvador Dalí's The Persistence of Memory is put on display for the first time in Paris at the Galerie Pierre Colle.
• 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 – English cricketer Charlie Parker equals J. T. Hearne's record for the earliest date to reach 100 wickets.
• June 14 – Saint-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
  • In an attempt to stop the banking crisis in Central Europe from causing a worldwide financial meltdown, U.S. President Herbert Hoover issues the Hoover Moratorium.
  • The Geneva Convention (1929) relative to the treatment of prisoners of war enters into force.
• June 23–July 1 – Wiley 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.

1931: July

• July – John Haven Emerson of Cambridge, Massachusetts perfects his negative pressure ventilator ("iron lung") just in time for the growing polio epidemic.
• July 1 – Rebuilt Milano Centrale railway station officially opens in Italy.
• July 9 – Irish racing driver Kaye Don breaks the world water speed record at Lake Garda, Italy.
• July 13 – Royal soldiers shoot and kill 22 people demonstrating against the Maharaja Hari Singh of the Indian princely state of Kashmir and Jammu.
• 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.
• July 31 – The May Report in the United Kingdom recommends extensive cuts to government expenditure. This produces a political crisis as many members of the Labour Party (at this time in government) object to the proposals.

1931: August

• The 1931 China floods reach their peak in possibly the deadliest natural disaster yet recorded.
• Warner Brothers releases the first Merrie Melodies cartoon, Lady, Play Your Mandolin.
• August 2 – Murder of Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck, two Berlin police officers are killed by Communists.
• August 9 – Referendum in Prussia for dissolving the Landtag ends with the "yes" side winning 37% of the vote, which is insufficient for calling the early elections. The elections are intended to remove the Social Democratic Party (SPD) government of Otto Braun, which is one of the strongest forces for democracy in Germany. Supporting the "yes" side were the NSDAP, the DNVP and the Communist Party (KPD) while supporting the "no" side were the SPD and Zentrum.
• August 11 – Run on the British pound leads to political and economic crisis in Britain. (See European banking crisis of 1931) leading to ...
• 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.

1931: September

September 18: The Mukden Incident: Incident Museum in Shenyang

• September 5 – John Thomson, Scottish football player, dies as the result of 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 British Honduras history kills an estimated 1,500.
• September 15 – Invergordon Mutiny: Strikes are called in the British Royal Navy due to decreased pay.
• September 16 – Hanging of resistance leader Omar Mukhtar in Italian Libya.
• September 18
  • Japanese military stage the Mukden Incident as a pretext for the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.
  • Geli Raubal commits suicide in her uncle 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 – The United Kingdom abandons the gold standard.

1931: October

• October – The Caltech Department of Physics faculty and graduate students meet with Albert Einstein as a guest.
• 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 11 – Rally in Bad Harzburg, Germany leads to the Harzburg Front being founded, uniting the NSDAP, the DNVP, the Stahlhelm and various other right-wing fractions.
• October 17
  • American gangster Al Capone is sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion in Chicago.
  • Leeds Bradford International Airport is opened as Leeds and Bradford Municipal Aerodrome in England.
• October 24 – The George Washington Bridge across the Hudson River in the United States is dedicated; it opens to traffic the following day. At 3,500 feet (1,100 m), it nearly doubles the previous record for the longest main span in the world.
• October 27 – United Kingdom general election results in the victory of the National Government and the defeat of Labour Party in the country's greatest ever electoral landslide.

1931: November

• November 7
  • The Chinese Soviet Republic is proclaimed by Mao Zedong.
  • Red China News Agency, a predecessor for Xinhua News Agency, officially founded and news wire service start in Ruijin, Jiangxi Province, China.
• 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 Arthur Jeffress in Maud Allan's Regent's Park townhouse in London, marks the end of the "Bright young things" subculture in Britain.
• November 25
  • Ali Fethi Okyar forms a new government in Turkey (third government).
  • Release of James Whale's film of Frankenstein in New York City.
• November 26 – Heavy hydrogen, later named deuterium, is discovered by American chemist Harold Urey.

1931: December

• December 5 – Original Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow (1883) is dynamited by order of Joseph Stalin.
• December 8 – Carl Friedrich Goerdeler is appointed Reich Price Commissioner in Germany to enforce the deflationary policies of the Brüning government.
• December 9 – The Spanish Constituent Cortes approves the Spanish Constitution of 1931, effectively establishing the Second Spanish Republic.
• 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 Parliament of the United Kingdom 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 19 – The UAP/Country Coalition led by Joseph Lyons defeats the Labor Government led by Prime Minister James Scullin. Coming in the aftermath of two splits in the Labor Party, the election came about due to the defeat of the Scullin Government on the floor of the House of Representatives - to date, it is the last federal election where a one-term government was defeated. Lyons would be sworn in January 6th the following year, but not before disbanding the Coalition after the UAP won enough seats to form government in its own right.
• December 26 – Phi Iota Alpha, the oldest surviving Latino fraternity, is founded in the United States.

1931: Date unknown

• Ust-Abakanskoye becomes Abakan.

1931: Births

1931: January

Toshiki Kaifu

Robert Duvall

Caterina Valente

James Earl Jones

• January 1
  • Mohammad Ali Samatar, 5th Prime Minister of Somalia (d. 2016)
  • Shamsul Islam, Bangladeshi politician (d. 2018)
• January 2 – Toshiki Kaifu, 2-Time Prime Minister of Japan
• January 4
  • José Triana, Cuban poet (d. 2018)
  • Cleopa Msuya, 3rd Prime Minister of Tanzania
• 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 (d. 2015)
• January 8 – Bill Graham, German concert promoter (d. 1991)
• January 9 – Ángel Berni, Paraguayan footballer (d. 2017)
• January 10
  • Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, Malaysian politician and Muslim cleric (d. 2015)
  • Peter Barnes, English playwright and screenwriter (d. 2004)
• January 12
  • Roland Alphonso, Jamaican musician (d. 1998)
  • Bert Ormond, Scottish-born New Zealand footballer (d. 2017)
• January 13
  • Ian Hendry, English actor (d. 1984)
  • Charles Nelson Reilly, American actor (d. 2007)
• January 14 – Caterina Valente, French singer and actress
• January 16
  • Shuhrat Abbosov, Uzbek actor, film director, screenwriter, and film producer (d. 2018)
  • 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
  • Ítalo Rossi, Brazilian actor (d. 2011)
  • Pat Hunt, New Zealand National Party politician
  • Robert MacNeil, Canadian journalist
• January 20
  • Sawako Ariyoshi, Japanese writer and novelist (d. 1984)
  • David Lee, American physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics
• January 22 – Sam Cooke, American singer (d. 1964)
• January 24 – Lars Hörmander, Swedish mathematician (d. 2012)
• January 25 – Dean Jones, American actor (d. 2015)
• January 26 – Alfred Lynch, English actor (d. 2003)
• January 27 – Mordecai Richler, Canadian author (d. 2001)
• January 29 – Ferenc Mádl, President of Hungary (d. 2011)
• January 30 – Allan W. Eckert, American historian, naturalist, and author (d. 2011)
• January 31
  • Jack Taylor, American swimmer (d. 1955)
  • Ernie Banks, American baseball player (d. 2015)
  • Lorraine Ellison, American soul singer (d. 1983)

1931: February

Boris Yeltsin

Dries van Agt

Isabel Martinez de Peron

James Dean

• February 1 – Boris Yeltsin, 1st President of Russia (d. 2007)
• February 2
  • Dries van Agt, Dutch politician, 46th Prime Minister of the Netherlands
  • Les Dawson, British comedian (d. 1993)
  • Hillel Zaks, Polish-born Israeli rabbi (d. 2015)
  • Walter Burkert, German writer (d. 2015)
• February 4 – Isabel Martínez de Perón, 41st President of Argentina
• February 6
  • Ricardo Vidal, Filipino Roman Catholic prelate and cardinal (d. 2017)
  • Rip Torn, American actor and director
  • Mamie Van Doren, American actress and author
• February 8
  • James Dean, American actor (d. 1955)
  • Shadia, Egyptian actress and singer (d. 2017)
• February 9
  • Thomas Bernhard, Austrian author (d. 1989)
  • Jack Van Impe, American televangelist
• February 11 – Larry Merchant, American author and boxing commentator
• February 12 – Agustín García-Gasco Vicente, Spanish cardinal (d. 2011)
• February 13 – Geoff Edwards, American actor and game show host (d. 2014)
• February 14 – Jonathan Adams, British actor (d. 2005)
• February 15 – Claire Bloom, English actress
• February 16
  • George E. Sangmeister, American politician (d. 2007)
  • Ken Takakura, Japanese actor (d. 2014)
• February 18
  • Johnny Hart, American cartoonist (d. 2007)
  • Toni Morrison, American writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature
  • Bob St. Clair, American football player (d. 2015)
• February 24
  • Dominic Chianese, American actor and singer
  • Brian Close, English cricketer (d. 2015)
• February 25 – Eric Edgar Cooke, Australian serial killer (d. 1964)
• February 28
  • Gavin MacLeod, American actor and Mayor of Pacific Palisades
  • Dean Smith, American basketball coach (d. 2015)

1931: March

Mikhail Gorbachev

Rupert Murdoch

William Shatner

Leonard Nimoy

• March 1 – Lamberto Dini, Italian politician and economist, 51st Prime Minister of Italy
• March 2
  • Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the Soviet Union, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
  • Tom Wolfe, American novelist and journalist (d. 2018)
• 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 (d. 2017)
  • Ludvig Hope Faye, Norwegian politician (d. 2017)
  • Alice Rivlin, American economist
• March 8 – Neil Postman, American media theorist and cultural critic (d. 2003)
• March 9
  • Jackie Healy-Rae, Irish Politician (d. 2014)
  • León Febres Cordero, President of Ecuador (d. 2008)
• March 11
  • Janosch, German writer
  • Rupert Murdoch, Australian-born publisher
• March 12 – Herb Kelleher, American businessman
• March 15 – Ted Marchibroda, American football player (d. 2016)
• March 17 – Eunice Gayson, English actress
• March 18
  • Shirley Stovroff, American female professional baseball player (d. 1994)
  • Vlastimil Bubník, Czech ice hockey and football player (d. 2015)
• March 20
  • Hal Linden, American actor and singer
  • Karen Steele, American actress (d. 1988)
• March 22
  • Burton Richter, American physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics
  • William Shatner, Canadian actor and science fiction novelist
• March 23 – Ernest A. Finney Jr., American judge (d. 2017)
• March 24 – Connie Hines, American actress (d. 2009)
• March 26 – Leonard Nimoy, American actor and director (d. 2015)
• March 27
  • David Janssen, American actor (d. 1980)
  • Stephen Reinhardt, American jduge (d. 2018)
• March 28 – Anatoly Lein, Russian-born American chess Grandmaster (d. 2018)
• March 29
  • Aleksei Gubarev, Russian cosmonaut (d. 2015)
  • Norman Tebbit, British politician

1931: April

Luis Cabral

Tomas Tranströmer

• 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 (d. 2014)
• April 8 – John Gavin, American actor and diplomat (d. 2018)
• April 11
  • Luis Cabral, 1st President of Guinea-Bissau (d. 2009)
  • Mustafa Dağıstanlı, 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)
  • Tomas Tranströmer, Swedish poet and translator, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (d. 2015)
• April 19 – Kobie Coetsee, South African politician (d. 2000)
• April 27 – Igor Oistrakh, Ukrainian violinist
• April 28 – Nair Bello, Brazilian actress and comedian (d. 2007)
• April 29
  • Frank Auerbach, German-born painter
  • Lonnie Donegan, Scottish musician (d. 2002)
• April 30 – Peter La Farge, American singer and songwriter (d. 1965)

1931: May

Willie Mays

John Schrieffer

• May 1 – Chaudhry Ghulam Rasool, Pakistani educationist (d. 1991)
• May 6 – Willie Mays, American baseball player
• May 7 – Teresa Brewer, American pop and jazz singer (d. 2007)
• May 10 – Ichirō Nagai, Japanese voice actor (d. 2014)
• May 13
  • András Hajnal, Hungarian mathematician (d. 2016)
  • Jim Jones, American cult leader (d. 1978)
  • Jiří Petr, Czech university president (d. 2014)
• 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 (d. 2013)
• May 16
  • Magda Guzmán, Mexican actress (d. 2015)
  • Jack Dodson, American actor (d. 1994)
  • Natwar Singh, Indian politician
• May 17 – Marshall Applewhite, Heaven's Gate religious sect founder (d. 1997)
• May 18
  • Don Martin, American artist (d. 2000)
  • Robert Morse, American actor
  • Clément Vincent, Canadian politician (d. 2018)
• May 19 – Éric Tappy, Swiss tenor
• May 20 – Ken Boyer, American baseball player (d. 1982)
• May 23
  • Barbara Barrie, American actress
  • Patience Cleveland, American actress and diarist (d. 2004)
• May 25 – Georgy Grechko, Russian cosmonaut (d. 2017)
• May 27 – Faten Hamama, Egyptian actress (d. 2015)
• May 28 – Carroll Baker, American actress
• May 30 – Father 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)

1931: June

Raúl Castro

Fernando Henrique Cardoso

Olympia Dukakis

• June 2
  • Viktor Tsaryov, Russian footballer (d. 2017)
  • 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 (d. 2016)
• June 10 – João Gilberto, Brazilian musician
• June 11 – Paul Hardin III, American academic administrator (d. 2017)
• June 13 – Moysés Baumstein, Brazilian holographer and artist (d. 1991)
• June 14
  • Kenneth Cope, English actor
  • Ross Higgins, Australian actor (d. 2016)
  • Marla Gibbs, American comedic actress and singer
  • Junior Walker, American saxophonist and singer (d. 1995)
• June 16 – Gerson Poyk (id), Indonesian author and journalist (d. 2017)
• June 18 – Fernando Henrique Cardoso, 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
  • David Kushnir, Israeli former Olympic long-jumper
  • Les Vandyke, American musician
• June 22
  • Martin Lipton, American lawyer
  • Ian Browne, Australian track cyclist
  • Teruyuki Okazaki, Japanese black belt in Shotokan Karate
• June 23
  • Doris Cook, American pitcher and outfielder
  • Ola Ullsten, Swedish politician and diplomat
  • Charles Keith Taylor, Canadian politician
• June 24
  • Emilio Fede, Italian anchorman, journalist and writer
  • Árpád Bárány, Hungarian fencer
  • George Petchey, English former footballer
  • Gaston Flosse, French politician
  • Juanita Quigley, American child actress (d. 2017)
  • Billy Casper, American golfer (d. 2015)
• June 25
  • Stan Dromisky, Canadian liberal party
  • V. P. Singh, Prime Minister of India (d. 2008)
• June 26
  • Anne-Marie Jaccottet, Swiss illustrator and painter
  • George Lois, American art director, designer, and author
  • Robert Colbert, American actor
  • Alan Bailey, former senior British civil servant
  • Colin Wilson, British writer (d. 2013)
• June 27
  • Graziella Galvani, Italian stage, television and film actress
  • Charles Bronfman, Canadian / American businessman and philanthropist
  • Geoffrey Harcourt, Australian academic economist
  • Martinus J. G. Veltman, Dutch physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics
• June 28
  • Tom Stolhandske, American football linebacker
  • Junior Johnson, American NASCAR driver of the 1950s and 1960s
  • Jenny Glusker, British biochemist and crystallographer
  • Aleksandar Ivoš, Serbian footballer
  • Hans Alfredson, Swedish actor, film director, writer and comedian
• June 29
  • Palmirinha Onofre (pt), Brazilian culinary artist and television presenter
  • Ed Gilbert, American actor and voice actor (d. 1999)
  • Alina Obidniak, Polish theatre director and actress
  • Brian Hutton, Baron Hutton, Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland and British Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
  • Richard L. Berkley, American politician
• June 30
  • Allan Jay, British foil and épée fencer
  • Don Gross, American baseball player (d. 2017)
  • Joseph Thomin, French road bicycle racer
  • Ronald Rene Lagueux, American judge
  • Kaye Vaughan, American football player

1931: July

Alice Munro

• July 1
  • Leslie Caron, French actress
  • Stanislav Grof, Czech psychiatrist
  • Marilyn Hickey, American televangelist, speaker and author
  • Seyni Kountché, former President of Niger (d. 1987)
  • Chris Strachwitz, German-born American record label executive and record producer
• July 2
  • Robert Ito, Canadian actor
  • Oddur Pétursson, Icelandic cross country skier
  • Frank Williams, English actor
  • Mohammad Yazdi, Iranian cleric
• July 3
  • Claude-Henri Chouard, French surgeon
  • Mick Cullen, Scottish footballer
  • Dickie Dowsett, English former professional footballer
  • Ed Roebuck, American relief pitcher in Major League Baseball
  • Ray Rogers, American politician
• July 4
  • Stephen Boyd, Irish actor (d. 1977)
  • Bill Gleeson, Australian rules footballer
  • Bobby Malkmus, American infielder and scout in Major League Baseball
  • Lyndell Petersen, American former politician
  • Peter Richardson, English former cricketer
• July 5
  • Aloysius Gordon, British-based Jamaican jazz pianist and singer
  • Gerd Lauck, German footballer
  • António de Macedo, Portuguese filmmaker and later a writer, university professor and lecturer
  • Ismail Mahomed, South African and Namibian Chief Justice (d. 2000)
  • Ryuzo Sato, Japanese economist
  • Peter Silverman, Canadian broadcast journalist
• July 6
  • Jean Campeau, French Canadian businessman and politician
  • Robert Dunham, American actor and writer (d. 2001)
  • Maralou Gray, American film, television, and theater actress
  • Antonella Lualdi, Italian actress and singer
  • Louis Mexandeau, French politician
  • Emily Nasrallah, Lebanese writer and women's rights activist
  • Della Reese, American actress, singer and evangelist (d. 2017)
• July 7
  • Russo (assistente de palco) (pt), Brazilian stage assistant at Rede Globo (d. 2017)
  • Alex South, English former footballer
  • Charles Oakley, American football player
  • Sunaryati Hartono, Indonesian attorney, lawyer, professor of law and government official
  • J. Joseph Curran Jr., American politician
  • Palle Kjærulff-Schmidt, Danish film director and screenwriter
• July 8
  • Zach Monroe, American baseball player
  • Thorvald Stoltenberg, Norwegian politician
  • Lowell N. Lewis, American plant physiology professor
• July 9
  • Sylvia Bacon, American judge
  • Rodney Anderson, American politician
  • Thomas A. Pankok, American Democratic Party politician
• July 10
  • Morris Chang, Chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSMC) in 1987
  • Jerry Herman, American composer and lyricist
  • Alice Munro, Canadian writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature
  • Julian May, American science fiction, fantasy, horror, science (d. 2017)
  • Nick Adams, American actor (d. 1968)
• July 11
  • Tab Hunter, American actor and singer, better known for his role in Damn Yankees
  • Yasuo Ōtsuka, Japanese animator
• July 13
  • James Cellan Jones, British television and film director
  • Jim Cairney, Scottish former professional footballer
  • Arthur Hurst, Australian rules footballer
  • Ernie Colón, American born Puerto Rico comics artist known
  • Frank Ramsey, American former professional basketball player and coach
• July 14
  • Mirella Ricciardi, Kenyan photographer and author
  • Maria Musso, Italian sprinter and pentathlete
  • Ray Martini, Australian rules footballer
  • NK Lučko, Croatian football player
  • Robert Stephens, English actor (d. 1995)
• July 15
  • Joanna Merlin, American actress
  • Clive Cussler, American author
  • Gene Louw, South African politician
• July 16
  • Andrzej Kryński, Polish fencer
  • Kjell Hansson, Swedish rower
  • Fergus Gordon Kerr, Scottish Roman Catholic priest of the English Dominican Province
  • Norm Sherry, American former catcher, manager, and coach in Major League Baseball
• July 17 – Caroline Graham, English playwright, screenwriter and novelist
• July 18
  • Mark Pharaoh, English track and field athlete
  • Maury Duncan, American quarterback
• July 19
  • Mary Lou Studnicka, American female professional baseball player
  • Allan Slaight, Canadian rock and roll pioneer, media mogul, and philanthropist
  • Marilyn Lewis, American politician
  • Alan Wrigley, Australian writer and commentator
• July 20 – Gilles Morin, Canadian politician
• July 21
  • J. Bob Traxler, American politician
  • Plas Johnson, American musician
• July 22 – Charles Huxtable, British Army officer
• July 23 – Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, Māori queen (d. 2006)
• July 25 – Paul Danblon, Belgian composer, opera director, administrator and journalist (d. 2018)
• July 26 – Fred Foster, American songwriter and record producer
• July 27 – Jerry Van Dyke, American comedian and actor (d. 2018)

1931: August

Barbara Eden

Regis Philbin

• August 1 – Hal Connolly, American athlete (d. 2010)
• August 2
  • Sha'ari Tadin, Malaysian politician (d. 2009)
  • Ruth Maria Kubitschek, German actress
• August 3 – Vladimir Trusenyov, Russian discus thrower (d. 2001)
• August 6
  • Ron Feiereisel, American basketball player and coach (d. 2000)
  • Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani, Iranian cleric, writer and politician (d. 2014)
• August 7 – Charles E. "Charlie" Rice, American legal scholar and author
• August 9 – Mário Zagallo, Brazilian football player and manager
• August 10 – Tom Laughlin, American actor (Billy Jack) (d. 2013)
• August 12 – William Goldman, American author
• August 15
  • Joe Feeney, American singer (d. 2008)
  • Richard F. Heck, American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (d. 2015)
  • Janice Rule, American actress (d. 2003)
• August 16
  • Marion Patrick Jones, Trinidadian writer (d. 2016)
  • Harold Bernard St. John, 3rd Prime Minister of Barbados (d. 2004)
• 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
  • Barbara Eden, American actress and singer
  • Lyle Lahey, American cartoonist (d. 2013)
  • Hamilton O. Smith, American microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• August 25
  • Hal Fishman, Los Angeles based local news anchor (d. 2007)
  • Regis Philbin, American television personality
• August 27 – Sri Chinmoy, Bengali spiritual teacher, poet, artist and athlete who immigrated to the U.S. in 1964 (d. 2007)
• August 28
  • Shunichiro Okano, Japanese football player and manager (d. 2017)
  • John Shirley-Quirk, English bass-baritone (d. 2014)
• 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 (d. 2014)
  • Kenny Burrell, American jazz musician
  • Noble Willingham, American actor (d. 2004)
  • Chris Avram, Romanian-Italian film actor (d. 1989)

1931: September

Ian Holm

Barbara Bain

Larry Hagman

• September 1
  • Cecil Parkinson, British politician (d. 2016)
  • Richard Hundley, American pianist and composer (d. 2018)
  • Javier Solís, Mexican ranchera & bolero singer (d. 1966)
• September 2 – Zoltán Latinovits, Hungarian actor (d. 1976)
• September 3
  • Paulo Maluf, Brazilian politician
  • Tom Brewer, American baseball player (d. 2018)
• 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
  • Ian Holm, British actor
  • George Jones, American country music singer and songwriter (d. 2013)
  • Bill McKinney, American character actor (d. 2011)
• September 13 – Barbara Bain, American actress
• September 15 – Brian Henderson, Australian broadcaster
• September 16 – E. C. George Sudarshan, Indian theoretical physicist (d. 2018)
• September 17
  • Anne Bancroft, American actress (d. 2005)
  • Princess Lalla Aicha of Morocco, (d. 2011)
• September 19 – Hiroto Muraoka, Japanese football player (d. 2017)
• September 21
  • Gertrude Alderfer, American female professional baseball player
  • Shmuel Auerbach, Israeli Haredi rabbi (d. 2018)
  • Gloria Cordes, American female professional baseball player (d. 2018)
  • 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 Merrithew, Canadian educator and statesman (d. 2004)
• September 24 – Tom Adams, 2nd Prime Minister of Barbados (d. 1985)
• September 27 – Freddy Quinn, Austrian singer and actor
• September 29
  • James Cronin, American nuclear physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (d. 2016)
  • Anita Ekberg, Swedish actress (d. 2015)
• September 30
  • Angie Dickinson, American actress
  • Wesley L. Fox, U.S. Marine Corps officer (d. 2017)

1931: October

Desmond Tutu

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Mickey Mantle

• October 1 – Alan Wagner, American opera critic (d. 2007)
• October 2 – Morris Cerullo, American televangelist
• October 3 – Denise Scott Brown, American architect
• October 6 – Riccardo Giacconi, Italian-born physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics
• October 7
  • Cotton Fitzsimmons, American basketball coach (d. 2004)
  • Desmond Tutu, South African Anglican archbishop and activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• October 11 – Calcedonio Di Pisa, Italian criminal (d. 1962)
• October 13 – Eddie Mathews, baseball player (d. 2001)
• October 15 – A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, President of India (d. 2015)
• October 16
  • Mílton Alves da Silva, Brazilian football player (d. 1973)
  • James Chace, American historian (d. 2004)
  • Rosa Rosal, Filipino actress and humanitarian
  • Charles Colson, American politician; Watergate conspirator (d. 2012)
• October 17
  • José Alencar, Brazilian politician (d. 2011)
  • Ernst Hinterberger, Austrian writer (d. 2012)
• October 19
  • John le Carré, English novelist
  • Manolo Escobar, Spanish singer and actor. (d. 2013)
• October 20 – Mickey Mantle, American baseball player (d. 1995)
• October 21 – Shammi Kapoor, Indian film actor and director (d. 2011)
• October 22 – Ann Rule, American true-crime writer (d. 2015)
• October 23
  • Jim Bunning, American baseball player and U.S. Senator
  • Diana Dors, English actress (d. 1984)
• October 24 – Ken Utsui, Japanese actor (d. 2014)
• October 25 – Jimmy McIlroy, Irish footballer and football manager
• October 26
  • Suhaila Noah, Spouse of the Prime Minister of Malaysia (d. 2014)
  • Hank Garrett, American actor and comedian
• October 28 – Harold Battiste, American composer and arranger (d. 2015)
• October 29 – Franco Interlenghi, Italian actor (d. 2015)
• October 30 – Rita Crocker Clements, American political organizer (d. 2018)
• October 31
  • Jack Molinas, American basketball player (d. 1975)
  • Dan Rather, American television news reporter

1931: November

Mwai Kibaki

Adolfo Pérez Esquivel

• November 1 – Shunsuke Kikuchi, Japanese composer
• November 2 – Phil Woods, American saxophonist (d. 2015)
• November 3
  • 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 (d. 2014)
  • Peter Collins, British racing driver (d. 1958)
• November 8
  • Darla Hood, American child actress (Our Gang), voice actress and singer (d. 1979)
  • Morley Safer, Canadian journalist (d. 2016)
  • Jack Collom, American poet, essayist and poetry teacher (d. 2017)
• November 9 – Whitey Herzog, American baseball player
• November 10 – Don Henderson, British actor (d. 1997)
• November 12
  • Majida Boulila, Tunisian militant (d. 1952)
  • Mary Louise Wilson, American actress and singer
• November 14 – Dolores Crow, American politician and legislator (d. 2018)
• November 15
  • John Kerr, American actor (d. 2013)
  • Mwai Kibaki, third President of Kenya
• November 16 – Hubert Sumlin, American blues musician (d. 2011)
• November 21
  • Revaz Dogonadze, Georgian physicist (d. 1985)
  • Malcolm Williamson, Australian composer (d. 2003)
• November 26 – Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Argentine activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• November 28
  • Dervla Murphy, Irish author
  • Tomi Ungerer, French book illustrator and writer
• November 29 – Shintaro Katsu, Japanese actor (d. 1997)

1931: December

Rita Moreno

• December 1
  • Jimmy Lyons, American musician (d. 1986)
  • Jim Nesbitt, American country music singer (d. 2007)
  • George Maxwell Richards, President of Trinidad and Tobago (d. 2018)
• December 2
  • Nigel Calder, British science writer (d. 2014)
  • Edwin Meese, American attorney, law professor, and author; 75th Attorney General of the United States (1985–1988)
  • Wynton Kelly, Jamaican American jazz pianist and composer (d. 1971)
• December 3 – Jaye P. Morgan, American singer, chanteuse
• December 7
  • Richard N. Goodwin, American writer (d. 2018)
  • Carmela Rey, Mexican singer and actress (d. 2018)
• December 9 – Ladislav Smoljak, Czech film and theater director, actor and screenwriter (d. 2010)
• December 10 – Gustavus Hamilton-Russell, 10th Viscount Boyne, Irish peer, soldier and banker (d. 1995)
• December 11 – Rita Moreno, Puerto Rican-American actress
• December 12 – Lionel Blair, British actor, choreographer, dancer, headmaster and TV presenter
• December 15 – Klaus Rifbjerg, Danish writer (d. 2015)
• December 17 – Dave Madden, Canadian American actor (d. 2014)
• December 18 – André S. Labarthe, French actor (d. 2018)
• December 21
  • Redha Malek, 8th Prime Minister of Algeria (d. 2017)
  • Georgi Naydenov, Bulgarian footballer manager (d. 1970)
• December 22 – Carlos Graça, 6th Prime Minister of São Tomé and Príncipe (d. 2013)
• December 23 – Ronnie Schell, American actor
• December 24 – Mauricio Kagel, Argentine composer (d. 2008)
• December 27
  • Edward E. Hammer, American electrical engineer and inventor (d. 2012)
  • John Charles, Welsh international footballer (d. 2004)
• December 28 – Martin Milner, American actor (d. 2015)
• December 30
  • Charles Bassett, American electrical engineer and astronaut (d. 1966)
  • Skeeter Davis, American singer (d. 2004)
• December 31 – Bob Shaw, Irish writer (d. 1996)

1931: Deaths

1931: January - April

Anna Pavlova

Otto Wallach

F. W. Murnau

• January 3 – Joseph Joffre, French World War I general (b. 1852)
• January 4
  • Art Acord, American actor (b. 1890)
  • Roger Connor, American baseball player and MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1857)
  • Louise, Princess Royal, British royal, eldest daughter of Edward VII of the United Kingdom (b. 1867)
• January 11 – James Milton Carroll, Baptist pastor, historian, and author (b. 1852)
• January 14 – Hardy Richardson, American baseball player (b. 1855)
• January 17 – Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich of Russia (b. 1864)
• January 22 – Alma Rubens, American actress (b. 1897)
• January 23
  • Anna Pavlova, Soviet ballerina (b. 1881)
  • Ernst Seidler von Feuchtenegg, former Minister-President of Austria (b. 1862)
• January 24 – Sir Percy FitzPatrick, South African author, politician and mining financier (b. 1862)
• February 1 – Prince Emmanuel, Duke of Vendome (b. 1872)
• 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 19 – Tovmas Nazarbekian, Armenian general (b. 1855)
• February 23
  • Eduard von Capelle, German admiral (b. 1855)
  • Dame Nellie Melba, Australian soprano (b. 1861)
• February 24 – Frederick Augustus II, Grand Duke of Oldenburg (b. 1852)
• 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 Gallen-Kallela, Finnish painter (b. 1865)
  • Theo van Doesburg, Dutch painter (b. 1883)
• March 11 – F. W. Murnau, German director (b. 1888)
• March 20
  • Alfred Giles, Australian explorer (b. 1846)
  • Hermann Müller, German journalist and politician, 12th 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 22 – James Campbell, 1st Baron Glenavy, Irish lawyer and politician (b. 1851)
• March 23 -- Bhagat Singh, Indian revolutionary hero (b. 1907)
• March 24 – Robert Edeson, American actor (b. 1868)
• March 25 – Ida Wells, African-American lynching crusader.
• March 27 – Arnold Bennett, British novelist (b. 1867)
• March 28 – Ban Johnson, American baseball executive (b. 1864)
• March 31 – Knute Rockne, American football coach (b. 1888)
• April 1 – Macklyn Arbuckle, American actor (b. 1866)
• 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 15
  • Joe Masseria, American gangster (b. 1886)
  • Prince Thomas, Duke of Genoa (b. 1854)
• April 17 – Ernesto Rossi, American gangster (b. 1903)
• April 20 – Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon, British baronet and Titanic survivor (b. 1862)
• April 26 – George Herbert Mead, American philosopher, sociologist and psychologist (b. 1863)
• April 27 – Albert, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein (b. 1869)
• April 30 – Sammy Woods, English cricketer (b. 1867)

1931: May - August

Joe Masseria

Hamaguchi Osachi

• 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 W. Farnham, American screenwriter (b. 1884)
• June 4 – Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, Arab nationalist
• June 8 – Virginia Frances Sterrett, American artist and illustrator (b. 1900)
• June 21 – Pio del Pilar, Filipino activist (b. 1860)
• June 22 – Armand Fallières, President of France (b. 1841)
• July 4
  • Buddie Petit, American jazz musician
  • Prince Emanuele Filiberto, 2nd Duke of Aosta (b. 1869)
• July 11 – William Jasper Spillman, American economist (b. 1863)
• July 12 – Nathan Söderblom, Swedish archbishop, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1866)
• August 6 – Bix Beiderbecke, American jazz trumpeter (b. 1903)
• August 14 – Patriarch Damian I of Jerusalem (b. 1848)
• August 15 – Nigar Shikhlinskaya, Azerbaijani World War I nurse (b. 1878)
• August 26
  • Frank Harris, Irish author and editor (b. 1856)
  • Hamaguchi Osachi, Japanese politician and 27th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1870)
• August 27 – Francis Marion Smith, American businessman (b. 1846)
• September 4 – Archduke Leopold Salvator of Austria (b. 1863)
• September 5 – John Thomson, Scottish footballer (b. 1909)
• September 7 – Federico Tinoco Granados, 21st President of Costa Rica (b. 1868)
• September 10 – Salvatore Maranzano, Italian mobster (b. 1886)
• September 12
  • Francis J. Higginson, United States Navy admiral (b. 1843)
  • Joseph Le Brix, French aviator and naval officer (b. 1899)

1931: September - December

Thomas Edison

Archduke Leopold Salvator of Austria

• September 13 – Prince Friedrich Leopold of Prussia (b. 1866)
• September 16 – Omar Mukhtar, the leader of Libyan resistance (b. 1858)
• September 17
  • Marcello Amero D'Aste, Italian admiral and politician (b. 1853)
  • Marvin Hart, American World Heavyweight Boxing Champion (b. 1876)
• September 18 – Geli Raubal, Hitler's niece (b. 1908)
• September 19 – David Starr Jordan, American ichthyologist, educator, eugenicist, and peace activist (b. 1851)
• September 29 – William Orpen, Irish artist (b. 1878)
• 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 21 – Arthur Schnitzler, Austrian author and dramatist (b. 1862)
• October 24 – Sir Murray Bisset, South African cricketer and Governor of Southern Rhodesia (b. 1876)
• November 4 – Buddy Bolden, American musician (b. 1877)
• November 6 – Jack Chesbro, American baseball player and MLB Hall of Famer (b. 1874)
• November 11 – Shibusawa Eiichi, Japanese industrialist (b. 1840)
• November 13 – Ivan Fichev, Bulgarian general, minister of defense, military historian, and academician (b. 1860)
• November 20 – Julius Drewe, British businessman, retailer and entrepreneur (b. 1856)
• November 21 – Bruno von Mudra, German general (b. 1851)
• November 27 – Robert Ames, American actor (b. 1889)
• December 2 – Vincent d'Indy, French composer (b. 1851)
• December 5 – Vachel Lindsay, American poet (b. 1879)
• December 9 – Antonio Salandra, Italian statesman, 21st Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1853)
• December 18 – Jack Diamond, American gangster (b. 1897)
• December 23 – Tyrone Power Sr, English-born American actor (b. 1869)
• December 26 – Melvil Dewey, American librarian, inventor of Dewey Decimal Classification (b. 1851)
• December 27 – José Figueroa Alcorta, Argentine politician, 16th President of Argentina (b. 1860)

1931: 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

1931: References

1931: External links

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