Title: 1931 Content: 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ==Events == * January 27 – Pierre Laval forms a government in France * February 16 – Pehr Evind Svinhufvud is elected president of Finland * March 31 – An earthquake destroys Managua, Nicaragua, killing 2,000 people * April 25 – The automobile manufacturer Porsche is founded by Ferdinand Porsche in Stuttgart * May 1 – Construction of the Empire State Building is completed in New York City * June 3 – Salvador Dalí's The Persistence of Memory is put on display for the first time * July 9 – Irish racing driver Kaye Don breaks the world water speed record at Lake Garda, ItalyBBC History, July 2011, p12. * August – Warner Brothers releases the first Merrie Melodies cartoon * September- The 1931 Belize hurricane strikes Belize (then British Honduras), killing over 2,500 people * September 22 – The United Kingdom abandons the gold standard * October 5 - American aviators Clyde Edward Pangborn and Hugh Herndon, Jr. complete the first non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean. They travel from Misawa, Japan to East Wenatchee, Washington in 41½ hours. * November 7 – The Chinese Soviet Republic is proclaimed by Mao Zedong * December 10 – Niceto Alcalá-Zamora is elected president of the Spanish Republic == Births == === January === * January 2 – Toshiki Kaifu, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 2022) * January 13 – Charles Nelson Reilly, American actor (d. 2007) * January 16 – Johannes Rau, President of Germany (d. 2006) * January 22 – Sam Cooke, American singer (d. 1964) === February === * February 1 – Iajuddin Ahmed, former President of Bangladesh (d. 2012) * February 1 – Boris Yeltsin, President of Russia (d. 2007) === March === === April === === May === * May 19 – David Wilkerson, American pastor, evangelist and author (d. 2011) * May 27 – Faten Hamama, Egyptian producer and actress (d. 2015) === June === === July === === August === === September === * September 12 – Sir Ian Holm, English actor * September 12 – George Jones, American singer (d. 2013) * September 29 – Anita Ekberg, Swedish actress (d. 2015) === October === * October 20 – Mickey Mantle, American baseball player (d. 1995) === November === * November 3 – Monica Vitti, Italian actress (d. 2022) * November 15 – Mwai Kibaki, President of Kenya (d. 2022) === December === == Deaths == * January 23 – Anna Pavlova, Russian ballerina (b. 1881) * February 11 - Charles Algernon Parsons, British inventor (b. 1854) * February 26 - Otto Wallach, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1847) * March 7 - Akseli Gallen- Kallela, Finnish painter (b. 1865) * April 8 - Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1864) * April 26 - George Herbert Mead, American philosopher, sociologist and psychologist (b. 1863) * May 9 - Albert Abraham Michelson, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1852) * June 2 - Joseph W. Farnham, American screenwriter (b. 1884) * July 12 - Nathan Söderblom, Swedish archbishop, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1866) * August 26 - Hamaguchi Osachi, 27th Prime Minister of Japan (b. 1870) * September 12 - Joseph Le Brix, French aviator and naval officer (b. 1899) * October 21 - Arthur Schnitzler, Austrian author and dramatist (b. 1862) * November 13 - Ivan Fichev, Bulgarian general, minister of defense, military historian, and academician (b. 1860) * December 9 - Antonio Salandra, Italian statesman, 21st Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1853) * December 27 - José Figueroa Alcorta, 16th President of Argentina (b. 1860) == Nobel Prizes == * Nobel Prize in Physics - not awarded * Nobel Prize in Chemistry won by Carl Bosch, German chemist and engineer, and Friedrich Bergius, German chemist * Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine won by Otto Heinrich Warburg, German chemist, (1883 – 1970) * Nobel Prize in Literature won by Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish poet * Nobel Peace Prize won by Jane Addams, American activist, and Nicholas Murray Butler, American philosopher, diplomat, and educator == Movies released == thumb|Norma Shearer * January 30 – City Lights starring Charlie Chaplin * February 9 – Cimarron starring Richard Dix and Irene Dunne * February 14 – The original movie version of Dracula with Bela Lugosi is released in the United States * December 26 – A Free Soul, winning Best Actor for Lionel Barrymore * November 21 – Frankenstein starring Boris Karloff, the top-grossing movie of the year * December 12 – Private Lives starring Norma Shearer * December 26 – Mata Hari starring Greta Garbo