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, Italy
 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 4 – Adi Lady Lala Mara, Fijian chieftainess and former First Lady; widow of long-time former Prime Minister and President, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara (d. 2004).
 January 5 – Alvin Ailey, choreographer
   January 5   – Alfred Brendel, Austrian pianist
   January 5   – Robert Duvall, actor and director
 January 6 – E. L. Doctorow, writer
 January 8 – Bill Graham, rock music entrepreneur (d. 1991)
 January 10 – Viktor Liebermann, violinist (d. 1999)
 January 10 – Peter Barnes, playwright and screenwriter (d. 2004)
 January 13 – Charles Nelson Reilly, actor
 January 14 – Caterina Valente, singer, actress
 January 16 – Johannes Rau, President of Germany (d. 2006)
 January 17 – James Earl Jones, actor
 January 19 – Tippi Hedren, actress
   January 19   – Robert MacNeil, journalist
 January 22 – Sam Cooke, singer (d. 1964)
 January 27 – Mordecai Richler, writer (d. 2001)
 January 30 – Allan W. Eckert, historian, naturalist and writer
 January 31 – Ernie Banks, Baseball Hall of Famer
 May 19 – David Wilkerson, American pastor, evangelist and author (d. 2011)
 November 15 – Mwai Kibaki, president of Kenya

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 

 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

References