1931

Events from the year 1931 in the United States.
==Incumbents==
===Federal Government===
* President: Herbert Hoover (R-CA)
* Vice President: Charles Curtis (R-KS)
* Chief Justice: Charles Evans Hughes (NY)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Nicholas Longworth (R-OH) (until March 4), John Nance Garner (D-TX) (starting December 7)
* Senate Majority Leader: James Eli Watson (R-IN)
* Congress: 71st (until March 4), 72nd (starting March 4)
==Events==
===January===
* January 1 – The American Federation of Labor's 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 6 – Thomas Edison submits his last patent application.
===February===
* February 1 – Food riots break out in Minneapolis and other parts of the United States.
* February 20 – California gets the go-ahead by the U.S. Congress to build the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge.
===March===
* March 1 – Battleship USS Arizona is placed back in full commission after a refit.
* March 3 – The Star-Spangled Banner is adopted as the United States national anthem.
* March 17 – Nevada legalizes gambling.
* March 25 – The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama and charged with sexual activity.
===April===
* April 1 – Canyon de Chelly National Monument is established.
* April 15 – The Castellemmarese War ends with the assassination of Joe "The Boss" Masseria, briefly leaving Salvatore Maranzano as capo di tutti i capi ("boss of all bosses") and undisputed ruler of the American Mafia. Maranzano is himself assassinated less than 6 months later, leading to the establishment of the Five Families.
* April 18 – Cheverly, Maryland is incorporated.
* April 22 – The U.S., Austria, United Kingdom, Denmark, Germany, Italy and Sweden recognize the Spanish Republic.
===May===
* May 1 – Construction of the Empire State Building is completed in New York City.
* May 7 – "Siege of West 91st Street": 18-year-old serial murderer Francis "Two Gun" Crowley surrenders after a 2-hour gun battle with New York City Police Department witnessed by 15,000 bystanders.
* May 20 – Lake of the Ozarks completed.
===June===
* June 19 – In an attempt to stop the banking crisis in Central Europe from causing a worldwide financial meltdown, President Herbert Hoover issues the Hoover Moratorium.
* June 23 – Wiley Post and Harold Gatty take off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island in an attempt to accomplish the first round-the-world flight in a single-engine plane.
===July===
* July 1 – John Haven Emerson of Cambridge, Massachusetts perfects the Emerson iron lung just in time for the growing polio epidemic.
* July 26 – The International Bible Students Association adopts the name Jehovah's Witnesses at a convention in Columbus, Ohio.
===August===
* August 16 – Texas experiences an earthquake with a moment magnitude of 6.5, the most powerful earthquake in its recorded history.
===September===
* September 1 – Construction of Rockefeller Center on Manhattan begins.
===October===
* October 1 – The Caltech Department of Physics Faculty and graduate students meet with Albert Einstein as a guest.
* October 10 – The St. Louis Cardinals defeat the Philadelphia Athletics, 4 games to 3, to win their second World Series title in baseball.
* October 17 – American gangster Al Capone is sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion in Chicago.
* October 24 – The George Washington Bridge across the Hudson River 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.
===November===
* November 10 – The 4th Academy Awards, hosted by Lawrence Grant, are presented at Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, with William LeBaron's Cimarron winning the Academy Award for Best Picture. The film also receives the most nominations and awards, with seven and three respectively. Norman Taurog wins Best Director for Skippy.
* November 26 – Deuterium is discovered by Harold Urey.
===December===
* December 12 – The Eta chapter of Kappa Delta Phi is founded at The University of Maine at Machias.
* December 26 – Phi Iota Alpha, the oldest surviving Latino fraternity, is founded.
* December 31 – Ess Bee Dress Company is incorporated.
==Memoriam==
* January 4
** Art Acord, actor (aged 40; Chihuahua, Mexico)
** Roger Connor, baseball player and MLB Hall of Famer (aged 73; Waterbury, CT, USA)
* January 14 – Hardy Richardson, baseball player (aged 75; Utica, NY, USA)
* January 21 – Alma Rubens, actress (aged 33; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* January 26 – Edward I. Edwards, 37th Governor of New Jersey (aged 67; Jersey City, NJ, USA)
* January 31 – Zina P. Young Card, Mormon leader and women's rights activist (aged 80; Salt Lake City, UT, USA)
* February 14 – Clarence Ransom Edwards, army officer (aged 72; Boston, MA, USA)
* February 18 – Louis Wolheim, actor (aged 50; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* February 28
** Laton Alton Huffman, photographer of the American frontier and Native American life (aged 76; Billings, MT, USA)
** Thomas S. Rodgers, admiral (aged 72; New York City, NY, USA)
* March 20 – Joseph B. Murdock, United States Navy admiral and New Hampshire politician (aged 80; Manchester, NH, USA)
* March 24 – Robert Edeson, actor (aged 62; Hollywood, CA, USA)
* March 25 – Ida B. Wells, African-American lynching crusader (aged 68; Chicago, IL, USA)
* March 28 – Ban Johnson, baseball executive (aged 67; St. Louis, MO, USA)
* March 31 – Knute Rockne, football coach (aged 43; Bazaar Township, KS, USA)
* April 8 – William C. Grimes, politician and businessman (aged 73; Santa Monica, CA, USA)
* April 9 – Nicholas Longworth, politician, Speaker of the House (aged 61; Aiken, SC, USA)
* April 16 – Martin Joseph Wade, U.S. representative from Iowa (aged 69; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* April 26 – George Herbert Mead, philosopher (aged 68; Chicago, IL, USA)
* May 2 – George Fisher Baker, financier and philanthropist (aged 91; New York City, NY, USA)
* May 14 – David Belasco, Broadway impresario, theater owner and playwright (aged 77; New York City, NY, USA)
* June 2 – Joseph W. Farnham, screenwriter (aged 46; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* July 5 – Arthur Starr Eakle, mineralogist (aged 68; Honolulu, HI Territory, USA)
* July 24 – George Arthur Boeckling, businessman, president of Cedar Point Pleasure Company (aged 91; Sandusky, OH, USA)
* July 27 – John J. Lentz, lawyer and politician (aged 75; Columbus, OH, USA)
* August 6 – Bix Beiderbecke, jazz trumpeter (aged 28; Queens, NY, USA)
* August 27 – Francis Marion Smith, businessman (aged 85; Oakland, CA, USA)
* August 29 – David T. Abercrombie, businessman, co-founder of Abercrombie & Fitch (aged 64; Ossining, NY, USA)
* September 6 – Juliana Walanika, the "Hawaiian Nightingale", court singer (aged 84; CA, USA)
* September 17 – Marvin Hart, World Heavyweight Boxing Champion (aged 55; Fern Creek, KY, USA)
* October 5 – Dwight Morrow, businessman, diplomat, and politician (aged 58; Englewood, NJ, USA)
* October 6 – Carrie Babcock Sherman, Second Lady of the United States as wife of James S. Sherman (aged 74; Utica, NY, USA)
* October 18 – Thomas Edison, inventor (aged 84; West Orange, NJ, USA)
* October 26 – Charles Comiskey, baseball owner (aged 72; Eagle River, WI, USA)
* October 31 – Charles E. Rushmore, businessman, attorney, namesake of Mount Rushmore (aged 73; NY, USA)
* November 4 – Buddy Bolden, African American musician (aged 54; Jackson, LA, USA)
* November 6 – Jack Chesbro, baseball player and MLB Hall of Famer (aged 57; Conway, MA, USA)
* December 5 – Vachel Lindsay, poet (aged 52; Springfield, IL, USA)
* December 18 – Jack Diamond, gangster (aged 34; Albany, NY, USA)
* December 23 – Tyrone Power Sr., actor (aged 62; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* December 26 – Melvil Dewey, librarian, inventor of Dewey Decimal Classification (aged 80; Lake Placid, FL, USA)
==External links==
* 1931 in the United States
Category:United States History: Volume 16