1931 in the United States
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Events from the year 1931 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal Government
- President: Herbert Hoover (R-California)
- Vice President: Charles Curtis (R-Kansas)
- Chief Justice: Charles Evans Hughes (New York)
- Speaker of the House of Representatives: Nicholas Longworth (R-Ohio) (until March 4), John Nance Garner (D-Texas) (starting December 7)
- Senate Majority Leader: James Eli Watson (R-Indiana)
- Congress: 71st (until March 4), 72nd (starting March 4)
Events
January
- January – 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
- 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 rape.
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: Empire State Building completed
- 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.[1]
July
- July – 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[2] adopts the name Jehovah's Witnesses at a convention in Columbus, Ohio.
September
- September – Construction of Rockefeller Center on Manhattan begins.
October
- October – 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 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.
Undated
- Elizabeth Dilling begins anti-communist activism.
Ongoing
- Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937)
- U.S. occupation of Haiti (1915–1934)
- Prohibition (1919–1933)
- Great Depression (1929–1933)
- Dust Bowl (1930–1936)
Births
January
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- January 5
- Alvin Ailey, choreographer (d. 1989)
- Robert Duvall, actor and director
- January 6
- Fern Battaglia, baseball player (d. 2001)
- E. L. Doctorow, novelist (d. 2015)
- January 7 – Mack Mattingly, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1981 to 1987
- January 16 – Ellen Holly, American actress
- January 17 – James Earl Jones, African-American actor
- January 20
- Preston Henn, businessman, founder of Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop (d. 2017)
- David Lee, physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1996
- January 22 – Sam Cooke, African-American singer (d. 1964)
- January 25 – Dean Jones, American actor (d. 2015)
- January 27 – Red Bastien, wrestler, trainer and promoter (d. 2012)
- January 29 – Jim Baumer, baseball player and manager (d. 1996)
- January 30 – Allan W. Eckert, American historian, naturalist, and author (d. 2011)
- January 31
- Ernie Banks, African-American baseball player (d. 2015)
- Lorraine Ellison, African-American soul singer (d. 1983)
- Jack Taylor, swimmer (d. 1955)
February
- February 6
- Rip Torn, American actor (d. 2019)
- Mamie Van Doren, American film actress
- February 8 – James Dean, American actor (d. 1955)
- February 9 – Jack Van Impe, American televangelist (d. 2020)
- February 11 – Larry Merchant, American author and boxing commentator
- February 13 – Geoff Edwards, American actor, game show host (d. 2014)
- February 16 – George E. Sangmeister, American politician (d. 2007)
- February 18
- Johnny Hart, American cartoonist (d. 2007)
- Toni Morrison, African-American novelist, essayist, editor, teacher and professor (d. 2019)
- Bob St. Clair, American football player (d. 2015)
- February 24
- James Abourezk, American politician
- Dominic Chianese, American actor, singer
- February 28
- Gavin MacLeod, American actor, Mayor of Pacific Palisades
- Dean Smith, American basketball player and coach (d. 2015)
March
- March 3
- Paul Clayton, American folksinger and folklorist (d. 1967)
- John Smith, American actor (d. 1995)
- March 4
- Wally Bruner, American journalist and television host (d. 1997)
- Alice Rivlin, born Georgianna Alice Mitchell, American economist (d. 2019)
- March 15
- D. J. Fontana, American drummer (d. 2018)
- Ted Marchibroda, American football player (d. 2016)
- March 18 – Shirley Stovroff, American baseball player (d. 1994)
- March 22
- Paul G. Hewitt, American physicist, boxer, uranium prospector, author and cartoonist
- Burton Richter, American physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1976
- March 24 – Connie Hines, American actress (d. 2009)
- March 26 – Leonard Nimoy, American actor and film director (d. 2015)
- March 27 – David Janssen, American actor (d. 1980)
April
- April 5 – Jack Clement, American singer-songwriter, record producer (d. 2013)
- April 8
- John Gavin, American actor, diplomat (d. 2018)
- Jack Stallings, American baseball head, coach (d. 2018)
- April 10 – James L. Dozier, U.S. Army officer
- April 11 – Johnny Sheffield, American child actor (d. 2010)
- April 13 – Dan Gurney, American race car driver (d. 2018)
- April 26 – Ted Stanley, businessman and philanthropist (d. 2016)
- April 29 – Don Leo Jonathan, American-Canadian professional wrestler (d. 2018)
- April 30
- Eugene John Gerber, American Catholic prelate (d. 2018)
- Peter La Farge, American singer, songwriter (d. 1965)
May
- May 6
- Louis Gambaccini, civil servant (d. 2018)
- Willie Mays, African-American baseball player
- May 7
- Teresa Brewer, pop and jazz singer (d. 2007)
- Jerry Chesnut, songwriter (d. 2018)
- May 8 – Bob Clotworthy, American diver (d. 2018)
- May 9 – Don Gardner, American singer-songwriter (d. 2018)
- May 13 – Jim Jones, American People's Temple cult leader (d. 1978)
- May 14 – Alvin Lucier, American composer
- May 15
- Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse
- Ken Venturi, golfer (d. 2013)
- May 16
- Jack Dodson, actor (d. 1994)
- Lowell P. Weicker, Jr., politician
- May 17 – Marshall Applewhite, Heaven's Gate religious sect founder (d. 1997)
- May 18
- Don Martin, artist (MAD Magazine) (d. 2000)
- Robert Morse, actor
- May 20 – Ken Boyer, baseball player (d. 1982)
- May 23
- Barbara Barrie, actress
- Patience Cleveland, actress and diarist (d. 2004)
- May 28 – Carroll Baker, actress
- May 31
- John Schrieffer, physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1972 (d. 2019)
- Shirley Verrett, mezzo-soprano (d. 2010)
June
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- June 1 – Hal Smith, American baseball player and coach (d. 2014)
- June 2
- William H. Donaldson, banker and businessman, co-founded Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette
- Larry Jackson, American baseball player and politician (d. 1990)
- June 9
- Jackie Mason, American comedian
- Joe Santos, American actor (d. 2016)
- June 11 – Paul Hardin III, American academic administrator (d. 2017)
- June 13
- Marla Gibbs, African-American actress, comedian and singer
- Junior Walker, American saxophonist, singer (d. 1995)
- June 20 – Olympia Dukakis, American actress
- June 21
- Margaret Heckler, American Secretary of Health and Human Services (d. 2018)
- Les Vandyke, American musician
- June 22 – Martin Lipton, American lawyer
- June 23 – Doris Cook, American baseball pitcher, outfielder
- June 24
- Billy Casper, American golfer (d. 2015)
- Juanita Quigley, American child actress (d. 2017)
- June 26
- Robert Colbert, American actor
- George Lois, American art director, designer and author
- June 28
- Junior Johnson, American NASCAR driver of the 1950s and 1960s (d. 2019)
- Tom Stolhandske, American football linebacker
- June 29
- Richard L. Berkley, American politician
- Ed Gilbert, American actor, voice actor (d. 1999)
- June 30
- Don Gross, American baseball player (d. 2017)
- Ronald Rene Lagueux, American judge
- Kaye Vaughan, American football player
July
- July 1 – Marilyn Hickey, American televangelist, speaker and author
- July 3
- Ed Roebuck, American Major League Baseball relief pitcher (d. 2018)
- Ray Rogers, American politician (d. 2020)
- July 4
- Rick Casares, American football player and soldier (d. 2013)
- Bobby Malkmus, American Major League Baseball infielder, scout
- Lyndell Petersen, American former politician
- July 6
- Robert Dunham, American actor, writer (d. 2001)
- Maralou Gray, American film, television, and theater actress
- Della Reese, African-American actress, singer and evangelist (d. 2017)
- July 7 – J. Joseph Curran Jr., American politician
- July 8
- Lowell N. Lewis, American plant physiology professor
- Zach Monroe, American baseball player
- July 9
- Rodney Anderson, American politician
- Sylvia Bacon, American judge
- Thomas A. Pankok, American Democratic Party politician
- July 10
- Nick Adams, American actor (d. 1968)
- Jerry Herman, American composer, lyricist (d. 2019)
- Julian May, American science fiction, fantasy, horror, and science writer (d. 2017)
- July 11 – Tab Hunter, American actor, singer (d. 2018)
- July 13
- Ernie Colón, American-born Puerto Rico comics artist
- Frank Ramsey, American professional basketball player, coach (d. 2018)
- July 15
- Clive Cussler, American thriller writer and underwater explorer (d. 2020)
- Joanna Merlin, American actress
- July 16 – Norm Sherry, American Major League Baseball catcher, manager, and coach
- July 18 – Maury Duncan, American quarterback
- July 19
- Marilyn Lewis, American politician (d. 2020)
- Mary Lou Studnicka, American female professional baseball player
- July 27 – Jerry Van Dyke, American comedian, actor (d. 2018)
August
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- August 1 – Hal Connolly, American athlete (d. 2010)
- August 6 – Ron Feiereisel, American basketball player, coach (d. 2000)
- August 7 – Charles E. "Charlie" Rice, American legal scholar, author
- August 10 – Tom Laughlin, American actor (Billy Jack) (d. 2013)
- August 12 – William Goldman, American author (d. 2018)
- August 14 – Frederic Raphael, American screenwriter, novelist and non-fiction author working in the UK
- August 15
- Joe Feeney, American singer (d. 2008)
- Richard F. Heck, American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2010 (d. 2015)
- Janice Rule, American actress (d. 2003)
- August 16 – William Luce, American writer (d. 2019)
- August 19 – Willie Shoemaker, American jockey (d. 2003)
- August 20 – Don King, African-American boxing promoter
- August 23
- Barbara Eden, American actress, singer (I Dream of Jeannie)
- Lyle Lahey, American cartoonist (d. 2013)
- Hamilton O. Smith, American microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1978
- August 25
- Cecil Andrus, American politician
- Hal Fishman, Los Angeles-based American local news anchor (d. 2007)
- Regis Philbin, American television personality (d. 2018)
- August 30 – Jack Swigert, American astronaut (d. 1982)
- August 31
- Kenny Burrell, American jazz musician
- Noble Willingham, American actor (d. 2004)
September
- September 1 – Richard Hundley, American pianist, composer (d. 2018)
- September 2 – Alan K. Simpson, American politician
- September 3 – Tom Brewer, American baseball player (d. 2018)
- September 4 – Mitzi Gaynor, American actress, singer and dancer
- September 10
- Mathew Ahmann, American Catholic civil rights activist (d. 2001)
- Philip Baker Hall, American actor
- September 12
- George Jones, American country music singer, songwriter (d. 2013)
- Bill McKinney, American actor (d. 2011)
- September 13 – Barbara Bain, American actress (Mission: Impossible)
- September 16 – Little Willie Littlefield, American R&B pianist and singer (d. 2013)
- September 17 – Anne Bancroft, American actress (d. 2005)
- September 19
- Brook Benton, American singer-songwriter (d. 1988)
- Ray Danton, American actor (d. 1992)
- September 21
- Gertrude Alderfer, American female professional baseball player
- Gloria Cordes, American female professional baseball player (d. 2018)
- Larry Hagman, American actor, director (Dallas) (d. 2012)
- September 29 – James Watson Cronin, American nuclear physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1980 (d. 2016)
- September 30
- Angie Dickinson, American actress
- Wesley L. Fox, U.S. Marine Corps officer (d. 2017)
October
- October 1 – Alan Wagner, American opera critic (d. 2007)
- October 2 – Morris Cerullo, American televangelist
- October 3 – Denise Scott Brown, American architect
- October 7 – Cotton Fitzsimmons, American basketball coach (d. 2004)
- October 13 – Eddie Mathews, American baseball player (d. 2001)
- October 15
- Freddy Cole, singer and pianist
- Gail Harris, baseball player and coach (d. 2012)
- October 16
- James Chace, American historian (d. 2004)
- Charles Colson, American politician, Watergate conspirator, later evangelist (d. 2012)
- October 20 – Mickey Mantle, American baseball player (d. 1995)
- October 22 – Ann Rule, American true-crime writer (d. 2015)
- October 23 – Jim Bunning, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1999 to 2011 (d. 2017)
- October 26
- Hank Garrett, American actor, comedian
- Larry Lieber, American comic book artist and writer
- October 28 – Harold Battiste, American composer, arranger (d. 2015)
- October 30
- Dick Gautier, American actor (d. 2017)
- Rita Crocker Clements, American political organizer (d. 2018)
- October 31
- Jack Molinas, American basketball player (d. 1975)
- Dan Rather, American television news reporter (CBS Evening News)
November
- November 2 – Phil Woods, American saxophonist (d. 2015)
- November 4
- Marie Mansfield, American professional baseball player
- Bernard Francis Law, American cardinal (d. 2017)
- November 5 – Ike Turner, African-American rock musician (d. 2007)
- November 8
- Jack Collom, American poet, essayist and poetry teacher (d. 2017)
- Darla Hood, American child actress, and singer (d. 1979)
- November 9
- Pascal F. Calogero Jr., American judge (d. 2018)
- Whitey Herzog, American baseball player
- November 12 – Mary Louise Wilson, American actress, singer
- November 14 – Dolores Crow, American politician, legislator (d. 2018)
- November 15 – John Kerr, American actor (d. 2013)
- November 16 – Hubert Sumlin, American blues musician (d. 2011)
- November 24 – Tommy Allsup, American musician (d. 2017)
December
- December 1
- Jimmy Lyons, American musician (d. 1986)
- Jim Nesbitt, American country music singer (d. 2007)
- December 2 – Edwin Meese, American attorney, law professor, and author
- December 3 – Jaye P. Morgan, American singer, chanteuse
- December 7 – Richard N. Goodwin, American writer (d. 2018)
- December 11 – Benny Spellman, American R&B singer (d. 2011)
- December 16 – Ralph Wolfe Cowan, American portrait artist (d. 2018)
- December 20
- Terry Sanders, American film director, producer and screenwriter
- Ike Skelton, American lawyer and politician (d. 2013)
- December 23 – Ronnie Schell, American actor
- December 24 – Ray Bryant, American jazz pianist, composer, arranger (d. 2011)
- December 27
- Edward E. Hammer, American electrical engineer, inventor (d. 2012)
- Scotty Moore, American guitarist (d. 2016)
- December 28 – Martin Milner, American actor (Adam-12) (d. 2015)
- December 30
- Charles Bassett, American electrical engineer, astronaut (d. 1966)
- Skeeter Davis, American country singer (d. 2004)
Deaths
- January 4
- Art Acord, actor (born 1890)
- Roger Connor, baseball player and MLB Hall of Famer (born 1857)
- January 14 – Hardy Richardson, baseball player (born 1855)
- January 22 – Alma Rubens, actress (born 1897)
- January 31 – Zina P. Young Card, Mormon leader and women's rights activist (born 1850)
- February 14 – Clarence Ransom Edwards, army officer (born 1859)
- February 18 – Louis Wolheim, actor (born 1880)
- February 28
- Laton Alton Huffman, photographer of the American frontier and Native American life (born 1854)
- Thomas S. Rodgers, admiral (born 1858)
- March 20 – Joseph B. Murdock, United States Navy admiral and New Hampshire politician (born 1851)
- March 24 – Robert Edeson, actor (born 1868)
- March 25 – Ida Wells, African-American lynching crusader
- March 28 – Ban Johnson, baseball executive (born 1864)
- March 31 – Knute Rockne, football coach (born 1888)
- April 9 – Nicholas Longworth, politician, Speaker of the House (born 1869)
- April 26 – George Herbert Mead, philosopher (born 1863)
- May 2 – George Fisher Baker, financier and philanthropist (born 1840)
- May 14 – David Belasco, Broadway impresario, theater owner and playwright (born 1853)
- June 2 – Joseph Farnham, screenwriter (born 1884)
- August 6 – Bix Beiderbecke, jazz trumpeter (born 1903)
- August 27 – Francis Marion Smith, businessman (born 1846)
- September 6 – Juliana Walanika, the "Hawaiian Nightingale", court singer (born 1846 in the Kingdom of Hawaii)
- September 17 – Marvin Hart, World Heavyweight Boxing Champion (born 1876)
- October 6 – Carrie Babcock Sherman, Second Lady of the United States as wife of James S. Sherman (born 1856)
- October 18 – Thomas Edison, inventor (born 1847)
- October 26 – Charles Comiskey, baseball owner (born 1859)
- October 31 – Charles E. Rushmore, businessman, attorney, namesake of Mount Rushmore (born in 1857)
- November 4 – Buddy Bolden, African American musician (born 1877)
- November 6 – Jack Chesbro, baseball player and MLB Hall of Famer (born 1874)
- December 5 – Vachel Lindsay, poet (born 1879)
- December 18 – Jack Diamond, gangster (born 1897)
- December 23 – Tyrone Power, Sr., actor (born 1869)
- December 26 – Melvil Dewey, librarian, inventor of Dewey Decimal Classification (born 1851)
References
- "Wiley Post". U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission. Archived from the original on 2012-10-08. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
- Corporations of Jehovah's Witnesses#International Bible Students Association
External links
Media related to 1931 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons
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