1931 Facts for Kids

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1900s 1910s 1920s – 1930s – 1940s 1950s 1960s
Years:	1928 1929 1930 – 1931 – 1932 1933 1934

1931 was a year that started on a Thursday in the Gregorian calendar. Many important things happened around the world during this year!

Exciting Events of 1931

January 27 – Pierre Laval became the head of the government in France.
February 16 – Pehr Evind Svinhufvud was chosen as the president of Finland.
March 31 – A big earthquake hit Managua, Nicaragua. It sadly destroyed the city and about 2,000 people lost their lives.
April 25 – The famous car company Porsche was started by Ferdinand Porsche in Stuttgart, Germany.
May 1 – The amazing Empire State Building was finished in New York City. It was the tallest building in the world for many years!
June 3 – The famous painting The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí was shown to the public for the very first time.
July 9 – Irish racing driver Kaye Don set a new world record for water speed on Lake Garda in Italy.
August – Warner Bros. released their first ever Merrie Melodies cartoon, bringing new animated fun to screens.
September – A powerful 1931 Belize hurricane hit Belize (which was called British Honduras back then). Over 2,500 people died because of the storm.
September 22 – The United Kingdom stopped using the gold standard for its money. This was a big change for their economy.
October 5 – American pilots Clyde Edward Pangborn and Hugh Herndon, Jr. made history. They completed the first ever non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean. They flew from Japan to Washington in 41 and a half hours!
November 7 – The Chinese Soviet Republic was announced by Mao Zedong.
December 10 – Niceto Alcalá-Zamora was elected as the president of the Spanish Republic.

Many well-known people were born in 1931:

January 5 – Robert Duvall, a famous American actor and director.
January 6 – E. L. Doctorow, a well-known writer.
January 17 – James Earl Jones, an American actor famous for his deep voice, like the voice of Darth Vader!
January 19 – Tippi Hedren, an American actress.
January 22 – Sam Cooke, a very popular American singer.
January 31 – Ernie Banks, a legendary American baseball player who is in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
November 15 – Mwai Kibaki, who later became the president of Kenya.

Some important people died in 1931, including:

January 23 – Anna Pavlova, a very famous Russian ballerina (ballet dancer).
February 11 – Charles Algernon Parsons, a British inventor.
February 26 – Otto Wallach, a German chemist who won a Nobel Prize.
May 9 – Albert Abraham Michelson, a physicist who won a Nobel Prize for his work in physics.
July 12 – Nathan Söderblom, a Swedish archbishop who won the Nobel Peace Prize.
October 21 – Arthur Schnitzler, an Austrian author and playwright.
December 9 – Antonio Salandra, who was a Prime Minister of Italy.

The Nobel Prize is a very special award given to people who have done amazing things for the world. Here are the winners in 1931:

The Nobel Prize in Physics was not given out this year.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was won by two German chemists: Carl Bosch and Friedrich Bergius.
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was won by Otto Heinrich Warburg, a German chemist.
The Nobel Prize in Literature was won by Erik Axel Karlfeldt, a Swedish poet.
The Nobel Peace Prize was shared by two Americans: Jane Addams, an activist, and Nicholas Murray Butler, a philosopher and educator.

Norma Shearer

Many classic movies came out in 1931:

January 30 – City Lights starring the famous comedian Charlie Chaplin.
February 9 – Cimarron starring Richard Dix and Irene Dunne.
February 14 – The first movie version of Dracula was released in the United States, starring Bela Lugosi.
November 21 – Frankenstein starring Boris Karloff was released. It was the most popular movie of the year!
December 12 – Private Lives starring Norma Shearer.
December 26 – A Free Soul, which won Lionel Barrymore an Oscar for Best Actor.
December 26 – Mata Hari starring the legendary actress Greta Garbo.