Chronology of World History

Copyright © 2007-2024 Ken Polsson
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URL: http://kpolsson.com/worldhis/

References are numbered in [brackets], which are listed here. A number after the dot gives the page in the source.

Last updated: 2023 December 20.


1931

January 2
  • South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. [429]
January 22
  • French government of Theodore Steeg falls. [1]
  • Sir Isaac Isaacs is sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia. [5] [429]
  • VARA begins experimental TV broadcast in Diamantbeurs, Amsterdam. [1]
January 25
  • Mohandas Gandhi is released again in India. [429]
January 27
  • Pierre Laval forms a government in France. [429]
February 2
  • First siyyum of Talmud celebrated by Daf Yomi students. [1]
  • First use of a rocket to deliver mail (Austria). [1]
February 3
  • Hawke's Bay earthquake: Much of the New Zealand city of Napier is destroyed in an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale. [429]
February 8
  • Gas explosion, fire in Fushun-coal mine, Manchuria kills 3,000. [1]
February 10
  • New Delhi becomes the capital of India. [1] [429]
February 12
  • Radio Vaticana first broadcasts. [429]
February 14
  • Spanish government of General Damasco Berenguer falls. [1]
  • The original film version of Dracula with Bela Lugosi is released to theaters. [429]
February 16
  • Extreme right wing Pehr Evind Svinhufvud is elected President of Finland. [1] [429]
February 21
  • Peruvian revolutionaries hijack a Ford Trimotor aeroplane and demand that the pilot drop propaganda leaflets over Lima. [429]

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March 4
  • The British viceroy of India and Mohandas Gandhi negotiate. [429]
March 5
  • Mohandas Gandhi and British viceroy of India Lord Irwin sign pact. [1]
March 7
  • The new House of Representatives opens in Helsinki, Finland. [429]
March 10
  • British Labour party removes fascist Sir Oswald Mosley. [1]
March 11
  • The Ready for Labour and Defence of the USSR programme, abbreviated as GTO, is introduced in the Soviet Union. [429]
March 16
  • Genootschap Onze Taal (Our Language) organizes (Netherlands). [1]
March 17
  • Josef Stalin throws Krupskaya Lenin out of Soviet Central Committee. [1]
March 18
  • Juan Bautista Aznar becomes premier of Spain. [1]
March 19
  • Nevada legalizes casino gaming and most other forms of gambling. Nevada Governor Fred Balzar signs into law Assembly Bill 98, allowing faro, monte, roulette, keno, fan-tan, twenty-one, blackjack, seven-and-a-half, big injun, klondike, craps, stud poker, draw poker, or any card, dice, machine, at licensed establishments. Licensing fees for social games is set at US$25 per table per month, $50 for each mercantile game, $10 for each slot machine. Legal gambling age set at 21. [1] [5] [39] [80.303] [86.6] [187.355] [818.4] (March 17 [429])
March 20
  • Bishop Schreiber warns against national-socialism in Berlin, Germany. [1]
March 23
  • Indian revolutionary leaders Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev are hanged by the British Government. [429]
March 26
  • Iraq and Trans-Jordan sign peace treaty. [1]
  • New Delhi replaces Calcutta as capitol of British-Indies. [1]
March 27
  • British writer Arnold Bennett dies of typhoid in London shortly after returning from a visit to Paris, where he drank local water to prove it was safe. [1] [429]
  • Charlie Chaplin receives France's distinguished Legion of Honor. [1]
March 31
  • French post offices in Egypt close permanently. [1377.68]
  • An earthquake destroys Managua, Nicaragua, killing 2,000 people. [429]
April 6
  • The Portuguese government declares martial law in Madeira and in the Azores because of an attempted military takeover in Funchal. [429]
April 9
  • Argentinian anarchist Severino Digiovanni is executed. [429]
April 12
  • Spanish voters reject the monarchy. [1]
April 14
  • The Second Spanish Republic is proclaimed in Madrid, Spain. [429]
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. [429]
April 20
  • British House of Commons agrees to allow sports play on Sunday. [1]
April 22
  • Austria, Britain, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the USA recognize the Spanish Republic. [429]
  • Egypt and Iraq sign peace treaty. [1]
April 24
  • Second Spanish Republic proclaimed. [1157.94]
May 1
  • U.S. President Herbert Hoover officially dedicates New York City's Empire State Building. At 102 stories and 1,250 feet high it is the world's tallest skyscraper (a record held until 1972). [1] [5] [129] [429]
  • Norway claims Peter I Island. [1]
May 4
  • Kemal Atatürk is re-elected president of Turkey. [1] [429]
May 5
  • Ismet Inönü forms new (7th) government in Turkey. [429]
May 10
  • Golf ball size hail falls in Burlington, New Jersey, USA. [1]
May 11
  • The Creditanstalt, Austria's largest bank, goes bankrupt, beginning the banking collapse in Central Europe that causes a worldwide financial meltdown. [1] [429]
May 13
  • Paul Doumer is elected president of France. [1] [429]
May 15
  • Pope Pius XI publishes encyclical Quadragesimo anno. [1]
May 19
  • Ironclad cruiser Germany launched in Kiel. [1]
May 21
  • Belgian Government of Henri Jaspar falls. [1]
May 24
  • First air-conditioned train installed - B&O Railroad. [1]
May 27
  • First full-scale wind tunnel for testing airplanes, in Langley Field, Virginia, USA. [1]
  • Belgian scientist Auguste Picard launches hydrogen gas-filled balloon carrying himself and an assistant in a 300-pound, 82-inch diameter aluminum gondola. The balloon rises to a record 51,775 feet, and lands safely. [1] [985.340]
June 5
  • German Chancellor Dr. Heinrich Brüning visits London, where he warns the British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald that the collapse of the Austrian banking system, caused by the bankruptcy of the Creditanstalt, has left the entire German banking system on the verge of collapse. [429]
June 9
  • Goddard patents rocket-fueled aircraft design. [1]
June 14
  • The overloaded pleasure craft Saint-Philibert, carrying passengers home to Nantes from Île de Noirmoutier, overturns and sinks at the mouth of the river Loire in France; over 450 drown. [1] [429]
June 19
  • First photoelectric cell installed commercially, in West Haven, Connecticut, USA. [1]
  • In an attempt to stop the banking crisis in Central Europe from causing a worldwide financial meltdown, President Herbert Hoover issues the Hoover Moratorium. [429]
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] [429]
July 1
  • Milan Central Station officially opens in Italy. [429]
July 16
  • Emperor Haile Selassie signs the first constitution of Ethiopia. [429]
  • The Huang He floods kill between 850,000 and 4,000,000 people (the deadliest historic natural disaster). [429]
July 18
  • First air-conditioned ship (Mariposa) launched. [1]
July 23
  • Ashmore and Cartier Island in Indian Ocean are transferred to Australia. [1]
July 26
  • The millennialist Bible Student movement adopts the name Jehovah's Witnesses at a meeting in Columbus, Ohio. [429]
July 29
  • Germany declares bank holiday. [421.68]
August 15
  • Ernest Lassy completes longest canoe journey without port (6,102 miles). [1]
August 24
  • The Labour Government of Ramsay MacDonald resigns in Britain, replaced by a National Government of people drawn from all parties, also under MacDonald. [429]
August 31
  • The Yangtze River floods, leaving 23 million homeless. [429]
September 8
  • In Hagerstown, Maryland, USA a meteorite crashes through a roof. [521]
September 10
  • The worst hurricane in Belize history kills an estimated 1,500 people. [429]
September 15
  • Invergordon Mutiny: Strikes are called in the British Royal Navy due to decreased salaries. [1] [429]
September 16
  • Death by hanging of Omar Mukhtar, the leader of Libyan resistance (born 1862?). [429]
September 18
  • Japan stages the Mukden Incident as a pretext to occupy Manchuria. [429]
  • Geli Raubal is found shot dead in Adolf Hitler's apartment. [429]
September 21
  • Great Britain suspends gold payments. [1] [500.F1] (September 22 [429])
  • Egypt abandons the gold standard. [550.56]
September 29
  • Sweden and Denmark abandon the gold standard. [551.22] (September 21 for Denmark [437.80])
October 2
  • Pope Pius XI encyclical "On the economic crisis". [1]
October 5
  • First nonstop transpacific flight, Japan to Washington (Herndon and Pangborn). [1]
October 12
  • First International Conference on Calendar Reform is held. [1]
October 16
  • Trunk murderess Winnie Ruth Judd chops first victim. [1]
October 17
  • American gangster Al Capone is convicted of US tax evasion in Chicago, Illinois, and sentenced to 11 years in prison and fined US$80,000. [1] [5] [129] [429]
October 19
  • Canada officially suspends gold standard. [539.42] [555.30] [703.44]
November 3
  • First commercially produced synthetic rubber manufactured. [1]
November 4
  • Inauguration of the Thiruvananthapuram Central Railway station by the Maharaja of Travancore Sree Chithira Thirunal. [429]
November 7
  • The Chinese Soviet Republic is proclaimed by Mao Zedong. [429]
November 8
  • French police launch a large scale raid against Corsican bandits. [429]
  • The Panama Canal is closed for a couple of weeks due to damage caused by a number of earthquakes. [429]
November 20
  • Commercial teletype service begins. [1]
November 21
  • Ali Fethi Okyar forms new (third) government in Turkey. [429]
December 1
  • In Canada, the Ottawa branch of the British Royal Mint begins operation as the Royal Canadian Mint, under the control of the Canadian Finance Department. [3]
December 8
  • Coaxial cable patented. [1]
  • Carl Friedrich Goerdeler is appointed Reich Price Commissioner in Germany to enforce the deflationary policies of the Brüning government. [429]
December 9
  • Japanese army attacks Chinese province of Jehol. [1]
  • Spain becomes a republic. [1]
December 10
  • American Jane Addams named co-recipient of Nobel Peace Prize. [1] [429]
  • Manuel Azaña becomes premier and Niceto Alcalá-Zamora is elected President of Spain. [1] [429]
December 11
  • The British Parliament enacts the Statute of Westminster, which establishes a status of legislative equality between the self-governing dominions of the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of Canada, the Irish Free State, Newfoundland, the Dominion of New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa. [1] [429]
  • Japan leaves the Gold Standard. [1]
December 12
  • Japanese Government of Imukai forms. [1]
December 13
  • Wakatsuki Reijiro resigns as Prime Minister of Japan. [429]
December 14
  • First assembly of Anton Musserts NSB in Utrecht. [1]
December 16
  • German SPD begins Eiserne Front against fascism. [1]
December 19
  • Joseph A Lyons (Conservative) becomes premier of Australia. [1]
December 28
  • Lin-Sen succeeds Chiang Kai-shek as President of Nanjing-China. [1]
December 29
  • Identification of heavy water publicly announced, HC Urey. [1]
December 31
  • Statute of Westminster creates the British Commonwealth of Nations. [429]

End of 1931. Next: 1932.

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start-302 303-599 600-799 800-999 1000-1099 1100-1199 1200-1299 1300-1401 1402-1449 1450-1474
1475-1499 1500-1524 1525-1539 1540-1559 1560-1574 1575-1599 1600-1619 1620-1629 1630-1639 1640-1649
1650-1659 1660-1669 1670-1679 1680-1689 1690-1699 1700-1708 1709-1719 1720-1739 1740-1749 1750-1759
1760-1769 1770-1774 1775-1779 1780-1784 1785-1789 1790-1794 1795-1799 1800-1804 1805-1809 1810-1814
1815-1819 1820-1824 1825-1829 1830-1834 1835-1836 1837-1839 1840-1844 1845-1847 1848-1849 1850-1852
1853-1854 1855-1859 1860-1861 1862-1864 1865-1867 1868-1869 1870-1871 1872-1874 1875-1877 1878-1879
1880-1882 1883-1884 1885-1887 1888-1889 1890-1892 1893-1894 1895 1896-1897 1898-1899 1900-1901
1902 1903-1904 1905 1906-1907 1908-1909 1910-1911 1912 1913 1914 1915
1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925
1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935
1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945
1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955
1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965
1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975
1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985
1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022-end


A list of references to all source material is available.


Last updated: 2023 December 20.
Copyright © 2007-2024 Ken Polsson (email: ken@kpolsson.com).
URL: http://kpolsson.com/worldhis/
Link to Ken P's home page.

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