Editing 1931 (section)

==Events==

===January===
{{Main|January 1931}}
* [[January 2]] – [[South Dakota]] native [[Ernest Lawrence]] invents the [[cyclotron]], used to accelerate particles to study [[nuclear physics]].
* [[January 4]] – German pilot [[Elly Beinhorn]] begins her flight to Africa.
* [[January 22]] – Sir [[Isaac Isaacs]] is sworn in as the first Australian-born [[Governor-General of Australia]].
* [[January 25]] – [[Mohandas Gandhi]] is again released from imprisonment in India.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FauJL7LKXmkC&q=gandhi+prison1931&pg=PA127|title=Gandhi: The Man, His People, and the Empire|last=Gandhi|first=Rajmohan|date=2008|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520255708|language=en}}</ref>
* [[January 27]] – [[Pierre Laval]] forms a government in France.
* [[January 30]] – [[Charlie Chaplin]] comedy drama film ''[[City Lights]]'' receives its public premiere at the [[Los Angeles Theater]] with [[Albert Einstein]] as guest of honor. Contrary to the current trend in cinema, it is a [[silent film]], but with a score by Chaplin. Critically and commercially successful from the start, it will place consistently in lists of films considered the best of all time.<ref>{{cite web|title=City Lights|url=https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/city_lights.pdf|last=Vance|first=Jeffrey|publisher=[[Library of Congress]]|access-date=2021-01-09}}</ref>

===February===
{{Main|February 1931}}
[[File:Delhi India Government.jpg|thumb|230px|right|[[February 10]]: New Delhi becomes India's capital]]
[[File:Ford Trimotor.jpg|thumb|200x200px|[[February 21]]: [[Ford Trimotor]] hijacked]]
* [[February 4]] – Soviet leader [[Joseph Stalin]] gives a speech calling for rapid industrialization, arguing that only strong industrialized countries will win wars, while "weak" nations are "beaten". Stalin states: "We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or they will crush us." The [[First five-year plan (Soviet Union)|first five-year plan]] in the Soviet Union is intensified, for the industrialization and collectivization of agriculture.
* [[February 10]] – Official inauguration ceremonies for New Delhi as the capital of India begin.<ref>{{cite news|title=New Delhi: The Inaugural Ceremony|newspaper=[[The Times]]|location=London|date=1931-02-11|issue=45744|page=12}}</ref>
* [[February 16]] – [[Pehr Evind Svinhufvud]] is elected president of Finland.
* [[February 21]] – [[Peru]]vian revolutionaries hijack a [[Ford Trimotor]] aeroplane, and demand that the pilot drop [[propaganda]] [[Flyer (pamphlet)|leaflet]]s over [[Lima]].

===March===
{{Main|March 1931}}
* [[March 5]] – The British [[viceroy]] of India and [[Mohandas Gandhi]] sign the [[Gandhi–Irwin Pact]].
* [[March 7]] – The Finnish [[Parliament House, Helsinki|Parliament House]] opens in [[Helsinki]], Finland.
* [[March 11]] – The ''[[Ready for Labour and Defence of the USSR]]'' programme, abbreviated as GTO, is introduced in the [[Soviet Union]].
* [[March 23]] – Indian revolutionary leaders [[Bhagat Singh]], [[Shivaram Rajguru]] and [[Sukhdev Thapar]] are hanged for conspiracy to murder in the [[British Raj]].
* [[March 31]] – An [[1931 Nicaragua earthquake|earthquake]] destroys [[Managua]], [[Nicaragua]], killing 2,000 people.

===April===
{{Main|April 1931}}
* [[April 1]] – The [[Second Encirclement Campaign against Jiangxi Soviet]] in China is launched by the [[Kuomintang]] government, to destroy the Communist forces in [[Jiangxi]] Province. 
* [[April 6]] – The Portuguese government declares martial law in [[Madeira]] and in the [[Azores]], because of the [[Madeira uprising]] in [[Funchal]].
* [[April 12]] – Municipal elections in Spain, which are treated as a virtual referendum on the monarchy, result in the triumph for the republican parties. 
* [[April 14]] – The [[Second Spanish Republic]] is proclaimed in [[Madrid]]. Meanwhile, as a result of the victory of the [[Republican Left of Catalonia]], [[Francesc Macià]] proclaims in [[Barcelona]] the [[Catalan Republic (1931)|Catalan Republic]], as a state of the Iberian Federation.
* [[April 15]] – Assassination of Giuseppe (Joe the Boss) Masseria, New York City Mafia boss.
* [[April 17]] – After the negotiations between the republican ministers of Spain and Catalonia, the Catalan Republic becomes the [[Generalitat of Catalonia]], a Catalan autonomous government inside the Spanish Republic.
* [[April 22]] – [[Austria]], the [[United Kingdom|UK]], [[Denmark]], [[Weimar Republic|Germany]], [[Kingdom of Italy|Italy]], [[Sweden]] and the [[United States]] recognize the [[Second Spanish Republic|Spanish Republic]].
* [[April 25]] – The automobile manufacturer [[Porsche]] is founded by [[Ferdinand Porsche]] in [[Stuttgart]].

===May===
{{Main|May 1931}}
[[File:Manhattan at Dusk by slonecker.jpg|thumb|188x188px| [[May 1]]: [[Empire State Building]] is completed.]]
* [[May 1]] – Construction of the [[Empire State Building]] is completed in New York City.
* [[May 4]] – [[Kemal Atatürk]] is re-elected president of [[Turkey]].
* [[May 5]] – [[İsmet İnönü]] forms a new government in Turkey (7th government).
* [[May 11]] – The ''[[Creditanstalt]]'', Austria's largest bank, goes bankrupt, beginning the banking collapse in Central Europe that causes a worldwide financial meltdown.
* [[May 13]] – [[Paul Doumer]] is elected president of France.
* [[May 14]] – [[Ådalen shootings]]: Five people are killed in [[Ådalen]], Sweden, when soldiers open fire on an unarmed trade union demonstration.
* [[May 15]]
** The Chinese Communists inflict a sharp defeat on the Kuomintang forces.
** [[Pope Pius XI]] issues the [[encyclical]] ''[[Quadragesimo anno]]'', on the "reconstruction of the social order".
* [[May 31]] – The Second Encirclement Campaign against Jiangxi Soviet ends in the defeat of the Kuomintang.

===June===
{{Main|June 1931}}
* June–November – [[1931 China flood]]: the [[Yangtze]] and [[Huai River]]s flood in a populous region, leaving an estimated 422,000 dead (150,000 drowned) with many more dying of consequential starvation and disease in the aftermath.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Nature of Disaster in China The 1931 Yangzi River Flood|first=Chris|last=Courtney|year=2018|publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/9781108278362|isbn=9781108278362|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/nature-of-disaster-in-china/1483BBD53BA764B54EE882EF699B1299}}</ref>
* [[June 5]]
**German Chancellor [[Heinrich Brüning]] visits London, where he warns 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.
**Anti-Chinese rioting occurs in [[Pyongyang]]. Approximately 127 Chinese people are killed, 393 wounded, and a considerable number of properties are destroyed by Korean residents.<ref name="Wanpaoshan">{{cite book|last1=Em|first1=Henry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DxAd2Aw_jP0C|title=The Great Enterprise: Sovereignty and Historiography in Modern Korea, Part 2|date=2013|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0822353720|location=Durham|page=125|access-date=21 August 2017}}</ref>
* [[June 14]] – [[Saint-Philibert disaster]]: The overloaded pleasure craft ''Saint-Philibert'', carrying trippers home to Nantes from the Île de Noirmoutier, sinks at the mouth of the River [[Loire]] in France; over 450 drown.
* [[June 19]]
** In an attempt to stop the banking crisis in Central Europe from causing a worldwide financial meltdown, U.S. President [[Herbert Hoover]] issues the [[Hoover Moratorium]].
** The [[Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War (1929)|Geneva Convention (1929)]] relative to the treatment of [[prisoners of war]] enters into force.
* [[June 23]]–[[July 1]] – [[Wiley Post]] and [[Harold Gatty]] accomplish the first round-the-world flight in a single-engine plane, flying eastabout from [[Roosevelt Field (airport)|Roosevelt Field]], New York, in 8 days, 15 hours, 51 minutes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Explorers_Record_Setters_and_Daredevils/Wiley_Post/EX27.htm|publisher=centennialofflight.gov|title=Wiley Post|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121008043851/http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Explorers_Record_Setters_and_Daredevils/Wiley_Post/EX27.htm |archive-date=October 8, 2012}}</ref>

===July===
{{Main|July 1931}}
* [[July 1]] – The rebuilt [[Milano Centrale railway station]] officially opens in Italy.
* [[July 9]] – Irish racing driver [[Kaye Don]] breaks the world [[water speed record]] at Lake Garda, Italy.<ref>''BBC History'', July 2011, p12.</ref>
* [[July 10]] – Norway issues a royal proclamation claiming the uninhabited part of eastern [[Greenland]] as [[Erik the Red's Land]].
* [[July 13]] – Royal soldiers shoot and kill 22 people demonstrating against the [[Maharaja]] [[Hari Singh]], of the Indian princely state of [[Kashmir and Jammu (princely state)|Kashmir and Jammu]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://zeenews.india.com/news/jammu-and-kashmir/jandk-observes-martyrs-day-cm-omar-pays-tributes_719325.html|title=J&K observes Martyrs' day: CM Omar pays tributes|date=2011-07-13|work=Zee News|access-date=2011-12-18}}</ref>
* [[July 16]] – Emperor [[Haile Selassie]] signs the first [[1931 Constitution of Ethiopia|Constitution of Ethiopia]].
* [[July 20]] – A violent tornado strikes the city of [[Lublin]], [[Poland]].

===August===
{{Main|August 1931}}
* [[August 2]] – [[Murder of Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck]]: Two [[Berlin]] police officers are killed by Communists.
* [[August 9]] – A referendum in [[Free State of Prussia|Prussia]] for dissolving the ''Landtag'' ends with the "yes" side winning 37% of the vote, which is insufficient for calling the early elections. The elections are intended to remove the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democratic Party]] (SPD) government of [[Otto Braun]], which is one of the strongest forces for democracy in Germany. Supporting the "yes" side were the [[NSDAP]], the [[DNVP]] and the [[Communist Party of Germany|Communist Party]] (KPD), while supporting the "no" side were the SPD and ''[[Zentrumspartei|Zentrum]]''. 
* [[August 24]] – The [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] Government of [[Ramsay MacDonald]] resigns in Britain, replaced by a [[National Government (United Kingdom)|National Government]] of people drawn from all parties, also under MacDonald.

===September===
{{Main|September 1931}}
[[File:Jĭuyībā Lìshĭ Bówùguăn九・一八歴史博物館106997.JPG|thumb|[[September 18]]: The [[Mukden Incident]]: Incident Museum in [[Shenyang]]|230x230px]]
* [[September 7]] – The [[Round Table Conferences (India)#Second Round Table Conference (September 1931 – December 1931)|Second Round Table Conference]] on the constitutional future of India opens in London; [[Mahatma Gandhi]] represents the [[Indian National Congress]].
* [[September 10]] – The worst [[1931 Belize hurricane|hurricane]] in [[Belize|British Honduras]] history kills an estimated 1,500.
* [[September 18]] – The Japanese military stages the [[Mukden Incident]], an explosion blamed on Chinese dissidents and used as a pretext for the [[Japanese invasion of Manchuria]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Sara Rector Smith|title=The Manchurian Crisis, 1931-1932: A Tragedy in International Relations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-dAmAQAAMAAJ|year=1970|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=978-0-8371-3344-7|page=22}}</ref>
* [[September 19]] – The United Kingdom abandons the [[gold standard]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Kanti Singh|title=The Great Depression and Agrarian Economy: A Study of an Underdeveloped Region of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xTFffW2iygwC&pg=PA63|date=1 January 1987|publisher=Mittal Publications|pages=63}}</ref>
* [[September 20]] – With a gun literally pointed to his head, the Chinese commander of [[Jilin|Kirin]] province announces the annexation of that territory to Japan.

===October===
{{Main|October 1931}}
* [[October 5]] – American aviators [[Clyde Edward Pangborn]] and Hugh Herndon Jr., complete the first [[non-stop flight]] across the Pacific Ocean, flying their plane, ''[[Miss Veedol]]'', from [[Misawa, Aomori|Misawa, Japan]], to [[East Wenatchee, Washington]], in 41½ hours.<ref>{{cite web|title=Pangborn-Herndon Memorial Site|url=http://www.nps.gov/nr//travel/aviation/pan.htm|work=Aviation: From Sand Dunes To Sonic Booms|publisher=[[National Park Service]]|access-date=2012-05-31}}</ref>
* [[October 11]] – A rally in Bad Harzburg, Germany leads to the [[Harzburg Front]] being founded, uniting the NSDAP, the DNVP, the ''Stahlhelm'' and various other right-wing factions. 
* [[October 24]] – The [[George Washington Bridge]] across the [[Hudson River]] in the United States is dedicated; it opens to traffic the following day. At {{convert|3500|ft|m}}, it nearly doubles the previous record for the [[List of longest suspension bridge spans|longest main span in the world]].
* [[October 27]] – The [[1931 United Kingdom general election|United Kingdom general election]] results in the victory of the [[National Government (United Kingdom)|National Government]], and the defeat of [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]], in the country's greatest ever electoral landslide.

===November===
{{Main|November 1931}}
* [[November 7]] 
** The [[Chinese Soviet Republic]] is proclaimed by [[Mao Zedong]].
** Red China News Agency (a predecessor of the [[Xinhua News Agency]]) is officially founded, and news wire service start in [[Ruijin]], [[Jiangxi Province]], [[China]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jing |first1=Xu |last2=Dengfeng |first2=Wang |title=Dual Identity and Multiple Tasks: Contemporary Chinese Party Media's Involvement in Political Communication |journal=LCM Journal |date=2018 |volume=5 |issue=2}}</ref>
* [[November 8]]
** French police launch a large-scale raid against [[Corsica]]n bandits.
** The [[Panama Canal]] is closed for a couple of weeks, due to damage caused by earthquakes.
* [[November 26]] – Heavy hydrogen, later named [[deuterium]], is discovered by American chemist [[Harold Urey]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Briton Hadden|title=Time|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QAcfAQAAMAAJ|year=1935|publisher=Time Incorporated|page=54}}</ref>

===December===
{{Main|December 1931}}
* [[December 5]] – The original [[Cathedral of Christ the Saviour]] in [[Moscow]] ([[1883]]) is dynamited, by order of [[Joseph Stalin]].
* [[December 8]] – [[Carl Friedrich Goerdeler]] is appointed Reich Price Commissioner, in Germany to enforce the deflationary policies of the Brüning government.
* [[December 9]] – The Spanish [[Constituent Cortes]] approves the [[Spanish Constitution of 1931]], effectively establishing the [[Second Spanish Republic]].
* [[December 10]] – [[Niceto Alcalá-Zamora]] is elected president of the Spanish Republic.
* [[December 11]] – The [[Parliament of the United Kingdom]] enacts the [[Statute of Westminster 1931|Statute of Westminster]], which establishes a status of legislative equality between the self-governing dominions of the [[Commonwealth of Australia]], [[Canada]], the [[Irish Free State]], [[Dominion of Newfoundland|Newfoundland]], the [[Dominion of New Zealand]] and the [[Union of South Africa]].
* [[December 13]] – [[Wakatsuki Reijirō]] resigns as [[Prime Minister of Japan]].
* [[December 19]] – The [[United Australia Party|UAP]]/[[National Party of Australia|Country]] [[Coalition (Australia)|Coalition]], led by [[Joseph Lyons]], defeats the Australian [[Australian Labor Party|Labor]] [[Scullin Ministry|Government]], led by [[Prime Minister of Australia|Prime Minister]] [[James Scullin]]. Coming in the aftermath of two [[Australian Labor Party split of 1931|splits]] in the Labor Party, the election comes about due to the defeat of the Scullin government on the floor of the [[Australian House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] – to date, it is the last federal election where a one-term government was defeated. Lyons will be sworn in [[January 6]]th the following year, but not before disbanding the Coalition, after the UAP wins enough seats to form a government in its own right.