1931 in the United States

1931 in the United States
Decades:	1910s 1920s – 1930s – 1940s 1950s
Years:	1928 1929 1930 – 1931 – 1932 1933 1934
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Events from the year 1931 in the United States.

Incumbents

• President: Herbert Hoover (Republican)
• Vice President: Charles Curtis (Republican)
• Chief Justice: Charles Evans Hughes
• 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–March

• 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 20 – California gets the go-ahead by the U.S. Congress to build the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge.
• March 1 – The 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–June

May 1: Empire State Building completed

• 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 – Austria, Britain, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the USA recognize the Spanish Republic.
• May 1 – Construction of the Empire State Building is completed in New York City.
• 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–September

• July – John Haven Emerson of Cambridge, Massachusetts perfects the Emerson iron lung just in time for the growing polio epidemic.
• July 26 – The millennialist Bible Student movement adopts the name Jehovah's Witnesses at a meeting in Columbus, Ohio.

October–December

• October – The Caltech Department of Physics Faculty and graduate students meet with Albert Einstein as a guest.
• October 17 – American gangster Al Capone is sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion in Chicago, Illinois.
• October 24 – The George Washington Bridge is dedicated; it opens to traffic the following day.
• 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 existing Latino fraternity, is founded.

Undated

• Deuterium is discovered by Harold Clayton Urey.
• The National Committee for Modification of the Volstead Act is formed to work for the repeal of prohibition in the United States.

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

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Deaths

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References

External links

• Media related to 1931 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons