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- President's Emergency Committee for Unemployment Relief claims 4 to 5 million unemployed
- Wickersham Commission advises against the Repeal of the 18th Amendment, in spite of ineffectiveness of Prohibition
- London Naval Treaty of 1930 goes into effect, fixing a tonnage ratio of 5:5:3 on the navies of the U.S., Great Britain, and Japan, respectively
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- Supreme Court rules that procedures for adopting 18th Amendment were constitutional, overturning the ruling of a lower court
- Bonus Loan Bill passed by Congress, overriding Hoover's veto attempt, which allows veterans to obtain cash loans up to 50 percent of bonus certificates issued in 1924
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- Hoover signs act making "Star Spangled Banner" national anthem
- Hoover, opposed to governmental involvement in business ventures, vetoes Muscle Shoals Bill, which would later become the basis for Roosevelt's Tennessee Valley Authority
- Nine young black men arrested in Scottsboro, Alabama, charged with raping a white woman; the "Scottsboro Boys" would become a cause celebre for social justice seekers nationwide
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- Hoover proposes one-year moratorium on all international war debts and reparations
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- Kansas farmers produce bumper crop of wheat as prices collapse; some counties grant a moratorium on taxes
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- Great Britain goes off gold standard, provoking fear amongst Americans that the United States will do the same; 827 banks close over the next two months as fear inspires widespread withdrawals
- U.S. Steel announces 10% cut in wages, signalling the end of the wage maintainence plan which had protected worker pay through the first years of the Depression
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- Creation of the National Credit Corporation, a last-ditch attempt at relief of the Depression through voluntary business action
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- Nobel Peace Prize awarded jointly to Chicago's Jane Addams and Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Columbia University
- Hundreds of "hunger marchers" are turned away from the White House after trying to petition for employment at a minimum wage
- Hoover seeks the creation of an emergency reconstruction finance corporation to lend money to lending institutions to bolster industry; he recognizes the need for more public works to provide jobs
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- Physicist Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron popularly known as the atom smasher
- Danish physicians report that Vitamin E may prevent miscarriages
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- Feb. 11, Inventor Thomas Alva Edison dies.
- Fiberglass is introduced
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- Pathologist Ernest Goodpasture grows viruses in chicken eggs, opening the door for the production of vaccines
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- Chemist Julius Nieuland produces the synthetic rubber Neoprene
- fiberglass is introduced
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- Wiley Post and Harold Gatty begin first single-plane, round-the-world flight -- takes 8 days, 15 hours, 51 minutes
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- Engineer Karl Jansky determines that the stars are the source of mysterious radio interference
- Physicist Percy Bridgeman experiements with the changed behavior of materials placed under extremely high pressure
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- First nonstop flight across the Pacific Ocean, from Saishiro, Japan to Wenatchee, WA, completed by Hugh Herndon and Clyde Pangborn in 41 hourse, 13 minutes
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- Linus Pauling, future Nobel Laureate, proposes the theory of resonance to explain the chemical structure of benzene
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- The George Washington Bridge connecting N.Y. and N.J. is completed
- Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon complete first transpacific flight from Japan to Washington state
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| 1931 |
January 1931
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February 1931
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March 1931
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April 1931
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**************May 1931**************
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June 1931
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July 1931
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August 1931
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September 1931
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******************October 1931*******************
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******************November 1931******************
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******************December 1931******************
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| culture |
- 1931 begins on a Thursday
- University of Southern California wins the national college football championship
Fall Plowing by Grant Wood-
The 30s Jukebox
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The Aunt Jemima Show
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- Federal Council of Churches of Christ of America, a relatively conservative organization, gives qualified support to some measures of birth control
- Nevada legalizes gambling
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- James Henigan of Medford, MA wins the 35th Boston Marathon in the time of 2:46:45
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- Empire State Building, the world's tallest structure, dedicated in New York City
- Pulitzer Prizes awarded: Years of Grace, by Margaret Ayers Barnes, fiction; Charles W. Eliot, by Henry James, biography; The Coming of the War:1914, by Bernadotte E. Schmitt, history; Collected Poems, by Robert Frost, poetry; Alison's House, by Susan Glaspell, drama
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- Billy Burke wins golf's U.S. Open title by defeating George Von Elm by one stroke after two 36-hole playoffs
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Films released in 1931 |
- M, directed by Fritz Lang
- City Lights, directed by Charles Chaplin
- Frankenstein, starring Boris Karloff
- Little Ceasar, starring Edward G. Robinson
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- Monkey Business, starring the Marx Brothers
- Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi
- The Public Enemy, starring James Cagney
- Pardon Us, starring Laurel and Hardy
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- New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt opens George Washington Bridge linking New Jersey to Manhattan
- Al Capone found guilty of tax evasion in Federal Court in Chicago, sentenced to 11 years in prison and fined $50,000
- St. Louis Cardinals (NL) defeat the Philadelphia Athletics (AL) in seven games to win 28th World Series
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- Cimarron wins Academy Award for Best Picture, Lionel Barrymore Best Actor in A Free Soul; Marie Dressler as Best Actress in Min and Bill
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 Songs released in 1931
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| world |
- The British Parliament passes the Statute of Westminister recognizing the autonomy of the dominions of the British Empire and establishing the Commonwealth of Nations
- King Alphonso XIII is deposed and the Second Republic is established
- Kamal Ataturk begins a program of internal reforms intended to westernize Turkey
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- New Delhi becomes the capital of India
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- The Japanese army seizes the arsenal at Mukden and takes control of southern Manchuria
- Hailie Selassie introduces a constitution for Ethiopia
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- Yellow River floods in China, killing between 850,000 and 4,000,000 people; the exact number is unknown, but it is thought to be the worst natural disaster in history to date
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- Japan invades Manchuria, violating the Kellogg-Briand pact, setting it on the path to World War II
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- Council of League of Nations requests a US delegate concerning the Japanese invasion of Manchuria; United States goes on record in opposition to invasion, yet seems powerless to amend it
- French Premier Laval joins President Hoover in declaring that both countries will maintain gold standard
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- Prime Minister Ramsay McDonald forms a coalition government with Conservative and Liberal support
- Joseph Lyons forms the United Australia Party and is elected Prime Minister of Australia
- Dictator Gabriel Terra becomes President of Uraguay
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