Dashed left edge = started before March 1931 ·
Dashed right edge = ongoing beyond March 1931
Events in March 1931 13
1867 – 1931Arnold Bennett (1867-1931)Died 27 March 1931, aged 63English novelist, best known for The Old Wives' Tale and the Clayhanger novels, set in the Staffordshire Potteries. He was also an influential critic and journalist. He died of typhoid in London.
1883 – 1931Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931)Died 7 March 1931, aged 47Dutch artist, designer and theorist who founded the De Stijl movement and its journal. He worked with Piet Mondrian before the two fell out over diagonal lines. He died in Davos, Switzerland.
1888 – 1931F. W. Murnau (1888-1931)Died 11 March 1931, aged 42German film director of the silent era, whose films include Nosferatu, The Last Laugh and Sunrise. He was a leading figure of German Expressionist cinema. He died in a car accident in California shortly before his film Tabu was released.
1888 – 1931Knute Rockne (1888-1931)Died 31 March 1931, aged 43Norwegian-born American football coach at the University of Notre Dame. He won more than 88 per cent of his games and popularised the forward pass. His death in an airliner crash in Kansas was a national shock.
1907 – 1931Bhagat Singh (1907-1931)Died 23 March 1931, aged 23Indian revolutionary who was convicted of killing the British police officer John Saunders. He was hanged in Lahore together with Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru. He is remembered in India as one of the most celebrated martyrs of the independence movement.
1931 – 2022Mikhail GorbachevLast leader of the Soviet Union, 1985-1991Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (March 2, 1931 – August 30, 2022) was the last leader of the Soviet Union, serving from 1985 until the USSR's dissolution in 1991. His policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) inadvertently led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.
1931The Star-Spangled Banner becomes US national anthemCongress formally adopts Francis Scott Key's songPresident Herbert Hoover signed an act of Congress making The Star-Spangled Banner the official national anthem of the United States. The words come from a poem Francis Scott Key wrote in 1814 after the bombardment of Fort McHenry. The song had already been widely used on official occasions.
1931Gandhi-Irwin PactGandhi agrees to end civil disobedience in exchange for concessionsMahatma Gandhi and the Viceroy Lord Irwin signed an agreement under which the Indian National Congress suspended its civil disobedience campaign. In return the British released political prisoners and allowed Indians to make salt for their own use. Gandhi then attended the Second Round Table Conference in London.
1931Nevada legalises gamblingWide-open casino gambling becomes legal in NevadaGovernor Fred Balzar signed a bill that legalised most forms of gambling in Nevada. On the same day the state cut the residency requirement for divorce to six weeks. Together these laws laid the foundations of the casino economies of Las Vegas and Reno.
1931 – 2016Viktor KorchnoiElite Soviet and Swiss grandmasterViktor Korchnoi challenged for the World Championship multiple times and remained a top-level competitor into old age.
1931Scottsboro Boys arrestedNine Black teenagers are falsely accused of rape in AlabamaNine Black youths were taken off a freight train near Paint Rock, Alabama, and accused of raping two white women. All but the youngest were quickly sentenced to death by all-white juries. The case became a landmark of the American civil rights struggle and produced two major Supreme Court rulings.
1931 – 2015Leonard Nimoy (1931-2015)Died 27 February 2015, aged 83Leonard Nimoy was an American actor best known for playing the half-Vulcan Spock in the Star Trek television series and films. His portrayal made Spock one of the most recognizable characters in science fiction. Nimoy also worked as a director, photographer and poet over a career spanning six decades.
1931Managua earthquakeEarthquake and fire destroy the centre of Nicaragua's capitalAn earthquake struck Managua, and the fires that followed destroyed most of the city centre. Around 2,000 people were killed. United States Marines stationed in Nicaragua took part in relief efforts.