1931

Events

January

• January – The National Committee for Modification of the Volstead Act is formed, to work for the repeal of Prohibition in the United States.
• January 1 - Bridgestone founded in Kyushu Island, Japan.
• January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics.
• January 3 – Albert Einstein begins doing research at the California Institute of Technology, along with astronomer Edwin Hubble.
• January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa.
• January 6
• * Thomas Edison submits his last patent application.
• * In Chicago, CBMC hosts first meeting to address a greater purpose for business during The Great Depression, packing over 800 seats in Chicago's Garrick Theatre.
• 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.
• January 27 – Pierre Laval forms a government in France.
• January 30 – The movie City Lights, starring Charlie Chaplin, is released.

  February

• February 3 – Hawke's Bay earthquake: Much of the New Zealand cities of Napier and Hastings are destroyed in an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, killing 256 people.
• 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 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.
• February 11 – National Socialist and German National People's Party members walk out of the German Reichstag, in protest against changes in the parliament's protocol, intended to limit heckling.
• February 12 – Vatican Radio first broadcasts.
• February 14 – The original film version of Dracula, with Bela Lugosi, is released in the United States.
• February 16 – Pehr Evind Svinhufvud is elected president of Finland.
• February 20 – California gets the go-ahead by the United States Congress, to build the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge.
• February 21 – Peruvian revolutionaries hijack a Ford Trimotor aeroplane, and demand that the pilot drop propaganda leaflets over Lima.

March

• March 1
• * The USS Arizona is placed back in full commission, after a refit.
• * Sir Oswald Mosley founds the New Party as a breakaway from the Labour Party in the United Kingdom.
• March 3 – The Star-Spangled Banner is adopted as the United States' National anthem.
• March 5 – The British viceroy of India and Mohandas Gandhi sign the Gandhi–Irwin Pact.
• March 7 – The Finnish 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 17 – Nevada legalizes gambling.
• March 19 – The Westminster St George's by-election in the U.K. results in the victory of the Conservative candidate Duff Cooper. The by-election has been treated virtually as a referendum on the leadership of the Conservative leader Stanley Baldwin, and Duff Cooper's victory ends the campaign by the press barons Lord Beaverbrook and Viscount Rothermere to oust Baldwin.
• March 23 – Indian revolutionary leaders Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar are hanged for conspiracy to murder in the British Raj.
• March 25 – The Scottsboro Boys are arrested in Alabama, and charged with rape.
• March 31 – An earthquake destroys Managua, Nicaragua, killing 2,000 people.

  April

• 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, as a state of the Iberian Federation.
• April 15 – The Castellammarese War ends with the murder of Joe "The Boss" Masseria, briefly leaving Salvatore Maranzano as capo dei capi of the American Mafia. Maranzano is himself murdered less than 6 months later, leading to the creation of the Commission.
• 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 UK, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Sweden and the United States recognize the Spanish Republic.
• April 25 – The automobile manufacturer Porsche is founded by Ferdinand Porsche in Stuttgart.

  May

• 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.
• 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

• June 3 – Salvador Dalí's The Persistence of Memory is put on display for the first time in Paris at the Galerie Pierre Colle.
• 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.
• *Anti-Chinese rioting occurred in Pyongyang.Approximately 127 Chinese people were killed, 393 wounded, and a considerable number of properties were destroyed by Korean residents.
• June 12 – English cricketer Charlie Parker equals J. T. Hearne's record for the earliest date to reach 100 wickets.
• 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 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, New York, in 8 days, 15 hours, 51 minutes.

  July

• July – John Haven Emerson of Cambridge, Massachusetts perfects his negative pressure ventilator, just in time for the growing polio epidemic.
• 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.
• 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.
• July 16 – Emperor Haile Selassie signs the first Constitution of Ethiopia.
• July 26 – The millennialist Bible Student movement adopts the name Jehovah's Witnesses, at a meeting in Columbus, Ohio.
• July 31 – The May Report in the United Kingdom recommends extensive cuts to government expenditure. This produces a political crisis, as many members of the Labour Party object to the proposals.

  August

• The 1931 China floods reach their peak, in possibly the deadliest natural disaster yet recorded.
• Warner Brothers releases the first Merrie Melodies cartoon, Lady, Play Your Mandolin.
• August 2 – Murder of Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck: Two Berlin police officers are killed by Communists.
• August 9 – A referendum in 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 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, while supporting the "no" side were the SPD and Zentrum.
• August 11 – A run on the British pound leads to a political and economic crisis in Britain.
• 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.

  September

• September 5 – John Thomson, Scottish football player, dies as the result of an accident, during a Celtic–Rangers match.
• September 7 – The Second Round Table Conference on the constitutional future of India opens in London; Mahatma Gandhi represents the Indian National Congress.
• September 10 – The worst hurricane in British Honduras history kills an estimated 1,500.
• September 15 – Invergordon Mutiny: Strikes are called in the British Royal Navy, due to decreased pay.
• September 18
• * The Japanese military stage the Mukden Incident, as a pretext for the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.
• * Geli Raubal commits suicide, in her uncle Adolf Hitler's apartment.
• September 20 – With a gun literally pointed to his head, the Chinese commander of Kirin province announces the annexation of that territory to Japan.
• September 22 – The United Kingdom abandons the gold standard.

  October

• October – The Caltech Department of Physics faculty and graduate students meet with Albert Einstein as a guest.
• October 4 – Dick Tracy, the comic strip detective character created by cartoonist Chester Gould, makes his debut appearance in the Detroit Mirror newspaper.
• October 5 – American aviators Clyde Edward Pangborn and Hugh Herndon, Jr., complete the first non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean, from Misawa, Japan, to East Wenatchee, Washington, in 41½ hours.
• 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 17
• * American gangster Al Capone is sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion in Chicago.
• * Leeds Bradford International Airport is opened as Leeds and Bradford Municipal Aerodrome, in England.
• October 24 – The George Washington Bridge across the Hudson River in the United States is dedicated; it opens to traffic the following day. At, it nearly doubles the previous record for the longest main span in the world.
• October 27 – The United Kingdom general election results in the victory of the National Government, and the defeat of Labour Party, in the country's greatest ever electoral landslide.

  November

• November 7
• * The Chinese Soviet Republic is proclaimed by Mao Zedong.
• * Red China News Agency is officially founded, and news wire service start in Ruijin, Jiangxi Province, China.
• November 8
• * French police launch a large-scale raid against Corsican bandits.
• * The Panama Canal is closed for a couple of weeks, due to damage caused by earthquakes.
• November 21 – The infamous Red-and-White Party, given by Arthur Jeffress in Maud Allan's Regent's Park townhouse in London, marks the end of the "Bright young things" subculture in Britain.
• November 25
• * Ali Fethi Okyar forms a new government in Turkey.
• * James Whale's film of Frankenstein is released in New York City.
• November 26 – Heavy hydrogen, later named deuterium, is discovered by American chemist Harold Urey.

  December

• December 5 – The original Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow 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
• * Jane Addams becomes the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
• * Niceto Alcalá-Zamora is elected president of the Spanish Republic.
• December 11 – The Parliament of the United Kingdom enacts the 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, 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 UAP/Country Coalition, led by Joseph Lyons, defeats the Australian Labor Government, led by Prime Minister James Scullin. Coming in the aftermath of two splits in the Labor Party, the election comes about due to the defeat of the Scullin Government on the floor of the House of Representatives – to date, it is the last federal election where a one-term government was defeated. Lyons will be sworn in January 6th the following year, but not before disbanding the Coalition, after the UAP wins enough seats to form a government in its own right.
• December 26 – Phi Iota Alpha, the oldest surviving Latino fraternity, is founded in the United States.

  Date unknown

• A medical equipment supplies on worldwide, Baxter International was founded in Illinois, United States.

  Births

January

• January 1 – Mohammad Ali Samatar, 5th Prime Minister of Somalia
• January 2 – Toshiki Kaifu, 2-time Prime Minister of Japan
• January 4
• * Guido Messina, Italian road and track cyclist
• * William Deane, 22nd Governor-General of Australia
• * Cleopa Msuya, 3rd Prime Minister of Tanzania
• * José Triana, Cuban poet
• January 5
• * Alvin Ailey, American choreographer
• * Alfred Brendel, Austrian pianist
• * Robert Duvall, American actor, director
• January 6
• * E. L. Doctorow, American author
• * Kaoru Yachigusa, Japanese actress
• January 8 – Bill Graham, German concert promoter
• January 10 – Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, Malaysian politician, Muslim cleric
• January 12 – Roland Alphonso, Jamaican musician
• January 13 – Ian Hendry, English actor
• January 14 – Caterina Valente, French singer and actress
• January 16
• * Shuhrat Abbosov, Uzbek actor, film director, screenwriter, and film producer
• * Johannes Rau, President of Germany
• January 17 – James Earl Jones, African-American actor
• January 18 – Chun Doo-hwan, President of South Korea
• January 19 – Pat Hunt, New Zealand National Party politician
• January 20
• * Sawako Ariyoshi, Japanese writer, novelist
• * David Lee, American physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics
• January 22 – Sam Cooke, African-American singer
• January 24 – Lars Hörmander, Swedish mathematician
• January 25 – Dean Jones, American actor
• January 26 – Kaare Ørnung, Norwegian pianist, music teacher
• January 27 – Mordecai Richler, Canadian author
• January 28 – Lucia Bosè, Italian actress
• January 29 – Ferenc Mádl, President of Hungary
• January 31 – Ernie Banks, African-American baseball player

  February

• February 1
• * Boris Yeltsin, 1st President of Russia
• * Oswald Oberhuber, Austrian painter, sculptor, and graphic artist
• February 2
• * Dries van Agt, Dutch politician, 46th Prime Minister of the Netherlands
• * Walter Burkert, German writer
• February 4 – Isabel Martínez de Perón, 41st President of Argentina
• February 6
• * Rip Torn, American actor and comedian
• * Mamie Van Doren, American actress, author
• * Ricardo Vidal, Filipino Roman Catholic prelate, cardinal
• February 8
• * James Dean, American actor
• * Shadia, Egyptian actress, singer
• February 9
• * Thomas Bernhard, Austrian author
• * Josef Masopust, Czech football player and coach
• February 12 – Agustín García-Gasco Vicente, Spanish cardinal
• February 14 – Gerrit Jan Heijn, Dutch businessman
• February 15 – Claire Bloom, English actress
• February 16 – Ken Takakura, Japanese actor
• February 18
• * Johnny Hart, American cartoonist
• * Toni Morrison, African-American writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature
• February 23 – Linda Cristal, Argentine actress
• February 24 – Dominic Chianese, American actor
• February 28
• * Gavin MacLeod, American actor, Mayor of Pacific Palisades
• * Dean Smith, American basketball player and coach

  March

• March 1 – Lamberto Dini, Italian politician, economist and 51st Prime Minister of Italy
• March 2 – Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the Soviet Union, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• March 3 – John Smith, American actor
• March 4
• * William H. Keeler, American Roman Catholic prelate
• * Alice Rivlin, American economist
• March 5 – Barry Tuckwell, Australian horn player
• March 8 – Neil Postman, American media theorist and cultural critic
• March 9 – León Febres Cordero, President of Ecuador
• March 10 – Kovambo Nujoma, First Lady of Namibia
• March 11
• * Janosch, German writer
• * Rupert Murdoch, Australian-born publisher
• March 12 – Herb Kelleher, American businessman
• March 14 – Lisbet Palme, Swedish child psychologist
• March 15 – D. J. Fontana, American drummer
• March 18 – Vlastimil Bubník, Czech ice hockey and football player
• March 20
• * James Mollison, Australian arts administrator
• * Hal Linden, American actor, singer
• * Karen Steele, American actress and model
• March 22
• * Paul G. Hewitt, American physicist, boxer, uranium prospector, author and cartoonist
• * Burton Richter, American physicist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics
• * William Shatner, Canadian actor, science fiction novelist
• March 24 – Connie Hines, American actress
• March 26 – Leonard Nimoy, American actor, film director, and singer
• March 27 – David Janssen, American actor
• March 28 – Anatoly Lein, Russian-born American chess Grandmaster
• March 29
• * Aleksei Gubarev, Russian cosmonaut
• * Norman Tebbit, British politician

  April

• April 1
• * Ita Ever, Estonian actress
• * Rolf Hochhuth, German writer
• April 2 – Joseph Joffo, French author
• April 5
• * Jack Clement, American singer-songwriter, record producer
• * Héctor Olivera, Argentine film director, producer and screenwriter
• April 6
• * Suchitra Sen, Bengali actress
• * Radomil Eliška, Czech conductor
• April 8 – John Gavin, American actor and diplomat
• April 11
• * Luis Cabral, 1st President of Guinea-Bissau
• * Mustafa Dağıstanlı, Turkish free-style wrestler
• * Johnny Sheffield, American child actor
• April 12 – Chico Anysio, Brazilian actor, comedian, writer and composer
• April 13 – Dan Gurney, American race car driver
• April 15
• * Helen Maksagak, Canadian, first Inuk and woman to be Commissioner of both the Northwest Territories and Nunavut
• * Tomas Tranströmer, Swedish poet, translator and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature
• April 17 – Esteban Siller, Mexican voice actor
• April 18 - Noel Marshall, American agent and producer
• April 19 – Kobie Coetsee, South African politician
• April 26 – John Cain, Australian politician
• April 27 – Igor Oistrakh, Ukrainian violinist
• April 29
• * Frank Auerbach, German-born painter
• * Lonnie Donegan, Scottish musician

  May

• May 1 – Chaudhry Ghulam Rasool, Pakistani educationist
• May 3
• * Aldo Rossi, Italian architect and designer
• * Hirokazu Kanazawa, Japanese karate practitioner and teacher
• May 6
• * Magda al-Sabahi, Egyptian actress
• * Willie Mays, African-American baseball player
• May 7
• * Teresa Brewer, American pop, jazz singer
• * Marta Terry González, Cuban librarian
• * Gene Wolfe, American science fiction and fantasy writer
• May 8 – Bob Clotworthy, American diver
• May 10
• * M. Chidananda Murthy, Indian historian
• * Ichirō Nagai, Japanese voice actor
• May 13
• * András Hajnal, Hungarian mathematician
• * Jim Jones, American People's Temple cult leader
• * Jiří Petr, Czech university president
• May 16
• * Magda Guzmán, Mexican actress
• * Natwar Singh, Indian politician
• May 17 – Marshall Applewhite, American Heaven's Gate religious sect founder
• May 18
• * Victoria Quirino-Gonzalez, First Lady of the Philippines
• * Don Martin, American artist
• * Robert Morse, American actor
• * Clément Vincent, Canadian politician
• May 19 – Éric Tappy, Swiss tenor
• May 21 – Bombolo, Italian character actor and comedian
• May 23 – Barbara Barrie, American actress and writer
• May 25 – Georgy Grechko, Russian cosmonaut
• May 27 – Faten Hamama, Egyptian actress
• May 28 – Carroll Baker, American actress
• May 31
• * John Schrieffer, American physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
• * Shirley Verrett, American mezzo-soprano

  June

• June 2 – Viktor Tsaryov, Russian footballer
• June 3
• * Raúl Castro, First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba
• * Lindy Remigino, American Olympic athlete
• June 4 – D. M. Jayaratne, Sri Lankan politician
• June 6 – Kiki Dimoula, Greek poet
• June 7 – Andrea Gemma, Italian bishop
• June 8 – Dana Wynter, German-born American actress
• June 9 – Jackie Mason, American comedian
• June 10 – João Gilberto, Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist, pioneer of bossa nova
• June 14
• * Marla Gibbs, African-American actress, comedian and singer
• * Junior Walker, American saxophonist, singer
• June 16 – Ivo Petrić, Slovenian composer
• June 17
• *Kawther Ramzi, Egyptian actress
• *John Baldessari, American conceptual artist
• June 18 – Fernando Henrique Cardoso, 34th President of Brazil
• June 20
• * Mary L. Good, American inorganic chemist
• * Olympia Dukakis, American actress
• * Arne Nordheim, Norwegian composer
• June 21 – Margaret Heckler, American Secretary of Health and Human Services
• June 22 – Ian Browne, Australian track cyclist
• June 23 – Ola Ullsten, Swedish politician and diplomat
• June 24
• * Árpád Bárány, Hungarian fencer
• * Billy Casper, American golfer
• * Gaston Flosse, French politician
• June 25 – V. P. Singh, Prime Minister of India
• June 26 – Colin Wilson, British writer
• June 27
• * Graziella Galvani, Italian stage, television and film actress
• * Martinus J. G. Veltman, Dutch physicist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics
• June 28
• * Hans Alfredson, Swedish actor, film director, writer and comedian
• * Jenny Glusker, British biochemist and crystallographer
• * Junior Johnson, American NASCAR driver of the 1950s and 1960s
• June 29 – Alina Obidniak, Polish actress and theatre director
• June 30 – Gerda Herrmann, German composer and poet

  July

• July 1
• * Leslie Caron, French actress
• * Stanislav Grof, Czech psychiatrist
• * Seyni Kountché, former President of Niger
• July 2
• * Oddur Pétursson, Icelandic cross country skier
• * Mohammad Yazdi, Iranian cleric
• July 4 – Stephen Boyd, Irish actor
• July 5 – Ismail Mahomed, South African, Namibian Chief Justice
• July 6
• * Antonella Lualdi, Italian actress, singer
• * Emily Nasrallah, Lebanese writer, women's rights activist
• * Della Reese, African-American actress, singer and evangelist
• July 8 – Thorvald Stoltenberg, Norwegian politician
• July 10
• * Nick Adams, American actor
• * Morris Chang, Chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. in 1987
• * Jerry Herman, American composer, lyricist
• * Julian May, American science fiction, fantasy, horror, and science writer
• * Alice Munro, Canadian writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature
• July 11 – Tab Hunter, American actor, singer
• July 13 – Frank Ramsey, American professional basketball player, coach
• July 14
• * Mirella Ricciardi, Kenyan photographer, author
• * Robert Stephens, English actor
• July 15
• * Clive Cussler, American thriller writer and underwater explorer
• * Gene Louw, South African politician
• July 17 – Caroline Graham, English playwright, screenwriter and novelist
• July 22 – Guido de Marco, Maltese politician, 6th President of Malta
• July 23 – Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, Māori queen
• July 25 – Paul Danblon, Belgian composer, opera director, administrator and journalist
• July 27 – Jerry Van Dyke, American comedian, actor

  August

• August 1 – Hal Connolly, American athlete
• August 2
• * Ruth Maria Kubitschek, German actress
• * Sha'ari Tadin, Malaysian politician
• August 3 – Vladimir Trusenyov, Russian discus thrower
• August 6 – Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi Kani, Iranian cleric, writer and politician
• August 9 – Mário Zagallo, Brazilian football player, manager
• August 10 – Tom Laughlin, American actor
• August 12 – William Goldman, American author
• August 15
• * Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi prince and politician
• * Richard F. Heck, American chemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• * Janice Rule, American actress
• August 16
• * Harold Bernard St. John, 3rd Prime Minister of Barbados
• * William Luce, American writer
• August 18 – Hans van Mierlo, Dutch politician, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister
• August 19 – Willie Shoemaker, American jockey
• August 20 – Don King, American boxing promoter
• August 23
• * Barbara Eden, American actress, singer
• * Hamilton O. Smith, American microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• August 24 - Ciputra, Indonesian businessman and philanthropist
• August 25 – Regis Philbin, American television personality
• August 27
• * Sri Chinmoy, Bengali spiritual teacher, poet, artist and athlete who immigrated to the U.S. in 1964
• * Clarence James, Bermudian surgeon, politician
• August 28 – Shunichiro Okano, Japanese football player, manager
• August 30
• * Jacques Braunstein, Romanian-born Venezuelan economist, publicist and disc jockey
• * Jack Swigert, American astronaut
• August 31
• * Jean Béliveau, Canadian hockey player
• * Kenny Burrell, American jazz musician
• * Noble Willingham, American actor

  September

• September 2 – Zoltán Latinovits, Hungarian actor
• September 3 – Paulo Maluf, Brazilian politician
• September 4 – Mitzi Gaynor, American actress, singer and dancer
• September 5 – Moshé Mizrahi, Israeli film director
• September 7 – Josep Lluís Núñez, Spanish businessman and football club president
• September 10
• *Idelisa Bonnelly, Dominican marine biologist
• *Philip Baker Hall, American actor
• September 12
• * Ian Holm, British actor
• * George Jones, American country music singer, songwriter
• * Bill McKinney, American character actor
• September 13 – Barbara Bain, American actress
• September 16 – E. C. George Sudarshan, Indian theoretical physicist
• September 17
• * Princess Lalla Aicha of Morocco
• * Anne Bancroft, American actress
• September 19
• * Brook Benton, American singer-songwriter
• * Ray Danton, American actor
• September 21
• * Shmuel Auerbach, Israeli Haredi rabbi
• * Larry Hagman, American actor, director
• September 22 – Fay Weldon, British author
• September 24 – Tom Adams, 2nd Prime Minister of Barbados
• September 27 – Freddy Quinn, Austrian singer, actor
• September 29
• * James Cronin, American nuclear physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics
• * Anita Ekberg, Swedish actress
• September 30 – Angie Dickinson, American actress

  October

• October 2
• * Jakob Schönenberger, Swiss banker, politician
• * Morris Cerullo, American Pentecostal evangelist
• October 3 – Denise Scott Brown, American architect
• October 6 – Riccardo Giacconi, Italian-born astrophysicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics
• October 7
• * Cotton Fitzsimmons, American basketball coach
• * Desmond Tutu, South African Anglican archbishop, activist and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• October 13
• * Raymond Kopa, French footballer
• * Eddie Mathews, American baseball player
• October 15 – A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, President of India
• October 16
• * Charles Colson, American politician, Watergate conspirator, later evangelist
• * Rosa Rosal, Filipino actress, humanitarian
• October 17 – José Alencar, Brazilian politician
• October 19
• * Rubens de Falco, Brazilian actor
• * John le Carré, English novelist
• * Manolo Escobar, Spanish singer and actor
• October 20
• * Mickey Mantle, American baseball player
• * Zeke Bratkowski, American football player
• October 21 – Shammi Kapoor, Indian film actor, director
• October 22 – Ann Rule, American true-crime writer
• October 23
• * Jim Bunning, American baseball player, U.S. Senator
• * Diana Dors, English actress
• October 24 – Ken Utsui, Japanese actor
• October 25 – Jimmy McIlroy, Irish footballer and manager
• October 26 – Suhaila Noah, spouse of the Prime Minister of Malaysia
• October 28 – Analía Gadé, Argentine actress
• October 29 – Franco Interlenghi, Italian actor
• October 30 – Dick Gautier, American actor
• October 31
• * Nawal El Saadawi, Egyptian feminist
• *Sergio Obeso Rivera, Mexican Roman Catholic cardinal
• * Dan Rather, American television news reporter

  November

• November 1 – Shunsuke Kikuchi, Japanese composer
• November 2 – Phil Woods, American saxophonist
• November 3
• * Michael Fu Tieshan, Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association bishop
• * Monica Vitti, Italian actress
• November 4 – Bernard Francis Law, American cardinal
• November 5 – Ike Turner, African-American singer, songwriter
• November 6
• * Peter Collins, British racing driver
• * Mike Nichols, German-American television actor, writer and director
• November 8
• * Darla Hood, American child actress, voice actress and singer
• * Morley Safer, Canadian journalist
• November 12
• * Majida Boulila, Tunisian militant
• * Mary Louise Wilson, American actress, singer
• November 15
• * John Kerr, American actor
• * Mwai Kibaki, 3rd President of Kenya
• * Pascal Lissouba, President of the Republic of Congo
• November 16 – Hubert Sumlin, American blues musician
• November 21 – Malcolm Williamson, Australian composer
• November 26 – Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Argentine activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• November 28
• * Dervla Murphy, Irish author
• * Tomi Ungerer, French artist, illustrator and writer
• November 29 – Shintaro Katsu, Japanese actor

  December

• December 1
• * George Maxwell Richards, President of Trinidad and Tobago
• * Muhammad Jamiruddin Sircar, Bangladeshi barrister and politician
• December 2
• * Nigel Calder, British science writer
• * Wynton Kelly, Jamaican-American jazz pianist, composer
• * Edwin Meese, American attorney, law professor, and author
• December 3 – Jaye P. Morgan, American singer and game show panelist
• December 5 – Jayant Ganpat Nadkarni, Indian Navy admiral
• December 7 – Carmela Rey, Mexican singer, actress
• December 9 – Ladislav Smoljak, Czech film, theater director, actor and screenwriter
• December 11 – Rita Moreno, Puerto-Rican actress
• December 15 – Klaus Rifbjerg, Danish writer
• December 17 – Dave Madden, Canadian, American actor
• December 21
• * Redha Malek, 8th Prime Minister of Algeria
• * Georgi Naydenov, Bulgarian footballer and manager
• December 22 – Carlos Graça, 6th Prime Minister of São Tomé and Príncipe
• December 23 – Ronnie Schell, American actor
• December 24
• * Ray Bryant, American jazz pianist, composer, arranger
• * Mauricio Kagel, Argentine composer
• December 26 – Roger Piantoni, French footballer
• December 27
• * John Charles, Welsh international footballer
• * Scotty Moore, American guitarist
• * Lê Khả Phiêu, Vietnamese politician
• December 28 – Martin Milner, American actor
• December 30
• * Charles Bassett, American electrical engineer, astronaut
• * Skeeter Davis, American singer
• December 31 – Bob Shaw, Irish writer

  Deaths

January

• January 3 – Joseph Joffre, French World War I general
• January 4
• * Art Acord, American actor
• * Roger Connor, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer
• * Louise, Princess Royal, British royal, eldest daughter of Edward VII of the United Kingdom
• January 11 – James Milton Carroll, American Baptist pastor, historian, and author
• January 14 – Hardy Richardson, American baseball player
• January 17 – Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich of Russia
• January 22 – Alma Rubens, American actress
• January 23
• * Anna Pavlova, Soviet ballerina
• * Ernst Seidler von Feuchtenegg, former Minister-President of Austria
• January 24 – Sir Percy FitzPatrick, South African author, politician and mining financier
• January 28 – Bernardo Soto Alfaro, 14th President of Costa Rica
• January 29 - Henri Berthelot, French general

  February

• February 1 – Prince Emmanuel, Duke of Vendome
• February 4 – Dominique-Marie Gauchet, French admiral
• February 9 – Mammad Hasan Hajinski, last Prime Minister of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
• February 11 – Sir Charles Parsons, British inventor
• February 13 – Martin von Feuerstein, German painter
• February 16 – Wilhelm von Gloeden, German photographer
• February 18 – Louis Wolheim, American actor
• February 19 – Tovmas Nazarbekian, Armenian general
• February 23
• * Eduard von Capelle, German admiral
• * Dame Nellie Melba, Australian soprano
• February 24 – Frederick Augustus II, Grand Duke of Oldenburg
• February 26 – Otto Wallach, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• February 28 – Thomas S. Rodgers, American admiral

  March

• March 5 – Arthur Tooth, Anglican clergyman
• March 7
• * Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Finnish painter
• * Theo van Doesburg, Dutch painter
• March 11 – F. W. Murnau, German director
• March 16 – Sir Charles Eliot, British diplomat
• March 20
• * Alfred Giles, Australian explorer
• * Hermann Müller, German journalist, politician and 12th Chancellor of Germany
• * Joseph B. Murdock, United States Navy admiral, New Hampshire politician
• March 22 – James Campbell, 1st Baron Glenavy, Irish lawyer, politician
• March 23
• * Harold Edward Elliott, Australian army officer and politician
• * Bhagat Singh, Indian revolutionary hero
• March 24 – Robert Edeson, American actor
• March 25 – Ida Wells, African-American anti-lynching crusader
• March 27 – Arnold Bennett, British novelist
• March 28 – Ban Johnson, American baseball executive
• March 31 – Knute Rockne, American football coach

  April

• April 1 – Macklyn Arbuckle, American actor
• April 8 – Erik Axel Karlfeldt, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate
• April 9 – Nicholas Longworth, American politician, Speaker of the House
• April 10 – Khalil Gibran, Lebanese poet, painter
• April 14 – Richard Armstedt, German historian
• April 15
• * Joe Masseria, American gangster
• * Prince Thomas, Duke of Genoa
• April 17 – Ernesto Rossi, American gangster
• April 20 – Sir Cosmo Duff-Gordon, British baronet, Titanic survivor
• April 26 – George Herbert Mead, American philosopher, sociologist and psychologist
• April 27 – Albert, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein
• April 30 – Sammy Woods, English cricketer

  May

• May 2 – George Fisher Baker, American financier, philanthropist
• May 9 – Albert Abraham Michelson, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• May 14 – David Belasco, American Broadway impresario, theater owner and playwright

  June

• June 2 – Joseph W. Farnham, American screenwriter
• June 4 – Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, Arab nationalist
• June 8 – Virginia Frances Sterrett, American artist, illustrator
• June 21 – Pio del Pilar, Filipino activist
• June 22 – Armand Fallières, 9th President of France
• July 4
• * Buddie Petit, American jazz musician
• * Prince Emanuele Filiberto, 2nd Duke of Aosta

  July

• July 4 - Emanuele Filiberto, 2nd Duke of Aosta, Italian general, Marshal of Italy
• July 11 – William Jasper Spillman, American economist
• July 12 – Nathan Söderblom, Swedish archbishop, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

  August

• August 6 – Bix Beiderbecke, American jazz trumpeter
• August 14 – Patriarch Damian I of Jerusalem
• August 15 – Nigar Shikhlinskaya, Azerbaijani World War I nurse
• August 26
• * Frank Harris, Irish author, editor
• * Hamaguchi Osachi, Japanese politician, 27th Prime Minister of Japan
• August 27 – Francis Marion Smith, American businessman

  September

• September 4 – Archduke Leopold Salvator of Austria
• September 5 – John Thomson, Scottish footballer
• September 7 – Federico Tinoco Granados, 21st President of Costa Rica
• September 8 – Susan Augusta Pike Sanders, American teacher, clubwoman, and author
• September 9 – Lujo Brentano, German economist
• September 10 – Salvatore Maranzano, Italian mobster
• September 12
• * Francis J. Higginson, United States Navy admiral
• * Joseph Le Brix, French aviator, naval officer
• September 13 – Prince Friedrich Leopold of Prussia
• September 16 – Omar Mukhtar, Libyan resistance leader
• September 17
• * Marcello Amero D'Aste, Italian admiral, politician
• * Marvin Hart, American world heavyweight boxing champion
• September 18 – Geli Raubal, German niece of Adolf Hitler
• September 19 – David Starr Jordan, American ichthyologist, educator, eugenicist, and peace activist
• September 29 – William Orpen, Irish artist

  October

• October 2 – Sir Thomas Lipton, Scottish retailer and yachtsman
• October 3 – Carl Nielsen, Danish composer
• October 13 – Ernst Didring, Swedish writer
• October 18 – Thomas Edison, American inventor
• October 21 – Arthur Schnitzler, Austrian author, dramatist
• October 24 – Sir Murray Bisset, South African cricketer, Governor of Southern Rhodesia

  November

• November 3 – George Vakayil, Indian Roman Catholic priest and servant of God
• November 4 – Buddy Bolden, American musician
• November 6 – Jack Chesbro, American baseball player, MLB Hall of Famer
• November 11 – Shibusawa Eiichi, Japanese industrialist
• November 13 – Ivan Fichev, Bulgarian general, minister of defense, military historian, and academician
• November 14 – Sir William Peyton, British army general
• November 20 – Julius Drewe, British businessman, retailer and entrepreneur
• November 21 – Bruno von Mudra, German general
• November 27 – Robert Ames, American actor

  December

• December 2 – Vincent d'Indy, French composer
• December 5 – Vachel Lindsay, American poet
• December 9 – Antonio Salandra, Italian statesman, 21st Prime Minister of Italy
• December 18 – Jack Diamond, American gangster
• December 23 – Tyrone Power Sr, English-born American actor
• December 24 – Carlo Fornasini, micropalaeontologist
• December 26 – Melvil Dewey, American librarian, inventor of the Dewey Decimal Classification
• December 27 – José Figueroa Alcorta, Argentine politician, 16th President of Argentina

  Nobel Prizes

• Physics – not awarded
• Chemistry – Carl Bosch, Friedrich Bergius
• Physiology or Medicine – Otto Heinrich Warburg
• Literature – Erik Axel Karlfeldt
• Peace – Jane Addams, Nicholas Murray Butler