Top News Stories from 1931

World Events

• Spain becomes a republic with the overthrow of King Alfonso XIII.
• British parliament enacts the Statute of Westminster, legalizing dominion equality with Britain.
• Mukden Incident begins Japanese occupation of Manchuria.
• The planned capital of New Delhi opens in India.

U.S. Events

• Gangster Al Capone sentenced to 11 years in prison for tax evasion (freed in 1939; dies in 1947).
• Scottsboro trial begins, exposing depth of Southern racism.
• “The Star Spangled Banner” officially becomes national anthem. Background: Francis Scott Key

Economics

Sports

World Series

Stanley Cup

Wimbledon

Kentucky Derby Champion

NCAA Football Champions

Entertainment

Events

• Double features emerge as a way for the unemployed to occupy time.
• Georgia O'Keeffe paints Cow Skull.
• The Empire State Building is completed.
• The Whitney Museum of American Art opens to the public, with 700 pieces of art.

Science

• General Motors's Frigidaire makes refrigerators safe for household use.
• Karl Jansky begins the science of radio astronomy as he observes interference in the form of hissing sounds coming from beyond the earth's atmosphere.
• Harold Urey discovers heavy water, water that contains deuterium, a rare hydrogen isotope.
• An electron microscope is developed by Vladimir Zworykin and James Hillier.

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