February 1931

February 1, 1931 (Sunday)

Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian National Congress voted unanimously to continue their civil disobedience campaign. Gandhi declared that all political prisoners must be released before the Congress would deal with the government.

Two anarchists were executed by firing squad in Buenos Aires for the bombing of the Italian consulate in 1928.

Born: Tajuddin Ahmad, 1st Prime Minister of Bangladesh, in Dardaria, British India (d. 1975); Boris Yeltsin, politician, in Butka, USSR (d. 2007)

February 2, 1931 (Monday)

The foreign affairs committee of the Reichstag rejected a demand from Nazi deputies to have Germany withdraw from the League of Nations.

Born: Dries van Agt, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, in Geldrop; Les Dawson, comedian, in Collyhurst, Manchester, England (d. 1993); Hillel Zaks, Polish-born Israeli rabbi, in Radun' (d. 2015)

February 3, 1931 (Tuesday)

The Hawke's Bay earthquake devastated the Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand and killed at least 256.

The state legislature of Arkansas passed a motion to pray for the soul of the satirical writer H. L. Mencken after he called the state "the Apex of Moronia".

At the Piazza Colonna in Rome, authorities moved to arrest two anarchists, one of them the naturalized American Michele Schirru, for plotting to assassinate Benito Mussolini. One anarchist fled, but Schirru pulled out a gun and killed one policeman. Schirru then shot himself, but survived to face trial.

The adventure film Trader Horn premiered at the Astor Theatre in New York City.

February 4, 1931 (Wednesday)

A Royal Air Force Blackburn Iris flying boat plunged into Plymouth Sound and exploded, killing 9 of its crew.

The National League adopted a new, deader baseball for the 1931 season in an effort to cut down on very high scoring rates.

Buster Keaton got into a violent brawl with his mistress, the actress Kathleen Key, until MGM studio police rushed into Keaton's dressing room and hauled Key away. The fight made national headlines, but MGM had Keaton make up an explanation that they were arguing over a bet they'd made that the actress could lose 20 pounds in ten days. Keaton then cut a secret $10,000 check to Key in order to keep their love affair out of the press.

February 5, 1931 (Thursday)

At Daytona Beach, British racer Malcolm Campbell set a new land speed record of 245.733 mph.

February 6, 1931 (Friday)

Kijūrō Shidehara made a speech in the Japanese National Diet in which he explained that Emperor Hirohito's approval of the London Naval Treaty was confirmation that it did not endanger the country's security. Opposition members took this to mean that any defects in the treaty were a reflection on the emperor, and one member pulled out a dagger during the ensuing debate. Shidehara left the building under heavy guard as a brawl broke out in an anteroom of the Diet, injuring 12.

Born: Rip Torn, actor and comedian, in Temple, Texas; Mamie Van Doren, actress, model and singer, in Rowena, South Dakota

February 7, 1931 (Saturday)

Aviator Amelia Earhart and publisher George P. Putnam were married in Noank, Connecticut in a five-minute ceremony.

February 8, 1931 (Sunday)

A gas explosion and ensuing fire at a mine in Fushun, Manchuria killed 3,000 people.

King Alfonso XIII of Spain published a royal decree calling elections for the chamber of deputies on March 1 and for the senate on March 15, the first elections since before the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera. The decree also restored freedoms of speech and assembly for the duration of the election period.

Canada won the 5th World Ice Hockey Championships held in Poland.

U.S. Secretary of the Navy Charles Francis Adams III announced that court martial proceedings against Smedley Butler had been dropped and that Butler had been let off with a formal reprimand.

Born: James Dean, actor, in Marion, Indiana (d. 1955)

February 9, 1931 (Monday)

The South Wales mining strike ended with a three-year peace settlement.

Born: Thomas Bernhard, novelist, playwright and poet, in Heerlen, Netherlands (d. 1989)

February 10, 1931 (Tuesday)

Several days of festivities began marking the transfer of the capital of India to New Delhi.

The 107 Nazi deputies of the Reichstag walked out and began a boycott of parliament in protest of new reforms which included the removal of parliamentary immunity from deputies against whom court cases were pending. The German National People's Party joined in the boycott.

February 11, 1931 (Wednesday)

Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Snowden warned the House of Commons, "I say with all the seriousness I can command that the national position is so grave that drastic and disagreeable measures will have to be taken if Budget equilibrium is to be maintained and if industrial progress is to be made ... No Budget in the world could stand such an excessive strain as that which has been placed upon it by the increase of unemployment during the last 12 months."

Born: Larry Merchant, sportswriter and commentator, in Brooklyn, New York

Died:Charles Dryden, 70, American baseball writer and humorist; Charles Algernon Parsons, 76, British engineer

February 12, 1931 (Thursday)

The horror film Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi, premiered at the Roxy Theatre in New York City.

Vatican Radio first began broadcasting.

Japan conducted its first television broadcast, showing a baseball game.

February 13, 1931 (Friday)

The Lancashire cotton weaver's lockout ended when the owners capitulated and agreed to let the weavers keep their old pay scale and working hours.

Born: Geoff Edwards, television actor, game show host and radio personality, in Westfield, New Jersey (d. 2014)

February 14, 1931 (Saturday)

Dámaso Berenguer resigned as Prime Minister of Spain. The elections scheduled for March were then called off.

February 15, 1931 (Sunday)

Hungary swept the 5th World Table Tennis Championships.

Died: Lillian Leitzel, 39, German circus performer (injuries from fall); Louis Mann, 65, American theatre actor

February 16, 1931 (Monday)

100 drowned in the Pearl River south of Guangzhou when a steamer with 500 aboard hit a rock and sank.

In the Rijksmuseum, a mentally disturbed man attacked the 1656 Rembrandt painting The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Deijman, slashing it five times with an axe.

Born: George E. Sangmeister, politician, in Frankfort, Illinois (d. 2007); Ken Takakura, actor, in Nakama, Fukuoka, Japan (d. 2014)

Died: Wilhelm von Gloeden, 74, German photographer

February 17, 1931 (Tuesday)

Mahatma Gandhi had a four-hour conference with the Viceroy of India Lord Irwin.

February 18, 1931 (Wednesday)

Admiral Juan Bautista Aznar-Cabañas took over as Prime Minister of Spain.

Born: Johnny Hart, cartoonist, in Endicott, New York (d. 2007); Toni Morrison, novelist, editor and Nobel laureate, in Lorain, Ohio; Bob St. Clair, American football player, in Santa Rosa, California (d. 2015)

Died: Louis Wolheim, 50, American actor

February 19, 1931 (Thursday)

The German musical film The Threepenny Opera, based on the play of the same name by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, premiered in Berlin.

February 20, 1931 (Friday)

King Zog I of Albania survived an assassination attempt as he was leaving the Vienna State Opera building. Two Albanian students opened fire as members of the royal entourage emerged from the building, killing one of Zog's bodyguards and injuring two others. However, the king left through a different exit and was unharmed.

February 21, 1931 (Saturday)

230 were killed by a hurricane in the Fiji Islands.

31 miners died in a gas explosion in Eschweiler, Germany.

The Soviet Union revoked the citizenship of Leon Trotsky.

February 22, 1931 (Sunday)

40,000 German republicans demonstrated in the Berlin Lustgarten in favour of the republic and against antidemocratic parties. 5,000 members of the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold marched in uniform. Isolated clashes were reported in other German cities where similar demonstrations took place.

February 23, 1931 (Monday)

The Sicilian capital of Palermo was flooded by torrential rains.

A pipe bomb exploded inside a vent in the Cuban presidential palace, but no one was hurt.

Died: Dame Nellie Melba, 69, Australian operatic soprano

February 24, 1931 (Tuesday)

Cuban President Gerardo Machado survived the second attempt on his life within 24 hours when police seized a youth who attempted to draw a pistol while Machado was making a speech dedicating the new capitol.

Norwegian ski jumper Sigmund Ruud set a new world record with a jump of 81 meters.

The U.S. Supreme Court decided United States v. Sprague.

Born: Brian Close, cricketer, in Rawdon, West Yorkshire, England

February 25, 1931 (Wednesday)

"World Unemployment Day" marches were held in Germany, organized by the Communist Party. Four were killed and many injured in clashes with police.

Born: Eric Edgar Cooke, serial killer, in Perth, Western Australia (d. 1964)

February 26, 1931 (Thursday)

The Philadelphia Club was raided for alcohol by the Philadelphia Police Department.

The Alfred Hitchcock-directed film The Skin Game was released in the United Kingdom.

Born: Robert Novak, journalist and political commentator, in Joliet, Illinois (d. 2009)

Died: Samuel Hill, 73, American businessman; Otto Wallach, 83, German chemist and Nobel laureate

February 27, 1931 (Friday)

Al Capone was sentenced in Chicago to six months in prison for contempt of court. He was released on bond pending appeal.

The New York World family of newspapers were sold to the Scripps-Howard syndicate for $5 million. The World ceased publication and was merged with the New York Telegram to form the New York World-Telegram.

The Canadian government banned the importation of Soviet goods, explaining that they did not want to economically strengthen communism. The Soviet Union banned Canadian goods in reprisal.

February 28, 1931 (Saturday)

Sir Oswald Mosley resigned from the Labour Party and immediately announced the formation of a new political organization known as the New Party. "We differ from the old parties in our demand for a complete revision of parliament which will change it from a talk shop into a worskshop", Mosley explained in a statement. "We challenge the 50-year-old system of free trade which exposes industry in the home market to the chaos of world conditions, such as price fluctuations, dumping and competition of sweated labor, which result in the lowering of wages and industrial decay."

Born: Gavin MacLeod, actor, in Mount Kisco, New York; Dean Smith, college basketball coach, in Emporia, Kansas (d. 2015)

Died: Thomas S. Rodgers, 72, U.S. Navy officer