Timeline February 1931

Events in February 1931 11

• 1847 – 1931 Otto Wallach (1847-1931) Died 26 February 1931, aged 83 German chemist who won the 1910 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on alicyclic compounds. His studies of terpenes laid the foundations of the essential oils industry. He died in Göttingen.
• 1861 – 1931 Motilal Nehru (1861-1931) Died 6 February 1931, aged 69 Indian lawyer and nationalist who served twice as president of the Indian National Congress. He wrote the Nehru Report of 1928 on a constitution for India. He was the father of Jawaharlal Nehru.
• 1861 – 1931 Nellie Melba (1861-1931) Died 23 February 1931, aged 69 Australian operatic soprano and one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. She sang leading roles at Covent Garden for decades. Peach Melba and Melba toast are named after her.
• 1906 – 1931 Chandra Shekhar Azad (1906-1931) Died 27 February 1931, aged 24 Indian revolutionary and a leader of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association. He was surrounded by police in Alfred Park, Allahabad. He shot himself with his last bullet rather than be captured.
• 1931 – 2007 Boris Yeltsin First president of Russia, 1991-1999 Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (February 1, 1931 – April 23, 2007) was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999. He oversaw Russia's chaotic transition to democracy and market economy, and famously appointed Vladimir Putin as his successor on New Year's Eve 1999.
• 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake Magnitude 7.8 earthquake destroys Napier and Hastings A powerful earthquake struck the Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand's North Island, and the fires that followed destroyed much of central Napier. 256 people were killed, making it New Zealand's deadliest natural disaster. Napier was rebuilt in the Art Deco style.
• 1931 Dracula premieres Bela Lugosi's Count opens Universal's horror cycle Tod Browning's film adaptation of Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi, premiered at the Roxy Theatre in New York. It was a major commercial success. It began Universal Pictures' series of classic monster films.
• 1931 Vatican Radio begins broadcasting Pope Pius XI makes the first papal radio address Vatican Radio was built by Guglielmo Marconi and inaugurated by Pope Pius XI, who gave the first radio broadcast by a pope. It let the Holy See speak directly to Catholics around the world. The station grew into a major international broadcaster in many languages.
• 1931 – present Claire Bloom (born 1931) English actress of stage and screen, discovered by Charlie Chaplin for Limelight.
• 1931 Claire Bloom born in London Claire Bloom is born in London.
• 1931 – 2019 Toni Morrison (1931-2019) Died 5 August 2019, aged 88 Toni Morrison was an American novelist and Nobel laureate whose novels, including Beloved and Song of Solomon, explored African American identity and history. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993, the first Black woman to receive it. She died in New York after a brief illness.