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January 4, 1931: CBS Radio ban of Father Charles Coughlin from broadcast attracts 200,000 angry lettersJanuary 7, 1931: Two million French mourners watch funeral procession for Marshal Joseph Joffre in ParisJanuary 26, 1931: Gandhi released from prison by British India government
The following events occurred in January 1931:
Thursday, January 1, 1931
The Road Traffic Act came into effect in the United Kingdom and abolished all speed limits on automobiles. With the removal of restrictions on speed, the Act also made driving while intoxicated a criminal offense, along with reckless driving; required vehicle operators to carry liability insurance; and introduced a drivers' licensing test for certain people, specifically those with a disability.
The Alabama Crimson Tide (9-0-0) and the Washington State Cougars (9-0-0), both unbeaten and untied in American college football, aced each other in Pasadena, California, in the 17th annual Rose Bowl. Alabama won, 24 to 0. Notre Dame, which finished 10-0-0 and defeated unbeaten Northwestern and Army as well as once-beaten USC (which had lost to Washington State), did not compete in a postseason game.
A group of 150,000 coal miners went on strike in South Wales, following up on the walkout of 75,000 miners in Scotland on December 1.
The kidnapping of Adolphus Busch Orthwein, the 13-year-old grandson of Anheuser-Busch CEO August Anheuser Busch, Sr., ended after 20 hours. The Busch family said no ransom had been demanded or paid, and that the father of the kidnapper had returned their son to them.
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini made an English-language radio address to the United States, offering a message of friendship and saying that Italy did not want war. "I should like to contradict many rumors spread abroad on the attitude taken by Fascism and the danger it is supposed to represent for the peace of the world", Mussolini said. "Neither I nor my government nor the Italian people desire to bring about war."
In a lecture in Cleveland, sociology professor William Fielding Ogburn predicted that the society of the future would eradicate poverty, greatly increase education and control its birth rate based on demand.
Father Coughlin's weekly radio sermon was banned from broadcast over CBS. The sermon for the week was titled "Prosperity" and discussed unemployment. The ban came after the network asked Coughlin to moderate his attacks on the Hoover Administration's economic policies.
Died:
Roger Connor, 73, American baseball player whose 138 career home runs had been the major league record for 23 years until he was superseded by Babe Ruth in 1920
Princess Louise of the United Kingdom, 63, eldest daughter of the last King Edward VII and younger sister of King George V
Art Acord, 40, American silent film star who had been unable to make the transition to sound films, committed suicide by taking poison
U.S. president Herbert Hoover addressed the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce in New York from Washington, saying, "The despondency of some people over the future is not borne out by the statistical evidence of prospects in respect to the automobile industry."
The Norwegian government granted Leon Trotsky permission to enter the country to give a series of lectures.
The funeral of French General Joseph Joffre was held at Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, with an estimated two million people watching the funeral procession. The remains were placed in a vault in Les Invalides where they were to be kept until a mausoleum could be constructed at his estate in Louveciennes.
Thursday, January 8, 1931
Lita Grey, the ex-wife of Charlie Chaplin, was kidnapped and robbed along with retired boxer Georges Carpentier as the couple left a theater in New York. After being held at gunpoint by four armed robbers, the two were driven more than a mile and then dumped out. Ms. Grey reported being robbed of $14,000 in jewelry.
Germany's total of unemployed was estimated at 4.5 million.
Born:Bill Graham, German-born American concert promoter; as Wulf Wolodia Grajonca in Berlin (killed in helicopter crash, 1991)
Friday, January 9, 1931
The Spanish Air Corps was temporarily abolished for one month by King Alfonso XIII as punishment for the failed December 15 revolt. When the month was up the department was to be completely reorganized with less autonomy.
Died:Jean Schopfer, 62, Swiss-born French tennis player
Saturday, January 10, 1931
A three-member arbitration court in Germany cut the wages of 300,000 Ruhr miners by 6 percent.
Four Catholic priests and nine students were arrested in Lithuania on charges of disseminating anti-government propaganda.
After a week of negative publicity and an estimated 200,000 angry letters from listeners, CBS relented and allowed Father Coughlin's "Prosperity" sermon to be broadcast.
Chicago gangster James Belcastro was shot five times by would-be assassins, but survived.
Died:Nathan Straus, 82, Bavarian-born American department store merchant and philanthropist for whom the Israeli city of Netanya is named
Monday, January 12, 1931
Agricultural experts from 26 countries met in Geneva to discuss the world's grain production problem.
Chicago mobster Terry Druggan was sentenced to a year in prison for contempt of court, but his attorneys immediately secured a writ of habeas corpus that got him freed on $5,000 bail.
Born:Caterina Valente, French-born Italian guitarist, dancer and actress, in Paris (d. 2024)
Died:Hardy Richardson, 75, American baseball player and 1886 National League home run leader
Eleven Italian seaplanes led by Italo Balbo touched down at Botafogo Bay in Brazil, ending a 6,000 mile flight from Italy that began on December 17. The pilots were greeted by Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas.
Ellen Holly, African-American stage actress and one of the first black soap opera stars, appearing in One Life to Live from 1968 to 1986; in New York City (d. 2023)
Saturday, January 17, 1931
Almost 250,000 weavers in the Lancashire cotton mills were locked out by the mill owners.
A special U.S. House of Representatives investigative subcommittee recommended legislation to check the activities of American communists.
Born:James Earl Jones, American stage and film actor, winner of two Tony Awards, an Academy Award, an Emmy Award and a Grammy Award; in Arkabutla, Mississippi (d. 2024)
The first London Round Table Conference on India broke up with the Indian delegates having secured a pledge from Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald to allow India to advance towards self-government.
During an address in Philadelphia, Major General Smedley Butler recounted a story which he claimed to have been told by a friend who supposedly witnessed Benito Mussolini run over and kill a child while driving recklessly in Italy. Butler claimed that when his unnamed friend riding in the car screamed, Mussolini continued driving and said, "What is one life in the affairs of a state?" Butler's remarks led to a diplomatic row between Italy and the United States.
Jazeh Tabatabai, Iranian avant-garde painter, poet, and sculptor, died from heart failure (d. 2008)
Tuesday, January 20, 1931
U.S. president Hoover made the findings of the Wickersham Commission public. The report opposed repealing the Eighteenth Amendment but found that enforcement remained inadequate.
German foreign minister Julius Curtius spoke before the council of the League of Nations, accusing Poland of persecuting German minorities and reaffirming Germany's hopes to someday recover the territory lost to Poland in the Treaty of Versailles.
British MPs defeated the Education Bill, which would have raised the minimum age for dropping out of school from 14 to 15.
Died:Alma Rubens, 33, American film and stage actress, died from lobar pneumonia and bronchitis shortly after her release on bond for possession of cocaine
Thursday, January 22, 1931
The government of French prime minister Théodore Steeg fell after less than six weeks when it was defeated in a vote on a plan to stabilize the price of wheat.
A mob of unemployed Germans tried to attack Chancellor Heinrich Brüning as he arrived in Chemnitz to deliver a speech before industrialists. Mounted police charged and dispersed the rioters.
Germany's Chancellor Brüning told the German people to forget about reparations revisions and concentrate on putting public and private finances in order. "It is not only through reparations burdens that we have fallen into financial misfortune", he said, "but to a very large measure through letting ourselves imagine that despite a lost war, despite huge sacrifices in blood and treasure, both state and individual could live better than in pre-war times."
Born:Alfred Lynch, English stage, film and television actor; in Whitechapel, London (d. 2003)
Tuesday, January 27, 1931
Benito Mussolini sent a telegram to the Italian embassy in Washington, denying General Smedley Butler's story that he had run over and killed a child. "I've never run over children or women or men. If such misfortune had happened to me it is superfluous to state that I would have done what one must do in such cases: Namely, I'd have stopped and rendered assistance. It is really unworthy of the American general to tell such ignoble falsehoods", Mussolini stated. The Italian ambassador lodged a protest with the U.S. Department of State against Butler's "untrue and slanderous allegations".
U.S. Army General Smedley Butler was ordered court martialed over his accusations against Italy's strongman Benito Mussolini.
Born:Ferenc Mádl, President of Hungary from 2000 to 2005; in Bánd (d. 2011)
Friday, January 30, 1931
Canadian prime minister R. B. Bennett visited the White House to hold informal talks with U.S. president Hoover.
The Charlie Chaplin comedy drama film City Lights received its public premiere at the Los Angeles Theater with Albert Einstein as guest of honor. Contrary to the contemporaneous trend in cinema, it was a silent film, but with a score by Chaplin. Critically and commercially successful from the start, it was to place consistently in lists of films considered the best of all time.
Wales, Henry (January 22, 1931). "Germany Tells League it Wants Land Lost in War". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 7.
"French Cabinet Falls on Plan to Stabilize Wheat". Chicago Daily Tribune. January 23, 1931. p. 5.
"1931". Grauman's Chinese. Retrieved May 22, 2015.
"German Police Save Chancellor from Angry Mob". Chicago Daily Tribune. January 24, 1931. p. 6.
"Estimates U. S. has 4 1/2 Millin Without Jobs". Chicago Daily Tribune. January 25, 1931. p. 6.
"Stop Spending, Bruening Warns German Nation". Chicago Daily Tribune. January 26, 1931. p. 2.
"Bombay Wild with Joy; 'Holy Man' Arrives". Chicago Daily Tribune. January 27, 1931. p. 1.
Holston, Kim R. (2013). Movie Roadshows: A History and Filmography of Reserved-Seat Limited Showings, 1911–1973. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 72. ISBN978-0-7864-6062-5.
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