The Americas
Belize*A hurricane struck British Honduras, killing about 2,500 people (September 10).
Brazil
*About 50 workmen were killed when 1,000 tons of airplane bombs exploded in a naval laboratory near Niteroi, Brazil (April 30).
*Fernando Henrique Cardoso (also known by his initials FHC), a Brazilian sociologist, professor and politician who served as President of Brazil from January 1, 1995 to January 1, 2003, was born in Rio de Janeiro (June 18). Cardoso was the first President of Brazil to have been re-elected for a subsequent term.
Fernando Henrique Cardoso (b. June 18, 1931, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) was descended from wealthy Portuguese immigrants. Some of his ancestors were politicians during the Empire of Brazil. Cardoso was also of Black African descent, through a Black great-great-grandmother and a COTW great-grandmother.
An accomplished scholar, Cardoso was awarded in 2000 with the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation.
*The famous Christ the Redeemer statue overlooking the city of Rio de Janeiro was dedicated (October 12).
*A pipe bomb exploded inside a vent in the Cuban presidential palace, but no one was hurt (February 23).
*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 (February 24).
*The Cuban government imposed censorship on four Havana papers for criticism of the Machado administration (June 25).
*Cuban President Gerardo Machado declared martial law to put down a rebellion (August 10)..
*Cuban revolutionary leaders Mario Garcia Menocal and Carlos Mendieta surrendered to authorities in Pinar del Rio Province (August 14).
*In a suburb of Havana at 2:20 in the morning, a large bomb exploded at the branch of the Royal Bank of Canada (September 1). The blast caused several thousand dollars worth of damage.
*The population of Cuba included 437,769 people of African descent, or 11% of the total population.
Jamaica
*In April 1931, Marcus Garvey launched the Edelweiss Amusement Company. He set the company up to help artists earn their livelihood from their craft. Several Jamaican entertainers—Kidd Harold, Ernest Cupidon, Bim & Bam, and Ranny Williams—went on to become popular after receiving initial exposure that the company gave them.
*Roland Alphonso or Rolando Alphonso aka "The Chief Musician" (b. January 12, 1931, Havana, Cuba – d. November 20, 1998, Los Angeles, California), a Jamaican tenor saxophonist, and one of the founding members of the Skatalites, was born in Havana, Cuba.
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Europe
France
*Paulette Nardal and the Haitian Dr. Leo Sajou initiated La revue du Monde Noir (1931–32), a literary journal published in English and French, which attempted to appeal to African and Caribbean intellectuals in Paris.
Josephine Baker, original name Freda Josephine McDonald (b. June 3, 1906, St. Louis, Missouri — d. April 12, 1975, Paris, France) was an American-born French dancer and singer who symbolized the beauty and vitality of black American culture, which took Paris by storm in the 1920s.
Baker grew up fatherless and in poverty. Between the ages of 8 and 10 she was out of school, helping to support her family. As a child, Baker developed a taste for the flamboyant that was later to make her famous. As an adolescent, she became a dancer, touring at 16 with a dance troupe from Philadelphia. In 1923 she joined the chorus in a road company performing the musical comedy Shuffle Along and then moved to New York City, where she advanced steadily through the show Chocolate Dandies on Broadway and the floor show of the Plantation Club.
In 1925 she went to Paris to dance at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in La Revue Nègre and introduced her danse sauvage to France. She went on to become one of the most popular music-hall entertainers in France and achieved star billing at the Folies-Bergere, where she created a sensation by dancing semi-nude in a G-string ornamented with bananas. She became a French citizen in 1937. She sang professionally for the first time in 1930, made her screen debut as a singer four years later, and made several more films before World War II curtailed her career.
During the German occupation of France, Baker worked with the Red Cross and the Resistance, and as a member of the Free French forces she entertained troops in Africa and the Middle East. She was later awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honour. with the rosette of the Résistance. After the war much of her energy was devoted to Les Milandes, her estate in southwestern France, from which she began in 1950 to adopt babies of all nationalities in the cause of what she defined as “an experiment in brotherhood” and her “rainbow tribe.” She retired from the stage in 1956, but to maintain Les Milandes she was later obliged to return, starring in Paris in 1959. She traveled several times to the United States to participate in civil rights demonstrations. In 1968 her estate was sold to satisfy accumulated debt. She continued to perform occasionally until her death in 1975, during the celebration of the 50th anniversary of her Paris debut.
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*Ada "Bricktop" Smith opened Bricktop's cafe in Paris.
Ada "Bricktop" Smith (b. August 14,1894, Alderson, West Virginia - d. January 31, 1984 New York City, New York) was a vaudevillian, saloon entertainer, and nightclub owner whose clientele and friends included royalty, the wealthy, and the artistic elite.
Bricktop, born Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louisa Virginia Smith, was the third daughter and youngest of the five children of Thomas Smith, an African American barber, and Harriet ("Hattie") Elizabeth (Thompson) Smith. Her mother, seven-eighths white and of Irish descent, had been born a slave. Ada's lengthy name was an attempt to please many acquaintances. After her father died in 1898, the family moved to Chicago, where Hattie was a housekeeper and ran rooming houses. At the age of four or five, Ada made her stage debut in Uncle Tom's Cabin at the Haymarket Theatre in Chicago. She attended Keith public school and appeared in shows there. She also was fascinated with the saloons on State Street. When she was fourteen or fifteen, Ada joined the chorus at the Pekin Theatre but was forced to return to school.
At age sixteen, Ada left school and began singing in vaudeville with Miller and Lyles. Later she toured the Theatre Owners' Booking Association and Pantage vaudeville circuits with McCabe's Georgia Troubadours, Ten Georgia Campers, the Kinky-Doo Trio, and the Oma Crosby Trio. The following year, in New York City, Ada met Barron Wilkins, the owner of Barron's Exclusive Club in Harlem; he nicknamed her "Bricktop" because of her flame-red hair. Later that year she performed at Roy Jones' saloon in Chicago and met the boxer Jack Johnson, for whom she worked at the Cabaret de Champion until it closed in 1912. Over the following years, she appeared in many saloons, including the Panama Club, where she, Florence Mills, and Cora Green were known as the Panama Trio.
In 1917 Bricktop left the trio and went to Los Angeles. While working at the Watts Country Club she met Walter Delaney. They lived together until Delaney's history of arrests for selling drugs, gambling, and promoting prostitution forced them to move to San Francisco during a crackdown on vice in Los Angeles. Rather than drag her down with him, Delaney left Bricktop in San Francisco. She later moved to Seattle.
In 1922 Bricktop convinced Barron Wilkins to hire Elmer Snowden's Washingtonians, with pianist Duke Ellington, for his New York City Club. In 1924 she performed at the Cafe Le Grand Duc in Paris. One of her first acquaintances there was a busboy and struggling author named Langston Hughes. Visitors to Le Grand Duc included Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fred Astaire, Ernest Hemingway, Man Ray, Pablo Picasso, John Steinbeck, Josephine Baker, Elsa Maxwell, and Cole and Linda Porter. In 1925 Bricktop taught the Charleston at the Porters' lavish Charleston parties, and they introduced her to the Paris elite. In the fall of 1926, after returning from the Porters' palazzo in Venice, Bricktop opened the Music Box saloon in Paris. It closed the same year, and she then took over Le Grand Duc. Wanting a more chic place, before the end of 1926 she opened Bricktop's, where guests such as Jascha Heifetz, Duke Ellington, Noel Coward, the Prince of Wales, and Paul Robeson, gave impromptu performances.
In 1927 Bricktop met saxophonist Peter Duconge. They were married on December 19. 1929 and separated in 1933 but never divorced; they had no children. In 1931 Bricktop opened a bigger cafe, also named Bricktop's, with Mabel Mercer as her assistant. Following the custom of Montmartre cafes, Bricktop's closed for the summer; she opened another cafe during the summer in the resort of Biarritz. In 1934, the effects of the Great Depression forced her to move her cafe to a smaller location. By the fall of 1936 she could not afford to open for the season, so she and Mercer entertained at nightspots in Paris and Cannes.
From 1938 to 1939 Bricktop did radio broadcasts for the French government. In October 1939, at the insistence of the Duchess of Windsor and Lady Elsie de Wolfe Mendl, she fled the advancing war and returned to the United States, where she was reintroduced to American racial prejudice and segregation absent from her life in Paris. In New York City she worked at many cafes and attracted refugees from Paris. In 1940, when her following moved on, Bricktop helped open the Brittwood Cafe on 140th Street in Harlem. At first it was a success, drawing such celebrities and entertainers as Earl "Fatha" Hines, Anna Jones, Willie Grant, Minnie Hilton, and Robert Taylor. In 1943 Bricktop moved to Mexico City, where she lived for six years and was part owner of the Minuit and Chavez's clubs.
In 1949 Bricktop returned to Paris, and in May 1950 she opened a new Bricktop's on the Rue Fontaine. By Christmas it was closed. She then went to Rome, where in 1951 she opened Bricktop's on the Via Veneto, drawing Italian high society and royalty. While in Italy, Bricktop, who had converted to Catholicism in 1943, was involved with Catholic charity and fund-raising projects and became a friend of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen.
On March 6, 1964 Bricktop announced her retirement from the nightclub business because of poor health--she had arthritis and a heart condition. She returned to Chicago in 1965 to live with her sister Blonzetta. After Blonzetta's death in 1967, Bricktop settled in New York City. In 1972 she made her only recording, "So Long, Baby," with Cy Coleman. She also worked with Josephine Baker, a longtime friend, who was attempting a comeback, in 1973. In the same year Bricktop made the film documentary Honeybaby, Honeybaby! In 1975 she was awarded an honorary doctor of arts degree by Columbia College in Chicago. She continued to perform, but made few *after 1979 because of declining health. In 1983, on her last birthday, she was presented with the seal of New York City and a certificate of appreciation by Mayor Ed Koch. Just a few months later Bricktop died in her sleep at her Manhattan apartment. More than 300 people attended her funeral at St. Malachy's Church in Manhattan. She was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.
Africa
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Angola
*The Trans-African Railroad opened, connecting Benguela, Angola to Katanga in the Belgian Congo (July 1).
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Democratic Republic of the Congo
(Belgian Congo)
*The Trans-African Railroad opened, connecting Benguela, Angola to Katanga in the Belgian Congo (July 1).
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Ethiopia
(Abyssinia)
*The first Constitution of Ethiopia was promulgated (July 16).
The 1931 Constitution of Ethiopia was the first modern constitution for Ethiopia, and was intended to officially replace the Fetha Negest, which had been the supreme law since the Middle Ages. It was promulgated in "an impressive ceremony" held on July 16, 1931 in the presence of Emperor Haile Selassie, who had long desired to proclaim one for his country. It is noteworthy that this was the first instance in history where an absolute ruler had sought voluntarily to share sovereign power with the subjects of his realm.
While still Regent, Haile Selassie had wanted Empress Zawditu to proclaim such a document, but some of the great nobles, to whose advantage it was to rule the country without a constitution, had pretended that it would diminish the dignity and authority of Queen Zawditu if a constitution were set up. Once he became Emperor, Haile Selassie then appointed a commission to draft the document. The commission's leading members included the Europeans Gaston Jèze and Johannes Kolmodin, but most prominently Ethiopian intellectuals such as Tekle Hawariat Tekle Mariyam and Gedamu Woldegiorgis.
Haile Selassie introduced Ethiopia's first written constitution on July 16, 1931, providing for a bicameral legislature. The constitution kept power in the hands of the nobility, but it did establish democratic standards among the nobility, envisaging a transition to democratic rule. The constitution limited the succession to the throne to the descendants of Haile Selassie, a point that met with the disapprobation of other dynastic princes, including the princes of Tigrai and even the emperor's loyal cousin, Ras Kassa Haile Darge.
This constitution was based on the Meiji Constitution of Japan, a country that educated Ethiopians considered a model for its successful grafting of Western learning and technology onto the framework of a non-Western culture. However, unlike its Japanese model, the Ethiopian Constitution was a simple document of 55 articles arranged in seven chapters. It asserted the Emperor's own status, reserved imperial succession to the line of Haile Selassie, and declared that "the person of the Emperor is sacred, his dignity inviolable, and his power indisputable." All power over central and local government, the legislature, the judiciary, and the military was vested in the emperor. The constitution was essentially an effort to provide a legal basis for replacing the traditional provincial rulers with appointees loyal to the emperor. It was not intended to be a representative democracy, as the Emperor alone had the power to designate senators.
According to Haile Selassie, the importance of this legal innovation was not understood "on the side of the officials and the people". To educate them on constitutional theory, he called the leading members of both groups to an assembly where its principal author, Tekle Hawariat, delivered a lengthy speech which not only described the contents of the document, but expounded a theory of constitutional law.
The 1931 Constitution consists of the Decree proclaiming the constitution and seven chapters divided into 55 articles. The contents of the chapters are:
- The Ethiopian Empire and the Succession to the Throne. Five articles stating that Ethiopia is the domain of the Emperor, who shall be a descendant "of his Majesty Haile Selassie I, descendant of King Sahle Selassie, whose line descends without interruption from the dynasty of Menelik I, son of King Solomon of Jerusalem and of the Queen of Ethiopia, known as the Queen of Sheba.
- The Power and Prerogatives of the Emperor. Twelve articles setting forth the powers of the Emperor.
- The Rights Recognized by the Emperor as belonging to the Nation, and the Duties Incumbent on the Nation. Twelve articles stating that "The Law" will define the conditions to become a subject of Ethiopia, and the duties of these subjects. This chapter also sets forth some rights subjects enjoy "except in the cases provided by law" (Articles 25, 26, 27) and while they "in no way limit the measures which the Emperor, by virtue of his supreme power, may take in the event of war or of public misfortunes menacing the interests of the nation" (Article 29).
- The Deliberate Chambers of the Empire. Eighteen articles which established a bicameral parliament for Ethiopia. Until this document, there had never been a formal legislative body in Ethiopia. The lower chamber would temporarily be chosen by the Nobility (Mekuanent) and the local chiefs (Shumoch) "until the people are in a position to elect them themselves" (Article 32), while the upper chamber would be appointed by the Emperor.
- The Ministers of the Empire. Two articles on the duties of government ministers, a system of executive officers which Menelik II had established in 1908.
- Jurisdiction. Five articles setting forth the judicial system. Article 54 establishes Special Courts, required by the Klobukowski agreement of 1906, which gave foreigners extraterritoriality in Ethiopia, exempting them from both Ethiopian law and her justice system.
- The Budget of the Imperial Government. One article requiring the Government Treasury to set an annual budget, which directs how the government will spend its money.
A few months later, on November 3, 1931, the day after the anniversary of the Emperor's own coronation, Haile Selassie convened the first parliament of the new constitution. The Emperor hoped that the institution would stimulate nationalism and unity and that its members would popularize socio-political change in the provinces.
Following the restoration of Haile Selassie in 1941, Emperor Haile Selassie re-established the 1931 constitution, convening the parliament on November 2, 1942. This body included a chamber of deputies which was double its pre-war size, who were selected by an election to elect a group of 20 for each of the 12 provinces, who would then meet at the provincial capitals to select five of their numbers to be deputies.
Despite the resurrection of the parliament, Haile Selassie promulgated a number of laws in the form of proclamations and decrees. It was not until his proclamation 34/1943 that the authority of the parliament was included. Laws were issued under the authority of the Emperor and the parliament until the end of February 1944, when the sole authority of the Emperor again was used, which continued until the beginning of November of that year, when the parliament was again in session.
The Constitution of 1931 was superseded at the time of Emperor Haile Selassie's Silver Jubilee in 1955, when a new constitution was promulgated.
*On November 3, 1931, the anniversary of the Emperor's own coronation, Haile Selassie convened the first parliament of the new Ethiopian constitution.
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Guinea-Bissau
*Luís Severino de Almeida Cabral, the first President of Guinea-Bissau, was born in Bissau, Portuguese Guinea (April 11).
Luís Severino de Almeida Cabral (b. April 11, 1931, Bissau, Portuguese Guinea – d. May 30, 2009, Torres Vedras, Portugal) served as President from 1974 to 1980, when a military coup d'etat led by Joao Bernardo "Nino" Vieira deposed him. Luís Cabral was a half-brother of Amilcar Cabral, with whom he co-founded the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) in 1956.
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Kenya
Kenya
*Mwai Kibaki, (b. November 15, 1931, Gatuyaini, Kenya Colony), a Kenyan politician who was the third President of Kenya, serving from December 2002 to April 2013, was born in Gatuyaini, Kenya Colony (November 15).
Kibaki was previously Vice-President of Kenya for ten years from 1978 to 1988 under President Daniel arap Moi. He also held cabinet ministerial positions in the Kenyatta and Moi governments, including time as minister for Finance (1969–1981) under Kenyatta, and Minister for Home Affairs (1982–1988) and Minister for Health (1988–1991) under Moi.
Kibaki served as an opposition Member of Parliament from 1992 to 2002. He unsuccessfully stood as a presidential candidate in 1992 and 1997. He served as the Leader of the Official Opposition in Parliament from 1998 to 2002. In the 2002 presidential election, he was elected as President of Kenya.
Niger
*Seyni Kountché (b. July 1, 1931, Damana Fandou, Niger, French West Africa – d. November 10, 1987, Paris, France), a military officer who led a 1974 coup d'etat that deposed the government of Niger's first president Hamani Diori, was born in Damana Fandou, Niger, French West Africa. He ruled the country as military head of state from 1974 to 1987. Stade General Seyni Kountche, Niger's national stadium in Niamey, is named after him.
*The Franchise Laws Amendment Act was passed (June).
The Franchise Laws Amendment Act, 1931, was an act of the Parliament of South Africa which removed all property and educational franchise qualifications applying to white men. It was passed a year after the Women's Enfranchisement Act, 1930, which extended the franchise to all white women. The consequence of these two acts was that all white people over the age of 21 (except for those convicted of certain crimes and those declared mentally unsound by a court) were entitled to vote in elections of the House of Assembly.
The act retained the property and educational qualifications for black and coloured men, who were in any case only eligible to vote in the Cape Province. The result was a further dilution of the electoral power of the non-white population.
The act was repealed in 1946 when the franchise laws were consolidated into the Electoral Consolidation Act, 1946.
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*Desmond Mpilo Tutu, a South African social rights activist and Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid, was born in Klerksdorp, Western Transvaal, South Africa (October 7). Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.
Desmond Mpilo Tutu (b. October 7, 1931, Klerksdorp, Western Transvaal, South Africa) was the first black Archbishop of Cape Town and bishop of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (now the Anglican Church of Southern Africa).
Tutu campaigned to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, poverty racism, sexism, the imprisonment of Chelsea Manning, homophobia and transphobia. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984; the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism in 1986; the Pacem in Terris Award in 1987; the Sydney Peace Prize in 1999; the Gandhi Peace Prize in 2007, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. He also compiled several books of his speeches and sayings.
Tutu was born of Xhosa and Tswana parents and was educated in South African mission schools at which his father taught. Though he wanted a medical career, Tutu was unable to afford training and instead became a schoolteacher in 1955. He resigned his post in 1957. He then attended St. Peter’s Theological College in Johannesburg and was ordained an Anglican priest in 1961. In 1962 he moved to London, where in 1966 he obtained a master of arts degree from King’s College London. From 1972 to 1975 he served as an associate director for the World Council of Churches. He was appointed dean of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Johannesburg in 1975, the first black South African to hold that position. From 1976 to 1978 Tutu served as bishop of Lesotho.
In 1978 Tutu accepted an appointment as the general secretary of the South African Council of Churches and became a leading spokesperson for the rights of black South Africans. During the 1980s he played an unrivaled role in drawing national and international attention to the iniquities of apartheid. He emphasized nonviolent means of protest and encouraged the application of economic pressure by countries dealing with South Africa. The award of the 1984 Nobel Prize for Peace to Tutu sent a significant message to South African President P. W. Botha's administration. In 1985, at the height of the township rebellions in South Africa, Tutu was installed as Johannesburg’s first black Anglican bishop, and in 1986 he was elected the first black archbishop of Cape Town, thus becoming the primate of South Africa’s 1.6 million-member Anglican church. In 1988 Tutu took a position as chancellor of the University of the Western Cape in Bellville, South Africa.
During South Africa’s moves toward democracy in the early 1990s, Tutu propagated the idea of South Africa as “the Rainbow Nation,” and he continued to comment on events with varying combinations of trenchancy and humor. In 1995 South African President Nelson Mandela appointed Tutu head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which investigated allegations of human rights abuses during the apartheid era.
Tutu retired from the primacy in 1996 and became archbishop emeritus. In July 2010 he announced his intention to effectively withdraw from public life in October, though he said he would continue his work with the Elders, a group of international leaders he co-founded in 2007 for the promotion of conflict resolution and problem solving throughout the world. On October 7, 2010—his 79th birthday—he began his retirement.
Tutu authored or coauthored numerous publications, including The Divine Intention (1982), a collection of his lectures; Hope and Suffering (1983), a collection of his sermons; No Future Without Forgiveness (1999), a memoir from his time as head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission; God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time (2004), a collection of personal reflections; and Made for Goodness: And Why This Makes All the Difference (2010), reflections on his beliefs about human nature. In addition to the Nobel Prize, Tutu received numerous honors, including the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom (2009), an award from the Mo Ibrahim Foundation that recognized his lifelong commitment to “speaking truth to power” (2012), and the Templeton Prize (2013).
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