Also in May 1931
1st More than 350 guests attend an event to mark the opening of New York’s Empire State Building, 45 days ahead of its projected completion date. The celebratory luncheon is held on the 86th floor but, with a heavy fog descending over the city, no one is able to enjoy the promised spectacular views.
13th: The International Olympic Committee, led by Count Henri Baillet-latour of Belgium, awards the 1936 Summer Olympics to
Berlin, effectively rubber-stamping Germany’s welcome back into the international fold after defeat in World War I. The games will subsequently be used by Hitler as a major propaganda exercise for the Nazi regime. 21st: RCA Victor records the first ever commercially issued 33 1/3 rpm vinyl
LP. Played by the Victor Salon Orchestra under Nathaniel Shilkret, Salon Suite, No. 1 features works by Silesu, Macdowell and Gossec. The new format does not prove an immediate success, as the effects of the Great Depression mean that very few people can afford a new record player.
23rd: George Gershwin completes the score of his Second Rhapsody for piano and orchestra. The work is made up of music that Gershwin has written for the film Delicious and is described by its composer as ‘in many respects, such as orchestration and form, the best thing I have written’. He himself plays the piano at its premiere with the Boston Symphony Orchestra the following January. 27th: Taking off from Augsburg, Germany, scientists Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer reach an altitude of 15,781m in a balloon, becoming the first humans to enter the Earth’s stratosphere. They are able to reach such a height in safety by being contained in a pressurised spherical gondola made of aluminium.