1961

1961 (As MAD Magazine pointed out on its first cover for the year) was the first "upside-down" year - i. e., one that looked the same upside down - since 1881, and the last until 1958 1959 1960 - 1961 - 1962 1963 1964 |- | align="center" colspan=2 | Decades:
1930s 1940s 1950s - 1960s - 1970s 1980s 1990s |-

| align="center" | Centuries:
19th century - 20th century - 21st century

1961 in art
1961 in aviation
1961 in film
1961 in literature
1961 in music
1961 in radio
1961 in science
1961 in sports
1961 in television

List of state leaders in 1961
List of religious leaders in 1961 |}

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Events

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January

January 1 - The farthing coin, used since the 13th century, ceases to be legal tender in the United Kingdom.
January 3 - President Dwight Eisenhower announced that the United States had severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba.
January 3 - SL-1, an atomic reactor, exploded at National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho Falls, Idaho, killing 3 military technicians.
January 7 - Following a four-day conference conference in Casablanca, five African chiefs of state announced plans for a NATO-type African organization to insure common defense. The Charter of Casablanca involved were Morocco, the United Arab Republic, Ghana, Guinea, and Mali.
January 8 - Large spy ring exposed in Britain
January 12 - President Dwight Eisenhower gave his final State of the Union Address to Congress.
January 17 ? Assassination of Patrice Lumumba
January 20 - John F. Kennedy becomes President of the United States
January 24 - US B-52 bomber with two 24-megaton nuclear bombs crashes near Goldsboro, North Carolina
January 25 - In Washington, DC John F. Kennedy delivers the first live presidential news conference. In it, he announces that the Soviet Union had freed the two surviving crewmen of a USAF RB-47 reconnaissance plan shot down by Soviet flyers over the Barents Sea July 1, 1960. (see RB-47H shot down)
January 25 - Acting to halt 'leftist excesses,' a junta comprised of two army officers and 4 civilians took over the rule of El Salvador, ousting another junta that had ruled for three months.
January 26 - John F. Kennedy appoints Janet G. Travell to be his physician. This is the first time a woman held this appointment.
January 30 - President John F. Kennedy delivered his first State of the Union Address.
January 31 - Ham, a 37 pound male chimpanzee, was rocketed into space in a test of the Project Mercury capsule designed to carry U.S. astronauts into space.

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February-March

February 5 - The Sunday Telegraph publishes its first issue.
February 11 - Trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem
February 14 - Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized (Berkeley, California)
February 15 - A Boeing 707 crashes in Belgium killing 73, including the entire United States figure skating team and several coaches.
February 26 - Hassan II is pronounced as the King of Morocco
March 1 - President of the United States John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps
March 1 - first elections held in Uganda and it becomes self-governing
March 3 - Hassan II is crowned King of Morocco
March 8 - Max Conrad circumnavigates the earth in eight days, 18 hours and 49 minutes setting a new world record.
March 8 - First US Polaris submarines arrive at Holy Loch
March 13 - A dam bursts on the Dnieper river in the USSR - 145 dead
March 15 - South Africa withdraws from the British Commonwealth
March 29 - The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, DC to vote in presidential elections.

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April

April 12 - Yuri Gagarin is the first human in space.
April 17 - Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba begins, ending in failure April 19
April 22 - Three French generals who oppose De Gaulle's policies in Algeria fail in a coup attempt
April 23-24 - HMS Wasa raised in the Stockholm harbor
April 25 - Robert Noyce is granted the first patent for an integrated circuit
April 27 - Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom

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May-June

May 5 - Alan B. Shepard: is first American in space.
May 8 - British George Blake is sentenced to 42 years inprisonment for spying
May 14 - American civil rights movement: A Freedom Riders bus is fire-bombed near Anniston, Alabama and the civil rights protestors are beaten by an angry mob
May 16 - A military coup in South Korea - Do Young Tsang takes over
May 19 - Venera program: Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly-by another planet by passing Venus (however the probe had lost contact with earth a month earlier and did not send back any data)
May 21 - American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out
May 24 - American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus
May 25 - Apollo program: President Kennedy announces before a special joint session of Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a "man on the moon" before the end of the decade
May 28 - Peter Benenson's article "The Forgotten Prisoners" is published in several internationally read newspapers. This will later be thought of as the founding of the human rights organization Amnesty International.
June 17 - The New Democratic Party of Canada is founded with the merger of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress.
June 21 - Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev requests asylum in France while in Paris with the Kirov Ballet
June 22 - Moise Tshombe released
June 25 - US philanthropist George Vanderbilt is found dead at the base of a San Francisco skyscraper
June 25 - Iraqi president Abdul Karim Kassem announces he is going to annex Kuwait - Kuwaiti government ask British help in June 27. British army begin to send in troops

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July-October

July 21 - Mercury program: Gus Grissom piloting the Mercury 4 capsule "Liberty Bell 7" becomes the second American to go into orbit around the Earth
July 31 - At Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, the first All-Star Game tie in major league baseball history occurs when the game is stopped in the 9th inning due to rain
August 10 - Britain applies for membership of the EEC
August 13 - Construction of the Berlin Wall begins. Movement between East Berlin and West Berlin remains restricted for the next 28 years, until November 9, 1989.
August 21 ? Jomo Kenyatta is fully released in Kenya
September 17-18 - Dag Hammarskjöld dies in an air crash enroute to Katanga, Congo
October 10 - Volcanic eruption on Tristan da Cunha - whole population evacuated
October 12 - The death penalty abolished in New Zealand
October 17 - "Battle of Paris": French police attack in Paris about 30,000 protesting a curfew applied solely to Algerians. Official death toll is 3, but human rights groups claim 240 dead
October 19 - Arab League takes over protection of Kuwait - last British troops leave
October 25 - The first edition of Private Eye, the British satirical magazine
October 30 - Nuclear testing: The Soviet Union detonates a 58 megaton yield hydrogen bomb over Novaya Zemlya (this is still the largest nuclear device to ever be detonated)
October 31 - In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin's body is removed from Lenin's Tomb
October 31 - Hurricane Hattie hits Belize City. 400 dead, 65.000 made homeless

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November-December

November 12 - Stalingrad's name changed to Volgograd
November 13 - Vladimir Yefimovich Semichastny succeeds Aleksandr Nikolayevich Shelepin as head of the KGB
November 16 - British Conservative government introduces the Commonwealth Immigration Bill, limiting immigration from British Commonwealth countries to Britain
November 29 - Mercury program: Mercury-Atlas 5 is launched with Enos the chimp aboard (the spacecraft orbited the Earth twice and splashed-down off the coast of Puerto Rico).
December 2 - Cold War: In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist-Leninist and that Cuba was going to adopt Communism.
December 5 ? US president John F. Kennedy gives support to Volta Dam project in Ghana
December 9 - Tanganjika gains independence and declares itself a republic with Julius Nyerere as its first President
December 10 - Soviet Union severs diplomatic relations with Albania
December 11 - Vietnam War officially begins as the first American helicopters arrive in Saigon along with 400 U.S. personnel.
December 15 - An Israeli war crimes tribunal sentences Adolph Eichmann to die for his part in the Jewish holocaust.
December 19 - Goa ceded to India after 400 years of Portuguese rule
December 31 - The Marshall Plan expires after having distributed more than $12 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe
December 31 - Ireland's first national television station, Teilifís Éireann, (later RTÉ) begins broadcasting.

Change of US presidency from Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961) to John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)
John F. Kennedy begins the Apollo program of U.S. manned spaceflight
The first quasar is discovered by Allan Sandage at Mt Palomar, California
Euston Arch in London is demolished

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Births

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January-April

January 2 - Sara Stewart, British actress
January 5 - Suzy Amis, actress
January 8 - Calvin Smith, American athlete
January 13 - Julia Louis-Dreyfus, actress
January 18 - Mark Messier, hockey star
January 21 - Blaise Cendrars, writer
January 26 - Wayne Gretzky, Hockey Hall of Famer
February 9 - John Kruk, baseball player, commentator
February 10 - George Stephanopoulos, political consultant, commentator
February 11 - Mary Docter, American speed skater
February 11 - Becky LeBeau, vocalist
February 11 - Carey Lowell, actress
February 13 - Henry Rollins, musician
February 25 - Davey Allison, automobile racer (d. 1993)
March 4 - Ray Mancini, boxer
March 8 - Camryn Manheim, actress (The Practice)
March 14 - Kirby Puckett, Baseball Hall of Famer
March 15 - Fabio, model
March 21 - Lothar Matthäus, German footballer
April 3 - Eddie Murphy, actor and comedian
April 6 - Gene Eugene, actor, lead singer of Adam Again
April 18 - Jane Leeves, actress
April 20 - Don Mattingly, baseball player
April 23 - George Lopez, actor, comedian
April 26 - Joan Chen, actress
April 30 - Isiah Thomas, basketball player, coach, owner

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May-December

May 6 - George Clooney, actor
May 13 - Dennis Rodman, basketball player, actor
May 14 - Tim Roth, actor
May 17 - Enya, singer, songwriter
May 27 - Peri Gilpin, actress
May 29 - Melissa Etheridge, rock musician
June 1 - Paul Coffey, hockey star
June 26 - Greg LeMond, cyclist, three-time Tour de France winner
July 1 - Diana, Princess of Wales (d. 1997)
July 1 - Carl Lewis, athletics legend
August 8 - The Edge, U2 guitarist
August 14 - Susan Olsen, actress, The Brady Bunch
September 2 - Carlos Valderrama, footballer
September 13 - Dave Mustaine, musician (Metallica/Megadeth)
September 15 - Dan Marino, football player
September 22 - Scott Baio, actor
September 25 - Heather Locklear, actress
October 11 - Steve Young, football player
October 18 - Wynton Marsalis, musician
October 26 - Dylan McDermott, actor (The Practice)
October 29 - Randy Jackson, American musician
October 31 - Peter Jackson, director
October 31 - Larry Mullen, Jr., U2 drummer
October 31 - Alonzo Babers, American runner
November 2 - k.d. lang, singer, songwriter
November 19 - Meg Ryan, actress
November 22 - Mariel Hemingway, actress
November 22 - Randal L. Schwartz, computer professional
December 8 - Ann Coulter, author, political commentator, attorney
December 19 - Reggie White, football player
December 25 - Ingrid Betancourt, Colombian senator
December 30 - Douglas Coupland, author
December 30 - Sean Hannity, talk radio host, political commentator
December 30 - Ben Johnson, Canadian athlete

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Deaths

January 4 - Erwin Schrödinger, physicist
January 10 - Dashiell Hammett, writer
January 17 - Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
January 21 - Blaise Cendrars, writer
January 24 - Alfred Carlton Gilbert, gold medal winner at 1908 Summer Olympics, inventor of Erector Set (b. 1884)
February 11 - Eduard R Verkade, Dutch actor/director
February 11 - Patrice Lumumba, 1st premier of Congo (Kinshasa)?
February 22 - Nick LaRocca, jazz musician (b. 1889)
February 26 - King Mohammed V of Morocco
March 3 - Paul Wittgenstein, pianist
April 9 - Ahmet Zog, King of Albania
May 13 - Gary Cooper, actor
May 30 - Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic
June 1 - Melvin Jones, founder of Lions Clubs International
June 30 - Lee DeForest - inventor
July 2 - Ernest Hemingway - writer
July 17 - Ty Cobb, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1886)
September 18 - Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary General of the United Nations
October 11 - Chico Marx, member of the Marx Brothers (b. 1887)
December 20 - Earle Page, eleventh Prime Minister of Australia

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Nobel Prizes

Physics - Robert Hofstadter, Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer
Chemistry - Melvin Calvin
Medicine - Georg von Békésy
Literature - Ivo Andric
Peace - Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld - awarded posthumously


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