1961

Encyclopedia : 1 : 19 : 196 : 1961

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1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar).

As MAD Magazine pointed out on its cover for the March issue, this was the first "upside-up" year—i.e., one that looked the same upside down—since 1881, and the last until 6009.

Contents

Events

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 announces that the United States has 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 5 - Italian sculptor Alfredo Fioravanti marches into US consulate in Rome and confesses that he was part of the team that forged the Etruscan terracotta warriors in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
January 7 - Following a four-day conference in Casablanca, five African chiefs of state announced plans for a NATO-type African organization to ensure common defense. The Charter of Casablanca involved were Morocco, the United Arab Republic, Ghana, Guinea, and Mali.
January 8 - In France, referendum supports Charles de Gaulle's policies in Algeria
January 9 - British authorities announce that they have discovered a large Soviet spy ring in London
January 17 - President Dwight Eisenhower gives his final State of the Union Address to Congress. In a Farewell Address the same day, he warns of the increasing power of a "military-industrial complex".
January 17 - Assassination of Patrice Lumumba
January 20 - John F. Kennedy becomes President of the United States. His close win against Nixon shows that America was influenced by his calm, composed appearance in the presidential debates.
January 24 - US B-52 bomber with two roughly 2.4 megaton nuclear bombs crashes near Goldsboro, North Carolina
January 24 - Musician Bob Dylan said to have made his way to New York City after bumming a ride in Madison, Wisconsin. Dylan was likely on his way to visit his idol Woody Guthrie. He later found fame in the Greenwich Village protest folk music scene.
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 plane 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 takes 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 26 - Wayne Gretzky, professional hockey player (Known as "The Great One") was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.
January 30 - President John F. Kennedy delivered his first State of the Union Address.
January 30 - Martin Luther King Jr. has a son - Dexter Scott King.
January 31 - Ham, a 37 pound male chimpanzee, was rocketed into space aboard Mercury-Redstone 2, in a test of the Project Mercury capsule, designed to carry U.S. astronauts into space.

February

Adolf Eichmann on trial for crimes against humanity in a court in Jerusalem, Israel.

February 3 - China buys grain from Canada with $60 million
February 4 - The Portuguese Colonial War begins in Angola.
February 5 - * February 9 - In Congo, president Joseph Kasavubu names Joseph Ileo as a new prime minister
February 13 - Congo government announces that villagers have killed Patrice Lumumba
February 14 - Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized (Berkeley, California).
February 15 - A Sabena Boeing 707 crashes near Brussels, Belgium killing 73, including the entire United States figure skating team and several coaches.
February 25 - The last public tram operated in Sydney, Australia, bringing to an end the southern hemisphere's largest tramway network.
February 26 - Hassan II is pronounced King of Morocco.

March

March 1 - President of the United States John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.
March 1 - Uganda becomes self-governing by holding its first general elections.
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 - Black and white £5 notes cease to be a legal tender in the UK
March 13 - A dam bursts on the Dnieper river in the USSR - 145 dead.
March 15 - South Africa withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations.
March 18 - Ceasefire in the Algerian War of Independence
March 29 - The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, DC to vote in presidential elections.
March 30 - Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs signed at New York.

April

April 5 - New Guinea Council of western Papua installed
April 11 - Trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem
April 12 - Albert Kalonji takes a title of Emperor Albert I Kalonji of South Kasai
April 12 - Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet cosmonaut, is the first human in space.
April 17 - Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba begins, ending in failure April 19.
April 20 - Fidel Castro announces that all invaders of the Bay of Pigs invasion have been defeated
April 22 - Algiers putsch. Four French generals who oppose de Gaulle's policies in Algeria fail in a coup attempt.
April 23 - Judy Garland performs in a legendary comeback concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

May

May 5 - Alan B. Shepard becomes the first American in space aboard Mercury-Redstone 3.
May 8 - British George Blake is sentenced to 42 years imprisonment 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 27 - Tunku Abdul Rahman, Prime Minister of Malaya holds a press conference in Singapore announcing his idea of formation of the Federation of Malaysia comprising Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak, Brunei and North Borneo(Sabah).
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.
May 30 - Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, totalitarian despot of the Dominican Republic since 1930, is killed in an ambush, putting an end to the second longest-running dictatorship in Latin American history.
May 31 - In France, rebel generals Maurice Challe ja Andre Zelelr are sentenced to 15 years in prison
May 31 - South Africa officially leaves the Commonwealth of Nations
May 31 - President John F. Kennedy and Charles De Gaulle meet in Paris

June

June 4 - John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev meet during two days in Vienna. They talk about nuclear tests, disarmament and Germany.
June 17 - Paris-Strassbourg train derails near Ventyr-le-Francois – 24 dead, 109 injured
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 19 - British protectorate ends in Kuwait and it becames an emirate
June 21 - Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev requests asylum in France while in Paris with the Kirov Ballet
June 22 - Moise Tshombe released for lack of evidence to connection to murder of Patrice Lumumba
June 25 - US philanthropist George Washington Vanderbilt III 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.

July

July 1 - Lady Diana Frances Spencer, future Princess of Wales, born
July 4 - Soviet submarine K-19 reactor leak occurs in the North Atlantic
July 5 - The first Israeli rocket, Shavit 2 was launched.
July 8 - Mine explosion in Czechoslovakia - 108 dead
July 21 - Mercury program: Gus Grissom piloting the Mercury-Redstone 4 capsule "Liberty Bell 7" becomes the second American to go into space (sub-orbital).
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. It would be the only tie (until 2002) in MLB All-Star Game history.
July 31 - Ireland submit the first ever accession application to the then EEC

August

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 released from prison in Kenya

September

September 14 - New military government of Turkey sentences 15 members of the previous government to death
September 17 - Military rulers in Turkey publicly hang former president Adnan Menderes
September 17-18 - Dag Hammarskjöld dies in an air crash en route to Katanga, Congo.
September 21 - In France, OAS slips an anti-de Gaulle message to TV programming
September 24 - The old Deutsche Opernhaus in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg returned to its newly rebuilt house as the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
September 28 - A military coup in Damascus, Syria effectively ends the United Arab Republic, the union between Egypt and Syria

October

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 27 - Armistice begins in Katanga, Congo
October 27 - Mongolia and Mauretania join the United Nations
October 27 - A standoff between Soviet and American tanks in Berlin, Germany heightens Cold War tensions.
October 30 - Nuclear testing: The Soviet Union detonates a 58 megaton yield hydrogen bomb known as Tsar Bomba over Novaya Zemlya. It remains the largest ever (man-made) explosion.
October 31 - Hurricane Hattie devastated Belize City, Belize killing over 270. After the hurricane, the capital was moved to the inland city of Belmopan.
October 31 - Stalin's body is removed from the Lenin mausoleum

November

November 1 - The Interstate Commerce Commission's federal order banning segregation at all interstate public facilities officially comes into effect
November 2 - Kean opens at Broadway Theater New York City for 92 performances
November 3 - UN General Assembly unanimously elects U Thant acting secretary general
November 6 - U.S. government issues a stamp honoring 100th birthday of James Naismith
November 9 - Neil Armstrong records a world record speed in a rocket plane of 6,587km/h flying a X-15.
November 11 - Congolese soldiers murder 13 Italian United Nations pilots
November 11 - Stalingrad renamed Volgograd
November 18 - Gay Life opens at Shubert Theater New York City for 113 performances
November 18 - US President John F. Kennedy sends 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam
November 20 - The funeral of longtime House Speaker Sam Rayburn is held in Washington, DC. Two former Presidents (Truman, Eisenhower) and one future one (Lyndon B. Johnson) join President Kennedy in paying their respects.
November 30 - Soviet Union vetoes Kuwait's application for United Nations membership.

December

December 1 - Netherlands New Guinea raises new Morning Star flag and changes name to West Papua.
December 2 - Cold War: In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares he is a Marxist-Leninist and that Cuba is going to adopt Communism.
December 5 - US president John F. Kennedy gives support to the Volta Dam project in Ghana.
December 9 - Tanganyika gains independence and declares itself a republic with Julius Nyerere as its first President.
December 9 - The Australian government of Robert Menzies is re-elected for a sixth term.
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 11 - Adolf Eichmann is pronounced guilty of crimes against humanity by a panel of three Israeli judges.
December 11 - Nobel Prize Malvin Calvin award Nobel Prize for process of photosynthesis.
December 15 - An Israeli war crimes tribunal sentences Adolf Eichmann to die for his part in the Jewish holocaust.
December 17 - India occupies Goa.
December 19 - Goa officially ceded to India after 400 years of Portuguese rule.
December 19 - Sukarno announces that he will take West Irian by force if necessary.
December 21 - In Congo, Katangan prime minister Moise Tshombe recognizes Congolese constitution.
December 30 - Congolese troops capture Albert Kalonji of South Kasai (who soon escapes).
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.

Unknown dates

John F. Kennedy begins the Apollo program of U.S. manned spaceflight
The first quasar is discovered by Allan Sandage at Mt Palomar, California
World population reaches 3 billion

Births

January

January 2 - Gabrielle Carteris, American actress
January 2 - Todd Haynes, American film director
January 8 - Calvin Smith, American athlete
January 13 - Julia Louis-Dreyfus, American actress
January 17 - Maia Chiburdanidze, Georgian chess player
January 18 - Mark Messier, Canadian hockey player
January 26 - Wayne Gretzky, Canadian hockey player
January 31 - Lloyd Cole, British singer and songwriter

February

February 1 - Volker Fried, German field hockey player
February 3 - Jim Balsillie, Canadian CEO and philanthropist
February 9 - John Kruk, baseball player and commentator
February 10 - George Stephanopoulos, American political consultant and commentator
February 11 - Mary Docter, American speed skater
February 11- Carey Lowell, American actress
February 13 - Henry Rollins, American musician
February 16 - Andy Taylor, British musician (Duran Duran)
February 25 - Davey Allison, American race car driver (d. 1993)

March

March 4 - Ray Mancini, American boxer
March 4 - Steven Weber, American actor
March 8 - Camryn Manheim, American actress
March 10 - Laurel Clark, astronaut (d. 2003)
March 14 - Gary Dell'Abate, radio producer (The Howard Stern Show)
March 16 - Brett Kenny, Australian rugby league player
March 21 - Lothar Matthäus, German footballer
March 23 - Helmi Johannes, Indonesian television newscaster
March 27 - Tak Matsumoto, Japanese guitarist (B'z)
March 29 - Gerardo Teissonniere, Puerto Rican pianist

April

April 2 - Christopher Meloni, American actor
April 3 - Eddie Murphy, American actor and comedian
April 5 - Lisa Zane, American actress
April 6 - Gene Eugene, Canadian actor and singer (Adam Again)
April 18 - Jane Leeves, English actress
April 20 - Don Mattingly, baseball player
April 23 - George Lopez, American actor and comedian
April 27 - Moana Pozzi, Italian porn actress (d. 1994)
April 30 - Isiah Thomas, American basketball player, coach, and team owner

May

May 6 - George Clooney, American actor
May 12 - Billy (William H) Duffy, English guitarist (The Cult)
May 13 - Dennis Rodman, American basketball player and actor
May 14 - Tim Roth, English actor
May 27 - Peri Gilpin, American actress
May 28 - Odhiambo Siangla, Kenyan fine artist
May 29 - Melissa Etheridge, American musician
May 31 - Justin Madden, Australian footballer and politician

June

June 1 - Paul Coffey, Canadian hockey player
June 3 - Lawrence Lessig, Professor and Free Culture activist
June 5 - Rosie Kane, member of Scottish Parliament
June 6 - Tom Araya, Chilean-born musician (Slayer)
June 9 - Michael J. Fox, Canadian actor
June 14 - Boy George, British musician and producer
June 15 - Dave McAuley, Northern Irish boxer
June 18 - Andrés Galarraga, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player
June 22 - Stephen Batchelor, British field hockey player
June 23 - Zoran Janjetov, Serbian comic artist
June 26 - Greg LeMond, American cyclist

July

July 1 - Kalpana Chawla, astronaut (d. 2003)
July 1 - Diana, Princess of Wales (d. 1997)
July 1 - Carl Lewis, American athlete
July 12 - Ray Gillen, American singer (d. 1993)
July 14 - Jackie Earle Haley, American actor
July 19 - Maria Filatova, Soviet gymnast
July 30 - Laurence Fishburne, American actor

August

August 1 - Steven F. Zambo, film producer, director and screenwriter
August 3 - Nicholas Harvey, English politician
August 4 - Barack Obama, US Senator, author
August 5 - Clayton Rohner, American actor
August 7 - Yelena Davydova, Soviet gymnast
August 8 - The Edge, Irish guitarist (U2)
August 13 - Sandra Miranda, Puerto Rican hair stylist and entrepeneur
August 14 - Susan Olsen, American actress
August 21 - Stephen Hillenburg, animation writer and artist
August 25 - Billy Ray Cyrus, American singer and actor
August 29 - Carsten Fischer, German field hockey player

September

September 2 - Eric Dickerson, American football player
September 2 - Carlos Valderrama, Colombian footballer
September 6 - Paul Waaktaar-Savoy, Norwegian guitarist (a-ha)
September 6 - Scott Travis, American drummer (Judas Priest)
September 11 - Elizabeth Daily, American Actress
September 12 - Mylene Farmer, Canadian singer and songwriter
September 13 - Dave Mustaine, former Metallica guitarist, frontman of Megadeth
September 15 - Dan Marino, American football player
September 18 - James Gandolfini, American actor
September 22 - Scott Baio, American actor
September 23 - William C. McCool, US Army Commander and astronaut (d. 2003)
September 25 - Heather Locklear, American actress
September 26 - Edward Kennedy Jr, son of U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy

October

October 2 - Edmond Yu, Chinese student (d. 1997)
October 11 - Steve Young, American football player
October 11 - Amr Diab, Egyptian singer
October 18 - Wynton Marsalis, American trumpeter and composer
October 18 - Rick Moody, American writer
October 25 - Grover Waldrop, American biochemist
October 26 - Dylan McDermott, American actor
October 29 - Randy Jackson, American musician
October 31 - Alonzo Babers, American runner
October 31 - Peter Jackson, New Zealand film director
October 31 - Larry Mullen, Jr., Irish drummer (U2)

November

November 1 - Anne Donovan, American basketball player
November 2 - k.d. lang, Canadian singer and songwriter
November 4 - Daron Hagen, American composer
November 4 - Ralph Macchio, American actor
November 4 - Nigel Worthington, Northern Irish footballer and football manager
November 5 - Gina Mastrogiacomo, American actress (d. 2001)
November 18 - Anthony Warlow, Australian stage performer
November 19 - Meg Ryan, American actress
November 20 - Dave Watson, English footballer
November 22 - Mariel Hemingway, American actress
November 22 - Randal L. Schwartz, American computer programmer

December

December 4 - Frank Reich, American football player
December 8 - Ann Coulter, American author, political commentator and attorney
December 12 - Sarah Sutton, British actress
December 15 - Karin Resetarits, Austrian journalist and politician
December 19 - Matthew Waterhouse, British actor
December 19 - Eric Allin Cornell, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
December 19 - Reggie White, American football player (d. 2004)
December 25 - Ingrid Betancourt, Colombian senator
December 26 - John Lynch, Northern Irish actor
December 29 - Jim Reid, Scottish musician
December 30 - Douglas Coupland, Canadian author
December 30 - Sean Hannity, American talk radio host and conservative commentator
December 30 - Ben Johnson, Canadian athlete

Deaths

January

January 4 - Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1887)
January 9 - Emily Greene Balch, American writer and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1867)
January 10 - Dashiell Hammett, American writer (b. 1894)
January 21 - Blaise Cendrars, Swiss writer (b. 1887)
January 24 - Alfred Carlton Gilbert, American swimmer and inventor (b. 1884)
January 26 - Stan Nichols, English cricketer (b. 1900)

February

February 17 - Nita Naldi, American actress (b. 1897)
February 20 - Percy Grainger, Australian composer (b. 1882)
February 22 - Nick LaRocca, American jazz musician (b. 1889)
February 26 - King Mohammed V of Morocco (b. 1909)

March

March 3 - Paul Wittgenstein, Austrian-born pianist (b. 1887)
March 6 - George Formby, British singer, comedian & actor (b. 1904)
March 8 - Thomas Beecham, English conductor (b. 1879)
March 8 - Gala Galaction, Romanian writer (b. 1879)
March 23 - Valentin Bondarenko, Russian Cosmonaut (b. 1937)

April

April 6 - Jules Bordet, Belgian immunologist and microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1870)
April 7 - Vanessa Bell, English artist and interior designer (b. 1879)
April 9 - Ahmet Zog, King of Albania (b. 1895)

May

May 13 - Gary Cooper, American actor (b. 1901)
May 30 - Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic (b. 1891)

June

June 1 - Melvin Jones, American founder of Lions Clubs International (b. 1879)
June 6 - Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist (b. 1875)
June 16 - Marcel Junod, Swiss physician (b. 1904)
June 17 - Jeff Chandler, American actor (b. 1918)
June 30 - Lee DeForest, American inventor (b. 1873)

July

July 1 - Louis-Ferdinand Céline, French writer (b. 1894)
July 2 - Ernest Hemingway, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1899)
July 6 - Woodall Rodgers, Mayor of Dallas, Texas (b. 1890)
July 17 - Ty Cobb, baseball player (b. 1886)

August

August 20 - Percy Williams Bridgman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1882)

September

September 18 - Dag Hammarskjöld, Swedish Secretary General of the United Nations, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1905)
September 25 - Frank Fay, American actor (b. 1897)

October

October 11 - Chico Marx, American comedian (b. 1887)
October 13 - Maya Deren, Russian-born filmmaker (b. 1917)

Nobel prizes

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

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