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 6009.

Years:
1958 1959 1960 - 1961 - 1962 1963 1964

Decades:
1930s 1940s 1950s - 1960s - 1970s 1980s 1990s

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

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 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 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 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.

February

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 King of Morocco.

March

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.

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

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

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

July

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

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

September 17-18 - Dag Hammarskj�ld dies in an air crash enroute to Katanga, Congo.

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 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.

November

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

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 - Tanganyika 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, Teilif�s �ireann, (later RT�) 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

Births

January

January 1 - Marcia Cross, actress (Melrose Place, Desperate Housewives)
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

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)

July

July 1 - Diana, Princess of Wales (d. 1997)
July 1 - Carl Lewis, American track-and-field athlete

August

August 8 - The Edge, U2 guitarist
August 14 - Susan Olsen, American television actress

September

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
September 27 - Diana Kleiman

October

October 9 - Jean Sagal, actress
October 9 - Liz Sagal, 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

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

Deaths

January 4 - Erwin Schr�dinger, 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 6 - Jules Bordet, Belgian immunologist and microbiologist
April 9 - Ahmet Zog, King of Albania
April 10 - Stuart Sutcliffe, artist/musician
May 13 - Gary Cooper, actor
May 30 - Rafael Le�nidas Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic
June 1 - Melvin Jones, founder of Lions Clubs International
June 6 - Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist (b. 1875)
June 17 - Jeff Chandler, actor (b. 1918)
June 30 - Lee DeForest - inventor
July 2 - Ernest Hemingway - writer
July 17 - Ty Cobb, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1886)
September 18 - Dag Hammarskj�ld, 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

Nobel Prizes

Physics - Robert Hofstadter, Rudolf Ludwig M�ssbauer
Chemistry - Melvin Calvin
Medicine - Georg von B�k�sy
Literature - Ivo Andric
Peace - Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskj�ld - awarded posthumously

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