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| Years: 1958 1959 1960 - 1961(MCMLXI) - 1962 1963 1964 |
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1961 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to 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.
Have to see |
Contents |
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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 NATOype 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 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
- 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 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 in a test of the Project Mercury capsule designed to carry U.S. astronauts into space.
February-March
- February 3 - China buys grain from Canada with $60 million
- February 4 - The Portuguese Colonial War begins in Angola.
- February 5 - The Sunday Telegraph publishes its first issue.
- February 9 - In Congo, president Joseph Kasavubu names Joseph Ileo as a new prime minister
- February 11 - Trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem.
- 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 26 - Hassan II is pronounced 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 2 - US president John F Kennedy creates Peace Corps
- 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 British Commonwealth.
- 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 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 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 - Three French generals who oppose De Gaulle's policies in Algeria fail in a coup attempt.
- April 23a href="April_24.html" title="April 24">24 - Vasa raised in the Stockholm harbor.
- April 25 - Robert Noyce is granted the first patent for an integrated circuit.
- April 25 - General Maurice Challe, who lead the Algerian army rebels, surrenders
- April 26 - In Congo, soldiers arrest Moise Tsombe in a political conference
- April 27 - Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom.
- April 29 - NSW votes at referendum to retain Legislative Council
May
- May 5 - Alan B. Shepard becomes the first American in space.
- 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 British Commonwealth
June-September
- June 4 - John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev meet during two days in Vienna. They talk about nuclear tests, disarmament and Germany.
- June 17 - Parisa href="Strassbourg.html" title="Strassbourg">Strassbourg train derails near Ventyr-le-Francois – 24 dead, 109 dead
- 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 Lumuba
- 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 4 - Soviet submarine K-19 explodes in the North Atlantic - 22 dead
- July 5 - The first Israeli rocket, Shavit 2 was launched.
- July 8 - Mine explosion in Chechoslovakia - 108 dead
- July 21 - Mercury program: Gus Grissom piloting the Mercury 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.
- August 10 - Britain applies for membership of the EEC.
- August 21 - Jomo Kenyatta released from prison in Kenya
- 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 14 - New military government of Turkey sentences 15 members of the previous government to death
- September 17 - Military rulers in Turkey hang publicly former president Adnan Menderes
- September 17a href="September_18.html" title="September 18">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-November
- 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 ion of Private Eye, the British satirical magazine.
- October 27 - Armistice begins in Katanga, Congo
- October 27 - Mongolia and Mauretania join the United Nations
- 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). Nikita Kruschev announces that the scientists had planned to make it 100 megatons, but had reduced the yield so as to avoid breaking all the windows in Moscow.
- 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 - Despite public protest, the demolition of Euston Arch in London starts.
- November 2 - Congo government troops march into Katanga
- November 3 - U Thant of Burma elected United Nations Secretary General
- 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 Marxista href="Leninist.html" title="Leninist">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 9 - The Australian government of Robert Menzies is re-elected for a sixth term.
- December 10 - Soviet Union severs diplomatic relations to Albania
- 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
- 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 primne 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 date
- John F. Kennedy begins the Apollo program of U.S. manned spaceflight
- The first quasar is discovered by Allan Sandage at Mt Palomar, California
Births
January-March
- 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 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 4 - Ray Mancini, American boxer
- March 8 - Camryn Manheim, American actress
- March 14 - Kirby Puckett, baseball player
- March 15 - Fabio, Italian model
- 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-August
- April 3 - Eddie Murphy, American actor and comedian
- 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 26 - Joan Chen, Chinese actress
- April 30 - Isiah Thomas, American basketball player, coach, and team owner
- 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 17 - Enya, Irish singer and songwriter
- May 27 - Peri Gilpin, American actress
- May 29 - Melissa Etheridge, American musician
- May 31 - Justin Madden, Australian footballer and politician
- June 1 - Paul Coffey, Canadian hockey player
- June 14 - Boy George, British musician and producer
- June 18 - Andrés Galarraga, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player
- June 26 - Greg LeMond, American cyclist
- 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 30 - Laurence Fishburne, American actor
- August 1 - Steven F. Zambo, film producer, director, and screenwriter
- August 3 - Nicholas Harvey, English politician
- August 5 - Clayton Rohner, American actor
- August 8 - The Edge, Irish guitarist (U2)
- August 14 - Susan Olsen, American actress
September-November
- September 2 - Eric Dickerson, American football player
- September 2 - Carlos Valderrama, Colombian footballer
- September 6 - Paul Waaktaar-Savoy, Norwegian guitarist (a-ha)
- September 12 - Mylene Farmer, Canadian singer and songwriter
- September 13 - Dave Mustaine, American musician (Metallica and Megadeth)
- September 15 - Dan Marino, American football player
- September 22 - Scott Baio, American actor
- September 25 - Heather Locklear, American actress
- October 2 - Edmond Yu, Chinese student (d. 1997)
- October 11 - Steve Young, American football player
- October 18 - Wynton Marsalis, American trumpeter and composer
- 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 2 - k.d. lang, Canadian singer and songwriter
- November 19 - Meg Ryan, American actress
- 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, 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 30 - Douglas Coupland, Canadian author
- December 30 - Sean Hannity, American talk radio host and political commentator
- December 30 - Ben Johnson, Canadian athlete
Deaths
January-June
- 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 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 3 - Paul Wittgenstein, Austrian-born pianist (b. 1887)
- March 8 - Thomas Beecham, English conductor (b. 1879)
- April 6 - Jules Bordet, Belgian immunologist and microbiologist (b. 1870)
- April 9 - Ahmet Zog, King of Albania (b. 1895)
- May 13 - Gary Cooper, American actor (b. 1901)
- May 30 - Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic (b. 1891)
- June 1 - Melvin Jones, American founder of Lions Clubs International (b. 1879)
- June 6 - Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist (b. 1875)
- June 17 - Jeff Chandler, American actor (b. 1918)
- June 30 - Lee DeForest, American inventor (b. 1873)
July-December
- 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 20 - Percy Williams Bridgman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1882)
- September 18 - Dag Hammarskjöld, Swedish Secretary General of the United Nations, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1905)
- October 11 - Chico Marx, American comedian (b. 1887)
- October 13 - Maya Deren, Russian-born filmmaker (b. 1917)
- December 20 - Earle Page, eleventh Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1880)
Unknown date
- Empress Menen of Ethiopia, wife of Haile Selassie
Nobel Prizes
- Physics - Robert Hofstadter, Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer
- Chemistry - Melvin Calvin
- Medicine - Georg von Békésy
- Literature - Ivo Andric
- Peace - Dag Hammarskjöld - awarded posthumously