1961

1961 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar	1961; MCMLXI
Ab urbe condita	2714
Armenian calendar	1410; ԹՎ ՌՆԺ
Assyrian calendar	6711
Baháʼí calendar	117–118
Balinese saka calendar	1882–1883
Bengali calendar	1368
Berber calendar	2911
British Regnal year	9 Eliz. 2 – 10 Eliz. 2
Buddhist calendar	2505
Burmese calendar	1323
Byzantine calendar	7469–7470
Chinese calendar	庚子年 (Metal Rat); 4658 or 4451; — to —; 辛丑年 (Metal Ox); 4659 or 4452
Coptic calendar	1677–1678
Discordian calendar	3127
Ethiopian calendar	1953–1954
Hebrew calendar	5721–5722
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	2017–2018
- Shaka Samvat	1882–1883
- Kali Yuga	5061–5062
Holocene calendar	11961
Igbo calendar	961–962
Iranian calendar	1339–1340
Islamic calendar	1380–1381
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 36; (昭和３６年)
Javanese calendar	1892–1893
Juche calendar	50
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4294
Minguo calendar	ROC 50; 民國50年
Nanakshahi calendar	493
Thai solar calendar	2504
Tibetan calendar	阳金鼠年; (male Iron-Rat); 2087 or 1706 or 934; — to —; 阴金牛年; (female Iron-Ox); 2088 or 1707 or 935

Centuries:	19th century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades:	1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
Years:	1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964

1961 (MCMLXI) 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.

Events

January

File:JFKofficial.jpg

John F. Kennedy inaugurated as President of the United States in January 1961

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 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 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 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

File:Eichmann trial 1961 in glass box.jpg

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 - 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 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 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 23-24 - 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 - Paris-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 Czechoslovakia - 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 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-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 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 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 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 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 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
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 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

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 1 - Volker Fried, German field hockey player
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 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 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 6 - Tom Araya, rock musician (Slayer)
June 7 - Peter Sterling, Australian rugby league player
June 14 - Boy George, British musician and producer
June 18 - Andrés Galarraga, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player
June 22 - Stephen Batchelor, British field hockey 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
August 29 - Carsten Fischer, German field hockey player

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 19 - Bruce Lokeinsky, Jewish-American weirdo
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)
November 1 - Mordecai Ham, American evangelist (b. 1877)
November 2 - James Thurber, American humorist (b. 1894)
November 16 - Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1882)
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

Centuries:	19th century · 20th century · 21st century
Decades:	1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s
Years:	1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964