1961 - What happened in 1961 ?

January 1961

Tuesday 03:

The SL-1, a government-run reactor near Idaho Falls, Idaho leaks radiation, killing three workers at the installation. The radiation is contained.

Thursday 05:

Television: Mr. Ed debuts.

Monday 16:

Mickey Mantle becomes the highest paid baseball player by signing a $75,000 contract.

Wednesday 25:

In Washington, DC John F. Kennedy delivers the first live presidential television news conference.

Tuesday 31:

Ham the Chimp travels into outer space.

February 1961

Sunday 05:

The Sunday Telegraph publishes its first issue.

Saturday 11:

Trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem.

Tuesday 14:

Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized (Berkeley, California).

Wednesday 15:

A Boeing 707 crashes in Belgium, killing 73, including the entire United States figure skating team and several coaches.

Thursday 16:

Explorer 9 launched. (See Explorer program)

March 1961

Wednesday 01:

1961 - Uganda becomes self-governing as its first elections held.

Friday 03:

Hassan II becomes King of Morocco.

Wednesday 15:

South Africa withdraws from the British Commonwealth.

Saturday 18:

In Cannes, France, Jean-Claude Pascal wins the sixth Eurovision Song Contest for Luxembourg singing "Nous les amoureux" (We the lovers).

Thursday 30:

The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed at New York.<!--See http://www.incb.org/e/conv/1961/-->

April 1961

Wednesday 12:

Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man to fly in space.

Tuesday 18:

CONCP is founded in Casablanca as a united front of African movements opposing Portuguese colonial rule.

Wednesday 19:

The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba ends in failure.

Monday 24:

The 17th century Swedish ship Vasa is salvaged.

Thursday 27:

Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister.

May 1961

Thursday 04:

American civil rights movement: The "Freedom Riders" begin a bus trip through the South.

Friday 05:

Mercury program: Mercury 3 &ndash; Alan Shepard becomes the first American to travel into space, making a sub-orbital flight of 15 minutes.

Sunday 14:

American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders bus is fire-bombed near Anniston, Alabama, and the civil rights protestors are beaten by an angry mob.

Wednesday 24:

American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus.

Wednesday 31:

Creation of the Republic of South Africa.

June 1961

Sunday 04:

Lake Bodom murders in Finland.

Friday 16:

Rudolf Nureyev defects at Le Bourget airport in Paris

Saturday 17:

The New Democratic Party of Canada is founded with the merger of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress.

Monday 19:

Kuwait declares independence from the United Kingdom.

July 1961

Friday 21:

Mercury program: Gus Grissom piloting the Mercury 4 capsule "Liberty Bell 7" becomes the second American to go into space (in a suborbital mission).

Sunday 23:

Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) founded in Nicaragua.

Monday 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 1961

Tuesday 01:

Six Flags Over Texas, the first Six Flags park, opens.

Sunday 13:

The German Democratic Republic closes the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin, to thwart its inhabitants' attempts to escape to the West.

Tuesday 15:

Construction begins on the Berlin Wall, Conrad Schumann flees from East Germany.

September 1961

Monday 11:

Formation of the World Wildlife Fund.

Sunday 24:

The old Deutsche Opernhaus in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg returns to its newly rebuilt house as the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Tuesday 26:

Bob Dylan makes his public debut.

Thursday 28:

A military coup in Damascus effectively ends the United Arab Republic, the union between Egypt and Syria.

Friday 29:

The New York Times publishes music critic Robert Shelton's review of a performance from little known singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, which will lead to Dylan's discovery by Columbia Records representative John Hammond

October 1961

Sunday 01:

Baseball: Roger Maris sets new record for most home runs in a single season with 61, surpassing Babe Ruth's previous mark of 60.

Saturday 07:

"Bye Bye Birdie" closes at Martin Beck Theater New York City after 607 performances.

Tuesday 17:

Approximately 200 Algerian protesters (some claim up to 400) are massacred by the Paris police

Monday 30:

Due to "violations of Lenin's precepts", it is decreed that Josef Stalin's body be removed from its place of honour inside Lenin's tomb and buried near the Kremlin wall with a plain granite marker instead.

Tuesday 31:

In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin's body is removed from Lenin's Tomb.

November 1961

Thursday 09:

Neil A. Armstrong records a world record speed in a jet plane of 6,587km/h flying a X-15.

Monday 13:

Vladimir Yefimovich Semichastny succeeds Aleksandr Nikolayevich Shelepin as head of the KGB.

Wednesday 15:

Roger Maris is voted the American League MVP (baseball)

Sunday 19:

Michael Rockefeller, son of New York governor Nelson Rockefeller, disappears in the jungles near Atsj, Papua New Guinea.

Wednesday 29:

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 1961

Saturday 02:

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.

Friday 15:

An Israeli war crimes tribunal sentences Adolph Eichmann to die for his part in the Jewish holocaust

Sunday 17:

A fire at a circus in Niteroi, Brazil kills 323 people.

Tuesday 19:

The Indian Army invades the Portuguese province of Estado da India Portuguesa (Portuguese State of India) which will become part of India.

Sunday 31:

The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than USD $12 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.