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19611961 (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.
{| align=right cellpadding=3 id=toc style="margin-left: 15px;"\n|- \n| align="center" colspan=2 | Years: 1958 1959 1960 - 1961 - 1962 1963 1964 \n|-\n| align="center" colspan=2 | Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s - 1960s - 1970s 1980s 1990s \n|- \n| align="center" | Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century
\n1961 in art \n 1961 in aviation\n 1961 in film\n 1961 in literature\n 1961 in music\n1961 in radio \n 1961 in science\n 1961 in sports\n 1961 in television\n----\n List of state leaders in 1961\nList of religious leaders in 1961\n|}
Events\nJanuary\n* January 1 - The farthing coin, used since the 13th century, ceases to be legal tender in the United Kingdom.\n* January 3 - President Dwight Eisenhower announced that the United States had severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba.\n* January 3 - SL-1, an atomic reactor, exploded at National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho Falls, Idaho, killing 3 military technicians.\n* 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.\n* January 12 - President Dwight Eisenhower gave his final State of the Union Address to Congress.\n* January 20 - John F. Kennedy becomes President of the United States\n* 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 plan shot down by Soviet flyers over the Barents Sea July 1, 1960. (see RB-47H shot down)\n* 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.\n* January 26 - John F. Kennedy appoints Janet G. Travell to be his physician. This is the first time a woman held this appointment.\n* January 30 - President John F. Kennedy delivered his first State of the Union Address.\n* 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\n* February 5 - The Sunday Telegraph publishes its first issue. \n* February 11 - Trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem\n* February 14 - Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized (Berkeley, California). \n* February 15 - A Boeing 707 crashes in Belgium killing 73, including the entire United States figure skating team and several coaches.\n* March 1 - President of the United States John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps. \n* March 1 - first elections held in Uganda and it becomes self-governing \n* March 3 - Hassan II becomes King of Morocco\n* March 8 - Max Conrad circumnavigates the earth in eight days, 18 hours and 49 minutes setting a new world record. \n* March 15 - South Africa withdraws from the British Commonwealth \n* March 29 - The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, DC to vote in presidential elections.
April\n* April 12 - Yuri Gagarin is the first human in space.\n* April 17 - Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba begins, ending in failure April 19\n* April 25 - Robert Noyce is granted the first patent for an integrated circuit. \n* April 27 - Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom. \nMay-June\n* May 5 - Alan B. Shepard: is first American in space.\n* 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. \n* May 19 - Venera program: Venera 1 becomes the first manmade 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). \n* May 21 - American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out. \n* May 24 - American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus. \n* 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. \n* 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.\n* June 17 - The New Democratic Party of Canada is founded with the merger of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress.
July-October\n* 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. \n* 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. \n* 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.\n* October 17 - "Battle of Paris": French police attack in Paris about 30,000 protesting a curfew applied solely to Algerians, about 200 are killed\n* 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). \n* October 31 - In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin's body is removed from Lenin's Tomb. \nNovember-December\n* November 13 - Vladimir Yefimovich Semichastny succeeds Aleksandr Nikolayevich Shelepin as head of the KGB. \n* 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).\n* 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.\n*December 11 - Vietnam War officially begins as the first American helicopters arrive in Saigon along with 400 U.S. personnel.\n*December 15 - An Israeli war crimes tribunal sentences Adolph Eichmann to die for his part in the Jewish holocaust.\n* December 31 - The Marshall Plan expires after having distributed more than $12 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe. \n* December 31 - Ireland's first national telvision station, Teilifís Éireann, (later RTÉ) begins broadcasting.
Births\nJanuary-April\n* January 1 - Sara Stewart, British actress\n* January 5 - Suzy Amis, actress\n* January 8 - Calvin Smith, American athlete\n* January 13 - Julia Louis-Dreyfus, actress\n* January 18 - Mark Messier, hockey star\n* January 21 - Blaise Cendrars, writer\n* January 26 - Wayne Gretzky, Hockey Hall of Famer\n* February 9 - John Kruk, baseball player, commentator\n* February 10 - George Stephanopoulos, political consultant, commentator\n* February 11 - Mary Docter, American speed skater\n* February 11 - Becky LeBeau, vocalist\n* February 11 - Carey Lowell, actress\n* February 13 - Henry Rollins, musician\n* February 25 - Davey Allison, automobile racer (d. 1993)\n* March 4 - Ray Mancini, boxer\n* March 8 - Camryn Manheim, actress ( The Practice)\n* March 14 - Kirby Puckett, Baseball Hall of Famer\n* March 15 - Fabio, model\n* March 18 - Richard Biggs, actor ( Days of Our Lives, Babylon 5) (d. 2004)\n* March 21 - Lothar Matthäus, German footballerer\n* April 3 - Eddie Murphy, actor and comedian\n* April 6 - Gene Eugene, actor, lead singer of Adam Again\n* April 18 - Jane Leeves, actress\n* April 20 - Don Mattingly, baseball player\n* April 23 - George Lopez, actor, comedian\n* April 26 - Joan Chen, actress\n* April 30 - Isiah Thomas, basketball player, coach, owner
May-December\n* May 6 - George Clooney, actor\n* May 13 - Dennis Rodman, basketball player, actor\n* May 14 - Tim Roth, actor\n* May 17 - Enya, singer, songwriter\n* May 27 - Peri Gilpin, actress\n* May 29 - Melissa Etheridge, rock musician\n* June 1 - Paul Coffey, hockey star\n* June 26 - Greg LeMond, cyclist, three-time Tour de France winner\n* July 1 - Diana, Princess of Wales (d. 1997)\n* July 1 - Carl Lewis, athletics legend\n* August 8 - The Edge, U2 guitarist\n* August 14 - Susan Olsen, actress, The Brady Bunch\n* September 2 - Carlos Valderrama, footballerer\n* September 13 - Dave Mustaine, musician ( Metallica/ Megadeth)\n* September 15 - Dan Marino, football player\n* September 22 - Scott Baio, actor\n* September 25 - Heather Locklear, actress\n* October 11 - Steve Young, football player\n* October 18 - Wynton Marsalis, musician\n* October 26 - Dylan McDermott, actor ( The Practice)\n* October 29 - Randy Jackson, American musician\n* October 31 - Peter Jackson, director\n* October 31 - Larry Mullen, Jr, U2 drummer\n* October 31 - Alonzo Babers, American runner\n* November 2 - k.d. lang, singer, songwriter\n* November 19 - Meg Ryan, actress\n* November 22 - Mariel Hemingway, actress\n* November 22 - Randal L. Schwartz, computer professional\n* December 8 - Ann Coulter, author, political commentator, attorney\n* December 19 - Reggie White, football player\n* December 25 - Ingrid Betancourt, Colombian senator\n* December 30 - Douglas Coupland, author\n* December 30 - Sean Hannity, talk radio host, political commentator\n* December 30 - Ben Johnson, Canadian athlete
Deaths\n* January 4 - Erwin Schrödinger, physicist\n* January 10 - Dashiell Hammett, writer\n* January 17 - Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo\n* January 21 - Blaise Cendrars, writer \n* January 24 - Alfred Carlton Gilbert, gold medal winner at 1908 Summer Olympics, inventor of Erector Set (b. 1884)\n* February 11 - Eduard R Verkade, Dutch actor/director\n* February 11 - Patrice Lumumba, 1st premier of Congo (Kinshasa)?\n* February 22 - Nick LaRocca, jazz musician (b. 1889)\n* February 26 - King Mohammed V of Morocco\n* March 3 - Paul Wittgenstein, pianist\n* April 9 - Ahmet Zog, King of Albania\n* May 13 - Gary Cooper, actor\n* May 30 - Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic\n* June 1 - Melvin Jones, founder of Lions Clubs International\n* June 30 - Lee DeForest - inventor\n* July 17 - Ty Cobb, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1886)\n* September 18 - Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary General of the United Nations\n* October 11 - Chico Marx, member of the Marx Brothers (b. 1887)\n* December 20 - Earle Page, eleventh Prime Minister of Australia
Nobel Prizes\n* Physics - Robert Hofstadter, Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer\n* Chemistry - Melvin Calvin\n* Medicine - Georg von Békésy\n* Literature - Ivo Andric\n* Peace - Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld - awarded posthumously
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