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('''
MCMLXI ''') was a
Common Year Starting On Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 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 .
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 17 - 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 . His close win against Nixon shows that America was influenced by his calm, composed appearance in the presidential debates. Nixon was very nervous and America superficially chose the more handome, younger candidate.
- January 24 - US B-52 bomber with two 24- Megaton Nuclear Bomb s 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 26 - Wayne Gretsky , professional hockey player (Known as "The Great One") Born.
- 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. Astronaut s into space.
on trial for crimes against humanity in a court in
Jerusalem ,
Israel .]]
- May 5 - Alan B. Shepard becomes the first American in space.
- May 8 - British George Blake is sentenced to 42 years imprisonment for spying.
- 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.
- 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).
- Governor John Patterson declares Martial Law in an attempt to restore order after Race Riot s break out.
- are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus.
- 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 Newspaper s. 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 America n 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 Commonwealth Of Nations
- May 31 - President John F. Kennedy and Charles De Gaulle meet in Paris
- November 1 - The Interstate Commerce Commission's federal order banning segregation at all interstate public facilities officially comes into effect
- November 2 - ''Kean'' opens at Broadway Theater New York City for 92 performances
- November 3 - UN General Assembly unanimously elects U Thant acting secretary general
- November 6 - U.S. government issues a stamp honoring 100th birthday of James Naismith
- November 9 - Neil Armstrong records a world record speed in a rocket plane of 6,587km/h flying a X-15 .
- November 11 - Congolese soldiers murder 13 Italian United Nations pilots
- November 11 - Stalingrad renamed Volgograd
- November 18 - ''Gay Life'' opens at Shubert Theater New York City for 113 performances
- November 18 - US President John F. Kennedy sends 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam
- November 30 - Soviet Union vetoes Kuwaits' application for United Nations membership
- 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 27 - Moana Pozzi , Italian porn actress (d. 1994 )
- April 30 - Isiah Thomas , American basketball player, coach, and team owner
- June 1 - Paul Coffey , Canadian hockey player
- June 3 - Lawrence Lessig , Professor and Free Culture activist
- June 5 - Rosie Kane , member of Scottish Parliament
- June 6 - Tom Araya , Chilean-born musician ( Slayer )
- June 14 - Boy George , British musician and producer
- June 15 - Dave McAuley , Northern Irish boxer
- June 16 - Peter Sterling , Australian rugby player
- 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 - Kalpana Chawla , astronaut (d. 2003 )
- 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 19 - Maria Filatova , Soviet gymnast
- July 30 - Laurence Fishburne , American actor
- August 1 - Steven F. Zambo , film producer, director, and screenwriter
- September 2 - Eric Dickerson , American football player
- September 2 - Carlos Valderrama , Colombian footballer
- September 6 - Paul Waaktaar-Savoy , Norwegian guitarist ( A-ha )
- September 6 - Scott Travis , American drummer ( Judas Priest )
- September 12 - Mylene Farmer , Canadian singer and songwriter
- September 13 - Dave Mustaine , former Metallica guitarist, frontman of Megadeth
- September 15 - Dan Marino , American football player
- September 18 - James Gandolfini , American actor
- September 22 - Scott Baio , American actor
- September 23 - William C. McCool , US Army Commander and astronaut (d. 2003 )
- September 25 - Heather Locklear , American actress
- September 26 - Edward Kennedy Jr , son of U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy
- 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 1 - Anne Donovan , American basketball player
- November 2 - K.d. Lang , Canadian singer and songwriter
- November 4 - Daron Hagen , American composer
- November 4 - Ralph Macchio , American actor
- November 4 - Nigel Worthington , Northern Irish footballer and football manager
- November 5 - Gina Mastrogiacomo , American actress (d. 2001 )
- November 18 - Anthony Warlow , Australian stage performer
- November 19 - Meg Ryan , American actress
- November 22 - Mariel Hemingway , American actress
- November 22 - Randal L. Schwartz , American computer programmer
- December 4 - Frank Reich , American football player
- December 8 - Ann Coulter , American 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 23 - Sanjay Khanna , Banker
- December 25 - Ingrid Betancourt , Colombian senator
- December 26 - John Lynch , Northern Irish actor
- December 30 - Douglas Coupland , Canadian author
- December 30 - Sean Hannity , American talk radio host and conservative commentator
- December 30 - Ben Johnson , Canadian athlete
