1961

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades:	1930s  1940s  1950s  – 1960s –  1970s  1980s  1990s
Years:	1958 1959 1960 – 1961 – 1962 1963 1964

1961 by topic
Arts, history, and science
Archaeology Architecture Art Literature Poetry Music Science
Countries
Lists of leaders
State leaders Colonial governors Religious leaders
Birth and death categories
Births Deaths
Establishments and disestablishments categories
Establishments Disestablishments
Works category
Works

1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday in the Gregorian calendar.

Its rendering using the Hindu-Arabic numeral system creates a numeral which looks the same when put upside down. The next such year will be 6009.

Events

Construction of Berlin Wall

• John F. Kennedy becomes President of the United States.
• The Fantastic Four make their debut.
• Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space.
• Sierra Leone becomes independent.
• The Berlin Wall is built.
• The Vietnam War begins.
• Bay of Pigs invasion
• Rockband Golden Earring was founded

Births

Henry Rollins in 2003

January

• January 1 - Mark Wingett, British actor
• January 26 – Wayne Gretzky, Retired Canadian NHL player
• January 28 – Arnaldur Indridason, Icelandic writer

February

• February 13 – Henry Rollins, American musician and activist (Black Flag)

March

• March 3 – John Matteson, Pulitzer Prize-winning American biographer
• March 7 – Sanae Takaichi, Prime Minister of Japan

April

• April 1 – Susan Boyle, Scottish singer

May

• May 6 – George Clooney, American actor

June

• June 4 – Ferenc Gyurcsany, former Prime Minister of Hungary
• June 9 – Michael J. Fox, Canadian actor
• June 14 – Boy George, British singer
• June 18 – Alison Moyet, British singer
• June 25 – Ricky Gervais, British comedian and actor

July

• July 1 – Diana, Princess of Wales (d. 1997)
• July 1 – Carl Lewis, American athlete
• July 23 – Woody Harrelson, American actor
• July 30 – Laurence Fishburne, American actor
• July 31 - Peter O'Brien, American drummer (Orleans)

August

• August 4 – Barack Obama, forty-fourth President of the United States of America
• August 8 – The Edge, Irish musician (U2)
• August 9 – John Key, Prime Minister of New Zealand

September

• September 28 - George Rossi, Scottish actor (d. 2022)
• September 29 – Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia

October

• October 11 – Amr Diab, Egyptian singer
• October 25 - Chad Smith, American drummer (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
• October 26 – Uhuru Kenyatta, President of Kenya

November

• November 12 – Nadia Comaneci, Romanian gymnast
• November 19 – Meg Ryan, American actress
• November 24 – Arundhati Roy, Indian activist and writer

December

• December 24 – Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan
• December 25 – Ingrid Betancourt, Colombian senator
• December 26 - Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, Nigerian senator
• December 27 – Guido Westerwelle, German politician
• December 30 – Ben Johnson, Canadian athlete

Deaths

• January 4 – Erwin Schroedinger, Austrian physicist (b. 1887)
• January 9 – Emily Greene Balch, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1867)
• January 17 – Patrice Lumumba, Congolese politician (b. 1925)
• February 3 – Viscount Dunrossil, Australian Governor-General (b. 1893)
• February 9 – Carlos Luz, 19th President of Brazil (b. 1894)
• March 3 – Paul Wittgenstein, Austrian-born pianist (b. 1887)
• March 23 – Valentin Bondarenko, Russian cosmonaut (b. 1937)
• April 9 – Ahmet Zog, King of Albania (b. 1895)
• May 30 – Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, President of the Dominican Republic (b. 1891)
• June 6 – Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist (b. 1875)
• July 2 – Ernest Hemingway, American writer (b. 1899)
• August 20 – Percy Williams Bridgman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1882)
• September 10 – Wolfgang von Trips, German racing driver (b. 1928)
• September 18 – Dag Hammarskioeld, UN Secretary-General (b. 1905)
• October 30 – Luigi Einaudi, Italian politician (b. 1874)
• November 9 – Ferdinand Bie, Norwegian athlete (b. 1888)
• December 20 – Earle Page, 11th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1880)

Nobel Prizes

• Nobel Prize in Physics won by Robert Hofstadter, American physicist, and Rudolf Mössbauer, German physicist
• Nobel Prize in Chemistry won by Melvin Calvin, American biochemist
• Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine won by Georg von Békésy, Hungarian biophysicist
• Nobel Prize in Literature won by Ivo Andrić, Yugoslav novelist, poet and short story writer
• Nobel Peace Prize won by Dag Hammarskjöld (posthumously), Swedish diplomat

Movies released

George Chakiris in West Side Story

• 101 Dalmatians, an animated movie
• The Absent-Minded Professor by Walt Disney Productions
• Breakfast at Tiffany's starring Audrey Hepburn
• El Cid starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren
• La Dolce Vita starring Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg
• The Guns of Navarone with Gregory Peck and Anthony Quinn
• The Hustler starring Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason
• Lover Come Back starring Doris Day and Rock Hudson
• The Parent Trap starring Hayley Mills
• West Side Story winning 10 Academy Awards

Hit songs

Patsy Cline in 1957

• "I Fall to Pieces" – Patsy Cline
• "Crazy" – Patsy Cline
• "Where the Boys Are" – Connie Francis
• "Running Scared" – Roy Orbison
• "Crying" – Roy Orbison
• "(I Wanna) Love My Life Away" – Gene Pitney
• "Town Without Pity" – Gene Pitney
• "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" – The Tokens
• "Calcutta" – Lawrence Welk
• "Runaround Sue" – Dion
• "Let's Go Trippin'" – Dick Dale's first local hit, regarded as first surf rock instrumental
• "Tossin' & Turnin' " – Bobby Lewis
• "Runaway" – Del Shannon
• "Garde-Moi la Dernière Danse" – Dalida
• "Nuits d'Espagne" – Dalida
• "Blue Moon" – The Marcels
• "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" – The Shirelles
• "There's No Other Like My Baby" – The Crystals' first hit
• "Please Mr. Postman" – The Marvelettes
• "Quarter To Three" – Gary U.S. Bonds
• "Shop Around" – The Miracles
• "Travelin' Man" – Ricky Nelson
• "Hello Mary Lou" – Ricky Nelson
• "Stand By Me" – Ben E. King
• "The Wanderer" – Dion
• "The Mountain's High" – Dick and Deedee
• "Big River, Big Man" – Claude King
• "The Commancheros" – Claude King
• "Moody River" – Pat Boone
• "I Love How You Love Me" – The Paris Sisters

New books

Harper Lee in 2007

• Border Country – Raymond Williams
• Casanova's Chinese Restaurant – Anthony Powell
• The Chapman Report – Irving Wallace
• Clea – Lawrence Durrell

• Don't Tell Alfred – Nancy Mitford

• For Your Eyes Only – Ian Fleming
• Green Eggs and Ham – Dr. Seuss
• Hunters in a Narrow Street – Jabra Ibrahim Jabra
• The Insolences of Brother Anonymous – Jean-Paul Desbiens
• The Many Colored Coat – Morley Callaghan
• Take a Girl Like You – Kingsley Amis
• To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee
• The Torch – Wilder Penfield
• The Violent Bear It Away – Flannery O'Connor
• The White Stone – Carlo Coccioli
• What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? – Henry Farrell

1961 Media

• 

  April 12: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to fly in outer space

• 

  Gabrielle Carteris at the Chiller Theatre Expo at the Hilton Parsippany Hotel in Parsippany, NJ. Saturday, October 28, 2017.

• 

  Wayne Coyne from the Flaming Lips performing in 2006 photographed by Kris Krug

• 

  From an appearance by Julia Louis-Dryfuss and Stephen Colbert at the Montclair Film Festival—Montclair, NJ, December 7, 2019.

• 

  Wayne Gretzky at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Gretzky acted as the Executive Director of Canada's men's ice hockey team during the tournament.

• 

  Enoch Pratt Baltimore M.D. 1999

• 

  David Graeber

• 

  Henry Rollins at Bronson Centre, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 2010

• 

  Australian Labor leader Mark Latham.

• 

  Laurel Clark, American astronaut who died during the failed re-entry of Space Shuttle Columbia.

Related pages

• 1961 in sports