1961 Calendar
What Happened In Year 1961?
- January 3, 1961 – The United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.
- January 8, 1961 – In France a referendum supports Charles de Gaulle’s policies in Algeria.
- January 17, 1961 – Former Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba is murdered in circumstances suggesting the support and complicity of the governments of Belgium and the United States.
- January 25, 1961 – In Washington, D.C. John F. Kennedy delivers the first live presidential television news conference.
- January 31, 1961 – Project Mercury: Mercury-Redstone 2 – Ham the Chimp travels into outer space.
- February 3, 1961 – A protest by agricultural workers in Baixa de Cassanje, Portuguese Angola, turns into a revolt, opening the Angolan War of Independence, the first of the Portuguese Colonial Wars.
- February 15, 1961 – New Year’s Day in Chinese calendar. Start of the year of the Metal Ox in Chinese astrology.
- February 27, 1961 – The first congress of the Spanish Trade Union Organisation is inaugurated.
- March 1, 1961 – President of the United States John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.
- March 29, 1961 – The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, D.C., to vote in presidential elections.
- March 30, 1961 – The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed in New York City.
- April 8, 1961 – A large explosion on board the MV Dara in the Persian Gulf kills 238.
- April 9, 1961 – The Pacific Electric Railway in Los Angeles, once the largest electric railway in the world, ends operations.
- May 30, 1961 – Long time Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo is assassinated in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
- August 10, 1961 – First use in Vietnam War of the Agent Orange by the U.S. Army.
- September 12, 1961 – The African and Malagasy Union is founded.
- September 17, 1961 – The world’s first retractable-dome stadium, the Civic Arena, opens in Pittsburgh.
- November 11, 1961 – thirteen Italian Air Force servicemen, deployed to the Congo as a part of the UN peacekeeping force are massacred by a mob in the course of the Kindu atrocity.
- November 29, 1961 – Project Mercury: Mercury-Atlas 5 Mission – Enos, a chimpanzee, is launched into space. The spacecraft orbited the Earth twice and splashed-down off the coast of Puerto Rico.
- December 14, 1961 – The United Republic of Tanzania joins the United Nations.
Are you not curious to learn some fun facts about your birthday? Find out who shares your birthday, number one song, and the meaning of your day of birth. (Sponsored link)
Share or Link to This Page: