What happened in 1961
73 entries recorded for 1961, listed by date. That was 65 years ago.
1961 at a glance
- Years ago
- 65 (as of 2026)
- Century
- 20th century
- Decade
- 1960s
- Generation born
- Baby Boomers
- Entries here
- 73
- Breakdown
- 73 historical events
January
- January 3
Aero Flight 311
All 25 people on board Aero Flight 311 died in Finland's worst civilian air accident when the aircraft crashed near Kvevlax.
- January 9
Soviet Union
British authorities announce they have uncovered the Soviet Portland spy ring in London.
- January 11
Throgs Neck Bridge
Throgs Neck Bridge over the East River, linking New York City's boroughs of The Bronx and Queens, opens to road traffic.
- January 11
University of Georgia
Students at the University of Georgia rioted in an attempt to prevent the attendance of two African-American students.
- January 17
Patrice Lumumba
Patrice Lumumba, a former prime minister of Congo-Léopoldville, was murdered in circumstances suggesting the support and complicity of the Belgian and US governments.
- January 17
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Three days before leaving office, U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered a farewell speech to the nation, in which he warned about the dangers of the military–industrial complex.
- January 24
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress
A Boeing B-52 Stratofortress carrying two Mark 39 nuclear weapons broke up in mid-air near Goldsboro, North Carolina; one bomb was recovered intact, the other disintegrated.
- January 24
1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash
Goldsboro B-52 crash: A bomber carrying two H-bombs breaks up in mid-air over North Carolina. The uranium core of one weapon remains lost.
- January 28
Muhanga
In Gitarama, Rwanda, local and other government officials initiated a coup to overthrow the monarchy and establish a republic.
- January 31
Project Mercury
Project Mercury: Mercury-Redstone 2: The chimpanzee Ham travels into outer space.
- January 31
NASA
Aboard NASA's Mercury-Redstone 2, the chimpanzee Ham became the first hominid to be launched into outer space.
February
- February 3
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force begins Operation Looking Glass, and over the next 30 years, a "Doomsday Plane" is always in the air, with the capability of taking direct control of the United States' bombers and missiles in the event of the destruction of the SAC's command post.
- February 4
Angolan War of Independence
The Angolan War of Independence and the greater Portuguese Colonial War begin.
- February 13
Geode
Geode prospectors near Olancha, California, discovered what they claimed to be a 500,000-year-old rock with a 1920s-era spark plug encased within (pictured).
- February 13
Coso artifact
An allegedly 500,000-year-old rock is discovered near Olancha, California, US, that appears to anachronistically encase a spark plug.
- February 14
Timeline of chemical element discoveries
Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California.
- February 14
Lawrencium
Lawrencium, the radioactive synthetic element with atomic number 103, was first synthesized at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley.
- February 15
Sabena Flight 548
All 72 people on board Sabena Flight 548, including the entire U.S. figure-skating team, and one person on the ground were killed when the aircraft crashed on approach to Brussels Airport.
- February 16
DuSable Black History Museum
The DuSable Museum, the first museum dedicated to the study and conservation of African American history, culture, and art, was chartered.
- February 16
Explorers Program
Explorer program: Explorer 9 (S-56a) is launched.
- February 27
Spanish Syndical Organization
The first congress of the Spanish Trade Union Organisation is inaugurated.
March
- March 9
Korabl-Sputnik 4
Sputnik 9 successfully launches, carrying a dog and a human dummy, and demonstrating that the Soviet Union was ready to begin human spaceflight.
- March 14
United States Air Force
A USAF B-52 bomber carrying nuclear weapons crashes near Yuba City, California.
- March 15
1961 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference
At the 1961 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference, South Africa announces that it will withdraw from the Commonwealth when the South African Constitution of 1961 comes into effect.
- March 28
ČSA Flight 511 (March 1961)
ČSA Flight 511 crashes in Igensdorf, Germany, killing 52.
- March 30
Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs
The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed in New York City.
April
- April 8
MV Dara
A large explosion on board the MV Dara in the Persian Gulf killed 238 people.
- April 12
Vostok 1
Aboard Vostok 1, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin performed the first human spaceflight, completing one orbit of Earth in 108 minutes.
- April 16
Fidel Castro
In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist–Leninist and that Cuba is going to adopt Communism.
- April 17
Bay of Pigs Invasion
Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of Cuban exiles financed and trained by the CIA lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.
- April 20
Cold War
Cold War: Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed Cuban exiles against Cuba.
- April 23
Algiers putsch of 1961
During the Algiers putsch by French generals, President Charles de Gaulle announces he has assumed emergency powers, and calls on troops and civilians to support him.
- April 25
Robert Noyce
Robert Noyce is granted a patent for an integrated circuit.
- April 27
Milton Margai
Prime Minister Milton Margai led the Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate to independence from the United Kingdom.
May
- May 4
Malcolm Ross (balloonist)
Malcolm Ross and Victor Prather attain a new altitude record for manned balloon flight ascending in the Strato-Lab V open gondola to 113,740 feet (34.67 km).
- May 4
Civil rights movement
American civil rights movement: The "Freedom Riders" begin a bus trip through the South.
- May 5
Project Mercury
Project Mercury: American astronaut Alan Shepard made a sub-orbital spaceflight on board Freedom 7, becoming the second person to travel into outer space.
- May 9
Newton N. Minow
In a speech to U.S. broadcasters, Newton Minow, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, described commercial television programming as "a vast wasteland".
- May 10
Air France Flight 406
Air France Flight 406 is destroyed by a bomb over the Sahara, killing 78.
- May 14
Civil rights movement
Civil rights movement: A white mob twice attacks a Freedom Riders bus near Anniston, Alabama, before fire-bombing the bus and attacking the civil rights protesters who flee the burning vehicle.
- May 16
Park Chung Hee
Led by Park Chung Hee, the Military Revolution Committee carried out a bloodless coup against the government of Yun Po-sun in Seoul, ending the Second Republic of Korea.
- May 19
Silchar
At Silchar Railway Station, Assam, 11 Bengalis die when police open fire on protesters demanding state recognition of Bengali language in the Bengali Language Movement.
- May 19
Venera program
Venera program: Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly by another planet by passing Venus (the probe had lost contact with Earth a month earlier and did not send back any data).
- May 25
Bukit Ho Swee fire
A fire broke out at a squatter settlement in Bukit Ho Swee, Singapore, rendering approximately 16,000 people homeless.
- May 25
Joint session of the United States Congress
In an address to Congress, U.S. president John F. Kennedy announced his support for the Apollo program, with "the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth".
June
- June 4
Cold War
Cold War: In the Vienna summit, the Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev sparks the Berlin Crisis by threatening to sign a separate peace treaty with East Germany and ending American, British and French access to East Berlin.
- June 8
Wedding of Prince Edward and Katharine Worsley
Marriage of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent to Katharine Worsley at York Minster.
- June 16
Mariinsky Ballet
While on tour with the Kirov Ballet in Paris, Rudolf Nureyev defects from the Soviet Union.
- June 19
Kuwait
Kuwait declares independence from the United Kingdom.
- June 23
Antarctic Treaty System
The Antarctic Treaty System, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and limits military activity on the continent, its islands and ice shelves, comes into force.
July
- July 9
Greece
Greece becomes the first member state to join the European Economic Community by signing the Athens Agreement, which is later suspended in 1967 during the Greek junta.
- July 12
ČSA Flight 511 (July 1961)
ČSA Flight 511 crashes at Casablanca–Anfa Airport in Morocco, killing 72.
- July 12
India
Indian city Pune floods due to failure of the Khadakwasla and Panshet dams, killing at least two thousand people.
August
September
- September 1
TWA Flight 529
TWA Flight 529 crashes shortly after takeoff from Midway Airport in Chicago, killing all 78 people on board. At the time, it was the deadliest single plane disaster in U.S. history.
- September 10
1961 Italian Grand Prix
At the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, German driver Wolfgang von Trips's car collided with another, causing it to become airborne and crash into a side barrier, killing him and 15 spectators.
- September 10
Douglas DC-6
A President Airlines Douglas DC-6 crashes just after takeoff from Shannon Airport, Ireland. All 83 passengers and crew are killed.
- September 16
National Hurricane Research Project
The U.S. National Hurricane Research Project sought to weaken Hurricane Esther by seeding it with silver iodide, leading to the establishment of Project Stormfury.
- September 16
Typhoon Nancy (1961)
Typhoon Nancy (pictured), which possibly had the strongest winds ever measured in a tropical cyclone, made landfall in Muroto, Japan.
- September 17
Civic Arena (Pittsburgh)
The world's first retractable roof stadium, the Civic Arena, opens in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
- September 18
1961 Ndola Transair Sweden Douglas DC-6 crash
An aircraft crashed near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia, resulting in the deaths of 16 people, including United Nations secretary-general Dag Hammarskjöld.
- September 23
John F. Kennedy
U.S. President John F. Kennedy nominates African American civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, although pro-segregation Southern senators manage to delay his confirmation until September 11, 1962.
October
- October 13
Louis Rwagasore
Newly elected Burundian prime minister Louis Rwagasore was assassinated by his political rivals.
- October 20
Soviet Navy
The Soviet Navy performs the first armed test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile, launching an R-13 from a Golf-class submarine.
- October 30
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union detonates the Tsar Bomba, the most powerful explosive device ever detonated.
November
- November 3
U Thant
U Thant is unanimously appointed as the 3rd Secretary-General of the United Nations, becoming the first non-European individual to occupy the post.
- November 21
La Ronde (restaurant)
La Ronde (pictured), the first revolving restaurant in the United States, was inaugurated.
- November 29
Enos (chimpanzee)
Enos, a chimpanzee, is launched into space. The spacecraft orbits the Earth twice and splashes down off the coast of Puerto Rico.
December
- December 9
Tanganyika (1961–1964)
Tanganyika becomes independent from Britain.
- December 9
Tanganyika Territory
Tanganyika Territory gained independence from Britain before becoming part of Tanzania three years later.
- December 15
Eichmann trial
Eichmann trial: Adolf Eichmann is sentenced to death after being found guilty by an Israeli court of 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people, and membership of an outlawed organization.
- December 15
Adolf Eichmann
Former Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death after being found guilty on fifteen criminal charges, including war crimes and crimes against humanity.
- December 31
RTÉ
RTÉ, Ireland's first television network, began broadcasting.
Questions about 1961
What happened in 1961?
This site records 73 entries for 1961, including Aero Flight 311 on January 3. They are listed below by date.
How long ago was 1961?
65 years ago, counting from 2026. Anyone born in 1961 turns 65 this year.
Which century is 1961 in?
1961 falls in the 20th century, in the 1960s.
Which generation was born in 1961?
Baby Boomers (1946–1964). Born in the post-war birth surge.
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