1961 Jan 3, The United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba after Fidel Castro announced he was a communist. The US Guantanamo Bay base remained under US control.
(AP, 1/3/98)(HN, 1/3/99)(MC, 1/3/02)
1961 Jan 4, The Danish barbers' assistants strike ended after 33 yrs. It was the longest strike on record.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1961 Jan 10, Dashiell Hammett (66), author, died in NYC from throat cancer. In 1983 Diane Johnson authored his biography. His books included “The Maltese Falcon” and “The Thin Man,” both of which were turned into films. He wrote “The Maltese Falcon” while living in San Francisco at 891 Post St., which was also given as the address of detective Sam Spade.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0358591/)(SFC, 6/7/04, p.C2)
1961 Jan 11, There was a race riot at the University of Georgia.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1961 Jan 15, The Supremes signed with Motown Records.
(MC, 1/15/02)
1961 Jan 17, In his farewell address, President Eisenhower warned against the rise of "the military-industrial complex."
(AP, 1/17/98)
1961 Jan 17, Patrice Lumumba (34), the 1st premier Congo, was murdered after 67 days in office. Pres. Eisenhower allegedly approved the assassination of Congo's Patrice Lumumba. The US and Joseph Mobutu were implicated but no conclusive proof has emerged. Sidney Gottlieb (d.1999 at 80), a CIA deputy, carried a deadly bacteria to the Congo that was used to kill Lamumba. In 2000 the Belgium Parliament opened an inquiry into possible government involvement in the killing of Congo’s Premier Patrice Lumumba. This followed allegations in the new book "The Murder of Lumumba" by Ludo De Witte. In 2001 the inquiry found that King Baudouin knew of the plot but did nothing to stop it. The Katanga government did not announce the death until Feb 13. Moscow charged that UN Sec. Gen. Dag Hammarskjold was involved.
(TMC, 1994, p.1961)(PCh, 1992, p.979)(SFC, 5/17/97, p.A14)(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A14)(WSJ, 11/9/01, p.A1)
1961 Jan 19, The 1st episode for "Dick Van Dyke Show" was filmed.
(MC, 1/19/02)
1961 Jan 20, Francis Opulence's "Gloria," premiered in Boston.
(MC, 1/20/02)
1961 Jan 20, Pres. Kennedy made his inaugural address from the steps of the US Capital. In 2004 Thurston Clarke authored “Ask Not: The Inauguration of John F. Kennedy and the Speech That Changed America.” In 2005 Richard J. Tofel authored “Sounding the Trumpet: The Making of John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address.”
(SSFC, 10/24/04, p.M2)(WSJ, 8/24/05, p.D10)
1961 Jan 20, Poet Robert Frost recited his poem "The Gift Outright" [The Outright Gift] at the inauguration of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Frost, born in San Francisco on March 26, 1874, was the first poet to participate in a presidential inauguration. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize four times, most of Frost's work drew on themes from rural New England life. He died on January 29, 1963. Although 86-year-old Robert Frost had composed a new poem, titled "Dedication," for the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, he was unable to recite it at the ceremony because he could not read his own typewritten manuscript. A dim typewriter ribbon conspired with Frost‘s failing eyesight and bright glare on a sunny day with snow cover, making it impossible for the poet to read the poem written especially for the occasion. Instead Frost recited from memory his famous poem "The Gift Outright."
(HNQ, 9/12/98)(HNQ, 1/21/00)
1961 Jan 22, A Portuguese ocean liner, the "Santa Maria," was hijacked in the Caribbean with some 600 passengers aboard; the drama ended eleven days later when the ship docked in Brazil.
(AP, 1/22/01)
1961 Jan 24, A B-52 carrying two nuclear bombs near Goldsboro, North Carolina encountered a violent gust. The giant plane rolled completely over, came upright, and continued rolling inverted a second time before whipping into a vicious flat spin and breaking up.
(www.willthomasonline.net/willthomasonline/Broken_Arrows.html)
1961 Jan 25, Walt Disney's "101 Dalmatians" was released.
(MC, 1/25/02)
1961 Jan 25, President Kennedy held the first presidential news conference carried live on radio and television.
(AP, 1/25/98)
1961 Jan 26, Wayne Gretzky, NHL great scorer (Oiler, King, Rangers), was born in Brantford, Ont.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1961 Jan 26, "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" by Elvis Presley peaked at #1.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1961 Jan 26, Janet G. Travell became the 1st woman personal physician to the US President (JFK).
(MC, 1/26/02)
1961 Jan 31, Chimpanzee Ham landed safely and became the 1st primate in space after a 16 minute flight aboard a Mercury-Redstone 2 rocket.
(AH, 2/06, p.14)
1961 Jan, Janio Quadros took the oath as president of Brazil.
(WSJ, 4/6/06, p.D8)
1961 Jan, Nepal’s King Mahendra introduced the indigenous Panchayat System (village council). Early in 1961 the king set up a committee of four officials from the Central Secretariat to recommend changes in the constitution that would abolish political parties and substitute a "National Guidance" system based on local panchayat led directly by the king.
(http://countrystudies.us/nepal/19.htm)
1961 Feb 2, The hijackers of the Portuguese ocean liner the Santa Maria allowed the passengers and crew to disembark in Brazil, 11 days after seizing the ship.
(AP, 2/2/07)
1961 Feb 5, The Soviets launched Sputnik V, the heaviest satellite at 7.1 tons.
(HN, 2/5/99)
1961 Feb 5, Anthony G. de Rothschild (73), British philanthropist, died.
(MC, 2/5/02)
1961 Feb 6, Sargent Shriver adopted a document, “The Towering Task” by Warren Wiggins (1923-2007), which helped shape the mission of the newly proposed Peace Corps.
(SFC, 4/16/07, p.B8)
1961 Feb 7, Jane Fonda made her acting debut in the NBC drama "A String of Beads."
(MC, 2/7/02)
1961 Feb 9, Grigory Levenfish (70), Int’l. chess grandmaster from Russia, died.
(MC, 2/9/02)
1961 Feb 10, Niagara Falls hydroelectric project began producing power.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1961 Feb 15, 73 people, including 18 figure skaters from the United States, were killed in the crash of a Boeing 707 in Belgium. The skaters were en route to a world meet in Czechoslovakia.
(HN, 2/15/98)(AP, 2/15/98)
1961 Feb 16, The United States launched the "Explorer Nine" satellite.
(AP, 2/16/01)
1961 Feb 16, Wilbert Ridieu (19) robbed the Lake Charles, La., Gulf National Bank. He walked out with $14,000 and 3 hostages, 2 of whom he shot and left for dead. Rideau stabbed to death Julia Ferguson on a rural Louisiana road following the bank robbery. He confessed and was sentenced to death 3 times. Rideau escaped death in the 1970s when the death penalty was outlawed. In 2003 his case was still in court. While in prison Rideau became a self-educated writer and elevated the prison magazine, the Angolite, to national acclaim. In 2005 Rideau was set free for time served after a racially mixed jury found him guilty of manslaughter.
(NW, 1/13/03, p.52)(AP, 1/16/05)(SFC, 1/17/05, p.A5)
1961 Feb 16, China used it's 1st nuclear reactor.
(MC, 2/16/02)
1961 Feb 20, Percy Aldridge Grainger (78), Australian-US composer, pianist, died.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1961 Feb 22, The Broadway play “Come Blow Your Horn” by Neil Simon opened at the Brooks Atkinson Theater.
(SFC, 10/28/09, p.D5)(www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=2294)
1961 Feb 22, British Foreign Sec. Douglas-Home said in a "Top Secret" letter to Defense Minister Harold Watkinson that, "It must be fully obvious to the Americans that Hong Kong is indefensible by conventional means and that in the event of a Chinese attack, nuclear strikes against China would be the only alternative to complete abandonment of the colony." The document was made public in 2006.
(AP, 6/30/06)
1961 Feb 25, Paul Bikel climbed to record 14,100 meters (8.8 miles) in a glider.
(MC, 2/25/02)
1961 Feb 25, John F. Kennedy named Henry Kissinger national security adviser. Years later, Kissinger was President Nixon's envoy for secret negotiations with North Vietnam. About this time Kennedy also named Adlai Stevenson as ambassador to the UN.
(HN, 2/25/98)(SFEC, 6/6/99, p.A19)
1961 Feb 26, Mohammed V ibn Yusuf (51), sultan, King of Morocco, died.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1961 Mar 1, Cellist Jacqueline du Prés made her debut in Wigmore Hall.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1961 Mar 1, President Kennedy established the Peace Corps. The first volunteers were sent to Ghana.
(TMC, 1994, p.1961)(SFC, 8/7/96, p.A15)(AP, 3/1/98)(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A13)
1961 Mar 2, "13 Daughters" opened at 54th St Theater NYC for 28 performances.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1961 Mar 3, King Hassan II, the 17th of the Alawite dynasty, ascended to throne of Morocco. He succeeded his father Mohamed V.
(SFEC,11/16/97, p.A21)(SFC, 7/24/99, p.A9)(SC, 3/3/02)
1961 Mar 4, Paul-Henri Spaak resigned as Secretary-General of NATO.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1961 Mar 6, 1st London minicabs were introduced.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1961 Mar 7, Max Hymans (60), WW II resistance fighter, head of Air France, died.
(MC, 3/7/02)
1961 Mar 8, Jean Kerr's "Mary, Mary," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1961 Mar 8, US nuclear submarine Patrick Henry arrived at Scottish naval base of Holy Loch from SC in a record under seas journey of 66 days 22 hrs.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1961 Mar 8, Max Conrad circled the globe in a record time of eight days, 18 hours and 49 minutes in Piper Aztec.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1961 Mar 8, Thomas Beecham (81), English conductor (Last Night of the Prom), died.
(MC, 3/8/02)
1961 Mar 9, Supremes released "I Want A Guy" & "Never Again."
(MC, 3/9/02)
1961 Mar 9, Korabl-Sputnik-4, also known as Sputnik 9, was launched with a dog named Chernushka (Blackie) on a one orbit mission. Also onboard the spacecraft was a dummy cosmonaut, mice and a guinea pig.
(www.spacetoday.org/Astronauts/Animals/Dogs.html)
1961 Mar 9, A mine cave-in in Japan killed 72.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1961 Mar 10, Olga Ivinskaya (d.1995 at 83), the woman who was the model for Lara in Pasternak’s "Dr. Zhivago" wrote a letter to authorities in her own defense while a prisoner in a Soviet gulag. She was arrested for smuggling foreign currency shortly after Pasternak’s death and served 4 years.
(SFC,11/27/97, p.B3)
1961 Mar 13, Pablo Picasso (79) married his model Jacqueline Rocque (37).
(MC, 3/13/02)
1961 Mar 15, South Africa withdrew from British Commonwealth.
(MC, 3/15/02)
1961 Mar 16, "The Agony and the Ecstasy" was published by Irving Stone.
(HN, 3/16/98)
1961 Mar 17, The U.S. increased military aid and technicians to Laos.
(HN, 3/17/98)
1961 Mar 18, The "Poppin' Fresh" Pillsbury Dough Boy was introduced.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1961 Mar 25, "Gypsy" closed at Broadway Theater in NYC after 702 performances.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1961 Mar 25, Elvis Presley (26) performed live on the USS Arizona, a fund raiser for a memorial. Col. Parker, Presley's manager, came up with the brilliant idea to have Elvis Presley give the benefit concert in the 4,000-seat Bloch Arena next to the entrance to Pearl Harbor.
(Internet)(MC, 3/25/02)
1961 Mar 25, Sputnik 10 carried a dog into Earth orbit; later recovered.
(MC, 3/25/02)
1961 Mar 26, John F. Kennedy met with British Premier Macmillan, in Washington to discuss increased Communist involvement in Laos.
(HN, 3/25/98)
1961 Mar 29, The 23rd amendment, allowing residents of Washington, D.C. to vote for president, was ratified.
(HN, 3/29/98)
1961 Mar 29, In South Africa Nelson Mandela was acquitted on a treason charge after a 4 year trial .
(MC, 3/29/02)
1961 Mar 30, P.J. Melotte, discovered Jupiter's 8th satellite, Pasiphae, died.
(MC, 3/30/02)
1961 Apr 1, Jim Bakker, TV evangelist, married Tammy Faye.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1961 Apr 2, Wallingford Riegger (75), US composer (Bacchangle), died.
(MC, 4/2/02)
1961 Apr 3, Eddie Murphy, actor (SNL, 48 Hours, Beverly Hill Cop, Raw), was born in Brooklyn, NY.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1961 Apr 7, Tad Szulc (d.2001) wrote a front page NY times article on anti-Castro forces training to fight at Florida bases and predicted a probable invasion on April 18. The invasion took place Apr 17.
(SFC, 5/24/01, p.C4)
1961 Apr 7, Marian Jordan (62), radio comedienne (Fibber McGee and Molly), died.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1961 Apr 9, Zog I (65), [Ahmed Zogu], King of Albania (1925-39), died in exile in France. His son, Leka Zogu, was sworn in as king by the government in exile.
(SFC, 6/27/97, p.A16)(MC, 4/9/02)
1961 Apr 11, Folk singer Bob Dylan performed in New York City for the first time, opening for John Lee Hooker. [see Sep 26]
(HN, 4/11/01)
1961 Apr 11, Israel began the trial of Adolf Eichman in Jerusalem. He was accused of World War II war crimes.
(WSJ, 4/28/97, p.A17)(HN, 4/11/98)
1961 Apr 12, Douglas MacArthur was offered baseball commissioner position but declined.
(HN, 4/12/98)
1961 Apr 12, Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin, Russian cosmonaut, experienced the weightlessness of space for 108 minutes. He orbited the Earth once before making a safe landing. The Russians rocketed Yuri Gagarin, the first man into space. His ship, Vostok I, was guided entirely from the ground.
(SFEC, 2/16/97, Z1 p.6)(AP, 4/12/97)(HN, 4/12/98)(NPub, 2002, p.20)
1961 Apr 13, "Carnival!" opened at Imperial Theater in NYC for 719 performances.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1961 Apr 13, US Army Private John A. Bennett was hanged after being convicted of rape and attempted murder of an Austrian girl (11) in 1955.
(SSFC, 7/9/06, p.A5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_A._Bennett)
1961 Apr 13, The U.N. General Assembly condemned South Africa for apartheid.
(HN, 4/13/98)
1961 Apr 14, Cuban-American invasion army departed Nicaragua.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1961 Apr 14, The Soviet Union made its first live television broadcast.
(HN, 4/14/98)
1961 Apr 15, "Music Man" closed at Majestic Theater in NYC after 1375 performances.
(MC, 4/15/02)
1961 Apr 15, Anti-Castro Cuban pilots, under the hire of the US CIA, knocked out part of the Cuban air force. 54 people were killed in the attacks on 3 military bases including two airfields and the Antonio Maceo Airport. Two “defecting” B-26 bombers flew to Miami.
(SFEC, 2/22/98, p.A19)(AH, 4/07, p.18)
1961 Apr 16, Selena, Latina singer (Grammy-1994), was born in Texas.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1961 Apr 16, In the 15th Tony Awards: Becket & Bye Bye Birdie won.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1961 Apr 16, Fidel Castro declared that Cuba is now a socialist state. Pres. Kennedy called off the CIA air strikes in Cuba. The message did not reach the 1,511 commandos headed for the Bay of Pigs.
(SFEC, 2/22/98, p.A19)(SFC, 2/202/08, p.A3)
1961 Apr 17, In the 33rd Academy Awards "Apartment," Burt Lancaster and Liz Taylor won.
(MC, 4/17/02)
1961 Apr 17, About 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in a failed attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. The US clandestinely invaded Cuba in the Bay of Pigs operation and the operation failed completely without any of the promised air support from the United States. Cuban forces killed 200 rebels and captured 1,197 in less than 72 hours. The command vessel Marsopa and supply ship Houston were sunk and an entire battalion was lost. 26 survivors were rescued after 3 days of fighting. A single copy of a CIA report written by inspector general Lyman Kirkpatrick was made public in 1998. The operation, which had been devised during the Eisenhower Administration, was nonetheless endorsed by the new president, John F. Kennedy. In 1979 Peter Wyden wrote “Bay of Pigs: The Untold Story.” Portion of the 1961 Taylor Report was made public in 1977 and 1986. Most of the report was made public in 2000 and it showed that the CIA knew that the Soviets knew the exact date of the attack. In 2009 Guadeloupe apologized to Cuba for allowing the CIA to train Cuban exiles on its soil.
(AP, 4/17/97)(SFEC, 2/22/98, p.A19)(HNQ, 4/11/00)(SFC, 4/29/00, p.A7)(AP, 2/18/09)(AH, 4/07, p.18)
1961 Apr 18, Pamella Bordes, British parliament prostitute, was born in New Delhi, India.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1961 Apr 18, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev sent a letter to Pres. Kennedy with an "urgent call" to end "aggression" against Cuba.
(SFC, 3/23/01, p.D5)
1961 Apr 19, Cuba’s air force by this time shot down 9 of the invader’s 16 aircraft and US invaders, with ad death toll of 114, began to surrender. Subsequently 36 died in Cuban prisons. Many survivors were released between 1962 and 1965 after private donors paid $53 million in food and medicine for Cuba.
(AH, 4/07, p.18)
1961 Apr 19, Howard Anderson was executed in Cuba after being convicted of arms smuggling to anti-Communist rebels.
(WSJ, 9/15/06, p.A1)(www.cubanet.org/CNews/y02/jan02/09e5.htm)
1961 Apr 19, Cuban forces shot down a B-26 bomber piloted by Captain Thomas Ray north of Larga beach, an area they controlled. Ray was flying the bomber from Nicaragua while on contract to the US CIA. In a 2004 trial in the US, forensics on Ray’s body proved that the cause of his death was a small bullet entry thru the head.
(WSJ, 9/15/06, p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/kzeh2)
1961 Apr 20, American Harold Graham made 1st rocket belt flight.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1961 Apr 21, The French army revolted in Algeria.
(HN, 4/21/98)
1961 Apr 21, James Melton (57), opera tenor died.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1961 Apr 22, An uprising of French parachutists was led by Gen. Salan/Challe in Algeria.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1961 Apr 24, President Kennedy accepted "sole responsibility" following Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.
(HN, 4/24/98)
1961 Apr 25, Robert Noyce patented the integrated circuit.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1961 Apr 25, Mercury-Atlas rocket lifted off with an electronic mannequin. An unmanned Mercury test exploded on launch pad.
(SS, 4/25/02)
1961 Apr 25, France exposed soldiers to a nuclear test, code-named "Gerboise verte" or green gerboa, in the Sahara Desert. In 2010 a French news report, citing a classified defense document, said the exposure was intentional to study how the atomic bomb would affect their bodies and minds. In total, France conducted 210 nuclear tests, both in the atmosphere and underground, in the Sahara Desert and the South Pacific from 1960-1996.
(AP, 2/17/10)
1961 Apr 26, French paratroopers' revolt was suppressed in Algeria.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1961 Apr 27, United Kingdom granted Sierra Leone independence.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)(SFC, 3/11/98, p.A10)(HN, 4/27/98)
1961 Apr 29, ABC's "Wide World of Sports made its debut.
(SFEC, 5/24/98, DB p.38)(MC, 4/29/02)
1961 Apr 29, The diesel-powered aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk was commissioned at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. In 1976 the ship was drydocked in Bremerton, Wa., for a year-long overhaul.
(AP, 8/5/05)(www.kittyhawk.navy.mil/history/history.html)
1961 Apr 30, Willie Mays of the SF Giants hit 4 home runs in a game with the Milwaukee Braves.
(SFC, 1/12/98, p.A18)
1961 Apr 30, Eastern Airlines began the 1st shuttle flights began between Wash DC, Boston and NYC.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1961 Apr 30, Premier Fidel Castro of Cuba received the Lenin Peace Prize.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1961 May 1, A Pulitzer prize was awarded to Harper Lee, author of "To Kill a Mockingbird."
(MC, 5/1/02)
1961 May 1, Fidel Castro announced that there would be no more elections in Cuba. Radio Havana was founded.
(HN, 5/1/98)(WSJ, 6/18/02, p.D9)
1961 May 4, A group of 13 CORE civil rights activists, dubbed "Freedom Riders" left Washington, D.C., for New Orleans to challenge racial segregation on buses and in bus terminals.
(AP, 5/4/97)(HN, 5/4/98)(MC, 5/4/02)
1961 May 5, Astronaut Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. (d.1998 at 74), a Navy commander, became the first American in space as he made a 15-minute suborbital flight in the Freedom 7 Project Mercury capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla. The spacecraft reached a maximum altitude of 116.5 miles.
(AP, 5/5/97)(HN, 5/5/98)(SFC, 7/23/98, p.A1)(HNQ, 7/11/99)
1961 May 6, George Clooney, actor (Dr Douglas Ross-ER, Batman), was born in Lexington, KY.
(MC, 5/6/02)
1961 May 8, Carmel Snow (b.1887), Irish-born fashion editor, died in New York. In 2005 Penelope Rowlands authored “A Dash of Daring,” a biography of Snow.
(SSFC, 11/27/05, p.D1)(www.irishecho.com/newspaper/story.cfm?id=17435)
1961 May 9, In a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters, Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton N. Minow condemned television programming as a "vast wasteland."
(AP, 5/9/97)
1961 May 10, "Beyond the Fringe," premiered in London.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1961 May 11, Pres. Kennedy authorized American advisors to aid South Vietnam against the forces of North Vietnam.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F4)
1961 May 13, Dennis Rodman, NBA forward (Chicago Bulls), was born.
(MC, 5/13/02)
1961 May 13, Gary Cooper (60), 2 time Academy award winning actor (High Noon), died.
(MC, 5/13/02)
1961 May 14, A bus carrying the 1st group of Freedom Riders was bombed and burned in Alabama.
(HN, 5/14/98)(MC, 5/14/02)
1961 May 15, 36 Unification church couples were wed in Korea.
(MC, 5/15/02)
1961 May 17, Cuban leader Fidel Castro offered to exchange prisoners captured in the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion for 500 bulldozers.
(AP, 5/17/01)(MC, 5/17/02)
1961 May 18, "Donnybrook!" opened at 46th St Theater in NYC for 68 performances.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1961 May 18, Henry O'Neill, actor (Lady Killer, Nothing But Trouble), died.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1961 May 20, A white mob led by Claude Henley attacked a busload of "Freedom Riders" in Montgomery, Ala., prompting the federal government to send in U.S. marshals to restore order.
(AP, 5/20/97)(HN, 5/20/98)(SFEC, 9/19/99, p.A3)
1961 May 21, Governor Patterson declared martial law in Montgomery, Alabama.
(HN, 5/21/98)
1961 May 22, The 1st revolving restaurant, Top of The Needle in Seattle, opened.
(MC, 5/22/02)
1961 May 24, The 27 Freedom Riders, civil rights activists, were arrested in Jackson, Mississippi.
(HN, 5/24/98)(MC, 5/24/02)
1961 May 25, President Kennedy asked the nation to work toward putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
(AP, 5/25/97)
1961 May 25, NASA civilian pilot Joseph A. Walker took the X-15 to 32,770 meters.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1961 May 26, Civil rights activist group Freedom Ride Coordinating Committee was established in Atlanta.
(AP, 5/26/98)
1961 May 26, A USAF bomber flew the Atlantic in a record of just over three hours.
(AP, 5/26/98)
1961 May 28, Amnesty International, a human rights organization, was founded. It won a Nobel Prize in 1977.
(HN, 5/28/98)(MC, 5/28/02)
1961 May 29, Melissa Etheridge, US singer, songwriter, guitarist (Never Enough), was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1961 May 29, David Palmer, heavy metal drummer (ABC, AC/DC), was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1961 May 29, Uuno Kalervo Klami (60), composer, died.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1961 May 30, Rafael Leonides Trujillo Molina (69), Dominican Republic dictator (1930-61), was murdered. In his final years he had installed Joaquin Balaguer as vice president and then as president. Balaguer fled to exile in NYC following the assassination.
(SFC, 5/17/96, p.A-14)(SFC, 7/15/02, p.B6)(MC, 5/30/02)
1961 May 31, South Africa became an independent republic.
(AP, 5/31/97)
1961 Jun 1, R.C., "Surrender" by Elvis Presley peaked at #1 on the U.K. pop singles chart.
(DTnet, 6/1/97)
1961 Jun 1, FM multiplex stereo broadcasting was 1st heard. (MC, 6/1/02)
1961 Jun 2, George S. Kaufman (72), playwright, director, Pulitzer prize winner, died.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1961 Jun 3, JFK and Khrushchev met in Vienna.
(MC, 6/3/02)
1961 Jun 4, A Soviet K-19 nuclear submarine with 139 crew members experienced a nuclear accident. 22 later died from radiation poisoning. In 2001 the US film "K-19: The Widowmaker" loosely depicted the accident.
(SFC, 4/20/01, p.A14)(WSJ, 4/3/02, p.A20)
1961 Jun 6, Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (b.1875), one of the founders of modern psychiatry, died. In 1997 Richard Noll published "The Aryan Christ: The Secret Life of Carl Jung." Frank McLynn published "Carl Gustav Jung, A Biography." In 2003 Deirdre Bair authored "Jung: A Biography." In 2004 Sonu Shamdasani authored “Jung and the Making of Modern Psychology.” In 2009 “The Red Book” was published. It was edited by Sonu Shamdasani and duplicated Jung’s original manuscript, which he worked on from 1914 to 1930.
(SFEC,10/19/97, BR p.3)(SSFC, 12/7/03, p.M6)(Econ, 3/13/04, p.84)(Econ, 10/10/09, p.89)
1961 Jun 7, Robert Griffith, producer of Pajama Game, died.
(SC, 6/7/02)
1961 Jun 11, Norm Cash became the 1st Detroit Tiger to hit a ball out of Tiger Stadium.
(SC, 6/11/02)
1961 Jun 16, Dave Garroway was fired as Today Show host.
(MC, 6/16/02)
1961 Jun 17, Soviet ballet star Rudolf Nureyev (d.1993) defected from the Soviet Union at the Paris Le Bourget airport while traveling with the Leningrad Kirov Ballet. In 1998 Diane Solway covered this event in her biography: "Nureyev."
(WSJ, 10/1/98, p.A20)(SFEC, 11/1/98, p.A17)(AP, 6/17/08)
1961 Jun 19, R.C., "Little Egypt (Ying-Yang)" by The Coasters peaked at #23 on the pop singles chart.
(DTnet, 6/19/97)
1961 Jun 19, R.C., "Peanut Butter" by The Marathons (The Vibrations) peaked at #20 on the pop singles chart.
(DTnet, 6/19/97)
1961 Jun 19, R.C., "Rama Lama Ding Dong" by The Edsels peaked at #21 on the pop singles chart.
(DTnet, 6/19/97)
1961 Jun 19, The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a provision in Maryland's constitution requiring state officeholders to profess a belief in the existence of God.
(DTnet, 6/19/97)
1961 Jun 19, Kuwait regained complete independence from Britain along with Qatar, Bahrain
(NG, 5/88, p.662)(DTnet, 6/19/97)(HN, 6/19/98)
1961 Jun 24, Iraq demanded dominion over Kuwait.
(MC, 6/24/02)
1961 Jun 25, Jazz trio Paul Motion, drums, Bill Evans, piano, and Scott LaFaro recorded a performance at the Village Vanguard in NYC in which each man functioned as an equal rather than as an accompaniment to the leader. The recording changed the idea of the piano trio.
(WSJ, 1/24/06, p.D8)
1961 Jun 26, Greg LeMond, US bicyclist (Tour de France winner-1986, 1989, 1990), was born.
(MC, 6/26/02)
1961 Jun 26, A Kuwaiti vote opposed Iraq’s annexation plans.
(HN, 6/26/98)
1961 Jun 30, Lee de Forest (87), inventor (Electron Tube), died.
(MC, 6/30/02)
1961 Jun, Producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman purchased rights to adopt most of Ian Fleming’s novels and short stories into films. In the 1970s Saltzman sold his rights to MGM. Dr. No, their 1st Bond film, came out in 1962.
(WSJ, 11/18/06, p.A1)(www.sylvanmason.com/thunderball/thunderball-years.htm)
1961 Jul 1, Carl Lewis (Olympic Gold Medalist: 100 meter & 200 meter sprints, long jump & 4x100 meter relay [1984]; 100 meter in 9.93 seconds, a world record, long jump, 4x100 meter relay [1988], long jump and 4x100 relay [1992]; Olympic Hall of Famer; AP Male Athlete of the Year [1983, 1984]), was born.
(MC, 7/1/02)
1961 Jul 1, Diana Frances Spencer, the princess of Wales, was born near Sandringham, England. She died August, 1997, in a car crash in Paris at age 36.
(AP, 7/1/98)
1961 Jul 1, British troops landed in Kuwait to aid against Iraqi threats.
(HN, 7/1/98)
1961 Jul 1, Louis-Ferdinand Celine (b.1894), French physician, author, anti-Semite, died. His books included “Journey to the End of Night” (1932).
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/lfceline.htm)(WSJ, 9/23/06, p.P8)
1961 Jul 2, Jimmy McNichol, actor (Fitzpatricks, California Fever), was born in LA, Calif.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1961 Jul 2, Novelist E. Hemingway shot himself in the head at his home in Ketchum, Idaho. Boozing and physical trauma led to depression, electroshock therapy and suicide. In 1964 his novel "A Moveable Feast was published. In 1974 Jose Luis Castillo-Puche published "Hemingway in Spain." His novel "True at First Light" was based on his 1953 safari in Africa and was to be published Jul 21 1999, the centennial of his birth. His book "The Garden of Eden" and "Islands in the Stream" were also published after his death. His novel "Dangerous Summer" was based on the rivalry between two matadors, Antonio Ordonez (d.1998) and Luis Miguel Dominguin. In 1976 his son Gregory (d.2001) authored "Papa: A Personal Memoir."
(SFC, 7/2/96, p.A11)(TMC, 1994, p.1961)(AP, 7/2/97)(SFC, 8/5/98, p.E3)(SFC, 8/25/98, p.A2)(SFC, 12/21/98, p.B5)(WSJ, 6/18/99, p.W13)(SFC, 10/6/01, p.A18)
1961 Jul 7, James R. Hoffa was elected president of Teamsters.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1961 Jul 11, China and North Korea signed the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance.
(www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/wjb/zzjg/yzs/gjlb/2701/default.htm)
1961 Jul 14, Pope John XXIII published his encyclical Mater et magistrate.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1961 Jul 15, Spain accepted equal rights for men and women.
(MC, 7/15/02)
1961 Jul 17, Ty Cobb (74), baseball great (Detroit Tigers), died of cancer.
(MC, 7/17/02)
1961 Jul 18, In Spain ETA’s first violent action tried to derail a train carrying supporters of dictator Gen. Francisco Franco.
(AP, 3/22/06)
1961 Jul 21, Capt. Virgil "Gus" Grissom became the second American to rocket into a suborbital pattern around the Earth, flying on the Mercury 4 Liberty Bell 7. The Mercury capsule sank in the Atlantic, 302 miles from Cape Canaveral and Grissom was rescued by helicopter. The space capsule was recovered in 1999.
(AP, 7/21/97)(OGA, 11/24/98)(SFC, 4/17/99, p.A6)(WSJ, 7/21/99, p.A1)
1961 Jul 23, Woody Harrelson, actor (Woody Boyd-Cheers), was born in Midland, Tx.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1961 Jul 24, Roger Maris hit 4 home runs in a doubleheader.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1961 Jul 24, A US commercial plane was hijacked to Cuba and began a trend.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1961 Jul 25, Katherine Kelly Lang, actress (Brooke-Bold & Beautiful), was born in LA, Calif.
(SC, 7/25/02)
1961 Jul 28, Scott E. Parazynski, MD, astronaut, was born in Little Rock, Ark.
(SC, 7/28/02)
1961 Jul 31, Ireland formally applied for membership in the European Community.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1961/index_en.htm)
1961 Jul 31, Israel welcomed its 1,000,000th immigrant.
(MC, 7/31/02)
1961 Jul, Len Kleinrock wrote a paper on packet switching at MIT where he analyzed the so-called store-and-forward systems.
(SFEC, 3/16/97, z1 p.3)
1961 Jul, A French law guaranteed populations in France's overseas territories free exercise of their religion and respect for their beliefs and customs as long as they are not contrary to general principles of law.
(AP, 9/23/05)
1961 Aug 3, Britain’s Parliament adopted the Suicide Act of 1961, which decriminalized suicide in the UK, but made assisting one punishable by up to 14 years in jail.
(Econ, 6/6/09, p.55)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_Act_1961)
1961 Aug 4, Barack Obama, later US Senator from Illinois, was born in Honolulu to a black Kenyan father and a white American mother. He lived most of his early life in Hawaii. From ages six to ten, he lived in Jakarta, Indonesia with his mother and Indonesian stepfather.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama)
1961 Aug 7, Soviet premier Khrushchev predicted that the USSR economy would surpass that of the US.
(MC, 8/7/02)
1961 Aug 9, The United Kingdom applied for membership in the European Community.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1961/index_en.htm)
1961 Aug 10, Denmark formally applied for membership in the European Community.
(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1961/index_en.htm)
1961 Aug 12, Pete De Freitas, rocker (Echo and the Bunnymen-Heaven Up Here), was born.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1961 Aug 12, Roy Hay, guitarist (Culture Club-Do You Really Want to Hurt Me), was born.
(SC, 8/12/02)
1961 Aug 12, East German troops began stringing barbed wire around East Berlin. In 2004 William F. Buckley authored "The Fall of the Berlin Wall." [see Aug 15]
(WSJ, 3/18/04, p.D10)
1961 Aug 13, East Germany closed the Brandenberg Gate sealing off the border between the city's eastern and western sectors in order to halt the flight of refugees. Two days later, work began on the Berlin Wall.
(HFA, '96, p.36)(TMC, 1994, p.1961)(AP, 8/13/97)(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F4)
1961 Aug 14(15), An East German soldier, Hans Conrad Schuhmann (Schuman), jumped a 3-foot barbed wire barrier to West Berlin to join his family. His photograph made int’l. headlines. He committed suicide in 1998.
(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.A25)(SFEC, 10/31/99, Z1 p.4)
1961 Aug 15, East German workers began building the Berlin Wall. [see Aug 12]
(AP, 8/15/01)
1961 Aug 16, Martin Luther King protested for black voting rights in Miami.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1961 Aug 16, Some 250,000 West Berliners demonstrated against East Berlin.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1961 Aug 17, The Kennedy administration established the Alliance for Progress.
(SC, 8/17/02)
1961 Aug 18, Learned Hand (b.1872), Chief judge of US court of Appeals, died. Stanford Prof. Gerald Gunther (d.2002) later authored the biography "Learned Hand, the Man and the Judge."
(AP, 12/13/97)(SFC, 8/2/02, p.A27)(MC, 8/18/02)
1961 Aug 20, East Germany began erecting a 5' high wall along the border with the west to replace the barbed wire put up Aug 13.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1961 Aug 23, East Germany imposed new curbs on travel between West and East Berlin.
(MC, 8/23/02)
1961 Aug 24, Johannes Vorster, a former Nazi leader, became South Africa's minister of justice.
(MC, 8/24/02)
1961 Aug 25, Brazilian president Janio Quadros resigned. He was replaced by vice-president Joao Goulart.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)(WSJ, 4/6/06, p.D8)
1961 Aug 26, The official International Hockey Hall of Fame opened in Toronto.
(AP, 8/26/97)
1961 Aug 27, Francis the Talking Mule was the mystery guest on "What's My Line."
(MC, 8/27/01)
1961 Aug 30, President John F. Kennedy appointed General Lucius D. Clay as his personal representative in Berlin.
(HN, 8/30/98)
1961 Aug 30, A UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness opened for signatures. It entered into force on Dec 13, 1975. By 2007 only 34 countries had signed it.
(http://tinyurl.com/2tdgb6)(Econ, 12/1/07, p.75)
1961 Aug 31, A concrete wall replaced the barbed wire fence that separated East and West Germany, it would be called the Berlin wall.
(HN, 8/31/98)
1961 Aug, The Soviets launched Vostok-2 with cosmonaut Gherman Titov (d.2000 at 65). He circled the planet 17 times in a 25-hour flight.
(SFC, 9/22/00, p.D7)
1961 Sep 1, The Soviet Union ended a moratorium on atomic testing with an above-ground nuclear explosion in central Asia.
(AP, 9/1/01)
1961 Sep 1, Eero Saarinen (51), Finnish-US architect (Dulles Airport), died.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1961 Sep 4, US Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act, which reorganized US foreign assistance programs including separating military and non-military aid. The Act mandated the creation of an agency to administer economic assistance programs. On November 3, 1961, President John F. Kennedy established the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
(www.usaid.gov/about_usaid/usaidhist.html)
1961 Sep 5, President Kennedy signed a law against hijacking. It called for the death penalty for convicted hijackers.
(MC, 9/5/01)
1961 Sep 8, Frank Rosenthal (1929-2008), friend of Chicago mobsters, appeared before a Senate hearing on gambling and organized crime. He invoked the Fifth Amendment 38 times.
(SFC, 10/17/08, p.B8)
1961 Sep 10, Jomo Kenyatta returned to Kenya from exile, during which he had been elected president of the Kenya National African Union.
(HN, 9/10/98)
1961 Sep 13, An unmanned Mercury capsule was orbited and recovered by NASA in a test for the first manned flight.
(HN, 9/13/98)
1961 Sep 13, Battles took place between UN and Katanga troops in Congo.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1961 Sep 15, The US resumed underground nuclear testing. Operation Nougat began a series of 45 nuclear tests conducted (with one exception) at the Nevada Test Site.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.F4)(www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Operation_Nougat)
1961 Sep 17, The situation comedy "Car 54, Where Are You?" premiered on NBC. Al Lewis (d.2006) played Officer Schnauzer opposite Fred Gwynne’s Officer Francis Muldoon. The series ran to 1963.
(AP, 9/17/01)(SSFC, 2/5/06, p.A2)
1961 Sep 17, In Turkey PM Adnan Menderes (b.1899) was hanged following the 1960 military coup.
(Econ, 6/14/08, p.65)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adnan_Menderes)
1961 Sep 18, Dag Hammarskjold, Secretary-General of the UN, was killed in a plane crash in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). He was flying to negotiate a cease-fire in the Congo.
(TMC, 1994, p.1961)(WUD, 1994, p.1684)(AP, 9/18/97)
1961 Sep 19-20, Betty (d.2004) and Bernard Hill returned home to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, from a trip in Canada and seemed to have lost memory of 2 hours of the drive. Under hypnosis 3 years later they recounted being kidnapped and examined by aliens. Their story led to the 1966 book “Interrupted Journey” by John G. Fuller.
(SFC, 10/19/04, p.B6)(www.nicap.dabsol.co.uk/hill.htm)
1961 Sep 20, James Meredith was refused access as a student in Mississippi. [see Sep 20 1962]
(MC, 9/20/01)
1961 Sep 22, President John Kennedy signed a congressional act establishing the Peace Corps. The government-funded volunteer organization was created to fight hunger, disease, illiteracy, poverty, and lack of opportunity around the world.
(HN, 9/22/98)(MC, 9/22/01)
1961 Sep 22, Marion Davies, actress (Not So Dumb, 5 & 10), died of cancer at 64.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1961 Sep 26, Roger Maris hit HR #60 off Jack Fisher, tying Babe Ruth's record.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1961 Sep 26, Nineteen-year-old Bob Dylan made his New York singing debut at Gerde’s Folk City. [see April 11]
(HN, 9/26/00)
1961 Sep 27, Hilda Doolittle (b.1886), American poet, died in Zurich. In 1984 poet Barbara Guest (d.2006) authored the biography “Herself Defined: The Poet H.D. and Her World.”
(SFC, 2/20/06, p.B3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.D.)
1961 Sep 28, "Dr. Kildare," starring Richard Chamberlain and Raymond Massey, and "Hazel," starring Shirley Booth, premiered on NBC TV.
(AP, 9/28/01)
1961 Sep 30, A bill for the 1773 Boston Tea Party was paid by Mayor Snyder of Oregon. He wrote a check for $196, the total cost of all tea lost.
(MC, 9/30/01)
1961 Sep, The US Federal Hourly Minimum Wage was set at $1.15 an hour.
(http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/blminwage.htm)
1961 Sep, Yevgeny Yevtushenko (b.1933), Russian poet, published his poem “Babi Yar” at the height of the Khrushchev thaw. It recalled the 1941 massacre of over 33,000 Jews at ravine in Kiev, Ukraine.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babi_Yar)
1961 Oct 1, Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) first aired.
(AH, 4/07, p.30)(www.cbn.com/700club/showinfo/staff/patrobertson.aspx)
1961 Oct. 1, Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hit his 61st home run off of Tracy Stallard during a 162-game season. It compared to Babe Ruth's 60 home runs during a 154-game season. The ball was caught by Sal Durante (19) who offered it to Maris. Maris declined and Durante sold it for $5000 to a restaurateur named Sam Gordon, who donated the ball to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
(AP, 10/1/97)(WSJ, 9/4/98, p.B1)(MC, 10/1/01)
1961 Oct 1, A believed extinct volcano erupted in Tristan da Cunha.
(MC, 10/1/01)
1961 Oct 2, The medical drama ``Ben Casey,'' starring Vince Edwards and Sam Jaffe, premiered on ABC.
(AP, 10/2/01)
1961 Oct 3, "The Dick Van Dyke Show," also starring Mary Tyler Moore, made its debut on CBS.
(AP, 10/3/01)
1961 Oct 6, JFK advised Americans to build fallout shelters from atomic fallout in the event of a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union.
(MC, 10/6/01)
1961 Oct 7, "Bye Bye Birdie" closed at Martin Beck Theater NYC after 607 performances.
(MC, 10/7/01)
1961 Oct 8, The US Constellation crashed at Richmond, Virginia, 74 die.
(MC, 10/8/01)
1961 Oct 9, US members of communist party were obliged to report themselves to Police.
(MC, 10/9/01)
1961 Oct 9, Volcano eruptions continued on Tristan de Cunha in the South Atlantic. [see Oct 1]
(MC, 10/9/01)
1961 Oct 11, Leonard "Chico" Marx, comedian (Marx Brothers), died at 74.
(MC, 10/11/01)
1961 Oct 14, "How to Succeed in Business" opened at 46th St NYC for 1415 performances.
(MC, 10/14/01)
1961 Oct 15, Pres. Kennedy called out military reserves in the wake of the Berlin crises. Football star Jack Kemp was exempted due to a shoulder injury. He went on to lead the San Diego Chargers to a division title passing for 2,686 yards and 15 touchdowns.
(SFC, 8/18/96, p.A10)
1961 Oct 17, NY Museum of Modern Art hung Henri Matisse's "Le Bateau" upside-down It wasn't corrected until December 3rd.
(MC, 10/17/01)
1961 Oct 17, Paris police beat and killed dozens of Algerian demonstrators and threw some bodies into the Seine. The police were commanded by Maurice Papon. Papon said some 30 bodies had been recovered from the Seine but that they had been killed in fighting between rival Algerian nationalist groups. In 1999 France agreed to open its archives on the issue. Police killed 210 Algerians who were protesting against police oppression and the curfew imposed against their community in Paris.
(WSJ, 5/5/98, p.A1)(SFC, 5/6/99, p.A15)(Econ, 2/24/07, p.99)
1961 Oct 18, Wynton Marsalis, jazz and classical trumpeter (Grammy 1983), was born in New Orleans, La.
(MC, 10/18/01)
1961 Oct 18, Sigurd Varian (1901-1961), co-inventor of the klystron tube with his brother, Russel, died in a small plane crash in Mexico. Sigurd and Russel had founded Varian Associates in 1948.
(www.geocities.com/neveyaakov/electro_science/varian_sigurd.html)
1961 Oct 18, An emergency crisis was proclaimed in South Vietnam due to a communist attack.
(MC, 10/18/01)
1961 Oct 21, Bob Dylan recorded his first album in a single day at a cost of $400.
(HN, 10/21/00)
1961 Oct 25, Peter Jensen (75), co-inventor of the loud speaker, died.
(MC, 10/25/01)
1961 Oct 27, The 1st Saturn launch vehicle made an unmanned flight test.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1961 Oct 27, Outer Mongolia and Mauritania become the 102nd and 103rd members of UN.
(MC, 10/27/01)
1961 Oct 28, Ground was broken for Municipal (Shea) Stadium for NY Mets.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1961 Oct 30, The Soviet Union tested a hydrogen bomb, the "Tsar Bomba," with a force estimated at about 50 megatons. This was the largest explosion ever recorded and broke a 3-year nuclear test moratorium.
(AP, 10/30/06)(SFC, 2/24/98, p.A22)
1961 Oct 30, The Soviet Party Congress unanimously approved a resolution ordering the removal of Josef Stalin's body from Lenin's tomb.
(AP, 10/30/97)
1961 Oct 30, UN unanimously elected U Thant acting UN Secretary General.
(MC, 10/30/01)
1961 Oct 31, A US Federal judge ruled that Birmingham, Alabama, laws against integrated playing fields were illegal.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1961 Oct 31, Augustus Edwin John (b.1878), Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher, died. For a short time around 1910, he was an important exponent of Post-Impressionism in England. In 1974 Michael Holroyd authored the biography: “Augustus John.”
(WSJ, 1/21/07, p.P9)
1961 Nov 1, Pres. J.F. Kennedy signed executive order 10971 creating a board of three members to investigate a dispute between TWA and certain of its employees.
(www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/jfkeo/eo/10971.htm)
1961 Nov 2, James Thurber (b.1894), humorist (The Male Animal), died at age 66. In 1975 Burton Bernstein authored "Thurber: A Biography." In 2003 Harrison Kinney and Rosemary A. Thurber edited "The Thurber Letters."
(MC, 11/2/01)(WSJ, 8/1/03, p.W10)
1961 Nov 3, President John F. Kennedy established the US Agency for International Development (USAID). [see Sep 4]
(www.usaid.gov/about_usaid/usaidhist.html)
1961 Nov 3, New Braunfels, Texas, began hosting its Wurstfest, an annual sausage festival, to drum up business for local merchants. The festival was set to always begin on the Friday before the first Monday in November. By 2007 the 1 day festival had expanded to 10 days with well over 100,000 visitors.
(SSFC, 10/7/07, p.D8)
1961 Nov 5, India's premier Nehru arrived in NY.
(MC, 11/5/01)
1961 Nov 8, Pres. Kennedy concluded talks with India’s PM Nehru.
(www.historycentral.com/Documents/sixties/118.html)
1961 Nov 9, Paddy Chayefsky's "Gideon," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 11/9/01)
1961 Nov 10, Andrew Hatcher was named associate press secretary to President John F. Kennedy.
(HN, 11/10/98)
1961 Nov 11, Congolese soldiers murdered 13 Italian UN pilots.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1961 Nov 11, Molotov, Malenkov & Kaganovich were kicked out of Russia's communist party.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1961 Nov 11, Stalingrad was renamed Volgograd.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1961 Nov 12, Nadia Comaneci, [Gheorghe], Romanian gymnast (1st 10/Olymp-gold-1976), was born.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1961 Nov 14, President Kennedy increased the number of American advisors in Vietnam from 1,000 to 16,000.
(HN, 11/14/00)
1961 Nov 16, US House Speaker Samuel T. Rayburn died in Bonham, Texas, having served as speaker since 1940 except for two terms.
(AP, 11/1697)
1961 Nov 16, Great Britain limited immigration from Commonwealth countries.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1961 Nov 18, JFK sent 18,000 military "advisors" to South Vietnam.
(MC, 11/18/01)
1961 Nov 24, The UN adopted bans on nuclear arms over American protest.
(HN, 11/24/98)
1961 Nov 26, Pro Baseball Rules Committee voted 8-1 against legalizing the spitball.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1961 Nov 28, Ernie Davis became the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy.
(HN, 11/28/98)
1961 Nov 29, Freedom Riders were attacked by white mob at bus station in Miss.
(MC, 11/29/01)
1961 Nov 29, Enos the chimp was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard the Mercury-Atlas 5 spacecraft, which orbited earth twice before returning.
(AP, 11/29/97)
1961 Nov 30, Soviets vetoed a UN seat for Kuwait, pleasing Iraq.
(HN, 11/30/98)
1961 Nov, The US stock market began a 7 month decline of 25%.
(SFC,10/17/97, p.B2)
1961 Nov, In Germany Heinz Felfe (b.1918), the head of counter-intelligence at the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) and a veteran of the Nazi special forces, was arrested as an agent of the KGB.
(Econ, 9/2/06, p.50)(http://tinyurl.com/jmnpe)
1961 Nov, India’s PM Jawaharlal Nehru visited with Walt Disney in Disneyland.
(SSFC, 5/1/05, p.F3)
1961 Dec 1, The Territory of New Guinea (Papua) declared independence from the Netherlands.
(WUD, 1994, p.962)(SFC, 6/5/00, p.A8)
1961 Dec 2, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared himself a Marxist-Leninist who would lead Cuba to Communism.
(AP, 12/2/97)
1961 Dec 9, SS Col. Adolf Eichmann was found guilty of war crimes in Israel.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1961 Dec 11, "Please, Mr. Postman" by Marvelettes was released.
(MC, 12/11/01)
1961 Dec 11, A U.S. aircraft carrier carrying Army helicopters arrived in Saigon. This was the first direct American military support for South Vietnam's battle against Communist guerrillas. JFK provided 425 US military helicopter crewmen to South Vietnam to provide training and support for South Vietnamese forces.
(AP, 12/11/97)(MC, 12/11/01)
1961 Dec 11, Adolf Eichmann was found guilty of war crimes in Israel.
(MC, 12/11/01)
1961 Dec 12, Martin Luther King Jr & 700 demonstrators were arrested in Albany, Ga.
(MC, 12/12/01)
1961 Dec 12, Frantz Fanon (b.1925), Martinique-born writer, psychiatrist, and revolutionary died in Washington, DC. His work foretold of Third World liberation struggles. His book “Wretched of the Earth” (1961) celebrated anti-colonial revolutionaries. In 2008 John Edgar Wideman authored his novel “Fanon” based on Fanon’s life.
(SSFC, 10/5/03, p.M2)(WSJ, 2/15/08, p.W2)(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/fanon.htm)(Econ, 4/17/10, SR p.16)
1961 Dec 13, Beatles signed a formal agreement to be managed by Brian Epstein.
(MC, 12/13/01)
1961 Dec 13, Grandma [Anna M] Moses (101), US painter, folk artist, died.
(SFC, 3/26/97, z1 p.7)(MC, 12/13/01)
1961 Dec 15, Adolf Eichmann, the former German Gestapo official accused of a major role in the Nazi murder of 6 million Jews, was sentenced by a Jerusalem court to be hanged. Adolf Eichmann was the administrator of the so-called Final Solution and supervised the transportation of prisoners to concentration camps.
(AP, 12/15/97)(HN, 12/15/98)
1961 Dec 18, Britain's EMI Records originally rejected the Beatles.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1961 Dec 19, The UN General Assembly adopted Resolutions 1714 (XVI) for the formation of its World Food Program (WFP).
(www.fao.org/docrep/46140E/46140e06.htm)
1961 Dec 20, Moss Hart (b.1904), US dramatist (You can't take it with you), died. His 1959 autobiography was titled “Act One.”
(www.ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=6153)(WSJ, 1/7/07, p.P8)
1961 Dec 21, JFK & British PM MacMillan met in Bermuda.
(MC, 12/21/01)
1961 Dec 23, Fidel Castro announced Cuba he would release 1,113 prisoners from failed 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion in exchange for $62M worth of food and medical supplies.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1961 Dec 25, Rheinhold Ruedenberg (b.1883), MIT electrical engineer, died. He patented the principle of electron-microscope imaging in 1931 for Siemens and Halske.
(www.msu.edu/~daggy/cop/bkofdead/obits-ru.htm)(www.timelinescience.org/years/1950.htm)
1961 Dec 26, Nepal’s King Mahendra appointed a council of five ministers to help run the administration. Several weeks later, political parties were declared illegal.
(http://countrystudies.us/nepal/19.htm)
1961 Dec 27, Styne-Comden-Green musical "Subways are for Sleeping," premiered.
(MC, 12/27/01)
1961 Dec 28, Tennessee Williams' "Night of the Iguana," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 12/28/01)
1961 Dec 31, "lrma La Douce" closed at the Plymouth Theater in NYC after 527 performances.
(MC, 12/31/01)
1961 Dec 31, Beach Boys played their debut gig under that name. The Beach Boys band was formed with brothers Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson, cousin Mike Love and friend Al Jardine. Their hit "Surfin" came out the same year.
(SFC, 7/14/96, DB p.50)(MC, 12/31/01)
1961 Dec 31, The Marshall Plan expired after distributing more than $12 billion in foreign aid.
(AP, 12/31/97)
Source: http://timelines.ws/20thcent/1961.HTML
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