| 1961-12-19
India annexes Daman and Diu, part of Portuguese India.
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| 1961-05-14
American civil rights movement: The Freedom Riders bus is fire-bombed near Anniston, Alabama, and the civil rights protesters are beaten by an angry mob.
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| 1961-11-29
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.
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| 1961-04-11
The trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem.
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| 1961-05-25
Apollo program: U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces before a special joint session of the Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a "man on the Moon" before the end of the decade.
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| 1961-10-30
Because of "violations of Lenin's precepts", it is decreed that Joseph Stalin's body be removed from its place of honour inside Lenin's tomb and buried near the Kremlin wall with a plain granite marker instead.
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| 1961-09-27
Sierra Leone joins the United Nations.
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| 1961-09-21
Maiden flight of the CH-47 Chinook transportation helicopter.
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| 1961-09-19
Betty and Barney Hill claim that they saw a mysterious craft in the sky and that it tried to abduct them.
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| 1961-05-05
The Mercury program: Mercury-Redstone 3 – Alan Shepard becomes the first American to travel into outer space, making a sub-orbital flight of 15 minutes.
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| 1961-01-08
In France a referendum supports Charles de Gaulle's policies in Algeria.
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| 1961-07-20
French military forces break the Tunisian siege of Bizerte.
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| 1961-09-28
A military coup in Damascus effectively ends the United Arab Republic, the union between Egypt and Syria.
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| 1961-08-15
Conrad Schumann flees from East Germany while on duty guarding the construction of the Berlin Wall.
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| 1961-02-12
U.S.S.R. launches Venera 1 towards Venus.
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| 1961-04-20
Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed troops against Cuba.
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| 1961-12-14
The United Republic of Tanzania joins the United Nations.
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| 1961-04-27
Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister.
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| 1961-05-04
American civil rights movement: The "Freedom Riders" begin a bus trip through the South.
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| 1961-11-18
United States President John F. Kennedy sends 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam.
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| 1961-05-21
American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.
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| 1961-01-17
President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers a televised farewell address to the nation three days before leaving office, in which he warns against the accumulation of power by the "military-industrial complex".
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| 1961-12-02
In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist-Leninist and that Cuba is going to adopt Communism.
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| 1961-01-31
Project Mercury: Mercury-Redstone 2 – Ham the Chimp travels into outer space.
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| 1961-12-17
History of Goa: Operation Vijay – India seizes Goa from Portugal.
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| 1961-04-24
The 17th century Swedish ship Vasa is salvaged.
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| 1961-12-09
The trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Israel ends with verdicts of guilty on 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people and membership of an outlawed organization.
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| 1961-12-01
The independent Republic of West Papua is proclaimed in modern-day Western New Guinea.
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| 1961-01-20
John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as the youngest elected and first Roman Catholic President of the U.S. His inaugural address is one of the most memorable of the 20th century.
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| 1961-03-01
Uganda becomes self-governing and holds its first elections.
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| 1961-02-16
The DuSable Museum of African American History is chartered.
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| 1961-09-10
Italian Grand Prix, a crash causes the death of German Formula One driver Wolfgang von Trips and 13 spectators who are hit by his Ferrari.
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| 1961-10-29
Syria exits from the United Arab Republic.
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| 1961-02-15
Sabena Flight 548 crashes in Belgium, killing 73, including the entire United States figure skating team, several coaches and family.
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| 1961-08-15
Keiyo Road is specified as the first driveway in Japan.
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| 1961-07-31
At Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, the first All-Star Game tie in major league baseball history occurs when the game is stopped in the 9th inning because of rain.
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| 1961-04-23
Algiers putsch by French generals.
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| 1961-02-14
Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California.
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| 1961-03-01
President of the United States John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.
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| 1961-09-30
Business Leader Tim Boissinot born to Anne and John Boissinot in Toronto Canada
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| 1961-03-03
Hassan II becomes King of Morocco.
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| 1961-10-01
East and West Cameroon merge as Federal Republic of Cameroon.
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| 1961-10-31
In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin's body is removed from Lenin's Tomb.
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| 1961-04-25
Robert Noyce is granted a patent for an integrated circuit.
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| 1961-06-17
The New Democratic Party of Canada is founded with the merger of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress.
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| 1961-01-25
In Washington, D.C. John F. Kennedy delivers the first live presidential television news conference.
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| 1961-07-21
Mercury program: Mercury-Redstone 4 Mission – Gus Grissom piloting Liberty Bell 7 becomes the second American to go into space (in a suborbital mission).
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| 1961-07-25
In a speech John F. Kennedy emphasizes that any attack on Berlin is an attack on NATO.
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| 1961-05-19
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).
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| 1961-01-03
The United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.
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| 1961-08-28
Motown releases what would be its first #1 hit, "Please Mr. Postman" by The Marvelettes.
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| 1961-07-04
Walt Disney is one of the two main speakers on the Independence Day in The Rebuild Hills at Skørping in Denmark.
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| 1961-04-19
The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba ends in success for the defenders.
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| 1961-05-01
The Prime Minister of Cuba, Fidel Castro, proclaims Cuba a socialist nation and abolishes elections.
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| 1961-03-30
The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed at New York.
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| 1961-01-26
John F. Kennedy appoints Janet G. Travell to be his physician. This is the first time a woman holds this appointment.
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| 1961-03-15
South Africa withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations.
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| 1961-12-18
Indonesia invades Netherlands New Guinea.
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| 1961-10-30
Nuclear testing: The Soviet Union detonates the hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba over Novaya Zemlya; at 58 megatons of yield, it is still the largest explosive device ever detonated, nuclear or otherwise.
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| 1961-06-19
Kuwait declares independence from the United Kingdom.
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| 1961-09-05
The first conference of the Non Aligned Countries is held in Belgrade.
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| 1961-02-27
The first congress of the Spanish Trade Union Organisation is inaugurated.
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| 1961-05-31
Republic of South Africa created.
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| 1961-07-12
Pune floods due to failure of the Khadakwasla and Panshet dams. Half of Pune is submerged, more than 100,000 families need to be relocated and the death tally exceeds 2,000.
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| 1961-02-16
Explorer program: Explorer 9 (S-56a) is launched.
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| 1961-10-27
Mauritania and Mongolia join the United Nations.
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| 1961-05-30
Long time Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo is assassinated in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
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| 1961-11-01
50,000 women in 60 cities participate in the inaugural Women Strike for Peace (WSP) against nuclear proliferation.
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| 1961-10-27
NASA launches the first Saturn I rocket in Mission Saturn-Apollo 1.
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| 1961-01-03
The SL-1, a government-run reactor near Idaho Falls, Idaho, leaks radiation, killing three workers.
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| 1961-08-13
The German Democratic Republic closes the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin, to thwart its inhabitants' attempts to escape to the West.
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| 1961-05-24
Cyprus enters the Council of Europe.
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| 1961-04-12
Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space, in Vostok 3KA-2 (Vostok 1).
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| 1961-09-18
U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld dies in a plane crash while attempting to negotiate peace in the war-torn Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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| 1961-05-09
Jim Gentile of the Baltimore Orioles becomes the first player in baseball history to hit grand slams in consecutive innings.
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| 1961-04-18
CONCP is founded in Casablanca as a united front of African movements opposing Portuguese colonial rule.
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| 1961-03-29
The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, D.C., to vote in presidential elections.
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| 1961-12-09
Tanganyika becomes independent from Britain.
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| 1961-04-17
Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of CIA financed and trained Cuban refugees lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.
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| 1961-06-23
Cold War: the Antarctic Treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent, comes into force after the opening date for signature set for the December 1, 1959.
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| 1961-01-24
1961 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.
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| 1961-05-24
American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus.
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| 1961-09-01
The Eritrean War of Independence officially begins with the shooting of the Ethiopian police by Hamid Idris Awate.
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| 1961-07-23
The Sandinista National Liberation Front is founded in Nicaragua.
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| 1961-09-15
Hurricane Carla strikes Texas with winds of 175 miles per hour.
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| 1961-05-28
Peter Benenson's article The Forgotten Prisoners is published in several internationally read newspapers. This will later be thought of as the founding of the human rights organization Amnesty International.
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| 1961-12-15
In Jerusalem, Adolph Eichmann is sentenced to death after being found guilty of 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people and membership of an outlawed organization.
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| 1961-10-17
Scores of Algerian protesters (some claim up to 400) are massacred by the Paris police at the instigation of Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Prefecture of Police.
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