What Day of the Week

1961 Calendar

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•  January 8, 1961 – In France a referendum supports Charles de Gaulle’s policies in Algeria.
•  January 31, 1961 – Project Mercury: Mercury-Redstone 2 – Ham the Chimp travels into outer space.
•  February 15, 1961 – New Year’s Day in Chinese calendar. Start of the year of the Metal Ox in Chinese astrology.
•  March 1, 1961 – Uganda becomes self-governing and holds its first elections.
•  April 17, 1961 – Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of CIA financed and trained Cuban exiles lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.
•  May 21, 1961 – American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.
•  August 21, 1961 – Motown releases what would be its first #1 hit, “Please Mr. Postman” by The Marvelettes.
•  September 10, 1961 – 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.
•  October 27, 1961 – NASA launches the first Saturn I rocket in Mission Saturn-Apollo 1.
•  October 30, 1961 – Nuclear testing: The Soviet Union detonates the hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba over Novaya Zemlya; at 50 megatons of yield, it is still the largest explosive device ever detonated, nuclear or otherwise.

•  February 13, 1961 – Kyi Hla Han, Burmese golfer
•  March 14, 1961 – Penny Johnson Jerald, American actress
•  March 23, 1961 – Steve Holmes, Romanian/German pornographic actor
•  March 29, 1961 – Gary Brabham, Australian racing driver
•  May 3, 1961 – Joe Murray, American cartoonist
•  September 7, 1961 – LeRoi Moore, American musician (Dave Matthews Band) (d. 2008)
•  October 22, 1961 – Robert Torti, American actor
•  November 4, 1961 – Edward Knight, American composer
•  November 8, 1961 – Micky Adams, English football manager
•  December 11, 1961 – Marco Pierre White, English chef and restaurateur