What Day of the Week

1961 Calendar

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•  February 15, 1961 – New Year’s Day in Chinese calendar. Start of the year of the Metal Ox in Chinese astrology.
•  April 27, 1961 – Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister.
•  April 30, 1961 – K-19, the first Soviet nuclear submarine equipped with nuclear missiles, is commissioned.
•  May 24, 1961 – Cyprus joins the Council of Europe.
•  May 31, 1961 – In Moscow City Court, the Rokotov–Faibishenko show trial begins, despite the Khrushchev Thaw to reverse Stalinist elements in Soviet society.
•  June 19, 1961 – Kuwait declares independence from the United Kingdom.
•  July 21, 1961 – Mercury program: Mercury-Redstone 4 Mission – Gus Grissom piloting Liberty Bell 7 becomes the second American to go into space (in a suborbital mission).
•  August 11, 1961 – The former Portuguese territories in India of Dadra and Nagar Haveli are merged to create the Union Territory Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
•  September 12, 1961 – The African and Malagasy Union is founded.
•  October 20, 1961 – The Soviet Union performs the first armed test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile, launching an R-13 from a Golf class submarine.

•  February 8, 1961 – Vince Neil, American singer (Mötley Crüe)
•  February 28, 1961 – Rae Dawn Chong, Canadian actress
•  May 8, 1961 – David Winning, Canadian film director
•  July 19, 1961 – Lisa Lampanelli, American comedian
•  July 24, 1961 – Kerry Dixon, English footballer
•  September 7, 1961 – LeRoi Moore, American musician (Dave Matthews Band) (d. 2008)
•  September 11, 1961 – Philip Ardagh, British writer
•  October 23, 1961 – Laurie Halse Anderson, American writer
•  November 1, 1961 – Calvin Johnson, American musician (Beat Happening, The Halo Benders, Dub Narcotic Sound System)
•  November 6, 1961 – Kazuhiko Aoki, Japanese game creator