# 1961

1961 in other calendars| Gregorian calendar | 1961 *MCMLXI* |
| Ab urbe condita | 2714 |
| Armenian calendar | 1410 ԹՎ ՌՆԺ |
| Assyrian calendar | 6711 |
| Bahá'í calendar | 117–118 |
| Balinese saka calendar | 1882–1883 |
| Bengali calendar | 1368 |
| Berber calendar | 2911 |
| British Regnal year | 9 Eliz. 2 – 10 Eliz. 2 |
| Buddhist calendar | 2505 |
| Burmese calendar | 1323 |
| Byzantine calendar | 7469–7470 |
| Chinese calendar | 庚子年 (Metal Rat) 4657 or 4597     *— to —* 辛丑年 (Metal Ox) 4658 or 4598 |
| Coptic calendar | 1677–1678 |
| Discordian calendar | 3127 |
| Ethiopian calendar | 1953–1954 |
| Hebrew calendar | 5721–5722 |
| Hindu calendars |  |
|  - *Vikram Samvat* | 2017–2018 |
|  - *Shaka Samvat* | 1882–1883 |
|  - *Kali Yuga* | 5061–5062 |
| Holocene calendar | 11961 |
| Igbo calendar | 961–962 |
| Iranian calendar | 1339–1340 |
| Islamic calendar | 1380–1381 |
| Japanese calendar | Shōwa 36 (昭和３６年) |
| Javanese calendar | 1892–1893 |
| Juche calendar | 50 |
| Julian calendar | Gregorian minus 13 days |
| Korean calendar | 4294 |
| Minguo calendar | ROC 50 民國50年 |
| Nanakshahi calendar | 493 |
| Thai solar calendar | 2504 |
| Tibetan calendar | ལྕགས་ཕོ་བྱི་བ་ལོ་ (male Iron-Rat) 2087 or 1706 or 934     *— to —* ལྕགས་མོ་གླང་ལོ་ (female Iron-Ox) 2088 or 1707 or 935 |

**1961** (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday in the Gregorian calendar.

Its rendering using the Hindu-Arabic numeral system creates a numeral which looks the same when put upside down. The next such year will be 6009.

## Events

Construction of Berlin Wall
* John F. Kennedy becomes President of the United States.
* *The Fantastic Four* make their debut.
* Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space.
* Sierra Leone becomes independent.
* The Berlin Wall is built.
* The Vietnam War begins.
* Bay of Pigs invasion
* Rockband Golden Earring was founded

## Births

Henry Rollins in 2003
### January

* January 1 - Mark Wingett, British actor
* January 26 – Wayne Gretzky, Retired Canadian NHL player
* January 28 – Arnaldur Indridason, Icelandic writer

### February

* February 13 – Henry Rollins, American musician and activist (Black Flag)

### March

* March 3 – John Matteson, Pulitzer Prize-winning American biographer
* March 7 – Sanae Takaichi, Prime Minister of Japan

### April

* April 1 – Susan Boyle, Scottish singer

### May

* May 6 – George Clooney, American actor

### June

* June 4 – Ferenc Gyurcsany, former Prime Minister of Hungary
* June 9 – Michael J. Fox, Canadian actor
* June 14 – Boy George, British singer
* June 18 – Alison Moyet, British singer
* June 25 – Ricky Gervais, British comedian and actor

### July

* July 1 – Diana, Princess of Wales (d. 1997)
* July 1 – Carl Lewis, American athlete
* July 23 – Woody Harrelson, American actor
* July 30 – Laurence Fishburne, American actor
* July 31 - Peter O'Brien, American drummer (Orleans)

### August

* August 4 – Barack Obama, forty-fourth President of the United States of America
* August 8 – The Edge, Irish musician (U2)
* August 9 – John Key, Prime Minister of New Zealand

### September

* September 28 - George Rossi, Scottish actor (d. 2022)
* September 29 – Julia Gillard, Prime Minister of Australia

### October

* October 11 – Amr Diab, Egyptian singer
* October 25 - Chad Smith, American drummer (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
* October 26 – Uhuru Kenyatta, President of Kenya

### November

* November 12 – Nadia Comaneci, Romanian gymnast
* November 19 – Meg Ryan, American actress
* November 24 – Arundhati Roy, Indian activist and writer

### December

* December 24 – Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan
* December 25 – Ingrid Betancourt, Colombian senator
* December 26 - Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, Nigerian senator
* December 27 – Guido Westerwelle, German politician
* December 30 – Ben Johnson, Canadian athlete

## Deaths

* January 4 – Erwin Schroedinger, Austrian physicist (b. 1887)
* January 9 – Emily Greene Balch, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1867)
* January 17 – Patrice Lumumba, Congolese politician (b. 1925)
* February 3 – Viscount Dunrossil, Australian Governor-General (b. 1893)
* February 9 – Carlos Luz, 19th President of Brazil (b. 1894)
* March 3 – Paul Wittgenstein, Austrian-born pianist (b. 1887)
* March 23 – Valentin Bondarenko, Russian cosmonaut (b. 1937)
* April 9 – Ahmet Zog, King of Albania (b. 1895)
* May 30 – Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, President of the Dominican Republic (b. 1891)
* June 6 – Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist (b. 1875)
* July 2 – Ernest Hemingway, American writer (b. 1899)
* August 20 – Percy Williams Bridgman, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1882)
* September 10 – Wolfgang von Trips, German racing driver (b. 1928)
* September 18 – Dag Hammarskioeld, UN Secretary-General (b. 1905)
* October 30 – Luigi Einaudi, Italian politician (b. 1874)
* November 9 – Ferdinand Bie, Norwegian athlete (b. 1888)
* December 20 – Earle Page, 11th Prime Minister of Australia (b. 1880)

## Nobel Prizes

* Nobel Prize in Physics won by Robert Hofstadter, American physicist, and Rudolf Mössbauer, German physicist
* Nobel Prize in Chemistry won by Melvin Calvin, American biochemist
* Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine won by Georg von Békésy, Hungarian biophysicist
* Nobel Prize in Literature won by Ivo Andrić, Yugoslav novelist, poet and short story writer
* Nobel Peace Prize won by Dag Hammarskjöld (posthumously), Swedish diplomat

## Movies released

George Chakiris in West Side Story
* *101 Dalmatians*, an animated movie
* *The Absent-Minded Professor* by Walt Disney Productions
* *Breakfast at Tiffany's* starring Audrey Hepburn
* *El Cid* starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren
* *La Dolce Vita* starring Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg
* *The Guns of Navarone* with Gregory Peck and Anthony Quinn
* *The Hustler* starring Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason
* *Lover Come Back* starring Doris Day and Rock Hudson
* *The Parent Trap* starring Hayley Mills
* *West Side Story* winning 10 Academy Awards

## Hit songs

Patsy Cline in 1957
* "I Fall to Pieces" – Patsy Cline
* "Crazy" – Patsy Cline
* "Where the Boys Are" – Connie Francis
* "Running Scared" – Roy Orbison
* "Crying" – Roy Orbison
* "(I Wanna) Love My Life Away" – Gene Pitney
* "Town Without Pity" – Gene Pitney
* "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" – The Tokens
* "Calcutta" – Lawrence Welk
* "Runaround Sue" – Dion
* "Let's Go Trippin'" – Dick Dale's first local hit, regarded as first surf rock instrumental
* "Tossin' & Turnin' " – Bobby Lewis
* "Runaway" – Del Shannon
* "Garde-Moi la Dernière Danse" – Dalida
* "Nuits d'Espagne" – Dalida
* "Blue Moon" – The Marcels
* "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" – The Shirelles
* "There's No Other Like My Baby" – The Crystals' first hit
* "Please Mr. Postman" – The Marvelettes
* "Quarter To Three" – Gary U.S. Bonds
* "Shop Around" – The Miracles
* "Travelin' Man" – Ricky Nelson
* "Hello Mary Lou" – Ricky Nelson
* "Stand By Me" – Ben E. King
* "The Wanderer" – Dion
* "The Mountain's High" – Dick and Deedee
* "Big River, Big Man" – Claude King
* "The Commancheros" – Claude King
* "Moody River" – Pat Boone
* "I Love How You Love Me" – The Paris Sisters

## New books

Harper Lee in 2007
* *Border Country* – Raymond Williams
* *Casanova's Chinese Restaurant* – Anthony Powell
* *The Chapman Report* – Irving Wallace
* *Clea* – Lawrence Durrell

* *Don't Tell Alfred* – Nancy Mitford

* *For Your Eyes Only* – Ian Fleming
* *Green Eggs and Ham* – Dr. Seuss
* *Hunters in a Narrow Street* – Jabra Ibrahim Jabra
* *The Insolences of Brother Anonymous* – Jean-Paul Desbiens
* *The Many Colored Coat* – Morley Callaghan
* *Take a Girl Like You* – Kingsley Amis
* *To Kill A Mockingbird* – Harper Lee
* *The Torch* – Wilder Penfield
* *The Violent Bear It Away* – Flannery O'Connor
* *The White Stone* – Carlo Coccioli
* *What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?* – Henry Farrell

## Related pages

* 1961 in sports