page_title: 1961
section_title: April
hierarchical_section_title: 1961 / Events / April
caption_attribution_description: Svenska: Jurij Gagarin hälsar på pressen under sitt besök i Malmö 1964.English: Yuri Gagarin saying hello to the press during a visit to Malmö, Sweden 1964.
context_page_description: 1961 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1961st year of the Common Era and Anno Domini designations, the 961st year of the 2nd millennium, the 61st year of the 20th century, and the 2nd year of the 1960s decade.
  As MAD Magazine pointed out on its cover for the March 1961 issue, this was the first "upside-up" year — i.e., one in which the numerals that form the year look the same as when the numerals are rotated upside down, a strobogrammatic number — since 1881. The next such year will be 6009.
context_section_description: April 5 – The New Guinea Council of Western Papua is installed.
  April 8 – British passenger ship Dara blows up and sinks off Dubai; 238 passengers and crew are killed.
  April 11 – The trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem.
  April 12
  Vostok 1: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space, orbiting the Earth once before parachuting to the ground.
  Albert Kalonji takes the title Emperor Albert I Kalonji of South Kasai.
  April 13 – In Portugal, a coup attempt against António de Oliveira Salazar fails.
  April 17
  The Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba begins; it fails by April 19.
  The 33rd Academy Awards ceremony is held in Santa Monica, California: The Apartment (1960) wins most awards, including Best Picture.
  April 18 – Portugal sends its first military reinforcement to Angola.
  April 20 – Fidel Castro announces that the Bay of Pigs Invasion has been defeated.
  April 22 – Algiers putsch: Four French generals who oppose de Gaulle's policies in Algeria fail in a coup attempt.
  April 23 – Judy Garland performs in a legendary comeback concert, at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
  April 24 – Swedish warship Vasa, sunk on her maiden voyage in 1628, is recovered from Stockholm Harbor.
  April 27
  President Kennedy urges newspapers to consider national interest in times of struggle against "a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy", in an address before the American Newspaper Publishers Association.
  Sierra Leone becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
caption: April 12: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin through outer space.
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