* 1961 – Rory Bremner, Scottish comedian

* 1961 – The Russian ( Soviet ) cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space and perform the first manned orbital flight, in Vostok 3KA-2 ( Vostok 1 ).

* 1961 – Enedina Arellano Félix, Mexican drug trafficker

* 1961 – Lisa Gerrard, Australian singer, musician, and composer ( Dead Can Dance )

* 1961 – Charles Mann, American football player

* 1961 – Magda Szubanski, Australian actress

* 1961 – K-19, the first Soviet nuclear submarine equipped with nuclear missiles, is commissioned.

* 1961 – Isiah Thomas, American basketball player

* 1961 – Yolanda Adams, American singer, producer, and actress

* 1961 – Tom Ford, American fashion designer and director

* 1961 – Helmut Winklhofer, German footballer

* 1881 – Leo Carrillo, American actor ( d. 1961 )

* 1961 – Brad Gilbert, American tennis player

* 1961 – John Key, New Zealand politician, 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand

* 1961 – Amy Stiller, American comedian and actress

* 1961 – East Germany closes the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin to thwart its inhabitants ' attempts to escape to the West.

* 1961 – Sam Champion, American weatherman

* 1961 – Christos Christodoulou, Greek basketball player

* 1961 – Dawnn Lewis, American actress

* 1961 – Stuart Maconie, English journalist, author, and broadcaster

* 1961 – Neil Mallender, England cricketer

* 1961 – Tom Perrotta, American novelist

* 1961 – Sunil Shetty, Indian actor and producer

* 1886 – John Alexander Douglas McCurdy Canadian pilot and engineer ( d. 1961 )

* Lucius Plantagenet Cary, 13th Viscount Falkland ( 1880 – 1961 )

* Cary, John ( 1961 ) Joseph Warren: Physician, Politician, Patriot.

Cary Anthony Stayner ( born August 13, 1961 ) is an American serial killer currently on death row for the 1999 murders of four women in Mariposa County near Yosemite, California.

William Lucius Cary ( 1910 – 1983 ) served as chairman of the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission between 1961 and 1964.

The American people have indeed come a long way in the brief interval between 1930 and 1961.

The interesting thing about Mr. Lyford's approach, and the approach of the contributors to The Agreeable Autocracies ( Oceana Publications, 1961 ) to the situation of American civilization, is that it is concerned with comprehending the psychological relationships which are having a decisive effect on American life.

and now, therefore, do I, John A. Notte, Jr., Governor of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, proclaim Monday, May 22nd, 1961, as National Maritime Day, reminding our citizens that American Merchant ships and American seamen are ready at all times to serve our Nation in the cause of freedom and justice.

Over the first five frames, Jack Fisher, the big righthander who figures to be in the middle of Oriole plans for a drive on the 1961 American League pennant, held the A's scoreless while yielding three scattered hits.

Ex-Oriole Clint Courtney, now catching for the A's is all for the American League's 1961 expansion to the West Coast.

* 1961 – Cold 187um, American rapper and producer ( Above the Law )

* 1961 – Molly Hagan, American actress

* 1961 – Lee Rocker, American bassist ( Stray Cats )

* 1961 – Daniel House, American bass player and producer ( 10 Minute Warning and Skin Yard )

* 1961 – Bruce Matthews, American football player

* 1961 – Rikki Rockett, American drummer ( Poison )

* 1961 – Eddie Gilbert, American wrestler ( d. 1995 )

Her big break came in the 1961 BBC serial A for Andromeda.

He appeared in the 1955 BBC Television serial Quatermass II, had a role in the Powell and Pressburger wartime drama Battle of the River Plate ( 1956 ), and came to wide popular attention in Britain when he played the duplicitous Spanish envoy Mendoza in the ITC Entertainment series Sir Francis Drake ( 1961 – 62 ), after which he was much in demand ; an ' in-joke ' in the 1971 Doctor Who story Colony in Space refers to that role: the Brigadier tells the Doctor not to worry — the suspected sighting of the Master was only the Spanish Ambassador!

Quickly becoming a success, the serial publication ran until 1959 and was reissued in 1961 in a dedicated magazine, Eternauta, published by Editorial Emilio Ramírez.

Westley Allan Dodd ( July 3, 1961 – January 5, 1993 ) was a convicted American serial killer and child molester.

Cartier worked with Kneale again on the third Quatermass serial, Quatermass and the Pit, in 1958, and had subsequent successes with plays such as Anna Karenina ( 1961 ), Cross of Iron ( 1961 ) and Lee Oswald — Assassin ( 1966 ).

For this reason, although Nigel Kneale had written a new Quatermass serial for the BBC, Quatermass and the Pit ( broadcast December 1958 to January 1959 ), Hammer did not acquire the rights until 1961 and the film version did not appear until 1967.

* A condensed reconstruction of the missing episodes of the 1961 science fiction serial A for Andromeda for its DVD release in 2006.

* The Furys ( drama ) BBC Radio, North, Northern Ireland: a weekly serial from 21 September to 26 November 1961.

Other television shows he wrote or created for the BBC included the 1961 action adventure serial Hurricane, the 1962 William children's comedy starring Dennis Waterman, based on the books by Richmal Crompton, and in 1964 episodes of the Thorndyke detective series.

These films include: Tarzan's Desert Mystery ( 1943 ), one of the chapters of the Superman serial ( 1948 ), Atom Man vs. Superman ( 1950 ), Two Lost Worlds ( 1950 ), The Lost Volcano ( 1950 ; Bomba, the Jungle Boy series ), the American version of Godzilla Raids Again, Jungle Manhunt ( 1951 ; Jungle Jim series ), Smoky Canyon ( 1952 ), the Yesterday's World episode of The Schaefer Century Theatre, Untamed Women ( 1952 ), Robot Monster ( 1953 ), The Lost Planet ( 1953 ), King Dinosaur ( 1955 ), Three Stooges's Space Ship Sappy ( 1957 ), Teenage Cave Man ( 1958 ), She Demons ( 1958 ), Valley of the Dragons ( 1961 ), Journey to the Center of Time ( 1967 ), Horror of the Blood Monsters ( 1970 ; the stock footage was tinted in color for this film ), the Mexican films Island of the Dinosaurs ( La Isla De Los Dinosaurios ; 1967 ), Adventure at the Center of the Earth ( Aventura al centro de la tierra ; 1966 ), and The Ghost Jesters ( Los fantasmas burlones ; 1964 ), One Million AC / DC ( 1970 ), TerrorVision, and Attack of the B Movie Monster ( 1989 ).