* 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 – 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

* 1961 – Cary Stayner, American serial killer

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

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy of the United States paid their respects at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, accompanied by French President Charles de Gaulle.

After Terry Burns, his half-brother, introduced him to modern jazz, his enthusiasm for players like Charles Mingus and John Coltrane led his mother to give him a plastic alto saxophone in 1961 ; he was soon receiving lessons from a local musician.

The 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment ( 1 < sup > e </ sup > Régiment Étranger Parachutiste, 1 < sup > e </ sup > REP ) was established in 1955 during the Algerian War and disbanded in April 1961 as the entire regiment rose against the French government of Charles de Gaulle ( Algiers Putsch ), in protest against moves to negotiate an end to the Algerian War and providing Algeria's independence from France.

* 1961 – In France a referendum supports Charles de Gaulle's policies in Algeria.

* Charles Harrison Mason ( 1866 – 1961 ) The Founder of the Church of God In Christ

Article 16, allowing the president a limited form of rule by decree for a limited period of time in exceptional circumstance, has been used only once, by Charles de Gaulle during the Algerian War, from 23 April to 29 September 1961.

Charles Deutsch, wanting to stick to Panhard engines, left DB in 1961 to found his own firm ( CD ).

An entry attempt had been issued in July 1961 by the Macmillan government, and negotiated by Edward Heath as Lord Privy Seal, but was vetoed in 1963 by French President Charles de Gaulle.

In 1961, he starred in the drama Fanny with Leslie Caron and Charles Boyer, an updated version of Marcel Pagnol's " Marseilles Trilogy.

Charles Lacheroy, Colonel Trinquier, who theorized the systemic use of torture in counter-insurgency doctrine in Modern Warfare: A French View of Counterinsurgency ( 1961 ), were members of it.

On July 12, 1961, president Charles de Gaulle bestowed on him the French Legion of Honour for service to the state.

* 1961: Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War by David Donald

There was previously a far more extensive local railway network in Clare, laid while part of the United Kingdom, the West Clare Railway was in existence from its opening in 1887 by Charles Stewart Parnell until 1961 covering much of the county.

* Charles Marion Russell ( 1961 ), " The Trail Boss "

In some of his other roles during the 1960s and 1970s, Bogarde played opposite renowned stars, yet several of the films were of uneven quality, down to demands or limitations set by the studio or their scripts: The Angel Wore Red ( 1960 ), playing an unfrocked priest who falls in love with cabaret entertainer Ava Gardner during the Spanish Civil War ; Song Without End ( 1960 ), as Hungarian composer and virtuoso pianist Franz Liszt, a flawed film made under the initial direction of Charles Vidor ( who died during shooting ), and completed by Bogarde's friend George Cukor, the actor's only disappointing foray into Hollywood ; the campy The Singer Not the Song ( 1961 ), as a Mexican bandit co-starring John Mills as a priest ; H. M. S.

Paul Henri Charles Spaak ( 25 January 1899 – 31 July 1972 ) was a Belgian Socialist politician and statesman, who served as Prime Minister of Belgium ( 1938 – 1939, 1946 and 1947 – 1949 ), as the first President of the United Nations General Assembly ( 1946 – 1957 ), as the first President of the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Community ( 1952 – 1954 ), and as the second Secretary General of NATO ( 1957 – 1961 ).

* 1961 Charles Brown Sings Christmas Songs ( King )

originated by Charles Chilton as a radio play, The Long Long Trail in December 1961, and transferred to stage by Gerry Raffles in partnership with Joan Littlewood and her Theatre Workshop created in 1963, which was itself inspired by " The Donkeys ," Alan Clark's 1961 attack on Great War generalship.

Eyewitness to History was a CBS Friday night public affairs program which was initially hosted by veteran broadcaster Charles Kuralt ( 1960 -' 61 ), followed by Walter Cronkite ( 1961 -' 62 ), and Charles Collingwood ( 1962 -' 63 ).

Article 16 rule has only been exercised once, in 1961, during a crisis related to the Algerian War in which Charles de Gaulle needed those emergency powers to foil a military plot to take over the government.

Swanberg, from Citizen Hearst: A biography of William Randolph Hearst: ( Charles Scribner's Sons, 1961 )

Charles G. Koch joined Rock Island in 1961, having started his career at the management consulting firm Arthur D. Little.