* 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

* 1961 – Cary Stayner, American serial killer

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

First conceived during the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower as a three-man spacecraft to follow the one-man Project Mercury which put the first Americans in space, Apollo was later dedicated to President John F. Kennedy's national goal of " landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth " by the end of the 1960s, which he proposed in a May 25, 1961 address to Congress.

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.

The Supreme Court of the United States held in its landmark case, McGowan v. Maryland ( 1961 ), that Maryland's blue laws violated neither the Free Exercise Clause nor the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Notably, Barcelonnette is the only subprefecture of France not be served by rail transport ; the Ubaye line which would have linked Chorges to Barcelonnette was never completed as a result of the First World War and the construction of the Serre-Ponçon Dam between 1955 and 1961.

First it was the Democratic-Republican Party ( 1963 ~ 1980 ); its head was Park Chung-hee who seized power in a 1961 military coup d ' état and ruled as an unelected military strongman until his formal election as president in 1963.

Burns identifies four successive main themes of the First Ladyship: as public woman ( 1900 – 1929 ); as political celebrity ( 1932 – 1961 ); as political activist ( 1964 – 1977 ); and as political interloper ( 1980 – 2001 ).

First Ladies: The Saga of the Presidents Wives and Their Power 1789 – 1961 ( 1992 ) excerpt and text search

* Robertson, A. and A. Plumber, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians ( Edinburgh 1961 ).

In 1961, Anatoliy Golitsyn, a major in the First Chief Directorate of the KGB, defected to the United States from his diplomatic post in Helsinki.

More recent uses include: by France during the First Indochina War ( 1946 – 1954 ), the Algerian War ( 1954 – 1962 ), the Portuguese Colonial War ( 1961 – 1974 ) and the Western Sahara War ( 1975 – 1991 ), The Six-Day War by Israel ( 1967 ), in Nigeria ( 1969 ), India and Pakistan ( 1965 and 1971 ), Turkey during the invasion of Cyprus ( 1974 ), by Morocco during the Western Sahara War ( 1975 – 1991 ), Iran ( 1980 – 88 ), Brazil ( 1972 ), Egypt ( 1973 ), Iraq ( 1980 – 88, 1991, 2003 – 2011 ), Angola ( 1993 ), Yugoslavia ( 1991-1996 ), and by Argentina ( 1982 ).

* The First Man In Space – NASA / JPL translation of Soviet Radio and Newspaper Reports – May 1, 1961

He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011.

Adopting Marxism-Leninism as his guiding ideology, in 1961 Castro proclaimed the socialist nature of the Cuban revolution, and in 1965 became First Secretary of the newly founded Communist Party.

* Jones ; J. R. The First Whigs: The Politics of the Exclusion Crisis, 1678 – 1683, 1961 online edition

The First Fifty Years ( Murfreesboro, TN: Middle Tennessee State College, 1961 ) pp. 136, 173

It was founded in Spain, on January 1961, by former officers, Pierre Lagaillarde ( who led the 1960 Siege of Algiers ), General Raoul Salan ( who took part in the 1961 Algiers putsch or " Generals ' Uprising ") and Jean-Jacques Susini, along with other members of the French Army, including Yves Guérin-Sérac, and former members of the French Foreign Legion from the First Indochina War ( 1946 – 54 ).

First published in Warsaw in 1961, the 1970 Polish-to-French-to-English translation of Solaris is the best-known of Lem's English-translated works.

Modern road construction began in earnest during the First Development Plan ( 1961 – 66 ).

* Vostok 1 – 12 April 1961 – First manned Earth orbiter

* Mercury-Redstone 3 – 5 May 1961 – First American in space

Paul Wittgenstein ( November 5, 1887March 3, 1961 ) was an Austrian-born concert pianist who became known for commissioning new piano concerti for the left hand alone, following the amputation of his right arm during the First World War.

First published in 1948, based on earlier articles published in Wales magazine, corrected, revised and enlarged editions appeared in 1948, 1952 and 1961.

* Uncle Shelby's ABZ Book ( Simon & Schuster, 1961 ) ( First book of original material for adults )