* 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 )

Former U. S. Congressman W. Sterling Cole served as the IAEA's first Director General from 1957 to 1961.

* Benjamin M. Rosen, MBA 1961, Former Chairman and CEO of Compaq

Soviet Union and Former Soviet Union Population from 1961 – 2009.

Former location of the Red Front Store and IOOF Hall which was destroyed by fire on November 7, 1961.

Former members include such colleges as Michigan State University, previously Michigan Agricultural College, ( 1888 – 1907 ), Eastern Michigan University, previously Michigan Normal College, ( 1892 – 1926 ), Hillsdale College ( 1888 – 1961 ), and Defiance College ( 1997 – 2000 ).

Former Lockheed lobbyist Ernest Hauser told Senate investigators that Minister of Defence Strauss and his party had received at least $ 10 million for West Germany's purchase of 900 F-104G Starfighters in 1961, which later became part of the Lockheed bribery scandals.

* 1961 – Former Fulham player and PFA chairman Jimmy Hill is appointed manager following an embarrassing FA Cup defeat at home to non-league King's Lynn.

Former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin paraphrased Ronald Reagan from the 1961 album during the 2008 Vice-Presidential debate, " It was Ronald Reagan who said that freedom is always just one generation away from extinction.

Former Lockheed lobbyist Ernest Hauser told Senate investigators that Minister of Defence Franz Josef Strauss and his party had received at least $ 10 million for West Germany's purchase of 900 F-104G Starfighters in 1961.

After some reverses, UN and Congolese government forces succeeded in recapturing the breakaway provinces of South Kasai on 30 December 1961, and Katanga on 15 January 1963.

United Nations Security Council Resolution 161 of 21 February 1961, called for the withdrawal of Belgian officers from command positions in the ANC, and the training of new Congolese officers with UN help.

Patrice Émery Lumumba ( 2 July 1925 – 17 January 1961 ) was a Congolese independence leader and the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo after he helped win its independence from Belgium in June 1960.

In his speech to the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly on 23 September 2009, Colonel Gaddafi called upon the Libyan president of UNGA, Ali Treki, to institute a UN investigation into the assassinations of Congolese prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, who was overthrown in 1960 and murdered the following year, and of UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld in 1961.

Denard served for two years in the Congo battling Simba rebels supporters of the late Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba, who had been murdered in Katanga in 1961 after having been overthrown by rival politicians and severely tortured while in transit.

On December 30, 1961, after a four month military campaign, troops of the Congolese central government re-conquered South Kasai and arrested Kalonji, thus ending the South Kasai secession.

Tshisekedi attended primary school at Kabaluanda ( West Kasai ) and obtained a doctorate diploma in 1961 at the Lovanium University School of Law in Leopoldville ( now Kinshasa ); he was the first Congolese to ever get a doctorate diploma in law.

In February 1961, the legally elected Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba was killed, and only then did the United Nations Security Council explicitly authorize the use of force for purposes beyond self-defense.