* 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 )

Under leave to extend my remarks, I include the relevant portion of my newsletter, together with the text of the article from the U.S. News & World Report: `` your Congressman, Samuel S. Stratton, reports from Washington, May 1, 1961

In 1961, Jamaican Chief Minister Norman Washington Manley proposed the replacement of Empire Day with Labour Day, a celebration in commemoration of May 23, 1938, when Alexander Bustamante led a labour rebellion leading to Jamaican independence.

* 1961 – The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, D. C., to vote in presidential elections.

The Chicago Packers ( now Washington Wizards ) became the ninth NBA team in 1961.

The franchise was established in 1961 by the name of the Washington Senators, an expansion team awarded to Washington, D. C., after the city's first ballclub, the original Washington Senators, moved to Minnesota and became the Twins.

Major League Baseball expansion in 1961 included the formation of the Los Angeles Angels, the move to Minnesota to become the Minnesota Twins by the former Washington Senators and the formation of a new franchise called the Washington Senators.

In March 1961, Lee enrolled at the University of Washington, majoring in drama according to the university's alumni association information, not in philosophy as claimed by Lee himself and many others.

The San Francisco national chapter retained the name " Mattachine Society ", while the New York chapter became " Mattachine Society of New York, Inc ." Other independent groups using the name Mattachine were formed in Washington, D. C. ( Mattachine Society of Washington, 1961 ), and in Chicago ( Mattachine Midwest, 1965 ).

Organized by CORE, the first Freedom Ride of the 1960s left Washington D. C. on May 4, 1961, and was scheduled to arrive in New Orleans on May 17.

* JMGLOW: CIA Washington 1961

His first work to feature the large-scale use of hard-edged figures and Ben-Day dots was Look Mickey ( 1961, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C .).

* Study Guide for Stanisław Lem: Solaris ( 1961 ), by Paul Brians, Department of English, Washington State University

* Washington Senators ( became the Minnesota Twins in 1961 )

* 1961: Washington Senators move to Minneapolis-St. Paul, renamed Minnesota Twins

* 1961: Los Angeles Angels and Washington Senators enfranchised

* Minnesota Twins enfranchised 1894 as the Kansas City Blues, moved to Washington ( 1901 ), and to Minneapolis-St. Paul ( 1961 )

* Texas Rangers enfranchised 1961 as the Washington Senators, moved to Dallas-Fort Worth ( 1972 )

* Tom Howard ( photographer ) ( died 1961 ), photographer who worked at the Washington bureau of P & A Photographs during the 1920s

Allen was assigned in December 1961 to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Space Technology Office, in the Directorate of Research and Engineering, Washington, D. C. From June 1965 to February 1973, he was assigned to the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, initially in Los Angeles, California, as the Deputy Director for Advanced Plans in the Directorate of Special Projects.

Washington, DC: U. S. Government Printing Office 1961, Republished 1983, Office of Air Force History, ISBN 0-912799-02-1.