* 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 )

* Irene Saez ( born 1961 ), Venezuelan politician and former Miss Universe

The play was adapted into a 1961 film starring Irene Papas.

Irene Lailin Sáez Conde ( born 13 December 1961 in Caracas, Venezuela ) is a Venezuelan politician and a former Miss Universe.

* Irene Tsu ( born 1945 ), actress, started in the film Flower Drum Song in 1961

* An E-bay sale of a photo of Irene Tsu says " Irene Tsu ( born April 5, 1943 in Shanghai, China ) is an actress who started in the film Flower Drum Song in 1961.

In 1889 Alois Hugo Nelmapius bought the northern and north-eastern portions of the farm Doornkloof and named it after his daughter Irene ( who died 1961 ).

Irene married her second husband, Harold E. Knox, in 1946 ; they divorced in 1961.

After her release, Norah illustrated her brother ’ s book Cuaderno San Martin, as she had done with his earlier works like Luna de enfrente and Fervor de Buenos Aires, and Las invitadas ( 1961 ) and Autobiografia de Irene ( 1962 ) by Silvina Ocampo.

* Discovery of the holy relics ( 1961 ) of Saint Irene of Lesvos the Virgin-martyr ( 1463 )

On January 4, 1961, his wife Irene died at the Madison Lodge Sanitarium after spending nearly five years at the facility.

and now, therefore, do I, John A. Notte, Jr., Governor of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, proclaim the week of June 11th to 17th, 1961, as Miss Rhode Island Pageant Week, with deep appreciation to the Jaycees, local and statewide, for the presentation of their beautiful Pageants and the encouragement of all Rhode Island girls to participate.

Many major Scottish post-war novelists, such as Muriel Spark, with The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie ( 1961 ) spent much or most of their lives outside Scotland, but often dealt with Scottish themes.

* 1961 Basin Street East Proudly Presents Miss Peggy Lee

* Samantha Bond ( born 1961 ), English actress, best known for her role of Miss Moneypenny in the fictional James Bond movies

* Ursula ( 1961, based on the short story " Miss Gentilbelle ")

* Sharon Renee Brown, Miss USA 1961, was Miss Waterproof that same year.

* Nancy Fleming, Miss America 1961, is from Montague.

* Nancy Anne Fleming, Miss America 1961

The title comes from Murder, She Said, which was the title of a 1961 film adaptation of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novel 4: 50 from Paddington.

Her first, The Comforters ( 1957 ), concerns a woman who becomes aware that she is a character in a novel ; The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie ( 1961 ), at times takes the reader briefly into the distant future to see the various fates that befall its characters.

For the first time since 1961, Miss Puerto Rico competed in the Miss America Pageant.

Many major Scottish post-war novelists, such as Muriel Spark, James Kennaway, Alexander Trocchi, Jessie Kesson and Robin Jenkins spent much or most of their lives outside Scotland, but often dealt with Scottish themes, as in Spark's Edinburgh-set The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie ( 1961 ) and Kennaway's script for the film Tunes of Glory ( 1956 ).

* Rosemarie Frankland – beauty pageant contestant who won the 1961 Miss United Kingdom and Miss World.

After the early death of his wife, in 1970, he married again, to former Miss Australia 1961, Rosemary Fenton, with whom he has one son.

She was raised in San Francisco and won a " Miss Chinatown " beauty pageant in 1961.

Hickson played the housekeeper in the Marple film Murder, She Said in 1961 ( based on Agatha Christie's original novel 4. 50 From Paddington ), which starred Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple.

* 1961 Miss Happiness and Miss Flower, a children's book about Japanese dolls and the house built for them.

* Miss Jean Brodie, in Muriel Spark's 1961 novel The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, reads the poem out loud to her class.