* 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 – 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 )

Father Thomas Carroll, who founded the Carroll Centre for the Blind, wrote Blindness: What It Is, What It Does and How to Live with It in 1961.

* 1961 – Thomas Dooley, German-American soccer player

Motown Records had its first million-selling single in 1960 with The Miracles ' " Shop Around ", and in 1961, Stax Records had its first hit with Carla Thomas ' " Gee Whiz!

* Thomas Alan Stephenson ( 1898 – 1961 ), British zoologist

* 1961 – Wendy Thomas, American businesswoman

* Weisser, Thomas, Spaghetti Westerns: the Good, the Bad and the Violent — 558 Eurowesterns and Their Personnel, 1961 – 1977.

* September 18 – Thomas Darden, American Rear admiral, 37th Governor of American Samoa ( d. 1961 )

** Thomas Anthony Dooley, American physician ( d. 1961 )

* April 29 – Sir Thomas Beecham, English conductor ( d. 1961 )

UPI reporters and photographers have won ten Pulitzer Prizes: Russell Jones ( International Reporting, 1957 ), Andrew Lopez ( News Photography, 1960 ), Yasushi Nagao ( News Photography, 1961 ), Merriman Smith ( National Reporting, 1964 ), Kyoichi Sawada ( News Photography, 1966 ), Toshio Sakai ( Feature Photography, 1968 ), Lucinda Franks and Thomas Powers ( National Reporting, 1971 ), and David Hume Kennerly ( Feature Photography, 1972 ).

In his authoritative ' Godliness and Good Learning ' ( Cassell 1961 ), D. H. Newsome points out that muscular Christianity developed after Arnold's time at Rugby and that " although ' Tom Brown's School Days ' is one of the earliest examples of the delight in athleticism, the ideal there expressed is not that of Arnold but of Thomas Hughes author " ( page 80 ).

( Thomas C. Barr, Jr., " Caves of Tennessee ", Bulletin 64 of the Tennessee Division of Geology, 1961, 568 pages.

Madness and Civilization ( 1961 ) postulated that conceptions of madness and what was considered " reason " or " knowledge " was itself subject to major culture bias-in this respect mirroring similar criticisms by Thomas Szasz, at the time the foremost critic of psychiatry, and himself now an eminent psychiatrist.

LeMay was appointed Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force in July 1957, serving until 1961, when he was made the fifth Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force on the retirement of Gen Thomas White.

Manu Chao (; born José-Manuel Thomas Arthur Chao on June 21, 1961 ) is a French singer of Spanish roots ( Basque and Galician ).

( Thomas C. Barr, Jr., " Caves of Tennessee ", Bulletin 64 of the Tennessee Division of Geology, 1961, 568 pages.

( Thomas C. Barr, Jr., " Caves of Tennessee ", Bulletin 64 of the Tennessee Division of Geology, 1961, 568 pages.

( Thomas C. Barr, Jr., " Caves of Tennessee ", Bulletin 64 of the Tennessee Division of Geology, 1961, 568 pages.

( Thomas C. Barr, Jr., " Caves of Tennessee ", Bulletin 64 of the Tennessee Division of Geology, 1961, 568 pages.

( Thomas C. Barr, Jr., " Caves of Tennessee ", Bulletin 64 of the Tennessee Division of Geology, 1961, 568 pages.

( Thomas C. Barr, Jr., " Caves of Tennessee ", Bulletin 64 of the Tennessee Division of Geology, 1961, 568 pages.

( Thomas C. Barr, Jr., " Caves of Tennessee ", Bulletin 64 of the Tennessee Division of Geology, 1961, 568 pages.

( Thomas C. Barr, Jr., " Caves of Tennessee ", Bulletin 64 of the Tennessee Division of Geology, 1961, 568 pages.

( Thomas C. Barr, Jr., " Caves of Tennesse ", Tennessee Division of Geology, Bulletin 64, 1961, p 148.