* 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 )

* 1961 – American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi for " disturbing the peace " after disembarking from their bus.

* 1961 – Randy Jackson, American musician

* 1961 – Peter Jackson, New Zealand film director

On 24 May 1961, the freedom riders continued their rides into Jackson, Mississippi, where they were arrested for " breaching the peace " by using " white only " facilities.

Jackson hit 47 home runs in 1969, and was briefly ahead of the pace that Roger Maris set when he broke the single-season record for home runs with 61 in 1961, and that of Babe Ruth when he set the previous record of 60 in 1927.

Coats attended local public schools, and graduated from Jackson High School in 1961.

In a letter to Senator Jackson in September 1961 Bundy sought to define the early relationship sought with the State Department.

The most thorough critique of the system emerged from the hearings conducted in 1960 ( 1961 by the Senate Subcommittee on National Policy Machinery, known as the Jackson Subcommittee for its chairman, Senator Henry Jackson.

The most commonly cited include the series of Chamber's Street loft concerts, New York, curated by Yoko Ono and La Monte Young in 1961 featuring pieces by Jackson Mac Low and Henry Flynt, the month-long Yam festival held in upstate New York by George Brecht and Robert Watts in May, 1963 with Ray Johnson and Allan Kaprow that was the culmination of a year's worth of Mail Art pieces, and a series of concerts held in Mary Bauermeister's studio, Cologne, 1960-61 featuring Nam June Paik and John Cage amongst many others.

Turcotte confessed to the bank robbery and served 18 years in the Michigan State Prison at Jackson, Michigan including a term for escape in 1961.

* Paul Jackson ( b. 8 August 1961, Telford ) – bassist ; is currently in the band Dawson

* Eric Jackson, " The Organization of Upper Canadian Reformers, 1818 – 1867 ," Ontario History 53 ( 1961 )

In 1961, Jackson, called by Time the Senate's " most eligible bachelor ," married Helen Hardin, a 28-year old Senate receptionist, but Jackson didn't move out of his childhood home where he lived with his unmarried sisters for several years.

Along with eight other riders, on June 4, 1961 Carmichael made the trip by train from New Orleans, LA to Jackson, MS. Before getting on the train in New Orleans, they encountered white protestors blocking the way.

From 1961 he scored for recordings by Milt Jackson, Sonny Stitt, and Blue Mitchell .< ref > Harrison, Max.

In 1961 Flynt coined the term concept art in the Neo-Dada, proto-Fluxus book An Anthology of Chance Operations ( published by Jackson Mac Low and La Monte Young ) that was released in 1963.

* editor, The grandeur that was Rome ( Sidgwick and Jackson, London, 1961 )

In June 1961, after pulling into the bus station in Jackson, Mississippi, Filner was arrested along with his co-riders for " disturbing the peace and inciting a riot ".

From 1961 to 1962, Jackson was an assistant teacher in Stoke on Trent.

Ron Foster ( 1960 ) appeared twice as Toby Dawson in " Six Feet of Gold " and as Sheriff Buck Simpson in " Jeopardy at Jackson Hole " ( 1961 ).

In 1961, this collaboration produced " I Like It Like That ", his first and biggest hit, peaking at # 2 in the Billboard Hot 100 chart ( covered in 1965 by The Dave Clark Five ) and " Something You Got " ( covered by Alvin Robinson, the Ramsey Lewis Trio, Chuck Jackson, Earl Grant, Maxine Brown, Bobby Womack, Fairport Convention and Bruce Springsteen ).

The Chicago Outfit mistakenly believed Jackson had become an FBI informant in 1961.