* 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 – Jim Goad, American author

* 1961 – Jim Bowden, American sportscaster

* 1961 – Jim Gentile of the Baltimore Orioles becomes the first player in baseball history to hit grand slams in consecutive innings.

* 1961 – Slim Jim Phantom ( James McDonnell ), American musician ( Stray Cats, Phantom, Rocker & Slick, Dead Men Walking, and The Head Cat )

* 1961 – Jim L. Mora, American football coach

* 1961 – Jim Brickman, American pianist and songwriter

The stars of the program were real-life husband James " Jim " Jordan ( 16 November 1896 – 1 April 1988 ) and his wife Marian Driscoll ( 15 April 1898 – 7 April 1961 ), who were natives of Peoria, Illinois.

The fifty-four artists shown included Richard Lindner, Wayne Thiebaud, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, James Rosenquist, Jim Dine, Robert Indiana, Tom Wesselmann, George Segal, Peter Phillips and Peter Blake ( his large The Love Wall from 1961 ) and Yves Klein, Arman, Daniel Spoerri, Christo, Mimmo Rotella.

* Jim Jeffcoat ( born 1961 ), professional football player for the Dallas Cowboys and the Buffalo Bills from 1983 to 1997.

* Jim Jeffcoat ( born 1961 ), professional football player for the Dallas Cowboys and the Buffalo Bills from 1983 to 1997.

* Jim L. Mora ( born 1961 ), former NFL head coach, son of Jim E. Mora

His other early appearances included Dixon of Dock Green ( 1962 ), The Morecambe & Wise Show, The Seven Faces of Jim ( 1961 ) with Jimmy Edwards, a production of Noël Coward's Hay Fever ( 1968 ) and the storyteller in several episodes of Jackanory ( 1969 ).

Jim Meddick ( born August 1961 ) is an American cartoonist.

In the 1961 Italian Grand Prix on 10 September at Monza, Wolfgang von Trips in his Ferrari collided with Jim Clark's Lotus.

* Jim Carter ( golfer ) ( born 1961 ), American

Although he may be best known today as the creator of the Jimmy Dean sausage brand, he became a national television personality starting in 1957, rising to fame for his 1961 country crossover hit " Big Bad John " and his television series, The Jimmy Dean Show, which also gave puppeteer Jim Henson his first national media exposure.

* Jim Larkin ( 1961 ), American college football coach

( 1956 – 60 ) and three series of Faces of Jim ( 1961 – 1963 ), both as vehicles for Jimmy Edwards.

In 1952 he began freelance work for the children's comic The Beano, drawing series like Little Plum, Minnie the Minx ( started in 1953, taken over by Jim Petrie in 1961 ), The Three Bears and The Bash Street Kids ( initially called When the Bell Rings ).

Two years later, in 1961, the Joneses became the first white couple in Indiana to adopt a black child, James Warren Jones, Jr. Marceline was once spat upon while she carried Jim Jr.

* Karl Swenson played Bridger in the episode " The Jim Bridger Story " of NBC's Wagon Train, broadcast on May 10, 1961.

She was married from 1961 to 1992 to televangelist, and later convicted felon, Jim Bakker.

The first member of the unit, defensive end Jim Marshall, came to the Vikings in a 1961 trade before Finks arrived.