* 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 )

* Michael Land ( b. 1961 ), American composer and musician

* 1961 – Michael Rockefeller, American scion ( b. 1938 )

By his middle period, sexual freedom and the elimination of sexual jealousy were a major theme of Stranger in a Strange Land ( 1961 ), in which the progressively minded but sexually conservative reporter, Ben Caxton, acts as a dramatic foil for the less parochial characters, Jubal Harshaw and Valentine Michael Smith ( Mike ).

** Michael Sundin, English television presenter ( b. 1961 )

The term was first coined in 1961 when the British author Michael Moorcock published a letter in the fanzine Amra, demanding a name for the sort of fantasy-adventure story written by Robert E. Howard.

* Michael Moorcock's Elric sequence, beginning with The Dreaming City ( published in Science Fantasy 1961 ), notable for its adherence to counterstereotype.

Notable later 20th century productions include the Hilton Edwards ' 1959 production at the Gate Theatre in Dublin, starring Milo O ' Shea and Anna Manahan ; John Barton's 1960 Royal Shakespeare Company ( RSC ) production at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, starring Peter O ' Toole and Peggy Ashcroft, and which included both the complete Induction and the epilogue from A Shrew ; Maurice Daniels's 1961 RSC production at the Aldwych Theatre, starring Derek Godfrey and Vanessa Redgrave ; Trevor Nunn's 1969 RSC production also at the Aldwych, starring Michael Williams and Janet Suzman ; Clifford Williams ' 1973 RSC production at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, starring Alan Bates and Susan Fleetwood ; William Ball's 1976 commedia dell ' arte-style production at the American Conservatory Theater ; Wilford Leach's 1978 production at the Delacorte Theater, starring Raúl Juliá and Meryl Streep ; Barry Kyle's 1982 RSC production at the Barbican Centre, starring Alun Armstrong and Sinéad Cusack ; Toby Robertson's 1986 production at the Clwyd Theatr Cymru, starring Timothy Dalton and Vanessa Redgrave ; Jonathan Miller's 1987 RSC production at the Barbican, starring Brian Cox and Fiona Shaw ; A. J.

Fox, OC ( born Michael Andrew Fox ; June 9, 1961 ) is a Canadian American

In 1961, GEC merged with Sir Michael Sobell's Radio & Allied Industries Ltd, and with it emerged the new power behind GEC, Sobell's son-in-law Arnold Weinstock ( later Lord Weinstock ), who became Managing Director in 1963, moving the headquarters of the electrical giant from Kingsway ( in Holborn, London ), to a modern building at 1 Stanhope Gate ( near Hyde Park Corner, in Mayfair, London ).

Ray " Boom Boom " Mancini ( born Raymond Michael Mancino ; March 4, 1961 ) is a retired American boxer.

* Michael DeVito ( born 1961 ), competitive eater and three-time winner of the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest.

* Michael Weiner ( born 1961 ), Executive Director of the Major League Baseball Players Association

That discovery was made by Michael Minovitch in 1961.

His other early Off-Broadway credits include the role of Doug in the premiere of Michael Shurtleff's Call Me By My Rightful Name on January 31, 1961 at One Sheridan Square and the role of Bob Smith in the premiere of William Snyder's The Days and Nights of BeeBee Fenstermaker on September 17, 1962 until June 9, 1963 at the Sheridan Square Playhouse.

In 1961 Polish defector Michael Goleniewski exposed George Blake as a Soviet agent.

She married fellow author Michael Hardwick ( 1924-91 ) in 1961.

Rennie stayed with the production less than five months, to be replaced by Michael Wilding in July 1961.

Flight to afar, translated by Michael Bullock ( 1961 ).

The redhead translated by Michael Bullock ( 1961 ).

He married Janet Mbuyazwe in 1961, and they had four children together, Michael Thabo, Nathan Sipho, Martin Mhambi Salaam and Nobuhle Beauty.

He studied music, sociology, and philosophy from 1961 to 1965 at the University and the Staatliche Musikhochschule in Cologne with, amongst others, Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Gottfried Michael Koenig.

Some believe that Michael Rockefeller may have been taken by headhunters in western New Guinea as recently as 1961.

Michael McCloskey, hired by Brower in 1961 as the Club's first northwest field representative, became the Club's second executive director in 1969.

* 1961: Bye Bye Birdie – Book by Michael Stewart, music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Lee Adams