* 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 – Cary Stayner, American serial killer

* 1886 – John Alexander Douglas McCurdy Canadian pilot and engineer ( d. 1961 )

As the dacoits flourished through the 1950s-1970s, they were theme was several films made in the era, starting with Ganga Jamuna ( 1961 ) and Raj Kapoor ’ s Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai ( 1960 ), and Sunil Dutt's classic, Mujhe Jeene Do ( 1963 ).

Sunil Shetty ( born August 11, 1961 ) is an Indian film actor, producer, hotelier and liquor and fashion boutique owner.

Sunil Shetty was born in a Tulu speaking ethnic Bunt family on 11 August 1961 in Mulki, India He also owns some hotels specializing in Udupi cuisine ( vegetarian and non-vegetarian ) and a clothing boutique named Mischief and has launched a company called Popcorn Entertainment to promote Bollywood actors touring abroad for stage shows and / or concerts.

* 1961 – V. B. Chandrasekhar, Indian cricketer

An example of such territories was the 1961 Indian annexation of Goa and Indian integration of Junagadh.

Goa was invaded by India in 1961 and became an Indian state in 1987 ; East Timor was abandoned in 1975 and was then invaded by Indonesia.

* 1961 – Supriya Pathak, Indian actress

After years of failed negotiations, Nehru authorized the Indian Army to liberate Goa in 1961 from Portuguese occupation, and then he formally annexed it to India.

* 1961 – Tarsem Singh, Indian director

* 1961 – Arundhati Roy, Indian writer

* 1961 – Sunny Deol, Indian actor

In 1961 the Portuguese army was involved in armed action in its colony in Goa against an Indian invasion ( See Operation Vijay ).

* Transition Magazine, founded by Rajat Neogy ( 1938 – 1995 ), a Ugandan of Indian ancestry, was published from 1961 to 1976 on the African continent and was revived in 1991 in the United States

Another precedent to the prepared piano was an experiment by the French composer Maurice Delage ( 1879 – 1961 ): his Ragamalika ( 1912 – 22 ), based on the classical music of India, calls for a piece of cardboard to be placed under the B-flat in the second line of the bass clef to dampen the sound, imitating the sound of an Indian drum.

The county was created on July 3, 1959, in anticipation of the termination of the Menominee Indian Reservation in 1961.

From 1961, he toured Europe, the United States, and Australia, and became the first Indian to compose music for non-Indian films.

* E. R. Eswaran ( born 1961 ), Indian politician and entrepreneur from Tamil Nadu

“ Sixteen ” ( Moak 1923: 20 ) or “ seventeen ” ( T. Kroeber 1961: 80 ) Indian fighters killed about forty Yahi, as part of a retaliatory attack for two white women and a man killed at the Workman ’ s household on Lower Concow Creek near Oroville ( Moak 1923: 18 ).

Dinesh D ' Souza (; born April 25, 1961 ) is an Indian American conservative political commentator, public intellectual and author who is currently the President of The King's College in New York City.

In 1961, Invader released an atypical LP, West Indian Folk Songs for Children ( Caedmon Records ).

Payment of dowry is now prohibited under The 1961 Dowry Prohibition Act in Indian civil law and subsequently by Sections 304B and 498a of the Indian Penal Code ( IPC ).

Despite objections in world forums such as the United Nations, Portugal had long maintained that its African colonies were an integral part of Portugal, and felt obliged to militarily defend them against Communist-inspired armed groups, particularly after India's annexation of Portuguese exclaves Goa, Daman and Diu ( Portuguese India ), in 1961 ( see Indian Invasion of Goa ).

* In 1961, during the invasion of the Portuguese possessions of Goa, Daman and Diu by the Indian Union, Portugal sought the help of Britain to little effect.

In the 1961 – 62 Australian season which followed the 1960-61 West Indies tour, Sobers and his West Indian colleagues Wes Hall and Rohan Kanhai returned to Australia to take part in the Sheffield Shield.

* people who had, prior to 1961, renounced their Indian status so they could vote in federal elections, and their children