* 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 )

Political developments, including the formation and growth of the Tanganyika African National Union ( TANU ), led to Tanganyika attaining independence from colonial rule in December 1961.

Nyerere became Minister of British-administered Tanganyika in 1960 and continued as Prime Minister when Tanganyika became officially independent in 1961.

On 29 March 1961 Britain agreed that Tanganyika would become an independent state on 28 December 1961.

Full independence came in December 1961 and Julius Kambarage Nyerere ( 1922 – 1999 ), a socialist leader who led Tanganyika from colonial rule, was elected President in 1962.

* Tanganyika between 1961 and 1962.

* The Trust Territory of Tanganyika ( United Kingdom ): Granted independence in 1961.

Macleod greatly accelerated decolonisation and by the time he was moved to Conservative Party Chairman and Leader of the Commons in 1961 he had made the decision to give independence to Nigeria, Tanganyika, Kenya, Nyasaland ( as Malawi ) and Northern Rhodesia ( as Zambia ).

Nigeria, the Southern Cameroons and British Somaliland were granted independence in 1960, Sierra Leone and Tanganyika in 1961, Uganda in 1962, and Kenya in 1963.

Tanganyika (), later formally the Republic of Tanganyika, was a sovereign state in East Africa from 1961 to 1964.

Just two weeks later, on October 13, 1961, Rwagasore was assassinated while taking his dinner at the Hotel Tanganyika by a Greek national named Georges Kageorgis, allegedly in the pay of the pro-Belgian Christian Democratic Party ( PDC ).

Julius Kambarage Nyerere ( 13 April 1922 – 14 October 1999 ) was a Tanzanian politician who served as the first President of Tanzania and previously Tanganyika, from the country's founding in 1961 until his retirement in 1985.

In 1961 Tanganyika was granted self governance and Nyerere became its first Prime Minister on 9 December 1961.

Beginning her career as an author in the 1920s, Lady Listowel produced a volume of short stories about Hungarian society, as well as other works including: This I Have Seen ( 1943 ), which was an account of her early life, " Crusader In The Secret War " ( 1952 ), an account of the activities of Jan Kowalewski during WW2, Manual of Modern Manners ( 1959 ) The Modern Hostess ( 1961 ), which attracted widespread attention, The Making of Tanganyika ( 1965 ) and Dusk on the Danube ( 1969 ).

The Concept of Ujamaa formed the basis of Julius Nyerere's social and economic development policies in Tanzania after Tanganyika gained independence from its colonial power Britain in 1961 and its union with Zanzibar to form Tanzania in 1964.

The Commando also deployed briefly to Kuwait following an Iraqi threat to her Independence in 1961 and also to Tanganyika during the Zanzibar Revolution for internal security duties in 1964, returning to Aden after each deployment.

He initially fled into exile to Tanganyika, where he lived in Dar es Salaam ( 1961 – 1962 ).

Between 1935 and 1961, stamps of the combined postal administration ( East African Posts and Telecommunications Administration ) known as " Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika " were in use.

Shortly after independence in 1961, the new state of Tanganyika issued a series of commemorative stamps inscribed "".