* 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 )

Theodore Roosevelt, the youngest to serve, was 42 years and 11 months old when he was sworn in following the death of William McKinley in 1901, and John F. Kennedy, the youngest to be elected, was 43 years and 7 months old when he was inaugurated in 1961.

* William Daum Euler ( 1875 – 1961 ), Canadian politician

* 1961 – William Ragsdale, American actor

In 1961 an English scholar of Arabic Dr. E. E. Elder and William M. Miller, an openly hostile Christian minister, published a second English translation, Al-Kitab Al-Aqdas, through the Royal Asiatic Society.

The code was relaxed somewhat after 1961, and the next year William Wyler remade The Children's Hour with Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine.

* Frank William Land ( b. ~ 1961 ), British mathematician

< center > This 1961 photo shows Dr. William H. Pickering, ( center ) JPL Director, presenting a Mariner spacecraft model to President John F. Kennedy, ( right ).

Neon ( Greek ( neon ) meaning " new one ") was discovered in 1898 by the British chemists Sir William Ramsay ( 1852 – 1916 ) and Morris W. Travers ( 1872 – 1961 ) in London.

Nominalism has been endorsed or defended by many, including William of Ockham, Peter Abelard, D. C. Williams ( 1953 ), David Lewis ( 1983 ), and arguably H. H. Price ( 1953 ) and W. V. O. Quine ( 1961 ).

William Melvin " Bill " Hicks ( December 16, 1961 – February 26, 1994 ) was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, and musician.

One upset occurred in 1961, when the small liberal arts colleges of Hobart and William Smith in Geneva, New York, defeated Baylor University to retire undefeated as the third college, along with Rutgers and Colgate, to do so.

The Australian obstetrician William McBride and the German pediatrician Widukind Lenz suspected a link between birth defects and the drug, a theory Lenz proved in 1961.

Fellow Democrat William A. Blakley was appointed to replace Johnson as Senator, but Blakley lost a special election in May 1961 to Tower.

* October 17, 1961: Denver, Colorado Tennyson Beard, 14, got into an argument with William Hachmeister, 15, at Morey Junior High School.

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.

* William Whatley Pierson ( acting chancellor, 1960 – 1961 )

In earlier times Jack Clayton's The Innocents ( 1961 ) brought The Turn of the Screw to vivid life on film, and William Wyler's The Heiress ( 1949 ), adapted from Washington Square, won four Academy Awards, including a Best Actress award for Olivia de Havilland as Catherine Sloper.

December 1961: Hardback ; ISBN 0-434-60326-0 / ISBN 978-0-434-60326-8 ( UK edition ); Publisher: William Heinemann Ltd

* William M. Smart, Celestial Mechanics, 1961, John Wiley.

* William F. Norrell – U. S. representative, 1939 – 1961

* William R. Ott ( B-Bob ) was Chief in 1961 when the Fire Department was incorporated, and became Chief again in the 1980s and 1990s.

* " The Ousider ", a 1959 biographical essay about Iwo Jima flag-raiser Ira Hayes, by William Bradford Huie, basis for the 1961 film

The 3rd district was represented by Republicans Clark McGregor and William Frenzel from 1961 until 1991.

Significant portions of the 1961 film The Intruder ( Directed by Roger Corman and starring William Shatner ) were filmed in East Prairie.