1961 in the United States

Events from the year 1961 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal government

President:
[Vice President of the United States|President of the United States|Vice President]:
Chief Justice: Earl Warren
Speaker of the House of Representatives:
Senate Majority Leader:
Congress: 86th, 87th

Events

January–March

January 3
*President Dwight Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba.
*At the National Reactor Testing Station near Idaho Falls, Idaho, atomic reactor SL-1 explodes, killing 3 military technicians.
January 5 - Italian sculptor Alfredo Fioravanti marches into the U.S. Consulate in Rome, and confesses that he was part of the team that forged the Etruscan terracotta warriors in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
January 17 - President Dwight Eisenhower gives his Farewell Address, during which he warns of the increasing power of a "military-industrial complex".
January 20 - John F. Kennedy is sworn in as the 35th president of the United States, and Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as the 37th vice president.
January 24
*A U.S. B-52 Stratofortress, with two Mark 39 nuclear bombs, crashes near Goldsboro, North Carolina.
*Musician Bob Dylan reportedly makes his way to New York City after bumming a ride in Madison, Wisconsin. Dylan is likely on his way to visit his idol Woody Guthrie. He later finds fame in the Greenwich Village protest folk music scene.
January 25
*In Washington, D.C. John F. Kennedy delivers the first live presidential news conference. In it, he announces that the Soviet Union has freed the 2 surviving crewmen of a USAF RB-47 reconnaissance plane shot down by Soviet flyers over the Barents Sea July 1, 1960.
*Disney's animated film, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, is released. Its financial success pulling the studio out of another financial slump from the initial underperformance of Sleeping Beauty.
January 26 - John F. Kennedy appoints Janet G. Travell to be his physician, the first woman to hold this appointment.
January 30 - President John F. Kennedy delivers his first State of the Union Address.
January 31 - Ham, a 37-pound male chimpanzee, is rocketed into space aboard Mercury-Redstone 2, in a test of the Project Mercury capsule, designed to carry United States astronauts into space.
February 1 - The United States launches its first test of the Minuteman I intercontinental ballistic missile.
February 14 - Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized in Berkeley, California.
February 15
*President Kennedy warns the Soviet Union to avoid interfering with the United Nations pacification of the Congo.
*A Sabena Boeing 707 crashes near Brussels, Belgium, killing 73, including the entire United States figure skating team and several coaches.
March 1 - President of the United States John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.
March 8 - The first U.S. Polaris submarines arrive at Holy Loch in Scotland.
March 11 - "Barbie" gets a boyfriend, when the "Ken" doll is introduced in the United States.
March 13
*United States delegate to the United Nations Security Council Adlai Stevenson votes against Portuguese policies in Africa
*President of the United States John F. Kennedy proposes a long-term Alliance for Progress between the United States and Latin America.
March 29 - The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, D.C. to vote in presidential elections.
March 30 - The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed at New York City.

April–June

April 17
*The Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba begins; it fails by April 19.
*The 33rd Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Bob Hope, is held at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Billy Wilder's The Apartment wins and receives the most respective awards and nominations with five and ten, winning Best Motion Picture and Best Director for Wilder. It is the last black-and-white film to win for Best Picture until 1993.
19 April – President Kennedy presented the National Geographic Society's Gold Medal, in the White House Rose Garden, to Jacques Cousteau, the inventor of the Aqua-Lung, undersea explorer, and filmmaker. The medal was inscribed: "To earthbound man he gave the key to the silent world."
April 23 - Judy Garland performs in a legendary comeback concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
April 27 - President Kennedy delivers a revealing speech: The President and the Press: Address before the American Newspaper Publishers Association.
May 4 - U.S. Freedom Riders begin interstate bus rides to test the new U.S. Supreme Court integration decision.
May 5 - Mercury program: Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space aboard Mercury-Redstone 3.
May 9 - In a speech on "Television and the Public Interest" to the National Association of Broadcasters, FCC chairman Newton N. Minow describes commercial television programming as a "vast wasteland".
May 14 - American civil rights movement: A Freedom Riders bus is fire-bombed near Anniston, Alabama and the civil rights protestors are beaten by an angry mob of Ku Klux Klan members.
May 21 - American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.
May 24 - American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus.
May 25 - Apollo program: President Kennedy announces before a special joint session of Congress his goal to put a man on the Moon before the end of the decade.
May 31 - President John F. Kennedy and French President Charles De Gaulle meet in Paris, France.
June 4 - Vienna summit: John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev meet during two days in Vienna. They discuss nuclear tests, disarmament and Germany.

July–September

July 21 - Mercury program: Gus Grissom, piloting the Mercury-Redstone 4 capsule Liberty Bell 7, becomes the second American to go into space. Upon splashdown, the hatch prematurely opens, and the capsule sinks.
July 31 - At Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, the first All-Star Game tie in major league baseball history occurs, when the game is stopped in the 9th inning due to rain.
August - USA founds Alliance for Progress.
August 5 - The Six Flags over Texas theme park officially opens to the public.
August 7 - Cape Cod National Seashore is established.
September 7 - Tom and Jerry make a return with their first episode since 1958, Switchin' Kitten.
September 17 - The world's first retractable roof stadium, the Civic Arena, opens in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
September 24 - The Walt Disney anthology television series, renamed Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, moves from ABC to NBC after seven years on the air, and begins telecasting its programs in color for the first time.
September 25 - Black voting rights activist Herbert Lee is murdered by Mississippi state representative E. H. Hurst.

October–December

October 1 - Baseball player Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hits his 61st home run in the last game of the season, against the Boston Red Sox, beating the 34-year-old record held by Babe Ruth.
October 9 - The New York Yankees defeat the Cincinnati Reds, 4 games to 1, to win their 19th World Series Title.
October 27 - A standoff between Soviet and American tanks in Berlin, Germany heightens Cold War tensions.
November - The Fantastic Four #1 comic debuts, launching the Marvel Universe and revolutionizing the American comic book industry.
November 2 - Kean opens at Broadway Theater in New York City for 92 performances.
November 6 - The U.S. government issues a stamp honoring the one-hundredth birthday of James Naismith.
November 9 - Robert M. White records a world record speed in a rocket plane of 6,585 km/h flying an X-15.
November 17 - Michael Rockefeller, son of New York Governor, and later Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, disappears in the jungles of New Guinea.
November 18 - U.S. President John F. Kennedy sends 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam.
November 20 - The funeral of longtime House Speaker Sam Rayburn is held in Washington, D.C. Two former presidents and one future one join President Kennedy in paying their respects.
December 5 - U.S. President John F. Kennedy gives support to the Volta Dam project in Ghana.
December 11 - The Vietnam War officially begins, as the first American helicopters arrive in Saigon along with 400 U.S. personnel.

Ongoing

Sport

April 16 - Chicago Black Hawks win their third Stanley Cup by defeating the Detroit Red Wings 4 games to 2; the deciding game is played at Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

Births

January

January 2
* Gabrielle Carteris, actress and trade union leader
* Todd Haynes, director and screenwriter
January 4
*Lee Curreri, actor and pianist
*Sidney Green, basketball player and coach
January 5 - Iris DeMent, singer-songwriter
January 7 - John Thune, U.S. Senator from South Dakota from 2005
January 9
* Al Jean, animator and television writer
* Candi Milo, actress
* Oliver Goldstick, screenwriter and producer
January 10
* Evan Handler, actor
* Janet Jones, actress
January 13
* Wayne Coyne, musician, frontman of The Flaming Lips
* Julia Louis-Dreyfus, actress, producer and comedian
* Rich Fields, announcer and weather reporter
January 15 - Leni Wylliams, dancer/choreographer/master-teacher
January 18 - Bob Peterson, animator and voice actor
January 19 - William Ragsdale, actor
January 22
* Quintin Dailey, basketball player
* Daniel Johnston, musician
January 29 - Mike Aldrete, baseball player and coach
January 30 - Dexter King, social activist, son of Martin Luther King Jr.

February

February 2 - Michael Kay, sportscaster
February 4 - Stewart O'Nan, novelist
February 8 - Vince Neil, singer
February 9 - John Kruk, baseball player and commentator
February 10 - George Stephanopoulos, political consultant and commentator
February 12 - David Graeber, anthropologist, anarchist activist and author
February 17 - Chris Champion, wrestler

March

March 4
*Ray Mancini, boxer
*Steven Weber, actor, producer, and screenwriter
March 6 - John Blake, American football coach
March 14 - Gary Dell'Abate, radio producer, best known for his work on The Howard Stern Show
March 25 - Reggie Fils-Aimé, president of Nintendo of America
March 30 - Maria Maricich, alpine skier

April

April 2 - Christopher Meloni, actor
April 3 - Eddie Murphy, actor
April 10
* Mark Jones, basketball player
* Quency Williams, football player
April 14 - Daniel Clowes, cartoonist and screenwriter
April 17 - Rebecca Luker, actress and singer
April 20
* Don Mattingly, baseball player
* Mike Pniewski, actor and public speaker
April 26 - Chris Mars, singer-songwriter, drummer and producer

May

May 3
* David Vitter, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 2005 to 2017
* Joe Murray, animator, writer, illustrator, producer, director, and voice actor
May 6
* George Clooney, actor, film director, producer and screenwriter
* Wally Wingert, voice actor and radio personality
May 7 - Robert Spano, conductor and pianist
May 8 - Bill de Blasio, politician, Mayor of New York City from 2014
May 11
* Paul Begala, political commentator
* Lar Park Lincoln, actress
May 12
*Paul Begala, journalist and academic
*Lar Park Lincoln, actress
*Jerry Trimble, actor and stuntman
May 28 - Mark F. Giuliano, law enforcement official
May 31 - Lea Thompson, actress and director

June

June 5 - Mary Kay Bergman, voice actress
June 16 - David Adkins, member of the West Virginia House of Delegates
June 28
* Mike Lindell, businessman and political activist
* Charles M. Roessel, Navajo photographer and journalist

July

July 6 - Robin Antin, American dancer, choreographer, and businesswoman
July 7 - Eric Jerome Dickey, author
July 14 - Jackie Earle Haley, actor
July 15 - Scott Ritter, soldier and international weapons inspector
July 23 - Woody Harrelson, actor and playwright

August

August 4
* Eddie James, convicted murderer
* Barack Obama, 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017
August 5 - Tawny Kitaen, actress and model
August 9 - Amy Stiller, actress, daughter of Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara and sister of Ben Stiller
August 21 - Stephen Hillenburg, marine biologist, cartoonist
August 25 - Billy Ray Cyrus, singer
August 28 - Jennifer Coolidge, actress

September

September 8 – Wendi Richter, wrestler
September 9 - Jim Corsi, baseball player
September 11 - E.G. Daily, actress, voice actress and singer
September 23 - Chi McBride, actor
September 25 - Frankie Randall, boxer, welterweight world champion

October

October 5
* David Bryson, guitarist and singer-songwriter
* Sharon Cheslow, singer-songwriter and guitarist
October 10 - Jodi Benson, actress and singer
October 26 - Dylan McDermott, actor
October 28 - Derek Bunch, former NFL linebacker
October 29 - Randy Jackson, younger brother of Michael Jackson and member of the Jackson 5.

November

November 1 - Ryan Zinke, 52nd United States Secretary of the Interior
November 17
* Pat Toomey, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania from 2011 to 2023.
* Robert Stethem, U.S. Navy Seabee diver murdered by Hezbollah terrorists during the hijacking of TWA Flight 847
November 18 - Gwen Knapp, sports journalist
November 20
* Jim Brickman, singer-songwriter and pianist
* Phil Joanou, TV director
November 22
* Mariel Hemingway, actress and sister of Margaux Hemingway
* John Schnatter, entrepreneur and the founder of Papa John's Pizza
November 26 - Lisa Moretti, wrestler
November 29 - Tom Sizemore, actor

December

December 8 - Ann Coulter, political commentator
December 9 - Joe Lando, actor
December 12 - Jack Ciattarelli, politician
December 13 - Maurice Smith, martial artist
December 16
* Bill Hicks, comedian
* Jon Tenney, actor
* Sam Robards, actor
* Shane Black, film director
December 22 - Andrew Fastow, businessman
December 24 - Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors
December 30 - Sean Hannity, talk show host

Deaths

January 9 – Emily Greene Balch, writer, pacifist and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946
January 10 – Dashiell Hammett, writer
January 19 – Nathaniel Baldwin, inventor and Mormon fundamentalist
January 24 – Alfred Carlton Gilbert, inventor, athlete, magician, businessman, and toy maker
January 29 – John F. O'Ryan, soldier, lawyer and politician
February 3 – Anna May Wong, film actress
March 12 – Belinda Lee, English actress
March 17 – Susanna M. Salter, politician and activist
April 7 – Marian Driscoll Jordan, actress and radio personality
May 8 – Raymond DeWalt, inventor and businessman
May 13 – Gary Cooper, actor
May 16 – George A. Malcolm, jurist and educator
May 19 – Grace George, actress
May 23 – Joan Davis, comedic actress and vaudevillian
June 1 – Melvin Jones, founder of Lions Clubs International
June 2 – George S. Kaufman, playwright
June 17
* Jeff Chandler, actor
* Thomas Darden, rear admiral, 37th Governor of American Samoa
June 24 – William J. Connors, politician
June 27 – Paul Guilfoyle, actor
June 30 – Lee de Forest, inventor
July 2 – Ernest Hemingway, fiction writer, journalist and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea
July 4 – Franklyn Farnum, actor
July 6 – Woodall Rodgers, lawyer and politician, Mayor of Dallas
July 9 – Alan Marshal, Australian-born actor
July 17 – Ty Cobb, baseball player
August 26 – Gail Russell, actress
August 30 – Charles Coburn, actor
September 3 – Fay-Cooper Cole, anthropologist
September 10 – Leo Carrillo, actor
September 11 – George Irving, actor
September 13 – Fay Roope, actor
September 22 – Marion Davies, actress
September 23 – John Eldredge, actor
September 25 – Frank Fay, actor
October 1 – Donald Cook, actor
October 11
*Lucy Tayiah Eads, Kaw tribal chief
*Chico Marx, comedian
October 22 – Joseph M. Schenck, studio film executive
October 31 – Jim Aiken, football and basketball player and coach
November 2 – James Thurber, cartoonist, writer, humorist, journalist, and playwright
November 13 – Wally Brown, actor and comedian
November 16 – Sam Rayburn, politician
December 13 – Grandma Moses, painter and folk artist
December 20 – Moss Hart, playwright, librettist, and theater director
December 22 – Dick Elliott, actor
December 25 – Otto Loewi, pharmacologist
December 28 - Edith Wilson, First Lady of the United States