October 1961

[October 1], 1961 (Sunday)

• The CTV Television Network was launched at 6:30 p.m. on eight stations across Canada, with the one-hour program "Sneak Preview- glimpses of things to come", followed by 77 Sunset Strip at 7:30. The first Canadian program shown, after the 10:30 news and sports, was the game show Scrimmage at 10:50.
• Baseball player Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hit 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. The homer was made at 2:43 p.m. at Yankee Stadium, off of Boston pitcher Tracy Stallard, in the game's fourth inning. The run won the game, 1–0. Sal Durante, a 19-year-old spectator, got the baseball and won $5,000 and other prizes.
• Evangelist Pat Robertson began religious broadcasting on WTFC Channel 27, a UHF television station in Portsmouth, Virginia. He would later beam the programming by satellite to cable systems nationwide as the Christian Broadcasting Network.
• Advertising executive Lester Wunderman coined the phrase "direct marketing" in a speech in New York to the Hundred Million Club, an organization of businesspeople using direct mail.
• The Federal Republic of Cameroon came into existence with the merger of the Republic of Cameroun, former French Cameroon and part of the former British Cameroons.
• Factory roll-out inspection was made of an Atlas booster for the Mercury-Atlas 5 mission, and the booster was delivered on October 9.
• The United States Defense Intelligence Agency, the country's first centralized military espionage organization, was formed.
• In the UK soap Coronation Street, two major characters, Harry Hewitt and Concepta Riley, married on screen.
• The first SIP1 launch by the U.S. Navy was successful, reaching an apogee of.
• Died:
• *David Pratt, 53, South African farmer who shot and wounded South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd on April 9, 1960, committed suicide.
• *Donald Cook, 60, American stage and film actor

  [October 2], 1961 (Monday)

• The ABC network medical drama Ben Casey, starring Vince Edwards in the title role, premiered in the evening, four days after the premiere of the NBC medical drama Dr. Kildare and began a run of five seasons. Comparing the two, Associated Press critic Cynthia Lowry noted that "While there's a marked family resemblance to NBC's new 'Dr. Kildare,' this one is more clinical, more pre-occupied with operating room scenes and medical procedures."
• French President Charles de Gaulle delivered a televised address in France and French Algeria, outlining his plans to allow Algerian residents to determine their own future, and pledged to work toward the creation of a "strictly Algerian" security force. He also stated that, if necessary, he would again invoke the national emergency powers that he had allowed to expire two days earlier.
• The Shipping Corporation of India, one of India's largest companies, was created by the merger of the Eastern Shipping Corporation and the Western Shipping Corporation.
• The television game show Password was first telecast, with Allen Ludden as its host.
• WETA-TV, the first public television station in Washington, D.C., went on air.

  [October 3], 1961 (Tuesday)

• The Dick Van Dyke Show, starring Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam, was shown for the first time, making its debut at 8:00 p.m. EST on CBS. Although the show would go on to become very popular, the initial telecast, competing against Bachelor Father and Laramie attracted so few viewers that it was not even among the Top 70 most popular programs that week.
• The Motion Picture Association of America, which gives its stamp of approval and restrictions on films in the United States, changed its production code, declaring that "In keeping with the culture, the mores and the values of our time, homosexuality and other sexual aberrations may now be treated with care, discretion and restraint," adding that such "aberrations" "could be suggested but not actually spelled out". The change was believed to have been prompted by the filming of the Allen Drury novel Advise and Consent.
• Born: Vittorio Colao, Italian business executive and CEO of the Vodafone Group; in Brescia

  [October 4], 1961 (Wednesday)

• Police in McComb, Mississippi, United States, arrested and jailed 113 African-American high school and junior high school students, after the group walked out of Burgland High School and marched to City Hall, protesting the expulsion of two students who had participated in a sit-in earlier in the year.
• In the Irish general election, Fianna Fáil, led by Seán Lemass, lost its majority of 77 out of 144 seats, dropping to 70, but still retained the plurality and was able to form a government. Lemass continued as the Taoiseach.
• The Alvin Show, the first TV series to feature Alvin and the Chipmunks, premiered on CBS in the United States.
• Born:
• *Kazuki Takahashi, Japanese manga artist best known as the author of Yu-Gi-Oh!; in Tokyo
• *Jon Secada, Cuban-born American singer, winner of two Grammy Awards; in Havana

  [October 5], 1961 (Thursday)

• Starting with the federal income tax returns filed after December 31, 1962, all American taxpayers were required to supply social security numbers for themselves and their claimed dependents, as President Kennedy signed public law 87–398, an amendment to the United States Tax Code. People who did not have a social security number could apply to the Internal Revenue Service for a separate identifying number, and the initial failure to comply with the law in 1963 would be punishable by "a penalty of $5 for each such failure". The Code would further be amended on October 4, 1976, to require that everyone have a social security number.
• Maurice Papon, the Paris Chief of Police, issued a religion-specific curfew against all "Muslim Algerian workers" within the jurisdiction of his prefecture, even though they were considered citizens of France. The curfew order decreed that the Muslims were "advised most urgently" to stay indoors between 8:30 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. A protest by 30,000 of those affected twelve days later led to the Paris massacre of 1961.
• The Ninth Hague Conference on Private International Law concluded in The Hague, Netherlands, with the signing of the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement for Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents and the Hague Convention of 1961 Concerning the Powers of Authorities and the Law Applicable in Respect of the Protection of Minors.
• King Mahendra of Nepal and China's President Liu Shaoqi signed an agreement in Beijing defining the border between the mountain kingdom and its large Communist neighbor.
• Died:
• *Don Barbour, 34, vocalist of the jazz vocal group "The Four Freshmen", was killed in an auto accident.
• *Booker Little, 23, jazz musician, died of complications resulting from uremia.

  [October 6], 1961 (Friday)

• The "Schiessbefehl" was formally issued by General Heinz Hoffmann, the Minister of National Defense for East Germany, spelling out the rules for shooting anyone who attempted to escape from the German Democratic Republic. After a shouted warning and the firing of a warning shot, guards were ordered to fire their weapons at anyone clearly planning "to violate the state frontier".
• In leadership changes in the Lagting, Nils Hønsvald became President of the Lagting and Per Borten became President of the Odelsting for the other three-fourths.

  [October 7], 1961 (Saturday)

• All 34 people on board a British airliner were killed when the Douglas C47 Dakota crashed in the Pyrenees Mountains at Mont Canigou in France. The flight by Derby Aviation, a subsidiary of British Midland Airways, was primarily carrying British tourists who were on holiday to make a tour of Spain.

  [October 8], 1961 (Sunday)

• The first of at least 134 residents of East Berlin escaped to the West through a manhole that led to an underground sewer that ran underneath the Berlin Wall. West German students Dieter Thieme and Detlef Girmann organized the Unternehmen Reisebüro, also called the "Girmann Group". The operation lasted for four nights until East German police learned what was happening and closed off the route.
• U.S. Republican political consultant F. Clifton White convened the first meeting of the "Draft Goldwater Committee", inviting 22 friends from across the nation to gather at the Avenue Motel in Chicago. From the gathering began a movement to united conservative Republicans in securing the nomination of Arizona U.S. Senator Barry M. Goldwater to run in the 1964 U.S. presidential election.
• The 1961 Formula One season concluded with the running of the United States Grand Prix in Watkins Glen, New York, won by Innes Ireland. Phil Hill, who had already won the Driver's Championship on points, did not participate in the race.
• Died:
• *Tom Howard, 67, American photographer best known for his photograph of the execution of Ruth Snyder at Sing Sing Prison
• *Moshe Smoira, 72, first President of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1948 to 1954

  [October 9], 1961 (Monday)

• In upholding the constitutionality of the 1950 Subversive Activities Control Act, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Communist Party of the United States of America would be required to register as an agent of the Soviet Union, and to reveal its membership list and finances. CPUSA General Secretary Gus Hall said that the Party would refuse to comply.
• The New York Yankees won the World Series in the 5th game, defeating the Cincinnati Reds, 13–5, to take baseball's championship 4 games to 1.
• Skelmersdale, Lancashire, UK, was designated a new town.