1961

This page relates to the year 1961 Gregorian Calendrier.

Events

March 23rd: the 14th Dalaï LAMA, Tenzin Gyatso refonda the Institute of medicine and astrology Tibetan to Dharamsala in India.
March 30th: Held of single Convention on the narcotics with New York under the aegis of the UNO which prohibits the production, the trade, the detention and the use of the Coca, the Opium, of the Cannabis and their derivatives (except at medical ends) for the countries signatories.
April 12th: launching of the first man in space: Youri Gagarine .
May 28th: The London famous daily newspaper The Observer publishes “ the call for the amnesty 1961 ”. This initiative will lead to the foundation of the movement Amnesty International.
June 3rd: Summit of Vienna (Austria) between two “K”, beginning of the “peaceful coexistence”.
September 1st - September 6th: Tito organizes a conference of the non-aligned States in Belgrade, with the participation of 21 African and Asian countries and Cuba. The Yugoslavia, the India and the Egypt will be the leading nations of the group of the non-aligned countries in its first years.
September 18th: Dag Hammarskjöld, general secretary of UNO, dies in an air crash in Rhodesia.
September 9th: Adjournment of the conference on nuclear disarmament (Geneva), without France.
October 17th: Congress of the Communist party of the Soviet Union (PCUS) devoting the rupture with the China.
November 3rd: The Burmese U Thant says “Mr U” is named General secretary of UNO
December 20th: Resolution of UNO on the statute of the Celestial body S: they can be freely explored by all the States and are not likely of national appropriation.

the Nobel Prize of peace is allotted to the Swede Dag Hammarskjöld.

Africa

January 6th: The “group of Casablanca” decides in favor of the government of Patrice Lumumba with the Congo-Kinshasa.
January 17th: Assassination of Patrice Lumumba, president of the Congo-Kinshasa. One of its partisans, Antoine Gizenga, created an independent State with Kisangani (Stanleyville).
February: Harold Macmillan condemns the policy of Apartheid to the Cape in the name of the “wind of the change” which makes “assemble the national conscience” in all the African continent.
February 4th: Nationalist rebellion in Angola supported by the Soviet Union (1961 - 1974). Riot with Luanda followed by a massive insurrection of peasants (February-March). The members of MPLA will kill 2000 Portuguese colonists in one day, which starts the war d´indépendance (1961-1974). L´insurrection will be subdued in blood (10 000 died, 40 000 refugees).
March 1st: Autonomy interns Uganda, following disorders.
April 13rd: The Portuguese organize a bloody repression in Angola: 50 000 Africans are killed and more 100 000 Angolans take refuge with the Congo Léopoldville. The movement continues with guerillas in the north and the east of the country.
April 15th: Black government with the Nyassaland after the victory of the Party of the congress of Malawi to the legislative ones.
May 1st: Julius Nyerere (TANU), Prime Minister for the Tanganyika.
May 31st: The African Southern union becomes republic of South Africa and leaves the the Commonwealth rather than to give up the principle of racial inequality.
Be: Insurrectionary situation in the North of the federation of Rhodesia and to the Nyassaland. Countryside of civil Disobedience in Rhodesia of North.
August 21st: Release of Jomo Kenyatta. Autonomy of the Kenya (independence in 1964).
September 1st: Insurrection of the Érythrée against the Ethiopia under the direction of the FPLE (Liberation popular front of Érythrée). The conflict lasts thirty years.
September 12th: Constitution of the African and Malagasy Union with Tananarive (UAM).
18 and September 25th: Elections supervised by UNO with the Ruanda and the Burundi.
October 1st: Reunification of the Cameroun. The president Ahmadou Ahidjo decides for the constitution of a unified national party ( November).
December 6th: Constitution in Southern Rhodesia, negotiated with the the United Kingdom, which establishes an assembly elected on the basis of “race”, with 50 seats for the white colonists and 15 for the Africans.
December 9th: Independence of the Tanganyika within the the Commonwealth. Julius Nyerere Head of the State.

Epidemic of Cholera in East Africa (1961 - 1979).
With the Conference of Addis-Abeba, the representatives of the participating States give each other for objective universal schooling at the end of the Années 1970.
IIIe Conference of the African People to the Cairo.

Western Africa

January:

After having set up a new cabinet, Modibo Keïta is made unanimously reinvest voters by the National Assembly of the Mali. In March, to Ségou, it launches a call to the austerity and in October, it decides the startup first five-year plan Malian.
Modibo Keïta request fast evacuation of all the French bases of the Mali (2200 men, which ensure the monitoring of the border with Algeria).

April 9th: Sylvanus Olympio is elected president of the Togo.
April 27th: Independence of the Sierra Leone.
May:

Andre Malraux, minister of state with the cultural Affairs goes to Bamako to standardize the situation between the France and the Mali. A few days later, Modibo Keita proposes opening of negotiations bilateral, which are led to London whereas France evacuates the base of Kati ( June). The bases of Tessalit ( July), of Gao ( August) and of Bamako ( September) are evacuated.
Creation of a Union of the African States by the Heads of State of the Guinea, the Ghana and the Mali. It will not be carried out.

8 - May 12th: Conference of Monrovia (21 participants) joined together on the initiative sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Prime Minister of Nigeria. She preaches the reinforcement of the State-nations by affirming the absolute equality between them, non-interference in the interior matters of each one, the respect of their sovereignty and the need for cooperating within advisory organizations. She recommends maintains it relations with the old metropolises and proposes the introduction of the French and the English to the sides of the national languages.
November: Travel of the queen Elisabeth II of the United Kingdom to the Ghana.

“Plot of the teachers” in Guinea. The mode works out the theory of the “permanent plot” which he answers by the terror symbolized by the “local revolutionary capacities” and the “Boiro camp” where the opponents are interned.
Ghana: “Speech of the paddle” of Kwame Nkrumah which stigmatizes corruption with several frameworks of its party, the CP.

The Maghreb

3 - January 6th: African charter of Casablanca signed by representatives of the Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Morocco, RAU and GPRA. It defines supranational objectives, of which the creation of a African Common Market and a single African citizenship. It brings its supports with the territories in fight for independence.
February 26th: Died with Reduction of the king Mohammed V of Morocco.
March 3rd: With the Morocco, establishment of the king Hassan II.
19 - July 22nd, Tunisia: Crisis of Bizerte. Asserting the base of Bizerte, the president Bourguiba station his troops around the French installations: a bloody confrontation follows. Tunisia breaks the diplomatic relations with France and seizes the Safety advice of the United Nations.

Congress Constitutive of the USPA (Panafrican European Public Service Union) with Tunis.

Algeria

January 8th: French Referendum on self-determination of the Algeria: The policy of the Général de Gaulle is approved by nearly 75% of the votes cast in metropolis and by 69% in Algeria.
February 11th: Creation in Spain of the secret armed Organization (OAS) by Pierre Lagaillarde and Jean-Jacques Susini to defend French Algeria.
21 - April 26th: Attempt at Putsch of the Generals to Algiers. In the night of the April 22nd the generals Shawl, Jouhaud, Zeller, joined by the general Salan seize the capacity.
April 23rd: In a short televised speech, Charles de Gaulle condemns the “quarter of the generals in retirement” and allots the full powerss under the terms of article 16 of the Constitution.
April 26th: The sedition of the generals ends: Gouraud, Shawl, then Zeller are constituted captive.
May 20th: Opening of the conference of Evian on the Algeria.
May 29th: The general Salan takes the head of the secret armed Organization.
July 5th: Bloody confrontations in the area of Constantine and Algiers at the time of the national day organized by FLN.
July 11th: The generals Salan, Jouhaud and Gardy are condemned to death in absentia by the High military Tribunal
September 5th: De Gaulle admits the Algerian claims on the the Sahara. The negotiation with the Provisional government of the Algerian Republic (GPRA) begins again.
11 - September 12th: Serious incidents with Oran and Bab El-Oued.
November 1st: Ben Bella makes the hunger strike to obtain the statute of political prisoner.

Americas

March 13rd: The president Kennedy proposes with the Latin America a “Alliance for progress” in order to promote economic development jointly, to engage of the structural reforms, to found or consolidate the democracy. The following day, he asks for the Congrès of the United States the authorization of create an inter-American Fund of social progress.
May 30th: Assassination of Trujillo in Dominican Republic, opening one period of political instability. A long time isolated of the capacity, middle-class street on the goods of the deposed dictator.
5 - August 17th: Exceptional conference of the economic and social inter-American Council of OAS to Punta del Este, in Uruguay. After the fiasco of the intervention in Cuba, Kennedy presents his projects of “Alliance for progress”. Two documents are signed: the first, the Declaration of the people of America , fixes certain a number of general objectives detailed in the second, the Charte of Punta del Este .

the rhetoric of Alliance for progress concerning the democracy will be hardly followed of effect and will be even against-productive. With opposed, the military aid makes considerable progress. It passes from 65 million per annum for the Latin America between 1953 and 1961 to 172 million for the three years of the Kennedy administration. The economic aid is singularly increased, passing from an annual average of 204 million dollars under the presidency of Eisenhower with 1,3 billion between 1962 and 1965.

November 7th: The soldiers put a term at the fourth mandate of the populist leader Velasco in Ecuador. The vice-president Carlos Julio Arosemena succeeds to him. He shows of nationalism and slopes on the left (fine in 1963).

Brazil

January 31st: Jânio da Silva Quadros, (UDN), President of the Republic. It must face a delicate economic situation.
August 23rd: The journalist Carlos Lacerda denounces on television São Paulo a coup d'etat which the president Quadros would have prepared. The August 24th, it makes in the same way on television of Rio.
August 25th: President Jânio Quadros gives up the presidency and leaves Brasilia, leaving a letter showing the occult and foreign forces. The vice-president João Marks Goulart, former minister for the Work of Getúlio Vargas which was in China, returns in haste, and finds a compromise with the army: the army lets Goulart reach the presidency, but the Constitution is amended. Of presidential, the mode becomes parliamentary. Goulart takes up duty the September 7th.

a new modification of the Constitution transfers part of the presidential executive power towards the Prime Minister João Marques Goulart.
Creation of a national company, Electrobras , to control the production and the distribution of electricity.

Cuba

January 3rd: Rupture of the diplomatic relations between the the United States and Cuba following the eviction of American diplomats in station with Havana. Eisenhower transmits the file to Kennedy, which gives green light to the invasion, provided that no North-American force is implied.
16 - April 20th: Bay of the Pigs. The attempt at invasion of groups of exiled cuban anticastrists supported by the United States is a true fiasco. The attackers are awaited by the troops of Castro and do not receive any air help on behalf of the United States. Castro triumphs. The attack day before, Fidel Castro proclaimed the “socialist” character of the cuban revolution and Khrouchtchev ensures him its supports unconditional.
May 1st: Cuba becomes a socialist Democratic republic.
In December, Castro declares Marxist-Leninist.

Ernesto Guevara prepares a restructuring plan, in the idea to break the economic dependence of Cuba with regard to sugar exports, to diversify the agricultural production and to industrialize the country. The production of sugar falls from 6,8 million tons in 1961 to 4,8 in 1963, depriving the country of invaluable currencies. Industrialization is handicapped by the North-American embargo.

Canada

April 21st: The Prime Minister for the Quebec Jean Lesage sets up the Commission Relative on the system of Québécois education.
June 17th: Foundation of the New Democratic party, old Left social democratic Canada.
Publication of the Insolences of the brother So-and-so of Jean-Paul Desbiens which denounces the school system of the Quebec under religious supervision.
Marie-Claire Kirkland-Casgrain is the first woman elected with the National Assembly of Quebec.

the United States

January 20th: Beginning of the democratic presidency of John Fitzgerald Kennedy with the the United States (fine in 1963).

the Kennedy administration, elected on the topic of the “New Border”, is made up of a young team and dynamics which proposes to launch a liberal large company: economic expansion, new military strategy (flexible reprisals), fight against the social inequalities and racial.

In March, the movements for the civic rights organize “steps” and convoys through the States of the South, in spite of violent reactions of the white populations.
April 17th: Failure of the invasion of bay of the Pigs to Cuba.
May: The United States intensifies their intervention with the Vietnam.
May 4th: Organization of “ Freedoms wrinkles ” to protest against discrimination in inter-State transport. Mixed buses are chartered in direction of the South.
October 1st: Creation of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
November 1st: Suppression of the segregation in inter-State transport.

Failure of the project Medicare conceived to guarantee the right to health, rejected by the Senate.
Creation of the Indian Youth Council with Chicago.
Rise of the time minimum wage.
uninterrupted Progression of GDP in the United States for 106 months (1961 - 1969).
Program of social housing construction providing 500 000 employment.
Increase in the budget of defense (1961 - 1963).

Asia

March 9th: The Dalaï LAMA lance a call to the the United Nations in favor of a restoration of the independence of the Tibet.
May 16th: Military coup d'etat in South Korea. The general Park Chung-hee with the capacity (fine in 1979). Beginning of the military dictatorship (fine in 1988).
May: Cease-fire with the Laos.
June: Agreement of Zurich allowing the installation of a government of national union the Laos.
October: The Soviet Union supports the candidature of the Mongolia for UNO.
December 16th: Beginning of American engagement (15 000 men) with the Vietnam. Kennedy agrees to increase the American number of military advisers with Saigon to help the South Vietnamese government in his fight against the National front for the release of Vietnam (of 2 000 with 23 000 men in 1964).
15 and December 19th: Annexation of Goa, Daman and Diu (Portuguese territories) with the India with the intervention of the army.

Afghanistan: The question of the Pachtounistan ignites again.
“democratic Reform” for the emancipation of the serfs to the Tibet.
Tunku Abdul Rahman proposes to widen the federation of Malaysia to Singapore, Sarawak, Sabah (North-Borneo) and Brunei.
Two Communists, Aïdit and Lukman, enter to the government in Indonesia.
Inflation in Indonesia: the currency in circulation doubles each year between 1961 and 1964 and triple between 1964 and 1965. The prices climb.
Land reform with the Japan.

The Middle East

April 11th: Beginning of the lawsuit Adolf Eichmann in Israel.
June 19th: The Kuwait reaches independence after abrogation of the treaty of protectorate of 1899.
Be: the government of RAU is entirely centralized in Egypt.
September 28th: The Syrian army seizes the capacity. Nasser refuses a showdown and repatriates all the Egyptians present in Syria. The RAU is dissolved.

the failure of RAU leads Nasser to modify its policy. Its ideology takes a definitely socialist orientation. He wants to establish social justice, the equal opportunity and to form a single social large body under the authority of the State. He accelerates the nationalizations, dispossesses the foreign communities (Syrians, Libanais, Greeks), destroyed Egyptian capitalism…

In September, Kennedy designates a special emissary with the the Middle East, Joseph Johnson, charged with studying the question of the Palestinian refugees on the basis of proposal of 1960. Nasser is affirmed favorable to the American plan. Washington approaches Tel-Aviv, in spite of the question of the Israeli nuclear armament.
December 15th, Israel: to Jerusalem, the Nazi Adolf Eichmann is condemned to died after a 8 months lawsuit.

In Iraq, Qasim supports the opponents with the Kurdish leader Barzani, which retorts by taking the maquis and requires the autonomy of the Kurdistan. In September, the Kurdish organizations are prohibited and the army starts a repression against the forces of Barzani. In front of the situation, the Kurdish officers of the army resign and engage at Barzani. The Kurdish guerilla is effective and the Iraqi army manages to control only the principal agglomerations. The mode of Qasim in fate weakens.
Nasser approaches the Arab National movement of Georges Habache.
the Qatar adheres to OPEC.
Electrification of Egypt (stopping).
the essence of the Egyptian production turns to the interior market. Exports to the other Arab countries are braked. The economy is supported by the USSR (technical assistances and economic) and by the United States, which delivers cereals.
Second land reform in Egypt: the ceiling of the surface of the properties is tiny room to 42 ha. The cultures are regulated by the State and are framed by agricultural cooperatives.

Europe

January 14th: Creation of the common Agricultural policy (CAP), and of the Funds European of orientation and agricultural guarantee (EAGGF).
February 10th (and 11): The 6 Member States of the EEC want a union political.
March 21st: Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, president of the Council of State in Romania.
April 25th: Government of Théo Lefèvre in Belgium (fine in 1965).
April 26th: Rupture of the diplomatic relations between the the USSR and the Albania.
June 4th: Interview of Kennedy and Khrouchtchev with Vienna. The Soviet leader announces his intention to sign a peace treaty with the GDR, which would make null and void the rights of access air and terrestrial Western in West Berlin. Kennedy reacts firmly and requests from the Congrès of the United States the right to point out 250 000 reservists in July. After the construction of the Berlin Wall, Khrouchtchev announces that it gives up for the moment the signature of such a treaty.
July 14th, Rome: The pope Jean XXIII mark a will of very clear opening by accommodating the president of the Italian Council of Ministers Amintore Fanfani with the the Vatican and publishing the Encyclical MATER and will magistra (May 15th) which condemns the Libéralisme and the social inequalities, consequently right-wing policies followed by the Christian Democrat. Concretely, the pope invites the catholic Action to give up the policy.
August 5th: The Westerners decide to maintain their troops by all the means with Berlin.
August 9th: Harold Macmillan request the adhesion of the the United Kingdom to the EEC.

August 12th: Construction in the night of the 12 to the August 13rd of a network of barbed wires which divides Berlin in two. The workmen set up in the night what will become the Berlin Wall when the concrete starts to replace the wire, two days later. The East-German authorities want to thus put a term at the massive exodus of the Berlin ois of the East towards the enemy of the West. The wall will fall after twenty-eight years and more than two hundred thirty-eight died, on November 9th, 1989, big event the beginning of the end of the Soviet empire and de facto that of the Cold war.
August: Resumption of the Soviet nuclear tests in the atmosphere announces.
September 17th: Election of the 4th the Bundestag in West Germany.
October 17th: XXIe Congress of the Communist party of the Soviet Union. Khrouchtchev reiterates some of its charges against Stalin and makes withdraw his skin of the mausoleum where it rested at the sides of Lénine. It also obtains the exclusion of the party of Stalinist which had been opposed to him in 1957.
November 28th: shown conference of Geneva on disarmament, Khrouchtchev claims the presence of France.
In December, the popular republic of Albania breaks with the Soviet Union and practical a policy prochinoise.

the United Kingdom: The census gives a report on 400 000 colored persons. They will be 1,5 later million ten years, that is to say 3% of the total population.
Italy: 49 903 878 inhabitants. The population of Rome, Milan and Turin increased respectively by 24%, 30% and 36% since 1951. Inflation.

Portugal

January 22nd: Diversion of the steamer Santa Maria by the captain Henrique Galvão to draw the attention to the mode of the Estado Novo with the Portugal.
February 4th: Beginning of the Angolan insurrection.
September 11th, Lisbon: Foundation of the Lisnave, the shipyard most important of the western world.
December 15th: The Indian army drives out definitively Portuguese of Goa.
December 31st: Military attempt at putsch in Béja.

the preparation of the elections makes it possible to develop a “program for the democratization of the Republic”, made public by a press conference. The government prohibits the publication of this document considered to be defamatory and subversive. The principal signatories are continued.
the inhabitants of the empire reach the Portuguese citizenship.
UNO form a special committee of investigation into the Portuguese territories of Africa.

France

Oceania & the Pacific

Religion

May 15th: Encyclical MATER and Magistra of the pope Jean XXIII on the social questions: renewal of the social teaching of the Church.

Arts & cultures

May 13rd: With Madrid (Spain), alternate of Santiago Martín Sánchez known as “El Viti”, Spanish Matador.

Sciences & technology

Births in 1961

January

January 17th: Alex American Ramos, Boxing ur
January 26th: Wayne Gretzky, player of professional hockey

February

: Daniel Mr. Tani, American astronaut
February 6th :

Iouri Onoufrienko, cosmonaut Russian
Florence Aubenas, journalist and international reporter French ex-hostage in Iraq

February 7th: Maria Probosz, Polish actress
February 17th: Olivier Charlier, French violonist

March

March 4th: Eddie Murphy, American actor
March 10th: Laurel Clark, American astronaut († February 1st, 2003)
March 17th: Dana Reeve, actress and singer, American woman of Christopher Reeve († March 6th, 2006)
March 19th: Jos Lansink, riding Belgian

April

April 2nd :

Christopher Meloni, American actor
Marie-Angel Nardi, French TV host.

April 12th: LISA Gerrard, singer of the group Dead Edge Dance
April 25th: Frank De Winne, Belgian spationaut
April 30th: François-Xavier Dugourd, French politician

May

May 6th: George Clooney, American actor
May 17th: Enya, Irish singer
May 23rd: Philippe Cockerel, French politician

June

June 6th: Tom Araya, singer of Slayer
June 21st: Gess, Draftsman and Scenario writer French of Cartoon
June 24th: Curt Smith, singer, bass player and type-setter English member of the group Tears for Fears
June 26th: Greg LeMond, American cyclist
June 30th: Franck Mesnel, rugby player, French.

July

July 1st :

Carl Lewis, American athlete
Lady Diana, Princess of Wales († August 31st, 1997).
Kalpana Chawla, Indian astronaut († February 1st, 2003)

July 15th: Forest Whitaker, American actor
July 27th: Daniel C. Burbank, American astronaut
July 28th: Scott E. Parazynski, American astronaut

August

August 4th: Barack Obama, American politician, candidate with the democratic nomination
August 8th: Dave Evans, called The Edge, Guitarist of the group U2
August 11th: Frederick W. Sturckow, American astronaut
August 12th: Salah Ben Youssef, Tunisian politician
August 22nd: Roland Orzabal, singer, type-setter and guitarist English, cofounder of the group Tears for fears,

September

September 1st: Christopher Ferguson, American astronaut
September 4th: Cédric Klapisch, realizer French
September 9th: Pepín Jiménez, Spanish Matador .
September 12th: Mylène Farmer, French singer in Montreal
September 17th: Pamela Melroy, American astronaut
September 18th: Bernard Werber, writer French
September 23rd: William Cameron McCool, American astronaut († February 1st, 2003)

October

October 24th: Susan L. Still, American astronaut
October 31st :

Peter Jackson, realizer, producer and scenario writer New Zealand
Larry Mullen Jr., beater of the group U2

November

November 1st: Valerie Valère, writer French
November 5th: Charles Hobaugh, American astronaut
November 6th: Florent Pagny, singer.
November 22nd: Mariel Hemingway, American actress.

December

December 18th: Paul Anthony Cook, beater of the Sade group,
December 20th: Yvan Bolloc' H, actor, humorist and realizer French
December 22nd: Yuri Malenchenko, Russian cosmonaut
December 25th: Ingrid Betancourt, political woman Colombia

to also see: : Category: Birth in 1961

Death in 1961

Disappearance of Michael C. Rockfeller
January 4th: Erwin Schrödinger, Nobel Prize of physics in 1933 (° August 12th 1887).
January 10th: Dashiell Hammett, American writer
January 17th: Patrice Lumumba, Congolese politician (° 1925).
January 21st: Blaise Cendrars, writer French (° 1887).
February 26th: Mohammed V, king of the Morocco
March 23rd: Valentine Bondarenko, Russian cosmonaut (° February 16th 1937)
April 9th: Zog Ier, the former king of Albania (° 1895).
May 3rd: Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Philosopher French (° 1908)
May 13rd: Gary Cooper, American Actor (° 1901).
June 6th: Carl Jung, Psychological Swiss (° 1875).
July 1st: Louis-Ferdinand Celine, writer French (° 1894).
July 2nd: Ernest Hemingway, American writer (° 1899).
July 13rd: Victor Moriamé, French poet
September 1st: Eero Saarinen, 51 years, Architect and American Designer of Finnish origin . (° August 20th 1910).
September 18th: Dag Hammarskjöld, general secretary of UNO (° 1905).
October 11th: Chico Marx, American actor.
October 13rd: Marcel Gimond, Sculptor French (° April 27th 1894)
October 30th: El Niño of Palma (Cayetano Ordóñez there Aguilera), Spanish Matador (° January 4th 1904).
December 12th: Carl Hermann, German crystallographer

to also see: : Category: Death in 1961

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