1961 - Wikiwand

1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1961st year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 961st year of the 2nd millennium, the 61st year of the 20th century, and the 2nd year of the 1960s decade.

From top to bottom, left to right: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to orbit the Earth aboard Vostok 1, marking the dawn of human spaceflight and intensifying the Space Race; the massive Tsar Bomba is detonated by the Soviet Union, becoming the most powerful nuclear weapon ever tested and demonstrating the terrifying scale of the nuclear arms race; the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion sees Cuban exiles backed by the United States attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro’s government, resulting in a major embarrassment for the Kennedy administration; the Berlin Crisis of 1961 culminates in the construction of the Berlin Wall by East Germany, physically and ideologically dividing East and West Berlin and becoming an enduring symbol of the Cold War; Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo is assassinated, bringing his decades-long brutal rule to an end; the crash of Sabena Flight 548 near Brussels kills all 72 people on board, including the entire U.S. figure skating team, devastating American figure skating; the Anniston and Birmingham bus attacks target Freedom Riders in Alabama, where buses are firebombed and riders are brutally beaten, drawing national outrage and exposing violent resistance to desegregation; the Eritrean War of Independence begins as Eritrean rebels launch their first assault against Ethiopian forces, starting a thirty-year struggle for independence; and the Portuguese Colonial War erupts as independence movements rise against Portuguese rule in Africa, marking the beginning of a long and violent conflict.

Quick Facts

1961 in various calendars
Gregorian calendar	1961 MCMLXI
Ab urbe condita	2714
Armenian calendar	1410 ԹՎ ՌՆԺ
Assyrian calendar	6711
Baháʼí calendar	117–118
Balinese saka calendar	1882–1883
Bengali calendar	1367–1368
Berber calendar	2911
British Regnal year	9 Eliz. 2 – 10 Eliz. 2
Buddhist calendar	2505
Burmese calendar	1323
Byzantine calendar	7469–7470
Chinese calendar	庚子年 (Metal Rat) 4658 or 4451 — to — 辛丑年 (Metal Ox) 4659 or 4452
Coptic calendar	1677–1678
Discordian calendar	3127
Ethiopian calendar	1953–1954
Hebrew calendar	5721–5722
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	2017–2018
- Shaka Samvat	1882–1883
- Kali Yuga	5061–5062
Holocene calendar	11961
Igbo calendar	961–962
Iranian calendar	1339–1340
Islamic calendar	1380–1381
Japanese calendar	Shōwa 36 (昭和３６年)
Javanese calendar	1892–1893
Juche calendar	50
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 13 days
Korean calendar	4294
Minguo calendar	ROC 50 民國50年
Nanakshahi calendar	493
Thai solar calendar	2504
Tibetan calendar	ལྕགས་ཕོ་བྱི་བ་ལོ་ (male Iron-Rat) 2087 or 1706 or 934 — to — ལྕགས་མོ་གླང་ལོ་ (female Iron-Ox) 2088 or 1707 or 935

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Events

January

January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union.
January 3
- United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015).
- Aero Flight 311 (Koivulahti air disaster): Douglas DC-3C OH-LCC of Finnish airline Aero crashes near Kvevlax (Koivulahti), on approach to Vaasa Airport in Finland, killing all 25 on board, due to pilot error: an investigation finds that the captain and first officer were both exhausted for lack of sleep, and had consumed excessive amounts of alcohol at the time of the crash. It remains the deadliest air disaster to occur in the country.
January 5
- Italian sculptor Alfredo Fioravanti enters 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.
- After the 1960 military coup, General Cemal Gürsel forms the new government of Turkey (25th government).
January 7 – Following a four-day conference in Casablanca, five African chiefs of state announce plans for a NATO-type African organization to ensure common defense. The Charter of Casablanca involves the Casablanca Group: Morocco, the United Arab Republic, Ghana, Guinea, and Mali.
January 8 – In France, a referendum supports Charles de Gaulle's policies on independence for Algeria.
January 9 – British authorities announce they have uncovered a large Soviet spy ring, the Portland spy ring, in London.
January 17
- President Dwight Eisenhower gives his final State of the Union Address to Congress. In a Farewell Address the same day, he warns of the increasing power of a "military–industrial complex."
- Patrice Lumumba of the Republic of Congo is assassinated.
January 23 – Congress of Venezuela adopts a new constitution (in force until 1999).
January 24 – 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash: A B-52 Stratofortress, carrying two nuclear bombs, crashes near Goldsboro, North Carolina.
January 25
- In Washington, D.C., President John F. Kennedy delivers the first live presidential news conference. In it, he announces that the Soviet Union has freed the two surviving crewmen from the July 1 1960 RB-47 shootdown incident involving a USAF reconnaissance aircraft and a MiG-19 over the Barents Sea.
- Acting to halt 'leftist excesses', a junta composed of two army officers and four civilians takes over El Salvador, ousting another junta that had ruled for three months.
January 27 – Soviet submarine S-80 sinks in the Barents Sea, killing all 68 crew.
January 28 – Supercar, the first family sci-fi TV series filmed in Supermarionation, debuts on ATV in the UK.
January 30 – President John F. Kennedy delivers his first State of the Union Address.
January 31 – Ham, a 37-pound (17-kg) male chimpanzee, is rocketed into space aboard Mercury-Redstone 2, in a test of the Project Mercury spacecraft, designed to carry United States astronauts into space.

February

February 1 – The United States tests its first Minuteman I intercontinental ballistic missile.^[1]
February 4 – The Portuguese Colonial War begins in Angola.
February 5–9 – In Congo, President Joseph Kasa-Vubu names Joseph Iléo as the new Prime Minister.
February 9 – The Beatles at The Cavern Club: Lunchtime – The Beatles perform under this name at The Cavern Club for the first time following their return to Liverpool from Hamburg, George Harrison's first appearance at the venue. On March 21 they begin regular performances here.
February 12 – The USSR launches Venera 1 towards Venus.
February 13 – The Congo government announces that villagers have killed Patrice Lumumba.
February 14 – Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized in Berkeley, California.
February 15
- United States President John F. Kennedy warns the Soviet Union to avoid interfering with the United Nations' pacification of the Congo.^[2]
- Sabena Flight 548 crashes near Brussels, Belgium, killing 73, including the entire United States figure skating team and several coaches.
- American soul singer Jackie Wilson is shot and seriously wounded at his Manhattan apartment by jealous girlfriend Juanita Jones (claimed publicly to be an obsessive fan).^[3]
- The total solar eclipse of February 15, 1961, visible in the southern part of Europe, occurs.
February 26 – Hassan II is pronounced King of Morocco.

March

March–April – Drilling for Project Mohole is undertaken off the coast of Guadalupe Island, Mexico.
March 1 – United States President John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.
March 3 – Hassan II is crowned King of Morocco.
March 8
- Max Conrad circumnavigates the earth by light plane in 8 days, 18 hours and 49 minutes, setting a new world record.
- 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.^[4]
March 13
- 1961 Kurenivka mudslide: A dam bursts in Kiev, USSR, killing 145.
- United States delegate to the United Nations Security Council Adlai Stevenson votes against Portuguese policies in Africa.
- United States President John F. Kennedy proposes a long-term "Alliance for Progress", between the United States and Latin America.^[5]
- Cyprus joins the Commonwealth of Nations, becoming the first small country in the Commonwealth.^[6]
- Black and white £5 notes cease to be legal tender in the UK.
- Monash University in Melbourne, Australia takes in its first students.
- A second B-52 crashes near Yuba City, California, after cabin pressure is lost and the fuel runs out. Two nuclear weapons are found unexploded.
March 15
- South Africa announces it will withdraw from the Commonwealth of Nations, upon becoming a republic (31 May). The nation rejoins the organization in 1994.
- The Union of Peoples of Angola, led by Holden Roberto, attacks strategic locations in the north of Angola. These events result in the beginning of the colonial war with Portugal.
March 18
- A ceasefire takes effect in the Algerian War of Independence.
- "Nous les amoureux" sung by Jean-Claude Pascal (music by Jacques Datin, lyrics by Maurice Vidalin) wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1961 (staged in Cannes) for Luxembourg.
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.

April

Thumb — April 12: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to fly in outer space

April 5 – The New Guinea Council of Western Papua is installed.
April 8 – British India Steam Navigation Company passenger ship MV Dara blows up and sinks off Dubai; 238 passengers and crew are killed.^[7]
April 10 – South African golfer Gary Player becomes the first non-American to win the Masters Tournament.^[8]
April 11 – The trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem.
April 12
- Vostok 1: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space, orbiting the Earth once before parachuting to the ground.
- Albert Kalonji takes the title Emperor Albert I Kalonji of South Kasai.
April 13 – In Portugal, a coup attempt against António de Oliveira Salazar fails.
April 17
- The U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba begins; it fails by April 19.
- The 33rd Academy Awards ceremony is held in Santa Monica, California: The Apartment (1960) wins most awards, including Best Picture.
April 18 – Portugal sends its first military reinforcement to Angola.
April 20 – Fidel Castro announces that the Bay of Pigs Invasion has been defeated.
April 22 – Algiers putsch: Four French generals who oppose de Gaulle's policies in Algeria fail in a coup attempt.
April 23 – Judy Garland performs in a legendary comeback concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
April 24 – Swedish warship Vasa, sunk on her maiden voyage in 1628, is recovered from Stockholm Harbor.
April 27
- Sierra Leone becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
- President Kennedy urges newspapers to consider national interest in times of struggle against "a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy", in an address before the American Newspaper Publishers Association.^[9]

May

May 1 – National Airlines Flight 337, internal to Florida, is forced by an armed hijacker to fly to Cuba, the first of a spate of such aircraft hijackings.^[10]
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 6 – Tottenham Hotspur F.C. becomes the first team in the 20th century to win the English league and cup double. As of 2025^[update], this is the last time Tottenham have won the English League.
May 8 – British intelligence officer George Blake is sentenced to 42 years imprisonment for spying, having been found guilty of being a double agent in the pay of the Soviet Union, the longest non-life sentence ever handed down by a British court.
May 9 – In a speech on "Television and the Public Interest" to the National Association of Broadcasters in the United States, FCC chairman Newton N. Minow describes commercial television programming as a "vast wasteland".
May 14 – 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 15 – J. Heinrich Matthaei alone performs the Poly-U-Experiment, and is the first person to recognize and understand the genetic code. This is the birthdate of modern genetics.^[11]
May 16 – Park Chung Hee takes over in a military coup, in South Korea.
May 19 – Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly-by another planet by passing Venus (however, the probe lost contact with Earth a month earlier, and does not send back any data).
May 21 – Civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order, after race riots break out.
May 22 – 1961 New South Wales earthquake.
May 24 – Civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi for "disturbing the peace", after disembarking from their bus.
May 25 – Apollo program: U.S. 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 27 – Tunku Abdul Rahman, Prime Minister of Malaya, holds a press conference in Singapore, announcing his idea to form the Federation of Malaysia, comprising Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak, Brunei and North Borneo (Sabah).
May 28 – Peter Benenson's article "The Forgotten Prisoners" is published in several internationally read newspapers. This is later considered the founding of the human rights organization Amnesty International.
May 30 – Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, ruler of the Dominican Republic since 1930, is killed in an ambush.
May 31
- In France, rebel generals Maurice Challe and Andre Zelelr are sentenced to 15 years in prison.
- South Africa becomes a republic, and officially leaves the Commonwealth of Nations.
- President John F. Kennedy and Charles de Gaulle meet in Paris.
- Benfica beats FC Barcelona 3–2 at Wankdorf Stadium, Bern and wins the 1960–61 European Cup in association football.

June

June 1 – Ethiopia experiences its most devastating earthquake of the 20th century, with a magnitude of 6.7. The town of Majete is destroyed, 45% of the houses in Karakore collapse, 17 kilometers (11 mi) of the main road north of Karakore are damaged by landslides and fissures, and 5,000 inhabitants in the area are left homeless.
June 4 – Vienna summit: John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev meet during two days in Vienna. They discuss nuclear tests, disarmament and Germany.
June 12 – A patent for the body electrode invented by Richard M. Berman and Bernard Schwartz is applied for.^[12]
June 16 – Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defects to the West at Paris–Le Bourget Airport while on tour with the Kirov Ballet.
June 17
- A Paris-to-Strasbourg train derails near Vitry-le-François; 24 are killed, 109 injured.
- The New Democratic Party of Canada is founded, with the merger of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress.
June 19 – The British protectorate ends in Kuwait and it becomes an emirate.
June 22 – Moise Tshombe is released for lack of evidence of his connection to the murder of Patrice Lumumba.
June 23 – The Antarctic Treaty comes into effect.
June 25 – Iraqi president Abd al-Karim Qasim announces his intention to annex newly independent Kuwait (such an annexation will occur in 1990).
June 27 – Kuwait requests British help against the Iraqi threat; the United Kingdom sends in troops.

July

July 4 – Soviet submarine K-19 suffers a reactor leak in the North Atlantic.
July 5 – The first Israeli rocket, Shavit 2, is launched.^[13]
July 7 – A coal mine in Czechoslovakia has one of its sections closed off in order to extinguish a fire and prevent an explosion, causing the suffocation of 108 miners still present.
July 12
- A Czechoslovakian Ilyushin Il-18 crashes while attempting to land at Casablanca, Morocco, killing all 72 on board.
- Two dams that supply water to the city of Pune in India burst, causing the death of more than 1000 residents.
July 19
- Trans World Airlines becomes the first airline to show regularly scheduled movies during its flights, presenting By Love Possessed to 1st-class passengers.^[14]
- Aerolíneas Argentinas Flight 644, a Douglas DC-6, encounters severe turbulence not long after takeoff from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and crashes, killing all 67 on board.
July 21 – Mercury program: Gus Grissom, piloting the Mercury-Redstone 4 spacecraft Liberty Bell 7, becomes the second American to go into space (sub-orbital). After splashdown, the hatch prematurely opens, and the spacecraft sinks (it is recovered in 1999).
July 25 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy gives a widely watched TV speech on the Berlin Crisis, warning "we will not be driven out of Berlin." Kennedy urges Americans to build fallout shelters, setting off a four-month debate on civil defense.
July 31
- At Fenway Park in Boston, the first Major League Baseball All-Star Game tie occurs, when the game is stopped in the 9th inning due to rain (the only tie until 2002).
- Ireland submits the first application from a non-founding country to join the European Economic Community.

August

August – The United States founds the Alliance for Progress.
August 1 – The Six Flags Over Texas theme park officially opens to the public.
August 6 – Vostok 2: Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov becomes the second human to orbit the Earth, and the first to be in outer space for more than one day.
August 7 – Vostok 2 lands in the Soviet Union.
August 10 – The United Kingdom applies for membership in the European Economic Community.
August 11 – An annular solar eclipse is visible from the Southern Ocean.
August 13 – Berlin Crisis of 1961: Construction of the Berlin Wall begins, restricting movement between East Berlin and West Berlin, and forming a clear boundary between West Germany and East Germany, Western Europe and Eastern Europe. On August 22 Ida Siekmann jumps from a window in her tenement building trying to flee to the West, becoming the first of at least 138 deaths at the Wall.
August 21 – Jomo Kenyatta is released from prison in Kenya.
August 25 – João Goulart replaces Jânio Quadros as President of Brazil (he is ousted in 1964).
August 29 – A French military aircraft clips a cable of the aerial tramway connecting Pointe Helbronner and the Aiguille du Midi in the French Alps. Three cars of the tramway fall, killing five people, but the remaining 63 cable car passengers are rescued and the pilot lands his plane safely.^[15]
August 30 – The Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness is signed at the United Nations in New York, coming into effect December 13, 1975.^[16]

September

September 1
- The Eritrean War of Independence begins with the Battle of Adal in which Hamid Idris Awate and his companions shoot at Ethiopian police and military. The war will continue until 1991.
- The first meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement is held. The Soviet Union resumes nuclear testing, escalating fears over the ongoing Berlin Crisis.
September 7 – Tom and Jerry make a return with their first cartoon short since 1958, Switchin' Kitten. The new creator, Gene Deitch, makes 12 more Tom and Jerry shorts through 1962.
September 10 – During the F1 Italian Grand Prix on the circuit of Monza, German Wolfgang von Trips, driving a Ferrari, crashes into a stand, killing 14 spectators and himself.
September 11 – Hurricane Carla makes landfall on Matagorda Island as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, killing 34 in Texas and causing $300 million damage in the state.
September 12 – The African and Malagasy Union is founded.
September 14
- The new military government of Turkey sentences 15 members of the previous government to death.
- The religious Focolare Movement opens its first North American center in New York (state).
September 17
- Military rulers in Turkey hang former prime minister Adnan Menderes, together with the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Fatin Rüştü Zorlu and former Minister of Finance Hasan Polatkan.
- London police arrest over 1,300 protesters in Trafalgar Square during a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament rally.^[17]
- The world's first retractable roof stadium, the Civic Arena, opens in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
September 18 – 1961 Ndola United Nations DC-6 crash: Secretary-General of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld is one of 16 to die in an air crash en route to Katanga, Congo.
September 19 – American couple Barney and Betty Hill claim that they saw a UFO as they returned from a trip to Canada through New Hampshire where they live. They later claim that they were abducted by aliens, among the first claimants of such an abduction.
September 21 – In France, the Organisation de l'armée secrète (OAS) slips an anti-de Gaulle message into TV programming.
September 24
- The old Deutsche Opernhaus in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg is returned to its newly rebuilt house, as the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
- In the U.S., 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. Years later, after Disney's death, the still-on-the-air program will be renamed The Wonderful World of Disney.
September 27 – The animated television series Top Cat, produced by Hanna-Barbera, premieres on ABC in the United States.
September 28 – 1961 Syrian coup d'état: A military coup in Damascus, Syria effectively ends the United Arab Republic, the union between Egypt and Syria.
September 30 – The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is formed to replace the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC).

October

October 1
- Unification Day (Cameroon): The formerly British Southern Cameroons gains independence from the United Kingdom by vote of the UN General Assembly and joins with formerly French Cameroun to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon.^[18]
- 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, setting a new record for the longer baseball season. The record for the shorter season is still held by Babe Ruth.
October 5 – Breakfast at Tiffany's (film) is theatrically released by Paramount Pictures, to critical and commercial success.
October 10 – A volcanic eruption on Tristan da Cunha causes the whole population to be evacuated to Britain, where they will remain until 1963.
October 12 – The death penalty is abolished in New Zealand.
October 17 – 1961 Paris massacre: French police in Paris attack about 30,000 protesting a curfew applied solely to Algerians. The official death toll is 3, but human rights groups claim 240 dead.
October 18 – West Side Story is released as a film in the United States.
October 19 – The Arab League takes over protecting Kuwait; the last British troops leave.
October 25 – The first edition of Private Eye, the British satirical magazine, is published.
October 26 – Cemal Gürsel becomes the fourth president of Turkey (his former title is head of state and government; he is elected as president by constitutional referendum).
October 27
- An armistice begins in Katanga, Congo.
- Mongolia and Mauritania join the United Nations.
- Berlin Crisis: Confrontation at Checkpoint Charlie – A standoff between Soviet and American tanks in Berlin, Germany, heightens Cold War tensions.
- Fahrettin Özdilek becomes the acting prime minister of Turkey.
October 29
- DZBB-TV Channel 7, the Philippines' third TV station, is launched.
- Devrim, the first ever car designed and produced in Turkey, is released. The project has been completed in only 130 days almost from scratch, a period including decision on the project, research, design, development and production of four vehicles.
October 30
- Nuclear weapons testing: The Soviet Union detonates a 58-megaton yield hydrogen bomb known as Tsar Bomba, over Novaya Zemlya (it remains the largest ever man-made explosion).
- The Note Crisis: The Soviet Union issues a diplomatic note to Finland, proposing military co-operation.
October 31
- Hurricane Hattie devastates Belize City, Belize killing over 270. After the hurricane, the capital moves to the inland city of Belmopan.
- Joseph Stalin's body is removed from the Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow.

November

November 1
- The Hungry generation Movement is launched in Calcutta, India.
- The U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission's federal order banning segregation at all interstate public facilities officially comes into effect.
November 2 – Kean opens at Broadway Theater in New York City for 92 performances.
November 3 – The United Nations General Assembly unanimously elects Burmese diplomat U Thant to the position of acting Secretary-General.
November 6 – The US government issues a stamp honoring the 100th birthday of James Naismith.
November 8
- Imperial Airlines Flight 201/8 crashes while attempting to land at Richmond, Virginia, killing 77 people on board.
- KVN, Russia's longest running TV show, airs for the first time on Soviet television.
November 9 – Robert White records a world air speed record of 4,093 mph (6,587 km/h), in an X-15.
November 10 – Catch-22 by Joseph Heller is first published, in the US.
November 11
- Congolese soldiers murder 13 Italian United Nations pilots.
- Stalingrad is renamed Volgograd.
November 14 – The Yves Saint Laurent luxury fashion brand is founded in Rue La Boetie, Paris (France), by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé.^{[citation needed]}
November 17 – Michael Rockefeller, son of Governor of New York 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 19 – Rebellion of the Pilots: A military uprising overthrows the Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic.
November 20 – İsmet İnönü of the CHP forms the new government of Turkey (26th government, first coalition in Turkey, partner AP).
November 21 – The "La Ronde" opens in Honolulu, the first revolving restaurant in the United States.
November 24 – The World Food Programme (WFP) is formed as a temporary United Nations program.^[19]
November 30 – The Soviet Union vetoes Kuwait's application for United Nations membership.

December

December 1 – Netherlands New Guinea raises the new Morning Star flag, and changes its name to West Papua.
December 2 – Cold War: In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro announces he is a Marxist–Leninist, and that Cuba will adopt socialism.
December 5 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy gives support to the Volta Dam project in Ghana.
December 9
- Tanganyika gains independence from the United Kingdom as a Commonwealth realm, with Julius Nyerere as its first Prime Minister, with Queen Elizabeth II as Queen of Tanganyika, and represented locally by the Governor-General of Tanganyika.
- 1961 Australian federal election: Robert Menzies' Liberal/Country Coalition Government is re-elected with a one-seat majority, narrowly defeating the Labor Party led by Arthur Calwell. One of the closest election results in Australian history, such a result will not be replicated again until 2016. Notably, former Prime Minister Earle Page loses his seat, although he dies a few days later, never knowing the result.
December 10 – Albania–Soviet relations: The Soviet Union severs diplomatic relations with Albania.
December 11
- American involvement in the Vietnam War officially begins, as the first American helicopters arrive in Saigon, along with 400 U.S. personnel. On December 22 the first U.S. soldier is killed in Vietnam.
- Adolf Eichmann is pronounced guilty of crimes against humanity for his part in The Holocaust by a war crimes tribunal of three Israeli judges. On December 15 he is sentenced to death.
December 14 – Walt Disney's first live-action Technicolor musical, Babes in Toyland, a remake of the famous Victor Herbert operetta, is released, but flops at the box office.
December 17 – A circus tent fire in Niterói, Brazil kills 323.^[20]
December 18 – 1961 Indian annexation of Goa: India opens hostilities in its annexation of Portuguese India, the colonies of Goa, Damao and Diu.
December 19
- The Portuguese surrender Goa to India, after 400 years of Portuguese rule.
- Indonesian president Sukarno announces that he will take West Irian by force, if necessary.
December 21 – In Congo, Katangan prime minister Moise Tshombe recognizes the Congolese constitution.
December 23 – Luxembourg's national holiday, the Grand Duke's Official Birthday, is set on June 23 by Grand Ducal decree.
December 30 – Congolese troops capture Albert Kalonji of South Kasai (who soon escapes).
December 31 – Ireland's first national television station, Telefís Éireann (later Raidió Teilifís Éireann), begins broadcasting.