News and Events of 1961

World Events

• US breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba (Jan. 3).
  
  
• 1,200 US-sponsored anti-Castro exiles invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs (April 17); the attackers are all killed or captured by Cuban forces.
  
  
• East Germany erects the Berlin Wall between East and West Berlin to halt flood of refugees (Aug. 13). Background: The Cold War
  
  
• USSR detonates 50-megaton hydrogen bomb in the largest man-made explosion in history (Oct. 29). Background: nuclear weapons
  
  
• There are 2,000 US military advisers in South Vietnam. Background: Vietnam War
  
  
• OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) formally constituted.
  
  

U.S. Events

• Robert Frost recites "The Gift Outright" at John F. Kennedy's inauguration (Jan. 20).
  
  
• First US astronaut, Navy Cmdr. Alan B. Shepard, Jr., rockets 116.5 miles up in 302-mile trip (May 5).
  
  
• Virgil Grissom becomes second American astronaut, making 118-mile-high, 303-mile-long rocket flight over Atlantic (July 21).
  
  

Economics

Sports

World Series

NBA Championship

Stanley Cup

Wimbledon

Kentucky Derby Champion

NCAA Basketball Championship

NCAA Football Champions

Entertainment

Events

• Patsy Cline releases "I Fall to Pieces" and "Crazy." The success of the songs help her cross over from country to pop.
• West Side Story is adapted for the big screen, and will go on to win Oscars for Best Picture, Supporting Actor (George Chakiris), Supporting Actress (Rita Moreno), and Directing (Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins).
• Audrey Hepburn delights as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's, but Henry Mancini emerges as the real star. He won two Oscars and four Grammy Awards for the score, which included the hit "Moon River."

Movies

• West Side Story, The Hustler, Judgment at Nuremberg, La Dolce Vita

Music

• Patsy Cline, "I Fall to Pieces" and "Crazy"

Books

• Joseph Heller, Catch—22
• Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer
• Lewis Mumford, The City in History
• V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr. Biswas
• Walker Percy, The Moviegoer
• J. D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey

Science

• Moscow announces putting first man in orbit around earth, Major Yuri A. Gagarin (April 12). Background: Soviet Staffed Space Flight Programs
• Gherman Stepanovich Titov is launched in Soviet spaceship Vostok II: makes 17 1/2 orbits in 25 hours, covering 434,960 miles before landing safely (Aug. 6). Background: Space Exploration
• Alan B. Shepard becomes the first American man in space aboard the Freedom 7. Background: US Staffed Space Flights
• Jack Lippes develops the contraceptive intrauterine device (IUD). Background: Birth & Contraception

Deaths

• Sir Thomas Beecham
  
  
• Ty Cobb
  
  
• Carl Jung
  
  
• Chico Marx
  
  

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