WHAT ALL HAPPENED JANUARY TO JULY 1961
Find out what all happened January to July 1961

In a speech John F. Kennedy emphasizes that any attack on Berlin is an attack on NATO. (25. July 1961)

Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed Cuban exiles against Cuba. (20. April 1961)

Sabena Flight 548 crashes in Belgium, killing 73, including the entire United States figure skating team, several coaches and family members. (15. February 1961)

U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers a televised farewell address to the nation three days before leaving office, in which he warns against the accumulation of power by the "military-industrial complex" as well as the dangers of massive spending, especially deficit spending. (17. January 1961)

The long-time Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo is assassinated in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. (30. May 1961)

K-19, the first Soviet nuclear submarine equipped with nuclear missiles, is commissioned. (30. April 1961)

American civil rights movement: The "Freedom Riders" begin a bus trip through the South. (4. May 1961)

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 because of rain. (31. July 1961)

A large explosion on board the MV Dara in the Persian Gulf kills 238. (8. April 1961)

Cold War: the Antarctic Treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent, comes into force after the opening date for signature set for the December 1, 1959. (23. June 1961)

In the Vienna summit, the Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev sparks the Berlin Crisis by threatening to sign a separate peace treaty with East Germany and ending American, British and French access to East Berlin. (4. June 1961)

A protest by agricultural workers in Baixa de Cassanje, Portuguese Angola, turns into a revolt, opening the Angolan War of Independence, the first of the Portuguese Colonial Wars. (3. February 1961)

American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out. (21. May 1961)

Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized at the University of California. (14. February 1961)

The Portuguese luxury cruise ship Santa Maria is hijacked by opponents of the Estado Novo regime with the intention of waging war until dictator António de Oliveira Salazar is overthrown. (23. January 1961)

Project Mercury: Mercury-Redstone 2 – Ham the Chimp travels into outer space. (31. January 1961)

Sputnik 9 successfully launches, carrying a human dummy nicknamed Ivan Ivanovich, and demonstrating that Soviet Union was ready to begin human spaceflight. (9. March 1961)

Mercury program: Mercury-Redstone 4 Mission – Gus Grissom piloting Liberty Bell 7 becomes the second American to go into space (in a suborbital mission). (21. July 1961)

A core explosion and meltdown at the SL-1, a government-run reactor near Idaho Falls, Idaho, kills three workers. (3. January 1961)

Soviet submarine S-80 sinks with all hands lost. (27. January 1961)