WHAT ALL HAPPENED JANUARY TO AUGUST 1961
Find out what all happened January to August 1961

American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus. (24. May 1961)

American President John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps. (1. March 1961)

Kuwait declares independence from the United Kingdom. (19. June 1961)

The Prime Minister of Cuba, Fidel Castro, proclaims Cuba a socialist nation and abolishes elections. (1. May 1961)

Ida Siekmann died attempting to cross the Berlin Wall. (22. August 1961)

The Leadbeater's Possum is rediscovered in Australia after 72 years. (3. April 1961)

1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash: A bomber carrying two H-bombs breaks up in mid-air over North Carolina. The uranium core of one weapon remains lost. (24. January 1961)

Rudolf Nureyev defects from the Soviet Union. (16. June 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)

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

Tunisia imposes a blockade on the French naval base at Bizerte; the French would capture the entire town four days later. (19. July 1961)

An allegedly 500,000-year-old rock is discovered near Olancha, California, US, that appears to anachronistically encase a spark plug. (13. February 1961)

Algiers putsch by French generals. (23. April 1961)

Motown releases what would be its first #1 hit, "Please Mr. Postman" by The Marvelettes. (21. August 1961)

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

Robert Noyce is granted a patent for an integrated circuit. (25. April 1961)

Border guard Conrad Schumann flees from East Germany while on duty guarding the construction of the Berlin Wall. (15. August 1961)

The Pacific Electric Railway in Los Angeles, once the largest electric railway in the world, ends operations. (9. April 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)