WHAT ALL HAPPENED FEBRUARY TO APRIL 1961
Find out what all happened February to April 1961

The Pacific Electric Railway in Los Angeles, once the largest electric railway in the world, ends operations. (9. April 1961)

South Africa withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations. (15. March 1961)

Explorer program: Explorer 9 (S-56a) is launched. (16. February 1961)

Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of Cuban exiles financed and trained by the CIA lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro. (17. April 1961)

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

The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, a cornerstone of modern international relations, is adopted. (18. April 1961)

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

Uganda becomes self-governing and holds its first elections. (1. March 1961)

Soviet Union launches Venera 1 towards Venus. (12. February 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)

The DuSable Museum of African American History is chartered. (16. February 1961)

The United States Air Forces begins Operation Looking Glass, and over the next 30 years, a "Doomsday Plane" is always in the air, with the capability of taking direct control of the United States' bombers and missiles in the event of the destruction of the SAC's command post. (3. February 1961)

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

CONCP is founded in Casablanca as a united front of African movements opposing Portuguese colonial rule. (18. April 1961)

The trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem. (11. April 1961)

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

The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed in New York City. (30. March 1961)

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