WHAT ALL HAPPENED FEBRUARY TO MAY 1961
Find out what all happened February to May 1961

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

Jim Gentile of the Baltimore Orioles becomes the first player in baseball history to hit grand slams in consecutive innings. (9. May 1961)

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

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

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

Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister. (27. April 1961)

The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of Washington, D.C., to vote in presidential elections. (29. March 1961)

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

Peter Benenson's article The Forgotten Prisoners is published in several internationally read newspapers. This will later be thought of as the founding of the human rights organization Amnesty International. (28. May 1961)

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

The Union of South Africa becomes the Republic of South Africa. (31. May 1961)

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

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

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

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

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

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