WHAT ALL HAPPENED FEBRUARY TO JUNE 1961
Find out what all happened February to June 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)

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

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

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

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

Cyprus joins the Council of Europe. (24. May 1961)

At Silchar Railway Station, Assam, 11 Bengalis die when police open fire on protesters demanding state recognition of Bengali language in the Bengali Language Movement. (19. May 1961)

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

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

Venera program: Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly-by another planet by passing Venus (the probe had lost contact with Earth a month earlier and did not send back any data). (19. May 1961)

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

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

Park Chung-hee leads a coup d'état to overthrow the Second Republic of South Korea. (16. May 1961)

Rudolf Nureyev defects from the Soviet Union. (16. June 1961)

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

The biggest fire in Singapore history. The Bukit Ho Swee Fire (25. May 1961)

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