WHAT ALL HAPPENED AUGUST TO DECEMBER 1961
Find out what all happened August to December 1961

A military coup in Damascus effectively ends the United Arab Republic, the union between Egypt and Syria. (28. September 1961)

The United States Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is formed, becoming the country's first centralized military espionage organization. (1. October 1961)

Tanganyika becomes independent from Britain. (9. December 1961)

50,000 women in 60 cities participate in the inaugural Women Strike for Peace (WSP) against nuclear proliferation. (1. November 1961)

In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin's body is removed from Vladimir Lenin's Tomb. (31. October 1961)

Thirteen Italian Air Force servicemen, deployed to the Congo as a part of the UN peacekeeping force are massacred by a mob in the course of the Kindu atrocity. (11. November 1961)

East and West Cameroon merge to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon. (1. October 1961)

RTÉ, Ireland's state broadcaster, launches its first national television service. (31. December 1961)

Because of "violations of Lenin's precepts", it is decreed that Joseph Stalin's body be removed from its place of honour inside Lenin's tomb and buried near the Kremlin wall with a plain granite marker instead. (30. October 1961)

First use in Vietnam War of the Agent Orange by the U.S. Army. (10. August 1961)

Hurricane Carla strikes Texas with winds of 175 miles per hour. (15. September 1961)

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

Niterói circus fire: Fire breaks out during a performance by the Gran Circus Norte-Americano in the city of Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, killing more than 500. (17. December 1961)

United States President John F. Kennedy sends 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam. (18. November 1961)

The world's first retractable-dome stadium, the Civic Arena, opens in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (17. September 1961)

NASA tests the first Saturn I rocket in Mission Saturn-Apollo 1. (27. October 1961)

U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld dies in a plane crash while attempting to negotiate peace in the war-torn Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (18. September 1961)

The Soviet Union performs the first armed test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile, launching an R-13 from a Golf-class submarine. (20. October 1961)

The Dick Van Dyke Show premieres on CBS-TV in the United States. (3. October 1961)

Sierra Leone joins the United Nations. (27. September 1961)