WHAT ALL HAPPENED OCTOBER TO DECEMBER 1961
Find out what all happened October to December 1961

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

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

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)

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)

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

India annexes Daman and Diu, part of Portuguese India. (19. December 1961)

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

Scores of Algerian protesters (some claim up to 400) are massacred by the Paris police at the instigation of former Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Prefecture of Police. (17. October 1961)

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

Project Mercury: Mercury-Atlas 5 Mission – Enos, a chimpanzee, is launched into space. The spacecraft orbits the Earth twice and splashes down off the coast of Puerto Rico. (29. November 1961)

Nuclear testing: The Soviet Union detonates the hydrogen bomb Tsar Bomba over Novaya Zemlya; at 50 megatons of yield, it is still the largest explosive device ever detonated, nuclear or otherwise. (30. October 1961)

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

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

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

Tanganyika joins the United Nations. (14. December 1961)

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

Syria exits from the United Arab Republic. (29. October 1961)

Adolf Eichmann is sentenced to death after being found guilty by an Israeli court of 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people, and membership of an outlawed organization. (15. December 1961)