WHAT ALL HAPPENED JANUARY TO SEPTEMBER 1961
Find out what all happened January to September 1961

A core explosion and meltdown at the SL-1, a government-run reactor near Idaho Falls, Idaho, kills three workers. (3. January 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)

The long-time Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo is assassinated in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. (30. May 1961)

The New Democratic Party of Canada is founded by the merger of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and the Canadian Labour Congress. (3. August 1961)

In Finland's worst civilian aviation accident an Aero Flight 311 crashes near Kvevlax, resulting in the deaths of all 25 people aboard. (3. January 1961)

Mercury program: Mercury-Redstone 4 Mission – Gus Grissom piloting Liberty Bell 7 becomes the second American to go into space (in a suborbital mission). (21. July 1961)

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

Cold War: the Antarctic Treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent, comes into force after the opening date for signature set for the December 1, 1959. (23. June 1961)

American civil rights movement: The Freedom Riders bus is fire-bombed near Anniston, Alabama, and the civil rights protesters are beaten by an angry mob. (14. May 1961)

The Sandinista National Liberation Front is founded in Nicaragua. (23. July 1961)

East Germany closes the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin to thwart its inhabitants' attempts to escape to the West. (13. August 1961)

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

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)

South Africa withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations. (15. March 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 biggest fire in Singapore history. The Bukit Ho Swee Fire (25. May 1961)

In a speech John F. Kennedy emphasizes that any attack on Berlin is an attack on NATO. (25. July 1961)

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

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