WHAT ALL HAPPENED MARCH TO DECEMBER 1961
Find out what all happened March to December 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)

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

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

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara orders the creation of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the nation's first centralized military espionage organization. (1. August 1961)

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

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

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

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

The first conference of the Non Aligned Countries is held in Belgrade. (5. September 1961)

Maiden flight of the CH-47 Chinook transportation helicopter. (21. September 1961)

Hurricane Carla strikes the Texas coast as a Category 4 hurricane, the second strongest storm ever to hit the state. (11. September 1961)

The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space and perform the first manned orbital flight, in Vostok 3KA-2 (Vostok 1). (12. April 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)

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

The United States National Hurricane Research Project drops eight cylinders of silver iodide into the eyewall of Hurricane Esther. Wind speed reduces by 10%, giving rise to Project Stormfury. (16. September 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)

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)

Pune floods due to failure of the Khadakwasla and Panshet dams. Half of Pune is submerged, more than 100,000 families need to be relocated and the death toll exceeds 2,000. (12. July 1961)

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

Italian Grand Prix, a crash causes the death of German Formula One driver Wolfgang von Trips and 13 spectators who are hit by his Ferrari. (10. September 1961)