WHAT ALL HAPPENED MARCH TO MAY 1961
Find out what all happened March to May 1961

Algiers putsch by French generals. (23. April 1961)

The Mercury program: Mercury-Redstone 3 – Alan Shepard becomes the first American to travel into outer space, on a sub-orbital flight. (5. May 1961)

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

The Union of South Africa becomes the Republic of South Africa. (31. May 1961)

South Africa withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations. (15. March 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)

In Moscow City Court, the Rokotov–Faibishenko show trial begins, despite the Khrushchev Thaw to reverse Stalinist elements in Soviet society. (31. May 1961)

The trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem. (11. April 1961)

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

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

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

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)

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

The Prime Minister of Cuba, Fidel Castro, proclaims Cuba a socialist nation and abolishes elections. (1. May 1961)

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

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

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