WHAT ALL HAPPENED APRIL TO AUGUST 1961
Find out what all happened April to August 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)

French military forces break the Tunisian siege of Bizerte. (20. July 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)

American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus. (24. May 1961)

President Jânio Quadros of Brazil resigns after just seven months in power. (25. August 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)

Sierra Leone is granted its independence from the United Kingdom, with Milton Margai as the first Prime Minister. (27. April 1961)

The biggest fire in Singapore history. The Bukit Ho Swee Fire (25. May 1961)

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

The Leadbeater's Possum is rediscovered in Australia after 72 years. (3. April 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 New Democratic Party of Canada is founded by the merger of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and the Canadian Labour Congress. (3. August 1961)

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

Motown releases what would be its first #1 hit, "Please Mr. Postman" by The Marvelettes. (21. August 1961)

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

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

At Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, the first All-Star Game tie in Major League Baseball history occurs when the game is stopped in the 9th inning because of rain. (31. July 1961)

The Pacific Electric Railway in Los Angeles, once the largest electric railway in the world, ends operations. (9. April 1961)

Apollo program: The U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces before a special joint session of the Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a "man on the Moon" before the end of the decade. (25. May 1961)