WHAT ALL HAPPENED MAY TO DECEMBER 1961
Find out what all happened May to December 1961

Hurricane Carla strikes Texas with winds of 175 miles per hour. (15. September 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)

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

French military forces break the Tunisian siege of Bizerte. (20. July 1961)

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

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

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

Ida Siekmann died attempting to cross the Berlin Wall. (22. August 1961)

Sierra Leone joins the United Nations. (27. September 1961)

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

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

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)

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

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

Rudolf Nureyev defects from the Soviet Union. (16. June 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)

FCC Chairman Newton N. Minow gives his Wasteland Speech. (9. May 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)