WHAT ALL HAPPENED AUGUST TO OCTOBER 1961
Find out what all happened August to October 1961

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Soviet Union performs the first armed test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile, launching an R-13 from a Golf-class submarine. (20. October 1961)

Mauritania and Mongolia join the United Nations. (27. October 1961)

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

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

Syria exits from the United Arab Republic. (29. October 1961)

East and West Cameroon merge to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon. (1. October 1961)

The Eritrean War of Independence officially begins with the shooting of the Ethiopian police by Hamid Idris Awate. (1. September 1961)

The United States Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is formed, becoming the country's first centralized military espionage organization. (1. October 1961)

Because of "violations of Lenin's precepts", it is decreed that Joseph Stalin's body be removed from its place of honour inside Lenin's tomb and buried near the Kremlin wall with a plain granite marker instead. (30. October 1961)