1961




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    General 1961


Miss World 1961
Rosemarie Frankland
( Miss United Kingdom )


Miss Universe 1960
Marlene Schmidt ( Germany )
1961 Eurovision Song Contest

Winner: Luxembourg
Jean Claude Pascal 'Nous, Les Amoureux'


1961 Academy Awards - The 'Oscars'

Best Actor: Maximilian Schell ( Judgement At Nuremberg )
Best Actress: Sophia Loren ( Two Women )
Best Film: West Side Story










1961 - General


The Average Wage: £15.6s.10d

Johnny Haynes becomes the first £100 a week footballer

The maximum wage is abolished in professional football

Viscount Linley is born to Princess Margaret

Philips develop the first mini tape cassette

Scientists discover Continental Drift

The police 'identikit' is launched

The World Wildlife Fund is formed

Petula Clark
marries Claude Wolff

Quasars are discovered

Letraset is developed

Denis Law moves from Manchester City to Torino, the first £100,000 transfer

The first successful test of 3-stage 'Minuteman' ICBM is made by The United States

Jack Nicklaus wins his second U.S. amateur golf championship

Grand Prix drivers Giulio Cabianca, Peter Ryan and Wolfgang von Trips are killed in crashes



January 1961

The United States breaks off diplomatic relations with Cuba

Frank Sinatra announces the launch of the 'Reprise' record label

1st The farthing ceases to be legal tender

10th Author Dashiell Hammett dies aged 66

12th The first Italian space rocket is launched

17th Patrice Lumumba, ex-premier of the Congo, is assassinated

30th 'The Pill' brand-named 'Conovid' becomes available in the U.K. on a limited basis








February 1961

The government announces plans to build the Post Office Tower

Singer Jackie Wilson is shot in his New York apartment by 28 year old Juanita Jones

5th The first automatic half barrier is introduced on a level crossing in Uttoxeter, Staffs

6th Danny Blanchflower is the first person to refuse to appear on 'This Is Your Life'

8th The BBC announces that it is to drop 'Children's Hour' from radio in April. It started in 1922

25th Kennedy appoints Henry Kissinger as a National Security Advisor










March 1961

6th Carline introduce the first minicabs, in Wimbledon

6th George Formby dies aged 56

8th Conductor Sir Thomas Beecham dies

21st The Beatles appear at 'The Cavern' for the first time

25th A charity concert in Hawaii is Elvis's last live appearance for nearly 10 years











April 1961

Shirley Bassey has her tonsils removed at The London Clinic

2nd Forty biblical scrolls are found in a cave in Judaea

7th The United Nations votes 83-0 to censure South Africa over its racist policies

11th The trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem

12th 27 year old Major Yuri Gagarin becomes the first man to orbit the Earth

18th Russian spy George Blake is charged under the Official Secrets Act











May 1961


Gene Vincent
is the first American star to appear on 'Thank Your Lucky Stars'

1st Off course betting is legalised following the passing of the Betting and Gaming Act

5th Alan Shepherd becomes the first American in space in a 15 minute 'hop'

6th Tottenham Hotspur achieve football's first League and Cup Double of the 20th century

8th Newly-elected M.P. Tony Benn is refused entry to the House of Commons due to his peerage

8th 38 year old spy, George Blake, is sentenced to 42 years imprisonment

13th Actor Gary Cooper dies aged 60

17th The new Guildford cathedral is consecrated

25th Toni Gardiner from Stratford marries King Hussein of Jordan

30th Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo is assassinated




June 1961

6th Carl Gustav Jung dies

7th British census figures are released putting the British population at 52,675,094

8th The Duke of Kent marries Katherine Worsley at York Minster

16th Rudolf Nureyev, 23, defects from the Kirov Ballet at Le Bourget Airport in France

17th Actor Jeff Chandler dies following emergency surgery

19th Britain ends its protectorate of the oil-rich sheikhdom of Kuwait

19th A stone with the name 'Pontius Pilate' on it is found at an Italian dig in Caesarea

27th Dr. Michael Ramsey becomes the 100th Archbishop of Canterbury





July 1961

Bill Harry publishes the first edition of 'Mersey Beat' pop newspaper

1st Diana Frances Spencer , future Princess of Wales is born

1st British troops land in Kuwait in anticipation of an attack by Iraq

2nd Author and adventurer Ernest Hemingway shoots himself

14th Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, visits Britain

25th A mini-budget puts 4d on cigarettes and 3d on a gallon of petrol









August 1961

4th M.P.s approve Britain's application to join the Common Market

6th Gherman Titov becomes the second Russian into orbit

13th East and West Berlin are divided by barbed wire

20th A 5ft concrete wall replaces the wire between East and West Berlin

23rd Western powers place tanks and 1,000 troops along the Berlin Wall

28th The earliest Roman mosaics in Britain are discovered at Fishbourne









September 1961

The Renault 4 is the first 'hatchback' car

4th The TUC expels the Electrical Trades Union for ballot rigging

10th A racing car crash in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza kills 13 spectators

14th The first Mothercare store opens in Kingston

18th 850 arrested, including Vanessa Redgrave and George Melly
as 15,000 'Ban the Bomb' marchers protest in
Trafalgar Square

18th U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold dies in a plane crash








October 1961

1st The last steam train is used on the London underground

9th A volcano thought to be extinct erupts on Tristan da Cunha

9th James Hanratty is arrested in Blackpool for the A6 murder

11th Leonard 'Chico' Marx dies

12th New, smaller 10 shilling notes come into circulation

13th Film director Zoltan Korda dies

24th Malta gains independence







November 1961

Jimmie Rodgers is the first member elected to Nashville's Country Music Hall Of Fame

1st The government announces plans to introduce an Immigration Bill

1st Lenin's mausoleum re-opens after the removal of Stalin's body

7th Adenauer is elected for a fourth term as West German Chancellor

10th Stalingrad is renamed Volgograd

29th The government issues a white paper outlining plans for the abolition of London County Council









December 1961

Brian Epstein becomes manager of The Beatles

7th The L.C.C. approves the building of 300ft tower blocks in Hammersmith

10th The USSR severs relations with Albania

22nd James Davis is the first U.S. soldier to be killed in Vietnam

27th The first successfully hijacked aircraft lands in Havana after being diverted by its Cuban hijacker

31st Radio Eireann begins a television service