January 1961 in History

Events in History

Election of Interest

Jan 3 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. elected Chairman of US House Education and Labor Committee

Jan 3 An explosion at the Nuclear Reactor Testing Station in Idaho Falls kills three operators
Jan 3 US breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba
Jan 4 Longest recorded strike ends as the Danish barbers' assistants end a 33 year strike
Jan 7 Trucial States (now UAE) issue their 1st postage stamps
Jan 8 Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Yvor Winters
Jan 8 The French vote for Algerian independence from French rule in the wake of seven years of guerrilla war
Jan 9 Twins agree on $500,000 payment to AA for Minn/St Paul territory
Jan 11 Racial riot at University of Georgia
Jan 12 UN genocide pact goes into effect
Jan 16 Russian espionage ring detected in Great Britain

Event of Interest

Jan 17 President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers a televised farewell address to the nation three days before leaving office, in which he warns against the accumulation of power by the "military-industrial complex".

Jan 17 US President Dwight Eisenhower allegedly orders assassination of Congo's Patrice Lumumba
Jan 18 Zanzibar's Afro-Shirazi party wins 1 seat by a single vote & parliament by a single seat

JFK Inaugurated

Jan 20 Democrat John F. Kennedy, the youngest elected President of the United States, is administered his oath of office at his inauguration by Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren. Robert Frost recites "Gift Outright".

Jurist and Governor of California Earl Warren

Event of Interest

Jan 20 Yugoslav ex-vice-president Milovan Djilas flees

Jan 21 Portuguese rebels seize cruise ship Santa Maria
Jan 23 Venezuela adopts constitution

Event of Interest

Jan 24 Edward Albee's "American Dream" premieres in NYC

Jan 24 Lazard Brothers Ltd draw a check for $334,867,807.68
Jan 25 Military coup in El Salvador
Jan 26 1st woman personal physician to a US President - Janet G. Travell (to John F. Kennedy)
Jan 28 Republic of Rwanda proclaimed
Jan 29 US female Figure Skating championship won by Laurence Owen
Jan 29 US male Figure Skating championship won by Bradley Lord
Jan 30 JFK asks for an Alliance for Progress & Peace Corps

Event of Interest

Jan 31 David Ben-Gurion resigns as Prime Minister of Israel

Jan 31 Ham the chimpanzee is 1st primate in space (158 miles) aboard Mercury/Redstone 2
Jan 31 Houston voters approve bond to finance luxury domed stadium
Jan 31 Kanhai completes twin tons (117 & 115) v Aust at Adelaide
Jan 31 NATO secretary-general Paul-Henri Spaak says he'll resign
Jan 31 USAF launches Samos spy satellite to replace U-2 flights

Birthdays in History

Jan 3 Lynn Hill, American rock climber (IFSC Climbing World Cup gold 1990), born in Detroit, Michigan
Jan 7 Andrew Thomson, Australian politician, born in Melbourne, Australia
Jan 7 John Thune, American politician (Senator-R-Kentucky 2004-), born in Pierre, South Dakota
Jan 8 Kazuki Takahashi, Japanese creator of Yu-Gi-Oh, born in Tokyo, Japan
Jan 11 Jasper Fforde, British author
Jan 14 Robert Edwin Hall, New Zealand mountaineer & businessman, born in Christchurch, New Zealand (d. 1996)
Jan 21 Kevin Cramer, American politician (Senator-R-North Dakota 2019-, Rep-R-2013-19), born in Rolette, North Dakota
Jan 23 Mas Selamat bin Kastari, Singapore's most-wanted terror fugitive, born in Kendal Regency, Indonesia
Jan 24 Krasimir Mikhailov Stoyanov, Soviet cosmonaut, born in Varna, Bulgaria
Jan 24 Vince Russo, American writer, born in Long Island, New York
Jan 25 Vivian Balakrishnan, Singaporean politician, born in Singapore
Jan 27 Narciso Rodriguez, American fashion designer, born in Newark, New Jersey
Jan 31 Fatou Bensouda, Gambian lawyer & Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, born in Banjul, Gambia

Deaths in History

Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961)

Jan 4 Austrian physicist and Nobel Laureate (wave mechanics), dies at 73

Jan 6 Regina Ullmann, Swiss poet and writer, dies at 76
Jan 7 Clarice Baright, 1st woman admitted to American Bar Association, dies at 74
Jan 9 Emily Greene Balch, American sociologist, feminist and pacifist (Women's International League for Peace and Freedom - Nobel Peace Prize 1946), dies at 94
Jan 10 Dashiell Hammett, American detective writer (Thin Man, Maltese Falcon), dies at 66
Jan 24 Willem van Eysinga, Dutch jurist and diplomat (Paris Peace Conference), dies at 82
Jan 30 Maud Wagner, first known American tattoo artist and circus performer, dies at about 83