Aero Flight 311 (Koivulahti air disaster):
Douglas DC-3C OH-LCC of Finnish airline
Aero crashes near
Kvevlax (Koivulahti), on approach to
Vaasa Airport in Finland, killing all 25 on board, due to
pilot error: an investigation finds that the
captain and
first officer were both exhausted for lack of sleep, and had consumed excessive amounts of alcohol at the time of the crash. It remains the deadliest air disaster to occur in the country.
In Washington, D.C., President
John F. Kennedy delivers the first live presidential
news conference. In it, he announces that the
Soviet Union has freed the two surviving crewmen of a
USAFRB-47 reconnaissance plane, shot down by Soviet flyers over the
Barents Sea on
July 1,
1960 (see RB-47H shot down).
Acting to halt 'leftist excesses', a
junta composed of two army officers and four civilians takes over
El Salvador, ousting another junta that had ruled for three months.
South Africa announces it will withdraw from the
Commonwealth of Nations, upon becoming a republic (31 May). The nation rejoins the organization in
1994.
President
Kennedy urges newspapers to consider national interest in times of struggle against "a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy", in an address before the American Newspaper Publishers Association.[7]
Sierra Leone becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
May 6 –
Tottenham Hotspur F.C. becomes the first team in the 20th century to win the
English league and cup double. As of 2023[update], this is the last time Tottenham have won the English League.
May 8 – Briton
George Blake is sentenced to 42 years imprisonment for spying.
May 19 – Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly-by another planet by passing
Venus (however, the probe loses contact with Earth a month earlier, and does not send back any data).
May 25 –
Apollo program:
President Kennedy announces, before a special joint session of Congress, his goal to put a man on the Moon before the end of the decade.
June 1 –
Ethiopia experiences its most devastating earthquake of the 20th century, with a magnitude of 6.7. The town of
Majete is destroyed, 45% of the houses in
Karakore collapse, 17 kilometers (11 mi) of the main road north of Karakore are damaged by landslides and fissures, and 5,000 inhabitants in the area are left homeless.
July 25 – U.S. President
John F. Kennedy gives a widely watched TV speech on the Berlin crisis, warning "we will not be driven out of Berlin." Kennedy urges Americans to build fallout shelters, setting off a four-month debate on civil defense.
August 6 – Vostok 2: Soviet cosmonaut
Gherman Titov becomes the second human to orbit the Earth, and the first to be in outer space for more than one day.
In the U.S., the
Walt Disney anthology television series, renamed Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, moves from ABC to NBC after seven years on the air, and begins telecasting its programs in color for the first time. Years later, after Disney's death, the still-on-the-air program will be renamed The Wonderful World of Disney.
Unification Day (Cameroon): The formerly British
Southern Cameroons gains independence from the United Kingdom by vote of the UN General Assembly and joins with formerly French Cameroun to form the Federal Republic of
Cameroon.[12]
Baseball player
Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hits his 61st home run in the last game of the season, against the
Boston Red Sox, setting a new record for the longer baseball season. The record for the shorter season is still held by Babe Ruth.
October 17 –
Paris massacre of 1961: French police in Paris attack about 30,000 protesting a curfew applied solely to
Algerians. The official death toll is 3, but human rights groups claim 240 dead.
October 25 – The first edition of Private Eye, the British satirical magazine, is published.
October 26 –
Cemal Gürsel becomes the fourth president of Turkey (his former title is head of state and government; he is elected as president by constitutional referendum).
Devrim, the first ever
car designed and produced in
Turkey, is released. The project has been completed in only 130 days almost from scratch, a period including decision on the project, research, design, development and production of four vehicles.
December 14 –
Walt Disney's first live-action Technicolor musical, Babes in Toyland, a remake of the famous Victor Herbert operetta, is released, but flops at the box office.
^Vitoux, Frédéric (1991). Céline: A Biography. New York: Paragon House.
ISBN1-55778-255-5 Pages=551-7
^Reynolds, Michael (2000). "Ernest Hemingway, 1899–1961: A Brief Biography". in Wagner-Martin, Linda (ed). A Historical Guide to Ernest Hemingway. New York: Oxford UP.
ISBN978-0-19-512152-0, page 16
^"About". Whittaker Chambers. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
^Spetich, Joan; Cameron, Douglas E. (1987). "Nina Karlovna Bari". In Grinstein, Louise S.; Campbell, Paul J. (eds.). Women of Mathematics: a Biobibliographic Sourcebook. New York: Greenwood Press. p. 6.
ISBN978-0-3132-4849-8.
Aero Flight 311 (Koivulahti air disaster):
Douglas DC-3C OH-LCC of Finnish airline
Aero crashes near
Kvevlax (Koivulahti), on approach to
Vaasa Airport in Finland, killing all 25 on board, due to
pilot error: an investigation finds that the
captain and
first officer were both exhausted for lack of sleep, and had consumed excessive amounts of alcohol at the time of the crash. It remains the deadliest air disaster to occur in the country.
In Washington, D.C., President
John F. Kennedy delivers the first live presidential
news conference. In it, he announces that the
Soviet Union has freed the two surviving crewmen of a
USAFRB-47 reconnaissance plane, shot down by Soviet flyers over the
Barents Sea on
July 1,
1960 (see RB-47H shot down).
Acting to halt 'leftist excesses', a
junta composed of two army officers and four civilians takes over
El Salvador, ousting another junta that had ruled for three months.
South Africa announces it will withdraw from the
Commonwealth of Nations, upon becoming a republic (31 May). The nation rejoins the organization in
1994.
President
Kennedy urges newspapers to consider national interest in times of struggle against "a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy", in an address before the American Newspaper Publishers Association.[7]
Sierra Leone becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
May 6 –
Tottenham Hotspur F.C. becomes the first team in the 20th century to win the
English league and cup double. As of 2023[update], this is the last time Tottenham have won the English League.
May 8 – Briton
George Blake is sentenced to 42 years imprisonment for spying.
May 19 – Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly-by another planet by passing
Venus (however, the probe loses contact with Earth a month earlier, and does not send back any data).
May 25 –
Apollo program:
President Kennedy announces, before a special joint session of Congress, his goal to put a man on the Moon before the end of the decade.
June 1 –
Ethiopia experiences its most devastating earthquake of the 20th century, with a magnitude of 6.7. The town of
Majete is destroyed, 45% of the houses in
Karakore collapse, 17 kilometers (11 mi) of the main road north of Karakore are damaged by landslides and fissures, and 5,000 inhabitants in the area are left homeless.
July 25 – U.S. President
John F. Kennedy gives a widely watched TV speech on the Berlin crisis, warning "we will not be driven out of Berlin." Kennedy urges Americans to build fallout shelters, setting off a four-month debate on civil defense.
August 6 – Vostok 2: Soviet cosmonaut
Gherman Titov becomes the second human to orbit the Earth, and the first to be in outer space for more than one day.
In the U.S., the
Walt Disney anthology television series, renamed Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, moves from ABC to NBC after seven years on the air, and begins telecasting its programs in color for the first time. Years later, after Disney's death, the still-on-the-air program will be renamed The Wonderful World of Disney.
Unification Day (Cameroon): The formerly British
Southern Cameroons gains independence from the United Kingdom by vote of the UN General Assembly and joins with formerly French Cameroun to form the Federal Republic of
Cameroon.[12]
Baseball player
Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hits his 61st home run in the last game of the season, against the
Boston Red Sox, setting a new record for the longer baseball season. The record for the shorter season is still held by Babe Ruth.
October 17 –
Paris massacre of 1961: French police in Paris attack about 30,000 protesting a curfew applied solely to
Algerians. The official death toll is 3, but human rights groups claim 240 dead.
October 25 – The first edition of Private Eye, the British satirical magazine, is published.
October 26 –
Cemal Gürsel becomes the fourth president of Turkey (his former title is head of state and government; he is elected as president by constitutional referendum).
Devrim, the first ever
car designed and produced in
Turkey, is released. The project has been completed in only 130 days almost from scratch, a period including decision on the project, research, design, development and production of four vehicles.
December 14 –
Walt Disney's first live-action Technicolor musical, Babes in Toyland, a remake of the famous Victor Herbert operetta, is released, but flops at the box office.
^Vitoux, Frédéric (1991). Céline: A Biography. New York: Paragon House.
ISBN1-55778-255-5 Pages=551-7
^Reynolds, Michael (2000). "Ernest Hemingway, 1899–1961: A Brief Biography". in Wagner-Martin, Linda (ed). A Historical Guide to Ernest Hemingway. New York: Oxford UP.
ISBN978-0-19-512152-0, page 16
^"About". Whittaker Chambers. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
^Spetich, Joan; Cameron, Douglas E. (1987). "Nina Karlovna Bari". In Grinstein, Louise S.; Campbell, Paul J. (eds.). Women of Mathematics: a Biobibliographic Sourcebook. New York: Greenwood Press. p. 6.
ISBN978-0-3132-4849-8.