Britain and the World 1961

BRITAIN AND THE WORLD SINCE 1953

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.	1961
Jan1	Farthing ceases to be legal tender
Jan3	An explosion occurs at a nuclear installation in Idaho Falls - the dead cannnot be buried for three weeks due to radioactive contamination
	USA severs diplomatic relations with Cuba
	President Eisenhower delivers Farewell Address warning the nation of the "Military- Industrial Complex".
Jan8	The largest post war spy ring is exposed in Britain
Jan20	John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as the 35th president of the United States. He was elected by the closest vote ever and was the youngest presidential nominee elected. (see 9th November 1960)
Jan24	U.S. B-52 bomber with two 24-megaton nuclear bombs crashed near Goldsboro, North Carolina
Jan25	President John Kennedy held the first presidential news conference to be televised live
Feb5	The Sunday Telegraph began publication.
Feb8	The crash of a Sabena airliner near Brussels kills the cream of US ice skaters
Feb26	Following the death of his father Hassan11 is pronounced as the King of morocco
Mar6	The comedian George Formby dies
Mar8	First US Polaris submarines arrive at Holy Loch
Mar13	Black & White £5 notes cease to be legal tender
	A Dam bursts on the Dneiper river in the USSR killing 145 people
Mar14	New English Bible (New Testament) published
Apr11	The trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem and ended on Dec15 when he was sentenced to death
Apr12	Soviet Union launched the first man into space; cosmonaut Yuri Gargarin was carried by the spacecraft Vostok I on a single orbit of the Earth in an 108-minute flight
Apr17	1,500 Cuban exiles landed in the Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) with the aim of ousting the Communist regime of Fidel Castro
Apr22	Three French generals who oppose De Gaulle's policies in Algeria fail in a coup attempt
Apr23	Census: Population. England&Wales 46Million, Scotland 5.1M, NI 1.4M
	The Swedish warship Vasa which sank in Stockholm harbour in 1628 is salvaged
Apr27	Sierra Leone gains independence
May1	Betting shops are legalised in Britain
May5	Alan Shepard became the first American in space in a 15-minute suborbital flight in a Mercury spacecraft
May8	The British traitor George Blake is sentenced to 42 years imprisonment for spying. On October 22nd 1966 he escaped from Wormwood scrubs and was next seen in the USSR
May16	A military coup in South Korea occurs. A military council led by Do Young Tsang takes over
May25	President Kennedy announces the beginning of the US space program
May28	Amnesty International founded. On the same day race riots occur in Montgomery, Alabama with the Governor declaring martial law
May31	South Africa leaves the Commonwealth
Jun6	The Swiss psychotherapist Carl Gustav Jung dies
Jun21	Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev requested asylum in France while in Paris with the Kirov ballet.
Jun25	US philanthropist George Vanderbilt is found dead at the base of a San Franciscan skyscraper
Jun27	Dr Arthur Michael Ramsey was enthroned as the 100th Archbishop of Canterbury.
Jul2	Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winning author, Ernest Hemingway took his own life at his home in Ketchum, Idaho
Jul8	Angela Mortimer wins the Ladies Singles Final at Wimbledon in an all British Final. The Australian Neale Fraser wins the Men's Title
Jul19	T.W.A show the first in-flight movie
	Kuwait's status as a British protectorate ends and it becomes an independent emirate. Six days later Iraq deploys troops in the border region and threatens secession
Aug10	Britain applies for membership of the E.E.C
Aug13	The East Germans halt the passage between East and West Berlin and initiate the building of the Berlin Wall
Aug18:	The Berlin Wall is completed
Aug21	Jomo Kenyatta is released from prison by the British authorities
Sept18	UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold is killed in a plane crash. On Dec 10 he was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
Oct10	Volcanic eruption on Tristan da Cunha - whole population evacuated to Britain
Oct12	The death penalty is abolished in New Zealand
Oct17	Algerians demonstrating in Paris against colonial rule were confronted by riot police. The authorities say only three people died but human rights groups have insisted the figure was over 240. The details were suppressed by the French government for years
Oct21	Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard M. Nixon held their fourth and final Presidential debate.
Oct25	The first edition of Private Eye, the British satirical magazine, was published
Oct30	Russia's de-Stalinization program reached a climax when Stalin's body was removed from the mausoleum in Red Square and re-buried. On the same day the USSR detonates a 57 megaton H-Bomb in Novaja Zemja that sends shockwaves circles three times around the earth
Nov12	Stalingrad changes its name to Volgograd
Nov16	The Conservative government introduce the Commonwealth Immigration Bill
Dec9	Tanganjika gains independence and declares itself a republic with Julius Nyerere as its first President
Dec10	USSR severs diplomatic relations with Albania. on Jan 13 1962 Albania allies itself with China
Dec19	Goa cedes to India after 400 years of Portugese rule

Last Updated 24/02/03 11:06

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