50 Fun Facts About 1961

Which cosmonaut became the first human in space on 12 April, ejecting from Vostok 1 to parachute down separately?

Yuri Gagarin was promoted to major by a special order issued while he was still in flight; the whole trip from launch to landing took 108 minutes.

Which club completed the first League and FA Cup double of the 20th century on 6 May, beating Leicester 2–0 at Wembley?

Tottenham Hotspur were the first to do the double since Aston Villa in 1897; Bobby Smith and Terry Dyson scored after Leicester full-back Len Chalmers was hurt twenty minutes in.

Which 150 mph sports car, launched in Geneva on 15 March, did Enzo Ferrari reputedly call the most beautiful ever made?

The Jaguar E-Type made its racing debut by winning at Oulton Park on 3 April, and in 2008 it topped the Daily Telegraph's list of the world's 100 most beautiful cars.

Which Yankees outfielder broke Babe Ruth's home-run record with his 61st on the last day of a newly lengthened season?

Roger Maris's mark was shadowed by commissioner Ford Frick's ruling that a record set beyond 154 games needed a 'distinctive mark', the asterisk suggested by sportswriter Dick Young.

Which musical, released in October and inspired by Romeo and Juliet, was the highest-grossing film of 1961?

West Side Story won ten Academy Awards from eleven nominations, a record for a musical, and Natalie Wood's songs were dubbed by Marni Nixon, who had to re-record them to fit Wood's filmed performances.

Which Joseph Heller novel had its number changed from 18 to avoid confusion with Leon Uris's Mila 18?

Catch-22 had its opening chapter printed in 1955 as Catch-18; Heller signed for $1,500 and the book became very popular among teenagers.

Which future royal bride was born at Park House on the Sandringham estate on 1 July, fourth child of Viscount Althorp?

Diana Spencer grew up next door to the royal family on their Sandringham estate and married at St Paul's Cathedral in July 1981, the first royal bride to have held a paying job before her engagement.

Which campaigning group grew from Peter Benenson's Observer article 'The Forgotten Prisoners', published on 28 May?

Amnesty International's founder had read on the London Underground of two Portuguese students jailed for seven years for a toast to freedom; the article ran on The Observer's front page.

Which astronaut became the first American in space on 5 May, a 15-minute suborbital hop in the capsule Freedom 7?

Alan Shepard went on to walk on the Moon at 47 in 1971, the oldest person to do so; Freedom 7 reached 116 miles up and splashed down 302 miles down the Atlantic range.

Which East German leader insisted that 'no one has the intention of building a wall', weeks before sealing Berlin?

Walter Ulbricht had pushed for a border closure for some time; the denial was the first time anyone had publicly used the word 'wall', and work began on 13 August.

At which Berlin crossing did Soviet and American tanks stand 100 yards apart on 27 October before both withdrew?

Checkpoint Charlie took its name from the letter C in the NATO phonetic alphabet; the standoff ended peacefully on 28 October after a US–Soviet understanding to pull the tanks back.

Which Holocaust organiser, seized by Mossad in Argentina, sat in a bulletproof glass booth at his trial in Jerusalem?

Adolf Eichmann's trial, which opened on 11 April, was one of the first to be widely televised; he was sentenced to death on 15 December and hanged at Ramla Prison in June 1962.

Which UN Secretary-General died when his DC-6 crashed near Ndola in September, flying to negotiate a Congo ceasefire?

Dag Hammarskjöld remains the only posthumous recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize; he was on his way to meet Katanga's secessionist leader Moïse Tshombe when the plane came down in Northern Rhodesia.

Over which Arctic archipelago did a Tu-95 drop Tsar Bomba, the most powerful weapon ever tested, on 30 October?

Novaya Zemlya's test yielded 50 megatons from a bomb dropped by parachute to detonate 4,000 metres up; the next four most powerful tests ever made were all Soviet, the following year.

Which country became a republic on 31 May and left the Commonwealth the same day, not rejoining until 1994?

South Africa had announced on 15 March that it would withdraw on becoming a republic, and stayed outside the Commonwealth for 33 years until rejoining in 1994.

Which Kirov Ballet star defected at Le Bourget airport in June, the first Soviet artist to do so during the Cold War?

Rudolf Nureyev escaped his KGB minders with help from French police and the socialite Clara Saint, after being told he must return to Moscow rather than fly on to London with the company.

Which novelist died by suicide in Ketchum, Idaho on 2 July, months after electroconvulsive therapy at the Mayo Clinic?

Ernest Hemingway had been flown to the Mayo Clinic on the pretext of treatment for hypertension and given ECT as many as 15 times in December 1960; his wife Mary had found him with a shotgun in April.

Whose embalmed body, displayed beside Lenin's since 1953, was removed from the Red Square mausoleum on 31 October?

Joseph Stalin's body was reburied in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis as part of Khrushchev's de-Stalinisation; from 1953 the building had been called Lenin's and Stalin's Mausoleum.

Which 86-year-old poet, unable to read his poem in the glare at Kennedy's inauguration, recited 'The Gift Outright'?

Robert Frost was the first poet to take part in a presidential inauguration, reciting from memory; Kennedy had suggested the poem himself as thanks for Frost's help in the campaign.

Which chimpanzee flew a Mercury capsule on 31 January, three months before any American astronaut did?

Ham was 'No. 65' until he landed safely, then was named after the Holloman Aerospace Medical Center that trained him; his flight lasted 16 minutes and 39 seconds.

Where did John Kennedy set the goal, on 25 May, of landing a man on the Moon 'before this decade is out'?

A joint session of Congress heard the pledge on 25 May, six weeks after the first human orbit had handed the Soviets another space first and three weeks after the first American suborbital flight.

In which Alabama town did a Klan mob firebomb a Freedom Riders bus on Mother's Day, 14 May?

Anniston's mob, some still in church attire, attacked the first of two Greyhound buses; the riders were testing a Supreme Court ruling against segregation on interstate travel.

Which drug, sold for morning sickness, was pulled from the market in November after being linked to birth defects?

Thalidomide is estimated to have caused serious birth defects in more than 10,000 children, over half of them in West Germany, where it had been sold over the counter since 1957.

Which Mercury capsule, flown by Gus Grissom, sank in the Atlantic when its hatch blew after splashdown in July?

Liberty Bell 7 lay on the Atlantic floor until 1999; its hatch was designed to release explosively in an emergency, and Grissom, at risk of drowning, was hoisted out by a recovery helicopter.

Which 28/1 shot became the first grey to win the Grand National in 90 years, ridden by Bobby Beasley on 25 March?

Nicolaus Silver was trained by Fred Rimell and beat the previous year's winner Merryman II into second place, while the favourite Jonjo finished seventh.

Which Paddington-born boxer took the world middleweight title when Paul Pender retired after nine rounds at Wembley?

Terry Downes, the 'Paddington Express', had lost to Pender in Boston in January and lost the title back to him there in 1962; he fought six world champions and beat three.

Which Swedish warship, sunk 1,300 metres into her maiden voyage in 1628, was raised after 333 years on the seabed?

Vasa was located again in the late 1950s by amateur archaeologist Anders Franzén, who reasoned that the Baltic's cold brackish water had no shipworm; over 45 million people have since seen her.

Which Gulf state, a British protectorate until 19 June, asked for British troops within days when Iraq claimed it?

Kuwait's request on 27 June brought British troops in; the Arab League took over its protection on 19 October, and the annexation Iraq threatened finally came in 1990.

Which Minister of Health announced that the pill, Conovid, could be prescribed on the NHS for two shillings a month?

Enoch Powell, later notorious for his 1968 speech on immigration, had that March proposed closing the large traditional psychiatric hospitals in his 'water towers' speech.

Which MI6 officer turned double agent was jailed for 42 years, the longest non-life sentence from a British court?

George Blake escaped from Wormwood Scrubs in 1966 with help from fellow inmate Sean Bourke and two anti-nuclear campaigners, and later mixed with Philby and Maclean in Moscow.

Which coin, used since the 13th century and bearing a wren on its reverse, ceased to be legal tender on 1 January?

The farthing's wren had replaced Britannia on the reverse in 1937; a price of 19s 11¾d was a way of making goods seem cheaper than a pound, much like £0.99 today.

Which artist's Portrait of the Duke of Wellington was stolen in August as ransom in a campaign for free TV licences?

Goya's portrait had hung in the National Gallery just nineteen days; it came back four years later via a Birmingham New Street left-luggage office, and Kempton Bunton was convicted only of stealing the frame.

Which South Atlantic island's population of 264 was evacuated to England after a volcanic eruption on 10 October?

Tristan da Cunha's islanders were housed at a former RAF camp at Calshot after a spell at an army camp in Surrey; most families returned in 1963.

Which conservation body, conceived on 29 April, took its logo from Chi Chi, a giant panda at London Zoo?

The World Wildlife Fund's panda was drawn by Sir Peter Scott, and its first office opened on 11 September at IUCN's headquarters in Morges, Switzerland; Chi Chi had come to London from Beijing Zoo in 1958.

Which satirical magazine, funded by Andrew Osmond, who sold early copies in London pubs, launched on 25 October?

Private Eye has been edited by Ian Hislop since 1986; Peter Cook, who opened The Establishment satirical nightclub that same month, bought the magazine in 1962.

At which Kent station did Mick Jagger and Keith Richards meet again on 17 October, Jagger carrying Chuck Berry records?

Dartford was where the two had been childhood friends in 1950 before losing touch when the Jagger family moved; the records revealed a shared taste that became the Rolling Stones.

Which Hancock episode, broadcast on 23 June, was read off teleprompters after Tony Hancock's car accident?

The Blood Donor has Hancock protest that a pint is 'very nearly an armful'; the accident came on the way back from recording The Bowmans, and he leaned on the prompting device for most of his TV career after.

Which ITV series began on 7 January with Ian Hendry's Dr David Keel aided by Patrick Macnee's John Steed?

The Avengers replaced Police Surgeon, in which Hendry had played a police surgeon; after he left, Steed became the lead with a succession of assistants, and the show ran until 1969.

Which 14-year-old schoolgirl topped the UK chart twice, with 'You Don't Know' and 'Walkin' Back to Happiness'?

Helen Shapiro stayed at Clapton Park Comprehensive in Hackney until Christmas 1961, while AllMusic said her voice had 'the maturity and sensibilities of someone far beyond their teen years'.

Which clarinettist wrote 'Stranger on the Shore' for his daughter, the first British record to top the US Hot 100?

Acker Bilk originally called the tune 'Jenny' after his daughter; it became the UK's biggest-selling single of 1962 and the biggest-selling instrumental single of all time, though it only reached number two at home.

Which folk singer was signed to Columbia by John Hammond after playing harmonica on a Carolyn Hester album?

Bob Dylan had come to New York in January to visit his idol Woody Guthrie at a New Jersey psychiatric hospital, and spent the year playing Greenwich Village clubs, picking up songs from Dave Van Ronk and the Clancy Brothers.

Which actress won her first Oscar in April for BUtterfield 8, weeks after near-fatal pneumonia and a tracheotomy?

Elizabeth Taylor disliked her call-girl role in her last film for MGM, and many felt the award came out of sympathy; one news agency had erroneously reported her dead.

Which striker, scorer of 124 First Division goals for Chelsea in four seasons, came back from AC Milan for £99,999?

Jimmy Greaves had gone to Milan for £80,000 on £140 a week plus a £15,000 signing bonus, and scored nine goals in 14 games there before the unhappy spell ended with a return to London.

Which Briton beat Christine Truman in July's all-British Wimbledon final, the first home women's winner since 1937?

Angela Mortimer won while partially deaf, saying the silence helped her concentrate; it was her third and last major singles title, after the 1955 French and 1958 Australian championships.

Which golfer became the first Masters champion from outside the United States, after rain forced a Monday finish?

Gary Player, 25, carded a disappointing 40 on the back nine and thought he had lost, but beat defending champion Arnold Palmer and amateur Charles Coe by one stroke for the first of his three green jackets.

Which driver became the first American world champion at Monza, the race that killed his Ferrari teammate von Trips?

Phil Hill's title was settled because von Trips, who crashed into a fence of spectators and killed 15 of them, had been the only rival able to challenge him; the race was not stopped.

Which Dominican Republic dictator, in power since 1930, was killed in an ambush led by Antonio Imbert on 30 May?

Rafael Trujillo, 'El Jefe', had been the country's first generalissimo and its 36th and 39th president; a military uprising overthrew what was left of his regime in November.

Which duo came second for the UK at Eurovision in Cannes with 'Are You Sure?', a song they wrote themselves?

The Allisons' song sold a million copies and reached number two in the official UK chart; Luxembourg won with Jean-Claude Pascal's 'Nous les amoureux', and the UK was runner-up for the third contest running.

Which Australian captain bowled round the wicket into the footmarks to take 6–70 in the decisive Ashes Test?

Richie Benaud had damaged shoulder tendons that kept him out of the Lord's Test; at Old Trafford England needed 256 and were expected to get them before his leg breaks brought a 54-run Australian win.

Which Swiss founder of analytical psychology, who described the introvert and extravert types, died at Küsnacht?

Carl Jung had run a private practice from his Küsnacht home since 1909 after leaving the Burghölzli hospital in Zürich, and the town made him an honorary citizen on his 85th birthday.