This day in history. Read about what happened today. A short and interesting account of historical events and facts about this day as well as any other day of the year. Find historical birthdays, deaths, tragedies, war events, disasters and sports events.

This year in history
In the year 1961

	January 8th	American athlete, Calvin Smith, was born. Considered as one of the great sprinters of the 20th century, he was the first athlete to run the 100 menters in under 10 seconds and the 200 meters in under 20 seconds.
	February 5th	The British newspaper, Sunday Telegraph, was published for the first issue.
	February 15th	A Sabena airways passenger flight crashed near Belgium, resulting in the death of 73 people, including the entire United States figure skating team.
	March 4th	American boxer, Ray Mancini, was born in Ohio.
	March 8th	English conductor, Thomas Beecham, died at the age of 81. He was one of the most influential figures of the classical music scene of Britain. He founded several British orchestras including the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
	March 11th	Canadian actor, Elias Koteas, was born in Montreal.
	March 21st	German football legend, Lothar Matthaus, was born in Erlangen, Germany.
	April 3rd	American comedian, Eddie Murphy, was born in Brooklyn, New York. He began his career as part of the Saturday Night Live television show, at the age of 19.
	April 12th	Soviet astronaut, Yuri Gagarin, became the first man to fly in space.
	April 17th	Cuban anti-Castro refugees land at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the intention of deposing Fidel Castro. The invasion was planed and supported by the CIA, still it was a total disaster.
	April 19th	The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba ended as a total failure.
	April 25th	A patent was granted for the first integrated circuit, the father of the modern microchip.
	April 30th	American basketball player, Isiah Thomas, was born in Chicago, Illinois. He was one of the great players of the late 1980's and 1990's who became famous for leading the Detroit Pistons teams to two consecutive championships.
	May 6th	American actor, George Clooney, was born in Lexington, Kentucky. He first appeared opn TV in 1984 in the short lived series E/R which was a very similar to the 1994 ER series, which catapulted him to international fame.
	May 14th	British actor, Tim Roth, was born in London. He gained international fame through his role in Quentin Tarantino's hit movie 'Reservoir Dogs'.
	May 17th	Irish singer and songwriter, Enya, was born in Gweedore, County Donegal, Ireland.
	May 25th	US president John F. Kennedy announced his intention to support a project that would put a 'man on the moon' before the end of that decade, this was the birth of the Apollo Program.
	June 9th	Canadian actor, Michael J. Fox, was born in Alberta. He was a very popular film and television actor during the 1980's and 1990's, having starred in such successes as the Back to the Future trilogy. In 1991 he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and retired from full-time acting in 2000.
	June 14th	British singer, Boy George, was born in Eltham, Kent. He gained international fame with his group, Culture Club, during the 1980s.
	June 19th	Kuwait declared its independence from the United Kingdom.
	July 1st	Princess of Wales, Diana, was born in Sandringham, England. She was the first wife of Charles, the Prince of Wales heir apparent of the throne of England.
	July 1st	American athlete, Carl Lewis, was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He is widely considered as one of the greatest track athletes of the 20th century, who won a total of 9 gold medals in 4 different Olympic Games.
	July 2nd	American writer and Nobel Prize winner, Ernest Hemingway, committed suicide at the age of 62.
	July 15th	American actor, Forest Whitaker, was born in Longview, Texas. He is most known for his roles in the hit movies Platoon, Good Morning Vietnam and The Crying Game.
	July 15th	Canadian actress, Lolita Davidovich, was born in Ontario.
	July 23th	British musician, Martin Gore, was born in Basildon, Essex. He is one of the founding members of the music band, Depeche Mode.
	August 4th	American politician, Barack Obama, was born in Honolulu, Hawaii.
	August 8th	Irish guitarist, David Howell Evans, was born in London, England. He is most known as, The Edge, and is the guitarist of the legendary rock band U2.
	August 21st	American disc jockey, David Morales, was born in Brooklyn, New York. He is considered as one of the best DJ's and remixers of all time.
	August 27th	American fashion designer, Tom Ford, was born in Austin, Texas. He is most known for having been the chief designer of the Gucci brand during the 1990's. The success of Gucci after the 1990's is largely attributed to him. He stepped down from the position of Creative director in 2004, to begin his own brand.
	September 10th	At the Formula One grand prix in Monza, Italy, German driver Wolfgang Von Trips crashed his Ferrari into a barrier resulting in his death as well as that of 13 spectators that were hit by his Ferrari.
	September 18th	American actor, James Gandolfini, was born in New York city. He is most known for his role in the television hit series, The Sopranos.
	September 26th	Bob Dylan makes his public debut in New York City at the age of 20.
	September 28th	A military coup in Syria ended the United Arab Republic. The republic was formed by the union between the republics of Egypt and Syria in 1958.
	September 30th	American actor, Eric Stoltz, was born in California, USA. While he has achieved a fairly popular status in Hollywood, he widely performs in independent films.
	October 1st	East and West Cameroon merged to become the Federal Republic of Cameroon.
	October 11th	American comedian, Chico Marx, died at the age of 74. He was part of the Marx Brothers group, that marked the stage with its unique comedy style during the first half of the 20th century.
	October 30th	The Soviet Union detonated the largest hydrogen bomb ever to be detonated. It was called the Tsar Bomba and it had a yield of 58 megatons. In comparrison, the total yield of all bombs used during the second world war, including the 2 atomic bombs, did not exceed 2 megatons.
	November 2nd	Canadian musician, k.d. lang, was born in Alberta, Canada.
	November 4th	American actor, Ralph Macchio, was born in New York. He became famous after his participation in the hit teen movie, The Karate Kid.
	November 12th	Romanian gymnast, Nadia Comaneci, was born in Onesti, Romania. She is probably the most widely known name in the field of gymnastics and one that helped popularize the sport. She won 5 golden Olympic medals in her career and was the first to ever receive a perfect 10 score in an Olympic gymnastic event.
	November 12th	Uruguayan footballer, Enzo Francescoli, was born in Montevideo. He is widely considered as one of the great footballers of the century and the best player to emerge from Uruguay.
	December 9th	Tanganyika became independent from Britain. It was an East African republic which in 1964 united with the island of Zanzibar to form the nation of Tanzania.
	December 17th	India seized the territory of Goa from Portugal.

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