1961 Headlines

Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle compete to beat Babe Ruth's record of 60 home runs. Maris hits number 61 on October 1.

President Kennedy creates the Peace Corps

The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba by 1,600 rebels trained by the US is a horrible disaster and embarrassment to President Kennedy. JFK advises a prudent family plan to have a bomb shelter.

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin is the first man to travel into space, as he circles the earth in 90 minutes in the Vostok I 187 miles above the earth.

Navy Commander Alan B. Shepard, Jr., blasts into space for a 20 minute ride "out of this world" in the Freedom 7. The space race is under way, but the U.S. is behind.

FCC Chairman Newton Minow claims that television is a "vast wasteland."

 East Germany closes the border between East and West Berlin (deep in the heart of East Germany). Khrushchev orders construction of a wall to prevent East Germans from escaping to freedom. Eventually the wall would be 26 miles long ; thousands East Germans flee before wall is complete.

Adolph Eichman goes to trial in Jerusalem and is found guilty and hanged.

Castro makes Cuba Socialist; Ends Vote.

Ray Kroc buys out the McDonald brothers and takes control over the hamburger chain.

Coca Cola introduces Sprite to complete against 7-Up.

IBM introduces the Selectric typewriter.

Johnson & Johnson introduces Tylenol.

The Yo-Yo becomes the newest craze and is the largest selling toy.

Ernest Hemmingway commits suicide with shotgun.

Rock's second era begins in earnest with the debut of Del Shannon's "Runaway" which is the first pure unadorned and uptempo rocker to hit #1 on the Pop Charts in almost a year. The song also introduces the "musitron", an early form of the synthesizer.

The Marvelettes "Please Mr. Postman" becomes the first #1 Pop hit released on a black owned and operated label - Motown.

Soul music starts gaining a foothold with hits by Sam Cooke, James Brown, Solomon Burke and former Drifters lead signer Ben E. King, who's "Stand By Me" is a #1 R&B record.

Elvis Presley gives his last live performance for eight years.