1961
1961 (
MCMLXI) was a
common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar).
As
MAD Magazine pointed out on its cover for the March issue, this was the first "upside-up" year—i.e., one that looked the same upside down—since
1881, and the last until
6009.
January
*
January 1 - The
farthing coin, used since the
13th century, ceases to be
legal tender in the
United Kingdom.
*
January 3 - President
Dwight Eisenhower announces that the
United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with
Cuba.
*
January 3 -
SL-1, an
atomic reactor, explodes at National Reactor Testing Station in
Idaho Falls, Idaho, killing 3 military technicians.
*
January 5 - Italian sculptor
Alfredo Fioravanti marches into the U.S. Consulate in
Rome, and confesses that he was part of the team that forged the
Etruscan terracotta warriors in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
*
January 7 - Following a four-day conference in
Casablanca, five African chiefs of state announce plans for a
NATO-type African organization to ensure common defense. The
Charter of Casablanca involves
Morocco, the
United Arab Republic,
Ghana,
Guinea, and
Mali.
*
January 8 - In
France, a
referendum supports
Charles de Gaulle's policies in
Algeria.
*
January 9 -
British authorities announce that they have discovered a large
Soviet spy ring in
London.
*
January 17 - President
Dwight Eisenhower gives his final
State of the Union Address to Congress. In a
Farewell Address the same day, he warns of the increasing power of a "
military-industrial complex".
*
January 17 -
Patrice Lumumba is assassinated.
*
January 20 -
John F. Kennedy becomes the 35th
President of the United States. His close win against Nixon shows that America was influenced by his calm, composed appearance in the presidential debates.
*
January 24 - A U.S.
B-52 bomber, with two roughly 2.4
megaton nuclear bombs, crashes near
Goldsboro, North Carolina.
*
January 24 - Musician
Bob Dylan is said to have made his way to
New York City after bumming a ride in
Madison, Wisconsin. Dylan is likely on his way to visit his idol
Woody Guthrie. He later finds fame in the
Greenwich Village protest folk music scene.
*
January 25 - In
Washington, DC 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
USAF RB-47 reconnaissance plane shot down by Soviet flyers over the
Barents Sea July 1, 1960. (see
RB-47H shot down)
*
January 25 - Acting to halt 'leftist excesses,' a
junta comprised of two army officers and 4 civilians takes over the rule of
El Salvador, ousting another junta that had ruled for three months.
*
January 26 -
John F. Kennedy appoints
Janet G. Travell to be his physician. This is the first time a woman held this appointment.
*
January 26 -
Wayne Gretzky, professional hockey player (Known as "The Great One") is born in
Brantford, Ontario,
Canada.
*
January 30 - President
John F. Kennedy delivers his first
State of the Union Address.
*
January 30 - Martin Luther King Jr. has a son - Dexter Scott King.
*
January 31 -
Ham, a 37 pound male
chimpanzee, is rocketed into space aboard
Mercury-Redstone 2, in a test of the
Project Mercury capsule, designed to carry
U.S. astronauts into space.
February
*
February 3 -
China buys grain from
Canada for $60 million.
*
February 4 - The Portuguese Colonial War begins in
Angola.
*
February 5 -
February 9 - In
Congo, President
Joseph Kasavubu names
Joseph Ileo as the new Prime Minister.
*
February 13 - The
Congo government announces that villagers have killed
Patrice Lumumba.
*
February 14 -
Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103,
Lawrencium, is first synthesized (
Berkeley, California).
*
February 15 - A
Sabena Boeing 707 crashes near
Brussels,
Belgium, killing 73, including the entire
United States figure skating team and several coaches.
*
February 25 - The last public
tram operates in
Sydney,
Australia, bringing to an end the Southern Hemisphere's largest tramway network.
*
February 26 -
Hassan II is pronounced King of
Morocco.
March
*
March 1 -
President of the United States John F. Kennedy establishes the
Peace Corps.
*
March 1 -
Uganda becomes self-governing by holding its first general elections.
*
March 3 -
Hassan II is crowned King of
Morocco.
*
March 8 -
Max Conrad circumnavigates the earth in eight days, 18 hours and 49 minutes, setting a new world record.
*
March 8 - The first US
Polaris submarines arrive at
Holy Loch.
*
March 13 - Black and white
£5 notes cease to be
legal tender in the
UK.
*
March 13 - A dam bursts on the
Dnieper River in the
USSR - 145 dead.
*
March 15 -
South Africa withdraws from the
Commonwealth of Nations.
*
March 18 - A
ceasefire takes effect in the
Algerian War of Independence.
*
March 29 - The
Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, allowing residents of
Washington, DC to vote in
presidential elections.
*
March 30 - The
Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs is signed at
New York.
April
*
April 5 - New Guinea Council of Western Papua is installed.
*
April 11 - The trial of
Adolf Eichmann begins in
Jerusalem.
*
April 12 -
Albert Kalonji takes a title of
Emperor Albert I Kalonji of
South Kasai.
*
April 12 -
Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet
cosmonaut, becomes the first human in space.
*
April 17 - The
Bay of Pigs Invasion of
Cuba begins, ending in failure
April 19.
*
April 20 -
Fidel Castro announces that all invaders of the
Bay of Pigs invasion have been defeated.
*
April 22 -
Algiers putsch: Four French generals who oppose
de Gaulle's policies in
Algeria fail in a
coup attempt.
*
April 23 -
Judy Garland performs in a legendary comeback concert at
Carnegie Hall in
New York City.
May
*
May 5 -
Alan B. Shepard becomes the first American in space aboard
Mercury-Redstone 3.
*
May 8 - British
George Blake is sentenced to 42 years imprisonment for spying.
*
May 14 -
American civil rights movement: A
Freedom Riders bus is fire-bombed near
Anniston, Alabama and the
civil rights protestors are beaten by an angry mob.
*
May 16 - A military coup in
South Korea -
Do Young Tsang takes over.
*
May 19 -
Venera program:
Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly-by another planet by passing
Venus (however, the probe had lost contact with Earth a month earlier and did not send back any data).
*
May 21 -
American civil rights movement:
Alabama Governor
John Patterson declares
martial law in an attempt to restore order after
race riots break out.
*
May 24 - American civil rights movement:
Freedom Riders are arrested in
Jackson, Mississippi for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus.
*
May 25 -
Apollo program:
President Kennedy announces before a special joint session of Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a "man on the
moon" before the end of the decade.
*
May 27 -
Tunku Abdul Rahman, Prime Minister of
Malaya, holds a press conference in
Singapore announcing his idea of formation of the Federation of
Malaysia comprising
Malaya,
Singapore,
Sarawak,
Brunei and North Borneo(
Sabah).
*
May 28 -
Peter Benenson's article "The Forgotten Prisoners" is published in several internationally read
newspapers. This will later be thought of as the founding of the
human rights organization
Amnesty International.
*
May 30 -
Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, totalitarian despot of the
Dominican Republic since 1930, is killed in an ambush, putting an end to the second longest-running dictatorship in
Latin American history.
*
May 31 - In
France, rebel generals
Maurice Challe ja
Andre Zelelr are sentenced to 15 years in prison
*
May 31 -
South Africa officially leaves the
Commonwealth of Nations*
May 31 - President
John F. Kennedy and
Charles De Gaulle meet in
ParisJune
*
June 4 -
John F. Kennedy and
Nikita Khrushchev meet during two days in
Vienna. They talk about nuclear tests,
disarmament and
Germany.
*
June 17 -
Paris-
Strassbourg train derails near
Ventyr-le-Francois â€" 24 dead, 109 injured
*
June 17 - The
New Democratic Party of Canada is founded with the merger of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and the Canadian Labour Congress.
*
June 19 - British
protectorate ends in
Kuwait and it becames an
emirate*
June 21 - Russian ballet dancer
Rudolf Nureyev requests asylum in
France while in Paris with the
Kirov Ballet*
June 22 -
Moise Tshombe released for lack of evidence to connection to murder of
Patrice Lumumba*
June 25 - US philanthropist
George Washington Vanderbilt III is found dead at the base of a San Francisco skyscraper
*
June 25 -
Iraqi president
Abdul Karim Kassem announces he is going to annex
Kuwait - Kuwaiti government ask British help in
June 27. British army begin to send in troops.
July
*
July 1 -
Lady Diana Frances Spencer, future
Princess of Wales, born
*
July 2 -
Ernest Hemingway commits suicide by gunshot in
Sun Valley, Idaho.
*
July 4 -
Soviet submarine
K-19 reactor leak occurs in the North
Atlantic*
July 5 - The first Israeli rocket,
Shavit 2 was launched.
*
July 8 -
Mine explosion in
Czechoslovakia - 108 dead
*
July 21 -
Mercury program:
Gus Grissom piloting the
Mercury-Redstone 4 capsule "Liberty Bell 7" becomes the second
American to go into space (sub-orbital).
*
July 31 - At
Fenway Park in
Boston, Massachusetts, the first
All-Star Game tie in major league
baseball history occurs when the game is stopped in the 9th inning due to rain. It would be the only tie (until
2002) in MLB All-Star Game history.
* July 31 - Ireland submit the first ever accession application to the then
EECAugust
*
August 10 - Britain applies for membership of the
EEC.
*
August 13 - Construction of the
Berlin Wall begins. Movement between
East Berlin and
West Berlin remains restricted for the next 28 years, until
November 9,
1989.
*
August 21 -
Jomo Kenyatta released from prison in
KenyaSeptember
*
September 14 - New military government of
Turkey sentences 15 members of the previous government to death
*
September 17 - Military rulers in
Turkey publicly
hang former president
Adnan Menderes*
September 17-
18 -
Dag Hammarskjöld dies in an air crash en route to
Katanga,
Congo.
*
September 21 - In
France,
OAS slips an anti-
de Gaulle message to TV programming
*
September 24 - The old
Deutsche Opernhaus in the
Berlin neighborhood of
Charlottenburg returned to its newly rebuilt house as the
Deutsche Oper Berlin.
*
September 28 - A
military coup in
Damascus,
Syria effectively ends the
United Arab Republic, the union between
Egypt and
SyriaOctober
*
October 10 - Volcanic eruption on
Tristan da Cunha - whole population evacuated.
*
October 12 - The
death penalty abolished in
New Zealand.
*
October 17 -
"Battle of Paris": French police attack in
Paris about 30,000 protesting a curfew applied solely to
Algerians. Official death toll is 3, but human rights groups claim 240 dead.
*
October 19 -
Arab League takes over protection of
Kuwait - the last British troops leave.
*
October 25 - The first edition of
Private Eye, the British satirical magazine, is published.
*
October 27 -
Armistice begins in
Katanga,
Congo.
*
October 27 -
Mongolia and
Mauritania join the
United Nations.
*
October 27 - A standoff between
Soviet and
American tanks in
Berlin, Germany heightens
Cold War tensions.
*
October 30 -
Nuclear testing: The
Soviet Union detonates a 58 megaton yield
hydrogen bomb known as
Tsar Bomba over
Novaya Zemlya. It remains the largest ever (man-made) explosion.
*
October 31 -
Hurricane Hattie devastates
Belize City,
Belize killing over 270. After the
hurricane, the capital was moved to the inland city of
Belmopan.
*
October 31 - Stalin's body is removed from the Lenin Mausoleum.
November
*
November 1 - The Interstate Commerce Commission's federal order banning segregation at all interstate public facilities officially comes into effect
*
November 2 -
Kean opens at Broadway Theater New York City for 92 performances.
*
November 3 - The
UN General Assembly unanimously elects
U Thant acting Secretary General.
*
November 6 - The U.S. government issues a stamp honoring the 100th birthday of
James Naismith.
*
November 9 -
Neil Armstrong records a world record speed in a rocket plane of 6,587km/h flying a
X-15.
*
November 10 -
Catch-22 is first published by Joseph Heller.
*
November 11 - Congolese soldiers murder 13 Italian
United Nations pilots.
*
November 11 - Stalingrad is renamed Volgograd.
*
November 18 -
Gay Life opens at Shubert Theater in
New York City, for 113 performances.
*
November 18 - U.S. President
John F. Kennedy sends 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam.
*
November 20 - The funeral of longtime House Speaker
Sam Rayburn is held in
Washington, DC. Two former Presidents (
Truman, Eisenhower) and one future one (
Lyndon B. Johnson) join
President Kennedy in paying their respects.
*
November 30 - The
Soviet Union vetoes
Kuwait's application for
United Nations membership.
December
*
December 1 -
Netherlands New Guinea raises the new Morning Star flag and changes its name to
West Papua.
*
December 2 -
Cold War: In a nationally broadcast speech,
Cuban leader
Fidel Castro declares he is a
Marxist-
Leninist, and that Cuba is going to adopt
Communism.
*
December 5 - U.S. President
John F. Kennedy gives support to the
Volta Dam project in
Ghana.
*
December 9 -
Tanganyika gains independence and declares itself a republic, with
Julius Nyerere as its first President.
*
December 9 - The
Australian government of
Robert Menzies is re-elected for a sixth term.
*
December 10 - The
Soviet Union severs
diplomatic relations with
Albania.
*
December 11 - The
Vietnam War officially begins, as the first American helicopters arrive in Saigon along with 400 U.S. personnel.
*
December 11 -
Adolf Eichmann is pronounced guilty of crimes against humanity by a panel of three
Israeli judges.
*
December 11 -
Nobel Prize: Malvin Calvin is awarded the Nobel Prize for the process of photosynthesis.
*
December 15 - An Israeli war crimes tribunal sentences
Adolf Eichmann to die for his part in the Jewish
holocaust.
*
December 17 -
India occupies
Goa.
*
December 19 -
Goa is officially ceded to
India after 400 years of Portuguese rule.
*
December 19 -
Sukarno announces that he will take
West Irian by force if necessary.
*
December 21 - In
Congo, Katangan prime minister
Moise Tshombe recognizes the Congolese constitution.
*
December 23 -
Luxembourg's
national holiday, the
Grand Duke's Official Birthday, is set on
June 23 by Grand Ducal decree.
*
December 30 - Congolese troops capture
Albert Kalonji of
South Kasai (who soon escapes).
*
December 31 - The
Marshall Plan expires, after having distributed more than $12 billion in
foreign aid to rebuild
Europe.
*
December 31 - Ireland's first national television station,
TeilifÃs Éireann, (later
RTÉ) begins broadcasting.
Unknown dates
*
John F. Kennedy begins the
Apollo program of U.S. manned spaceflight.
*The first
quasar is discovered by
Allan Sandage at
Mt Palomar,
California*World population reaches 3 billion
January
*
January 2 -
Gabrielle Carteris, American actress
*
January 2 -
Todd Haynes, American film director
*
January 8 -
Calvin Smith, American athlete
*
January 13 -
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, American actress
*
January 13 -
Suggs, British singer (
Madness)
*
January 17 -
Maia Chiburdanidze, Georgian chess player
*
January 18 -
Mark Messier, Canadian hockey player
*
January 26 -
Wayne Gretzky, Canadian hockey player
*
January 31 -
Lloyd Cole, British singer and songwriter
February
*
February 1 -
Volker Fried, German field hockey player
*
February 3 -
Jim Balsillie, Canadian CEO and
philanthropist*
February 9 -
John Kruk, baseball player and commentator
*
February 10 -
George Stephanopoulos, American political consultant and commentator
*
February 11 -
Mary Docter, American speed skater
*
February 11-
Carey Lowell, American actress
*
February 13 -
Henry Rollins, American musician
*
February 16 -
Andy Taylor, British musician (
Duran Duran)
*
February 25 -
Davey Allison, American race car driver (d.
1993)
March
*
March 4 -
Ray Mancini, American boxer
*
March 4 -
Steven Weber, American actor
*
March 8 -
Camryn Manheim, American actress
*
March 10 -
Laurel Clark, astronaut (d.
2003)
*
March 14 -
Gary Dell'Abate, radio producer (
The Howard Stern Show)
*
March 16 -
Brett Kenny, Australian
rugby league player
*
March 21 -
Lothar Matthäus, German footballer
*
March 23 -
Helmi Johannes, Indonesian television newscaster
*
March 27 -
Tak Matsumoto, Japanese guitarist (
B'z)
*
March 29 -
Gerardo Teissonniere, Puerto Rican pianist
April
*
April 2 -
Christopher Meloni, American actor
*
April 3 -
Eddie Murphy, American actor and comedian
*
April 5 -
Lisa Zane, American actress
*
April 6 -
Gene Eugene, Canadian actor and singer (
Adam Again)
*
April 18 -
Jane Leeves, English actress
*
April 20 -
Don Mattingly, baseball player
*
April 23 -
George Lopez, American actor and comedian
*
April 27 -
Moana Pozzi, Italian porn actress (d.
1994)
*
April 30 -
Isiah Thomas, American basketball player, coach, and team owner
May
*
May 6 -
George Clooney, American actor
*
May 12 -
Billy (William H) Duffy, English guitarist (
The Cult)
*
May 13 -
Dennis Rodman, American basketball player and actor
*
May 14 -
Tim Roth, English actor
*
May 27 -
Peri Gilpin, American actress
*
May 28 -
Odhiambo Siangla, Kenyan fine artist
*
May 29 -
Melissa Etheridge, American musician
*
May 31 -
Justin Madden, Australian footballer and politician
June
*
June 1 -
Paul Coffey, Canadian hockey player
*
June 3 -
Lawrence Lessig, Professor and Free Culture activist
*
June 5 -
Rosie Kane, member of Scottish Parliament
*
June 6 -
Tom Araya, Chilean-born musician (
Slayer)
*
June 9 -
Michael J. Fox, Canadian actor
*
June 14 -
Boy George, British musician and producer
*
June 15 -
Dave McAuley, Northern Irish boxer
*
June 18 -
Andrés Galarraga, Venezuelan
Major League Baseball player
*
June 22 -
Stephen Batchelor, British field hockey player
*
June 23 -
Zoran Janjetov, Serbian comic artist
*
June 26 -
Greg LeMond, American cyclist
July
*
July 1 -
Kalpana Chawla, astronaut (d.
2003)
*
July 1 -
Diana, Princess of Wales (d.
1997)
*
July 1 -
Carl Lewis, American athlete
*
July 12 -
Ray Gillen, American singer (d.
1993)
*
July 14 -
Jackie Earle Haley, American actor
*
July 19 -
Maria Filatova, Soviet gymnast
*
July 30 -
Laurence Fishburne, American actor
August
*
August 1 -
Steven F. Zambo, film producer, director and screenwriter
*
August 3 -
Nicholas Harvey, English politician
*
August 4 -
Barack Obama, US Senator, author
*
August 5 -
Clayton Rohner, American actor
*
August 7 -
Yelena Davydova, Soviet gymnast
*
August 8 -
The Edge, Irish guitarist (
U2)
*
August 13 -
Sandra Miranda, Puerto Rican hair stylist and entrepeneur
*
August 14 -
Susan Olsen, American actress
*
August 21 -
Stephen Hillenburg, animation writer and artist
*
August 25 -
Billy Ray Cyrus, American singer and actor
*
August 29 -
Carsten Fischer, German field hockey player
September
*
September 2 -
Eric Dickerson, American football player
*
September 2 -
Carlos Valderrama, Colombian footballer
*
September 6 -
Paul Waaktaar-Savoy, Norwegian guitarist (
a-ha)
*
September 6 -
Scott Travis, American drummer (
Judas Priest)
*
September 11 -
Elizabeth Daily,
American Actress*
September 12 -
Mylene Farmer, Canadian singer and songwriter
*
September 13 -
Dave Mustaine, former
Metallica guitarist, frontman of
Megadeth*
September 15 -
Dan Marino, American football player
*
September 18 -
James Gandolfini, American actor
*
September 22 -
Scott Baio, American actor
*
September 23 -
William C. McCool, US Army Commander and astronaut (d.
2003)
*
September 25 -
Heather Locklear, American actress
*
September 26 -
Edward Kennedy Jr, son of
U.S. Senator Ted KennedyOctober
*
October 2 -
Edmond Yu, Chinese student (d.
1997)
*
October 11 -
Steve Young, American football player
*
October 11 -
Amr Diab, Egyptian singer
*
October 18 -
Wynton Marsalis, American trumpeter and composer
*
October 18 -
Rick Moody, American writer
*
October 25 -
Grover Waldrop, American biochemist
*
October 26 -
Dylan McDermott, American actor
*
October 29 -
Randy Jackson, American musician
*
October 31 -
Alonzo Babers, American runner
*
October 31 -
Peter Jackson, New Zealand film director
*
October 31 -
Larry Mullen, Jr., Irish drummer (
U2)
November
*
November 1 -
Anne Donovan, American basketball player
*
November 2 -
k.d. lang, Canadian singer and songwriter
*
November 4 -
Daron Hagen, American composer
*
November 4 -
Ralph Macchio, American actor
*
November 4 -
Nigel Worthington, Northern Irish footballer and football manager
*
November 5 -
Gina Mastrogiacomo, American actress (d.
2001)
*
November 18 -
Anthony Warlow, Australian stage performer
*
November 19 -
Meg Ryan, American actress
*
November 20 -
Dave Watson, English footballer
*
November 22 -
Mariel Hemingway, American actress
*
November 22 -
Randal L. Schwartz, American computer programmer
December
*
December 4 -
Frank Reich, American football player
*
December 8 -
Ann Coulter, American author, political commentator and attorney
*
December 12 -
Sarah Sutton, British actress
*
December 15 -
Karin Resetarits, Austrian journalist and politician
*
December 19 -
Matthew Waterhouse, British actor
*
December 19 -
Eric Allin Cornell, American physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate
*
December 19 -
Reggie White, American football player (d.
2004)
*
December 25 -
Ingrid Betancourt, Colombian senator
*
December 26 -
John Lynch, Northern Irish actor
*
December 29 -
Jim Reid, Scottish musician
*
December 30 -
Douglas Coupland, Canadian author
*
December 30 -
Sean Hannity, American talk radio host and conservative commentator
*
December 30 -
Ben Johnson, Canadian athlete
January
*
January 4 -
Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1887)
*
January 9 -
Emily Greene Balch, American writer and pacifist, recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize (b.
1867)
*
January 10 -
Dashiell Hammett, American writer (b.
1894)
*
January 21 -
Blaise Cendrars, Swiss writer (b.
1887)
*
January 24 -
Alfred Carlton Gilbert, American swimmer and inventor (b.
1884)
*
January 26 -
Stan Nichols, English cricketer (b.
1900)
February
*
February 17 -
Nita Naldi, American actress (b.
1897)
*
February 20 -
Percy Grainger, Australian composer (b.
1882)
*
February 22 -
Nick LaRocca, American jazz musician (b.
1889)
*
February 26 - King
Mohammed V of Morocco (b.
1909)
March
*
March 3 -
Paul Wittgenstein, Austrian-born pianist (b.
1887)
*
March 6 -
George Formby, British singer, comedian & actor (b.
1904)
*
March 8 -
Thomas Beecham, English conductor (b.
1879)
*
March 8 -
Gala Galaction, Romanian writer (b.
1879)
*
March 23 -
Valentin Bondarenko, Russian Cosmonaut (b.
1937)
April
*
April 6 -
Jules Bordet, Belgian immunologist and microbiologist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b.
1870)
*
April 7 -
Vanessa Bell, English artist and interior designer (b.
1879)
*
April 9 -
Ahmet Zog,
King of Albania (b.
1895)
May
*
May 13 -
Gary Cooper, American actor (b.
1901)
*
May 30 -
Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic (b.
1891)
*
May 31 -
Walter Little, Canadian politician (b.
1877)
June
*
June 1 -
Melvin Jones, American founder of Lions Clubs International (b.
1879)
*
June 6 -
Carl Jung, Swiss psychiatrist (b.
1875)
*
June 16 -
Marcel Junod, Swiss physician (b.
1904)
*
June 17 -
Jeff Chandler, American actor (b.
1918)
*
June 30 -
Lee DeForest, American inventor (b.
1873)
July
*
July 1 -
Louis-Ferdinand Céline, French writer (b.
1894)
*
July 2 -
Ernest Hemingway, American writer,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1899)
*
July 6 -
Woodall Rodgers, Mayor of Dallas, Texas (b.
1890)
*
July 17 -
Ty Cobb, baseball player (b.
1886)
August
*
August 20 -
Percy Williams Bridgman, American physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (b.
1882)
September
*
September 18 -
Dag Hammarskjöld, Swedish
Secretary General of the United Nations, recipient of the
Nobel Peace Prize (b.
1905)
*
September 25 -
Frank Fay, American actor (b.
1897)
October
*
October 11 -
Chico Marx, American comedian (b.
1887)
*
October 13 -
Maya Deren, Russian-born filmmaker (b.
1917)
November
*
November 1 -
Mordecai Ham, American evangelist (b.
1877)
*
November 2 -
James Thurber, American humorist (b.
1894)
*
November 16 -
Sam Rayburn,
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (b.
1882)
December
*
December 20 -
Earle Page, eleventh
Prime Minister of Australia (b.
1880)
*
December 25 -
Otto Loewi, German-born pharmacologist, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b.
1873)
Unknown date
*
Empress Menen of Ethiopia, wife of
Haile Selassie*
Physics -
Robert Hofstadter,
Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer*
Chemistry -
Melvin Calvin*
Physiology or Medicine -
Georg von Békésy*
Literature -
Ivo Andric*
Peace -
Dag Hammarskjöld - awarded posthumously
