What happened in 1961

“Tossin' And Turnin'”

Bobby Lewis · 7 weeks at #1 in 1961

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1. Jan 2Are You Lonesome To-night?Elvis Presley With The Jordanaires1 wk
2. Jan 9Wonderland By NightBert Kaempfert And His Orchestra3 wks
3. Jan 30Will You Love Me TomorrowThe Shirelles2 wks
4. Feb 13CalcuttaLawrence Welk And His Orchestra2 wks
5. Feb 27Pony TimeChubby Checker3 wks
6. Mar 20SurrenderElvis Presley With The Jordanaires2 wks
7. Apr 3Blue MoonThe Marcels3 wks
8. Apr 24RunawayDel Shannon4 wks
9. May 22Mother-In-LawErnie K-Doe1 wk
10. May 29Travelin' ManRicky Nelson2 wks
11. Jun 5Running ScaredRoy Orbison1 wk
12. Jun 19Moody RiverPat Boone1 wk
13. Jun 26Quarter To ThreeU.S. Bonds2 wks
14. Jul 10Tossin' And Turnin'Bobby Lewis7 wks
15. Aug 28Wooden HeartJoe Dowell1 wk
16. Sep 4MichaelThe Highwaymen2 wks
17. Sep 18Take Good Care Of My BabyBobby Vee3 wks
18. Oct 9Hit The Road JackRay Charles And His Orchestra With The Raelettes2 wks
19. Oct 23Runaround SueDion2 wks
20. Nov 6Big Bad JohnJimmy Dean5 wks
21. Dec 11Please Mr. PostmanThe Marvelettes1 wk
22. Dec 18The Lion Sleeps TonightThe Tokens2 wks

Dates are the first chart week at #1 in 1961; weeks count only those in 1961.Find the #1 song on your birthday →

1. Jan 3Cold War: After a series of economic retaliations against one another, the United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.
2. Jan 3The SL-1 nuclear reactor, near Idaho Falls, Idaho, is destroyed by a steam explosion in the only reactor incident in the United States to cause immediate fatalities.
3. Feb 14Lawrencium, the radioactive synthetic element with atomic number 103, was first synthesized at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley.
4. Apr 11The trial of Adolf Eichmann begins in Jerusalem.
5. Apr 20Cold War: Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion of US-backed Cuban exiles against Cuba.
6. May 5Project Mercury: American astronaut Alan Shepard made a sub-orbital spaceflight on board Freedom 7, becoming the second person to travel into outer space.
7. May 24American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus.
8. May 25In an address to Congress, U.S. president John F. Kennedy announced his support for the Apollo program, with "the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth".
9. Jun 19Kuwait declares independence from the United Kingdom.
10. Jul 9Greece becomes the first member state to join the European Economic Community by signing the Athens Agreement, which is later suspended in 1967 during the Greek junta.
11. Jul 25Cold War: In a speech John F. Kennedy emphasizes that any attack on Berlin is an attack on NATO.
12. Nov 18Vietnam War: United States President John F. Kennedy sends 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam.
13. Dec 15Former Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death after being found guilty on fifteen criminal charges, including war crimes and crimes against humanity.
14. Dec 31RTÉ, Ireland's first television network, began broadcasting.

Event summaries from Wikipedia’s “On this day”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Each links to its article.

• U.S. President

  Dwight D. Eisenhower → John F. Kennedy

• UK Prime Minister

  Harold Macmillan

• Prime Minister of Canada

  John Diefenbaker

• President of France

  Charles de Gaulle

• German Chancellor

  Konrad Adenauer

• Prime Minister of Japan

  Hayato Ikeda

• Soviet leader

  Nikita Khrushchev

Everyone who held the office at some point in 1961, from Wikidata.

A selection of the best-documented titles on Wikidata, by first release year; not a box-office ranking.

• John ThuneAmerican lawyer and politician · Jan 7
• Julia Louis-DreyfusAmerican actress, comedian, and producer · Jan 13
• Christopher MeloniAmerican actor · Apr 2
• Eddie MurphyAmerican actor and comedian · Apr 3
• Don MattinglyAmerican baseball player, coach, and manager · Apr 20
• George ClooneyAmerican actor, director, producer, and screenwriter · May 6
• Lea ThompsonAmerican actress, director, and producer · May 31
• Woody HarrelsonAmerican actor and activist · Jul 23
• Barack ObamaAmerican lawyer and politician, 44th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate · Aug 4
• Billy Ray CyrusAmerican singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor · Aug 25

From Wikipedia’s “On this day”, CC BY-SA 4.0.