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HistoryCentral Est. 1996
6120th C.
1961
The 20th Century Almanac · The Sixties

1961

Major Events · Sports · Music · Screen · Prizes

Kennedy was inaugurated and founded the Peace Corps, the CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion failed, and the Berlin Wall rose to divide the city. Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, soon followed by American Alan Shepard, and West Side Story won the Oscar.

A Year in Review
Best Picture
West Side Story
Nobel · Literature
Ivo Andric Yugoslavia
World Series
New York Yankees vs. Cincinnati Reds Ser
No. 1 Song
Wonderland by Night
Top TV
Wagon Train (NBC)
Academy · Actor
Maximilian Schell

Major Events of 1961

9 events
Kennedy InauguratedUS Commitment To VietnamKuwait gains IndependenceBay of Pigs InvasionPeace CorpsKennedy-Krushchev At SummitBerlin CrisisRafael TrujilloTanganyika independent

Sports Highlights

Champions of 1961

Champions

NBABoston Celtics vs. St. Louis Hawks Series: 4-1
NCAA FootballAlabama & Ohio State Records: 11-0-0 & 8-0-1
Heisman TrophyErnie Davis, syracuse, HB points: 824
Stanley CupChicago Blackhawks vs. Detroit Red Wings Series: 4-2 US Open Golf: Gene Littler Score: 281 Course: Oakland Hills CC Location: Birmingham, MI
World SeriesNew York Yankees vs. Cincinnati Reds Series: 4-1

Top Music of 1961

The year on the charts

Top Songs

  1. Wonderland by Night Bert Kaemfert
  2. Will You Love Me Tomorrow The Shirelles
  3. Calcutta Lawrence Welk
  4. Pony Time Chubby Checker
  5. Surrender Elvis Presley
  6. Blue Moon The Marcles
  7. Runaway Del Shannon
  8. Mother-in-Law Ernie K-Doe
  9. Travelin' Man Ricky Nelson
  10. Running Scared Roy Orbison

Grammy Awards

Record of the Year
"Moon River" ... Henry Mancini
Song of the Year
"Moon River" ... Henry Mancini
Album of the Year
"Judy at Carnegie Hall" ... Judy Garland Male Vocalist: Jack Jones ... "Lollipops and Roses" Female Vocalist: Judy Garland ... "Judy at Carnegie Hall"

Screen & Television

At the box office & on the air

Top Movies

  1. The Guns of Navarone
  2. The Absent-Minded Professor
  3. The Parent Trap
  4. Swiss Family Robinson
  5. Exodus
  6. The World of Suzie Wong
  7. Alamo
  8. Gone With the Wind (reissue)
  9. 101 Dalmations
  10. Splendor in the Grass

Top Television

  1. Wagon Train (NBC)
  2. Bonanza (NBC)
  3. Gunsmoke (CBS)
  4. Hazel (NBC)
  5. Perry Mason (CBS)
  6. The Red Skelton (CBS)
  7. The Andy Griffith Show (CBS)
  8. The Danny Thomas Show (CBS)
  9. Dr. Kildare (NBC)
  10. Candid Camera (CBS) (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); © 1996-2025

Academy Awards

Honoring 1961
Best Picture
West Side Story
Best Director
Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins
West Side Story
Best Actor
Maximilian Schell
Judgement at Nuremberg
Best Actress
Sophia Loren
Two Women" Supporting Actor:George Chakiris.. “West Side Story” Supporting Acress: Rita Moreno.. “West Side Story”

Nobel & Pulitzer Prizes

The year in letters & science

Nobel Prizes

Chemistry
Melvoin Calvin, U.S.A.,b 1911 University of California Berkely "f or his research on the carbon dioxide assimilation in plants"
Literature
Ivo Andric Yugoslavia, b. 1892: " for the epic force with which he has traced themes and depicted human destinies drawn from the history of his country"
Peace
HAMMARSKJ…LD, DAG HJALMAR AGNE CARL, Sweden, b. 1905, d. 1961: Secretary General of the United Nations (awarded the Prize posthumously)
Physiology or Medicine
The prize was awarded to: Georg von BÈkÈsy "for his discoveries of the physical mechanism of stimulation within the cochlea" .Bekesey was born ib Budapest in 1899
Physics
The prize was awarded equally to Robert Hofstadler for his pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and for his thereby achieved discoveries concerning the structure of the nucleons" and Rudofl Ludwig Mossbauer for his res

Pulitzer Prizes

Public Service
The Amarillo Globe-Times Local Reporting, Edition Time: Sanche de Gramont of the New York Herald Tribune Local Reporting, No Edition time: Edgar May of The Buffalo Evening News National Reporting: Edward R. Cony of The Wall Street Journal International Reporting: Lynn Heinzerling of the Associated Press Editorial Writing: William J. Dorvillier of The San Juan Star Editorial Cartooning: Carey Orr of the Chicago Tribune Photography: Yasushi Nagao of Mainichi, Tokyo Letters, Music and Drama Awards
Fiction
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Lippincott)
Drama
All the Way Home by Tad Mosel (Obolensky)
History
Between War and Peace: The Potsdam Conference by Herbert Feis (Princeton Univ. Press) Biography or Auto
biography
Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War by David Donald (Knopf)
Poetry
Times Three: Selected Verse From Three Decades by Phyllis McGinley (Viking)
Music
Symphony No. 7 by Walter Piston (Associated Music Publishers), first performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra on February 10, 1961, and commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra Association