/born

Born in 1961

People born in 1961 turn 65 in 2026. A dollar in 1961 buys what $11.27 buys in September 2026, and about 3.06 billion people were alive. Every figure below links to the source it came from.

Your birthday in 1961

1961

What things cost in 1961

U.S. average1961in today’s dollarslatest
One dollar$1.00$11.27CPI-U

1961 figures are annual averages of the published monthly (or quarterly) values. “Today’s dollars” uses the Consumer Price Index for September 2026; “latest” is the most recent published price. Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor, via FRED. Average retail prices are only published from 1976 on; 1961 has the CPI alone.

Who was in charge in 1961

United States
Dwight D. Eisenhower, then John F. Kennedy (President)
United Kingdom
Elizabeth II (Queen); Harold Macmillan (Prime minister)
Soviet Union
Nikita Khrushchev (General Secretary); Leonid Brezhnev (Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet); Nikita Khrushchev (Chairman of the Council of Ministers)
People's Republic of China
Mao Zedong (Chairman; Paramount Leader); Liu Shaoqi (President); Zhou Enlai (Premier)
France
Charles de Gaulle (President); Michel Debré (Prime minister)
East Germany
Walter Ulbricht (Chairmen of the State Council); Otto Grotewohl (Chairman)
West Germany
Heinrich Lübke (President); Konrad Adenauer (Chancellor)
Japan
Hirohito (Emperor)
Republic of India
Rajendra Prasad (President); Jawaharlal Nehru (Prime minister)

From Wikipedia’s List of state leaders in the 20th century (1951–2000) (revision 1371751893), each name checked against Wikidata. Every country in 1961 →

No. 1 songs of 1961

  1. “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” — Elvis Presley (1 week)
  2. “Wonderland by Night” — Bert Kaempfert (3 weeks)
  3. “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” — The Shirelles (2 weeks)
  4. “Calcutta” — Lawrence Welk (2 weeks)
  5. “Pony Time” — Chubby Checker (3 weeks)
  6. “Surrender” — Elvis Presley (2 weeks)
  7. “Blue Moon” — The Marcels (3 weeks)
  8. “Runaway” — Del Shannon (4 weeks)
  9. “Mother-in-Law” — Ernie K-Doe (1 week)
  10. “Travelin' Man” — Ricky Nelson (2 weeks)
  11. “Running Scared” — Roy Orbison (1 week)
  12. “Moody River” — Pat Boone (1 week)
  13. “Quarter to Three” — U.S. Bonds (2 weeks)
  14. “Tossin' and Turnin'” — Bobby Lewis (7 weeks)
  15. “Wooden Heart” — Joe Dowell (1 week)
  16. “Michael” — The Highwaymen (2 weeks)
  17. “Take Good Care of My Baby” — Bobby Vee (3 weeks)
  18. “Hit the Road Jack” — Ray Charles (2 weeks)
  19. “Runaround Sue” — Dion (2 weeks)
  20. “Big Bad John” — Jimmy Dean (5 weeks)
  21. “Please Mr. Postman” — The Marvelettes (1 week)
  22. “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” — The Tokens (2 weeks)

Weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with issue dates in 1961, from List of Billboard Hot 100 number ones of 1961 (Wikipedia revision 1357906870).

Famous people born in 1961

  • August 4 – Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States source
  • July 1 – Diana, Princess of Wales, born The Hon. Diana Spencer, English princess consort as first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales (died 1997) source
  • June 20 – Joko Widodo, 7th President of Indonesia source
  • 29 September – Julia Gillard, Welsh-Australian lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Australia source
  • January 26 – Wayne Gretzky, ice hockey player and coach source
  • June 1 – Yevgeny Prigozhin, Russian oligarch, mercenary chief and restaurateur (died 2023) source
  • December 25 – Ghislaine Maxwell, British socialite source
  • June 17 – Kōichi Yamadera, Japanese voice actor source
  • March 7 – Sanae Takaichi, Prime Minister of Japan source
  • May 8 – Bill de Blasio, politician, Mayor of New York City from 2014 source
  • December 29 – Jim Reid, Scottish musician source
  • 29 December – Jim Reid, alternative rock singer-songwriter source
  • June 25 – Ricky Gervais, English comedian, actor, writer, director, and singer in Seona Dancing source
  • May 6 – George Clooney, actor, film director, producer and screenwriter source
  • September 29 – Julia Gillard, 27th Prime Minister of Australia source

What happened in 1961

  • January 3 – United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). source
  • 1 January – Tzvi Tzur is appointed as the 6th Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces. source
  • January 31 – Ham, a 37-pound (17-kg) male chimpanzee, is rocketed into space aboard Mercury-Redstone 2, in a test of the Project Mercury spacecraft, designed to carry United States astronauts into space. source
  • March 13 – 1961 Kurenivka mudslide: A dam bursts in Kiev, USSR, killing 145. source
  • 16 February – The MV BP Explorer, a loaded tanker barge bound for Sharpness from Swansea, turns over in the Severn Estuary. source
  • January 3 – Aero Flight 311 (Koivulahti air disaster): Douglas DC-3C OH-LCC of Finnish airline Aero crashes near Kvevlax (Koivulahti), on approach to Vaasa Airport in Finland, killing all 25 on board, due to pilot error: an investigation finds that the captain and first officer were both exhausted for lack of sleep, and had consumed excessive amounts of alcohol at the time of the crash. source
  • January 5 – Italian sculptor Alfredo Fioravanti enters 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. source
  • January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. source
Everything that happened in 1961 →