My beautiful and sweet cousin, Drina, has a birthday today! We are 1st cousins (Our mothers are sisters.) So Happy Birthday, Drina! Let's see what was going on the year you were born!
February 16, 1961 was a Thursday.
An estimated 109,557,830 babies were born throughout the world in the year 1961. The estimated number of babies born on February 16, 1961 is 300,158. That's equivalent to 208 babies every minute!
In the United States, the most popular baby name for girls is Mary. This name was given to 47,676 baby girls. For the boys, it is Michael. This name was recorded 86,922 times in the year 1961.
The President of the United States was John F. "Jack" Kennedy (JFK). The Vice President was Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ).
In 1961, the United States and much of the world was in a state of change: We were moving out of the post-World War II era and into both the Cold War and the Space Age, with broadening civil rights movements and anti-nuclear protests in the U.S. JFK was inaugurated as the 35th president of the United States, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to fly in space, Freedom Riders took buses into the South to bravely challenge segregation, and East Germany began construction of the Berlin Wall. That same year JFK gave the okay to the disastrous Bay of Pigs Invasion into Cuba and committed the U.S. to "landing a man on the Moon" with NASA's Apollo program. JFK also oversaw the early buildup of a U.S. military presence in Vietnam. By the end of 1961, some 2,000 troops were deployed there.
1961 Prices
Bread: $0.21/loaf
Milk: $1.05/gal
Eggs: $0.92/dozen
Car: $2,275
Gas: $0.31/gal
House: $18,800
Stamp: $0.04/each
Average Income: $6,471/year
Minimum Wage: $1.15/hour
Top Songs for 1961:
Calcutta by Lawrence Welk was #1 the week of February 16th
Shop Around by The Miracles (featuring Bill "Smokey" Robinson)
Big Bad John by Jimmy Dean
1935 - Sonny Bono, Detroit, Michigan, singer (Sonny & Cher; Mayor of Palm Springs, California)
1959 - John P. McEnroe, tennis player (U.S. Open 1979-81, 1984; Wimbledon 1981, 1983-84)
Academy Award Winners:
Best Picture: West Side Story, Directed by Robert Wise
Best Actor: Maximillian Schell in Judgment at Nuremburg
Best Actress: Sophia Loren in Two Women
On TV in 1961:
The Flintstones
Gunsmoke
I Love Lucy
Hot New Toys in 1961:
Slip 'N Slide
Lie Detector
Frosty the Sno-cone Machine
Top Books in 1961:
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
In the News on February 16, 1961:
- U.S. Satellite Explorer 9 is launched.
- First all-solid-propellant rocket put in orbit, Wallops Island, Virginia
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