April 1961

The following events occurred in April 1961:

April 1, 1961 (Saturday)

*Television commercials were introduced to New Zealand, which had one station (AKTV2) in Auckland, and TV was allowed for 28 hours per week, spread over five days.
*In Australia, Roger Nott replaced James Archer as Administrator of the Northern Territory.
*With the approval of the Food and Drug Directorate, the morning sickness suppressant thalidomide went on sale for the first time in Canada, marketed by Richardson-Merrill under the name Kevadon. The Horner Company would begin sales of its own version, Talimol, in October. Despite evidence later in the year that the drug caused birth defects, sales were not halted in Canada until March 21, 1962, after four million tablets had sold to expectant mothers.
*The codename "Bumpy Road" was assigned to the U.S. Navy operation in the Bay of Pigs Invasion plan.
* Jim Bakker, 21, and Tamara Faye LaValle, 19, who had met while students at North Central Bible College in Minneapolis, were married. As Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, the two would become America's most famous televangelist couple, but would separate after scandal ended their PTL Club ministry. The couple divorced in 1992.
*Born:
**Susan Boyle, Scottish singer who became a worldwide sensation after singing " I Dreamed a Dream" on the TV show '' Britain's Got Talent''; in Blackburn, West Lothian
**Anders Forsbrand, Swedish professional golfer; in Filipstad

April 2, 1961 (Sunday)

*In Tokyo, Australian swimmer Jan Andrew broke the world record for the Women's 100 m butterfly.
*Born:
**Emmanuel Issoze-Ngondet, Prime Minister of Gabon from 2016 to 2019 and former Minister for Foreign Affairs; in Makokou
** Christopher Meloni, American TV actor; in Washington, D.C.

April 3, 1961 (Monday)

*Believed to have become extinct in 1909, the Leadbeater's possum (''Gymnobelideus leadbeateri'') was rediscovered in Australia by naturalist Eric Wilkinson. Later in the month, the first specimen found in more than 50 years was captured.
*The National Educational Radio Network, funded with a grant from the Ford Foundation, began broadcasting on six radio stations. The network would give way to government funded National Public Radio on March 3, 1970.
*Country music star Spade Cooley, nicknamed "The King of Western Swing", murdered his wife Ella Mae after she admitted to having an affair. Cooley remained in prison until 1969, and died on November 23 of that year after performing a concert while on furlough.
*The Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, granting citizens in the District of Columbia the right to vote in national elections, officially took effect upon certification by John L. Moore, U.S. Administrator of General Services. The amendment had been ratified by 38 states as of March 29.
*The Soviet government approved sending a man into space on the April 12 launch of a rocket, and made a choice between the two remaining candidates for first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin and Gherman Titov.
* John Surtees won the 9th Glover Trophy at Goodwood in a Cooper T53.
*Born:
**Eddie Murphy, American comedian and actor; in Brooklyn, New York
**Angelo d'Arrigo, Italian aviator; in Catania (died 2006)
** Michalis Rakintzis, Greek singer; in Athens
**Elizabeth Gracen, American actress who won the title of Miss America in 1982; in Ozark, Arkansas
*Died: Florence Cole Talbert, 70, African-American operatic soprano

April 4, 1961 (Tuesday)

*Carlos Marcello, boss of the Mafia in New Orleans, was arrested after making a required check-in with the local office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, driven to the airport and placed as the only passenger on an airplane bound for Guatemala City. Marcello's deportation, ordered by U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, was done immediately, without affording him the benefit of a phone call, money or even a change of clothes. Marcello, outraged by the surprise move, would sneak back into the United States two months later. Some conspiracy theorists suggest that Marcello conspired in the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy in revenge for the act.
*Final plans for a U.S.-supported invasion of Cuba at the Bahía de los Cochinos ("Bay of Pigs") were presented starting at 6:00 pm in a conference room at the office of U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk, convened by U.S. President John F. Kennedy. U.S. Senator William Fulbright of Arkansas, who argued against the operation, was invited to participate at the meeting, which also included Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, CIA Director Allen Dulles, and three members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The meeting ended at 8:18 pm with Kennedy approving the mission.
*Born: Tom Byron, American pornographic film star; in Houston, Texas
*Died: Simion Stoilow, 87, Romanian mathematician

April 5, 1961 (Wednesday)

*Singer Barbra Streisand made her national television debut, as a guest on '' Tonight Starring Jack Paar''. In TV listings, both of her names were misspelled, as "Barbara Strysand".
*The New Guinea Council of Western Papua took office with 28 members, 23 of whom were indigenous residents.

April 6, 1961 (Thursday)

*American author Fritz Leiber suggested the term "sword and sorcery" as "a good popular catchphrase for the field" of fantasy fiction.
*New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller signed the bill authorizing the construction of the World Trade Center and a rehabilitation of the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (H & M RR). The original plan for the WTC called for construction of several buildings in the east side of Manhattan, near the Brooklyn Bridge, the two tallest being 72 stories and 30 stories. New Jersey, which shared the Port Authority with New York, protested the location and the site was relocated to Manhattan's west side, where the H & M's office buildings stood.
*''New York Times'' reporter Tad Szulc filed a two column story reporting that an invasion of Cuba was "imminent". ''Times'' publisher Orvil Dryfoos chose not to run the news after consulting with the paper's Washington bureau. Dryfoos's decision was revealed five years later by editor Clifton Daniel in a speech at Macalester College.
* Graduated pensions were introduced in the UK at the beginning of the tax year.
*Joseph C. Satterthwaite became the U.S. ambassador to South Africa.
*Died: Jules Bordet, 90, Belgian microbiologist

April 7, 1961 (Friday)

* Vladimir Ilyushin, according to contemporary rumours, supposedly became the first man in space. Dennis Ogden, at the time an American reporter for the U.S. Communist Party newspaper, the ''Daily Worker'', would later note that Soviet papers reported that cosmonaut Ilyushin had been seriously injured in a car accident, and speculated that the news was a cover for a mission that had gone wrong.
*In Montevideo, Uruguay, the ''Treaty between the Argentine Republic and the Eastern Republic of Uruguay concerning the boundary constituted by the River Uruguay'' was signed by the leaders of Argentina and Uruguay. Effective January 19, 1966, the channels of navigation and the islands within the river would be divided along the river on a line running from the southwest headland of the Isla Brasilera to the point where the Uruguay River merged with the Paraná River to form the Río de la Plata.
*Born:
**Luigi De Agostini, Italian footballer; in Udine
** DONDI (nom de plume for Donald Joseph White) American graffiti artist; in Brooklyn (d.1998)
*Died:
** Vanessa Bell, 81, English artist
**H. Rowan Gaither, 59, American businessman who authored the controversial Gaither Report in 1957
** Marian Jordan, 62, radio comedian who, with her husband, starred in the title roles of '' Fibber McGee and Molly''

April 8, 1961 (Saturday)

*Shortly after 4:00 am, the British India Steam Navigation Company passenger ship ''MV Dara'' exploded off Dubai. In the fire and in panic during the rescue, 238 passengers and crew died, while another 565 were rescued. The ship sank two days later while being towed. A British Admiralty court would conclude a year later that an anti-tank mine, "deliberately placed by a person or persons unknown", had "almost certainly" caused the explosion.
*The leadership of the Malta Labour Party, readers, advertisers and distributors of Party papers as well as its voters were placed under an interdict, which lasted until 1969.
*Born: Richard Hatch, American reality show contestant who, in 2000, won the first competition in the TV series ''Survivor''; in Middletown, Rhode Island
*Died: Princess Kapiolani Kawananakoa Field, 58, pretender to the throne of Hawaii. Mrs. Field "would have been Queen of Hawaii had the monarchy continued," an obituary noted, but she "would not listen to talk of reinstating the monarchy." She was quoted as saying "If America wanted to do something on her own accord to restore the monarchy, that would be all right. But no Hawaiian would do anything to hurt America. We love America too much." Her son, Edward A. Kawananakoa, identified by monarchists as the new pretender, Kawananakoa II, would live until 1997.

April 9, 1961 (Sunday)

*Albert Kalonji, President of the South Kasai breakaway republic, was crowned the ''Mulopwe'', a Baluba language word for monarch, of his people.
* Joseph Ganda was ordained as the first native Roman Catholic priest in Sierra Leone.
*Eight days before the scheduled invasion of Cuba, the CIA learned that the Soviet Union was aware that the attack would take place on April 17. Even with the secret compromised, the CIA elected not to call off the operation nor to alert the participants. The information would not be made public until 39 years later, with the declassification of the Taylor Commission report.
*The last of the streetcars of Los Angeles was retired, after 136 passengers boarded the last scheduled Pacific Electric Railway red car to ride the rail line to Long Beach. A charter car departed 10 minutes later. The network had been formed in 1902, but the interurban tracks were gradually removed after World War II.

*Died: Zog I, 65, former King of Albania from 1928 to 1939, died in Paris. As Ahmet Zogu, he had been Prime Minister and then President of Albania before proclaiming a monarchy. Albanian exiles proclaimed his 22-year-old son, the former crown prince, as King Leka I.

April 10, 1961 (Monday)

*William P. Sidney of the United Kingdom, an executive of the Schwepps beverage company, and who was officially known as the Viscount De L'Isle, became the 15th Governor-General of Australia