At A Glance

16 May 1961 at a glance

Day of the week
16 May 1961 was a Tuesday.
Top Film of 1961
The highest-grossing film worldwide released in 1961 was One Hundred and One Dalmatians.
Star sign
The star sign for 16 May is Taurus.
Chinese zodiac
In the Chinese zodiac, 16 May 1961 fell in the Year of the Ox.
Birthstone
The birthstone for May is Emerald.
Moon phase
The moon phase on 16 May 1961 was Waxing Crescent.

On this day: 16 May

  • 1954 Beginning of the Kengir uprising in the Gulag.
  • 1959 The Tritons' Fountain in Valletta, Malta is turned on for the first time.
  • 1960 Theodore Maiman operates the first optical laser (a ruby laser), at Hughes Research Laboratories in Malibu, California.
  • 1961 Park Chung Hee leads a coup d'état to overthrow the Second Republic of South Korea.
  • 1966 The Chinese Communist Party issues the "May 16 Notice", marking the beginning of the Cultural Revolution.

Famous people born on 16 May

  • Pierce Brosnan, Irish-American actor and producer (born 1953)
  • Melanie Lynskey, New Zealand actress (born 1977)
  • Megan Fox, American actress (born 1986)
  • Janet Jackson, American singer-songwriter and actress (born 1966)

Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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Events of 1961 in Ireland

A selection from Wikipedia's '1961 in Ireland'. Not a complete list.

  • 6 January – Lieutenant-General Seán Mac Eoin left Dublin for the Congo to take up his new post as General Commanding Officer of the United Nations.
  • 9 April – The national census showed that County Cork's population had reached an all-time low, with just 330,000 (in the late 1950s it was 336,000).
  • 10 June – President Éamon de Valera and his wife Sinéad greeted Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco at the presidential residence, Áras an Uachtaráin. It was the first official visit to Ireland by a head of state after it became an independent republic.

Life in Ireland in 1961

Taoiseach

Seán Lemass

Petrol (per litre)

2s 6d/gal

Loaf of Bread

8d

Average House

£2,400

Weekly Wage

£5 15s

Or

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Famous Faces Born in the 1960s

Well-known people born in the same decade as you, not on your birthday.

Sources: Wikidata and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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