At A Glance
15 April 1961 at a glance
- Day of the week
- 15 April 1961 was a Saturday.
- Billboard Hot 100 No. 1
- The Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 was “Blue Moon” by The Marcels.
- Top Film of 1961
- The highest-grossing film worldwide released in 1961 was One Hundred and One Dalmatians.
- Bestselling Novel of 1961
- “The Agony and the Ecstasy” by Irving Stone was No. 1 on Publishers Weekly's US fiction list for 1961.
- Top-Rated TV Show
- “Wagon Train” (NBC) was No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1961–62 season.
- Star sign
- The star sign for 15 April is Aries.
- Chinese zodiac
- In the Chinese zodiac, 15 April 1961 fell in the Year of the Ox.
- Birthstone
- The birthstone for April is Diamond.
- Moon phase
- The moon phase on 15 April 1961 was New Moon.
On this day: 15 April
- 1945 Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated.
- 1947 Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking baseball's color line.
- 1952 First flight of the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress.
- 1955 McDonald's restaurant dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Ray Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois.
- 1960 At Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, Ella Baker leads a conference that results in the creation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, one of the principal organizations of the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
Famous people born on April 15
- Jeffrey Archer, English author, playwright, and politician (1940–2026)
- Emma Watson, English actress (born 1990)
- Emma Thompson, English actress, comedian, author, activist and screenwriter (born 1959)
- Maisie Williams, English actress (born 1997)
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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Events of 1961 in the United States
A selection from Wikipedia's '1961 in the United States'. Not a complete list.
- January 25 – Disney's animated film, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, is released. Its financial success pulling the studio out of another financial slump from the initial underperformance of Sleeping Beauty.
- February 14 – Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized in Berkeley, California.
- March 1 – President of the United States John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.
Life in the US in 1961
President
John F. Kennedy
Gas (per gallon)
$0.31
Loaf of Bread
$0.21
Average House
$12,500
Weekly Wage
$89
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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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