At A Glance
27 May 1961 at a glance
- Day of the week
- 27 May 1961 was a Saturday.
- Billboard Hot 100 No. 1
- The Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 was “Mother-in-Law” by Ernie K-Doe.
- 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 27 May is Gemini.
- Chinese zodiac
- In the Chinese zodiac, 27 May 1961 fell in the Year of the Ox.
- Birthstone
- The birthstone for May is Emerald.
- Moon phase
- The moon phase on 27 May 1961 was Waxing Gibbous.
On this day: 27 May
- 1958 First flight of the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II.
- 1960 In Turkey, a military coup removes President Celâl Bayar and the rest of the democratic government from office.
- 1962 The Centralia mine fire is ignited in the town's landfill above a coal mine.
- 1967 Australians vote in favor of a constitutional referendum granting the Australian government the power to make laws to benefit Indigenous Australians and to count them in the national census.
- 1967 The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy is launched by Jacqueline Kennedy and her daughter Caroline.
Famous people born on May 27
- Christopher Lee, English actor (1922–2015)
- Paul Bettany, English actor (born 1971)
- Henry Kissinger, German-American political scientist and politician, 56th United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate (1923–2023)
- João Cancelo, Portuguese footballer (born 1994)
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Choose your country: the charts, news and leaders change to match.
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
Or
Browse by Year
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)
About The Day You Were Born
Ever wondered what was happening in the world when you took your first breath? Our birthday lookup tool reveals the fascinating history of your special day.
About The Birthday Chronicle and where our data comes from →
