At A Glance

7 January 1961 at a glance

Day of the week
7 January 1961 was a Saturday.
Billboard Hot 100 No. 1
The Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 was “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” by Elvis Presley.
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 7 January is Capricorn.
Chinese zodiac
In the Chinese zodiac, 7 January 1961 fell in the Year of the Rat.
Birthstone
The birthstone for January is Garnet.
Moon phase
The moon phase on 7 January 1961 was Waning Gibbous.

On this day: 7 January

  • 1954 Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York at the head office of IBM.
  • 1955 Contralto Marian Anderson becomes the first person of color to perform at the Metropolitan Opera in Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo in maschera.
  • 1959 The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro.
  • 1968 Surveyor program: Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 36A.
  • 1979 Third Indochina War: Cambodian–Vietnamese War: Phnom Penh falls to the advancing Vietnamese troops, driving out Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.

Famous people born on January 7

  • Andy Burnham, English politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (born 1970)
  • Lewis Hamilton, English racing driver (born 1985)
  • Nicolas Cage, American actor (born 1964)
  • Jeremy Renner, American actor (born 1971)

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

Dwight D. Eisenhower

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 →