Memorable Events of 1961

Tomorrow is my Birthday! It’s the big one. 50. Yikes!

It all happened so fast. Seems like a few years ago I was turning 25. That was a momentous birthday for me. My mom was so sweet and made me a special dinner. She gave me a Happy Bearthday coffee cup that I still have and that my oldest son Daniel, when he turned 25, drank his coffee from that same cup! I remember thinking…wow!….a quarter of a century years old! Now I’m half way there. Geez.

Anyways… in celebration of this landmark occasion I want to share some events that happened in my birthyear. Some pretty cool, some not.

• Walt Disney’s 101 Dalmatians was the top grossing film of the year at  $60,679,097

• West Side Story was #2 , but won 4 Academy Awards and Breakfast At Tiffany’s #7 (I love Audrey Hepburn)

• January 20 – John F. Kennedy is the first U.S. president to be sworn in, in a color telecast on television.

• Car 54, Where Are You?, The Dick Van Dyke Show and Mister Ed all made their television debut.

• January 31 – Ham the Chimp, a 37-pound (17-kg) male chimpanzee, is rocketed into space aboard Mercury-Redstone 2.      
• March 21- the Beatles perform at the Cavern Club, Liverpool for the 1st time.

• May 5 – Mercury program: Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space aboard Mercury-Redstone 3.

• May 4 – U.S. Freedom Riders begin interstate bus rides to test the new U.S. Supreme Court integration decision. Without great success.
  

• August 13 – Construction of the Berlin Wall begins. The wall is completed in just 18 days!

• November – The Fantastic Four #1 comic debuts, launching the Marvel Universe and revolutionizing the American comic book industry. 10 cents!!

• December 3- Lori Ann Herrick was born to Ken and Barbara Herrick

• December 11-The Vietnam War officially begins, as the first American helicopters arrive in Saigon along with 400 U.S. personnel.

• Here is a picture of a 1961 Volkswagen Bug….this really was our family car!

Hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane. Truth is I had to search out most of this information on the internet. Thank you Wikipedia for help with the year I was born, because sometimes I can’t even remember what happened yesterday….I am 50 years old now and they say your memory is the first to go!