1961 in science.html

List of years in science (Table)
… 1951 • 1952 • 1953 • 1954 • 1955 • 1956 • 1957 • 1958 • 1959 • 1960 – 1961 – 1962 • 1963 • 1964 • 1965 • 1966 • 1967 • 1968 • 1969 • 1970 • 1971 …
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… 1958 • 1959 • 1960 – 1961 – 1962 • 1963 • 1964 … … 1930s • 1940s • 1950s – 1960s – 1970s • 1980s • 1990s … … 19th century – 20th century – 21st century …
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The year 1961 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy and space exploration

January 31 - Ham, a 37 pound male chimpanzee, was rocketed into space in a test of the Project Mercury capsule designed to carry U.S. astronauts into space.
April 12 - Yuri Gagarin is the first human in space.
May 19 - Venera program: Venera 1 becomes the first manmade object to fly-by another planet by passing Venus (however the probe had lost contact with earth a month earlier and did not send back any data).
May 25 - Apollo program: President Kennedy announces before a special joint session of Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a "man on the moon" before the end of the decade.