Major Event/ Sports /Prizes

 

Major Events of 1961

• Kennedy Inaugurated
• US Commitment To Vietnam
• Kuwait gains Independence
• Bay of Pigs Invasion
• Peace Corps
• Kennedy-Krushchev At Summit
• Berlin Crisis
• Rafael Trujillo
• Tanganyika independent

Sports

NBA: Boston Celtics vs. St. Louis Hawks Series: 4-1
NCAA Football: Alabama & Ohio State Records: 11-0-0 & 8-0-1
Heisman Trophy: Ernie Davis, syracuse, HB points: 824
Stanley Cup: Chicago Blackhawks vs. Detroit Red Wings Series: 4-2
US Open Golf: Gene Littler Score: 281 Course: Oakland Hills CC Location: Birmingham, MI
World Series: New York Yankees vs. Cincinnati Reds Series: 4-1

Popular Songs

1. "Wonderland by Night" ... Bert Kaemfert
2. "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" ... The Shirelles
3. "Calcutta" ... Lawrence Welk
4. "Pony Time" ... Chubby Checker
5. "Surrender" ... Elvis Presley
6. "Blue Moon" ... The Marcles
7. "Runaway" ... Del Shannon
8. "Mother-in-Law" ... Ernie K-Doe
9. "Travelin' Man" ... Ricky Nelson
10. "Running Scared" ... Roy Orbison

Popular Movies

1. The Guns of Navarone
2. The Absent-Minded Professor
3. The Parent Trap
4. Swiss Family Robinson
5. Exodus
6. The World of Suzie Wong
7. Alamo
8. Gone With the Wind (reissue)
9. 101 Dalmations
10. Splendor in the Grass

Academy Awards

Best Picture: "West Side Story"
Best Director: Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins ... "West Side Story"
Best Actor: Maximilian Schell ... "Judgement at Nuremberg"
Best Actress: Sophia Loren ... "Two Women"
Supporting Actor:George Chakiris.. “West Side Story”

Supporting Acress: Rita Moreno.. “West Side Story”

Grammy Awards

Record of the Year: "Moon River" ... Henry Mancini
Song of the Year: "Moon River" ... Henry Mancini
Album of the Year: "Judy at Carnegie Hall" ... Judy Garland
Male Vocalist: Jack Jones ... "Lollipops and Roses"
Female Vocalist: Judy Garland ... "Judy at Carnegie Hall"

Nobel Prizes

Chemistry
Melvoin Calvin, U.S.A.,b 1911 University of California Berkely "for his research on the carbon dioxide assimilation in plants".

Literature
Ivo Andric Yugoslavia, b. 1892: "for the epic force with which he has traced themes and depicted human destinies drawn from the history of his country"

Peace
HAMMARSKJ…LD, DAG HJALMAR AGNE CARL, Sweden, b. 1905, d. 1961: Secretary General of the United Nations (awarded the Prize posthumously).

Physiology or Medicine
The prize was awarded to:

Georg von BÈkÈsy "for his discoveries of the physical mechanism of stimulation within the cochlea".Bekesey was born ib Budapest in 1899

Physics
The prize was awarded equally to Robert Hofstadler for his pioneering studies of electron scattering in atomic nuclei and for his thereby achieved discoveries concerning the structure of the nucleons" and Rudofl Ludwig Mossbauer for his researches concerning the resonance absorption of gamma radiation and his discovery in this connection of the effect which bears his name".

Pulitzer Prizes

Public Service:
The Amarillo Globe-Times

Local Reporting, Edition Time:
Sanche de Gramont of the New York Herald Tribune

Local Reporting, No Edition time:
Edgar May of The Buffalo Evening News

National Reporting:
Edward R. Cony of The Wall Street Journal

International Reporting:
Lynn Heinzerling of the Associated Press

Editorial Writing:
William J. Dorvillier of The San Juan Star

Editorial Cartooning:
Carey Orr of the Chicago Tribune

Photography:
Yasushi Nagao of Mainichi, Tokyo

Letters, Music and Drama Awards

Fiction:
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Lippincott)

Drama:
All the Way Home by Tad Mosel (Obolensky)
History:
Between War and Peace: The Potsdam Conference by Herbert Feis (Princeton Univ. Press)
Biography or Autobiography:
Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War by David Donald (Knopf)
Poetry:
Times Three: Selected Verse From Three Decades by Phyllis McGinley (Viking)
Music:
Symphony No. 7 by Walter Piston (Associated Music Publishers), first performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra on February 10, 1961, and commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra Association.