The most important events of 1961 in the world are well known to most of the inhabitants of our country. After all, it was in this year that man first went into space. This was our compatriot Yuri Gagarin. This, of course, is the main event of this year, but in the 61st there were many other important incidents, meetings, and many statements were made.
Man in space
The event of 1961 in Russia, which shocked the whole world, is the flight of the first man into space. On April 12, Yuri Gagarin went on a flight on the Vostok launch vehicle. She was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
Details of this flight are known to absolutely everyone today. It lasted exactly 108 minutes. Gagarin successfully returned, landing in the territory of the Saratov region, not far from the city of Engels. Since then, this day marks the international holiday - Cosmonautics Day.
After that, the whole world knew what event happened on April 12, 1961. Gagarin started at 9 hours 7 minutes Moscow time. His call sign was Cedar. The immediate head of the start team, on whose command the rocket was launched, was Anatoly Semenovich Kirillov, who then became a major general. It was he who controlled the execution of all orders, monitored the periscope for missile flight from the command bunker.
In April 1961, an event occurred that radically changed the idea of mankind about conquering the vast expanses. Famous throughout the world was the phrase by Yuri Gagarin, who exclaimed: "Let's go!" It is emphasized that the Vostok rocket worked without serious comments, only at the final stage did it fail to operate the radio control system, which was responsible for shutting down the third-stage engines.
Later, Gagarin spoke in detail about his feelings in Earth orbit. He became the first person who could see planet Earth through the porthole of a spaceship, he was able to consider its clouds, rivers, forests and mountains, seas, the Sun and other stars of our galaxy. On the on-board tape recorder, he left a recording in which he admired the views of the Earth from space.
It is noteworthy that in flight he did the simplest experiments. I tried to eat, drink, make pencil notes. For example, he noticed that a pencil was floating away from him, on this basis he concluded that in space it is better to tie all things. Gagarin recorded all his feelings on the on-board tape recorder.
In flight, Gagarin took a big risk, because before that no one could even imagine how the human psyche would behave in space, so the ship even provided special protection against the astronaut, if he suddenly lost his mind, tried to control flight of the ship or spoil the equipment. For safety reasons, a special envelope was placed on board for switching to manual control. It contained a piece of paper with a mathematical problem, only having decided which the astronaut could get the unlock code for the control panel. The news of the event on April 12, 1961 instantly thundered to the whole world. Gagarin became a celebrity of universal scale. Now everyone knows exactly what event happened on April 12, 1961.
Denomination in the Soviet Union
1961 was full of events in the USSR. In particular, on January 1, a universal denomination was announced, which was carried out with a coefficient of 10 to 1. Now 10 rubles of the old model corresponded to 1 ruble of the new model.
At the same time, coins in denominations of 1, 2 and 3 kopecks continued to be circulated, even those that were issued before the 1947 denomination. Their cost was not changed. Thus, the cost of copper money over the 14 years in the Soviet Union actually increased a hundred times. Some of them managed to take advantage. For example, the heroes of the comedy of George Shengel "Money changers".
It is interesting that only the smallest coins were valued, because banknotes of 5, 10, 15 and 20 kopecks were exchanged for paper at the rate of 10 to 1. For the first time since 1927, coins of 50 kopecks and 1 ruble appeared.
Denomination did not have the best effect on the state of the economy in the Soviet Union. For example, before the reform, for one dollar they gave 4 rubles, and after the denomination was carried out, a rate of 90 kopecks was set. A similar situation exists with the gold content, as a result, the ruble was underestimated more than twice. At the same time, purchasing power in relation to imported goods also remained underestimated, having significantly decreased. This event in the USSR in 1961 had a significant impact on the further development of the country.
Change of president
Life was boiling on the opposite end of the planet. An important event in the world in 1960 was the election of the US President. Dwight Eisenhower in this post was replaced by John Kennedy. On January 20, 1961, he officially took the oath of office, becoming the 35th president in the history of the country.
In his speech during the inauguration, he made the famous speech, emphasizing that everyone should think not about what the country can give him, but about what he personally can give it. After the new president came to power, the government was greatly updated, in which many new people came. Most of them had ties in the circles of American financiers and monopolists, many have already succeeded in the political arena.
Together with Kennedy, a new era began in American politics, it was one of the most famous and controversial politicians at the helm of the United States. It was for the period of his reign that there was a need to resolve the tense world situation when, due to the confrontation of the two superpowers, the world actually refused on the verge of a nuclear war. As a result, it was avoided. At the same time, Kennedy’s rule was one of the shortest. Already in 1963, the US president was killed.
Boeing crash in Belgium
The tragic events of 1961 turned out to be rich. On February 15, a Boeing plane crashed in the Brussels area. He flew from New York and crashed while trying to board the airport in the Belgian capital.
Throughout the flight over the Atlantic Ocean, no signs of trouble. The problems began only when the Boeing had to cancel its approach to the Brussels airport due to the fact that the small plane in front of it did not have time to leave the runway.
The liner went to the second round to enter another lane. Having reached a height of about 460 meters, he heeled almost vertically, lost speed and began to rapidly decline, in fact, to fall. As a result, the plane crashed in the area of the marshes, two miles from the airport. In the fall, it completely collapsed.
The wreckage of the liner caught fire almost immediately. All 72 people on board died. According to the main version, this happened instantly, the outbreak of fire did not play any role.
On board was the US national figure skating team, which was heading for the World Cup, held in Prague, the capital of Czechoslovakia. Due to the death of athletes, the competition was completely canceled.
Kurenev tragedy
Enough of the tragic events in Russia in 1961. On March 13, a man-made disaster occurred in Kiev, which went down in history as the Kurenev tragedy. The decision to create a landfill for construction waste in Babi Yar was made back in 1952.
On March 13, 1961, the event that happened there became one of the largest tragedies in the Soviet Union. Industrial waste was poured into Babi Yar for more than ten years, two brick factories located nearby had permission for this.
The destruction of the dam began at 6.45 in the morning local time, by 8.30 it finally broke through. A mud shaft about 14 meters high rushed down. He was so strong that he demolished cars, buildings, trams and people on his way. The flood lasted an hour and a half, its consequences were catastrophic.
According to official data, 81 buildings were destroyed after the mud flow disappeared. At the same time, 68 buildings were residential. More than 150 private houses remained unsuitable for living. This has affected more than a thousand people. The reports compiled by local authorities at that time did not contain official data on the dead and injured. Only later did the information about 150 victims of the tragedy appear. Moreover, it is not known reliably how many victims were in reality. According to modern Kiev historians, their number could reach one and a half thousand people. This is a real tragic event of 1961.
At that time, the authorities did not advertise the tragedy. For this, in Kiev, international and intercity communication was even disconnected. Officially, the disaster was only reported on March 16th.
The authorities also strongly opposed any attempt to disseminate information about what had happened. For this, they even buried the dead outside of Kiev, in different places, indicating different dates and causes of death on the graves and in documents. The troops dealt with the consequences of the disaster.
The prosecutor's office opened a secret criminal case. Six officials were sentenced to various prison terms. The main cause of the accident was called the mistakes made in the design of the dam and hydraulic dump. This is the event of 1961 in Russia, which has been hiding for a long time. Only in 2006 was a monument unveiled to the victims of the tragedy.
Medical feat
An event took place in April 1961, which can be safely called a medical feat, a new word in approaches to surgical operations. The surgeon Leonid Rogozov, who participated in the Antarctic expedition, managed to independently cut out appendicitis.
He found the first alarming symptoms in himself on April 29th. Nausea, weakness, pain in the right side, fever appeared. In the expedition, which included 13 people, he was the only physician. Therefore, he managed to put himself a disappointing diagnosis of acute appendicitis.
At first Rogozov tried to cope with the disease by conservative methods, but they did not bring success. The condition of the doctor only worsened. There were no planes at the neighboring Arctic stations to evacuate the patient, and the weather was not flying. The only way out is an urgent operation on the spot. Rogozov decided to do it himself.
Tools he gave meteorologist Alexander Artemyev, and a small mirror on his stomach held a mechanical engineer Zinovy Teplinsky. The doctor performed local anesthesia, then made a 12-centimeter incision using a scalpel. Looking in the mirror, and sometimes focusing simply by touch, he removed the inflamed appendix, introduced himself an antibiotic. In total, the operation lasted almost two hours, ending successfully, despite the fact that the patient developed a pronounced general weakness. Five days later, the body temperature returned to normal, it became possible to remove the stitches.
This event of 1961 in the history of medicine took a special place as an exemplary example of courage and high professionalism.
Bizertin crisis
In 1961, an event occurred that generally negatively affected peace throughout the world. It was the Bisertin crisis, also known as the Franco-Tunisian war. At the center of the armed conflict was the naval base at Bizerte, which remained to belong to France even after Tunisia officially gained independence in 1956.
The conflict escalated after the meeting of Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba with French President Charles de Gaulle. The latter stressed that the base is extremely important to ensure the full defense capability of France. Moreover, France began work on enlarging the base, in particular on expanding the runway, which had already entered Tunisia.
In Bizert, mass demonstrations began, demanding the evacuation of the French at the military base. As a result, the Tunisian president announced the blockade of the French base. The positions were taken by Tunisian battalions with the support of artillery.
De Gaulle decided not to succumb to the ultimatums put forward by the Tunisian government. Instead, the French president orders an armed invasion. The conflict was very fleeting, it lasted from July 19 to July 23. On the French side, about seven thousand soldiers, three warships and aircraft participated in the operation. The forces of the Tunisian army are unknown.
France lost 24 people in the conflict, 100 were injured. The losses of the Tunisian side were much more impressive: 630 dead and more than one and a half thousand wounded. The result of the confrontation was the decision to withdraw French troops from a military base in Bizerte. Since then, in Tunisia every year on October 15 a national holiday is celebrated - Evacuation Day.
Second man in space
If we talk about the successes of the space program, then almost everyone will ask about the event in 1961, remember about the flight into space of Yuri Gagarin. At the same time, it was somewhat forgotten that in the same year another Soviet pilot went into space.
On August 6, German Titov flew off the Vostok-2 ship. Unlike Gagarin, he spent much more time in space. To be more precise, then one day, one hour and 18 minutes.
Titov circled the planet Earth 18 times. The total length of his flight exceeded 700 thousand kilometers. His call sign was Eagle. He sat, like Gagarin, in the Saratov region. At the time of the flight, Titov was only 25 years old. Until now, he remains the youngest person to be in space. Nobody has beaten this record so far.
Nuclear tests
The confrontation between the two world superpowers, the USSR and the USA, grew throughout 1961. In October, the Soviet Union immediately launched two large-scale operations, which were once again to confirm its importance in the international arena.
First, the first underground nuclear explosion in history was carried out at the Semipalatinsk test site. Previously, not a single country on the planet has decided on such experiments and tests.
At the very end of October, the USSR conducted another large-scale test. It involved a nuclear device with a capacity of 50 megatons. To date, this nuclear test remains the most powerful in the history of mankind.
Club fun and resourceful
Not only tragic and exciting moments were filled in 1961. Enough and joyful episodes. For example, it was then that one of the main projects of the long-lived Soviet television appeared on the Soviet screens - the humorous games Club of the Merry and Resourceful, which are successful and still have high ratings.
It was November 8, 1961 that this program first appeared on the screens. A funny episode is associated with the program, which was considered the prototype of KVN. It was called "An evening of fun questions." But only three issues managed to go on the air.
The fact is that in the third broadcast, a prize was promised to everyone who in the middle of summer would come to the studio in a hat, fur coat, felt boots and with a newspaper for December 31 last year.
But the host of the program, Nikita Bogoslovsky, forgot to mention the newspaper. As a result, a huge crowd in winter clothes burst into the recording of the program, which dared the police, creating complete chaos. The broadcast was interrupted, and since there was nothing to replace the broadcast, the TV screens showed the “Break for technical reasons” screensaver all evening.
The KVN, which appeared on the air in 1961, did not allow such oversights, and therefore remains one of the most successful projects on domestic television.