The 1961 in science reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

1961 in science

The year 1961 CE in science and technology included many events, some of which are listed below.

See also: 1960 in science, other events of 1961, 1962 in science, and the list of years in science.

Table of contents

1 Astronomy and space exploration 2 Physics 3 Awards 4 Deaths

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.

• The first quasar is discovered by Allan Sandage at Mt Palomar, California

Physics

• February 14 - Discovery of the chemical elements: Element 103, Lawrencium, is first synthesized (Berkeley, California).

Awards

• Nobel Prizes
  • Physics - Robert Hofstadter, Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer
  • Chemistry - Melvin Calvin
  • Medicine - Georg von Békésy

Deaths

• January 4 - Erwin Schrödinger, physicist

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