January 24, 1961

1961Jorge Barrios, Uruguayan footballer^[†]

Jorge Wálter Barrios Balestrasse is a retired football midfielder from Uruguay, who was nicknamed "Chifle" during his professional career. Having made his official debut on July 18, 1980 against Peru (0-0), Barrios obtained a total number of 60 international caps for the Uruguay national football team.

1961Guido Buchwald, German footballer and manager^[†]

Guido Ulrich Buchwald is a German former professional football player. Throughout his career he played as a defender. He is currently director of football of Stuttgarter Kickers.

1961Christa Kinshofer, German ski racer^[†]

Christa Kinshofer-Rembeck is a German former alpine ski racer and businesswoman. In her career she won three Olympic medals, one World Championship medal and seven World Cup races.

1961Nastassja Kinski, German-American actress and producer^[†]

Nastassja Aglaia Kinski is a German actress and former model who has appeared in more than 60 films in Europe and the United States. Her worldwide breakthrough was with Stay as You Are (1978). She then came to global prominence with her Golden Globe Award-winning performance as the title character in the Roman Polanski-directed film Tess (1979). Other films in which she acted include the Francis Ford Coppola musical romance film One from the Heart (1982), erotic horror film Cat People (1982) from Paul Schrader, and the Wim Wenders drama films Paris, Texas (1984) and Faraway, So Close! (1993). She also appeared in the biographical drama film An American Rhapsody (2001). She is the daughter of German actor Klaus Kinski.

1961William Van Dijck, Belgian runner^[†]

William Van Dijck is a Belgian former athlete, primarily active on the 3000m steeplechase.

1961Alfred Carlton Gilbert, American pole vaulter and businessman, founded the A. C. Gilbert Company (born 1884)^[†]

Alfred Carlton Gilbert was an American inventor, athlete, magician, toy maker and businessman. As the founder of A. C. Gilbert Company, Gilbert was known for inventing the Erector Set and American Flyer Trains.

1961Goldsboro B-52 crash: A bomber carrying two H-bombs breaks up in mid-air over North Carolina. The uranium core of one weapon remains lost.^[†]

The 1961 Goldsboro B-52 crash was an accident that occurred near Goldsboro, North Carolina, United States, on 24 January 1961. A Boeing B-52 Stratofortress carrying two 3.8-megaton Mark 39 nuclear bombs broke up in mid-air, dropping its nuclear payload in the process. The pilot in command, Walter Scott Tulloch, grandfather of actress Elizabeth Tulloch, ordered the crew to eject at 9,000 ft (2,700 m). Five crewmen successfully ejected or bailed out of the aircraft and landed safely; another ejected, but did not survive the landing, and two of them were killed in the crash. Information declassified since 2013 has shown that one of the bombs was judged by nuclear weapons engineers at the time to have been only one safety switch away from detonation, and that it was "credible" to imagine conditions under which it could have detonated.