January 31, 1961

1961Elizabeth Barker, Baroness Barker, English politician^[†]

Elizabeth Jean Barker, Baroness Barker, is a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords.

1961Fatou Bensouda, Gambian lawyer and judge^[†]

Fatou Bom Bensouda is a Gambian lawyer and former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), who has served as the Gambian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom since 3 August 2022.

1961Lloyd Cole, English singer-songwriter and guitarist^[†]

Lloyd Cole is an English singer, songwriter and musician. He was lead vocalist of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions from 1984 to 1989 and subsequently worked solo.

1961Krishna Singh, Indian politician, 1st Chief Minister of Bihar (born 1887)^[†]

Shri Krishna Singh (Sinha) (21 October 1887 – 31 January 1961), also known as Shri Babu, was the first chief minister of the Indian state of Bihar (1946–61). Except for the period of World War II, Sinha was the chief minister of Bihar from the time of the first Congress Ministry in 1937 until his death in 1961. He led the Dalit entry into the Baidyanath Dham, Deoghar. He was the first chief minister in the country to abolish the zamindari system. He was imprisoned for a total of about eight years in British India. He held mass meetings at which he spoke. He was known as Bihar Kesari for his "lionlike roars" in public speaking.

1961Project Mercury: Mercury-Redstone 2: The chimpanzee Ham travels into outer space.^[†]

Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Union. Taken over from the US Air Force by the newly created civilian space agency NASA, it conducted 20 uncrewed developmental flights, and six successful flights by astronauts. The program, which took its name from Roman mythology, cost $2.76 billion. The astronauts were collectively known as the "Mercury Seven", and each spacecraft was given a name ending with a "7" by its pilot.