The Year - 1961
The Family News..:

James E. Canty married Patricia A. Farenga at Little Flower Church, Chicago, on May 20.
Joseph Farenga married Julia Pucillo in Chicago on August 19th.

The #1 Songs Were .....
Big Bad JohnJimmy Dean
Blue MoonThe Marcels
Calcutta Lawrence Welk & His Orchestra (instrumental)
Hit the Road JackRay Charles
The Lion Sleeps Tonight The Tokens
Michael (Row the Boat Ashore)The Highwaymen
Moody RiverPat Boone
Mother-in-LawErnie K-Doe
Please Mr. PostmanThe Marvelettes
Pony TimeChubby Checker
Quarter to ThreeGary "U.S." Bonds
Runaround SueDion
Runaway Del Shannon
Running ScaredRoy Orbison
SurrenderElvis Presley
Take Good Care of My BabyBobby Vee
Tossin' and Turnin'Bobby Lewis
Travelin' ManRicky Nelson
Will You Love Me Tomorrow?The Shirelles
Wonderland by NightBert Kaempfert & His Orchestra
Wooden HeartJoe Dowell


AT THE MOVIES....
West Side Story, Robert Wise, producer (United Artists) - ***** Best MotionPicture
Fanny, Joshua Logan, producer (Warner Bros.)
The Guns of Navarone, Carl Foreman, producer (Columbia)
The Hustler, Robert Rossen, producer (Twentieth Century-Fox)
Judgment at Nuremberg, Stanley Kramer, producer (United Artists)

Acacamy Awards..:
Maximilian Schell, Judgment at Nuremberg - ***** Best Actor
Sophia Loren, Two Women - ***** Best Actress
George Chakiris, West Side Story - ***** Supporting Actor
Rita Moreno, West Side Story - ***** Supporting Actress
Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, West Side Story - ***** Directing

Music Song - "Moon River" Breakfast at Tiffany's, Henry Mancini, music; Johnny Mercer, lyrics.
Short Subjects Cartoon - Ersatz (The Substitute) (Zagreb Film; Herts-Lion Corp.)

IN THE NEWS . . . . .
U.S. breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba (Jan. 3).
Robert Frost recites �The Gift Outright� at John F. Kennedy's inauguration as President of U.S. (Jan. 20).
Moscow announces putting first man in orbit around earth, Maj. Yuri A. Gagarin (April 12).
Cuba invaded at Bay of Pigs by an estimated 1,200 anti-Castro exiles aided by U.S.; invasion crushed (April 17).
First U.S. spaceman, Navy Cmdr. Alan B. Shepard, Jr., rockets 116.5 miles up in 302-mile trip (May 5).
Virgil Grissom becomes second American astronaut, making 118-mile-high, 303-mile-long rocket flight over Atlantic (July 21).
Gherman Stepanovich Titov is launched in Soviet spaceship Vostok II: makes 17 1/2 orbits in 25 hours, covering 434,960 miles before landing safely (Aug. 6).
East Germans erect Berlin Wall between East and West Berlin to halt flood of refugees (Aug. 13).
U.S.S.R. fires 50-megaton hydrogen bomb, biggest explosion in history (Oct. 29).
There are 2,000 U.S. military advisers in South Vietnam.

Last updated on February 17, 2000