Editing 1961 (section)

===August===
{{Main|August 1961}}
* [[August]] &ndash; The United States founds the [[Alliance for Progress]].
* [[August 1]] &ndash; The [[Six Flags Over Texas]] theme park officially opens to the public.
* [[August 6]] &ndash; ''[[Vostok 2]]'': Soviet cosmonaut [[Gherman Titov]] becomes the second human to orbit the Earth, and the first to be in outer space for more than one day.
* [[August 7]] &ndash; ''Vostok 2'' lands in the Soviet Union.
* [[August 10]] &ndash; The United Kingdom applies for membership in the [[European Economic Community]].
* [[August 11]] &ndash; An [[Solar eclipse of August 11, 1961|annular solar eclipse]] is visible from the Southern Ocean.
* [[August 13]] &ndash; [[Berlin Crisis of 1961]]: Construction of the [[Berlin Wall]] begins, restricting movement between [[East Berlin]] and [[West Berlin]], and forming a clear boundary between West Germany and [[East Germany]], [[Western Europe]] and [[Eastern Europe]]. On August 22 [[Ida Siekmann]] jumps from a window in her tenement building trying to flee to the West, becoming the [[List of deaths at the Berlin Wall|first of at least 138 deaths at the Wall]].
* [[August 21]] &ndash; [[Jomo Kenyatta]] is released from prison in [[Kenya]].
* [[August 25]] &ndash; [[João Goulart]] replaces [[Jânio Quadros]] as [[President of Brazil]] (he is ousted in [[1964]]).
* [[August 29]] &ndash; A French military aircraft clips a cable of the [[aerial tramway]] connecting [[Pointe Helbronner]] and the [[Aiguille du Midi]] in the [[French Alps]]. Three cars of the tramway fall, killing five people, but the remaining 63 cable car passengers are rescued and the pilot lands his plane safely.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/jul/01/1|title=21 Dead in French Cable Car Crash|newspaper=The Guardian|location=London|date=1 July 1999}}</ref>
* [[August 30]] &ndash; The [[Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness]] is signed at the United Nations in New York, coming into effect December 13, 1975.<ref>Françoise Bouchet-Saulnier, et al., ''The Practical Guide to Humanitarian Law'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007) p.435.</ref>