3 January: Union State President John F Kennedy was inaugurated into office. Marking the first transition of power in American Union State History.
5 January: The 1961 coup, ultraconservative forces in the country of Japan attempted a coup d'etat of the country's democratic leaders. The consistent liberalization of Japan a chief reason for their drastic action.
6 January: The coup, at least in its immediate aftermath, fails. Good coordination between the Prime Minister, Emperor, and loyalist forces in the Imperial Japanese military prevented conservative forces from seizing the armories in Tokyo's military bases. The PM and Emperor fled into an IJN Naval Group, quickly departing into the open ocean.
8 January: Due to significant public pressure. A vote of no confidence was held in the CGT Assembly in Paris, the vote passed and immediate elections between Daniel Guerin and Simone de Beauvoir were scheduled for February.
9 January: British Authorities announce that they have discovered a large Japanese spy ring in London, dubbed the
London Spy Ring. It's members were immediately arrested and sentenced to long prison sentences.
20 January: John F Kennedy made his first televised speech as Union State President. He stated that his intention is to 'continue the progress made under Huey Long.' Outlining plans for significant infrastructure investment, reducing racial tensions in the country, further funding NASA, and create a Universal Healthcare System.
25 January:
101 Dalmatians were released in cinemas.
30 January: John F Kennedy delivers his first State of the Union address.
1 February: The Sky Fish tests. In Manchuria and Siberia. The Imperial Japanese Air Force tests the first Japanese Solid Fuel Rocket ICBMs, called the Sky Fish. While Flying Fish ballistic missiles were liquid fueled, Sky Fish ICBMs were solid fueled, which means a faster launch time. The Imperial Japanese Military plans to replace all Flying Fish missiles with Sky Fish in the near future.
5 February: Ferdinand Marcos, General of the Philippine Army. Resigns from his post after supposed blackmail was handed to his office by an unknown agent (later revealed to be a PSIA asset requested by Magsaysay). In his later remarks, his primary decision to resign and retire is caused by the failed coup in Japan.
7 February: French Commune elections, Simone de Beauvoir won by a solid majority, 64.7% of the French Population voted for her compared to the 35.3% for Daniel Guerin. A Feminist-Syndicalist. Simone de Beauvoir is generally considered more friendly to the establishment than the Anarchist leaning Guerin.
14 February:
Element 103, Fukuokium, was first synthesized in Fukuoka, Japan.
- A total Solar Eclipse, visible in Southern Europe, occurs.
25 February: Foreign Minister
Kijuro Shidehara first proposed combining the different ongoing investment projects and foreign aid projects done by the various Japanese ministries into one single agency.
26 February: After a long period of deliberation, and with an agreement from Japanese Zaibatsu Sumitomo. Sydney would continue operation of it's tramway network. With plans on further investments in public transport in the near future.
1 March: John F Kennedy establishes the American Peace Corps.
3 March: Hasan II is crowned as King of Morocco.
13 March: Black and White £5 Notes ceases to become Legal Tender in the Union of Britain.
14 March: Monash University in Melbourne accepts it's first students.
15 March: Significant controversy in Insulindia. President Muhammad Hatta, not even 1 year into his Presidency, proposed a bill that would significantly enhance women's protections, including rape and abortion protections. This angers the People's Representative Council, and debate on the bill raged on for weeks.
8 April: MV Orissa, a steamship carrying an Indian Flag, suddenly blows up after leaving port in Abu Dhabi. The cause of the explosion is unknown, 238 Passengers and crew were killed.
12 April: The 5th Sphere Expo was hosted in Osaka, the first time such an Expo was held in a city other than Tokyo.
15 April: In a surprise announcement. John F Kennedy announces that NASA has put a man into space for the first time, this announcement shocked both the Syndicalist and Eastern worlds, with photographic and recorded evidence as proof. John Glenn became the first person to ever be in space.
4 May: Freedom Riders. Black American Freedom Riders begin taking interstate bus rides, testing the US Supreme Court integration decision.
9 May: A series of laws were introduced in the Japanese Diet concerning security. Chief among them being the Police Reform and OSI & Ministerial Guard laws. Both laws passed after much debate and deliberation.
14 May: Japan accepts the admission of the Gold Coast, Côte d'Ivoire, Cuba, Haiti, and Puerto Rico into the Co-Prosperity Sphere. Reactions from both America and Syndicalist Europe were severe.
15 May: Immediate race riots broke out in the American Union State. Freedom Rider buses were bombed in their stations, and Black Americans retaliated by forming 'defense groups' and started assembling or buying guns in response. John F Kennedy urged calm but nonetheless criticized the 'reckless actions of Japan' in the admission of their recent sphere members.
19 May: The French Satellite
Venus 1 passes by Venus. Making it the first man made object to travel past another planet.
25 May: The Ku Klux Klan, once a moribund organisation, were suddenly revived following the admission of the Caribbean and African states into the CPS.
30 May: John F Kennedy proposes the American National Security Act. Shortened to ANSA, the law will criminalize all forms of violence against African Americans, and any bystander that did not participate in the calming of the violence/ helped the person in duress would be guilty for manslaughter, the law would also give Police Officers significantly harder penalties should they did not act in a way that prevented such violence from happening. The law was passed and JFK's popularity dropped significantly in the American South.
1 June: The first test of the Tokaido Shinkansen was conducted, and it was considered a success. The 000 Series Shinkansen reached 330 Km/h during most of the journey. A considerable feat in railway engineering.
10 June: The first major conference of the Syndietern was conducted, involving all Socialist nations and organisations within and without the Syndietern, held in Geneva, Switzerland. The conference aims to strategize and bring about a World Socialist Revolution.
23 June: The
Antarctic Treaty comes into effect.
4 July: Bloody Independence. Throughout major population centers in the American South, mobs of White people stormed black and minority communities celebrating American Independence Day. With the recent passage of ANSA, police officers in all PD's assisted against the Whites in protecting Black Neighborhoods, and the ensuing result was a whole lot of Whites, Blacks, and Police Officers dead.
12 July: Two dams in the city of Pune, India, burst, leaving more than 1000 people dead.
21 July: Saikiro Tohara became the first Japanese to ever venture into space. The announcement made by the Prime Minister led to cheering across living rooms around Japan.
25 July: John F Kennedy went to Birmingham, the site where the worst incidents racial violence on Bloody Independence happened, and urged calm and collected behaviour for all sides. The photo of him comforting a black woman weeping on her child's grave became iconic.
31 July: Martin Luther King met with John F Kennedy in the White House, and talked about strategies in furthering the Civil Rights of Blacks across the AUS.
1 August: The first Six Flags theme park opens in Arlington, Texas.
3 August: Voyage 1, with Astronauts Martin Clément and Villiers Durand became the first Frenchmen in space, and subsequently the first Europeans and Socialists to ever go to space.
7 August: Voyage 1 lands in the Mediterannean Sea. Both Astronauts quickly turned into National Heroes for the French People.
10 August: After months at sea. The Emperor and Prime Minister finally returned to Japan, to the cheering crowds that greeted them at Tokyo Harbour.
12 August: After decades of preparation, Stanley Mathenge, Generalissimo of Kikuyu Land, formally begins his 'reconquest' of Kenya. Declaring war on both Buganda and Tanganyika simultaneously. He promises that his troops would not be committing any atrocities, although observers are skeptical of that claim.
21 August: Jomo Kenyatta. A famous Kikuyu public figure endorses Mathenge's reconquest 'on the condition that he keeps to his every word.' Both figures agree that an independent Kenya must be formed at all costs.
30 August: Crisis in South Africa. The situation in South Africa has gone from bad to worse, the 30th of August marks the day that white South Africans engaged in multiple border conflicts on both the Angolan and Mozambique Borders, while also committing atrocities in the Ghettoized Black and Coloureds population.
7 September: Tom and Jerry returns as a Serialized TV series after the cartoon series' abrupt end in 1958.
14 September: The first ever trans Himalayan road has finished it's construction. Constructed in 1951 as a joint venture between the Indian, Tibetan, and Chinese governments. This little 2 lane road that starts at Yushu, Qinghai, crosses into the Tibetan plateau, connects at Lhasa, before it continues in a Southwest direction. Ending at the city of Shimla, Himachal Pradesh.
17 September: The first ever Arena with a retractable roof, the
Civic Arena, opens in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
18 September: The first UN Observers began arriving in the countries of Buganda and Tanganyika. There is increasing concern within the International Community that the Kenyan Reconquest might lead to extensive massacres and mass killings, and the UN Observers are there to ensure all events are noted and transcribed.
20 September: The first Japanese Surface Action Groups started basing themselves in Beirut, Syria.
30 September: The Organization of European Economic Cooperation, or OEEC, was formed. It would be later renamed the OECD.
10 October: A massive volcanic eruption in Tristan da Cunha causes it's entire population to be relocated to the Union of Britain. The primary reaction was public shock as it isn't generally thought that the UoB would still have some overseas territories.
12 October: The death penalty was abolished in New Zealand.
18 October:
West Side Story was released into American theatres.
20 October: The treaty of Middle Eastern Cooperation and Economic Development was signed by Syria, Arabia, Mashriqi Iraq, Kurdistan, Oman, Persia, Yemen, and Azerbaijan. This treaty would allow for the free movement of goods across the borders of the signatory countries as it eliminates all major forms of tariffs imposed by these states. Egypt would later be a signatory in 1965.
27 October: Confrontation at the Volga River. A standoff between Japanese and French Troops at the river Volga, near Volgograd, heightens Cold War tensions.
29 October:
DZBB-TV Channel 7, the third TV Station in the Philippines, was launched.
30 October: French officials made an announcement during a UN meeting that they have detonated their largest ever Nuclear Bomb. The bomb, yielding an explosive power of 15 Megatons, was recorded exploding in the Northern Atlantic.
31 October:
The Note Crisis. France, Britain, and West Russia issue a Diplomatic Note to Finland, a member of the CPS. The Note states that the security situation in Europe has deteriorated so much that Finnish, West Russian, French, and British Officials must conduct annual quadrilateral meetings and secure the defense of the Nordic region should conflict break out. The Note precipitated a crisis in Finland as the Finnish military began mobilization, Finnish President Urho Kekkonen immediately flew to Tokyo for consultations on the matter.
- Hurricane Hattie devastates Belize City, killing 270.
1 November: The
Hungry Generation movement is launched in Calcutta, India.
3 November:
U Thant became the 2nd Secretary General of the United Nations.
6 November: The American government issues a stamp honouring
James Naismith.
14 November: Yves Saint Laurent was founded in Rue La Boetie, Paris.
21 November: The La Ronde restaurant was opened in Los Angeles, California, making it the first
Revolving Restaurant in the Union State of America.
24 November: In a unanimous vote at the United Nations General Assembly, the
World Food Program is formed. The program would provide Humanitarian Aid in terms of Food Hunger and Insecurity.
1 December: The Sud Aviation
Mirage IV was first unveiled to the public. It was the first Strategic Bomber France has ever made. This would be France's complement to the British V Force of Strategic bombers.
5 December: In response to the unveiling of the Mirage IV, and with the recent approval of additional funding, the Imperial Japanese Air Force speeds up the timeline of the G12N Shouri Programme. Scheduled for its first production and public unveiling in 1962.
9 December: Australian Federal Elections. The Labor Party under Arthur Calwell wins the election, defeating the incumbent Robert Menzies and his Liberal Party. His message of pro European Refugee acceptance and continued Japanese-Australian economic development won him a governing majority.
11 December: The First ever Asashio Class Submarine, the Asashio, was launched in Kure on the 11th of December, 1961. This launch, complemented with the Launch of the I-510. Officially makes 50% of the Japanese Navy's Submarine Fleet Nuclearized. The IJN now has 65 total Submarines in service, with plans to expand it to 70 due to the recent funding approval.
17 December: A Circus tent fire in Niterói, Pindorama, kills 323.
23 December: Ireland's first TV Station, Telefis Éirlann, later renamed RTE, begins broadcasting.
27 December: Chiang Ching Kuo, son of the late Chinese figure Chiang Kai Shek, announces that he would be running as a Presidential Candidate for the 1965 elections.
31 December: New Years celebrations in Korea were marked by the first televised display of PDA, or Public Displays of Affection. Coverage of such events garnered shockwaves across the country as older Koreans visibly balked while younger Koreans saw nothing inherently wrong with it.