What happened in 1961, the year our Jaguar Mark 2 was built?

January 1	The farthing ceased to be legal tender
January 20	John F Kennedy becomes President of the United States
January 31	The US sent a chimpanzee called Ham into space in a Mercury capsule
February 6	Our Mark 2 was built at Browns lane, Coventry
March 1	Our Mark 2 was exported to New Zealand President Kennedy established the Peace Corps
April 12	Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space
April 24	Leyland Motors’ £18 million offer for Standard Triumph is accepted by the majority of the car company’s shareholders
May 5	Alan Shepherd becomes the first American in space
May 25	President Kennedy announces his plan to put a man on the Moon before the end of the decade
June 21	Rudolf Nureyev seeks asylum in Paris
June 25	Iraq annexes Kuwait and Britain sends troops to help Kuwait
July 1	Diana, Princess of Wales Born
August 10	Britain applies for membership of the EEC
August 13	Construction of the Berlin Wall starts
October 19	Arab League take over protection of Kuwait and British troops leave
October 30	The Soviet Union detonates a 58 megaton yield hydrogen bomb over Novaya Zemlya (this is still the largest nuclear device to ever be detonated)
December 9	Tanganyika gains independence and declares itself a republic with Julius Nyerere as its first President
December 11	Vietnam War officially begins as the first American helicopters arrive in Saigon along with 400 U.S. personnel.
December 15	An Israeli war crimes tribunal sentences Adolph Eichmann to die for his part in the Jewish holocaust.
Total UK Car Production	1,003,967
World Population	Reached 3 Billion
Medicine/Science	The first Quasar was discovered
Wimbledon Champions	Angela Mortimer Rod Laver
Films	Breakfast at Tiffanys The Guns of Navarone  West Side Story
Music	Elvis Presley: Are you lonesome tonight? Wooden Heart Danny Williams : Moon River