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CFPL Images: Watermark
Title: CFPL Timeline 1961

“We offer not only the memory, but a graphic view of those events and occasions which made news in the past 365 days. Our chronicle is that of the television news camera -- the eye which beheld the might and the humble, the tragic and the joyous. The camera gazed upon the greatness of man -- and upon his occasional lack of greatness…. It saw the day-to-day happenings in Western Ontario that are now on their way into history…… This was 1961!”

Images from CFPL News 1961

CFPL News Stories for 1961:

Watch - Cyrus Eaton, Krushchev's Favourite Capitalist, Visits London Video, 1961

Cyrus Eaton, Krushchev's Favourite Capitalist, Visits London

Watch - Flood Control in the Thames River Basin Video, 1961

Flood Control in the
Thames River Basin

Watch - Western University Undergrads Set World  Record For Bed-Pushing Video, 1961

Western University Undergrads Set World
Record For Bed-Pushing

Watch - Railroad Telegrapher Turned Policeman Foils Ingersol Break-in Video, 1961

Railroad Telegrapher
Turned Policeman Foils
Ingersol Break-in

Watch - Unemployment Touches Nation With Panic Video, 1961

Unemployment Touches
Nation With Panic

Watch - Small Businesses Challenge Lord's Day Act and Stay Open on Sunday Video, 1961

Small Businesses Challenge Lord's Day Act and Stay Open on Sunday

Watch - Discount Shopping Discount Shopping Outside City Limits Video, 1961

Discount Shopping
Store Opens Just
Outside City Limits

Watch - Coin-operated Businesses Challenge the Lord's Day Act And Remain Open on Sunday Video, 1961

Coin-operated Businesses Challenge the Lord's Day Act And Remain Open on Sunday

Watch - Prime Minister John Diefenbaker Visits London and St Mary's Video, 1961

Prime Minister John Diefenbaker Visits London and St Mary's

Watch - Two Thirteen Year Old Boys Land a 28 Pound Trout Video, 1961

Two Thirteen Year Old Boys Land a 28 Pound Trout

Watch - Racial Discrimination in Housing Applications Video, 1961

Racial Discrimination in Housing Applications

 

National and International News Stories of 1961:

  • The New Democratic Party of Canada is founded and elects Tommy Douglas as its first leader.
  • CTV, Canada's 2nd major television network begins broadcasting with eight stations spread across the country.
  • Adolph Eichmann is sentenced to death for crimes against the Jewish people and crimes against humanity for the role he played in the Holocaust. He had been located in Buenos Aires and taken to Jerusalem to stand trial. He would be executed on May 31, 1962.
  • 1300 Cuban exiles, armed with U.S. weapons, land at the Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) on the southern coast of Cuba.
  • The Berlin Wall is built to prevent the exodus of East Germans to the west. Approximately 2.6 Million East Germans had made their way to West Germany between 1949 and 1961.
  • A 27-year-old Soviet Major named Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to orbit the Earth in Vostok 1. Travelling at a speed of 27,400 kilometres per hour the capsule is aloft for 108 minutes. Colonel Yuri Gagarin would die on March 27, 1968 when the MiG-15 aircraft he is piloting crashes near Moscow.
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Story Citations:

Film footage

     

Scripts

This Was 1961 – Year End Show 1961 (excerpts)
black and white 16mm motion picture film, silent and sound
Reference Code: F 4396-2-1-8
Archives of Ontario

This Was 1961 – Year End Show 1961 (excerpts)
news script
Reference Code: F 4396-2-2
Archives of Ontario