V published 1961

[Joseph Tracy]

The wikipedia on 1961 is almost Pynchonian itself beginning with  an  
observation from Mad Magazine
	
As MAD Magazine pointed out on its cover for the March 1961 issue,  
this was the first "upside-up" year—i.e., one in which the numerals  
that form the year look the same as when the numerals are rotated  
upside down—since 1881, and the last until 6009.

COUPLE THREE EVENTS

Kennedy ( not Nixon) in, Ike out.

Dylan arrives in NYC to visit  Woody Guthrie in hospital

Bay of Pigs

Gagarin first human to orbit earth in spaceflight, "The Earth is blue  
[...] How wonderful. It is amazing."—Gagarin, to ground control.   
Alan Shepherd comes in second.

In Portugal, a coup attempt against António de Oliveira Salazar fails.

Algiers putsch: Four French generals who oppose de Gaulle's policies  
in Algeria fail in a coup attempt.


  U.S. Freedom Riders begin interstate bus rides to test the new U.S.  
Supreme Court integration decision. A Freedom Riders bus is fire- 
bombed near Anniston, Alabama and the civil rights protestors are  
beaten by an angry mob. Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson,  
Mississippi for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their  
bus.

Nuclear testing: The Soviet Union detonates a 58-megaton yield  
hydrogen bomb known as Tsar Bomba over Novaya Zemlya. It remains the  
largest ever man-made explosion. Now all God's chillun got bombs.

Catch-22 is first published by Joseph Heller

The Beatles perform for their first time at the Cavern Club


The Fantastic Four #1 comic debuts, launching the Marvel Universe and  
revolutionizing the American comic book industry.

  Erwin Schrödinger, Dashiell Hammett, Lee DeForest,  Ernest  
Hemingway, Dag Hammarskjöld, and many other people died, paying the  
cost of admission, a payment most put off to the last possible moment.