1961
	12 january	The first of a series of 14 world speed and altitude records were set by the Convair B-58 Hustler
	1 february	Launch of the first LGM-130 Minuteman ICBM, which would eventually provide half the total weaponry supporting the US nuclear war plan. A maximum of some 1,000 missiles on alert at any one time.
	12 april	The Russians won the race to put a man into space when 27 year old Yuri Gagarin orbited the earth in a Vostok spacecraft. America countered the Russian response with two 15-minute space-hops, the first by Alan Shepard. By August the Rusians had orbited the earth 17 times in a manned shot lasting over 25 hours.
	14 april	Early in the morning, a group of B-26 bombers piloted by Cuban exiles attack air bases in Cuba. The raid, coordinated by the CIA, is designed to destroy as much of Castro's air power as possible before the scheduled landing of a force of U.S.-trained Cuban exiles. However, to keep the U.S. connection from becoming public, an additional set of airstrikes on Cuban airfields is canceled.
	17-18 april	With U.S. direction, training, and support, a group of about fourteen hundred Cuban emigrés attempt an invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. Cuban government aircraft which survived the earlier airstrikes are able to pin the invasion force on the beachhead, and without additional supplies of ammunition, the invaders are quickly crushed by Cuban ground forces. Of the anti-Castro emigrés, 114 are killed and 1,189 are captured. In response to the invasion, Fidel Castro orders the arrest of some two hundred thousand suspected dissidents to prevent internal uprisings.
	26 may	A B-58 Hustler flew non-stop from Carswell AFB, to Paris, a distance of 5,813 miles to commemorate the 34th abnniversary of Lindbergh's crossing.
	3 june	The B-58A that flew to le Bourget for the Paris Air Show crashed after taking off during the airshow and its crew of three was killed.
	9 july	The TU-22 Blinder made its first appearance at Aviation Day, Tushino Airport in Moscow. The Blinder was the first Soviet supersonic strategic bomber to attain service and therefore had been compared often to the B-58 Hustler. It was bigger, slower and had a higher gross weight but nevertheless has managed to outlive the Hustler. The Tu-22 Blinder is currently still in service with the Russian Air Force as a reconaissance and ECM plane.
	25 july	President Kennedy requested a build-up of regular US forces plus reserve and National Guard units, following a Soviet threat of a bilateral solution with communist East Germany regarding access to the divided city of Berlin and an increase in the Soviet defence budget.
	12-13 august	The Berlin wall was constructed and almost all entry points to the city were closed by the Russians, hastening US military preparations for deployment to Germany to counter any Soviet agression.
	1 october	18,500 Air National Guard personnel reported for duty in response to the Berlin wall crises, as several ANG units were to deploy to Europe to support USAFE wings as operation Stairstep.
	20 october	RF-101C Voodoo detachments began flying photo-reconnaissance missions over Vietnam as a result of increased activity by the North Vietnamese Army.
	16 november	The Farm Gate Detachment (Air Commandos) became operationally ready in Vietnam, using AT-28 Trojans, Douglas SC-47 and B-26 Invaders.