Editor’s note: This is the third of several historical articles that were published in the April 16 issue of the AD Times in a special section for the 65th Anniversary of the Diocese of Allentown. To see the special section, click on AD Times at the top of AD Today, then Editions at right, then 04/16/26.
What else was happening in 1961, the year the Diocese of Allentown was founded?
It was a year of historic events, notable births and deaths, milestones in pop culture and sports, and very cheap prices.
At his inauguration that year, President John F. Kennedy delivered his famous line, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” He went on later in 1961 to establish the Peace Corps, and to challenge the nation to land a man on the moon before the end of the decade.
Berlin Wall construction began, and months later U.S. and Soviet tanks faced off at Checkpoint Charlie, a very tense time that ended when President Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev agreed to de-escalate.
It was the year Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in outer space, a major milestone in the Space Race. Less than a month later, the United States caught up with the successful flight of astronaut Alan Shepard.
Backed by the United States, Cuban exiles failed in their attempt to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. The U.S. entered the Vietnam War by sending soldiers and helicopters to Saigon, after earlier in the year dispatching 18,000 military advisors to Vietnam.
Wilt Chamberlain wowed the sports world when he scored 78 points in one National Basketball Association (NBA) game, a record that would stand for less than three months until he scored an astounding 100 points early in 1962 – during a game played in Hershey.
In other sports news, the Boston Celtics were the NBA champs in 1961, A.J. Foyt won the Indianapolis 500, and the New York Yankees beat the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. The Super Bowl hadn’t yet been created, but the Green Bay Packers were National Football League champions, and the Houston Oilers were the best team in the American Football League.
It was a year of notable deaths, including author Ernest Hemingway and actor Gary Cooper. Plane crashes claimed the life of U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, and later all 18 members of the U.S. figure skating team.
Civil rights activists who came to be known as the Freedom Riders rode buses to southern states to challenge discrimination there, and the Professional Golf Association finally eliminated its “Caucasians only” rule.
Movies released in 1961 included “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” starring Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard, Buddy Ebsen, and Mickey Rooney; “West Side Story”; and the timeless Disney classic “101 Dalmatians.”
Julia Child published her first cookbook, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” The first frying pans coated with Teflon appeared, along with the first electric toothbrush and the first Marvel Comic.
Popular shows on television were “Wagon Train,” “Bonanza,” “Gunsmoke,” “Perry Mason,” “Dr. Kildare,” “The Red Skelton Show,” “The Andy Griffith Show,” and “Candid Camera.”
The national spelling bee that year was won by a 12-year-old Oklahoma boy with the word “smaragdine,” which means “emerald green.”
In popular music, the hits included “Tossin’ and Turnin’” by Bobby Lewis, “Crying” by Roy Orbison, “I Fall to Pieces” by Patsy Cline, and “Runaway” by Del Shannon. A band called the Beach Boys recorded their first hit single, “Surfin.’”
Nothing in the house for breakfast? You could run out for a loaf of bread, a dozen eggs, a pound of bacon and a gallon of milk, give the clerk two bucks, and get two dimes back as change. That 20 cents was enough for two pounds of apples. A gallon of gas went for 31 cents.
Appearing at the grocery store for the first time in 1961 were such products as Coffee Mate, Fritos, PAM cooking spray, Pampers, Sprite, and Total cereal.
It was the year that Mattel, worried that Barbie needed a boyfriend, released the Ken doll.
Notable people born in 1961 included Princess Diana and Barack Obama.
Also notable was the year itself, in that it was an “upside down year,” meaning it can be read the same way when the numbers are flipped 180 degrees. The next one won’t be for a while: It comes in the year 6009.
It was also in 1961 when Alfred and Marylou Schlert welcomed a baby boy into the world in Easton. Young Alfred would go on to become the Fifth Bishop of the Diocese of Allentown in August 2017.
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