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| 1961, March 1 |
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| Pres. Kennedy issued an executive order creating the Peace Corps, a coterie of trained American men and women who used their skills to help various developing countries. | 1 |
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| April 17 |
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| An attempt by CIA-sponsored Cuban nationals to foment an anti-Castro rebellion in Cuba failed. The botched invasion embarrassed the new Kennedy administration and strained U.S.-Soviet relations. | 2 |
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| May 4 |
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| “Freedom rides” by black and white members of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) sought to test recent court rulings that banned segregated coaches and facilities on interstate bus lines. Pushed by news clips showing the brutality to which the riders were subjected, Atty. Gen. Robert Kennedy intervened to help the riders. At Montgomery, Ala. (May 20), mob action against the riders led to the dispatch of several hundred federal marshals. | 3 |
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| June 3–4 |
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| Pres. Kennedy conferred with Premier Khrushchev in Vienna. | 4 |
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| July 25 |
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| Pres. Kennedy, in a national address on the Berlin crisis (See July 17), proposed an increase in armed forces by 217,000 men and in defense spending to total $3.4 billion, in order to meet the Soviet “worldwide threat.” | 5 |
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| Sept. 22 |
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| The Interstate Commerce Commission ordered the desegregation of all interstate bus and railroad terminals, effective on Nov. 1. | 6 |
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