Fitness expert Nadia Comaneci

Events in 1961 and 12-11

Events in the world in the birth year of Nadia Comaneci

• US breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba (Jan. 3).
• 1,200 US-sponsored anti-Castro exiles invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs (April 17); the attackers are all killed or captured by Cuban forces.
• East Germany erects the Berlin Wall between East and West Berlin to halt flood of refugees (Aug. 13). Background: The Cold War
• USSR detonates 50-megaton hydrogen bomb in the largest man-made explosion in history (Oct. 29). Background: nuclear weapons
• There are 2,000 US military advisers in South Vietnam. Background: Vietnam War
• OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) formally constituted.

Birthday Nadia Comaneci (12-11) in history

• Day 12-11 year 1920: Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was elected the first commissioner of baseball.
• Day 12-11 year 1927: Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party and Joseph Stalin became the ruler of the Soviet Union.
• Day 12-11 year 1942: The World War II battle of Guadalcanal begins.
• Day 12-11 year 1954: Ellis Island stopped serving as the chief immigration station for the United States. Twenty million immigrants went through Ellis Island in its 62 years of operation.
• Day 12-11 year 1970: A cyclone and tidal wave hit East Pakistan, killing over 200,000 people.
• Day 12-11 year 1981: The space shuttle Columbia was launched for the second time. It was the first time a space vehicle was used more than once.
• Day 12-11 year 1990: Akihito becomes emperor of Japan.
• Day 12-11 year 1997: Ramzi Yousef, the man behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was convicted in New York.