LOSE YOURSELF IN 1961

FOOTBALLERS GET £100 A WEEK!

After a lengthy battle led by Jimmy Hill, then chairman of The Professional Footballers’ Association, the players’ maximum wage of £20 per week is abolished. Brycreemed England captain, Johnny Haynes, became the first £100 a week player.

SUPERCAR ON ITV

The first true Gerry Anderson supermarionation series, Supercar followed the adventures of one Mike Mercury in his eponymous vehicle. ‘ The marvel of the age’ was based in a top-secret location in the Nevada desert and every week it travelled through land, sea and air in its bid to fight fiendishly accented supervillains.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE BERLIN WALL

Berliners awoke on the morning of 13 August to find that East German troops had erected barbed wire fencing between the Western and the Eastern zones of the city. Railway services had been severed and all crossborder road traffic had ceased.

WOLFGANG VON TRIPS DIES IN GP

Wolfgang von Trips looked set to become Germany’s first Formula One World Champion at Monza, but his Ferrari collided with Jim Clark’s Lotus on the second lap. He was thrown from the car and killed. Fifteen spectators lost their lives as a result of the Ferrari hitting fencing.