March 27, 1961 (Monday)
- Nine African-American students from Mississippi's Tougaloo College made the first effort of passive resistance to end segregation in the state capital, Jackson, by walking into the whites-only main branch of the municipal public library. After beginning the "read-in", the students declined to leave and were arrested by police. The next day, black students at Jackson State College marched to the city jail to protest the arrest of the "Tougaloo Nine", and more demonstrations followed.
- Thunderball, the ninth James Bond novel by Ian Fleming, was first published, in a hardback British edition by Glidrose Productions.
- Born: Leigh Bowery, Australian performance artist, in Melbourne (died 1994)
- Died: Paul Landowski, 85, French monumental sculptor
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Famous quotes containing the word march:
“Britannia needs no bulwarks,
No towers along the steep;
Her march is o’er the mountain-waves,
Her home is on the deep.”
—Thomas Campbell (1774–1844)