It was also a year which saw Fred Trueman play cricket at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane, and saw Sheffield Wednesday start to recover from by a coach crash the team suffered on Boxing Day the previous year.
The Star covered these at these at the time, sending out our photographers.
But the reports and pictures of those memorable events in The Star were in black and white – we would not print the paper with colour pictures for around another 30 years.
But the world around us was still as bright and colourful as it is today.
However, modern technology now allows us to transform some of those pictures into colour. We have used pictures showing people and places, including West Street, Fargate and The Moor.
We have used technology to transform them and breathe fresh life into them.
It means you can now see them close to how they would have looked at the time, in a era before Joe Cocker had rocked Woodstock.
We have put together 32 pictures in gallery, which means you can now see these pictures in a way you never could before.

1. 1961 in colour
We have transformed these 32 pictures, taken in black and white by our photographers in 1961, into colour, using technology Photo: National World

2. Park Hill
The Rt Hon Hugh Gaitskell MP opens Sheffield's Park Hill Flats in 1961. Picture: Sheffield Newspapers Photo: Sheffield Newspapers

3. Directing traffic
A Sheffield City Police Constable on point duty in the city centre - 17th August 1961. Picture: Sheffield Newspapers Photo: Sheffield Newspapers

4. Shopping
A walk to the shops on Park Hill's pedestrian precinct, free from noise and traffic. There are other shops around the area under the flats, June 1961. Pictures: Sheffield Newspapers Photo: Shopping