1961 births

Kathryn Dawn Lang (born November 2, 1961), known by her stage name k.d. lang, is a Canadian pop and country singer-songwriter and occasional actress. Lang has won Juno Awards and Grammy Awards for her musical performances. Hits include the songs "Constant Craving" and "Miss Chatelaine".
A mezzo-soprano, lang has contributed songs to movie soundtracks and has collaborated with musicians such as Roy Orbison, Tony Bennett, Elton John, The Killers, Anne Murray, Ann Wilson, and Jane Siberry. She performed at the closing ceremony of the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, and at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she performed Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah".
Lang has also been active as an animal rights, gay rights, and Tibetan human rights activist. She is a tantric practitioner of the old school of Tibetan Buddhism.

Jay Brian Schroeder (born June 28, 1961) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the UCLA Bruins, after which he was selected in the third round (83rd overall) of the 1984 NFL draft by the Washington Redskins, where he played for four seasons. He then played for the Los Angeles Raiders for five seasons and spent one season each with the Cincinnati Bengals and Arizona Cardinals.
While with the Washington Redskins, Schroeder was selected to the Pro Bowl after the 1986 season. He also won a Super Bowl when the Redskins defeated the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXII.

Vegard Opaas (born 11 January 1962) is a Norwegian former ski jumper.

Rolf Lislevand (30 December 1961 in Oslo, Norway), is a Norwegian performer of Early music specialising on lute, vihuela, baroque guitar and theorbo.

Petter Thoresen (born 25 July 1961) is a Norwegian ice hockey coach and former player, currently serving as head coach of Storhamar Hockey, where he has been in charge since June 2022. He played for Forward, Hasle/Løren, Manglerud Star, Storhamar Dragons and Vålerenga. He is the father of players Steffen Thoresen and Patrick Thoresen.

Pål Brekke (born 23 May 1961) in Oslo, Norway) is a Norwegian solar physicist astrophysicist who received his Cand Mag. degree in astrophysics from University of Oslo in 1985 and PhD, from University of Oslo in 1992. His thesis focused on the ultraviolet (UV) emissions from the Sun observed with instruments on sounding rockets and the space shuttle Challenger. His work focused on dynamical aspects of the Sun and measuring variations in solar UV radiation. Since 1993 he participated in the Norwegian involvement's in preparing the EUV spectrometers CDS and SUMER on Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and was in charge of developing analysis software for CDS. After the launch of SOHO in December 1995 he was part of the science operation team at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. In 1999 he joined the European Space Agency (ESA) as the SOHO Deputy Project Scientist stationed at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. He was also in charge of outreach and media activities, making SOHO to one of the most well known current satellite projects.
He is now a senior advisor at the Norwegian Space Agency. He is a Norwegian delegate to the ESA Science Programme Committee (SPC), Programme Board of Human Spaceflight, Microgravity and Exploration (HEM) and Situational Awareness (SSA). He is also a delegate to the International Living With a Star (ILWS).
Served on several NASA Review Panels and as referee for various scientific journals. Professional publications: Refereed Journals – 42, Proceedings – 69, Popular Science – 22. Numerous appearances in national and international news-networks (CNN, USA Today, Der Spiegel, BBC etc.). International recognized lecturer on the Sun, The Sun Earth connection and the Northern Lights.
He has published several popular science books:

Den store boken om astronomi
Sola – Vår livgivende stjerne
Our Explosive Sun
2013: Nordlyset – en guide (Forlaget Press). Historien om Nordlyset og en guide til hvordan oppleve og ta bilder av Nordlyset.
2013: The Northern Lights – a Guide (Forlaget Press).
2013: Il Sole (Daedalus Edition). Italian version of "Our Explosive Sun".
2013: Le Soleil, notre étoile (CNRS Editions). French version of "Our Explosive Sun".

Odd Wilhelm Surén (born 8 March 1961) is a Norwegian novelist, short story writer and non-fiction writer. He made his literary debut in 1985 with the short story collection Fanger og opprørere. Among his novels are Dråper i havet from 1998, and For hva det er verdt from 2010.He was awarded Mads Wiel Nygaards Endowment in 2001.A literary critic for the weekly newspaper Dag og Tid, he received the Norwegian Literature Critics Award for 2013.

Margaret Eide Hillestad (born 14 February 1961, in Oslo) is a Norwegian politician for the Centre Party and a former deputy MP.

Frank Rune Vestreng (born August 19, 1961) is a former Norwegian ice hockey player. He was born in Oslo, Norway, and played for the club Vålerengens IF. He played for the Norwegian national ice hockey team at the 1984 Winter Olympics.

Bjørn-Inge Larsen (born 28 February 1961) is a Norwegian physician and civil servant.
He graduated from the University of Oslo with a cand.med. degree in medicine in 1986. He has also studied business administration at the BI Norwegian Business School and received an MBA and an M.ph after his post graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley. From 1990 to 2000, Larsen served as the county chief physician in Buskerud, Finnmark and Vestfold. In 2000 he was appointed as deputy director in the Norwegian Board of Health Supervision.
In 2001 he became director of the Norwegian Directorate for Health and Social Affairs. In October 2012, he was named as the new permanent under-secretary of state in the Ministry of Health and Care Services, succeeding Anne Kari Lande Hasle.
Larsen is a member of the Executive Board of WHO for the period 2010 to 2013. Here he has been one of the strongest advocates of the Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel that was adopted by WHO in 2010. This code is a landmark in the international endeavour to reduce the outflow of health personnel from the countries which can afford it least. He has also been actively engaged in the search for sound means to reduce the global incidence of non-communicable diseases.