1962 - What happened in 1962 ?

January 1962

Wednesday 03:

Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.

Thursday 04:

New York City introduces a train that operates without a crew on-board.

Tuesday 09:

1962 - The NFL prohibits grabbing face masks.

Wednesday 24:

Brian Epstein signs to manage The Beatles.

Friday 26:

Ranger 3 is launched to study the moon. The space probe later missed the moon by 22,000 miles (35,400 km).

February 1962

Friday 02:

For the first time in 400 years Neptune and Pluto align.

Sunday 04:

Ian Fleming's The Living Daylights first published

Monday 05:

French President Charles De Gaulle calls for allowing Algeria to be an independent nation.

Saturday 10:

Captured American spy pilot Francis Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.

Wednesday 14:

First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes television viewers on a tour of the White House.

March 1962

Friday 02:

In Burma, the army led by General Ne Win seizes power in a coup.

Sunday 18:

In Luxembourg, Isabelle Aubret wins the seventh Eurovision Song Contest for France singing "Un premier amour" (A first love).

Monday 19:

Algerian War of Independence: A ceasefire takes effect.

Friday 23:

NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, was launched as a showcase for Dwight D. Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace initiative.

Friday 30:

Jack Paar hosts his last episode of The Tonight Show.

April 1962

Saturday 14:

Georges Pompidou becomes Prime Minister of France.

Thursday 26:

NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.

May 1962

Saturday 19:

A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison Square Garden, New York. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe's infamous rendition of Happy Birthday. Thirty-four years later, John F. Kennedy, Jr. had actress Drew Barrymore pose as Monroe for the cover of George magazine with the heading "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" in honor of then-President Bill Clinton turning 50.

Tuesday 22:

Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashes after bombs explode.

Wednesday 23:

Drilling for the Montreal Metro commences.

Thursday 24:

American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.

Thursday 31:

The West Indies Federation dissolves

June 1962

Sunday 03:

An Air France Boeing 707 jet crashed shortly after takeoff from Paris, killing 130.

Wednesday 06:

The Beatles audition for EMI Records.

Monday 11:

Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin become the only prisoners to apparently successfully escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island. No conclusive evidence has ever been found that they survived the escape attempt.

Thursday 14:

Anna Slesersby becomes the first victim of Albert DeSalvo, better known as the Boston Strangler.

Saturday 23:

Larry Doby retires from the Cleveland Indians to play in Japan.

July 1962

Tuesday 03:

The Algerian War of Independence against the French ends

Thursday 05:

Algeria becomes independent from France.

Tuesday 10:

Telstar, the world's first communications satellite, is launched into orbit.

Tuesday 17:

Nuclear testing: The "Small Boy" test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada Test Site.

Sunday 22:

Mariner program: Mariner 1 spacecraft flies erratically several minutes after launch and has to be destroyed.

August 1962

Wednesday 08:

Elizabeth Ann Duncan becomes the last woman to be executed in the United States prior to the reintroduction of capital punishment in 1977. She and the two men she hired to murder her pregnant daughter-in-law in 1958 die in San Quentin's gas chamber.

Friday 17:

East German border guards kill 18-year-old Peter Fechter as he attempts to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin. He thus became the first victim of the wall

Thursday 23:

First live television connection between the United States and Europe, via the Telstar satellite.

Monday 27:

Mariner 2 launched

Thursday 30:

Japan conducts a test of the NAMC YS-11, its first aircraft since the war and its only successful commercial aircraft from before or after the war.

September 1962

Wednesday 12:

President John F. Kennedy declares the USA will get a man on the moon, and bring him back, by the end of the decade.

Sunday 23:

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City opens with the first building completed, Philharmonic Hall, now Avery Fisher Hall home of the New York Philharmonic.

Tuesday 25:

The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria is formally proclaimed. Ferhat Abbas is elected President of the provisional government.

Wednesday 26:

Premiere of The Beverly Hillbillies on CBS.

Sunday 30:

James Meredith enters the University of Mississippi, defying segregation.

October 1962

Sunday 07:

U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya, U.S.S.R.

Tuesday 09:

Uganda becomes a republic.

Thursday 11:

Second Vatican Council: Pope John XXIII convenes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years.

Saturday 13:

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opens on Broadway.

Monday 15:

Cuban Missile Crisis: A stand-off ensues between the United States and the Soviet Union over Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba.

November 1962

Monday 05:

A mining accident kills 21 miners at the government-owned Kings Bay Coal Company on Svalbard, leading the Norweigian government to close the mine.

Wednesday 07:

Richard M. Nixon loses the California governor's race. In his concession speech, he states that this is his "last press conference" and that "you won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more".

Sunday 11:

1962 Kuwait's National Assembly ratifies the Constitution of Kuwait.

Sunday 18:

Niels Bohr, Danish physicist, dies at the age of 77.

Wednesday 21:

The Chinese People's Liberation Army declared a unilateral cease-fire in the Sino-Indian War.

December 1962

Sunday 02:

Vietnam War: After a trip to Vietnam at the request of US President John F. Kennedy, US Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield becomes the first American official to not make an optimistic public comment on the war's progress.

Sunday 09:

Tanganyika becomes a republic

Friday 14:

The Mona Lisa was assessed at US$100 million, the highest insurance valuance for a painting in history.

Wednesday 19:

Nyasaland secedes from Rhodesia and Nyasaland

Friday 21:

Rondane National Park, the first national park in Norway, was established.