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.

Monday 08:

Harmelen train disaster.

Thursday 11:

Eruption of the Huascaran volcano in Peru; 4,000 deaths.

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.

Wednesday 07:

The United States Government bans all US-related Cuban imports and exports.

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.

Tuesday 20:

Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn orbits the earth three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes, becoming the first American to orbit the earth.

March 1962

Thursday 01:

American Airlines Flight 1 crashes on take off in New York.

Friday 02:

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

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 12:

Douglas MacArthur delivers his famous "Duty, Honor, Country" valedictory speech at West Point.

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.

June 1962

Wednesday 06:

The Beatles audition for EMI Records.

Thursday 14:

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

Friday 15:

Students for a Democratic Society complete the Port Huron Statement.

Saturday 16:

1962 - Two U.S. Army officers are killed in Saigon,Vietnam.

Friday 22:

An Air France Boeing 707 jet crashes in bad weather in Guadeloupe, West Indies killing 113

July 1962

Sunday 01:

1962 - Independence of Burundi.

Tuesday 03:

The Algerian War of Independence against the French ends

Wednesday 11:

First transatlantic satellite television transmission.

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

Sunday 05:

Film actress and sex icon, Marilyn Monroe is found dead in her Los Angeles, California home after apparently overdosing on sleeping pills.

Monday 06:

Jamaica becomes independent.

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

Wednesday 22:

The NS Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered ship, completes its maiden voyage

September 1962

Saturday 01:

Channel Television launches to 54,000 households in the Channel Islands.

Tuesday 11:

The Beatles record their debut single, Love Me Do.

Saturday 15:

The Soviet ship Poltava heads toward Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Monday 24:

United States court of appeals orders the University of Mississippi to admit James Meredith.

Tuesday 25:

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

October 1962

Tuesday 02:

Johnny Carson debuts as host of The Tonight Show.

Wednesday 03:

At Cape Canaveral the Mercury 8 blasts off with Astronaut Wally Schirra aboard for a nine-hour flight.

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.

Sunday 28:

Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he had ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases 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.

Tuesday 06:

Apartheid: The United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies and calls for all UN member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation.

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 18:

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

Saturday 24:

The West Berlin branch of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany forms a separate party, the Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin.

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.

Friday 07:

Prince Rainier III of Monaco revises the principality's constitution, devolving some of his power to advisory and legislative councils.

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.