1962 - What happened in 1962 ?

January 1962

Thursday 04:

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

Thursday 11:

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

Monday 22:

The Organization of American States (OAS) suspends Cuba's membership.

Wednesday 24:

Brian Epstein signs to manage The Beatles.

Tuesday 30:

Two of the high-wire Flying Wallendas are killed when their famous seven-person pyramid collapses during a performance in Detroit, Michigan.

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

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.

Friday 16:

A Flying Tiger Line Super Constellation disappears in the western Pacific Ocean, with 107 people missing.

Monday 19:

Algerian War of Independence: A ceasefire takes effect.

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.

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.

Sunday 22:

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

Monday 23:

Telstar relays the first live trans-Atlantic television signal.

August 1962

Monday 06:

Jamaica becomes independent.

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

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.

Thursday 20:

James Meredith, an African-American, is barred from entering the University of Mississippi.

Monday 24:

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

October 1962

Wednesday 03:

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

Sunday 07:

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

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

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.

Wednesday 21:

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

Friday 30:

The United Nations General Assembly elects U Thant of Burma as the new UN Secretary-General.

December 1962

Friday 07:

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

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.