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.

Thursday 16:

The Beatles fire drummer Pete Best and replace him with Ringo Starr.

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

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.

Friday 31:

Trinidad and Tobago become independent.