1962

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Millennium: 2nd millennium
Centuries: 19th century – 20th century – 21st century
Decades: 1930s  1940s  1950s  – 1960s –  1970s  1980s  1990s
Years: 1959 1960 1961 – 1962 – 1963 1964 1965
1962 by topic
Subject: Archaeology – Architecture – Art – Aviation – Film – Literature (Poetry) – Meteorology – Music (Country) – Rail transport – Radio – Science – Spaceflight – Sports – Television – Video gaming
Countries: Australia – Canada – Ecuador – France – Germany – India – Ireland – Italy – Luxembourg – Malaysia – New Zealand – Norway – Pakistan – Philippines – Singapore – South Africa– Soviet Union – UK – USA – Zimbabwe
Leaders: Sovereign states – State leaders – Religious leaders – Law
Categories: Births – Deaths – Works – Introductions – Establishments – Disestablishments – Awards

1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar.

Events of 1962

January
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29 30 31

January

• January 1
  • Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand.
  • The United States Navy SEALs are activated. SEAL Team One is commissioned in the Pacific Fleet and SEAL Team Two in the Atlantic Fleet.
  • The Beatles have their first and only audition for Decca Records.
• January 2 – NAACP Executive Secretary Roy Wilkins praises U.S. President John F. Kennedy's "personal role" in advancing civil rights.
• January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.
• January 4 – New York City introduces a subway train that operates without a crew on board.
• January 5 – The Beatles' first record, "My Bonnie" with Tony Sheridan, is released by Polydor.
• January 8
  • Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C..

• • Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the worst Dutch rail disaster.
• January 9 – Cuba and the Soviet Union sign a trade pact.
• January 10 – An avalanche on Nevado Huascarán in Peru causes 4,000 deaths.
• January 12 – The Indonesian Army confirms that it has begun operations in West Irian.
• January 13 – Albania allies itself with the People's Republic of China.
• January 15 – Portugal abandons the U.N. General Assembly due to the debate over Angola.
• January 16 – A military coup occurs in the Dominican Republic.
• January 19 – A counter-coup occurs in the Dominican Republic; the old government returns except for the new president Rafael Filiberto Bonnelly.
• January 22 – The Organization of American States suspends Cuba's membership.
• January 24
  • The East German government readopts conscription.
  • The Organisation armée secrète (OAS) bombs the French Foreign Ministry.
• January 26 – Ranger 3 is launched to study the Moon; it later misses the Moon by 22,000 miles.
• January 27 – The Soviet government changes all place names honoring Molotov, Kaganovich and Georgi Malenkov.
• January 30 – Two of the high-wire "Flying Wallendas" are killed, when their famous 7-person pyramid collapses during a performance in Detroit, Michigan.

February
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19 20 21 22 23 24 25 
26 27 28

February

• February 3 – The United States embargo against Cuba is announced.
• February 4 – The Sunday Times becomes the first paper to print a colour supplement.
• February 4–5 – During a new moon and solar eclipse, an extremely rare grand conjunction of the classical planets occurs (it includes all 5 of the naked-eye planets plus the Sun and Moon), all of them within 16° of one another on the ecliptic.
• February 5 – French President Charles de Gaulle calls for Algeria to be granted independence.
• February 6 – Negotiations between U.S. Steel and the United States Department of Commerce begin.

• February 7
  • The United States Government bans all U.S.-related Cuban imports and exports.
  • A coal mine explosion in Saarland, West Germany kills 299.
• February 9 – The Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation opens.
• February 10 – Captured American spy pilot Francis Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel in Berlin.
• February 12 – Six members of the Committee of 100 of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament are found guilty of a breach of the Official Secrets Act.
• February 14 – First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes television viewers on a tour of the White House.
• February 15 – Urho Kekkonen is re-elected president of Finland.
• February 16 – Heavy storms flood Germany's North Sea coast, mainly around Hamburg; more than 300 people die, thousands lose their homes.
• February 20 – Project Mercury: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth, three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes.
• February 23 – Twelve European countries form the European Space Agency.

March
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12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25 
26 27 28 29 30 31

March

• March 1 – An American Airlines Boeing 707 crashes on takeoff at New York International Airport, after its rudder separates from the tail, with the loss of all life on board.
• March 2
  • A military coup in Burma brings General Ne Win to power.
  • Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points in a single NBA basketball game.
• March 7 – Ash Wednesday Storm: A snow storm batters the Mid-Atlantic.
• March 8–12 – In Geneva, France and the Algerian FLN begin negotiations.
• March 13 – Wilfred McCoy is born Lawton, Oklahoma.
• March 15 – Katangan Prime Minister Moise Tshombe begins negotiations to rejoin the Congo.
• March 18
  • Évian Accords: France and Algeria sign an agreement in Évian-les-Bains ending the Algerian War.
  • Un premier amour, sung by Isabelle Aubret (music by Claude-Henri Vic, text by Roland Stephane Valade), wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1962 for France.
• March 19 – An armistice begins in Algeria; however, the OAS continues its terrorist attacks against Algerians.
• March 23 – The Scandinavian States of the Nordic Council sign the Helsinki Convention on Nordic Co-operation.
• March 24 – OAS leader Edmond Jouahud is arrested in Oran.
• March 26
  • France shortens the term for military service from 26 months to 18.
  • Baker v. Carr: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that federal courts can order state legislatures to reapportion seats.

April
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1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 
23 24 25 26 27 28 29 
30

April

• April 3 – Jawaharlal Nehru is elected de facto Prime Minister of India.
• April 4 – James Hanratty is hanged in Bedford Gaol for the A6 murder; many believe he is innocent.
• April 6
  • Belgium reestablishes diplomatic relations with the Congo.
  • Leonard Bernstein causes controversy with his remarks before a concert featuring Glenn Gould with the New York Philharmonic.
• April 7 – Author Milovan Djilas is arrested in Yugoslavia.
• April 8 – In France, the Évian Accords are adopted in a referendum with a majority of 90%.
• April 9 – The 34th Academy Awards ceremony is held; West Side Story wins Best Picture.
• April 10 – In Los Angeles, California, the first MLB game is played at Dodger Stadium.
• April 13 – OAS leader Edmond Jouhaud is sentenced to death in France.
• April 14 – A Cuban military tribunal convicts 1,179 Bay of Pigs attackers.
• April 18 – The Commonwealth Immigration Bill in the United Kingdom removes free immigration from the citizens of member states of the Commonwealth of Nations.
• April 20 – OAS leader Raoul Salan is arrested in Algiers.
• April 21 – The Century 21 Exposition World's Fair opens in Seattle, Washington.
• April 26 – The Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.

May
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1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 
28 29 30 31

May

• May– The Hulk debuts with The Incredible Hulk #1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
• May 1
  • Norwich City wins the English League Cup, beating Rochdale in the final.
  • Dayton Hudson Corporation opens the first of its Target discount stores in Roseville, Minnesota.
• May 2 – An OAS bomb explodes in Algeria – this and other attacks kill 110 and injure 147.
• May 3 – 160 die in a triple-train disaster near Tokyo.
• May 5 – Twelve East Germans escape via a tunnel under the Berlin Wall.
• May 6 – Antonio Segni is elected President of the Italian Republic.
• May 14
  • Juan Carlos of Spain marries the Greek Princess Sophia in Athens.
  • Milovan Djilas, former vice-president of Yugoslavia, is given further sentence for publishing Conversations with Stalin.
• May 23
  • Drilling for the new Montreal subway commences.
  • Raoul Salan, founder of the French terrorist Organisation armée secrète, is sentenced to life imprisonment in France.
• May 24 – Project Mercury: Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth 3 times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.
• May 25 – The new Coventry Cathedral is consecrated in London.
• May 29 – Negotiations between the OAS and the FLA lead to a real armistice in Algeria.
• May 30 – The 1962 FIFA World Cup begins in Chile.

June

June
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4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 
25 26 27 28 29 30

• June 1 – Adolf Eichmann is hanged in Israel.
• June 3 – Air France charter flight Chateau de Sully, a Boeing 707, over-runs the runway at Orly Airport in Paris; 130 of 132 passengers are killed, 2 flight attendants survive. Most victims are cultural and civic leaders of Atlanta, Georgia.
• June 6 – President John F. Kennedy gives the commencement address at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
• June 11
  • President John F. Kennedy gives the commencement address at Yale University.
  • Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin become the only apparently successful escapees from the Alcatraz Island prison. There is no conclusive evidence that they survived the attempt.
• June 15 – Students for a Democratic Society complete the Port Huron Statement.
• June 17 – The OAS signs a truce with the FLN in Algeria, but a day later announces that it will continue the fight on behalf of French Algerians.
• June 17 – Brazil beats Czechoslovakia 3–1 to win the 1962 FIFA World Cup.
• June 22 – An Air France Boeing 707 jet crashes into terrain during bad weather in Guadeloupe, West Indies, killing all 113 on board. It is the airline's second fatal accident in just 3 weeks, and the third fatal 707 crash of the year.
• June 25
  • Engel v. Vitale: The United States Supreme Court rules that mandatory prayers in public schools are unconstitutional.
  • MANual Enterprises v. Day: The United States Supreme Court rules that photographs of nude men are not obscene, decriminalizing nude male pornographic magazines.
  • İsmet İnönü of CHP forms the new government of Turkey (27th government, coalition partners; YTP and CKMP)
• June 26
  • A 2-day steel strike begins in Italy, in support of increased wages and a 5-day working week.
  • John F. Kennedy delivers his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner"- speech.
• June 28 – The United Lutheran Church in America, Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, American Evangelical Lutheran Church, and Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church merge to form the Lutheran Church in America.
• June 30 – The last soldiers of the French Foreign Legion leave Algeria.

July

July
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1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 
23 24 25 26 27 28 29 
30 31

• July 1
  • Rwanda and Burundi gain independence.
  • Supporters of Algerian independence win 99% majority in a referendum.
  • A heavy smog develops over London.
  • Treaty of Nordic Cooperation of Helsinki (23 Mar 1962 signed) in force.
• July 2
  • Charles de Gaulle accepts Algerian independence; France recognizes it the next day.
  • The first Wal-Mart store opens for business in Rogers, Arkansas.
• July 5 – Algeria becomes independent from France.
• July 6 – Irish broadcaster Gay Byrne presents his first edition of The Late Late Show. Byrne goes on to present the talk show for 37 years, making it the longest running in the world.
• July 10 – AT&T's Telstar, the world's first commercial communications satellite, is launched into orbit, and activated the next day.
• July 12 – The Rolling Stones make their debut at London's Marquee Club, Number 165 Oxford Street, opening for Long John Baldry.
• July 13 – In what the press dubs the "the Night of the Long Knives", United Kingdom Prime Minister Harold Macmillan dismisses 1/3 of his Cabinet.
• July 17 – Nuclear testing: The "Small Boy" test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada Test Site.
• July 19 – The First Annual Swiss & Wielder Hoop and Stick Tournament is held.
• July 20 – France and Tunisia reestablish diplomatic relations.
• July 22 – Mariner program: The Mariner 1 spacecraft flies erratically several minutes after launch and has to be destroyed.
• July 23 – Telstar relays the first live trans-Atlantic television signal.
• July 28 – A locust swarm threatens New Delhi.
• July 31
  • Algeria proclaims independence; Ahmed Ben Bella is the first President.
  • A crowd assaults the rally of Sir Oswald Mosley's right-wing Union Movement in London.

August

August
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6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 
27 28 29 30 31

• August 4 – Marilyn Monroe accidentally overdoses on a mix of sedatives and Champagne a few hours before midnight.
• August 5 – The South African government arrests Nelson Mandela in Howick, and charges him with incitement to rebellion.
• August 6 – Jamaica becomes independent.
• August 10 – Marvel Comics publishes Amazing Fantasy #15, which features the superhero character of Spider-Man, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.
• August 15 – The New York Agreement is signed trading the West New Guinea colony to Indonesia.
• August 16
  • Beatles drummer Pete Best is fired and replaced by Ringo Starr.
  • Algeria joins the Arab League.
• August 17 – East German border guards kill 18-year-old Peter Fechter, as he attempts to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin.
• August 22 – A failed assassination attempt is made against French President Charles De Gaulle.
• August 23 – John Lennon secretly marries Cynthia Powell.
• August 24 – A group of armed Cuban exile terrorists fire at a hotel in Havana from a speedboat.
• August 27 – NASA launches the Mariner 2 space probe.
• August 31 – Trinidad and Tobago becomes independent.

September

September
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
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3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 
24 25 26 27 28 29 30

• September 1
  • A referendum in Singapore supports the Malayan Federation.
  • Typhoon Wanda strikes Hong Kong, killing at least 130 and wounding more than 600.
• September 2 – The Soviet Union agrees to send arms to Cuba.
• September 8 – Newly independent Algeria, by referendum, adopts a constitution.
• September 12 – President John F. Kennedy, at a speech at Rice University, reaffirms that the U.S. will put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
• September 21
  • A border conflict between China and India erupts into fighting.
  • New Musical Express, a British music magazine, publishes a story about two 13-year-old schoolgirls, Sue and Mary, releasing a disc on Decca and adds "A Liverpool group, The Beatles, have recorded 'Love Me Do' for Parlophone Records, set for October 5 release."
• September 25 – Sonny Liston and Floyd Patterson fight for the boxing world title.
• September 26 – Civil war erupts in Yemen.
• September 27
  • A flash flood in Barcelona, Spain, kills more than 440 people.
  • Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring is released, giving rise to the modern environmentalist movement.
• September 28 – Prime Minister Ahmed Ben Bella founds the first government in Algeria.
• September 29 – The Canadian Alouette 1, the first satellite built outside the United States and the Soviet Union, is launched from Vandenberg AFB in California.
• September 30 – CBS broadcasts the final episodes of Suspense and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, marking the end of the Golden Age of Radio.

October

October
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 
29 30 31