1962

Sino-Indian War border dispute involving two of the world's largest nations (between India and China).
January 1 - Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand.
January 3 - Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.
January 4 - New York City introduces a train that operates without a crew on-board.
January 8 - Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time (National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC).
January 11 - Eruption of the volcano Huascaran in Peru; 4000 deaths.
January 22 - The Organization of American States (OAS) suspends Cuba's membership.
January 26 - Ranger 3 is launched to study the moon. The space probe later missed the moon by 22,000 miles.
January 30 - Two of the high-wire "Flying Wallendas" are killed when their famous seven-person pyramid collapsed during a performance in Detroit, Michigan.
February 7 - The United States Government bans all US-related Cuban imports and exports.
February 14 - First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes television viewers on a tour of the White House.
February 2 - For the first time in 400 years Neptune and Pluto align.
February 5 - French President Charles De Gaulle calls for allowing Algeria to be an independent nation.
February 10 - Captured American spy pilot Francis Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.
February 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 1 - Uganda becomes self-governing.
March 18 - France and Algeria sign an agreement ending the Algerian War.
April 26 - The Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
May 23 - Drilling for new Montreal, Quebec subway commences
May 24 - Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.
July 1 - Independence of Rwanda and Burundi.
July 5 - Algeria becomes independent from France.
July 10 - Telstar, the world's first communications satellite, is launched into orbit.
July 17 - Nuclear testing: The "Small Boy" test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada Test Site.
July 22 - Mariner program: 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.
August 5 - Film actress and sex icon, Marilyn Monroe is found dead in her Los Angeles, California home after apparently overdosing on sleeping pills.
August 6 - Jamaica becomes independent.
August 17 - East German border guards kill 18-year-old Peter Fechter as he attempts to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin.
September 12 - President John F. Kennedy declares the USA will get a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
October - Cuban missile crisis.
October 1 - The first black student James Meredith registers in University of Mississippi escorted by Federal marshals.
October 11 - Second Vatican Council: Pope John XXIII convenes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years.
October 13 - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf opens on Broadway.
October 14 - Cuban Missile Crisis begins: A U-2 flight over Cuba takes photos of Soviet nuclear weapons being installed. A stand-off then ensues the next day between the United States and the Soviet Union, putting the entire world under threat of a nuclear war.
October 28 - Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he had ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.
December 8 - Closing of first period of Second Vatican Council.
November 6 - 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.
November 7 - 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".
Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring released, giving rise to the modern environmentalist movement.
Completion of Coventry cathedral.
American ad man Martin K. Speckter invents the interrobang, a new English-language punctuation mark

Year in topic

1962 in film
- Lawrence of Arabia
- The Longest Day
- To Kill a Mockingbird, starring Gregory Peck
- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance starring Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne
- How the West Was Won, starring Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck, John Wayne, George Peppard, Debbie Reynolds
- Hatari starring John Wayne
1962 in literature
- Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor
- Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
1962 in music
- Release of first Beatles recording: the single "Love Me Do"/"P.S. I Love You" on October 5 (in the United Kingdom only)
1962 in sports
1962 in television
- March 16 - Walter Cronkite succeeds Douglas Edwards as anchorman of the CBS Evening News.
- Les Crane and Regis Philbin host The Tonight Show for a short time, until Johnny Carson took over later in the year.

Births

January 17 - Jim Carrey, actor, comedian.
February 7 - Eddie Izzard, British comedian.
February 4 - Clint Black, country musician.
February 6 - Axl Rose, musician ("Guns N'Roses").
February 7 - Garth Brooks, country music star.
February 7 - Eddie Izzard, actor, comic.
February 10 - Bobby Czyz, boxer.
February 11 - Sheryl Crow, American singer.
February 11 - Scott Kolden, actor.
February 17 - Lou Diamond Phillips, actor.
February 21 - David Foster Wallace, American writer.
February 22 - Steve Irwin, Australian herpetologist and TV personality (The Crocodile Hunter).
February 24 - Michelle Shocked, musician.
March 2 - Jon Bon Jovi, singer, songwriter, and actor.
March 3 - Jackie Joyner-Kersee, athlete.
March 12 - Darryl Strawberry, baseball player.
March 15 - Terence Trent D'Arby, singer.
March 21 - Rosie O'Donnell, comedian, actress, talk show host, publisher.
March 21 - Matthew Broderick, actor.
March 26 - John Stockton, former basketball player, all-time NBA leader in assists and steals.
April 15 - Nawal El Moutawakel, Moroccan hurdler.
May 12 - Emilio Estevez, actor
May 26 - Bobcat Goldthwait, actor, comedian
July 8 - Rob Burnett, former head writer for David Letterman.
August 4 - Roger Clemens, baseball pitcher, six-time Cy Young Award winner
August 6 - Michelle Yeoh, actress
September 24 - Christopher Zadow.
September 24 - Roy Larke.
September 26 - Melissa Sue Anderson, actress.
October 1 - Esai Morales, actor.
November 19 - Jodie Foster, actress and director.
November 21 - Steven Curtis Chapman, contemporary Christian music star.
November 30 - Daniel Keys Moran, science fiction writer.

Deaths

January 13 - Ernie Kovacs, comedian.
January 20 - Robinson Jeffers, poet.
January 24 - André Lhote, french painter
February 17 - Bruno Walter, conductor.
March 24 - Auguste Piccard, physicist and explorer.
May 31 - Adolf Eichmann, Nazi official (executed).
July 6 - William Faulkner, American novelist.
August - Marylin Monroe, American actress
August 9 - Hermann Hesse, author.
August 15 - Lei Feng, eminent PLA Soldier.
September 3 - E. E. Cummings, poet
September 6 - Hanns Eisler, composer
October 9 - Milan Vidmar, Slovene electrical engineer and chess player.
November 18 - Niels Bohr, Danish physicist.
December 24 - Wilhelm Ackermann, mathematician
December 28 - Michel Petrucianni, french jazzman

Nobel Prizes

Physics - Lev Davidovich Landau
Chemistry - Max Ferdinand Perutz, John Cowdery Kendrew
Medicine - Francis Harry Compton Crick, James Dewey Watson, Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins
Literature - John Steinbeck
Peace - Linus Carl Pauling

Encyclopedia Home Page

1962

Events

Year in topic

Births

Deaths

Nobel Prizes