1962

1962 was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January

• 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 5 - The first record by The Beatles is released by Deutsche Grammophon
• 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 9 - Trade pact between Cuba and the Soviet Union
• January 10 - Avalanche on Nevado Huascarán in Peru; 4000 deaths
• January 13 - Albania allies itself with the People's Republic of China
• 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

• February 2 - For the first time in 400 years Neptune and Pluto align
• February 3 - US announces its trade embargo with Cuba
• February 4 - The Sunday Times becomes the first paper to print a colour supplement
• February 4 - Latin American Gnostic master Samael Aun Weor declares the advent of the New Age of Aquarius
• February 5 - French President Charles De Gaulle calls for allowing Algeria to be an independent nation
• February 7 - The United States Government bans all US-related Cuban imports and exports
• February 9 - Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation opened
• February 14 - First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes television viewers on a tour of the White House
• February 10 - Captured American spy pilot Francis Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel
• 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 16-17 - Heavy storm flood on Germany's North Sea coast, mainly around Hamburg, more than 300 people die, thousands loosing their homes
• 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-April

• March 1 - An American Airlines Boeing 707 crashes on takeoff at New York International Airport after its rudder separates from the tail, with loss of all life on board
• March 2 - Military coup in Burma
• March 8 - In Geneva, France and Algerian FLN begin negotiations
• March 18 - France and Algeria sign an agreement in Evian ending the Algerian War. See Evian Accords.
• March 19 - Armistice in Algeria - however, Organisation de l'armée secrète continues its terrorist attacks against Algerians
• March 23 - Scandinavian States of Nordic Council sign Helsinki Convention on Nordic Co-operation
• April 4 - James Hanratty is hanged in Bedford Gaol for A6 murder - many believe he was innocent
• April 8 - In France, the Évian Accords are adopted in a referendum with a majority of 90%.
• April 10 - In Los Angeles, the first game at Dodger Stadium is played.
• April 26 - The Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon

May-June

• May 2 - Bomb explodes in Algeria - 110 dead
• May 5 - 12 East Germans escape via a tunnel under the Berlin Wall
• May 14 - Juan Carlos marries the Greek Princess Sophia in Athens
• May 14 - Milovan Djilas, former vice-president of Yugoslavia, is given further sentence for publishing Conversations with Stalin
• May 23 - Drilling for new Montreal, Quebec subway commences
• May 23 - Founder of the French terrorist Organisation de l'armée secrète, Raoul Salan, is sentenced to life imprisonment in France
• May 24 - Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule
• May 25 - Consecration of the new Coventry cathedral
• May 31 - Adolf Eichmann hanged in Israel
• June 3 - An air crash at Orly Airport in Paris - 130 dead, two stewardesses survive
• June 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.
• June 15 - Students for a Democratic Society complete the Port Huron Statement
• June 17 – OAS signs a truce with FLN in Algeria
• June 25 - The Supreme Court rules in Engel v. Vitale that prayers in public schools are unconstitutional

July

• July 1 - Independence of Rwanda and Burundi
• July 1 – Supporters of Algerian independence win in referendum
• July 1 - Another heavy smog over London
• July 5 - Algeria becomes independent from France.
• July 6 - Irish broadcaster, Gay Byrne, presents his first edition of The Late Late Show. Byrne would go on to present the show for 37 years making it the longest running chat show in the world
• July 10 - AT&T's Telstar, the world's first commercial communications satellite, is launched into orbit
• July 13 - in what the press dubs "the Night of the Long Knives" United Kingdom Prime Minister Harold Macmillan dismisses one-third 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 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
• July 28 - Locust swarm threatens Delhi
• July 31 - Algeria proclaims independence; Ahmed Ben Bella is the first President

August-September

• 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
• August 23 - John Lennon secretly marries Cynthia Powell
• August 27 - NASA launches the Mariner 2 space probe
• August 31 - Trinidad and Tobago become independent
• September 2 - Soviet Union agrees to send arms to Cuba
• September 12 - President John F. Kennedy declares the USA will get a man on the moon by the end of the decade
• September 26 - Civil war erupts in Yemen
• September 29 - The Canadian Alouette 1, the first satellite built outside the United States and Soviet Union, is launched from Vandenberg AFB in California

October

• October 1 - The first black student James Meredith registers in University of Mississippi escorted by Federal marshals
• October 5 - French National Assembly censures the proposed referendum to sanction presidential elections by popular mandate; prime minister Georges Pompidou resigns, but President de Gaulle asks him to stay in office
• October 8 - German Der Spiegel magazine publishes an article about Bundeswehr's bad preparedness - Spiegel scandal erupts
• October 9 - Uganda becomes independent within the Commonwealth
• October 10 - Der Spiegel publishes an article on a NATO exercise criticizing the weakness of the West German army (the offices of the paper are occupied by the police on the 16th)
• October 11 - Second Vatican Council: Pope John XXIII convenes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years
• October 12 - Infamous Columbus Day Storm strikes the U. S. Pacific Northwest with wind gusts up to 170 mph; 46 dead, 11 billion board feet of timber blown down, $230 million U.S. in damages
• 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 26 - Spiegel scandal - German police occupies Der Spiegel offices in Hamburg
• October 28 - Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he had ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba
• October 28 - a referendum in France favours the election of the president by universal suffrage
• October 31 - the UN General Assembly requests the United Kingdom to suspend enforcement of the new constitution in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), but the constitution comes into effect on November 1

November

• November 1 – Soviets begins dismantling their missiles in Cuba
• November 5 - Franz Josef Strauß, the West German defence minister, is relieved of his duties over the Spiegel affair because it is alleged that he was involved in police action against the magazine
• November 5 - Saudi Arabia breaks off diplomatic relations with Egypt following a period of unrest partly caused by the defection of several Saudi princes to Egypt
• November 5 - A coal mining disaster in Ny-Ålesund kills 21 people. The Norwegian government is forced to resign in the aftermath of this accident in August, 1963
• 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"
• November 17 - In Washington, DC, US President John F. Kennedy dedicates Dulles International Airport
• November 20 - Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, US President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation.
• November 26 - Spiegel scandal - German police ends its occupation of Der Spiegel offices
• November 29 - An agreement is signed between Britain and France to develop the Concorde supersonic airliner
• November 30 - The United Nations General Assembly elects U Thant of Burma as the new UN Secretary-General

December

• December 2 - 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
• December 7 - Prince Rainier III of Monaco revises the principality's constitution, devolving some of his formerly autocratic power to several advisory and legislative councils.
• December 8 - Closing of first period of Second Vatican Council
• December 8 - North Kalimantan National Army revolts in Brunei – first stirrings of Indonesian Confrontation
• December 9 - Tanganyika (now Tanzania) becomes a republic within the Commonwealth, with Julius Nyerere as president
• December 11 - Formation in West Germany of coalition government of Christian Democrats, Christian Socialists, and Free Democrats
• December 14 - US spacecraft Mariner 2 flies by Venus, becoming the first probe to successfully transmit data from another planet
• December 19 - Britain acknowledges the right of Nyasaland (now Malawi) to secede from the Central African Federation
  • The last foreign occupied territories of India, Daman and Diu and Goa are freed from the Portuguese by the Indian Army
• December 22 - "Big Freeze" in Britain - no frost-free nights until March 5, 1963

unknown date

• Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring released, giving rise to the modern environmentalist movement
• Pantyhose becomes available for sale in U.S. department stores
• American ad man Martin K. Speckter invents the interrobang, a new English-language punctuation mark
• Sino-Indian War border dispute involving two of the world's largest nations (between India and the People's Republic of China)
• University of Szeged assumed the name of the great Hungarian poet, Attila József, who was a student here in the 1920s.

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 rail transport
  • January 8 - The Harmelen train disaster, the worst railway accident in the history of The Netherlands, results in 91 fatalities.
• 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-February

• January 5 - Joe Monzo, microtonal composer and tuning-theorist
• January 14 - Michael McCaul, American politician
• January 17 - Jim Carrey, actor, comedian
• January 18 - Jeff Yagher, American actor
• January 21 - Marie Trintignant, French actress (d. 2003)
• February 1 - Tomoyasu Hotei, Japanese rock guitarist
• February 4 - Clint Black, country musician
• February 5 - Jennifer Jason Leigh, actress
• February 6 - Axl Rose, singer ("Guns N'Roses")
• February 7 - Garth Brooks, country music musician
• February 7 - Eddie Izzard, British actor and comedian
• February 10 - Bobby Czyz, boxer
• February 10 - Cliff Burton, bassist for Metallica (d. 1986)
• February 11 - Sheryl Crow, American singer
• February 11 - Scott Kolden, actor
• February 17 - Lou Diamond Phillips, actor
• February 21 - Vanessa Feltz, British TV presenter
• February 21 - Chuck Palahniuk, author
• 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

• March 2 - Jon Bon Jovi, singer, songwriter, and actor
• March 3 - Jackie Joyner-Kersee, athlete
• March 3 - Herschel Walker, American football player
• March 6 - Patrick J. Tripeny, architect, and educator
• March 7 - Taylor Dayne, singer
• March 12 - Darryl Strawberry, baseball player
• March 15 - Terence Trent D'Arby, singer
• March 17 - Clare Grogan, Scottish actress and singer
• March 20 - Stephen Sommers, film director
• March 21 - Matthew Broderick, actor (WarGames, Ferris Bueller's Day Off)
• March 21 - Rosie O'Donnell, comedian, actress, talk show host, publisher (A League of Their Own, Harriet the Spy)
• March 23 - Steve Redgrave, five times Olympic gold-medallist
• March 26 - John Stockton, former basketball player, all-time NBA leader in assists and steals
• March 30 - MC Hammer, rapper

April-May

• April 2 - Mark Shulman, children's author
• April 7 - Alain Robert, world famous builderer
• April 10 - Steve Tasker, American football player
• April 11 - Vincent Gallo, actor
• April 12 - Art Alexakis, singer, musician (Everclear)
• April 15 - Nawal El Moutawakel, Moroccan hurdler
• April 16 - Ian MacKaye, musician
• April 19 - Al Unser, Jr., automobile racer, two-time Indianapolis 500 winner
• April 23 - John Hannah, Scottish actor
• May 3 - Anders Graneheim, Swedish bodybuilder
• May 9 - David Gahan, singer in Depeche Mode
• May 10 - David Fincher, film director
• May 12 - Emilio Estevez, actor
• May 17 - Lise Lyng Falkenberg, Danish writer
• May 20 - Mike Jeffries, American soccer coach
• May 24 - Gene Anthony Ray, actor (d. 2003)
• May 26 - Bobcat Goldthwait, actor, comedian
• May 27 - Ravi Shastri, Indian cricketer

June-August

• June 2 - Clyde Drexler, basketball player
• June 8 - Nick Rhodes, musician, Duran Duran
• June 10 - Gina Gershon, actress
• June 13 - Ally Sheedy, actress
• June 19 - Paula Abdul, dancer, choreographer and singer; American Idol judge
• June 29 - Amanda Donohoe, actress
• June 30 - Tony Fernandez, baseball player
• July 3 - Tom Cruise, actor
• July 8 - Rob Burnett, former head writer for David Letterman
• July 19 - Anthony Edwards, actor
• July 31 - Wesley Snipes, actor
• August 4 - Roger Clemens, baseball pitcher, six-time Cy Young Award winner
• August 5 - Patrick Ewing, former NBA star
• August 6 - Michelle Yeoh, actress
• August 9 - Kevin Mack, American football player
• August 20 - Sophie Aldred, British actress and television presenter
• August 24 - Craig Kilborn, talk show host
• August 25 - David Packer, American actor
• August 29 - Rebecca De Mornay, actress

September-October

• September 1 - Ruud Gullit, Dutch footballer
• September 5 - Peter Wingfield, Actor
• September 11 - Elizabeth Daily, actress
• September 15 - Earnest Byner, American football player
• September 17 - Baz Luhrmann, film director
• September 24 - Jack Dee, comedian
• September 25 - Aida Turturro, actress
• September 26 - Melissa Sue Anderson, actress
• September 26 - Tracey Thorn, singer
• September 28 - Grant Fuhr, hockey goalie
• October 1 - Esai Morales, actor
• October 3 - Tommy Lee Bass, Motley Crue drummer
• October 11 - Joan Cusack, actress and comedienne
• October 11 - Nicola Bryant, British actress
• October 13 - Kelly Preston, actress
• October 13 - Jerry Rice, NFL star, holds most league receiving records
• October 16 - Flea, bassist for Red Hot Chili Peppers and actor
• October 19 - Evander Holyfield, heavyweight boxer
• October 23 - Doug Flutie, American and Canadian Football star
• October 25 - Nick Hancock, British actor and television presenter
• October 26 - Cary Elwes, British actor (The Princess Bride)
• October 30 - Courtney Walsh, cricketer

November-December

• November 3 - Marilyn, British pop star and musician
• November 4 - Jeff Probst, American television personality
• November 11 - Demi Moore, actress
• November 17 - Mike Kidson, software producer
• November 19 - Jodie Foster, actress and director
• November 21 - Steven Curtis Chapman, contemporary Christian music star
• November 27 - Samantha Bond, British actress
• November 28 - Jon Stewart, actor, comedian
• November 29 - Andrew McCarthy, actor
• November 30 - Bo Jackson, American football and baseball star
• November 30 - Daniel Keys Moran, science fiction writer
• December 5 - José Cura, Argentine tenor
• December 9 - Felicity Huffman, actress (Magnolia, Sports Night, Desperate Housewives)
• December 12 - Tracy Austin, tennis champion
• December 22 - Ralph Fiennes, actor
• December 25 - Dean Cameron, American actor
• December 28 - Michel Petrucciani, French jazzman (d. 1999)
• December 30 - Alessandra Mussolini, Italian politician

Unknown Date

• Frank Wynne - Irish literary translator

Deaths

January-June

• January 13 - Ernie Kovacs, American comedian (b. 1919)
• January 20 - Robinson Jeffers, American poet (b. 1887)
• January 24 - André Lhote, French painter (b. 1885)
• January 26 - Lucky Luciano, American gangster (b. 1897)
• January 29 - Fritz Kreisler, Austrian violinist (b. 1875)
• February 5 - Jacques Ibert, French composer (b. 1890)
• February 10 - Eduard von Steiger, President of Switzerland (b. 1881)
• February 17 - Bruno Walter, German conductor (b. 1876)
• February 19 - Georgios Papanikolaou, inventor (b. 1883)
• March 15 - Arthur Compton, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)
• March 24 - Jean Goldkette, jazz musician (b. 1899)
• March 24 - Auguste Piccard, physicist and explorer (b. 1884)
• April 10 - Michael Curtiz, film director (b. 1886)
• April 13 - Culbert Olson, 29th Governor of California (b. 1876).
• May 27 - Egon Petri, classical pianist (b. 1881)
• May 31 - Adolf Eichmann, Nazi official (executed) (b. 1906)
• June 2 - Vita Sackville-West, landscape gardener (b. 1892)
• June 4 - Charles William Beebe, American oceanic pioneer (b. 1877)
• June 6 - Yves Klein, French painter (b. 1928)
• June 12 - John Ireland, English composer (b. 1879)
• June 13 - Eugène Aynsley Goossens, English composer (b. 1893)
• June 15 - Alfred Cortot, Swiss pianist (b. 1877)
• June 28 - Mickey Cochrane, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1903)

July-December

• July 6 - William Faulkner, American novelist (b. 1897)
• July 9 - Georges Bataille, French writer (b. 1897)
• July 12 - Roger Wolfe Kahn, band leader (b. 1907)
• July 20 - George Macaulay Trevelyan, English historian (b. 1876)
• August 5 - Marilyn Monroe, American actress (b. 1926)
• August 9 - Hermann Hesse, German author (b. 1877)
• August 15 - Lei Feng, Chinese soldier (b. 1940)
• September 3 - E. E. Cummings, American poet (b. 1894)
• September 6 - Hanns Eisler, composer (b. 1898)
• September 7 - Kirstin Flagstad, Norwegian soprano, (b. 1895)
• September 7 - Isak Dinesen, Danish writer (b. 1885)
• October 6 - Tod Browning, director (b. 1882)
• October 9 - Milan Vidmar, Slovene electrical engineer and chess player (b. 1885)
• October 27 - Enrico Mattei, Italian politician (b. 1906)
• November 7 - Eleanor Roosevelt, first lady (b. 1884)
• November 18 - Niels Bohr, Danish physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1885)
• November 28 - Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (b. 1880)
• November 29 - Erik Scavenius, Prime Minister of Denmark (b. 1877)
• December 15 - Charles Laughton, actor and director (b. 1899)
• December 20 - Emil Artin, mathematician (b. 1898)
• December 24 - Wilhelm Ackermann, mathematician (b. 1896)

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

Fields Medalists

• Lars Hörmander, John Milnor