1962

Years :	1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965
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:
Arts
Architecture - Art - Film - Literature - Music - Television
Science and technology
Archaeology - Aviation - Meteorology - Rail transport - Radio - Science
By country
Australia - Canada - India - Ireland - Mexico - South Africa
Other topics
Awards - Sport - Law - State leaders - Religious leaders
Birth and death categories
Births - Deaths

1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar). In Chinese Zodiac, the "year" of the Ox ended on February 4, 1962 and the "year" of the Tiger began on February 5, 1962.

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Events

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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 "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 (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 11 - Volcano erupts in the Peruvian Andes and causes an avalanche that buries 3000
January 12 - Indonesian army confirms that it has began operations in West Irian
January 13 - Albania allies itself with the People's Republic of China
January 16 - Military coup in the Dominican Republic
January 19 - Counter-coup in the Dominican Republic - old government returns except for the new president Rafael Bonnely
January 22 - The Organization of American States (OAS) suspends Cuba's membership
January 24 - East German government readopts conscription
January 24 - OAS bomb in French foreign ministry
January 26 - Mafioso Lucky Luciano dies at the Naples Airport
January 26 - Ranger 3 is launched to study the moon. The space probe later missed the moon by 22,000 miles
January 27 - 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 seven-person pyramid collapsed during a performance in Detroit, Michigan

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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 6 - Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose is born.
February 7 - The United States Government bans all US-related Cuban imports and exports
February 9 - Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation opens
February 10 - 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 re-elected president of Finland
February 16/February 17 - Heavy storm flood on Germany's North Sea coast, mainly around Hamburg, more than 300 people die, thousands losing their homes
February 17 - Flooding in North Sea coasts
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
February 23 - 12 European countries form European Space Agency

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March

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 8-12 - In Geneva, France and Algerian FLN begin negotiations
March 15 - Katangan prime minister Moise Tshombe begins negotiations to rejoin Congo
March 19 - Armistice begins in Algeria
March 18 - France and Algeria sign an agreement in Evian ending the Algerian War. See Évian 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
March 24 - OAS leader Edmond Jouahud arrested in Oran
March 26 - France shortens the term for military service from 26 months to 18

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April

April 3 - Nehru elected de facto prime minister of India
April 4 - James Hanratty is hanged in Bedford Gaol for A6 murder - many believe he was innocent
April 6 - Belgium reforms diplomatic relations with Congo
April 7 - Author Milovan Djilas arrested in Yugoslavia
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 is played at Dodger Stadium.
April 13 - OAS leader Edmond Jouhaud sentenced to death in France
April 14 - Cuban military tribunal convicts 1179 Bay of Pigs attackers
April 18 - Commonweath 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 arrested in Algiers
April 21 - Seattle's Century 21 World's Fair opened.
April 26 - The Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon

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May

May 2 - OAS bomb explodes in Algeria - this and other attacks kill 110 and injure 147
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 - In Olima, Peru, unpopular referee ruling in a Peru-Argentina soccer match leads to riot and panic - 300 dead, over 500 injured
May 24 - Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule
May 25 - Consecration of the new Coventry cathedral
May 29 - Negotiations between OAS ja FLA lead to real armistice
May 31 - Adolf Eichmann hanged in Israel

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June

June 3 - An air crash at Orly Airport in Paris - 130 dead, two stewardesses survive
June 11 - President John F. Kennedy, gives commencement address at Yale University.
June 11 - Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin become the only prisoners to apparently successfully escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island. There is no conclusive evidence that they survived the attempt.
June 15 - Students for a Democratic Society complete the Port Huron Statement
June 17 – OAS signs a truce with FLN in Algeria but a day later announces that it will continue the fight for French Algeria
June 17 - Brazil beat Czechoslovakia 3-1 to win the 1962 World Cup
June 25 - The United States Supreme Court rules in Engel v. Vitale that prayers in public schools are unconstitutional
June 26 - Two-day steel strike begins in Italy in support of increased wages and 5-day working week
June 30 - Last soldiers of the French Foreign Legion leave Algeria

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July

July 1 - Independence of Rwanda and Burundi
July 1 – Supporters of Algerian independence win 99% majority in referendum
July 1 - Another heavy smog over London
July 2 - Charles De Gaulle accepts Algerian independence - France recognizes it the next day
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 talk show in the world
July 10 - AT&T's Telstar, the world's first commercial communications satellite, is launched into orbit - it is 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 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 20 - French and Tunisia reform diplomatic relations
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
July 31 - Crowd assaults the rally of the right-wing Union Movement of Sir Oswald Mosley in London

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August

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 5 - South African government arrests Nelson Mandela in Howick and charges him with incinement to rebellion
August 15 - The Netherlands recognizes that Irian Jaya is part of Indonesia
August 16 - 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 20 - Actor James Marsters is born.
August 22 - Failed assassination attempt against Charles De Gaulle
August 23 - John Lennon secretly marries Cynthia Powell
August 24 - Group of armed Cuban refugee fire at hotel in Havana from a speedboat
August 27 - NASA launches the Mariner 2 space probe
August 31 - Trinidad and Tobago become independent

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September

September 1 - Referendum in Singapore supports Malayan Federation
September 1 - Typhoon Wanda strikes Hong Kong, at least 130 died and more than 600 were wounded.
September 2 - Soviet Union agrees to send arms to Cuba
September 8 - Newly independent Algeria, by referendum, adopts a Constitution.
September 12 - President John F. Kennedy declares the USA will get a man on the moon by the end of the decade
September 16 - Malaysia formed with Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak, and North Borneo
September 21 - Border conflict between China and India erupts into fighting
September 21 - New Musical Express, a British music magazine, publishes a story about two 13 year old schoolgirls, Sue and Mary, releasing a disc on Decca, adding, “A Liverpool group, The Beatles, have recorded 'Love Me Do' for Parlophone, set for October 5 release.”
September 26 - Civil war erupts in Yemen
September 27 - Flash flood in Barcelona, Spain kills more than 440.
September 27 - Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring 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 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

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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 8 - Algeria is accepted into United Nations
October 9 - Uganda becomes independent within the Commonwealth of Nations
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 (270 km/h); 46 dead, 11 billion board feet (26 million m³) 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

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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 27 - Charles De Gaulle tells Georges Pompidou to form a government
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

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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 - In Brunei sheik Azaharin rebels - it lasts only one day
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
December 19 - The last foreign-occupied territory of India, Daman and Diu integrated into India
December 22 - "Big Freeze" in Britain - no frost-free nights until March 5 1963
December 24 - Cuba releases last of the 1113 participants of the Bay of Pigs Invasion to USA in exchange of food worth $53 million
December 30 - United Nations troops occupy the last rebel positions in Katanga; Moise Tshombe moves to South Rhodesia

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Unknown dates

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.