1962: Encyclopedia II - 1962 - Events

1962 - Events

1962 - 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 goverment 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

1962 - 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 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

1962 - 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

1962 - 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 British Commonwealth
• April 20 - OAS leader Raoul Salan arrested in Algiers
• April 26 - The Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon

1962 - 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

1962 - 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

1962 - 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

1962 - 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 - Netherlands recognizes that Irian Java 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 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

1962 - 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

1962 - 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 British 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 (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

1962 - 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

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Events", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki