What Happened in 1962 — Events, Births & Deaths

Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.

Apollo program: NASA announces plans to build the C-5 rocket launch vehicle, then known as the "Advanced Saturn", to carry human beings to the Moon.

Cold War: While tied to its pier in Polyarny, the Soviet submarine B-37 is destroyed when fire breaks out in its torpedo compartment.

An avalanche on Huascarán in Peru causes around 4,000 deaths.

Vietnam War: Operation Chopper, the first American combat mission and first American helicopter assault in the war, takes place.

The Derveni papyrus, Europe's oldest surviving manuscript dating to 340 BC, is found in northern Greece.

Netherlands New Guinea Conflict: Indonesian Navy fast patrol boat RI Macan Tutul commanded by Commodore Yos Sudarso sunk in Arafura Sea by the Dutch Navy.

Ranger 3 is launched to study the Moon. The space probe later misses the Moon by 22,000 miles (35,400 km).

French President Charles de Gaulle calls for Algeria to be granted independence.

The United States bans all Cuban imports and exports.

Nine protestors are killed at Charonne station, Paris, by French police under the command of ex-Vichy official and Parisian Prefect of Police Maurice Papon.

Cold War: Captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.

The Great Sheffield Gale impacts the United Kingdom, killing nine people; the city of Sheffield is devastated, with 150,000 homes damaged.

Flooding in the coastal areas of West Germany kills 315 and destroys the homes of about 60,000 people.

Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth, making three orbits in four hours, 55 minutes.

Vietnam War: Two dissident Republic of Vietnam Air Force pilots bomb the Independence Palace in Saigon in a failed attempt to assassinate South Vietnam President Ngô Đình Diệm.

American Airlines Flight 1 crashes into Jamaica Bay in New York, killing 95.

In Burma, the army led by General Ne Win seizes power in a coup d'état.

Wilt Chamberlain sets the single-game scoring record in the National Basketball Association by scoring 100 points.

A Caledonian Airways Douglas DC-7 crashes shortly after takeoff from Cameroon, killing 111 – the worst crash of a DC-7.

A Turkish Airlines Fokker F27 Friendship crashes into Mount Medetsiz in the Taurus Mountains of Turkey, killing all 11 people on board.

Flying Tiger Line Flight 739 disappears in the western Pacific Ocean with all 107 aboard missing and presumed dead.

A Clockwork Orange, a British dystopian novel by Anthony Burgess, is published.

The Évian Accords end the Algerian War of Independence, which had begun in 1954.

The Algerian War of Independence ends.

Arturo Frondizi, the president of Argentina, is overthrown in a military coup by Argentina's armed forces, ending an 11+1⁄2 day constitutional crisis.

The Seattle World's Fair (Century 21 Exposition) opens. It is the first World's Fair in the United States since World War II.

NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.

The British space programme launches its first satellite, the Ariel 1.

Marvel Comics publishes the first issue of The Incredible Hulk.

The French government and representatives of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic reach a settlement to end the Algerian war in the Évian Accords.

A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison Square Garden, New York City. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe's rendition of "Happy Birthday".

Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashes in Unionville, Missouri after bombs explode on board, killing 45.

Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.

The Centralia mine fire is ignited in the town's landfill above a coal mine.

The Soviet Kosmos 5 satellite is launched.

Chinese police open fire on protesters in Yining, Xinjiang, killing at least five people and wounding a dozen others.

The West Indies Federation dissolves.

Adolf Eichmann, former SS officer in Nazi Germany, is hanged in Israel for having committed crimes against humanity, war crimes, and other offenses.

During the FIFA World Cup, police intervene multiple times in fights between Chilean and Italian players in one of the most violent games in football history.

At Paris Orly Airport, Air France Flight 007 overruns the runway and explodes when the crew attempts to abort takeoff, killing 130.

The Organisation Armée Secrète (OAS) sets fire to the University of Algiers library building, destroying about 500,000 books.

Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin allegedly become the only prisoners to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island.

The European Space Research Organisation is established in Paris – later becoming the European Space Agency.

Air France Flight 117 crashes on approach to Pointe-à-Pitre International Airport in Guadeloupe, killing 112 people.

Independence of Rwanda and Burundi.

The official independence of Algeria is proclaimed after an eight-year-long war with France.

As a part of Operation Plowshare, the Sedan nuclear test takes place.

The Late Late Show, the world's longest-running chat show by the same broadcaster, airs on RTÉ One for the first time.

Alitalia Flight 771 crashes in Junnar, Maharashtra, India, killing 94 people.

Ne Win besieges and blows up the Rangoon University Student Union building to crush the Student Movement.

Starfish Prime tests the effects of a nuclear explosion at orbital altitudes.

Telstar, the world's first communications satellite, is launched into orbit.

First transatlantic satellite television transmission.

Project Apollo: At a press conference, NASA announces lunar orbit rendezvous as the means to land astronauts on the Moon, and return them to Earth.

In an unprecedented action, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan dismisses seven members of his Cabinet, marking the effective end of the National Liberals as a distinct force within British politics.

Nuclear weapons testing: The "Small Boy" test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada National Security Site.

Mariner program: Mariner 1 spacecraft flies erratically several minutes after launch and has to be destroyed.

Telstar relays the first publicly transmitted, live trans-Atlantic television program, featuring Walter Cronkite.

The International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos is signed.

Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Beginning of the 8th World Festival of Youth and Students.

The Trans-Canada Highway, the then-longest national highway in the world, is officially opened.

Apartheid: Nelson Mandela is jailed. He would not be released until 1990.

American actress Marilyn Monroe is found dead at her home from a drug overdose.

Jamaica becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

Canadian-born American pharmacologist Frances Oldham Kelsey is awarded the U.S. President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service for her refusal to authorize thalidomide.

Vostok 3 launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev becomes the first person to float in microgravity.

James Joseph Dresnok defects to North Korea after running across the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Dresnok died in 2016.

Peter Fechter is shot and bleeds to death while trying to cross the new Berlin Wall.

The NS Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered civilian ship, embarks on its maiden voyage.

The OAS attempts to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle.

The Mariner 2 unmanned space mission is launched to Venus by NASA.

Japan conducts a test of the NAMC YS-11, its first aircraft since World War II and its only successful commercial aircraft from before or after the war.

Trinidad and Tobago becomes independent.

The United States government begins the Exercise Spade Fork nuclear readiness drill.

Archaeologist Peter Marsden discovers the first of the Blackfriars Ships dating back to the second century AD in the Blackfriars area of the banks of the River Thames in London.

Last run of the famous Pines Express over the Somerset and Dorset Railway line (UK) fittingly using the last steam locomotive built by British Railways, BR Standard Class 9F 92220 Evening Star.

US President John F. Kennedy delivers his "We choose to go to the Moon" speech at Rice University.

An appeals court orders the University of Mississippi to admit James Meredith, the first African-American student admitted to the segregated university.

The Soviet ship Poltava heads toward Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Burundi, Jamaica, Rwanda and Trinidad and Tobago are admitted to the United Nations.

Aeroflot Flight 213 crashes into a mountain near Chersky Airport, killing 32 people.

James Meredith, an African American, is temporarily barred from entering the University of Mississippi.

Flying Tiger Line Flight 923, a Lockheed L-1049H Super Constellation registered as N6923C, ditches into the Atlantic Ocean killing 28 out the 76 occupants onboard. The remaining 48 were rescued six hours later.

The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria is formally proclaimed. Ferhat Abbas is elected President of the provisional government.

The North Yemen Civil War begins when Abdullah al-Sallal dethrones the newly crowned Imam al-Badr and declares Yemen a republic under his presidency.

The Yemen Arab Republic is established.

Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring is published, inspiring an environmental movement and the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Project Mercury: US astronaut Wally Schirra, in Sigma 7, is launched from Cape Canaveral for a six-orbit flight.

The first of the James Bond film series, based on the novels by Ian Fleming, Dr. No, is released in Britain.

The first Beatles single "Love Me Do" is released in Britain.

Der Spiegel publishes an article disclosing the sorry state of the Bundeswehr, leading to accusations of treason.

Uganda becomes an independent Commonwealth realm.

The Second Vatican Council becomes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years.

The Columbus Day Storm strikes the U.S. Pacific Northwest with record wind velocities. There was at least U.S. $230 million in damages and 46 people died.

The Cuban Missile Crisis begins when an American reconnaissance aircraft takes photographs of Soviet ballistic missiles being installed in Cuba.

Cuban Missile Crisis begins: U.S. President John F. Kennedy is informed of photos taken on October 14 by a U-2 showing nuclear missiles (the crisis will last for 13 days starting from this point).

China launches simultaneous offensives in Ladakh and across the McMahon Line, igniting the Sino-Indian War.

Cuban Missile Crisis: President Kennedy, after internal counsel from Dwight D. Eisenhower, announces that American reconnaissance planes have discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he has ordered a naval "quarantine" of the Communist nation.

Cuban Missile Crisis: Adlai Stevenson shows the United Nations Security Council reconnaissance photographs of Soviet ballistic missiles in Cuba.

Major Rudolf Anderson of the United States Air Force becomes the only direct human casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis when his U-2 reconnaissance airplane is shot down over Cuba by a Soviet-supplied surface-to-air missile.

By refusing to agree to the firing of a nuclear torpedo at a US warship, Vasily Arkhipov averts nuclear war.

The Cuban Missile Crisis ends and Premier Nikita Khrushchev orders the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba.

The United States concludes Operation Fishbowl, its final above-ground nuclear weapons testing series, in anticipation of the 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

Kuwait's National Assembly ratifies the Constitution of Kuwait.

President John F. Kennedy dedicates Washington Dulles International Airport, serving the Washington, D.C., region.

Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army declares a unilateral ceasefire in the Sino-Indian War.

Cold War: The West Berlin branch of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany forms a separate party, the Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin.

The influential British satirical television programme That Was the Week That Was is first broadcast.

Eastern Air Lines Flight 512 crashes at Idlewild Airport, killing 25 people.

Vietnam War: After a trip to Vietnam at the request of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield becomes the first American official to comment adversely on the war's progress.

Prince Rainier III of Monaco revises the principality's constitution, devolving some of his power to advisory and legislative councils.

Workers at four New York City newspapers (this later increases to nine) go on strike for 114 days.

Arthur Lucas, convicted of murder, is the last person to be executed in Canada.

NASA launches Relay 1, the first active repeater communications satellite in orbit.

NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.

The Soviet Union conducts its final above-ground nuclear weapon test, in anticipation of the 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

Yves Klein, French painter (born 1928)

Tom Phillis, Australian motorcycle racer (born 1934)