1962 in the United States

Events from the year 1962 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal government

President: John F. Kennedy
[Vice President of the United States|President of the United States|Vice President]: Lyndon B. Johnson
Chief Justice: Earl Warren
Speaker of the House of Representatives:
Senate Majority Leader: Mike Mansfield
Congress: 87th

Events

January

January 1
* The United States Navy SEALs are activated. SEAL Team One is commissioned in the Pacific Fleet and SEAL Team Two in the Atlantic Fleet.
* NBC introduces the "Laramie peacock" before a midnight showing of the series Laramie.
January 2 – NAACP Executive Secretary Roy Wilkins praises U.S. President John F. Kennedy's "personal role" in advancing civil rights.
January 4 – New York City Subway introduces a subway train that operates without a crew on board.
January 26 – Ranger 3 is launched to study the Moon. It is the third during the Ranger program. Ranger 3 later misses the Moon by 22,000 miles.
January 30 – Two of the high-wire "Flying Wallendas" are killed when their famous 7-person pyramid collapses during a performance in Detroit, Michigan.

February

February 3 – The United States embargo against Cuba is announced.
February 4 – Danny Thomas founds St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
February 6 – Negotiations between U.S. Steel and the United States Department of Commerce begin
February 7 – The Kennedy Government bans all U.S.-related imports from Cuba and exports to Cuba.
February 10 – Captured US spy pilot Francis Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel in Berlin.
February 14 – First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes television viewers on a tour of the White House.
February 20 – Project Mercury: while aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit Earth, three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes.

March

March 1 – American Airlines Flight 1, an American Airlines Boeing 707, crashes on takeoff at [John F. John F. Kennedy|Kennedy International Airport|New York International Airport], after its rudder separates from the tail, killing all 87 passengers and eight crew members aboard.
March 2 – Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points in a single NBA basketball game.
March 5–9 – Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962: One of the ten worst storms in the United States in the 20th century occurs, killing 40 people, injuring over 1,000, and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage in six states.
March 21 – The Taco Bell fast food restaurant chain is founded by Glen Bell, in Downey, California.
March 26 – Baker v. Carr: the U.S. Supreme Court rules that federal courts can order state legislatures to reapportion seats.

April

April 6 – Leonard Bernstein causes controversy with his remarks before a [New York Philharmonic New York Philharmonic concert of April 6, 1962|concert of April 6, 1962|concert] featuring Glenn Gould with the New York Philharmonic.
April 9 – The 34th Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Bob Hope, is held at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins' West Side Story wins ten awards, including Best Motion Picture and a joint Best Director win for Wise and Robbins. The film is tied for the most nominations with Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg; both receive 11.
April 10 – In Los Angeles, California, the first MLB game is played at Dodger Stadium.
April 14 – A Cuban military tribunal convicts 1,179 Bay of Pigs attackers.
April 16 – 20-year-old Bob Dylan premieres his song "Blowin' in the Wind", at Gerde's Folk City in Greenwich Village.
April 21 – The Century 21 Exposition World's Fair opens in Seattle, Washington, opening the Space Needle to the public for the first time.

May

May – Larry Allen Abshier becomes the first of six American defectors to North Korea.
May 1 – Dayton Hudson Corporation opens the first of its Target discount stores in Roseville, Minnesota.
May 24 – Project Mercury: Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth 3 times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.
May 25 – The Baltimore Steam Packet Company, the last overnight steamboat service in the U.S., goes out of business.
May 27 – The Centralia mine fire is ignited in Pennsylvania.

June

June 3 – Air France Flight 007, Boeing 707 Chateau de Sully on a charter flight carrying cultural and civic leaders of Atlanta, Georgia, overruns the runway at Orly Airport in Paris; 130 of 132 passengers are killed.
June 6 – President John F. Kennedy gives the commencement address at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
June 11 – President John F. Kennedy gives the commencement address at Yale University.
June 15 – Port Huron Statement completed.
June 25 – United States Supreme Court rulings:
*Engel v. Vitale: the court rules that mandatory prayers in public schools are unconstitutional.
*MANual Enterprises v. Day: the court rules that photographs of nude men are not obscene, decriminalizing nude male pornographic magazines.
June 28 – The United Lutheran Church in America, the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, the American Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church merge to form the Lutheran Church in America.

July

July 2 – The first Wal-Mart store opens for business in Rogers, Arkansas.
July 10 – AT&T's Telstar, the world's first commercial communications satellite, is launched into orbit and activated the next day.
July 17
* Nuclear testing: the "Small Boy" test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada Test Site.
* Robert M. White flies the X-15 to an altitude of 314,750 feet ( to qualify him for USAF Astronaut Wings becoming the first "winged" astronaut and one of a few who have flown into space without a conventional spacecraft.
July 22 – Mariner program: the Mariner 1 spacecraft flies erratically several minutes after launch and has to be destroyed.
July 23 – Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American to be inducted into the Baseball Museum And Hall Of Fame.

August

August 5 – Marilyn Monroe is found dead at age 36 from "acute barbiturate poisoning".
August 15 – The New York Agreement is signed trading the West New Guinea colony to Indonesia.
August 27 – NASA launches the Mariner 2 space probe.

September

September 12
* President John F. Kennedy, at a speech at Rice University featuring the words "We choose to go to the Moon", reaffirms that the U.S. will put a man on the Moon by the end of the decade.
* The first Kohl's department store opens in Brookfield, Wisconsin.
September 22 – Bob Dylan premieres his song "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
September 23 – Animated sitcom The Jetsons premieres on ABC.
September 25 – Sonny Liston knocks out Floyd Patterson two minutes into the first round of his fight for the boxing world title at Comiskey Park in Chicago.
September 29 – The Canadian Alouette 1, the first satellite built outside the United States and the Soviet Union, is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base 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.

October

October 1
*The first black student, James Meredith, registers at the university of Mississippi, escorted by Federal Marshals.
*Johnny Carson takes over as permanent host of NBC's The Tonight Show, a post he will hold for 30 years.
* Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance return to TV with The Lucy Show, two years after the end of I Love Lucy.
October 12
*Groove Phi Groove Social Fellowship Incorporated is founded at Morgan State College.
*The infamous Columbus Day Storm strikes the U.S. Pacific Northwest with wind gusts up to ; 46 are killed, of timber is blown down, with $230 million U.S. in damages.
*Jazz bassist/composer Charles Mingus presents a disastrous concert at Town Hall in New York City. It will gain a reputation as the worst moment of his career.
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, threatening the world with nuclear war.
October 16 – The New York Yankees defeat the San Francisco Giants 1–0 in Game 7 of the 1962 World Series.
October 22 – In a televised address, U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces to the nation the existence of Soviet missiles in Cuba.
October 27 – The British revue play Beyond the Fringe makes its Broadway debut.
October 28 – Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he has ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba. In a secret deal between Kennedy and Khrushchev, Kennedy agrees to the withdrawal of U.S. missiles from Turkey. The fact that this deal is not made public makes it look like the Soviets have backed down.

November

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, D.C., U.S. President John F. Kennedy dedicates Dulles International Airport.
November 20 – The 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.

December

December 2 – 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 make a non-optimistic public comment on the war's progress.
December 8 – The 1962 New York City newspaper strike begins, affecting all of the city's major newspapers; it lasts for 114 days.
December 9 - Petrified Forest National Park is established.
December 14 – U.S. spacecraft Mariner 2 flies by Venus, becoming the first probe to successfully transmit data from another planet.
December 24 – Cuba releases the last 1,113 participants in the Bay of Pigs Invasion to the U.S., in exchange for food worth $53 million.
December 30 – An unexpected storm buries Maine under five feet of snow, forcing the Bangor Daily News to miss a publication date for the first and only time in its history.

Undated

American advertising man Martin K. Speckter invents the interrobang, a new English-language punctuation mark.
La Grenouille French restaurant opens in midtown Manhattan.
Publication of Helen Gurley Brown's Sex and the Single Girl.

Ongoing

Births

January 4 – Peter Steele, singer-songwriter and bass player
January 5 – Suzy Amis Cameron, actress and model
January 6
*Michael Houser, singer-songwriter and guitarist
*Kevin Rosier, mixed martial artist and boxer
January 7 – Hallie Todd, actress, producer, and screenwriter
January 12 – Luna Vachon, American-Canadian professional wrestler
January 14 – Michael McCaul, lawyer and politician
January 17 – Denis O'Hare, actor
January 18 – Mike Lynch, cartoonist
January 19 – Cynthia Coffman, convicted murderer
January 21 – Brian Hildebrand, wrestler, referee and manager
January 24 – Stephen Gould, opera singer
January 25 – Christopher Coppola, film director and producer
January 26
* Malcom Gregory Scott, writer, activist, and AIDS survivor
* Anna LaCazio, singer
January 28 – Creflo Dollar, evangelist
January 30 – Mary Kay Letourneau, child rapist
January 31 – David Oliver, actor
February 2 – Michael T. Weiss, actor
February 4
* Clint Black, country musician, record producer, and actor
* Jim O'Heir, actor and comedian
February 5 – Jennifer Jason Leigh, actress
February 6 – Axl Rose, rock singer
February 7
* Garth Brooks, country singer-songwriter
* David Bryan, rock musician
* Guy Moon, composer
February 10 – Lisa Blunt Rochester, politician
February 11
* Tammy Baldwin, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin from 2013
* Sheryl Crow, musician and singer
February 22 – Lenda Murray, bodybuilder
February 23 – Frank Luntz, political consultant
March 2 – Jon Bon Jovi, American musician
March 3
* Jackie Joyner-Kersee, athlete
* Herschel Walker, American football player
March 7
* James Barnes, murderer
* Cathy Wood, serial killer
March 10
* Jasmine Guy, actress, director, singer and dancer
* Dan O'Shannon, television writer and producer
March 11
* Jeffrey Nordling, actor
* Barbara Alyn Woods, actress
March 12
*Chris Sanders, filmmaker, animator, and voice actor
* Titus Welliver, actor
March 15 – Jimmy Baio, actor
March 18
* Thomas Ian Griffith, actor, producer, screenwriter, musician and martial artist
* Mike Rowe, television personality and presenter
March 21
* Matthew Broderick, actor
* Rosie O'Donnell, comedian
March 24 – Star Jones, TV personality
March 26
* Chris Bailey, animator and film director
* John Stockton, basketball player
* Keith Diamond, actor and voice actor
March 30
* Mark Begich, U.S. Senator from Alaska from 2009 to 2015
* MC Hammer, rapper
* Bil Dwyer, stand-up comedian and game show host
March 31 – Stockton Rush, engineer, pilot, and businessman
April 2 – Clark Gregg, actor, director, and screenwriter
April 3 – Mike Ness, musician
April 4 – Melissa Hart (politician), lawyer and politician
April 6 – Steven Levitan, director, writer and producer
April 7 – Hugh O'Connor, actor, son of Carroll O'Connor
April 8 – Izzy Stradlin, guitarist
April 10
* Rick Florian, Christian musician and real estate agent
* Steve Tasker, American football player
April 14 – Laura Richardson, politician
April 15 – Tom Kane, voice actor
April 16
* Antony Blinken, 71st secretary of state
* Douglas Elmendorf, economist and politician
* Ian MacKaye, singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
* Jason Scheff, bassist
April 17 – Bill Kopp, actor, voice actor and animator
April 20
* Scott McGehee, film director and screenwriter
* Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf, comedian
April 21
* Craig Robinson, college basketball coach
* Carmen Osbahr, American-Mexican muppeteer
April 26
* Michael Damian, actor, recording artist and producer
* Debra Wilson, actress and comedian
April 28 – Scott La Rock, hip-hop DJ and producer
April 30 – Tom Fahn, voice actor
May 2 – Elizabeth Berridge, actress
May 5 – Robby Robbins, politician
May 7 – Robbie Knievel, motorcyclist and daredevil performer
May 12 – Emilio Estevez, actor, director, and writer
May 22 – Brian Pillman, pro wrestler
May 25 – Lionel James, American football player
May 28 – James Michael Tyler, actor
June 1 – Sherri Howard, Olympic athlete
June 3 – David Cole, DJ, producer and songwriter
June 5 – Jeff Garlin, comedian and actor
June 7
* Cecil Exum, basketball player
*Lance Reddick, actor
June 8 – Suzy Gorman, photographer
June 12 – Jodi Thelen, actress
June 13
* Ally Sheedy, actress
* Hannah Storm, television anchor and presenter
June 19 – Paula Abdul, musician and judge on American Idol
June 23
* Mark DeCarlo, actor
* Billy Wirth, actor, film producer and artist
June 24
* Keith Browner, American football player
* Sean Vincent Gillis, serial killer
* Andrew P. Gordon, judge
June 25 – Anthony Allen Shore, serial killer and child molester
June 28 – Don Chambers, newspaper comic strip artist
June 29 – Michael J. Juneau, jurist
June 30 – Deirdre Lovejoy, actress
July 1 – Andre Braugher, actor
July 2 – Doug Benson, comedian, marijuana rights advocate, television host and actor
July 3
* Tom Cruise, actor and film producer
* Thomas Gibson, actor
* Hunter Tylo, actress and author, previously model
July 4 - Pam Shriver, tennis player
July 5 – Jeff Innis, baseball player
July 7
* Tom Conroy, state legislator
* MC Jazzy Jeff, rapper
July 8 – Joan Osborne, singer-songwriter
July 9
July 12 – Dan Murphy, rock guitarist
July 13 – Tom Kenny, actor and comedian
July 14 – Jeff Olson, percussionist
July 15 – Glen Edward Rogers, serial killer
July 17 – Fred Wadsworth, professional golfer
July 18
* Lee Arenberg, actor
* Jack Irons, drummer
July 20 – Carlos Alazraqui, actor
July 22 – Steve Albini, musician and music producer
July 28 – Ray Shero, ice hockey executive
July 31 – Kevin Greene, footballer
August 4
* Roger Clemens, baseball player
* Jim Hagedorn, politician
August 8 – Jim Sweeney, footballer
August 10 – Suzanne Collins, author and television writer
August 16 – Steve Carell, comedian, actor, voice artist, producer, writer and director
August 17 – John Marshall Jones, actor
August 24 – Major Garrett, journalist and author
August 25 – Tommy Blacha, comedy writer
August 26 – Bob Mionske, cyclist and attorney
August 28
* Craig Anton, actor and comedian
* David Fincher, director and producer
August 31 – Dee Bradley Baker, voice actor
September 5 – Brian A. Joyce, politician
September 6 – Chris Christie, 55th Governor of New Jersey
September 8 – Miss Amy, musical fitness entertainer and songwriter
September 9 – Mark Linkous, singer, songwriter and musician
September 11 – Kristy McNichol, actress and singer
September 12 – Amy Yasbeck, actress
September 14 – Tom Kurvers, ice hockey player
September 15
* Dina Lohan, television personality
* Rebecca Miller, actress and director
September 17 – Don Rogers, American football player
September 26
* Gregory Crewdson, photographer
* Al Pitrelli, guitarist
September 27 – Norman Hutchins, gospel musician
October 1 – Esai Morales, actor
October 6 – Rich Yett, baseball player
October 11
* Joan Cusack, actress and comedian
* Leslie Landon, actress
October 12
* Chris Botti, trumpeter and composer
* Deborah Foreman, actress
October 13
* T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh, actress and comedian
* Kelly Preston, actress..
October 15 – Aron Ra, author, podcaster and atheist activist
October 21 – Drew Griffin, journalist
October 23
* Doug Flutie, American football player
* Mike Tomczak, American football player
October 24
* Dave Blaney, race car driver
* Mark Miller, motorcycle racer
* Jay Novacek, American football player and coach
November 3 – Gabe Newell, co-founder and managing director of Valve
November 10 – David Petrarca, television, film and theatre director, producer
November 11 – Demi Moore, actress, film producer, film director, songwriter and model
November 15
*Mark Acres, basketball player and educator
*Judy Gold, comedian, actress and producer
November 18 – Kirk Hammett, metal guitarist
November 19
* Jodie Foster, actress, film director and producer
* Sean Parnell, 10th Governor of Alaska
November 20 – Gail Ann Dorsey, musician
November 27 – Conrad Anker, mountaineer
November 28 – Jon Stewart, comedian and political commentator
December 9 – Felicity Huffman, actress
December 12 – Peter Bergen, journalist and author
December 17
* Richard Jewell, victim of defamation
* Margaret Jane Wray, operatic soprano
December 21 – Steven Mnuchin, 77th United States Secretary of the Treasury
December 24 – Kate Spade, born Katherine Brosnahan, fashion designer
December 31
* Don Diamont, actor
* Jeff Flake, politician

Deaths

January 9 – Leroy Shield, film score and radio compose
January 13 - Ernie Kovacs, comedian and actor
January 19 - Snub Pollard, actor
January 20 - Robinson Jeffers, poet
January 25 - Lucy Robins Lang, political activist
January 26 - Lucky Luciano, gangster
January 29 – Fritz Kreisler, Austrian-born American violinist and compose
February 1 - Carey Wilson, screenwriter
February 6 - Roy Atwell, actor, comedian and composer
February 17 - Joseph Kearns, actor
February 19
* James Barton, actor
* Georgios Papanikolaou, cytopathologist, inventor of the Pap smear
February 27 - Willie Best, actor
February 28 - Chic Johnson, actor
March 1
* Roscoe Ates, actor
* Arnold Kirkeby, hotelier, art collector, and real estate developer
March 15 - Arthur Compton, physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927
March 27 - Augusta Savage, African American sculptor
April 8 - Esther Kerr Rusthoi, author, poet, composer, singer, and evangelist
April 10
* Michael Curtiz, Hungarian-American director
* Manton S. Eddy, general
April 15 – Clara Blandick
April 20 – Grover Whalen, politician
April 24 – Milt Franklyn, film composer
April 27 – Wendell Holmes, actor
May - Helen Tufts Bailie, social reformer and activist
May 12 - Dick Calkins, comic book writer
May 28 - Robert Francis Anthony Studds, admiral and engineer, fourth Director of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey
May 31 - Henry F. Ashurst, politician
June 6 – Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, actor
June 9 - Polly Adler, brothel owner
June 19
* Frank Borzage, film director and actor
* Will Wright, actor
July 2 - Valeska Suratt, stage actress and silent film star
July 6 - William Faulkner, fiction writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949
July 25 - Nelle Wilson Reagan, mother of United States President Ronald Reagan
August 5 - Marilyn Monroe, film actress and icon
August 23 – Hoot Gibson, actor
August 28 – John Collum, child actor
September 2 – Morris Louis, painter
September 3 - E. E. Cummings, poet
September 7 - Louis King, film director
September 19 - Ben J. Tarbutton, interpreter
September 24
* Sam McDaniel, actor
* Charles Reisner, silent film actor and director
October 2 – Frank Lovejoy, actor
October 6 – Tod Browning, film director, actor, screenwriter, vaudeville performer, and carnival sideshow and entertainer
October 7 – Scrapper Blackwell, blues guitarist and singer
October 26 – Louise Beavers, actress
November 7 - Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945
November 8
* William Bailey, actor
* Willis H. O'Brien, stop motion animator
November 9 - Carroll McComas, actress
November 18 - Dennis Chávez, U.S. Senator from New Mexico from 1935 to 1962
December 4 - Jens Christian Bay, writer and librarian
December 7 - Bobo Newsom, baseball player
December 10 - Robert C. Giffen, admiral
December 15 - Charles Laughton, British-American actor
December 16 - Lew Landers, television and film director
December 17 - Thomas Mitchell, Irish-American actor and writer
December 22 - Roy Palmer, jazz trombonist
December 31 - Al Mamaux, baseball player and manager