August 1962

[August 1], 1962 (Wednesday)

• An assassination attempt against Ghana's President Kwame Nkrumah, failed when Nkrumah finished a speech early before a time bomb went off. Nkrumah had stopped in the village of Kulungugu on his way back from a state visit to Upper Volta.
• A Nepal Airlines RNA Douglas C-47A-DL, en route from Kathmandu-Gaucher Airport to New Delhi, crashed near Tulachan Dhuri. The wreckage was discovered eight days later on a mountain top at. All four crew and six passengers were killed, including Nepal's ambassador to India. Initial reports were that rescue teams had found the airliner, and that all 10 people on board were safe.
• The Darul Islam rebellion in Indonesia was defeated with the capture of its leader, Sekarmadji Maridjan Kartosuwirjo, who would be executed a month later.
• In Major League Baseball, pitcher Bill Monbouquette, playing for the Boston Red Sox, pitched a no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox, one of five that year after only one had been pitched in 1961. Besides Monbouquette, no-hitters were also pitched in May, two in the final week of June, and a final one on August 26 by Minnesota's Jack Kralick.
• Died:
• *Dr. Geoffrey Bacon, 44, British scientist, died three days after being accidentally infected by bubonic plague at Britain's germ warfare center at Porton Down, Wiltshire.
• *General Gordon Bennett, 75, Australian military leader

  [August 2], 1962 (Thursday)

• In order to bring an end to the Saskatchewan doctors' strike, a special session of the legislature of Saskatchewan amended the provincial Medical Care Insurance Act that had caused an unprecedented work stoppage by doctors and surgeons, adjourning after completing its work in less than 12 hours.
• North American Aviation began testing its emergency parachute recovery system for Project Gemini's Paraglider Development Program. The first test was successful, but in every test afterward, recovery parachutes separated from the spacecraft immediately after deployment and the test vehicle was destroyed on impact. The test series ended on November 15.
• Cominco Binani Zinc Ltd. was established on the banks of the Periyar River in Kerala, India.
• Born: Brian France, American businessman, CEO of NASCAR, and son of Bill France Jr.; in Daytona Beach, Florida

  [August 3], 1962 (Friday)

• President John F. Kennedy decided to break ties with singer Frank Sinatra after his brother, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, reported to him about Sinatra's connections with organized crime. Sinatra was reportedly so enraged by the President's decision to no longer visit the singer's Palm Springs home, that he took a sledgehammer and personally destroyed a landing pad built to accommodate visits by the presidential helicopter, Marine One.
• "Tusko", a 14-year-old male Indian elephant at the Oklahoma City Zoo, was injected with of the hallucinogen LSD in an experiment by researchers at the University of Oklahoma to simulate musth, the periodic condition of aggressive behavior and rage by male elephants. Tusko collapsed five minutes after the injection and died less than two hours later.
• The U.S. Air Force outlined its plans for converting Complex 14 at the Atlantic Missile Range at Cape Canaveral for use by the Gemini Project Office. The site of Project Mercury launches, Complex 14 would be modified for Project Gemini operations as the Agena target vehicle launch site.
• Died: Dean Cromwell, 82, American athletics coach, nicknamed "Maker of Champions", who coached the USC Trojans track team to 12 national championships, including nine consecutive titles from 1935 to 1943.

  [August 4], 1962 (Saturday)

• Marilyn Monroe took a fatal overdose of Nembutal at her home at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in Brentwood in Los Angeles, apparently at some point between a 7:15 p.m. phone call from her former stepson, Joe DiMaggio Jr. and a 7:30 p.m. call from actor Peter Lawford. The Nembutal interacted with a dosage of chloral hydrate already in her body and she was in a coma by 10 p.m.
• Crown Prince Vong Savang of Laos married Princess Mahneelai.

  [August 5], 1962 (Sunday)

• Nelson Mandela was arrested in South Africa, and imprisoned for more than 27 years. After returning home from a tour that he had made of African nations, Mandela was being driven by Cecil Williams to Johannesburg. Their car was near the village of Cedara, outside of Howick, when a Sergeant Vorster recognized both men and pulled them over. Mandela, who identified himself as David Motsamayi, was taken to Pietermaritzburg. While serving part of a five-year sentence for illegally leaving the country, he was tried and convicted on new charges in 1963 for sabotage and given a life sentence. He would not be released until February 11, 1990. In 1994, Mandela would be elected the first black President of South Africa.
• The Soviet Union conducted the second largest nuclear test in history, detonating a 40 megaton hydrogen bomb.
• 3C 273, the first identified quasar, was found by Australian astronomer John Bolton with the radio telescope at the Parkes Observatory in New South Wales.
• American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell was the guest of honor at a rally of Britain's neo-Nazi party, the National Socialist Movement, led by Colin Jordan. Rockwell had been barred from the UK by order of the Home Office, but sneaked in anyway to be present at the camp in Gloucestershire.
• Graham Hill won the 1962 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring.
• Born: Patrick Ewing, Jamaican-born American basketball player, 1985 NCAA player of the year and 11-time NBA All-Star; in Kingston

  [August 6], 1962 (Monday)

• Jamaica received its independence from the United Kingdom. Princess Margaret of the UK and U.S. Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson were among the dignitaries who watched the lowering of the British flag in Kingston.
• The Friendship 7 spacecraft used in John Glenn's Mercury 6 flight completed its exhibition tour around the world with its display at the Century 21 Exposition in Seattle, Washington. Afterward, Glenn's capsule would be presented to the National Air Museum of the Smithsonian Institution on February 20, 1963.
• Patsy Cline released her final studio album, Sentimentally Yours, seven months before her death in a plane crash.
• Born: Michelle Yeoh, Malaysian actress; in Ipoh
• Died: Ángel Borlenghi, 58, Argentine labour leader and politician, Interior Minister and enforcer for dictator Juan Perón

  [August 7], 1962 (Tuesday)

• Guillermo Valencia of the Conservative Party was sworn in as the new President of Colombia, quietly succeeding Alberto Lleras Camargo of the Liberal Party. Valencia's inauguration marked the first successful test of a unique agreement, whereby the Liberal and Conservative agreed to alternate the presidency every four years.
• Algeria's provisional government, led by Prime Minister Benyoucef Benkhedda, stepped aside in favor of leftist Vice-Premier Ahmed Ben Bella, who had returned to Algiers from Oran four days earlier.
• At the White House, President Kennedy presented the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service to Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey, a reviewer for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration who successfully blocked the approval of the birth-defect causing drug thalidomide for American sale.

  [August 8], 1962 (Wednesday)

• Elizabeth Ann Duncan, 58, became the last woman to be executed in the United States prior to the restoration of the death penalty in 1977. She was put to death in the gas chamber at California's San Quentin State Prison on the same day as the two men whom she had hired to murder her pregnant daughter-in-law. On November 17, 1958, Mrs. Olga Kupczyk Duncan and her unborn daughter had been beaten to death by Augustine Baldonado and Luis Moya, to whom Elizabeth had promised $8,000 which was never paid.
• Atlas launch vehicle 113-D was delivered to Cape Canaveral for the October Mercury 8 mission of Wally Schirra.
• The 3rd Nippon Jamboree came to an end in Gotenba, Shizuoka Prefecture in Japan.
• Born: Charmaine Crooks, Jamaican-born Canadian athlete; in Mandeville
• Died: Don Davis, 28, died of injuries sustained in a sprint car race three days earlier at New Bremen, Ohio. Less than three months earlier, Davis had finished in fourth place in the 1962 Indianapolis 500.

  [August 9], 1962 (Thursday)

• Prime Minister of Canada John Diefenbaker shuffled his cabinet, giving new jobs to six Ministers and bringing in three new men. Five of his Ministers had lost their seats in Parliament in the June 18 elections. Among the changes were the move of Finance Minister Donald Fleming to Minister of Justice and Attorney General and the removal of William Joseph Browne who left the office of Solicitor General of Canada, a position that would remain vacant for nearly a year.
• Died: Hermann Hesse, 85, German-born Swiss novelist known for such works as Steppenwolf and Siddhartha, and 1946 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

  [August 10], 1962 (Friday)

• CIA Director John McCone provided his first memorandum to U.S. President Kennedy about surveillance that would lead to a U.S. and Soviet confrontation in the Cuban Missile Crisis, describing an increase of Soviet shipments to Cuba, and his speculation that the Soviet Union was placing offensive missiles in the Caribbean island nation. McCone would give the President three more warnings in August.
• The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library was dedicated and opened to the public in West Branch, Iowa. Hoover, who had served as the 31st President of the United States was present and was celebrating his 88th birthday.
• The Bell 533 research helicopter made its first flight, at Bell's Fort Worth, Texas, headquarters.
• Died:
• *Paul David Devanandan, 61, Indian Protestant Christian theologian
• *Ted Husing, 60, pioneering American sportscaster