March 1962

[March 1], 1962 (Thursday)

• The largest ticker-tape parade in history took place in New York City as an estimated 4 million well-wishers turned out to salute American astronaut John Glenn. The city sanitation department collected of tossed paper afterward, compared to an average of for parades in the 21st century. "John Glenn Day" also included Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr. presenting Glenn and Robert R. Gilruth with the city's Medal of Honor.
• The first test of another nation's nuclear weapon in the United States took place when the United Kingdom was allowed to perform an underground test of a 9,500-ton bomb at the Nevada Test Site.
• Marvel Comics introduced "The Incredible Hulk" as the first issue of the comic book, by that name, on the shelves of U.S. stores and newsstands. Issue #1 was post-dated to May 1962 in accordance with industry practice.
• The very first Kmart discount store was opened by the S.S. Kresge Corporation in the United States in Garden City, Michigan. Kresge CEO Harry Cunningham founded and oversaw the growth of what would be the largest chain of American discount stores by 1964. In 1990, Kmart would yield its #1 spot to Walmart, also founded in 1962.
• All 95 people aboard American Airlines Flight 1 were killed when the Boeing 707, crashed shortly after its 10:07 a.m. takeoff from Idlewild Airport at New York. The dead included W. Alton Jones, philanthropist and chairman of the board of Cities Service Company. An investigation concluded that the crash was caused by a rudder malfunction, which sent the plane into an uncontrolled roll resulting in loss of control.
• A three-story hotel collapsed in the Egyptian city of Asyut, killing 34 people who were eating after sunset on Eid ul-Fitr, a feast celebrating the end of the fasting of the month of Ramadan on the Islamic calendar. Seven survivors were recovered alive from the rubble.
• Benedicto Kiwanuka became the interim Prime Minister of Uganda as the United Kingdom granted the African colony self-government. He would be replaced by Milton Obote the next month, before Uganda's independence on October 9, and would later be murdered by Ugandan President Idi Amin in 1972.
• Pakistan's President Ayub Khan promulgated a new constitution designed to reinforce his authority in the absence of martial law.
• The Manned Spacecraft Center officially moved from Virginia's Langley Field to Houston, Texas.
• The final section of the Cahill Expressway opened in Sydney, Australia.

  [March 2], 1962 (Friday)

• Wilt Chamberlain set a professional basketball record, still standing 50 years later, by scoring 100 points in an NBA game in Hershey, Pennsylvania, where his Philadelphia Warriors were playing the New York Knickerbockers. Chamberlain broke the previous record of 78, which he had set in January, hitting 36 field goals and 28 foul shots. The Warriors' 169–147 over the Knicks set a record for most points scored by both teams in a game. A crowd of 4,124 witnessed the event.
• In a nationally broadcast address, U.S. President John F. Kennedy announced that the United States would resume atmospheric nuclear testing within six weeks unless the Soviet Union ceased above-ground testing while pursuing the proposed Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. The U.S. would resume atmospheric testing on April 25 after the USSR continued. A limited test ban treaty would be signed on July 25, 1963.
• In Burma, General Ne Win and the Burmese Army staged a nearly bloodless coup d'état against the civilian government of Prime Minister U Nu. U Nu was arrested, along with the nation's president, the Chief Justice, and five of his cabinet members. Ne Win would rule the nation until his retirement in 1988, and military rule continued.
• The Mercury astronauts were guests of the United Nations. John Glenn acted as spokesman during an informal reception given by Acting Secretary-General U Thant.
• One of the most famous episodes of The Twilight Zone, "To Serve Man", was first shown on television.
• Born:
• *Jon Bon Jovi, American singer for the rock band Bon Jovi
• *Raimo Summanen, Finnish ice hockey player and national team coach; in Jyväskylä
• Died:
• *Walt Kiesling, 58, NFL player, Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee, died of respiratory failure
• *Charles Jean de la Vallée Poussin, 95, Belgian mathematician known for proving the prime number theorem

  [March 3], 1962 (Saturday)

• The United Kingdom designated all land south of 60°S latitude and between longitudes 20°W and 80°W as the British Antarctic Territory, making a claim to an area of 1,710,000 square kilometers or 660,000 square miles. In addition to the wedge of the Antarctic continent, the territory included the uninhabited South Orkney Islands and the South Shetland Islands, while putting South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands under the jurisdiction of the Falkland Islands. The claim to the territories was not recognized by Argentina.
• Liu Cheng-sze, a second lieutenant in Communist China's air force, defected to Taiwan, bringing with him a Soviet-built MiG-15 jet fighter. Liu had broken away from a training mission, then flew the jet south and landed near Taipei, where he surrendered to the Nationalist Chinese Air Force. A parade was held in his honor on March 10, with 200,000 people turning out to honor him.
• Born:
• *Jackie Joyner-Kersee, American athlete who holds the world record for heptathlon and Olympic record for long jump, both at the 1988 Summer Olympics; in East St. Louis, Illinois
• *Greg Lee, American comedian, actor and TV host known for Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?; in Hebron, Nebraska

  [March 4], 1962 (Sunday)

• All 111 people on Caledonian Airways Flight 153 were killed when the Douglas DC-7, crashed into a jungle swamp near Douala in Cameroon, for the worst single plane crash in history up to that time. The flight had originated in Lourenço Marques in Mozambique, making multiple stops with an eventual destination in Luxembourg City, and had taken off bound for Lisbon. The bodies of the victims, most of them British and South African tourists, were buried in a common grave.
• U.S. pilots Scott Carpenter and Walter Schirra began water-escape exercises in conjunction with helicopter pickups, after being selected as pilot and backup pilot, respectively, for May's Mercury 7 mission.
• The Eighteen Nation Disarmament Conference, which included non-nuclear powers in addition to the U.S., the USSR, the UK and France, opened in Geneva.
• NBN Television, the first regional commercial television station in New South Wales, was inaugurated.
• Born: Robb Armstrong, African-American comic strip artist known for Jump Start; in Philadelphia

  [March 5], 1962 (Monday)

• A B-58 Hustler jet, piloted by U.S. Air Force Captain Robert Sowers, and a crew of two, set three new records by flying from Los Angeles to New York in 2 hours, 01:15, then back again in 2 hours, 15:02. The sonic boom, from the jet's speed of more than, broke windows in Riverside, California, and Chillicothe, Missouri, when it accelerated at and during a refueling, and emergency calls were made in cities beneath the flight path. The USAF received more than 10,000 complaints as a result of the flight.
• Giorgio Borġ Olivier became Prime Minister of Malta for the second time, following the return to power of his Nationalist Party in February elections. Mr. Borg Olivier had served previously from 1950 to 1955. Olivier served for nine years until 1971.
• At the 19th Golden Globe Awards, The Guns of Navarone, A Majority of One and West Side Story all won film awards. Other winners included Maximilian Schell, Glenn Ford, Geraldine Page, and Rosalind Russell.
• Westinghouse Electric Corporation was awarded a $6.8 million subcontract for the rendezvous radar and transponder system for the Gemini spacecraft, designed to locate and track the target vehicle during rendezvous maneuvers, and a transponder on the Agena target vehicle itself.
• Born: Robert Curbeam, African-American astronaut who served on four space shuttle missions; in Baltimore
• Died: Otakar Jeremiáš, 69, Czech composer

  [March 6], 1962 (Tuesday)

• Rated by the U.S. Geological Survey as "The most destructive storm ever to hit the mid-Atlantic states" of the U.S., and as one of the ten worst U.S. storms in the 20th century, the Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962 began forming off the coast of North Carolina and continued for three days as it moved up the Eastern seaboard as far as New York. Heavy winds and rain coincided with a perigean spring tide, when a new Moon occurred when the Moon was making its closest approach to the Earth. The combined tugging of Moon and Sun made the tides higher than normal. Forty people were killed and $500,000,000 of damage was incurred.
• In a joint statement issued by U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk and Thailand's Foreign Minister Thanat Khoman, the United States pledged to go to war to defend against any attack on Thailand by Communist guerillas.
• U.S. Patent #3,023,527 was granted to Wayne Leek and Charles Morse for the Remington Nylon 66, a rifle which required no added lubricants because the stock was made of the nylon variant Zytel.
• Atlas rocket 107-D was delivered to Cape Canaveral for the Mercury 7 mission to be launched in May with Scott Carpenter.
• Born: Bengt Baron, Swedish swimmer and 1980 Olympic gold medalist; in Finspång

  [March 7], 1962 (Wednesday)

• In London, the Royal College of Physicians issued its report, "Smoking and Health", declaring that "Cigarette smoking is a cause of lung cancer. It also causes bronchitis and probably contributes to the development of coronary heart disease and various other less common diseases. It delays healing of gastric and duodenal ulcers." Sir Robert Platt, the president of the organization, led a committee of nine physicians to compile the research. A panel led by the U.S. Surgeon General would draw a similar conclusion nearly two years later on January 11, 1964.
• OSO I, the first of nine Orbiting Solar Observatory satellites, launched by the United States, was launched from Cape Canaveral and put into orbit around the Earth, to measure radiation from the Sun. OSO I performed remarkably well in conducting the 13 different experiments for which it was programmed. Especially relevant to human spaceflight were its measurements of solar radiation in high frequency ranges, of cosmic dust effects, and of the thermal properties of spacecraft surface materials.
• McDonnell awarded a $6.5 million subcontract to Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Company to provide the attitude control and maneuvering electronics system for the Gemini spacecraft. The Gemini Project Office accepted McDonnell's preliminary design of the spacecraft's main undercarriage for use in land landings and authorized McDonnell to proceed with testing to start on April 1.
• The Tipsport Arena opened in Prague, as the Sportovni Hala Praha. In addition to concerts and entertainment, it is the host to the ice hockey team HC Sparta Praha.