November 1962

[November 1], 1962 (Thursday)

• Mars 1, also known as Sputnik 24, was launched by the Soviet Union as part of its Mars program, with an expected arrival date of June. The probe would come within of Mars on June 19, 1963, but the system that adjusted the probe's antenna to maintain contact with Earth would fail on March 21, 1963.
• The United States resumed its arms blockade of ships bound for Cuba, after a two-day suspension during which negotiations had taken place. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union began dismantling its missiles there.
• The Mercury Simulator, which had been moved from Virginia's Langley Field on July 23, was installed and readied for operations in Texas in a Manned Spacecraft Center building at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston.
• Soviet scientist Lev Landau was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physics in recognition of "his pioneering theories for condense matter, especially liquid helium".
• The first issue of the comic series Diabolik was published in Italy.
• Born: Anthony Kiedis, American rock musician and singer for Red Hot Chili Peppers; in Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Died:
• *Pyotr Dolgov, 42, colonel in the Soviet Air Force and balloonist. Dolgov and Col. Yevgeni Nikolayevich Andreyev attempted parachute jumps from a Volga balloon gondola, Andreyev at an altitude of and Dolgov at. Andreyev successfully reached the ground and set an official record for the longest distance free-fall parachute jump, but Dolgov was killed by the explosive decompression of his pressure suit. Both men would be named Heroes of the Soviet Union on December 12, 1962.
• *Ricardo Rodríguez, 20, Mexican racing driver, was killed in a crash while practicing for the Mexican Grand Prix at Magdalena Mixhuca Circuit.

  [November 2], 1962 (Friday)

• A final agreement was reached between the Soviet Union and the United States on the terms for Soviet removal of nuclear missiles from Cuba and American verification. U.S. President John F. Kennedy announced the plan, resolving the Cuban Missile Crisis on television that evening.
• In response to the Sino-Indian War, the United States began airlifting weapons to India, with U.S. Air Force C-130 transport planes transporting mountain artillery from its West German bases to match the weaponry of the People's Republic of China.
• The Australian Ballet gave its first ever performance.
• Born: David Brock, American journalist and founder of Media Matters for America; in Washington, D.C.
• Died:
• *Godfrey Lowell Cabot, 101, American industrialist and philanthropist
• *Tripuraneni Gopichand, 52, Telugu language writer

  [November 3], 1962 (Saturday)

• The earliest use of the term "personal computer" by the media was made in The New York Times in a story about John W. Mauchly's speech the day before to the American Institute of Industrial Engineers. Mauchly, "inventor of some of the original room-size computers" said that "in a decade or so", everyone would have their own computer with "exchangeable wafer-thin data storage files to provide inexhaustible memories and answer most problems". Mauchly was quoted as saying, "There is no reason to suppose the average boy or girl cannot be master of a personal computer."
• A group of bandits murdered 25 passengers and the driver on a bus that was traveling near the city of Neiva, Huila in Colombia. The group appeared on the road, ordered the bus to stop, fired guns inside and then hacked the occupants to death with machetes. Six other people survived the attack with injuries.
• As the state of emergency in India continued, the Defence of India Ordinance took effect. President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan suspended Article 21 and Article 22 of the Constitution of India.
• In what one author describes as a milestone in the term "country music" replacing what had been referred to as "country and western", Billboard magazine renamed its "Hot C&W Singles" chart to "Hot Country Singles" and stopped referring to "western" music altogether.
• Born: Jacqui Smith, British politician and former Home Secretary, known for her involvement in the United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal; in Malvern, Worcestershire
• Died: Harlow Curtice, 69, American automobile executive and President of General Motors from 1953 to 1958

  [November 4], 1962 (Sunday)

• The United States conducted an atmospheric nuclear test for the last time, and all of its tests since then have been made underground. The Soviet Union would halt atmospheric testing less than two months later, the last explosion being on Christmas Day. The last atmospheric test ever would be by China on October 16, 1980.
• The body of USAF Major Rudolf Anderson, the only fatality in the Cuban Missile Crisis, was returned to the United States by Cuba.
• The first Mexican Grand Prix was won by Jim Clark and Trevor Taylor.
• Born:
• *Jean-Pierre Bemba, Congolese presidential candidate in 2006, former vice-president, and convicted war criminal; in Bokada
• *Amy B. Smith, American computer engineer; in Lexington, Massachusetts
• Died: Enos, 5, the only chimpanzee to orbit the Earth. Enos was sent up by the U.S. aboard the Mercury-Atlas 5 spacecraft three months before John Glenn's orbital flight. The chimpanzee had been sick and under night and day observation and treatment for two months before his death. He was afflicted with shigella dysentery, a type resistant to antibiotics, and this caused his death. Officials at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, where Enos died, said that there was "no connection with the two-orbit space flight the chimp made Nov. 29, 1961."

  [November 5], 1962 (Monday)

• President Ayub Khan of Pakistan was given a note from U.S. Ambassador Walter P. McConaughy, on authorization from President Kennedy, which said that "The Government of the United States of America reaffirms its previous assurances to the Government of Pakistan that it will come to Pakistan's assistance in the event of aggression from India against Pakistan." The existence of the pledge was kept secret, but in 1971, National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger would reveal its existence to Anatoly Dobrynin, the Soviet Ambassador to the U.S.
• A coal mining disaster in Ny-Ålesund, on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen, killed 21 people. The Norwegian government would be forced to resign in August 1963 in the aftermath of this accident.
• Saudi Arabia broke off diplomatic relations with Egypt, following a period of unrest partly caused by the defection of several Saudi princes to Egypt.
• Goddard Space Flight Center awarded contracts totaling almost $12,000,000 to modify NASA's Manned Space Flight Tracking Network to support long-duration and rendezvous missions. The contracts were with the Canoga Electronics Corporation for the tracking antenna acquisition aid system ; Radiation, Inc. for digital command encoders ; Collins Radio Company, for the radio frequency command system ; and Electro-Mechanical Research, Inc. for the pulse code modulation system.
• The Rotary Club service organization established the Rotary Interact program for boys aged 12 to 18, with the first chapter in Melbourne, Florida.

  [November 6], 1962 (Tuesday)

• In midterm elections in the United States, the ruling Democratic Party maintained control of the House of Representatives and increased its majority in the Senate. Former U.S. Vice-president Richard M. Nixon, who had narrowly lost the 1960 presidential election to John F. Kennedy, was heavily defeated in his bid to become Governor of California, while the President's younger brother, 30-year-old Teddy Kennedy, was elected U.S. Senator for Massachusetts.
• In his first meeting with his cabinet, Saudi Arabia's Prime Minister and Crown Prince Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud announced the immediate abolition of slavery within the Kingdom and plans to have the government pay owners for the manumission of their slaves as part of a program of modernization and reform.
• The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies and called for all UN member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation. The result was 67 in favor, 16 against, and 27 abstaining.
• James E. Mills, the editor of the Birmingham Post-Herald, was arrested for violating Alabama's state election laws after publishing an editorial in that newspaper, urging voters to support a proposed change in city government. Under the law, soliciting votes on election day was a criminal offense. A trial court initially dismissed the charges as an unconstitutionally-broad interpretation of the law against electioneering on the day of an election, but the Alabama Supreme Court would reverse the dismissal and send the case back to trial. On May 23, 1966, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Mills v. Alabama, would reverse the Alabama Court, with Justice Hugo Black noting that "Suppression of the right of the press to... contend for or against change, which was all this editorial did, muzzles one of the very agencies the framers of our Constitution thoughtfully and deliberately selected to improve our society and keep it free."
• B. F. Goodrich delivered a prototype full-pressure suit to MSC for evaluation by Life Systems Division. The partial-wear feature of this suit, demanded by the long-duration missions planned for the Gemini program, comprised detachable sleeves, legwear and helmets. MSC requested Goodrich to provide 14 more suits based on this design, varying only in size. The prototype suit was designated as G-2G-1 and the remaining suits were designated G-2G-2 through G-2G-15. MSC requested extensive design changes after evaluating G-2G-1. The final model, was G-2G-8, would be delivered to MSC on January 21 but would later be rejected in favor of a different Gemini space suit designed by David Clark Company, Inc.. The Clark suit would incorporate Goodrich helmets, gloves, and additional hardware.
• Voters in San Francisco, Alameda County and Contra Costa County, California approved the creation of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system.