October 1962

[October 1], 1962 (Monday)

• Johnny Carson took over as the permanent host of NBC's The Tonight Show, a position that he would hold for 30 years. After Groucho Marx introduced him at 11:30 p.m., Carson and his sidekick Ed McMahon shared the stage with the first guests, Joan Crawford, Rudy Vallee, Ned Brooks, Tony Bennett, the Phoenix Singers and Tom Pedi. Carson would host his last Tonight show on May 22, 1992. Earlier in the day on NBC, at 2:00 p.m., another famous host made his debut on The Merv Griffin Show; Griffin's first guest was comedian Shelley Berman.
• The Lucy Show, Lucille Ball's follow-up to I Love Lucy, premiered on American TV on CBS at 8:30 p.m. with the episode "Lucy Waits Up for Chris". Based on Irene Kampen's novel Life Without George, the show placed I Love Lucy stars Ball and Vivian Vance in the roles of widow Lucy Carmichael and divorcee Vivian Bagley, along with children. The show would run for 6 seasons before ending its run on March 11, 1968.
• James Meredith, the first black student to enroll at the all-white University of Mississippi, registered for classes while escorted by U.S. Marshals. Meredith's first class was in Colonial History, and only 12 of the 19 students registered attended.
• Four Soviet Foxtrot submarines, armed with nuclear torpedoes, departed bases on the Kola Peninsula in anticipation of a confrontation with the United States over Cuba.
• Netherlands New Guinea was transferred to United Nations Temporary Executive Authority until May 1963.
• U.S. Army General Maxwell Taylor became the new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
• The U.S. Air Force Space Systems Division raised its budget for the Gemini launch vehicle to $181,300,000. The new Development Plan delayed the first Gemini launch to at least December 1963.
• Tropical storm "Daisy" was studied by Project Mercury operations activities for its possible effects on Wally Schirra's Mercury 8 mission, but flight preparations were not delayed.
• Born: Esai Morales, American actor; in Brooklyn

  [October 2], 1962 (Tuesday)

• A twin-engined Saudi Air Force Fairchild C-123 Provider, said to have been sent by Prince Hassan to Royal supporters in Yemen, and laden with American-made arms and ammunition, defected to Egypt. Its three crew members were granted political asylum.
• Born:
• *Jeff Bennett, American voice actor and singer; in Houston
• *Brian Holm, Danish road cyclist; in Copenhagen
• Died: Heinrich Deubel, 72, former commandant of Dachau concentration camp

  [October 3], 1962 (Wednesday)

• Mercury-Atlas 8, designated Sigma 7, was launched from Cape Canaveral with astronaut Wally Schirra. After a 9 hour and 13 minute orbital flight with six orbits, the MA-8 landed northeast of Midway Island, from the prime recovery ship, the. Schirra was the fifth American astronaut, and ninth person, to travel into outer space.
• Two major modifications had been made to the Mercury spacecraft to fix problems that had happened during the missions of John Glenn and Scott Carpenter. The reaction control system was modified to conserve fuel by using only low-thrust during manual operations, two high frequency antennas were mounted to maintain constant communication. Schirra's only problem was adjusting the pressure suit temperature after being too warm. The flight was the most successful up to that time. The launch was relayed by Telstar 1 satellite to TV audiences in Western Europe.
• A steam boiler explosion killed 21 people and injured 70 at the New York Telephone Company building in New York City. The blast happened at 12:07 p.m. while employees were at lunch in the building's cafeteria. The blast sent the boiler from the basement into the cafeteria, then out through a wall.
• The San Francisco Giants beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6–4, to win the deciding game of a best-of-three playoff for the National League pennant. The Dodgers had a 4–2 lead going into the final inning, before the Giants tied the game and then went ahead, gaining the trip to the World Series.
• Born: Tommy Lee, American musician and drummer of heavy metal band Mötley Crüe; as Thomas Lee Bass in Athens, Greece

  [October 4], 1962 (Thursday)

• The National Assembly of France voted to censure Prime Minister Georges Pompidou for his support of the direct election of the President, with 280 in favor in the 480 member body. Pompidou resigned the next day, but would stay on while new elections were scheduled. The vote marked the only occasion, in the more than 50-year history of the Fifth Republic, that a government was brought down by a vote in Parliament.
• Two Saudi Arabian pilots landed an air force training plane in upper Egypt and were granted political asylum, the second such defection in two days.
• The first nuclear missile in Cuba was installed by the Soviet Union, as a warhead was attached to an R-12 rocket.
• Born:
• *Mike Norris, American actor; in Redondo Beach, California, as the eldest son of actor and martial arts champion Chuck Norris
• *Marc Minkowski, French orchestral conductor; in Paris

  [October 5], 1962 (Friday)

• The first James Bond film, Dr. No, held its world premiere at the London Pavilion, with Sean Connery as Agent 007. The film premiered to the rest of the UK three days later, and would reach cinemas in the United States on May 8, 1963.
• The Beatles released their first single, "Love Me Do".
• McDonnell and Lockheed reported to NASA on radiation hazards for Gemini crew. McDonnell found no radiation hazard for normal operations with some shielding; with no shielding a 14-day mission would have to be limited to an altitude of. Lockheed warned that solar flares would pose a problem and recommended altitudes of no more than pending more data on the effects of Project Dominic. A U.S. Air Force spokesman said that tests confirmed that Wally Schirra could have been killed if his flight had taken him above, where an artificial radiation belt had been created by a U.S. high altitude nuclear test. Above, radiation was up to 1,000 times the normal level. Dr. Charles A. Berry reported that dosimeter readings indicated that astronaut Schirra had received less radiation dosage than expected.
• The phrase "so help me God" was added to the U.S. Armed Forces and National Guard enlistment oaths., the constitutionality of this change had not been ascertained, being in apparent contradiction of the No Religious Test Clause of the United States Constitution.
• Egypt provided a battalion of its Saaqah Special Forces to guard the new Yemeni leader Abdullah as-Sallal during the North Yemen Civil War.
• Born:
• *Caron Keating, Northern Irish television presenter; in Fulham, England
• *Mike Conley Sr., American Olympic gold medalist in 1992 for the triple jump; in Chicago

  [October 6], 1962 (Saturday)

• The Chinese leadership convened to hear a report from Lin Biao that PLA intelligence units had determined that Indian units might assault Chinese positions at Thag La on 10 October. The Chinese leaders, on recommendation of the Central Military Council decided to launch a large-scale attack to punish perceived military aggression from India, resulting in the Sino-Indian War.
• The U.S. Committee on Overhead Reconnaissance pointed out that high-altitude photographs of Cuba had not been taken of the western end of the island since August 29, and recommended to the White House that U-2 overflights be made there to determine whether Soviet missiles were being put in place. Flights over west Cuba on October 14 would confirm the presence of offensive missiles.
• The U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy suffered their first helicopter fatalities in Vietnam when a Marine Corps UH-34 Seahorse crashed 15 miles from Tam Ky, South Vietnam, killing five Marines and two Navy personnel.
• The last foreign military personnel, including advisers of the U.S. Special Forces, left Laos in accordance with the 75-day period specified in the July 23 "Declaration on the Neutrality of Laos".
• Died: Tod Browning, 81, American film director known for pre-code horror films, including Freaks, Mark of the Vampire, and the first sound-film version of ''Dracula''

  [October 7], 1962 (Sunday)

• The cabinet of Iran approved the "Law of Regional and State Associations", extending voting for, and service on, local councils to non-Muslims and females, with the only requirement being that a voter or officeholder believe in one of the "revealed religions". After protests by the Shi'ite Ayatollahs, the law was annulled on November 29.
• Venezuela's President Romulo Betancourt issued Resolution #9, suspending constitutional rights and restricting freedom of the press.
• At a press conference at Rice University in Houston, Texas, U.S. astronaut Wally Schirra expressed said that he had no difficulties with more than nine hours of weightlessness, and that the Mercury spacecraft was ready for a one-day mission.
• Died:
• *Clem Miller, 45, U.S. Representative from California, was killed along with two other people when his airplane crashed in bad weather near Crescent City, California. Miller was on a trip as part of his campaign for re-election and died along with his 13-year-old son and the pilot. Since it was too late to name a new candidate, Miller's name remained on the ballot and received the most votes.
• *Henri Oreiller, 36, French alpine ski racer, was killed when his Ferrari crashed at the Linas-Montlhéry autodrome.

  [October 8], 1962 (Monday)

• In North Korea, voters went to the polls to vote "yes" or "no" on the 383 candidates for the 383 seats in the Supreme People's Assembly. The Pyongyang government announced a 100 percent turnout and 100 percent approval of the candidates ; the 100% turnout and approval reports would follow the 1967, 1972, 1977, 1982 and 1986 votes, though in 1992, reported turnout was only 99.85%, albeit still with the 100% approval.
• The October 10 edition of the West German magazine Der Spiegel reached newsstands, with the article "Bedingt abwehrbereit" by Conrad Ahlers, about the Bundeswehr's poor preparedness, causing the so-called Spiegel affair.
• The wreck of the Bremen cog, a ship built in 1380 when the area was ruled by the Hanseatic League, was discovered in the Weser River during dredging operations.