1962

Events

January

• January 1 - Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand.
• January 3 - The office of Pope John XXIII announces the excommunication of Fidel Castro for preaching communism and interfering with Catholic churches in Cuba.
• January 8 - Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the worst Dutch rail disaster.
• January 9 - Cuba and the Soviet Union sign a trade pact.
• January 12 - The Indonesian Army confirms that it has begun operations in West Irian.
• January 13 - Albania allies itself with the People's Republic of China.
• January 15
• * Portugal abandons the United Nations General Assembly due to the debate over Angola.
• * French designer Yves Saint Laurent launches his own fashion house.
• January 16 - A military coup occurs in the Dominican Republic.
• January 19 - A counter-coup occurs in the Dominican Republic; the old government returns, except for the new president Rafael Filiberto Bonnelly.
• January 22 - The Organization of American States suspends Cuba's membership; the suspension is lifted in 2009.
• January 24 - The Organisation armée secrète bombs the French Foreign Ministry.
• January 26 - U.S. spacecraft Ranger 3 is launched to study the Moon; it later misses the Moon by.
• January 27 - The Soviet government changes all place names honoring Molotov, Kaganovich and Georgy Malenkov.
• January 30 - Two of the high-wire "Flying Wallendas" are killed when their famous seven-person pyramid collapses during a performance in Detroit.

  February

• February 3 - A United States embargo against Cuba is announced.
• February 4 - First successful winter ascent of the Matterhorn's north face, by Hilti von Allmen and Paul Etter, is completed.
• February 4–5 - During a new moon and solar eclipse, an extremely rare grand conjunction of the classical planets occurs, all of them within 16° of one another on the ecliptic. The total solar eclipse of February 5, 1962 is visible in Asia, Australia and the Pacific Ocean, and is the 49th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 130.
• February 5 - President of France Charles de Gaulle calls for Algeria to be granted independence.
• February 7
• * The United States embargo against Cuba comes into effect, prohibiting all U.S.-related Cuban imports and exports.
• * Luisenthal Mine Disaster: A coal mine explosion in Saarland, West Germany kills 299.
• February 10 - Captured American spy pilot Francis Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, in Berlin.
• February 11 - The inaugural 24 Hours of Daytona sports car endurance race is run as a 3-hour event, at Daytona Beach, Florida.
• February 12 - Six members of the Committee of 100 of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the U.K. are found guilty of a breach of the Official Secrets Act.
• February 14 - First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes television viewers on a tour of the White House.
• February 15 - Urho Kekkonen is re-elected president of Finland.
• February 17 - Heavy storms and high tides result in the North Sea flood of 1962 on Germany's North Sea coast, mainly around Hamburg; more than 300 people die and thousands lose their homes.
• February 18 - 1962 NHRA Winternationals: Carol Cox becomes the first woman allowed to race at a National Hot Rod Association national event in the United States; she wins in the Super Stock class.
• February 20 - Project Mercury: Aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth, three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes.
• February 21 - Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev first dance together in a Royal Ballet performance of Giselle, in London.

March

• March–May - Yi–Ta incident: At least 60,000 Chinese citizens migrate from the People's Republic of China to the Soviet Union, predominantly ethnic Kazakhs.
• March 1 - In the United States:
• * American Airlines Flight 1 crashes on takeoff at New York International Airport, after a rudder malfunction causes an uncontrolled roll, resulting in the loss of control of the aircraft, with the loss of all 95 on board.
• * Hulk, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, is introduced by Marvel Comics with the publication of The Incredible Hulk #1 as the first issue of the comic book, with cover date of May 1962.
• * The S. S. Kresge Company opens its first Kmart discount store in Garden City, Michigan.
• March 2 - A military coup in Burma brings General Ne Win to power.
• March 7 - Ash Wednesday Storm: A snow storm batters the Mid-Atlantic.
• March 8–12 - In Geneva, France and the Algerian FLN begin negotiations.
• March 15 - Katangan Prime Minister Moise Tshombe begins negotiations to rejoin the Congo.
• March 16 - Flying Tiger Line Flight 739, a Lockheed L-1049H Super Constellation chartered by the United States Military Air Transport Service, and carrying mainly United States Army personnel bound for South Vietnam, vanishes over the western Pacific Ocean, with the loss of all 107 on board.
• March 18
• * Évian Accords: France and Algeria sign an agreement in Évian-les-Bains, ending the Algerian War.
• * "Un premier amour", sung by Isabelle Aubret, wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1962 for France.
• March 19 - An armistice begins in Algeria; however, the OAS continues its terrorist attacks against Algerians.
• March 23 - The Scandinavian States of the Nordic Council sign the Helsinki Convention on Nordic Co-operation.
• March 24 - OAS leader Edmond Jouhaud is arrested in Oran.
• March 26 - France shortens the term for military service from 26 months to 18.

  April

• April 3 - Jawaharlal Nehru is elected de facto Prime Minister of India, for the fourth time.
• April 6 - Belgium reestablishes diplomatic relations with the Congo.
• April 7 - Milovan Đilas, author and former vice-president of Yugoslavia is re-arrested.
• April 8 - In France, the Évian Accords are adopted in a referendum, with a majority of 90%.
• April 9 - The 34th Academy Awards Ceremony is held in the United States; West Side Story wins Best Picture.
• April 13 - OAS leader Edmond Jouhaud is sentenced to death in France.
• April 14 - A Cuban military tribunal convicts 1,179 Bay of Pigs attackers.
• April 18 - The Commonwealth Immigrants Act in the United Kingdom removes free immigration from the citizens of member states of the Commonwealth of Nations, requiring proof of employment in the U.K. This comes into effect on 1 July.
• April 20 - OAS leader Raoul Salan is arrested in Algiers.
• April 21 - The Century 21 Exposition World's Fair opens in Seattle, United States. This is also the Opening Day of the Seattle Space Needle.
• April 26 - The U.S. Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the far side of the Moon without returning any scientific data.

  May

• May 1
• * Norwich City F.C. wins the English Football League Cup, beating Rochdale in the final.
• * Dayton Hudson Corporation opens the first of its Target discount stores, in Roseville, Minnesota.
• May 2
• * An OAS bomb explodes in Algeria; this and other attacks kill 110 and injure 147.
• * S.L. Benfica beats Real Madrid 5–3 at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam to win the 1961–62 European Cup in association football.
• May 3 - Mikawashima train crash: 160 die in a triple-train disaster near Tokyo.
• May 5 - Twelve East Germans escape to the West via a tunnel under the Berlin Wall.
• May 6
• *Antonio Segni is elected President of the Italian Republic.
• *A test of a W47 warhead fired from a Polaris missile – the only time a nuclear missile has been test fired with its warhead detonated – occurs near Palmyra Atoll south of Hawaii.
• May 14
• * Juan Carlos of Spain marries the Greek Princess Sophia in Athens.
• * Milovan Đilas is given a further sentence in Yugoslavia, for publishing Conversations with Stalin.
• May 22 - Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashes near Unionville, Missouri, after the in-flight detonation of a bomb near the rear lavatory in a suicide bombing committed as insurance fraud; all 45 passengers and crew aboard are killed.
• May 23
• * Drilling for the new Montreal Subway commences.
• * Raoul Salan, founder of the French terrorist Organisation armée secrète, is sentenced to life imprisonment in France.
• * Ruben Jaramillo, Mexican peasant leader, and his wife and children, are gunned down by the Mexican army and federal police in Xochitepec, Morelos, Mexico.
• May 24 - Project Mercury: Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth 3 times, in the U.S. Aurora 7 space capsule.
• May 25 - The new Coventry Cathedral is consecrated in England. On 30 May, Benjamin Britten's War Requiem is premiered here.
• May 29 - Negotiations between the OAS and the FLA lead to a real armistice in Algeria.
• May 30 - The 1962 FIFA World Cup begins in Chile.
• May 31 - The British West Indies Federation is officially wound up due to internal dissention.

  June

• June - Rachel Carson's Silent Spring begins serialization in The New Yorker; it is released as a book on September 27 in the U.S., giving rise to the modern environmentalist movement.
• June 3 - Air France Flight 007 crashes on take-off at Orly Airport in Paris; 130 of 132 people on board are killed, 2 flight attendants survive. Most victims are cultural and civic leaders of Atlanta.
• June 5 - Spider-Man, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, is introduced by Marvel Comics with the publication of Amazing Fantasy #15 with a cover date of August.
• June 11 - U.S. President John F. Kennedy gives the commencement address at Yale University.
• June 12 - Alcatraz escape attempt: Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin escape from the Alcatraz Island prison in the United States; it is never confirmed that they make it ashore.
• June 15 - Students for a Democratic Society in the United States complete the Port Huron Statement.
• June 17
• *The OAS signs a truce with the FLN in Algeria, but a day later announces that it will continue the fight on behalf of French Algerians.
• *Brazil beats Czechoslovakia 3–1, to win the 1962 FIFA World Cup.
• June 22 - Air France Flight 117 crashes into terrain during bad weather in Guadeloupe in the West Indies, killing all 113 on board, the airline's second fatal accident in just 3 weeks, and the third fatal 707 crash of the year.
• June 25
• * Engel v. Vitale: The United States Supreme Court rules that mandatory prayers in public schools are unconstitutional.
• * MANual Enterprises v. Day: The United States Supreme Court rules that photographs of nude men are not obscene, decriminalizing nude male pornographic magazines.
• * İsmet İnönü of the CHP forms the new government of Turkey.
• June 26 - A 2-day steel strike begins in Italy in support of increased wages and a five-day working week.
• June 30 - The last soldiers of the French Foreign Legion leave Algeria.