| 1962-11-17
President John F. Kennedy dedicates Dulles International Airport, serving the Washington, D.C. region.
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| 1962-12-02
Vietnam War: After a trip to Vietnam at the request of US President John F. Kennedy, US Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield becomes the first American official not to make an optimistic public comment on the war's progress.
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| 1962-09-15
The Soviet ship Poltava heads toward Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the Cuban Missile Crisis.
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| 1962-09-18
Burundi, Jamaica, Rwanda and Trinidad and Tobago are admitted to the United Nations.
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| 1962-09-01
Channel Television reaches 54,000 households in the Channel Islands.
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| 1962-02-14
First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes television viewers on a tour of the White House.
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| 1962-07-01
Independence of Burundi.
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| 1962-10-09
Uganda becomes an independent Commonwealth realm.
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| 1962-09-20
James Meredith, an African-American, is temporarily barred from entering the University of Mississippi.
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| 1962-08-17
East German border guards kill 18-year-old Peter Fechter as he attempts to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin becoming one of the first victims of the wall.
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| 1962-08-16
Pete Best replaced by Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey) as drummer for The Beatles.
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| 1962-12-07
Prince Rainier III of Monaco revises the principality's constitution, devolving some of his power to advisory and legislative councils.
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| 1962-08-15
James Joseph Dresnok defects to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea after running across the Korean DMZ. Dresnok still resides in the capital, Pyongyang.
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| 1962-08-22
An attempt to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle fails.
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| 1962-05-24
Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.
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| 1962-10-28
Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he had ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.
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| 1962-06-14
The New Mexico Supreme Court in the case of Montoya v. Bolack, 70 N.M. 196, prohibits state and local governments from denying Indians the right to vote because they live on a reservation.
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| 1962-10-16
Cuban Missile Crisis between the United States and Cuba begins.
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| 1962-09-23
The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City opens with the completion of the first building, the Philharmonic Hall (now Avery Fisher Hall) home of the New York Philharmonic.
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| 1962-06-03
An Air France Boeing 707 charter, Chateau de Sully crashes after an aborted takeoff from Paris-Orly Airport, killing 130.
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| 1962-09-08
Last run of the famous Pines Express over the Somerset and Dorset Railway line (UK) fittingly using the last steam locomotive built by British Railways, 9F locomotive 92220 Evening Star.
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| 1962-10-11
Second Vatican Council: Pope John XXIII convenes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years.
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| 1962-07-10
Telstar, the world's first communications satellite, is launched into orbit.
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| 1962-07-12
The Rolling Stones perform their first ever concert, at the Marquee Club in London.
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| 1962-07-05
Algeria becomes independent from France.
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| 1962-08-22
The NS Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered cargo ship, completes its maiden voyage.
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| 1962-01-04
New York City introduces a train that operates without a crew on-board.
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| 1962-10-14
The Cuban Missile Crisis begins: A U.S. Air Force U-2 reconnaissance plane and its pilot fly over the island of Cuba and take photographs of Soviet missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads being installed and erected in Cuba.
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| 1962-11-20
Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation.
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| 1962-02-09
Jamaica becomes an independent nation within the Commonwealth of Nations.
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| 1962-10-07
U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya, U.S.S.R.
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| 1962-07-23
Telstar relays the first publicly transmitted, live trans-Atlantic television program, featuring Walter Cronkite.
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| 1962-05-06
St. Martín de Porres is canonized by Pope John XXIII.
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| 1962-03-13
Lyman Lemnitzer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, delivers a proposal, called Operation Northwoods, regarding performing terrorist attacks upon Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. The proposal is scrapped and President John F. Kennedy removes Lemnitzer from his position.
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| 1962-07-06
As a part of Operation Plowshare, the Sedan nuclear test takes place.
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| 1962-01-01
Western Samoa achieves independence from New Zealand; its name is changed to the Independent State of Western Samoa.
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| 1962-07-09
Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans exhibition opens at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles.
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| 1962-10-27
A plane carrying Enrico Mattei, post-war Italian administrator, crashes in mysterious circumstances.
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| 1962-07-17
Nuclear weapons testing: The "Small Boy" test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada Test Site.
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| 1962-07-09
The Starfish Prime high-altitude nuclear test is conducted by the United States of America.
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| 1962-08-05
Nelson Mandela is jailed. He would not be released until 1990.
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| 1962-01-08
The Harmelen train disaster killed 93 people in the Netherlands.
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| 1962-01-11
An avalanche on Huascaran in Peru causes 4,000 deaths.
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| 1962-02-05
French President Charles De Gaulle calls for Algeria to be granted independence.
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| 1962-11-24
The West Berlin branch of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany forms a separate party, the Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin.
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| 1962-12-11
Arthur Lucas, convicted of murder, is the last person to be executed in Canada.
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| 1962-09-24
United States court of appeals orders the University of Mississippi to admit James Meredith.
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| 1962-10-08
Algeria joins the United Nations.
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| 1962-05-12
Douglas MacArthur delivers his Duty, Honor, Country valedictory speech at the United States Military Academy.
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| 1962-09-30
Mexican-American labor leader César Chávez founds the United Farm Workers.
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| 1962-11-06
Apartheid: The United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies and calls for all UN member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation.
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| 1962-03-19
Algerian War of Independence: A ceasefire takes effect.
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| 1962-02-17
A storm kills more than 300 people in Hamburg, West Germany.
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| 1962-05-31
Adolf Eichmann is hanged in Israel.
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| 1962-09-26
The Yemen Arab Republic is proclaimed.
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| 1962-12-21
Rondane National Park is established as Norway's first national park.
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| 1962-07-08
Ne Win besieges and dynamites the Rangoon University Student Union building to crash the Student Movement.
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| 1962-10-27
Major Rudolf Anderson of the United States Air Force becomes the only direct human casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis when his U-2 reconnaissance airplane is shot down in Cuba by a Soviet-supplied SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missile.
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| 1962-06-11
Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin allegedly become the only prisoners to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island.
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| 1962-10-03
Project Mercury: Sigma 7 is launched from Cape Canaveral, with Astronaut Wally Schirra aboard, for a six-orbit, nine-hour flight.
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| 1962-06-14
The European Space Research Organisation is established in Paris – later becoming the European Space Agency.
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| 1962-09-25
The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria is formally proclaimed. Ferhat Abbas is elected President of the provisional government.
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| 1962-07-11
First transatlantic satellite television transmission.
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| 1962-04-21
The Seattle World's Fair (Century 21 Exposition) opens. It is the first World's Fair in the United States since World War II.
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| 1962-03-16
A Flying Tiger Line Super Constellation disappears in the western Pacific Ocean, with 107 missing.
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| 1962-01-03
Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.
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| 1962-01-22
The Organization of American States suspends Cuba's membership.
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| 1962-02-10
Captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.
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| 1962-09-28
The Paddington tram depot fire destroys 65 trams in Brisbane, Australia.
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| 1962-03-02
In Burma, the army led by General Ne Win seizes power in a coup d'état.
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| 1962-05-22
Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashes after bombs explode on board.
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| 1962-10-25
Cuban missile crisis: Adlai Stevenson shows photos at the UN proving Soviet missiles are installed in Cuba.
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| 1962-05-25
The Old Bay Line, the last overnight steamboat service in the United States, goes out of business.
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| 1962-02-08
Charonne massacre. Nine trade unionists are killed by French police at the instigation of Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Paris Prefecture of Police.
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| 1962-10-08
Spiegel scandal: Der Spiegel publishes the article "Bedingt abwehrbereit" ("Conditionally prepared for defense") about a NATO manoeuver called "Fallex 62", which uncovered the sorry state of the Bundeswehr (Germany's army) facing the communist threat from the east at the time. The magazine is soon accused of treason.
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| 1962-09-29
Alouette 1, the first Canadian satellite, is launched.
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| 1962-07-03
The Algerian War of Independence against the French ends.
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| 1962-08-31
Trinidad and Tobago becomes independent.
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| 1962-10-13
The Pacific Northwest experiences a cyclone the equal of a Cat 3 hurricane. Winds measured above 150 mph at several locations; 46 people died.
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| 1962-10-25
Uganda joins the United Nations.
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| 1962-07-23
The International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos is signed.
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| 1962-08-06
Jamaica becomes independent.
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| 1962-11-04
In a test of the Nike-Hercules air defense missile, Shot Dominic-Tightrope is successfully detonated 69,000 feet above Johnston Island. It would also be the last atmospheric nuclear test conducted by the United States.
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| 1962-01-10
Apollo Project: NASA announces plans to build the C-5 rocket booster. It became better known as the Saturn V moon rocket, which launched every Apollo moon mission.
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| 1962-08-27
The Mariner 2 unmanned space mission is launched to Venus by NASA.
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| 1962-01-01
United States Navy SEALs established.
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| 1962-03-02
Wilt Chamberlain sets the single-game scoring record in the National Basketball Association by scoring 100 points.
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| 1962-04-06
Leonard Bernstein causes controversy with his remarks from the podium during a New York Philharmonic concert featuring Glenn Gould performing Brahms' First Piano Concerto.
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| 1962-05-27
The Centralia, Pennsylvania mine fire starts.
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| 1962-10-22
Cuban Missile Crisis: US President John F. Kennedy, after internal counsel from Dwight D. Eisenhower, announces that American reconnaissance planes have discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he has ordered a naval "quarantine" of the Communist nation.
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| 1962-03-18
The Evian Accords put an end to the Algerian War of Independence, which began in 1954.
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| 1962-12-13
NASA "Relay 1" launch, first active repeater communications satellite in orbit.
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| 1962-07-22
Mariner program: Mariner 1 spacecraft flies erratically several minutes after launch and has to be destroyed.
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| 1962-09-08
Newly independent Algeria, by referendum, adopts a Constitution.
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| 1962-03-23
NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, is launched as a showcase for Dwight D. Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace initiative.
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| 1962-10-01
First broadcast of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
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| 1962-04-26
NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
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| 1962-01-26
Ranger program: Ranger 3 is launched to study the moon. The space probe later misses the moon by 22,000 miles (35,400 km).
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| 1962-06-22
An Air France Boeing 707 jet crashes in bad weather in Guadeloupe, West Indies, killing 113.
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| 1962-12-14
NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.
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| 1962-04-02
The first official Panda crossing is opened outside Waterloo station, London.
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| 1962-02-20
Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the earth, making three orbits in 4 hours, 55 minutes.
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| 1962-03-01
American Airlines Flight 1 crashes on take off in New York.
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| 1962-02-07
The United States bans all Cuban imports and exports.
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| 1962-05-31
The West Indies Federation dissolves.
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| 1962-07-02
The first Wal-Mart store opens for business in Rogers, Arkansas.
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| 1962-12-09
The Petrified Forest National Park is established in Arizona.
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| 1962-05-19
A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison Square Garden, New York City. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe's rendition of Happy Birthday.
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| 1962-11-11
Kuwait's National Assembly ratifies the Constitution of Kuwait.
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| 1962-08-30
Japan conducts a test of the NAMC YS-11, its first aircraft since the war and its only successful commercial aircraft from before or after the war.
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| 1962-07-05
The Late Late Show, the world's longest-running chat show by the same broadcaster, airs on RTÉ One for the first time.
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| 1962-03-04
The United States Atomic Energy Commission announces that the first atomic power plant at McMurdo Station in Antarctica is in operation.
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| 1962-09-30
James Meredith enters the University of Mississippi, defying segregation.
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| 1962-11-21
The Chinese People's Liberation Army declares a unilateral cease-fire in the Sino-Indian War.
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| 1962-10-12
Infamous Columbus Day Storm strikes the U.S. Pacific Northwest with record wind velocities; 46 dead and at least U.S. $230 million in damages
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| 1962-07-01
Independence of Rwanda.
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