| 1962-04-26
NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
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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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| 1962-07-05
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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| 1962-05-31
Adolf Eichmann is hanged in Israel.
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| 1962-02-07
The United States bans all Cuban imports and exports.
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| 1962-07-03
The Algerian War of Independence against the French ends.
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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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| 1962-05-12
Douglas MacArthur delivers his Duty, Honor, Country valedictory speech at the United States Military Academy.
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| 1962-09-01
Channel Television reaches 54,000 households in the Channel Islands.
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| 1962-01-01
United States Navy SEALs established.
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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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| 1962-06-14
The European Space Research Organisation is established in Paris – later becoming the European Space Agency.
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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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| 1962-09-24
United States court of appeals orders the University of Mississippi to admit James Meredith.
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| 1962-11-11
Kuwait's National Assembly ratifies the Constitution of Kuwait.
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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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| 1962-10-25
Uganda joins the United Nations.
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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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| 1962-01-11
An avalanche on Huascaran in Peru causes 4,000 deaths.
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| 1962-09-18
Burundi, Jamaica, Rwanda and Trinidad and Tobago are admitted to the United Nations.
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| 1962-10-11
Second Vatican Council: Pope John XXIII convenes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years.
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| 1962-07-06
As a part of Operation Plowshare, the Sedan nuclear test takes place.
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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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| 1962-09-25
The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria is formally proclaimed. Ferhat Abbas is elected President of the provisional government.
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| 1962-08-16
Pete Best replaced by Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey) as drummer for The Beatles.
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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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| 1962-03-01
American Airlines Flight 1 crashes on take off in New York.
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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
The Starfish Prime high-altitude nuclear test is conducted by the United States of America.
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| 1962-05-27
The Centralia, Pennsylvania mine fire starts.
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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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| 1962-02-14
First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes television viewers on a tour of the White House.
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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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| 1962-10-03
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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| 1962-03-13
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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| 1962-05-22
Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashes after bombs explode on board.
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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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| 1962-07-09
Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans exhibition opens at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles.
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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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| 1962-12-09
The Petrified Forest National Park is established in Arizona.
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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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| 1962-04-02
The first official Panda crossing is opened outside Waterloo station, London.
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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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| 1962-12-14
NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.
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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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| 1962-11-06
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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| 1962-04-21
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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| 1962-01-04
New York City introduces a train that operates without a crew on-board.
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| 1962-08-05
Nelson Mandela is jailed. He would not be released until 1990.
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| 1962-11-17
President John F. Kennedy dedicates Dulles International Airport, serving the Washington, D.C. region.
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| 1962-05-06
St. Martín de Porres is canonized by Pope John XXIII.
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| 1962-10-27
A plane carrying Enrico Mattei, post-war Italian administrator, crashes in mysterious circumstances.
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| 1962-03-02
In Burma, the army led by General Ne Win seizes power in a coup d'état.
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| 1962-08-31
Trinidad and Tobago becomes independent.
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| 1962-07-02
The first Wal-Mart store opens for business in Rogers, Arkansas.
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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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| 1962-09-15
The Soviet ship Poltava heads toward Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the Cuban Missile Crisis.
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| 1962-10-22
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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| 1962-07-23
The International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos is signed.
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| 1962-03-19
Algerian War of Independence: A ceasefire takes effect.
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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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| 1962-07-23
Telstar relays the first publicly transmitted, live trans-Atlantic television program, featuring Walter Cronkite.
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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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| 1962-05-31
The West Indies Federation dissolves.
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| 1962-09-28
The Paddington tram depot fire destroys 65 trams in Brisbane, Australia.
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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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| 1962-07-12
The Rolling Stones perform their first ever concert, at the Marquee Club in London.
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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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| 1962-10-09
Uganda becomes an independent Commonwealth realm.
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| 1962-12-13
NASA "Relay 1" launch, first active repeater communications satellite in orbit.
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| 1962-07-05
Algeria becomes independent from France.
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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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| 1962-01-08
The Harmelen train disaster killed 93 people in the Netherlands.
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| 1962-09-26
The Yemen Arab Republic is proclaimed.
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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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| 1962-06-22
An Air France Boeing 707 jet crashes in bad weather in Guadeloupe, West Indies, killing 113.
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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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| 1962-10-16
Cuban Missile Crisis between the United States and Cuba begins.
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| 1962-08-27
The Mariner 2 unmanned space mission is launched to Venus by NASA.
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| 1962-01-10
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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| 1962-10-08
Algeria joins the United Nations.
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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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| 1962-03-02
Wilt Chamberlain sets the single-game scoring record in the National Basketball Association by scoring 100 points.
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| 1962-02-09
Jamaica becomes an independent nation within the Commonwealth of Nations.
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| 1962-09-30
James Meredith enters the University of Mississippi, defying segregation.
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| 1962-07-01
Independence of Burundi.
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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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| 1962-10-28
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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| 1962-11-20
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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| 1962-03-18
The Evian Accords put an end to the Algerian War of Independence, which began in 1954.
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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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| 1962-02-17
A storm kills more than 300 people in Hamburg, West Germany.
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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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| 1962-12-21
Rondane National Park is established as Norway's first national park.
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| 1962-08-06
Jamaica becomes independent.
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| 1962-07-10
Telstar, the world's first communications satellite, is launched into orbit.
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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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| 1962-07-11
First transatlantic satellite television transmission.
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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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| 1962-02-05
French President Charles De Gaulle calls for Algeria to be granted independence.
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| 1962-01-03
Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.
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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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| 1962-09-08
Newly independent Algeria, by referendum, adopts a Constitution.
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| 1962-10-01
First broadcast of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
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| 1962-09-30
Mexican-American labor leader César Chávez founds the United Farm Workers.
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| 1962-01-22
The Organization of American States suspends Cuba's membership.
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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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| 1962-01-26
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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| 1962-05-25
The Old Bay Line, the last overnight steamboat service in the United States, goes out of business.
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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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| 1962-09-29
Alouette 1, the first Canadian satellite, is launched.
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| 1962-08-22
An attempt to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle fails.
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| 1962-07-01
Independence of Rwanda.
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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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| 1962-07-08
Ne Win besieges and dynamites the Rangoon University Student Union building to crash the Student Movement.
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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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