What happened in 1962

World8

• Jan 26U.S. spacecraft Ranger 3 is launched to study the Moon; it later misses the Moon by.
• Feb 4During a new moon and solar eclipse, an extremely rare grand conjunction of the classical planets occurs (it includes all five of the naked-eye planets plus the Sun and Moon), 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.
• Apr 26The U.S. Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the far side of the Moon without returning any scientific data.
• Jul 22Mariner program: The U.S. Mariner 1 spacecraft flies erratically several minutes after launch and has to be destroyed.
• Jul 31Solar eclipse of July 31, 1962: An annular solar eclipse is visible in South America, the Atlantic Ocean, Africa and the Indian Ocean, and is the 36th solar eclipse of Solar Saros 135.
• Sep 26The North Yemen Civil War erupts.
• Dec 8The first period of the Second Vatican Council closes.
• Dec 14U.S. spacecraft Mariner 2 passes by Venus, becoming the first spacecraft to transmit data from another planet.

Japan2

• May 3Mikawashima train crash: 160 die in a triple-train disaster near Tokyo.
• Aug 11King Kong vs. Godzilla is released in Japan, becoming the first Godzilla and King Kong film in colour. It also becomes the 3rd film in both franchises.

North America20

• Feb 20Project Mercury: Aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth, three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes.
• Apr 9The 34th Academy Awards Ceremony is held in the United States; West Side Story wins Best Picture.
• Apr 21The Century 21 Exposition World's Fair opens in Seattle, United States. This is also the Opening Day of the Seattle Space Needle.
• May 1Dayton Hudson Corporation opens the first of its Target discount stores, in Roseville, Minnesota.
• May 6A 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 22Continental 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 24Project Mercury: Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth 3 times, in the U.S. Aurora 7 space capsule.
• Jun 12Alcatraz 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.
• Jul 30Trans-Canada Highway officially opens throughout the between St. John's, Newfoundland, and Victoria, British Columbia, by completion of the Rogers Pass section, making it at this time the world's longest uninterrupted highway.
• Aug 5Death of Marilyn Monroe: Actress Marilyn Monroe is found dead aged 36 from an overdose of sleeping pills and chloral hydrate at her home in Brentwood, Los Angeles; it is officially ruled a "probable suicide" (the exact cause has been disputed).
• Aug 27NASA launches the Mariner 2 space probe.
• Sep 12President John F. Kennedy, in his "We choose to go to the Moon" speech at Rice University, reaffirms that the U.S. will put a man on the Moon by the end of the decade.
• Sep 12The first Kohl's department store chain is opened in Brookfield, Wisconsin.
• Sep 29The Canadian Alouette 1, the first satellite built outside the United States and the Soviet Union, is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
• Oct 3Project Mercury: Mercury-Atlas 8 – U.S. astronaut Walter Schirra orbits the Earth six times, in the Sigma 7 space capsule.

5 more in the app

Europe29

• Jan 15French designer Yves Saint Laurent launches his own fashion house.
• Jan 24The Organisation armée secrète (OAS, a right-wing paramilitary organization opposed to Algerian independence) bombs the French Foreign Ministry.
• Feb 5President of France Charles de Gaulle calls for Algeria to be granted independence.
• Mar 8In Geneva, France and the Algerian FLN begin negotiations.
• Mar 18Évian Accords: France and Algeria sign an agreement in Évian-les-Bains, ending the Algerian War.
• Mar 19An armistice begins in Algeria; however, the OAS continues its terrorist attacks against Algerians.
• Mar 24OAS leader Edmond Jouhaud is arrested in Oran.
• Apr 8In France, the Évian Accords are adopted in a referendum, with a majority of 90%.
• Apr 13OAS leader Edmond Jouhaud is sentenced to death in France.
• May 5Twelve East Germans escape to the West via a tunnel under the Berlin Wall.
• May 23Raoul Salan, founder of the French terrorist Organisation armée secrète, is sentenced to life imprisonment in France.
• Jun 17The 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.
• Jul 12The Rolling Stones make their debut at London's Marquee Club, opening for Long John Baldry.
• Aug 17East German border guards kill 18-year-old Peter Fechter as he attempts to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin, leading to mass protests on the Western side.
• Oct 11Second Vatican Council: Pope John XXIII convenes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years.

14 more in the app

USSR / Russia1

• NovAleksandr Solzhenitsyn's novella One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (, Odin den' Ivana Denisovicha), the author's pseudo-autobiographical account of life in the gulag, is published in Novy Mir, in an unprecedented acknowledgement of the Soviet Union's Stalinist past.

Asia6

• Mar 16Flying 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 (no wreckage or bodies are ever found).
• Aug 15The New York Agreement is signed, transferring the Dutch West New Guinea colony to Indonesia.
• Aug 24Indonesia officially launches television with the establishment of TVRI television network or Televisi Republik Indonesia (Indonesian National Channel), broadcasting the opening of the 1962 Asian Games.
• Oct 20The Sino-Indian War, a border dispute involving two of the world's largest nations (India and the People's Republic of China), erupts into fighting.
• Nov 21The Sino-Indian War ends with a Chinese victory with India surrendering Aksai Chin to China.
• Dec 8The North Kalimantan National Army revolts in Brunei, in the first stirrings of the Indonesian Confrontation.

Latin America7

• Apr 14A Cuban military tribunal convicts 1,179 Bay of Pigs attackers.
• May 30The 1962 FIFA World Cup begins in Chile.
• Jun 17Brazil beats Czechoslovakia 3–1, to win the 1962 FIFA World Cup.
• Aug 6The Caribbean island of Jamaica becomes independent of the United Kingdom's British Empire and is the first English speaking-sovereign country in the West Indies and is first part of the Commonwealth of Nations.
• Oct 16Cuban Missile Crisis begins when U.S. President Kennedy is told of photographs (taken from U-2 flights) showing Soviet nuclear weapon installations being constructed on Cuba in the Caribbean. A stand-off ensues for 12 days between the United States and the Soviet Union, threatening the world with nuclear war.
• Nov 20Cuban Missile Crisis: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, President John F. Kennedy ends the blockade of the island.
• Dec 24Cuba releases the last 1,113 participants in the Bay of Pigs Invasion to the U.S., in exchange for food worth $53 million.

Africa7

• May 2An OAS bomb explodes in Algeria; this and other attacks kill 110 and injure 147.
• May 29Negotiations between the OAS and the FLA lead to a real armistice in Algeria.
• Jul 1Rwanda and Burundi gain full independence from Belgium.
• Jul 5Algeria becomes independent from France.
• Jul 31Algeria proclaims independence; Ahmed Ben Bella is the first President.
• Aug 16Algeria joins the Arab League.
• Oct 8Algeria is accepted into the United Nations.

Oceania1

• Jan 1Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand.