1962 in the United States

1962 in the United States
Events from the year 1962 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government
President: John F. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts)
Vice President: Lyndon B. Johnson (D-Texas)
Chief Justice: Earl Warren (California)
Speaker of the House of Representatives: vacant (until January 10), John William McCormack (D-Massachusetts) (starting January 10)
Senate Majority Leader: Mike Mansfield (D-Montana)
Congress: 87th
Events
January
January 1
The United States Navy SEALs are activated. SEAL Team One is commissioned in the Pacific Fleet and SEAL Team Two in the Atlantic Fleet.
NBC introduces the "Laramie peacock" before a midnight showing of the series Laramie.
January 2 – NAACP Executive Secretary Roy Wilkins praises U.S. President John F. Kennedy's "personal role" in advancing civil rights.
January 4 – New York City introduces a subway train that operates without a crew on board.
January 26 – Ranger 3 is launched to study the Moon but later misses its target by 22,000 miles.
January 30 – Two of the high-wire "Flying Wallendas" are killed, when their famous 7-person pyramid collapses during a performance in Detroit, Michigan.
February
February 3 – The United States embargo against Cuba is announced.
February 4 – Danny Thomas founds St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
February 6 – Negotiations between U.S. Steel and the United States Department of Commerce begin.
February 7 – The United States Government bans all U.S.-related Cuban imports and exports.
February 10 – Captured American spy pilot Francis Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel in Berlin.
February 14 – First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy takes television viewers on a tour of the White House.
February 20 – Project Mercury: while aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth, three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes.
March
March 1 – American Airlines Flight 1, an American Airlines Boeing 707, crashes on takeoff at New York International Airport, after its rudder separates from the tail, killing all 87 passengers and eight crew members aboard.
March 2 – Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points in a single NBA basketball game.
March 5–9 – Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962: One of the ten worst storms in the United States in the 20th century occurs, killing 40 people, injuring over 1,000, and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage in six states.
March 21 – The Taco Bell fast food restaurant chain is founded by Glen Bell, in Downey, California.
March 26 – Baker v. Carr: the U.S. Supreme Court rules that federal courts can order state legislatures to reapportion seats.
April
April 6 – Leonard Bernstein causes controversy with his remarks before a concert featuring Glenn Gould with the New York Philharmonic.
April 9 – The 34th Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Bob Hope, is held at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins' West Side Story wins ten awards, including Best Motion Picture and a joint Best Director win for Wise and Robbins. The film is tied for the most nominations with Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg; both receive 11.
April 10 – In Los Angeles, California, the first MLB game is played at Dodger Stadium.
April 14 – A Cuban military tribunal convicts 1,179 Bay of Pigs attackers.
April 16 – 20-year-old Bob Dylan premieres his song "Blowin' in the Wind", at Gerde's Folk City in Greenwich Village (New York City).
April 21 – The Century 21 Exposition World's Fair opens in Seattle, Washington, opening the Space Needle to the public for the first time.
May
May – Larry Allen Abshier becomes the first of six (possibly seven) American defectors to North Korea.
May 1 – Dayton Hudson Corporation opens the first of its Target discount stores in Roseville, Minnesota.
May 24 – Project Mercury: Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth 3 times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.
May 25 – The Baltimore Steam Packet Company, the last overnight steamboat service in the U.S., goes out of business.
May 27 – The Centralia mine fire is ignited in Pennsylvania.
June
June 3 – Air France Flight 007, Boeing 707 Chateau de Sully on a charter flight carrying cultural and civic leaders of Atlanta, Georgia, overruns the runway at Orly Airport in Paris; 130 of 132 passengers are killed.
June 6 – President John F. Kennedy gives the commencement address at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
June 11 – President John F. Kennedy gives the commencement address at Yale University.
June 15 – Port Huron Statement completed.
June 25 – United States Supreme Court rulings:
Engel v. Vitale: the court rules that mandatory prayers in public schools are unconstitutional.
MANual Enterprises v. Day: the court rules that photographs of nude men are not obscene, decriminalizing nude male pornographic magazines.
June 28 – The United Lutheran Church in America, the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, the American Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church merge to form the Lutheran Church in America.
July
July 2 – The first Wal-Mart store opens for business in Rogers, Arkansas.
July 10 – AT&T's Telstar, the world's first commercial communications satellite, is launched into orbit and activated the next day.
July 17
Nuclear testing: the "Small Boy" test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada Test Site.
Robert M. White flies the X-15 to an altitude of 314,750 feet (59 miles, 96 km) to qualify him for USAF Astronaut Wings becoming the first "winged" astronaut and one of a few who have flown into space without a conventional spacecraft.
July 22 – Mariner program: the Mariner 1 spacecraft flies erratically several minutes after launch and has to be destroyed.
July 23 - Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American to be inducted into the Baseball Museum And Hall Of Fame.
August
August 5 – Marilyn Monroe is found dead at age 36 from "acute barbiturate poisoning".
August 15 – The New York Agreement is signed trading the West New Guinea colony to Indonesia.
August 27 – NASA launches the Mariner 2 space probe.
September
September 12
President John F. Kennedy, at a speech at Rice University featuring the words "We choose to go to the Moon", reaffirms that the U.S. will put a man on the Moon by the end of the decade.
The first Kohl's department store opens in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
September 22 – Bob Dylan premieres his song "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
September 23 – Animated sitcom The Jetsons premieres on ABC.
September 25 – Sonny Liston knocks out Floyd Patterson two minutes into the first round of his fight for the boxing world title at Comiskey Park in Chicago.
September 29 – The Canadian Alouette 1, the first satellite built outside the United States and the Soviet Union, is launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
September 30 – CBS broadcasts the final episodes of Suspense and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, marking the end of the Golden Age of Radio.
October
October 1
The first black student, James Meredith, registers at the university of Mississippi, escorted by Federal Marshals.
Johnny Carson takes over as permanent host of NBC's The Tonight Show, a post he will hold for 30 years.
Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance return to TV with The Lucy Show, two years after the end of I Love Lucy (Vance is the first person to portray a divorcée on a weekly series).
October 12
Groove Phi Groove Social Fellowship Incorporated is founded at Morgan State College.
The infamous Columbus Day Storm strikes the U.S. Pacific Northwest with wind gusts up to 170 mph (270 km/h); 46 are killed, 11 billion board feet (26 million m3) of timber is blown down, with $230 million U.S. in damages.
Jazz bassist/composer Charles Mingus presents a disastrous concert at Town Hall in New York City. It will gain a reputation as the worst moment of his career.
October 13 – Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opens on Broadway.
October 14 – Cuban Missile Crisis begins: a U-2 flight over Cuba takes photos of Soviet nuclear weapons being installed. A stand-off then ensues the next day between the United States and the Soviet Union, threatening the world with nuclear war.
October 16 – The New York Yankees defeat the San Francisco Giants 1–0 in Game 7 of the 1962 World Series.
October 22 – In a televised address, U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces to the nation the existence of Soviet missiles in Cuba.
October 27 – The British revue play Beyond the Fringe makes its Broadway debut.
October 28 – Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he has ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba. In a secret deal between Kennedy and Khrushchev, Kennedy agrees to the withdrawal of U.S. missiles from Turkey. The fact that this deal is not made public makes it look like the Soviets have backed down.
November
November 7 – Richard M. Nixon loses the California governor's race. In his concession speech, he states that this is his "last press conference" and that "you won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more".
November 17 – In Washington, D.C., U.S. President John F. Kennedy dedicates Dulles International Airport.
November 20 – The 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.
December
December 2 – Vietnam War: after a trip to Vietnam at the request of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield becomes the first American official to make a non-optimistic public comment on the war's progress.
December 8 – The 1962 New York City newspaper strike begins, affecting all of the city's major newspapers; it lasts for 114 days.
December 9 – Petrified Forest National Park is established.
December 14 – U.S. spacecraft Mariner 2 flies by Venus, becoming the first probe to successfully transmit data from another planet.
December 24 – Cuba releases the last 1,113 participants in the Bay of Pigs Invasion to the U.S., in exchange for food worth $53 million.
December 30 – An unexpected storm buries Maine under five feet of snow, forcing the Bangor Daily News to miss a publication date for the first and only time in its history.
Undated
American advertising man Martin K. Speckter invents the interrobang, a new English-language punctuation mark.
Publication of Helen Gurley Brown's Sex and the Single Girl.
Ongoing
Cold War (1947–1991)
Space Race (1957–1975)
Births
January 4 – Peter Steele, singer-songwriter and bass player (died 2010)
January 5 – Suzy Amis Cameron, actress and model
January 6
Michael Houser, singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2002)
Kevin Rosier, mixed martial artist and boxer (died 2015)
January 7 – Hallie Todd, actress, producer, and screenwriter
January 12 – Luna Vachon, American-Canadian professional wrestler (died 2010)
January 14 – Michael McCaul, lawyer and politician
January 17 – Denis O'Hare, actor
January 18 – Mike Lynch, cartoonist
January 19 – Cynthia Coffman, convicted murderer
January 21 – Brian Hildebrand, wrestler, referee and manager (died 1999)
January 24 – Stephen Gould, opera singer (died 2023)
January 25 – Christopher Coppola, film director and producer
January 26
Malcom Gregory Scott, writer, activist, and AIDS survivor
Anna LaCazio, singer (Cock Robin)
January 28 – Creflo Dollar, evangelist
January 30 – Mary Kay Letourneau, child rapist (died 2020)
January 31 – David Oliver, actor (died 1992)
February 2 – Michael T. Weiss, actor
February 4
Clint Black, country musician, record producer, and actor
Jim O'Heir, actor and comedian
February 6 – Axl Rose, rock singer
February 7
Garth Brooks, country singer-songwriter
David Bryan, rock musician (Bon Jovi)
February 10 – Lisa Blunt Rochester, politician
February 11
Tammy Baldwin, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin from 2013
Sheryl Crow, musician and singer
February 22 – Lenda Murray, bodybuilder
February 23 – Frank Luntz, political consultant
March 2 – Jon Bon Jovi, American musician
March 3
Jackie Joyner-Kersee, athlete
Herschel Walker, American football player
March 7
James Barnes, murderer (died 2023)
Cathy Wood, serial killer
March 10
Jasmine Guy, actress, director, singer and dancer
Dan O'Shannon, television writer and producer
March 11
Jeffrey Nordling, actor
Barbara Alyn Woods, actress
March 12 – Titus Welliver, actor
March 15 – Jimmy Baio, actor
March 18
Thomas Ian Griffith, actor
Mike Rowe, television personality and presenter
March 21
Matthew Broderick, actor
Rosie O'Donnell, comedian
March 24 – Star Jones, TV personality
March 26
Chris Bailey, animator and film director
John Stockton, basketball player
Keith Diamond, actor and voice actor
March 30
Mark Begich, U.S. Senator from Alaska from 2009 to 2015
MC Hammer, rapper
Bil Dwyer, stand-up comedian and game show host
March 31 – Stockton Rush, engineer, pilot, and businessman (died 2023)
April 2 – Clark Gregg, actor, director, and screenwriter
April 3 – Mike Ness, musician
April 4 – Melissa Hart (politician), lawyer and politician
April 6 – Steven Levitan, director, writer and producer
April 7 – Hugh O'Connor, actor, son of Carroll O'Connor (died 1995)
April 8 – Izzy Stradlin, guitarist
April 10
Rick Florian, Christian musician and real estate agent
Steve Tasker, American football player
April 14 – Laura Richardson, politician
April 15 – Tom Kane, voice actor
April 16
Antony Blinken, 71st secretary of state
Douglas Elmendorf, economist and politician
Ian MacKaye, singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
Jason Scheff, bassist
April 17 – Bill Kopp, actor, voice actor and animator
April 20
Scott McGehee, film director and screenwriter
Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf (Henry Joseph Nasiff Jr.), comedian (died 2001)
April 21
Craig Robinson, college basketball coach
Carmen Osbahr, American-Mexican muppeteer
April 26
Michael Damian, actor, recording artist and producer
Debra Wilson, actress and comedian
April 28 – Scott La Rock, hip-hop DJ and producer (died 1987)
April 30 – Tom Fahn, voice actor
May 2 – Elizabeth Berridge, actress
May 7 – Robbie Knievel, motorcyclist and daredevil performer (died 2023)
May 12 – Emilio Estevez, actor, director, and writer
May 22 – Brian Pillman, pro wrestler (died 1997)
May 25 – Lionel James, American football player (died 2022)
May 28 – James Michael Tyler, actor (died 2021)
June 1 – Sherri Howard, Olympic athlete
June 3 – David Cole, DJ, producer and songwriter (died 1995)
June 4 – Pam Shriver, tennis player
June 5 – Jeff Garlin, comedian and actor
June 7
Cecil Exum, basketball player (died 2023)
Lance Reddick, actor (died 2023)
June 12 – Jodi Thelen, actress
June 13
Ally Sheedy, actress
Hannah Storm, television anchor and presenter
June 19 – Paula Abdul, musician and judge on American Idol
June 23
Mark DeCarlo, actor
Billy Wirth, actor, film producer and artist
June 24
Sean Vincent Gillis, serial killer
Andrew P. Gordon, judge
June 25 – Anthony Allen Shore, serial killer and child molester (died 2018)
June 28 – Don Chambers, newspaper comic strip artist
June 29 – Michael J. Juneau, jurist (died 2023)
June 30 – Deirdre Lovejoy, actress
July 1 – Andre Braugher, actor
July 3
Tom Cruise, actor and film producer
Thomas Gibson, actor
Hunter Tylo, actress and author, previously model
July 5 – Jeff Innis, baseball player (died 2022)
July 7
Tom Conroy, state legislator
MC Jazzy Jeff, rapper
July 12 – Dan Murphy, rock guitarist
July 13 – Tom Kenny, actor and comedian
July 14 – Jeff Olson, percussionist (Trouble)
July 15 – Glen Edward Rogers, serial killer
July 17 – Fred Wadsworth, professional golfer
July 18
Lee Arenberg, actor
Jack Irons, drummer
July 31 – Kevin Greene, footballer (died 2020)
August 4
Roger Clemens, baseball player
Jim Hagedorn, politician (died 2022)
August 8 – Jim Sweeney, footballer (died 2022)
August 10 – Suzanne Collins, author and television writer
August 16 – Steve Carell, comedian, actor, voice artist, producer, writer and director
August 17 – John Marshall Jones, actor
August 24 – Major Garrett, journalist and author
August 25 – Tommy Blacha, comedy writer
August 26 – Bob Mionske, cyclist and attorney
August 28
Craig Anton, actor and comedian
David Fincher, director and producer
August 31 – Dee Bradley Baker, voice actor
September 5 – Brian A. Joyce, politician (died 2018)
September 6 – Chris Christie, 55th Governor of New Jersey
September 9 – Mark Linkous, singer, songwriter and musician (died 2010)
September 11 – Kristy McNichol, actress and singer
September 12 – Amy Yasbeck, actress
September 14 – Tom Kurvers, ice hockey player (died 2021)
September 15
Dina Lohan, television personality
Rebecca Miller, actress and director
September 17 – Don Rogers, American football player (died 1986)
September 26
Gregory Crewdson, photographer
Al Pitrelli, guitarist
October 1 – Esai Morales, actor
October 6 – Rich Yett, baseball player
October 11
Joan Cusack, actress and comedian
Leslie Landon, actress
October 12
Chris Botti, trumpeter and composer
Deborah Foreman, actress
October 13
T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh, actress and comedian
Kelly Preston, actress..
October 15 – Aron Ra, author, podcaster and atheist activist
October 21 – Drew Griffin, journalist (died 2022)
October 23
Doug Flutie, American football player
Mike Tomczak, American football player
October 24
Dave Blaney, race car driver
Mark Miller, motorcycle racer
Jay Novacek, American football player and coach
November 3 – Gabe Newell, co-founder and managing director of Valve
November 10 – David Petrarca, television, film and theatre director, producer
November 11 – Demi Moore, actress, film producer, film director, songwriter and model
November 15
Mark Acres, basketball player and educator
Judy Gold, comedian, actress and producer
November 18 – Kirk Hammett, metal guitarist (Exodus and Metallica)
November 19
Jodie Foster, actress, film director and producer
Sean Parnell, 10th Governor of Alaska
November 20 – Gail Ann Dorsey, musician
November 27 – Conrad Anker, mountaineer
November 28 – Jon Stewart, comedian and political commentator
December 9 – Felicity Huffman, actress
December 12 – Peter Bergen, journalist and author
December 17 – Richard Jewell, victim of defamation
December 21 – Steven Mnuchin, 77th United States Secretary of the Treasury
December 24 – Kate Spade, born Katherine Brosnahan, fashion designer (died 2018)
December 31
Don Diamont, actor
Jeff Flake, politician
Lance Reddick, actor
Deaths
January 13 – Ernie Kovacs, comedian and actor (born 1919)
January 19 – Snub Pollard, actor (born 1889 in Australia)
January 20 – Robinson Jeffers, poet (born 1887)
January 25 – Lucy Robins Lang, political activist (born 1884 in Russia)
January 26 – Lucky Luciano, gangster (born 1897 in Italy)
February 1 – Carey Wilson, screenwriter (born 1889)
February 6 – Roy Atwell, actor, comedian and composer (born 1878)
February 17 – Joseph Kearns, actor (born 1907)
February 19
James Barton, actor (born 1890)
Georgios Papanikolaou, cytopathologist, inventor of the Pap smear (born 1883 in Greece)
February 27 – Willie Best, actor (born 1916)
February 28 – Chic Johnson, actor (born 1891)
March 1 – Roscoe Ates, actor (b. 1895)
March 15 – Arthur Compton, physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927 (born 1892)
March 27 – Augusta Savage, African American sculptor (born 1892)
April 8 – Esther Kerr Rusthoi, author, poet, composer, singer, and evangelist (born 1909)
April 10 – Manton S. Eddy, general (born 1892)
April 20 – Grover Whalen, politician (born 1886)
May – Helen Tufts Bailie, social reformer and activist (born 1874)
May 28 – Robert Francis Anthony Studds, admiral and engineer, fourth Director of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (born 1896)
May 31 – Henry Fountain Ashurst, politician (born 1874)
June 9 – Polly Adler, brothel owner (born 1900 in Russia)
July 2 – Valeska Suratt, stage actress and silent film star (born 1882)
July 6 – William Faulkner, fiction writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949 (born 1897)
July 25 – Nelle Wilson Reagan, mother of United States President Ronald Reagan (born 1883)
August 5 – Marilyn Monroe, film actress and icon (born 1926)
September 2
Morris Louis, painter (born 1912)
Louis King, film director (born 1898)
September 3 – E. E. Cummings, poet (born 1894)
September 19 – Ben J. Tarbutton, interpreter (born 1885)
September 24
Sam McDaniel, actor (born 1886)
Charles Reisner, silent film actor and director (born 1887)
November 7 – Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945 (born 1884)
November 8
William Bailey, actor (born 1886)
Willis H. O'Brien, stop motion animator (born 1886)
November 9 – Carroll McComas, actress (born 1886)
November 18 – Dennis Chávez, U.S. Senator from New Mexico from 1935 to 1962 (born 1888)
December 4 – Jens Christian Bay, writer and librarian (born 1871 in Denmark)
December 10 – Robert C. Giffen, admiral (b. 1886)
December 22 – Roy Palmer, jazz trombonist (born 1892)
December 31 – Al Mamaux, baseball player and manager (b. 1894)
See also
List of American films of 1962
Timeline of United States history (1950–1969)
References
External links
1960s in the United States
United States
United States
Years of the 20th century in the United States