Evening star., 1962-12-26
Broadcast on Cuba Blockade and Showdown
with Reds Picked as Top News Story of '62
Y BY MARY CAMPBELL
Associated Press Staff Writer

Associated Press Staff Writer
A radio-television broadcast
that sent the fear of nuclear
war around the world touched
off the top news story of 1862.
This was the announcement
og President Kennedy of the
Cuban quarantine. The quar-
antine and ensuing develop
ments were voted the No. /
story by editors Of Associated
Press member newspapers and
radio and TV stations.
Mr.. Kennedy's announce
ment came october % after a
week Of tense conferences and
veiled mobilization by Unite d
States armed forces.
While a jittery world held
Its breath. Soviet ships with
unknown orders steamed toward
the United States naval block
ade.
The Navy came alongside IS
Cuba : bound ships, then let
them pass through.
After a series Of statements
that began with bluster and
moderated to surprising COM
sgromise. Premier Khrushchev
Agreed that Russia would de-
,molish its missile sites in Cuba,
took his rockets and jet bomb
ers home and said a United
Nations team could conduct on
> site inspection in Cuba.
- Cuban Premier Castro baked
at on-site inspection, but the
high tension had eased.
Col. GIenn's Flight
Second place in the editors
poll went to Marine 1t. Col.
John H. Glenn, jr., Americans.
envious Of the 17-orbit space
trip of Cosmonaut Ghermanl
Titov in August. 1861, followed
Col. Glenn with nail biting
concern through 10 postpone
ments Of his flight, the blast
off of his Friendship-7 space
craft the morning of February
20. the four-hour 56-minute,
three-orbit flight, and his safe
recovery in the Atlantic.
When James H. Meredith
enrolled in the previously all
white University Of Mississippi,
the clash of Federal and State
power and subsequent violence
made a dramatic story editors
chose No. 3.
Mr.. Meredith, 29-year-old Ne
gro. registered at Ole Miss on
October /. Earlier, Gov. Ross
Barnett denied Mr.. Meredith
admission to the school three
times. The courts found the
Governor guilty of contempt;
President Kennedy Federalized
tie Mississippi National Guard
and sent in Federal troops. On
Sunday. September 80, Gov.
Barnett announced he would
not close the university to
block integration.
Mr. Meredith then was es-
'corted on campus and a night
long riot erupted in which two
men were killed and scores in
jured. Former Maj. Gen. Ed
San Walker was arrested for in
'cting students, who kept heck
ling Mr.. Meredith long after
the troops moved out and he
began attending classes.
DefOrmed Births
Other choices in the editors
sop 10:
a. A new word thalidomide,
the name of a sleeping pill
tranquiliZer drug, entered the
Nations vocabulary in 1862.
News Of the drug startled a
world that learned it caused
deformed babies when taken by
pregnant women.
DR.. Frances Kelsey Of the
Food and Drug Administration
kept thalidomide from being IL
censed for sale in the United
States. so few babies born here
were deformed by thalidomide.
But experts put the total of
babies born without limbs or
otherwise deformed because of
the drug at upwards Of 10000,
most Of them in West Germany.
S. The stock market, after a.
jagged five-month decline, on
May % took its greatest plunge
since October 28. 1929. The ,
number Of shares sold May %
-9.3 million-waS the fifth
greatest since Black Tuesday,
october 90, 1929.
The market gained on May
20, slumped again through the