1962

Events from the year **1962 in the United States**.

* Speaker of the House of Representatives: *vacant* (until January 10), John William McCormack (D-MA) (starting January 10)
* Senate Majority Leader: Mike Mansfield (D-MT)
* Congress: 87th

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: John M. Patterson (Democratic)
* Governor of Alaska: William A. Egan (Democratic)
* Governor of Arizona: Paul Fannin (Republican)
* Governor of Arkansas: Orval Faubus (Democratic)
* Governor of California: Pat Brown (Democratic)
* Governor of Colorado: Stephen L. R. McNichols (Democratic)
* Governor of Connecticut: John N. Dempsey (Democratic)
* Governor of Delaware: Elbert N. Carvel (Democratic)
* Governor of Florida: C. Farris Bryant (Democratic)
* Governor of Georgia: Ernest Vandiver (Democratic)
* Governor of Hawaii: William F. Quinn (Republican) (until December 3), John A. Burns (Democratic) (starting December 3)
* Governor of Idaho: Robert E. Smylie (Republican)
* Governor of Illinois: Otto Kerner Jr. (Democratic)
* Governor of Indiana: Matthew E. Welsh (Democratic)
* Governor of Iowa: Norman A. Erbe (Republican)
* Governor of Kansas: John Anderson Jr. (Republican)
* Governor of Kentucky: Bert T. Combs (Democratic)
* Governor of Louisiana: Jimmie H. Davis (Democratic)
* Governor of Maine: John H. Reed (Republican)
* Governor of Maryland: J. Millard Tawes (Democratic)
* Governor of Massachusetts: John A. Volpe (Republican)
* Governor of Michigan: John Swainson (Democratic)
* Governor of Minnesota: Elmer L. Andersen (Republican)
* Governor of Mississippi: Ross R. Barnett (Democratic)
* Governor of Missouri: John M. Dalton (Democratic)
* Governor of Montana: Donald Grant Nutter (Republican) (until January 25), Tim M. Babcock (Republican) (starting January 25)
* Governor of Nebraska: Frank B. Morrison (Democratic)
* Governor of Nevada: Grant Sawyer (Democratic)
* Governor of New Hampshire: Wesley Powell (Republican)
* Governor of New Jersey: Robert B. Meyner (Democratic) (until January 16), Richard J. Hughes (Democratic) (starting January 16)
* Governor of New Mexico: Edwin L. Mechem (Republican) (until November 30), Tom Bolack (Republican) (starting November 30)
* Governor of New York: Nelson Rockefeller (Republican)
* Governor of North Carolina: Terry Sanford (Democratic)
* Governor of North Dakota: William L. Guy (Democratic)
* Governor of Ohio: Michael DiSalle (Democratic)
* Governor of Oklahoma: J. Howard Edmondson (Democratic)
* Governor of Oregon: Mark Hatfield (Republican)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: David L. Lawrence (Democratic)
* Governor of Rhode Island: John A. Notte Jr. (Democratic)
* Governor of South Carolina: Ernest Hollings (Democratic)
* Governor of South Dakota: Archie M. Gubbrud (Republican)
* Governor of Tennessee: Buford Ellington (Democratic)
* Governor of Texas: Price Daniel (Democratic)
* Governor of Utah: George Dewey Clyde (Republican)
* Governor of Vermont: F. Ray Keyser Jr. (Republican)
* Governor of Virginia: J. Lindsay Almond (Democratic) (until January 13), Albertis S. Harrison Jr. (Democratic) (starting January 13)
* Governor of Washington: Albert D. Rosellini (Democratic)
* Governor of West Virginia: William Wallace Barron (Democratic)
* Governor of Wisconsin: Gaylord A. Nelson (Democratic)
* Governor of Wyoming: Jack R. Gage (Democratic)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of Alabama: Albert B. Boutwell (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Alaska: Hugh Wade (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas: Nathan Green Gordon (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of California: Glenn Malcolm Anderson (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: Robert Lee Knous (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Anthony J. Armentano (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Delaware: Eugene Lammot (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Georgia: Garland T. Byrd (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii: James Kealoha (Republican) (until December 2), William S. Richardson (Democratic) (starting December 2)
* Lieutenant Governor of Idaho: W. E. Drevlow (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Samuel H. Shapiro (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Richard O. Ristine (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: W. L. Mooty (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: Harold H. Chase (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Wilson W. Wyatt (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: C. C. Aycock (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Edward F. McLaughlin Jr. (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: T. John Lesinski (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: Karl Rolvaag (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: Carroll Gartin (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Hilary A. Bush (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Montana: Tim M. Babcock (Republican) (until January 25), David F. James (Democratic) (starting January 25)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: Dwight W. Burney (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Rex Bell (Republican) (until July 4), Maude Frazier (Democratic) (starting July 4)
* Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico: Tom Bolack (Republican) (until November 30), vacant (starting November 30)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: Malcolm Wilson (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota: Orville W. Hagen (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: John W. Donahey (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma: George Nigh (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: John Morgan Davis (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Edward P. Gallogly (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Burnet R. Maybank Jr. (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota: Joseph H. Bottum (Republican) (until month and day unknown), vacant (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: William D. Baird (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), vacant (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Ralph A. Foote (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Allie Edward Stokes Stephens (Democratic) (until January 13), Mills E. Godwin Jr. (Democratic) (starting January 13)
* Lieutenant Governor of Washington: John Cherberg (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Warren P. Knowles (Republican)

## 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 – Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962 begins: 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 9 – Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962 ends.
* 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 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.
* May 31 – Larry Allen Abshier becomes the first of six (possibly seven) American defectors to North Korea.

### 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
	+ *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.

### 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.

## Memoriam

* January 13 – Ernie Kovacs, comedian and actor (aged 42; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* January 19 – Snub Pollard, actor (aged 72; Burbank, CA, USA)
* January 20 – Robinson Jeffers, poet (aged 75; Carmel, CA, USA)
* January 25 – Lucy Robins Lang, political activist (aged 77; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* January 26 – Lucky Luciano, gangster (aged 64; Naples, Italy)
* February 1 – Carey Wilson, screenwriter (aged 72; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* February 6 – Roy Atwell, actor, comedian and composer (aged 83; New York City, NY, USA)
* February 17 – Joseph Kearns, actor (aged 55; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* February 19
	+ James Barton, actor (aged 71; Mineola, NY, USA)
	+ Georgios Papanikolaou, cytopathologist, inventor of the Pap smear (aged 78; Miami, FL, USA)
* February 27 – Willie Best, actor (aged 48; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* February 28 – Chic Johnson, actor (aged 70; Las Vegas, NV, USA)
* March 1 – Roscoe Ates, actor (aged 67; Encino, CA, USA)
* March 15 – Arthur Compton, physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927 (aged 69; Berkeley, CA, USA)
* March 27 – Augusta Savage, African American sculptor (aged 70; New York City, NY, USA)
* April 8 – Esther Kerr Rusthoi, author, poet, composer, singer, and evangelist (aged 53; Glendale, CA, USA)
* May 1 – Helen Tufts Bailie, social reformer and activist (aged 88; Broward County, FL, USA)
* May 4 – George A. Nelson, dairy farmer, a farm organization leader, and politician (aged 88; St. Croix Falls, WI, USA)
* May 28 – Robert Francis Anthony Studds, admiral and engineer, fourth Director of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (aged 65; Arlington, VA, USA)
* May 31 – Henry F. Ashurst, politician (aged 87; Washington, DC, USA)
* June 9 – Polly Adler, brothel owner (aged 62; Hollywood, CA, USA)
* July 6 – William Faulkner, fiction writer, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949 (aged 64; Byhalia, MS, USA)
* August 5 – Marilyn Monroe, film actress and icon (aged 36; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* September 2
	+ Morris Louis, painter (aged 49; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
	+ Louis King, film director (aged 64; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* September 3 – E. E. Cummings, poet (aged 67; Madison, NH, USA)
* September 19 – Ben J. Tarbutton, interpreter (aged 77; Sandersville, GA, USA)
* September 24
	+ Sam McDaniel, actor (aged 76; Woodland Hills, CA, USA)
	+ Charles Reisner, silent film actor and director (aged 75; La Jolla, CA, USA)
* November 7 – Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945 as wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt (aged 78; New York City, NY, USA)
* November 8
	+ William Bailey, actor (aged 76; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
	+ Willis H. O'Brien, stop motion animator (aged 76; Los Angeles, CA, USA)
* November 9 – Carroll McComas, actress (aged 76; New York City, NY, USA)
* November 18 – Dennis Chávez, U.S. Senator from New Mexico from 1935 to 1962 (aged 74; Washington, DC, USA)
* December 1 – Joseph C. O'Mahoney, journalist, lawyer, and politician (aged 78; Bethesda, MD, USA)
* December 4 – Jens Christian Bay, writer and librarian (aged 90; Elmhurst, IL, USA)
* December 31 – Al Mamaux, baseball player and manager (aged 68; Santa Monica, CA, USA)