This Year in History:
1962
Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.
The Weavers, one of the most significant popular‑music groups of the postwar era, saw their career nearly destroyed during the Red Scare of the early 1950s. Even with anti‑communist fervor…
On January 10, 1962, an avalanche on the slopes of an extinct volcano kills more than 4,000 people in Peru. Nine towns and seven smaller villages were destroyed. Mount Huascaran…
The United States Air Force launches Operation Ranch Hand, a “modern technological area‑denial technique” designed to expose the roads and trails used by the Viet Cong. Flying C‑123 Providers, U.S.…
On January 13, 1962, Ernie Kovacs, a comedian who hosted his own television shows during the 1950s and is said to have influenced such TV hosts as Johnny Carson and…
Peter, Paul and Mary didn’t revolutionize folk music the way Bob Dylan did. Dylan’s songwriting fundamentally altered and then ultimately transcended the folk idiom itself, while Peter, Paul and Mary…
The first U.S. Air Force plane is lost in South Vietnam. The C‑123 aircraft crashed while spraying defoliant on a Viet Cong ambush site. The aircraft was part of Operation…
The first U.S. helicopter is shot down in Vietnam. It was one of 15 helicopters ferrying South Vietnamese Army troops into battle near the village of Hong My in the…
On February 7, 1962, President John F. Kennedy issues an executive order broadening the United States’ restrictions on trade with Cuba. The ensuing embargo, which effectively restricts all trade between…
On February 10, 1962, American spy pilot Francis Gary Powers is released by the Soviets in exchange for Soviet Colonel Rudolf Abel, a senior KGB spy who was caught in…
From Cape Canaveral, Florida, John Herschel Glenn Jr. is successfully launched into space aboard the Friendship 7 spacecraft on the first orbital flight by an American astronaut. Glenn, a lieutenant…
On March 2, 1962, Philadelphia Warriors center Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points against the New York Knicks during a home game in Hershey, Pennsylvania. It was the first time that…
On March 18, 1962, France and the leaders of the Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN) sign a peace agreement to end the seven‑year Algerian War, signaling the end of 130…
On April 9, 1962, Puerto Rican actress Rita Moreno becomes the first Hispanic woman to win an Oscar, for her role of Anita in West Side Story (1961). Moreno, who…
Two commuter trains and a freight train collide near Tokyo, Japan, killing more than 160 people and injuring twice that number on May 3, 1962. It was Constitution Day in…
If you’d told a randomly selected group of American music fans in the spring of 1962 that a British act would soon achieve total dominance of the American pop scene,…
Near Tel Aviv, Israel, Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi SS officer who organized Adolf Hitler’s “final solution of the Jewish question,” was executed for his crimes against humanity. Eichmann was born…
On June 7, 1962, the banking institution Credit Suisse—then known as Schweizerische Kreditanstalt (SKA)—opens the first drive‑through bank in Switzerland at St. Peter‑Strasse 17, near Paradeplatz (Parade Square) in downtown…
“How did they ever make a movie of Lolita?” was the question posed by the posters advertising Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov’s famously controversial novel, released on June…
“This here ain’t no protest song or anything like that, ’cause I don’t write no protest songs.” That was how Bob Dylan introduced one of the most eloquent protest songs…
The United States Patent Office issues the Swedish engineer Nils Bohlin a patent for his three‑point automobile safety belt “for use in vehicles, especially road vehicles” on July 10, 1962.…
