Events from the year 1962 in the United States.
The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. The major American retailers Walmart, Kmart, and Target open their first stores.
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
State governments Governors and lieutenant governors Governors
Lieutenant governors
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 Subway introduces a subway train that operates without a crew on board. January 26 – Ranger 3 is launched to study the Moon. It is the third during the Ranger program. Ranger 3 later misses the Moon 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 (see also Trade Expansion Act 1962) February 7 – The Kennedy Government bans all U.S.-related imports from Cuba and exports to Cuba. February 10 – Captured US 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 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 19 – Gala for President Kennedy's 45th birthday (on May 29) at Madison Square Garden in New York City at which Marilyn Monroe sings "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" in one of her last public appearances. 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 ( 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 Brookfield, 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 ; 46 are killed, 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. La Grenouille French restaurant opens in midtown Manhattan. Publication of Helen Gurley Brown's Sex and the Single Girl.
Ongoing Cold War (1947–1991) Space Race (1957–1975)
Births
January 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)Stephen Gould, Tenor Best Known for Tackling Wagner, Dies at 61