Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

July 1962

Month of 1962 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

July 1962
Remove ads

The following events occurred in July 1962:

More information Su, Mo ...
Thumb
July 9, 1962: Hawaii receives EMP from distant nuclear test
Thumb
July 12, 1962: The Rolling Stones debut
Thumb
July 6, 1962: Nevada's Sedan Crater, 1200 feet wide, 320 feet deep, is created instantly by a nuclear bomb
July 2, 1962: First Walmart store opens
Remove ads

July 1, 1962 (Sunday)

Thumb
Rwanda
Thumb
Burundi
Remove ads

July 2, 1962 (Monday)

  • Sam Walton opened the first Walmart store as Wal-Mart Discount City in Rogers, Arkansas, United States. By 1970, there would be 38 Walmart stores.[11] After 50 years, there were more than 9,766 stores in 27 countries, and 11,766 by mid-2019.[12]
  • Off-the-pad Gemini ejection tests began at Naval Ordnance Test Station and were completed by the first week of August. The tests showed problems which led to two important design changes, adding a drogue-gun method of deploying the parachute and installing a three-point harness-release system similar to those used in military aircraft.[13]
Remove ads

July 3, 1962 (Tuesday)

July 4, 1962 (Wednesday)

Thumb
July 4, 1962: The Mercury astronauts at the Houston Coliseum barbecue
Remove ads

July 5, 1962 (Thursday)

  • The French Assembly voted, 241 to 72 to end the immunity of former Prime Minister Georges Bidault against arrest and prosecution, which he had held in April 1961, when he had called for the overthrow of President Charles De Gaulle. The vote cleared the way for a treason indictment of Bidault, who had fled to Italy.[21]
  • After Algeria's independence was recognized by France, 20 French Algerians and 75 Algerians were killed in a massacre which took place at Oran, the section of Algiers where most French Algerians lived.[22]
Remove ads

July 6, 1962 (Friday)

Thumb
Byrne
  • Irish broadcaster Gay Byrne presented his first edition of The Late Late Show.[23] Byrne would go on to present the talk show for 37 years, making him the longest-running TV talk show host in history.
Thumb
"Digging" the Sedan Crater in Nevada
Remove ads

July 7, 1962 (Saturday)

Remove ads

July 8, 1962 (Sunday)

Remove ads

July 9, 1962 (Monday)

  • In the Starfish Prime test, the United States exploded a 1.4 megaton hydrogen bomb in outer space, sending the warhead on a Titan missile to an altitude of 248 miles (399 km) over Johnston Island.[33] The first two attempts at exploding a nuclear missile above the Earth had failed. The flash was visible in Hawaii, 750 miles (1,210 km) away, and scientists discovered the destructive effects of the first major manmade electromagnetic pulse (EMP), as a surge of electrons burned out streetlights, blew fuses, and disrupted communications.[34][35] Increasing radiation in some places one hundredfold, the EMP damaged at least ten orbiting satellites beyond repair.[36]
  • NASA scientists concluded that the layer of haze reported by astronauts John Glenn and Scott Carpenter was a phenomenon called "airglow". Using a photometer on his mission in May, Carpenter was able to measure the layer. Airglow accounts for much of the illumination in the night sky.[7]
  • American artist Andy Warhol first presented his Campbell's Soup Cans at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles.[37]
  • Died: Georges Bataille, 64, French philosopher and writer; of arteriosclerosis[38]

July 10, 1962 (Tuesday)

Thumb
Telstar
  • AT&T's Telstar, the world's first commercial communications satellite, was launched into orbit from Cape Canaveral at 3:35 a.m. local time, and activated that night.[39] The first image transmitted between continents was a black-and-white photo of the American flag[40][41] sent from the U.S. transmitter at Andover, Maine, to Pleumeur-Bodou in France.[42]
  • The All-Channel Television Receiver Bill was signed into law, requiring that all televisions made in the United States to be able to receive both VHF signals (channels 2 to 13 on 30 to 300 MHz) and UHF (channels 14 to 83, on frequencies between 470 and 896 MHz). The change encouraged the opening of hundreds of new U.S. television stations.[43]
  • One of the spans in the Kings Bridge in Melbourne, Australia, collapsed after a 45-tonne (44-long-ton; 50-short-ton) vehicle passed over it, only 15 months after the multi-lane highway bridge's opening on April 12, 1961. The collapse occurred immediately after the driver of the vehicle had passed over the span, and nobody was hurt.[44][45]
  • Francisco Brochado de Rocha was approved as the new Prime Minister of Brazil by a 215–58 vote of Parliament.[46]
  • Born: Christopher Martin, formerly known as Play, comedian, actor and rapper of the hip-hop duo Kid 'n Play; in Queens[47]
  • Died: Tommy Milton, 68, American race car driver and first to win the Indianapolis 500 twice (in 1921 and 1923 despite being blind in one eye), shot himself twice after making his own funeral arrangements.[48]
Remove ads

July 11, 1962 (Wednesday)

Remove ads

July 12, 1962 (Thursday)

July 13, 1962 (Friday)

July 14, 1962 (Saturday)

  • A 1958 Pakistan law, banning all political parties, was repealed by a National Assembly resolution, amending the Constitution of 1962. The only requirement was that a party could not prejudice Islamic ideology or the stability or integrity of Pakistan, and could not receive any aid from a foreign nation.[62]
  • In the third match of the rugby league Test series between Australia and Great Britain, held at Sydney Cricket Ground, a controversial last-minute Australian try and the subsequent conversion resulted in an 18–17 win for Australia.[63]
  • The Miss Universe 1962 beauty pageant took place at Miami Beach, Florida, and was won by Norma Nolan of Argentina.[64]
  • Henry Brooke became the new UK Home Secretary in Harold Macmillan's reshuffled cabinet.

July 15, 1962 (Sunday)

  • The Washington Post broke the story of thalidomide tablets that had been distributed in the United States, in a story by Morton Mintz under the headline "Heroine of FDA Keeps Bad Drug Off Market". As a result of the publicity, more than 2.5 million thalidomide pills, which had been distributed to physicians by the Richardson-Merrell pharmaceutical company pending approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, were recalled. Although thousands of babies were born with defects in Europe, the FDA identified only 17 known cases in the United States.[65]
  • Six animals (two monkeys and four hamsters) died from radiation poisoning, after having been sent into space by NASA a day earlier in the first test of whether astronauts could safely endure prolonged exposure to cosmic rays. The animals had been inside a space capsule that had been kept at an altitude of 131,000 feet (40,000 m) by a balloon.[66]
  • Jacques Anquetil won the Tour de France for the third time.[67]
  • Born: Glen Edward Rogers, American serial killer who was suspected of stabbing and strangling an elderly man and four women in five separate states between 1993 and 1995; in Hamilton, Ohio[68]

July 16, 1962 (Monday)

  • French explorer Michel Siffre began a long-term experiment of chronobiology, the perception of the passage of time in the absence of information, staying underground in a cave for two months after entering. While inside, he used a one-way field telephone to signal to researchers when he was going to sleep, when he was getting up, and how much time had passed between events during his waking hours. He was brought back out 60 days later on September 14, 1962. According to his diary, he thought only 35 days had passed and that the date was August 20.[69][70][71]
  • Prime Minister of Liechtenstein Alexander Frick resigned and was succeeded by Gerard Batliner.[72]

July 17, 1962 (Tuesday)

  • The U.S. Senate voted 52–48 against further consideration of President Kennedy's proposed plan for Medicare, government-subsidized health care for persons drawing social security benefits.[73] Two liberal U.S. Senators had switched sides, preventing a 50–50 tie that would have been broken in favor of Medicare by Vice-President Johnson. As President, Johnson would sign Medicare into law effective July 30, 1965.[74]
  • Major Robert M. White (USAF) piloted a North American X-15 to a record altitude of 314,750 feet (59.612 mi; 95.94 km),[75] narrowly missing the 100 kilometer altitude Kármán line that defines outer space, but passing the 50-mile altitude mark that NASA used to define the threshold of space. The record of 67 miles (108 km) would be set by Joseph A. Walker on July 19, 1963.[76]
  • The Eritrean Liberation Front staged its first major attack in seeking to separate Eritrea from Ethiopia, by throwing a hand grenade at a reviewing stand that included General Abiy Abebe (Emperor Haile Selassie's representative), Eritrean provincial executive Asfaha Woldemikael, and Hamid Ferej, leader of the Eritrean provincial assembly.[77]
  • Four years after the USS Nautilus had become the first submarine to reach the geographic North Pole, the Soviet Union reached the Pole with a sub for the first time, with the submarine K-3 (later renamed the Leninsky Komsomol).[78]
  • The final atmospheric nuclear test by the United States was made, a test shot Little Feller I (of a "Small Boy" weapon).[79]

July 18, 1962 (Wednesday)

  • Manuel Prado Ugarteche, the 73-year-old President of Peru, was arrested during a coup d'etat after Peruvian Army officers used a Sherman tank to batter down the gates of the presidential palace in Lima. Prado was replaced by a military junta led by General Ricardo Pérez Godoy.[80] The election results of June 10 were annulled.[81]
  • The largest space vehicle, up to that time, began orbiting the Earth, after the United States launched the communications satellite "Big Shot". After going aloft, the silvery balloon was inflated to its full size as a sphere with a diameter of 135 feet (41 m).[82]
  • Unpopular and unable to implement economic reforms, Ali Amini resigned as Prime Minister of Iran. He would be replaced by Asadollah Alam.[83]
  • The Minnesota Twins became the first Major League Baseball team to hit two grand slams in the same inning of a game, as Bob Allison and Harmon Killebrew drove in eight runs in the first inning of a 14–3 win over the Cleveland Indians.[84] In 50 years, the feat has been accomplished seven more times since then, most recently on September 11, 2015, in the eighth inning of a 14 to 8 win by the Baltimore Orioles over the Kansas City Royals.[85] On April 23, 1999, both of the St. Louis Cardinals' grand slams in the third inning were made by the same batter, Fernando Tatis.[86]
  • Typhoon Kate, which would kill at least 110 people in Taiwan and in Communist China, formed a short distance from northern Luzon in the Philippines.
  • Born: Abu Sabaya, Philippine leader of rebel group Abu Sayyaf; as Aldam Tilao in Isabela, Basilan (killed, 2002)
  • Died: Eugene Houdry, 70, French chemical engineer who developed high octane gasoline and the catalytic converter

July 19, 1962 (Thursday)

  • The first successful intercept of one missile by another took place at Kwajalein Island, with a Zeus missile passing within 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) of an incoming Atlas missile, close enough for a nuclear warhead to disable an enemy weapon.[87]
  • Gemini Project Office and North American Aviation agreed on guidelines for the design of the advanced paraglider trainer, the system to be used with the Gemini spacecraft. The most important of these guidelines was redundancy for all critical operations.[13]

July 20, 1962 (Friday)

  • Tou Samouth, Communist leader of the Khmer People's Revolutionary Party in Cambodia, disappeared and was presumed to have been murdered. His successor, Saloth Sar, would go on to lead the Communist Party of Kampuchea as Pol Pot, and then exact revenge on former government employees.[88]
  • Executive Order 11307 prohibited unlicensed U.S. citizens (and people under U.S. jurisdiction) from possessing or holding an interest in gold coins from outside the United States, unless the coins were of "exceptional numismatic value".[89]
  • The world's first regular passenger hovercraft service was introduced, as the VA-3 began the 20-mile (32 km) run between Rhyl (in Wales) and Wallasey (in England).[90]
  • France and Tunisia reestablished diplomatic relations, a year after breaking ties following the Bizerte crisis.[91]
  • NASA Administrator James E. Webb announced that a new mission control center would be established at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) in Houston. Project Mercury flights were controlled from the center at Cape Canaveral, but these facilities were inadequate for the more complex missions envisioned for the Gemini and Apollo programs. Philco Corporation was awarded the contract for a design concept for the flight information and control functions of the new center, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would supervise construction of this center as it had all major facilities at MSC. Total cost was estimated at $30 million for the center, to open in 1964 for Gemini space rendezvous flights.[13]
  • Born:

July 21, 1962 (Saturday)

  • The United Arab Republic (Egypt) successfully fired four missiles which, President Gamal Abdel Nasser said, could strike any target "just south of Beirut", a reference to neighboring Israel. Nasser said that the Nakid El Kaher (Conqueror) missile had a range of 380 miles (610 km), which could reach all of Israel, as well as cities in Syria and Jordan, and that the El Zahir (Victory) missile had a range of 222 miles (357 km), including Tel Aviv.[92] The missiles came as a surprise to Israel's intelligence service, the Mossad. In August, Mossad chief Isser Harel would report to Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion that German scientists were assisting in the development of 900 more missiles capable of carrying chemical and biological weapons and would organize Operation Damocles to target the scientists on the project.[93]
  • Died: G. M. Trevelyan, 86, British historian

July 22, 1962 (Sunday)

  • The Mariner 1 spacecraft flew erratically several minutes after launch from the U.S. and had to be destroyed after less than five minutes, at a cost of $4,000,000 for the satellite and $8,000,000 for the rocket.[94] The $12 million dollar loss was later traced[95] to the omission of an overbar in the handwritten text from which the computer programming for the rocket guidance system was drawn, which should have been written as : being rendered as :; thus, there was no smooth function to prevent over-correction of minor variations of data on rocket velocity.[96]
  • On Canadian Pacific Flight 301, 27 of the 40 people were killed after the four-engine plane had a failure of one engine shortly after takeoff on departure from Honolulu. The airliner crashed during an emergency landing, with only 13 survivors.[97]
  • Born:

July 23, 1962 (Monday)

  • While in Geneva, W. Averell Harriman of the U.S. met with North Vietnam's Foreign Minister, Ung Văn Khiêm in an unsuccessful attempt to talk about a similar neutrality agreement in Vietnam. Decades after the end of the Vietnam War, sources in Hanoi would reveal that the North Vietnamese Politburo had approved the pursuit of discussions, but that Khiem had not been informed of the Politburo decision that might have averted a protracted war. American and North Vietnamese diplomats would not meet again for six years.[100]
  • Telstar relayed the first live trans-Atlantic television signal, with two 20-minute programs. The first was a set of U.S. TV shows (President Kennedy's news conference, 90 seconds of the Phillies-Cubs baseball game, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir) to Eurovision (2:00 p.m. New York, 8:00 p.m. London). At 4:58 p.m., New York Time, live transmission of European broadcasting was shown on all three American networks, beginning with a live picture of the clock at London's Big Ben approaching 11:00 p.m.[59][101]
  • A railway crash killed 36 people and injured 100, when a train between Paris and Marseille derailed while crossing a viaduct near Dijon. Most of the dead were vacationers traveling to the French Riviera, and had been on a passenger car that plunged into a ravine.[102]
  • The International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos was signed in Geneva.[103] Under the agreement, all foreign military personnel were to withdraw within 75 days; the last Americans, advisers to the U.S. Special Forces, would leave by October 6.[104]
  • In the first press conference broadcast by satellite, U.S. President Kennedy blamed the Soviet Union for the resumption of nuclear testing and the inflexibility about the Berlin crisis.[105]
  • The Saskatoon agreement brought an end to the Saskatchewan doctors' strike.[106]
  • Born: Eriq La Salle, African-American TV actor; in Hartford, Connecticut
  • Died:

July 24, 1962 (Tuesday)

July 25, 1962 (Wednesday)

July 26, 1962 (Thursday)

  • The first nuclear missiles shipped to Cuba by the Soviet Union were unloaded in at the port of Mariel. Their discovery would precipitate the Cuban Missile Crisis.[116]
  • The first birth defects in the United States from the drug thalidomide were detected. The unborn child's mother asked the Supreme Court of Arizona State for an order permitting her to abort her fifth pregnancy. In previous months, she had used the controversial medication, which was banned in the U.S., but had been bought by her husband in London. Her request was rejected.[117]
  • To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the founding of the republic in Egypt, President Nasser declared an end to tuition in the nation's universities.[118]
  • The French Chef, starring Julia Child, appeared on television for the first time, as a program on the Boston public television station WGBH.[119]
  • The first phone call by satellite between Italy and the United States took place. Osvaldo Cagnasso, the mayor of Alba in Piedmont, called his counterpart, Mayor John Snider in Medford, Oregon. The mayors of the twinned cities exchanged their greetings, in the call relayed by Telstar 1, for 12 minutes. In the hours that followed, the satellite broadcast another 11 calls from one side of the Atlantic to the other.[120]
  • In Algeria, during the split within the GPRA, Belkacem Krim and Boudiaf got the Kabylie to organize the resistance to Ben Bella's army. Benkhedda remained in Algiers to cooperate with the opposing faction.[121]
  • Born:
  • Died:

July 27, 1962 (Friday)

July 28, 1962 (Saturday)

  • A 103–26 vote of delegates to the German Football Association (DFB) convention at Dortmund created the Bundesliga, the national league of West Germany's top professional soccer football teams.[127] The Bundesliga would begin its first season on August 24, 1963, with 16 teams out of 46 applicants.[128]
  • South Korea's President Park Chung Hee issued the memorandum "The Establishment of a Social Security System" and set about to forcibly implement programs for assistance for the elderly, disabled and unemployed in what was, at that time, a poor nation.[129]
  • The USSR launched Kosmos 7, the first successful Soviet mission to conduct surveillance photography of the entire United States.[130]
  • A railway crash killed 19 people and injured 116 at Steelton, Pennsylvania. The nine-car Pennsylvania Railroad train was carrying baseball fans to the Pirates-Phillies baseball game at Philadelphia, when the last five cars went off track, and three fell down a 40-foot (12 m) embankment.[131]
  • Race riots broke out in Dudley, West Midlands, in the UK.[132]
  • Born: Jason Sherman, Canadian playwright and screenwriter; in Montreal

July 29, 1962 (Sunday)

July 30, 1962 (Monday)

Thumb
July 30, 1962: The Trans-Canada Highway opens to traffic

July 31, 1962 (Tuesday)

References

Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads
Remove ads