WORLD HISTORY · 1962 日本語
Events of 1962Showa 37 (Japan) · Year of the Tiger
What happened in 1962?
In 1962, the population of Tokyo passed 10 million, and the YS-11, a passenger plane built in Japan, made its first flight. Abroad, the United States and the Soviet Union faced off in the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Algeria won independence from France.
- Tokyo population tops 10 millionAsia
- Evian Accords end Algerian WarAfrica
- Algeria gains independence from FranceEurope
- Telstar 1 communications satellite launchedNorth America
- Horie Kenichi sails solo across the PacificAsia
- Japanese-built YS-11 airliner makes first flightAsia
- U.S. announces naval blockade in Cuban Missile CrisisNorth America
- First section of Tokyo's Metropolitan Expressway opensAsia
Tap an event to jump to it in the timeline below.
1962 at a glance
| Japanese era | Showa 37 |
|---|---|
| Chinese zodiac | Year of the Tiger |
| Age of people born in 1962 | Turn 64 in 2026 |
| Previous / next year | 1961 (Showa 36) ／ 1963 (Showa 38) |
| Events | 122 |
| AP World History | Unit 8 (Cold War and Decolonization) |
| AP U.S. History | Period 8 |
Famous people born in 1962
Our birthday pages list 704 people born in 1962. Here are some of them.
- Tom CruiseBorn July 3 · turns 64 this year · American movie star known for Top Gun, Rain Man, Jerry Maguire, and the Mission…
- Garth BrooksBorn February 7 · turns 64 this year · American country music superstar known for hits like "Friends in Low Places" an…
- Sheryl CrowBorn February 11 · turns 64 this year · American singer-songwriter known for hits like "All I Wanna Do" and "Soak Up th…
- Jon Bon JoviBorn March 2 · turns 64 this year · American rock singer and songwriter who leads Bon Jovi, the band behind "Livin'…
- Jackie Joyner-KerseeBorn March 3 · turns 64 this year · American track and field star who won three Olympic gold medals in the heptathl…
- Patrick EwingBorn August 5 · turns 64 this year · Jamaican-born American basketball center who starred for the New York Knicks an…
- Suzanne CollinsBorn August 10 · turns 64 this year · American author of The Hunger Games trilogy and the fantasy series The Underlan…
- David FincherBorn August 28 · turns 64 this year · American film director known for dark, stylish movies such as Se7en, Fight Club…
- Jerry RiceBorn October 13 · turns 64 this year · American football wide receiver who starred for the San Francisco 49ers and won…
- Evander HolyfieldBorn October 19 · turns 64 this year · American boxer who won the world heavyweight championship four times and was an…
- Jodie FosterBorn November 19 · turns 64 this year · American actress and director who won two Best Actress Oscars, for The Accused…
- Jon StewartBorn November 28 · turns 64 this year · American comedian and writer best known for hosting The Daily Show, where he sa…
Show 28 more
- Seiko MatsudaBorn March 10 · turns 64 this year
- Jun AzumiBorn January 17 · turns 64 this year
- Tomoyasu HoteiBorn February 1 · turns 64 this year
- Hirokazu Kore-edaBorn June 6 · turns 64 this year
- Rosie O'DonnellBorn March 21 · turns 64 this year
- Jim CarreyBorn January 17 · turns 64 this year
- Anton MuscatelliBorn January 1 · turns 64 this year
- Darren DaultonBorn January 3 · turns 64 this year
- Gavin HastingsBorn January 3 · turns 64 this year
- Joe KleineBorn January 4 · turns 64 this year
- Arie Setiabudi SoesiloBorn January 5 · turns 64 this year
- Danny JacksonBorn January 5 · turns 64 this year
- Suzy AmisBorn January 5 · turns 64 this year
- Aleksandr DuginBorn January 7 · turns 64 this year
- Ron RiveraBorn January 7 · turns 64 this year
- Ray HoughtonBorn January 9 · turns 64 this year
- Kathryn S. McKinleyBorn January 10 · turns 64 this year
- Michael FortierBorn January 10 · turns 64 this year
- Chris BryantBorn January 11 · turns 64 this year
- Kim ColesBorn January 11 · turns 64 this year
- Joe QuesadaBorn January 12 · turns 64 this year
- Luna VachonBorn January 12 · turns 64 this year
- Richie RichardsonBorn January 12 · turns 64 this year
- Kevin MitchellBorn January 13 · turns 64 this year
- Paul HigginsBorn January 13 · turns 64 this year
- Trace AdkinsBorn January 13 · turns 64 this year
- Joel FitzgibbonBorn January 16 · turns 64 this year
- Maxine JonesBorn January 16 · turns 64 this year
Events of 1962 (timeline · 122)
Tip: the PC view is best for studying
On a computer, each region has its own vertical line, so you can follow the flow of events and see what was happening in different parts of the world at the same time.
Western Samoa achieves independence from New Zealand; its name is changed to the Independent State of Western Samoa.
Apollo program: NASA announces plans to build the C-5 rocket launch vehicle, then known as the "Advanced Saturn", to carry human beings to the Moon.
Cold War: While tied to its pier in Polyarny, the Soviet submarine B-37 is destroyed when fire breaks out in its torpedo compartment.
Vietnam War: Operation Chopper, the first American combat mission and first American helicopter assault in the war, takes place.
The Derveni papyrus, Europe's oldest surviving manuscript dating to 340 BC, is found in northern Greece.
Netherlands New Guinea Conflict: Indonesian Navy fast patrol boat RI Macan Tutul commanded by Commodore Yos Sudarso sunk in Arafura Sea by the Dutch Navy.
Ranger 3 is launched to study the Moon. The space probe later misses the Moon by 22,000 miles (35,400 km).
Nine protestors are killed at Charonne station, Paris, by French police under the command of ex-Vichy official and Parisian Prefect of Police Maurice Papon.
Cold War: Captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.
The Great Sheffield Gale impacts the United Kingdom, killing nine people; the city of Sheffield is devastated, with 150,000 homes damaged.
Flooding in the coastal areas of West Germany kills 315 and destroys the homes of about 60,000 people.
Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth, making three orbits in four hours, 55 minutes.
Vietnam War: Two dissident Republic of Vietnam Air Force pilots bomb the Independence Palace in Saigon in a failed attempt to assassinate South Vietnam President Ngô Đình Diệm.
Wilt Chamberlain sets the single-game scoring record in the National Basketball Association by scoring 100 points.
A Caledonian Airways Douglas DC-7 crashes shortly after takeoff from Cameroon, killing 111 – the worst crash of a DC-7.
A Turkish Airlines Fokker F27 Friendship crashes into Mount Medetsiz in the Taurus Mountains of Turkey, killing all 11 people on board.
Flying Tiger Line Flight 739 disappears in the western Pacific Ocean with all 107 aboard missing and presumed dead.
The Évian Accords end the Algerian War of Independence, which had begun in 1954.
Arturo Frondizi, the president of Argentina, is overthrown in a military coup by Argentina's armed forces, ending an 11+1⁄2 day constitutional crisis.
The Seattle World's Fair (Century 21 Exposition) opens. It is the first World's Fair in the United States since World War II.
The French government and representatives of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic reach a settlement to end the Algerian war in the Évian Accords.
A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy takes place at Madison Square Garden, New York City. The highlight is Marilyn Monroe's rendition of "Happy Birthday".
Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashes in Unionville, Missouri after bombs explode on board, killing 45.
Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.
Chinese police open fire on protesters in Yining, Xinjiang, killing at least five people and wounding a dozen others.
Adolf Eichmann, former SS officer in Nazi Germany, is hanged in Israel for having committed crimes against humanity, war crimes, and other offenses.
During the FIFA World Cup, police intervene multiple times in fights between Chilean and Italian players in one of the most violent games in football history.
At Paris Orly Airport, Air France Flight 007 overruns the runway and explodes when the crew attempts to abort takeoff, killing 130.
The Organisation Armée Secrète (OAS) sets fire to the University of Algiers library building, destroying about 500,000 books.
Frank Morris, John Anglin and Clarence Anglin allegedly become the only prisoners to escape from the prison on Alcatraz Island.
The European Space Research Organisation is established in Paris – later becoming the European Space Agency.
Air France Flight 117 crashes on approach to Pointe-à-Pitre International Airport in Guadeloupe, killing 112 people.
The official independence of Algeria is proclaimed after an eight-year-long war with France.
The Late Late Show, the world's longest-running chat show by the same broadcaster, airs on RTÉ One for the first time.
Ne Win besieges and blows up the Rangoon University Student Union building to crush the Student Movement.
Project Apollo: At a press conference, NASA announces lunar orbit rendezvous as the means to land astronauts on the Moon, and return them to Earth.
In an unprecedented action, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan dismisses seven members of his Cabinet, marking the effective end of the National Liberals as a distinct force within British politics.
Nuclear weapons testing: The "Small Boy" test shot Little Feller I becomes the last atmospheric test detonation at the Nevada National Security Site.
Mariner program: Mariner 1 spacecraft flies erratically several minutes after launch and has to be destroyed.
Jackie Robinson becomes the first African American to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Telstar relays the first publicly transmitted, live trans-Atlantic television program, featuring Walter Cronkite.
The Trans-Canada Highway, the then-longest national highway in the world, is officially opened.
Canadian-born American pharmacologist Frances Oldham Kelsey is awarded the U.S. President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service for her refusal to authorize thalidomide.
Vostok 3 launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev becomes the first person to float in microgravity.
James Joseph Dresnok defects to North Korea after running across the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Dresnok died in 2016.
Peter Fechter is shot and bleeds to death while trying to cross the new Berlin Wall.
The NS Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered civilian ship, embarks on its maiden voyage.
Japan conducts a test of the NAMC YS-11, its first aircraft since World War II and its only successful commercial aircraft from before or after the war.
Archaeologist Peter Marsden discovers the first of the Blackfriars Ships dating back to the second century AD in the Blackfriars area of the banks of the River Thames in London.
The United States government begins the Exercise Spade Fork nuclear readiness drill.
Last run of the famous Pines Express over the Somerset and Dorset Railway line (UK) fittingly using the last steam locomotive built by British Railways, BR Standard Class 9F 92220 Evening Star.
US President John F. Kennedy delivers his "We choose to go to the Moon" speech at Rice University.
An appeals court orders the University of Mississippi to admit James Meredith, the first African-American student admitted to the segregated university.
The Soviet ship Poltava heads toward Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Aeroflot Flight 213 crashes into a mountain near Chersky Airport, killing 32 people.
Burundi, Jamaica, Rwanda and Trinidad and Tobago are admitted to the United Nations.
James Meredith, an African American, is temporarily barred from entering the University of Mississippi.
Flying Tiger Line Flight 923, a Lockheed L-1049H Super Constellation registered as N6923C, ditches into the Atlantic Ocean killing 28 out the 76 occupants onboard. The remaining 48 were rescued six hours later.
The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria is formally proclaimed. Ferhat Abbas is elected President of the provisional government.
The North Yemen Civil War begins when Abdullah al-Sallal dethrones the newly crowned Imam al-Badr and declares Yemen a republic under his presidency.
Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring is published, inspiring an environmental movement and the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
James Meredith becomes the first African American student to enroll at the University of Mississippi.
Project Mercury: US astronaut Wally Schirra, in Sigma 7, is launched from Cape Canaveral for a six-orbit flight.
The first of the James Bond film series, based on the novels by Ian Fleming, Dr. No, is released in Britain.
Der Spiegel publishes an article disclosing the sorry state of the Bundeswehr, leading to accusations of treason.
The Second Vatican Council becomes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years.
The Columbus Day Storm strikes the U.S. Pacific Northwest with record wind velocities. There was at least U.S. $230 million in damages and 46 people died.
The Pacific Northwest experiences a cyclone the equal of a Category 3 hurricane, with winds above 150 mph. Forty-six people die.
The Cuban Missile Crisis begins when an American reconnaissance aircraft takes photographs of Soviet ballistic missiles being installed in Cuba.
Cuban Missile Crisis begins: U.S. President John F. Kennedy is informed of photos taken on October 14 by a U-2 showing nuclear missiles (the crisis will last for 13 days starting from this point).
China launches simultaneous offensives in Ladakh and across the McMahon Line, igniting the Sino-Indian War.
Cuban Missile Crisis: President Kennedy, after internal counsel from Dwight D. Eisenhower, announces that American reconnaissance planes have discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he has ordered a naval "quarantine" of the Communist nation.
Cuban Missile Crisis: Adlai Stevenson shows the United Nations Security Council reconnaissance photographs of Soviet ballistic missiles in Cuba.
Major Rudolf Anderson of the United States Air Force becomes the only direct human casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis when his U-2 reconnaissance airplane is shot down over Cuba by a Soviet-supplied surface-to-air missile.
By refusing to agree to the firing of a nuclear torpedo at a US warship, Vasily Arkhipov averts nuclear war.
The Cuban Missile Crisis ends and Premier Nikita Khrushchev orders the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba.
The United States concludes Operation Fishbowl, its final above-ground nuclear weapons testing series, in anticipation of the 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
President John F. Kennedy dedicates Washington Dulles International Airport, serving the Washington, D.C., region.
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.
The Chinese People's Liberation Army declares a unilateral ceasefire in the Sino-Indian War.
The influential British satirical television programme That Was the Week That Was is first broadcast.
Cold War: The West Berlin branch of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany forms a separate party, the Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin.
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 comment adversely on the war's progress.
Prince Rainier III of Monaco revises the principality's constitution, devolving some of his power to advisory and legislative councils.
Workers at four New York City newspapers (this later increases to nine) go on strike for 114 days.
NASA launches Relay 1, the first active repeater communications satellite in orbit.
The Soviet Union conducts its final above-ground nuclear weapon test, in anticipation of the 1963 Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
Source: Wikipedia date pages ("January 1" … "December 31") / CC BY-SA 4.0. Regions are assigned by the site editors.
FAQ
What year was 1962 in the Japanese calendar?
1962 was Showa 37 in the Japanese era system.
What Chinese zodiac animal is 1962?
1962 is the Year of the Tiger.
How old is someone born in 1962?
They turn 64 on their birthday in 2026.
What happened in 1962?
In 1962, the population of Tokyo passed 10 million, and the YS-11, a passenger plane built in Japan, made its first flight. Abroad, the United States and the Soviet Union faced off in the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Algeria won independence from France.
Dates and events are based on Wikipedia and other references. Summaries and regions are written by the site editors.