45 Fun Facts About 1962

Which 1962 book warned that pesticides such as DDT were poisoning wildlife?

Silent Spring drew threats of lawsuits from the chemical industry, yet it spurred tighter US controls on pesticides, including DDT.

Which three major US retailers opened their first stores in 1962?

Walmart, Kmart and Target all opened in 1962, and Sam Walton and Kmart's Harry Cunningham had each studied the same Rhode Island discounter, Ann & Hope.

Which Pacific nation became independent from New Zealand on January 1, 1962?

Western Samoa, renamed Samoa in 1997, skipped December 30, 2011 entirely, jumping the date line to line up with trade partners Australia and New Zealand.

Aboard which capsule did John Glenn become the first American to orbit Earth on February 20?

Before Friendship 7 flew, John Glenn asked NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson to verify the electronic computer's calculations of his orbit.

Which award did Jacqueline Kennedy win for her February 1962 tour of the White House?

An honorary Emmy: her nationally televised tour showed off the White House restoration she had helped direct during her husband's first year in office.

Which French designer showed the first collection of his own couture house in 1962?

Yves Saint Laurent was dropped as Dior's head designer after being conscripted and hospitalized, then started his own house with his partner Pierre Bergé.

Which 1962 agreement ended the Algerian War?

The Évian Accords let European settlers stay as foreigners, take Algerian citizenship or leave, and many soon left for France.

Which film won Best Picture at the 34th Academy Awards in April 1962?

West Side Story's Bernardo, George Chakiris, had played Riff, leader of the rival Jets, in the London stage production.

Which landmark opened with the Century 21 Exposition World's Fair in April 1962?

The Space Needle grew from a sketch businessman Edward Carlson scribbled on a napkin, later reworked on architect John Graham Jr.'s drawing board.

Which club beat Real Madrid 5–3 in Amsterdam to win the 1961–62 European Cup?

Benfica came from behind: Real Madrid's Ferenc Puskás scored a first-half hat-trick, but two second-half goals from Eusébio sealed the win.

Which country hosted the 1962 FIFA World Cup?

Chile's bid leader, Carlos Dittborn, died a month before the tournament began, and the stadium in Arica that hosted World Cup games was named after him.

Whom did Brazil beat in the 1962 World Cup final?

Czechoslovakia had already drawn 0–0 with Brazil in the group stage, the match in which Brazil lost Pelé to injury.

Which composer's War Requiem premiered at the new Coventry Cathedral in May 1962?

Benjamin Britten set poems by Wilfred Owen, killed in World War I, for a cathedral rebuilt after wartime air raids destroyed the old one.

Which prison did Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers escape from in June 1962?

Alcatraz's escapees left dummy heads in their beds to fool the guards, then left the island on a raft made from more than 50 raincoats.

Which activist group completed the Port Huron Statement in June 1962?

Students for a Democratic Society grew slowly after its 1962 manifesto until the Vietnam War escalated, then organized a march on Washington in April 1965.

Which two African countries became independent from Belgium in 1962?

Rwanda and Burundi had been part of German East Africa, and Belgium took them over under a League of Nations mandate after World War I.

At which London venue did the Rolling Stones make their debut on July 12, 1962?

Before their Marquee Club debut, Brian Jones had advertised for bandmates in Jazz News, and pianist Ian Stewart answered.

Which British prime minister sacked a third of his cabinet in the 1962 'Night of the Long Knives'?

Harold Macmillan's purge even ousted his chancellor, Selwyn Lloyd, yet Lloyd was back in the cabinet under the next prime minister in 1963.

Which highway did Prime Minister John Diefenbaker officially open at Rogers Pass in 1962?

The Trans-Canada Highway was not physically complete when it officially opened in 1962, and work on other stretches went on for years.

Which activist, nicknamed the 'Black Pimpernel' for evading police, was captured in August 1962?

Nelson Mandela was first sentenced to five years in prison, then given life imprisonment at the Rivonia Trial in 1964.

Which Caribbean island became independent from Britain on August 6, 1962?

Jamaica's premier Norman Manley called the pre-independence election, but his rival Alexander Bustamante won it and became the first prime minister.

Which two monsters met in a Japanese film released in August 1962, the first of each in colour?

King Kong and Godzilla met because Kong's original effects artist, Willis O'Brien, had pitched a Kong battle against a giant Frankenstein's monster.

Which French president survived a machine-gun attack on his car at Petit-Clamart in August 1962?

Charles de Gaulle escaped unhurt, and the plot's leader, Jean Bastien-Thiry, became the last person France executed by firing squad.

Which NASA probe, launched in August 1962, first sent back data from another planet?

Mariner 2 found Venus far hotter than expected, and it launched just 36 days after Mariner 1 was destroyed off course.

Where did Bob Dylan premiere 'A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall' in September 1962?

The New York concert came weeks before the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Alouette 1, launched in September 1962, was the first satellite built by which country?

Canada's Alouette 1 kept working in radiation left by a US high-altitude nuclear test, probably because its power supply allowed for a 40% loss of solar-cell output.

Who became the first black student to register at the University of Mississippi in 1962?

James Meredith enrolled on October 1, 1962, the day after a campus riot against his admission left two people dead.

Who took over as permanent host of NBC's The Tonight Show in 1962?

Johnny Carson later moved The Tonight Show from New York to Burbank, California, in 1972, and hosted it until 1992.

At which Houston university did President Kennedy give his 'We choose to go to the Moon' speech in 1962?

At Rice University, Kennedy compared the Moon goal to climbing the highest mountain and asked the crowd, 'Why does Rice play Texas?'

Which African country became independent of the UK on October 9, 1962?

Independent Uganda's first prime minister, Milton Obote, later became president, and both of his terms in power were ended by military coups.

Which pope convened the Second Vatican Council on October 11, 1962?

It was the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years.

Which West German publication's Hamburg offices were raided by police in October 1962?

Der Spiegel's raid backfired: the uproar it caused forced Defence Minister Franz Josef Strauss out of the cabinet.

Which two nations fought a border war in 1962?

India and China's war ended with China in control of Aksai Chin, a region India still claims as part of Ladakh.

Which Soviet submarine officer refused to approve a nuclear torpedo launch during the Cuban Missile Crisis?

Vasily Arkhipov's refusal counted because firing B-59's nuclear torpedo needed the consent of all three senior officers aboard.

To end the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy secretly agreed to remove US missiles from which country?

Turkey was part of Khrushchev's added price in a second message, sent a day after he offered to pull out of Cuba in return for a no-invasion pledge.

Whose gulag novella One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich appeared in Novy Mir in November 1962?

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's official favour lasted only until Nikita Khrushchev fell from power in 1964, after which the authorities turned to harassing him.

Which satirical BBC show hosted by David Frost first aired on November 24, 1962?

That Was the Week That Was made David Frost's name, and in 1977 his interviews drew an apology for Watergate from Richard Nixon.

Britain and France signed an agreement in November 1962 to develop which aircraft?

Concorde began as a government treaty to share costs and risks, yet it did not start scheduled passenger flights until 1976.

Who was elected UN Secretary-General on November 30, 1962?

U Thant had been acting Secretary-General since 1961, accepted by the US and USSR as a compromise after Dag Hammarskjöld died in a plane crash.

Which David Lean epic premiered in London on December 10, 1962?

Lawrence of Arabia's title role went to Peter O'Toole after David Lean's first choice, Albert Finney, turned it down rather than sign a long-term contract.

Who won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature?

John Steinbeck, asked if he deserved the Nobel, said 'Frankly, no', and archives opened 50 years later showed he was a compromise choice.

Which trio shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the structure of DNA?

Crick, Watson and Wilkins built on Rosalind Franklin's X-ray images of DNA, but she had died of cancer in 1958, four years before the prize.

Which Top Gun star was born on July 3, 1962?

Tom Cruise is known for performing his own risky stunts, even hanging from a flying biplane in a Mission: Impossible film.

Which actress and director, later of Silence of the Lambs fame, was born on November 19, 1962?

Demi Moore had been born eight days earlier, on November 11.

Which former First Lady died on November 7, 1962?

Eleanor Roosevelt had played a leading role in drafting the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948.