October 1962

January – February – March – April – May – June  – July – August – September – October – November – December

October 14, 1962: Soviet nuclear missiles discovered in Cuba

October 27, 1962: U.S. and U.S.S.R. in confrontation at U.N. Security Council

The following events occurred in October 1962.

October 1, 1962 (Monday)

Carson

• Johnny Carson took over as permanent host of NBC's Tonight Show, a post he would hold for 30 years. After being introduced by Groucho Marx, Carson and his sidekick Ed McMahon would share the stage with the first guests, Joan Crawford, Rudy Vallee, Ned Brooks (of Meet the Press), Tony Bennett, the Phoenix Singers, and Tom Pedi.^[1] Carson would host his last Tonight show on May 22, 1992.^[2]
• James Meredith, the first black student to enroll at the all-white University of Mississippi, registered for classes while escorted by U.S. Marshals. Meredith's first class was in Colonial History, and only 12 of the 19 students registered attended.^[3]
• U.S. Army General Maxwell Taylor became the new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.^[4]
• Four Soviet Foxtrot submarines, armed with nuclear torpedoes, departed bases on the Kola Peninsula in anticipation of a controntation with the United States over Cuba.^[5]
• The former Dutch territory of West Irian was transferred to the administration of the United Nations.^[6]
• Born: Esai Morales, American actor, in Brooklyn

October 2, 1962 (Tuesday)

• A twin-engined Saudi Air Force Fairchild C-123 Provider, said to have been sent by Prince Hassan to Royal supporters in Yemen, and laden with American-made arms and ammunition, defected to Egypt. Its three crew members were granted political asylum.^[7]
• Born: Brian Holm, Danish road cyclist, in Copenhagen
• Died: Heinrich Deubel, 72, former commandant of Dachau concentration camp

October 3, 1962 (Wednesday)

• Wally Schirra was launched into space from Cape Canaveral, and returned to Earth after six orbits. Schirra was the fifth American astronaut, and ninth person to travel into outer space.^[8]
• A steam boiler explosion, at a New York Telephone Company building in Manhattan, killed twenty-one people and injured 70. The blast happened at 12:07 pm while employees were dining in the building's cafeteria, sending the boiler from the basement into the cafeteria, then out through a wall.^[9]
• The San Francisco Giants beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-4, to win the deciding game of a best-of-three playoff for the National League pennant. The Dodgers had a 4-2 lead going into the final inning, before the Giants tied the game and then went ahead, gaining the trip to the World Series.^[10]
• Two Saudi Arabian pilots landed an air force training plane in upper Egypt and were granted political asylum, the second such defection in two days.
• Born: Tommy Lee, American musician, in Athens, Greece (as Thomas Lee Bass)

October 4, 1962 (Thursday)

• The National Assembly of France voted to censure Prime Minister Georges Pompidou for his support of the direct election of the President, with 280 in favor in the 480 member body.^[11] Pompidou resigned the next day, but would stay on while new elections were scheduled. The vote marked the only occasion, in the more than 50 year history of the Fifth Republic, that a government was brought down by a vote in Parliament.^[12][13]
• The first nuclear missile in Cuba was installed by the Soviet Union, as a warhead was attached to an R-12 rocket.^[14]
• Born: Marc Minkowski, French orchestral conductor, in Paris; and Jon Secada, Cuban-American singer, in Havana

October 5, 1962 (Friday)

• Dr. No, the first James Bond film, premièred in UK cinemas.^[15]
• The Beatles released their first single, Love Me Do.^[16]
• North Yemen Civil War: A battalion of Special Forces (Saaqah), sent by Egypt to act as personal guards for new leader Abdullah as-Sallal, arrived at Hodeida.
• Born: Caron Keating, Northern Irish television presenter (died 2004), in Fulham, London, England, to Gloria Hunniford and Don Keating; and Mike Conley, Sr., American track athlete, in Chicago

October 6, 1962 (Saturday)

• The Chinese leadership convened to hear a report from Lin Biao that PLA intelligence units had determined that Indian units might assault Chinese positions at Thag La on 10 October (Operation Leghorn).^[17] The Chinese leaders, on recommendation of the Central Military Council decided to launch a large-scale attack to punish perceived military aggression from India, resulting in the Sino-Indian War.
• The U.S. Committee on Overhead Reconnaissance pointed out that high-altitude photographs of Cuba had not been taken of the western end of the island since August 29, and recommended to the White House that U-2 overflights be made there to determine whether Soviet missiles were being put in place. Flights over west Cuba on October 14 would confirm the presence of offensive missiles.^[18]
• The U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy suffered their first helicopter fatalities in Vietnam when a Marine Corps UH-34 Seahorse crashed 15 miles (24 km) from Tam Ky, South Vietnam, killing five Marines and two Navy personnel.^[19]
• The last foreign military personnel, including advisers of the U.S. Special Forces, left Laos in accordance with the 75-day period specified in the July 23 "Declaration on the Neutrality of Laos".^[20]
• Died: Tod Browning, 81, American film director; Tom Slick, 46, Texas oil millionaire and philanthropist, in a plane crash; and Sylvia Beach, 75, American-French author

October 7, 1962 (Sunday)

• The cabinet of Iran approved the "Law of Regional and State Associations", extending voting for, and service on, local councils to non-Muslims and females, with the only requirement being that a voter or officeholder believe in one of the "revealed religions". After protests by the Shi'ite Ayatollahs, the law was annulled on November 29.^[21]
• Venezuela's President Romulo Betancourt issued Resolution #9, suspending constitutional rights and restricting freedom of the press.^[22]
• In an episode of Candid Camera broadcast on this date, veteran comedian Buster Keaton posed as a gas station attendant cleaning customers' windshields.
• Died: Clem Miller, 45, U.S. Representative from California, was killed along with two other people when his airplane crashed in bad weather near Crescent City, California. Miller was on a trip as part of his campaign for re-election, and died along with his 13 year old son and the pilot.^[23] Since it was too late to name a new candidate, Miller's name remained on the ballot and received the most votes.^[24]
• Died: Henri Oreiller, 36, French alpine ski racer, was killed when his Ferrari crashed at the Linas-Montlhéry autodrome.

October 8, 1962 (Monday)

• The wreck of the Bremen cog, a ship built in 1380 when the area was ruled by the Hanseatic League, was discovered in the Weser River during dredging operations.^[25]
• The October 10 edition of the West German magazine Der Spiegel reached newsstands, with the article "Bedingt abwehrbereit" by Conrad Ahlers, about the Bundeswehr's poor preparedness, causing the so-called Spiegel scandal.^[26]
• North Korean parliamentary election, 1962: North Korean voters went to the polls to vote "yes" or "no" on the 383 candidates for the 383 seats parliament in each district. The Pyongyang government announced a 100 percent turnout (breaking the 1957 record of 99.99%) and 100 percent approval of the candidates (beating 99.92% in 1957); the 100% turnout and approval reports would follow the 1967, 1972, 1977, 1982 and 1986 votes, though in 1992, reported turnout was only 99.85%, albeit still with the 100% approval.^[27]
• Algeria was accepted into the United Nations.
• Hurricane Daisy struck the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.

October 9, 1962 (Tuesday)

• The nation of Uganda became independent within the Commonwealth of Nations, with Milton Obote as the first Prime Minister, and the white British colonial administrator, Sir Walter Coutts, as the first Governor-General. The following year, Uganda would become a republic, and Coutts would be replaced by a President, the former Bugandan King Edward Mutesa II.^[28]
• At a military parade in the Polish city of Szczecin, a T-54 tank of the Polish People's Army hit a crowd of bystanders, killing seven children and injuring others.^[29]
• Twenty-eight people were killed, and 62 injured, when the southbound Moscow-Vienna-Rome "Chopin Express" train collided with the northbound Budapest-Warsaw train that had derailed near Warsaw.^[30]
• The MCC cricket team arrived in Fremantle, Western Australia, to begin its 1962–63 tour.

October 10, 1962 (Wednesday)

• Sino-Indian War: Chinese troops opened fire on Indian troops and a battle on the border of the world's two largest nations began.^[31] India reported its losses at six dead and seven missing from the first day of fighting, with 11 wounded, while China reported more than 30 casualties.^[32]
• Anaasa won the 4.30, the last race ever to be run at Hurst Park Racecourse, Surrey, before the course was sold and re-developed.
• Died: Edmund H. Hansen, 67, American Academy Award-winning sound engineer

October 11, 1962 (Thursday)

Pope John XXIII at Vatican II

• The Second Vatican Council opened, under Pope John XXIII.^[33] The 2,500 bishops in attendance walked in a procession through St. Peter's Square and into the Basilica as part of the opening ceremonies.^[34] Pope John would pass away the following year, and the last session of the Council would be closed by Pope Paul VI on December 8, 1965.^[35]
• Born: Joan Cusack, American actress, in Evanston, Illinois

October 12, 1962 (Friday)

Prime Minister Nehru

• On his way from Chennai to a visit to Sri Lanka, India's Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru remarked to reporters that his government had directed the Indian Army "to free our territory in the Northeast frontier", implying, incorrectly, that India had decided to engage China in a full-scale war.^[36] On October 14, China's paper People's Daily would quote Nehru and tell its readers to expect an invasion of China by India.^[31] One author would later write "Nehru's casual statement only served to precipitate the Chinese attack on India." ^[37]
• Columbus Day Storm of 1962: Typhoon Freda hit Victoria, British Columbia, and other locations on the west coast of North America. At Oregon's Cape Blanco, an anemometer (minus one of its cups) registered wind gusts in excess of 145 mph (233 km/h); some reports put the peak velocity at 179 mph (288 km/h). The resultant damage was estimated at around $230 million to $280 million for California, Oregon and Washington combined.^[38]
• The Bridge of the Americas was opened in Panama, exactly three years after construction began. With clearance of over 200 feet, it was the first to allow traffic to cross uninterrupted between Central America and South America because the bridge did not need to be moved. October 12 was chosen for the start and finish of construction in honor of the October 12, 1492 landfall of Christopher Columbus.^[39]
• Jazz bassist/composer Charles Mingus gave a disastrous concert at Town Hall, New York City. Earlier in the day, Mingus had punched Jimmy Knepper in the mouth while the two men were working together at Mingus's apartment, with the result that Knepper was unable to perform.
• Born: Amanda Castro, Honduran poet, in Tegucigalpa (died 2010)
• Died: Alberto Teisaire, 71, former Vice President of Argentina

October 13, 1962 (Saturday)

• Edward Albee's first full-length play, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opened on Broadway, starring Uta Hagen as Martha and Arthur Hill as George.^[40]
• Anti-apartheid activist Helen Joseph became the first person to be placed under house arrest under South Africa's new anti-sabotage law.
• Oakland, California, set an all-time calendar day record with 4.52 inches (11.5 cm) of rain, resulting from the previous night's storm.
• A treaty between France and the tiny principality of Monaco took effect, with the objective of stopping the practice by wealthy French citizens of moving their residence to Monaco to avoid high taxes. Under Article 7, any French person who had not been "habitually resident in Monaco for five years" would be required to pay French taxes.^[41]
• Born: Jerry Rice, American NFL wide receiver, Pro Football Hall of Famer, in Starkville, Mississippi

October 14, 1962 (Sunday)

• Cuban Missile Crisis: Flying a U-2 spyplane over the area around San Cristóbal, Cuba, Colonel Steve Heyser took 928 photographs in the space of six minutes. The pictures would reveal that four mobile Soviet missile launchers, capable of firing the SS-4 medium range nuclear missile, had been placed in western Cuba. Other flights would eventually locate 42 nuclear missiles at ten sites in Cuba.^[42]

October 15, 1962 (Monday)

• At the National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC), analysis of the 928 images, taken the day before by the U-2 overflight, showed that offensive missiles and lanuchers had been placed in Cuba.^[43]
• The National Committee of Liberation, an anti-apartheid paramilitary organization in South Africa, destroyed an electrical transformer to cause a blackout in Johannesburg in the most effective sabotage act by the NCL up to that time.^[44]
• Born: Morten Abel, Norwegian musician, in Bodø; and Per-Erik Burud, Norwegian billionaire entrepreneur, in Drammen

October 16, 1962 (Tuesday)

• The New York Yankees beat the San Francisco Giants, 1-0, to win the seventh and deciding game of the 1962 World Series.^[45]
• Cuban Missile Crisis: Arthur C. Lundahl, the director of the NPIC, informed CIA Director John McCone of the results of Mission 3101, reporting that it "has revealed an MRBM Launch Site and two new military encampments located along the southern edge of the Sierra Del Rosario in west central Cuba".^[46] National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy then woke up President Kennedy to advise him that missiles were in Cuba but were not yet operational. Kennedy ordered 17 military, political and diplomatic advisers, the ExComm, to assemble at the White House at 11:50 a.m.^[47][48]
• Died: Princess Helen of Serbia, 77

October 17, 1962 (Wednesday)

• The Soviet Union increased its spying capability with the launch of the Kosmos-10 satellite. For the first time, satellites had four cameras that were capable of being moved in order to obtain three-dimensional images.^[49]
• The Canadian city of Edmonton held municipal elections.
• The British International Motor Show opened at Earl's Court in London. The Triumph Spitfire was among new vehicles showcased during the event.
• Born: Kathryn Paterson, Chief Censor of New Zealand 1994-99 (died 1999), in Umina, Australia; and Yvon Pouliquen, French footballer and manager, in Morlaix
• Died: Mogok Sayadaw (Venerable Sayadawgyi U Wimala), 62, Burmese Theravada Buddhist monk and vipassana meditation master

October 18, 1962 (Thursday)

• U.S. President Kennedy and Secretary of State Dean Rusk met at the White House with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and Soviet Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Dobrynin. Gromyko told Kennedy that Soviet operations in Cuba were purely defensive, and Kennedy did not tell Gromyko that the U.S. had discovered that the Soviets had nuclear missiles in Cuba.^[47]
• The Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party approved plans for General Zhang Guohua to lead the People's Liberation Army to launch a large "self-defensive counterattack on India, to take place on October 20.^[50]
• Born: Min Ko Naing, Burmese student leader and political dissident, in Yangon

October 19, 1962 (Friday)

• President Kennedy met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to discuss the military options for responding to the missiles in Cuba. USAF Chief of Staff General Curtis LeMay advocated bombing of the missile sites in Cuba, while Defense Secretary Robert McNamara recommended a blockade of ships approaching the island.^[51] Ultimately, Kennedy, who would spend the day at scheduled speeches in Ohio and Illinois, would opt to blockade Cuba rather than to start a war.^[48]
• Anime pioneer Tatsuo Yoshida founded the company Tatsunoko Production in Tokyo.
• Born: Evander Holyfield, American boxer, undisputed World Heavyweight champion 1990-92, WBA champion 1993-94, 1996–99, 2000–01; in Atmore, Alabama

October 20, 1962 (Saturday)

• Sino-Indian War: A force of 30,000 Chinese troops invaded India and overran the outnumbered Indian force that had been ordered into the disputed area. Within days the Chinese Army had gained control of five bridges over the Namkha Chu River and by October 28, were ten miles inside India's territory.^[52][53] The first wave of attacks began at 5:00 a.m. Indian Standard Time, thirty minutes after Chinese radio broadcast an announcement of the invasion.^[54]
• Both the United States and the Soviet Union conducted high-altitude nuclear tests, already scheduled, even as U.S. President Kennedy was deciding on a confrontation between the two nations over the missiles in Cuba. The US exploded a weapon 91 miles over the Pacific Ocean, and the USSR followed two days later with a blast 93 miles over Kazakhstan. The Joint Chiefs of Staff raised the nuclear alert status to DEFCON 3.^[55]

October 21, 1962 (Sunday)

• Ranger 5, a spacecraft designed to transmit pictures of the lunar surface to Earth stations during a period of 10 minutes of flight prior to impacting on the Moon, malfunctions, ran out of power and ceased operation, having passed within 725 km of the Moon.^[56]
• The Norwegian passenger ship MV Sanct Svithun ran aground off the Vikna Islands. The ship was refloated, but then sank, killing 33 of the 79 people on board.^[57]
• The 1962 World's Fair in Seattle closed after a six month run.^[58]

October 22, 1962 (Monday)

• At 7:00 pm Washington time, U.S. President Kennedy announced in a nationally broadcast address that "unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a series of offensive missile sites" had been established in Cuba by the Soviet Union "to provide a nuclear strike capability against the Western Hemisphere". He announced "a strict quarantine on offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba" and warned that any launch of a nuclear missile from Cuba would require "a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union." Kennedy implored, "I call upon Chairman Khrushchev to halt and eliminate this clandestine, reckless and provocative threat to world peace and to stable relations between our nations." ^[59]
• Colonel Oleg Penkovsky, who had secretly been passing Soviet secrets to the United Kingdom, was arrested by the KGB. He would be convicted of treason and executed on May 16, 1963.^[60]
• The city of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, a suburb in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, was incorporated.^[61]

October 23, 1962 (Tuesday)

• As the American blockade of Cuba from Soviet ships was set, the 450 ships of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet and 200,000 personnel prepared for a confrontation, including defense if the Soviets tried an airlift over the blockade.^[62] The Soviet freighter Polotavia was identified as the first ship that would reach the quarantine line.^[63]
• Spiegel scandal: Rudolf Augstein, the publisher of the West German news magazine Der Spiegel, was arrested along with Assistant Chief Editor Conrad Ahlers on charges of treason after the magazine's October 10 issue had published information about the NATO maneuver "Fallex 62", and concluded that the West German military was poorly prepared to defend against an invasion.^[26] Other arrests followed, leading to protests by West Germans against the suppression of freedom of the press; Augstein and Ahlers would be released on February 7, 1963.^[64]
• Art Blakey began recording Caravan at the Plaza Sound Studio in New York City, his first album for Riverside Records, with whom he had signed earlier in the month.

October 24, 1962 (Wednesday)

• The U.S. Navy blockade against Soviet ships began at 10:00 a.m. Washington DC time, some of the Cuban-bound Soviet freighters altered their courses to avoid the confrontation, while others proceeded.^[65]
• Mars 2MV-4 No.1 (or Sputnik 22) was launched by the Soviet Union, with the intention of making a flyby of the planet Mars and transmitting back images to the earth.^[66] When the engines were reignited in order to take the probe from parking orbit toward Mars, the satellite exploded, and debris fell to earth for the next four months.^[67]

October 25, 1962 (Thursday)

• At 6:50 a.m., the American destroyers USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. and the USS John R. Pierce made the first enforcement of the blockade, stopping and boarding the Soviet-chartered ship Marcula, 400 miles from Cuba. After spending two hours searching the Marcula and determining that its cargo of trucks, paper, sulfur and auto parts provided no threat, the Navy allowed the ship to proceed with its cargo.^[68]
• Tropical Storm Harriet was first observed by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, just off the east coast of Thailand. It crossed into the Indian Ocean, and, during landfall its storm surge, flooded the Laem Talumphuk peninsula in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province. Typhoon Harriet killed 769 people, with another 142 missing and 252 seriously injured.^[69]
• Abdul Monem Khan was appointed as the Governor of East Pakistan by Pakistan's President, Muhammad Ayub Khan. During his rule from 1962 to 1968, Governor Monem Khan's strict rule of the more than 60,000,000 East Pakistan residents eventually led to the province separating from the rest of Pakistan as the nation of Bangladesh.^[70]
• Uganda was admitted to membership of the United Nations.^[71]
• Born: Borys Kolesnikov, Ukrainian politician, in Mariupol

October 26, 1962 (Friday)

• The first ever proclamation of a state of emergency in India was made by President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan as Chinese troops continued their invasion of India. The emergency would not be rescinded until January 10, 1968. The emergency has only been proclaimed two other times, on December 3, 1971 and on June 25, 1975.^[72]
• At a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, American Ambassador Adlai Stevenson confronted Soviet Ambassador Valerian Zorin with photographs of missile sites in Cuba and angrily asked, "Do you, Ambassador Zorin, deny that the USSR has placed and is placing medium and intermediate range missiles and sites in Cuba? Yes or no? Don't wait for the translation. Yes or no?" Zorin laughed and then said, "I am not in an American courtroom, sir, and therefore I do not wish to answer a question that is put to me in the fashion in which a prosecutor puts questions. In due course, you will have your reply." ^[73]
• Born: Cary Elwes, English actor, in Westminster, the son of Dominick Elwes and Tessa Georgina Kennedy
• Died: Louise Beavers, 60, African-American film actress

October 27, 1962 (Saturday)

Major Anderson

• At 11:19 am Washington time, USAF Major Rudolf Anderson became the only fatality of the Cuban Missile Crisis when his U-2 airplane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile while he was flying over Cuba. Soviet Army Major Ivan Gerchenov had been ordered to fire missiles, from a station near the city of Banes, at "Target Number 33".^[74] The U.S. Joint Chiefs recommended to President John F. Kennedy that the USA should attack Cuba within 36 hours to destroy the Soviet missiles. At Washington, General Taylor recommended an air attack on the Banes site, but immediate action was not taken.^[75][76]
• Hours later, the Soviet submarine B-59 was detected by U.S. Navy destroyers in the Atlantic Ocean, and one of the ships began dropping explosive depth charges to force the sub to surface. Thirty years later, a communications intelligence officer on the B-59, would report that the Captain Valentin Savitsky ordered a nuclear-armed torpedo to be armed for firing at the U.S. ships, and that the second-in-command, Vasili Arkhipov, persuaded Savitsky to surface instead.^[77]
• Heart of Midlothian F.C. defeated Kilmarnock F.C. 1-0 in the 1962 Scottish League Cup Final at Hampden Park, Glasgow.

October 28, 1962 (Sunday)

• Cuban Missile Crisis: At 5:00 pm Moscow time (10:00 am in Washington), Moscow Radio broadcast the text of the message from Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev to U.S. President John F. Kennedy. "Dear Mr. President," Khrushchev's letter began, "I have received your message of October 27. I express my satisfaction and thank you for the sense of proportion you have displayed and for realization of the responsibility which now devolves on you for the preservation of the peace of the world." Khrushchev went on to say, "I regard with great understanding your concern and the concern of the United States people in connection with the fact that the weapons you describe as offensive are formidable weapons indeed. Both you and we understand what kind of weapons these are. In order to eliminate as rapidly as possible the conflict which endangers the cause of peace, to give an assurance to all people who crave peace, and to reassure the American people, who, I am certain, also want peace, as do the people of the Soviet Union, the Soviet Government, in addition to earlier instructions on the discontinuation of further work on weapons construction sites, has given a new order to dismantle the arms which you described as offensive, and to crate and return them to the Soviet Union." ^[78] In an agreement worked out by Khrushchev and Kennedy with the assistance of U.N. Secretary-General U Thant, the U.S. pledged not to invade Cuba, and to remove Jupiter missiles that had been placed in Turkey near its border with the U.S.S.R.^[79]
• In France, a referendum was held to decide on the election of the President of France through universal suffrage. The proposal for constitutional change was approved by 62.25% of those voting.^[80]
• The ferry SS Lisieux caught fire on a voyage between Newhaven, East Sussex (UK) and Dieppe (France), and was escorted into Dieppe at reduced speed.^[81]
• A. J. Foyt won the Golden State 100 motor race at California State Fairgrounds Race Track.

October 29, 1962 (Monday)

• The British airline East Anglian Flying Services was renamed Channel Airways.
• The bodies of Lt. Günther Mollenhauer, and several other Germans shot down over the UK during the Second World War, were disinterred from a local cemetery for re-burial at Cannock Chase German war cemetery.
• Died: George Matthew Adams, 84, American journalist and newspaper proprietor; Amy Otis Earhart, 93, mother of Amelia Earhart; and Einar Gundersen, 66, Norwegian footballer

October 30, 1962 (Tuesday)

• Tropical Storm Harriet hit Bangladesh, shortly prior to dissipating.

October 31, 1962 (Wednesday)

• Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India, temporarily took on the role of Minister of Defence, following the resignation of V. K. Krishna Menon.
• Died: Thomas Holenstein, 66, Swiss politician

References