January 1962

January 1, 1962 (Monday)

Western Samoa (now called Samoa) became independent from New Zealand. The two fautua (advisers), Malietoa Tanumafili II and Tupua Tamasese Mea'ole were named as the two heads of state.

The People's Revolutionary Party was founded as a Marxist–Leninist political party in South Vietnam, and its leaders receiving instruction directly from the Lao Dong Party of North Vietnam.

The Beatles auditioned unsuccessfully for Decca Records with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and, at that time, drummer Pete Best. The first song of 15 performed between 11:00 am and noon was "Like Dreamers Do". The audition tape was officially released in 1982. Decca opted instead to sign the other group that auditioned that day-- Brian Poole and the Tremeloes. Both groups would have a hit recording of the song Twist and Shout, with the Tremeloes hitting #1 in the U.K. and the Beatles #4 in the U.S.

The Anglican Church of Australia became autocephalous, separate from the Church of England, and was headed by its own primate, the Archbishop of Brisbane, Sir Reginald Halse.

The far-right National Fellowship Party was founded in the UK.

The University of New Zealand was broken up into four universities (Otago, Canterbury, Auckland and Victoria University) and two agricultural colleges at Canterbury and Massey.

The Alabama Crimson Tide, ranked #1 in the AP and UPI polls and crowned as the unofficial national champion of the 1961 college football season, defeated the #9 Arkansas Razorbacks in the Sugar Bowl, 10-3, in New Orleans.

Died:

Diego Martínez Barrio, 78, former President of the Second Spanish Republic (in 1936)

Hans von Salmuth, 73, German World War II general later convicted of war crimes at Nuremberg

January 2, 1962 (Tuesday)

In his annual report to the NAACP, Executive Secretary Roy Wilkins praised U.S. President John F. Kennedy's "personal role" in advancing civil rights, but said that he was "sorely disappointed" by the President's failure to honor his promise to ban racial discrimination in federally assisted housing.

The 1962 Cape Grand Prix in South Africa was won by Trevor Taylor, who finished 0.6 seconds ahead of Jim Clark.

NBC launched its daytime panel game show, Your First Impression.

Born: Iván Palazzese, Italian motorcycle racer, in Alba Adriatica(killed in accident, 1989)

Died: Joseph Edward Woodall, 65, English recipient of the Victoria Cross

January 3, 1962 (Wednesday)

A spokesman for Pope John XXIII revealed that Cuban leader Fidel Castro and several other officials had received a decree of excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church in 1961 under two sections of canon law, for impeding bishops in their work and for violence against clergymen. In September, Cuban bishop Eduardo Boza Masvidal and 135 priests had been forced to leave Cuba.

The Winemakers' Union of Graves de Vayres was founded.

Born: Gavin Hastings, Scottish rugby union player, in Edinburgh

January 4, 1962 (Thursday)

Broadway producer David Merrick submitted a full-page advertisement to seven New York City newspapers, with the tagline "7 OUT OF 7 ARE ECSTATICALLY UNANIMOUS ABOUT SUBWAYS ARE FOR SLEEPING", his musical comedy that had opened on December 27 to poor reviews. The ad contained favorable quotes, citing the names of seven well-known theater critics. Merrick had found seven other men with the same names. Next to a photo of the other Howard Taubman was the line ("One of the few great musical comedies of the last thirty years...". The New York Herald-Tribune ran the ad in its first edition before an editor spotted the hoax and alerted the other newspapers.

The Transit Authority of New York City introduced a subway train that operated without a crew on board. The "zombie" train kept a motorman on board to deal with any problems.

Born: André Rouvoet, Dutch politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the Netherlands 2007-10; in Hilversum

Died: Hans Lammers, 82, Nazi leader and Chief of the Reich Chancellery, 1933–1945

January 5, 1962 (Friday)

The first recording on which The Beatles play, the 45 rpm record My Bonnie, credited to "Tony Sheridan and the Beat Brothers" (recorded last June in Hamburg), is released by Polydor in the United Kingdom; "The Saints" is on the B-side.

Prison inmate Clarence Gideon sent a letter, written in pencil, to the United States Supreme Court, asking them to reverse his conviction for burglary on the grounds that he had not been given the right to an attorney. The Supreme Court granted certiorari and, on March 18, 1963, issued the landmark decision of Gideon v. Wainwright, holding that the Sixth Amendment guarantee, of the right to assistance of counsel, required the appointment of a lawyer for any person unable to afford one.

Three crew members were killed in the crash of USAF B-47E-105-BW Stratojet, 52-615, piloted by Major Clarence Weldon Garrett, at March AFB, California. This would be the last fatal crash at that base until 19 October 1978.

Born: Massouda Jalal, Afghan politician and women's rights activist in Afghanistan; in Gulbahar

January 6, 1962 (Saturday)

The Los Angeles Mirror-News, which had been started in 1948 as an afternoon tabloid newspaper printed by the owners of the Los Angeles Times, published its final issue.

Born:

Kim Weon-Kee, South Korean Olympic wrestler, gold medalist in 1984, in Hampyeong

Idrissa Djaló, Guinea-Bissau politician and one time presidential candidate

Died: Marziyya Davudova, 60, Azerbaijani actress and People's Artist of the USSR

January 7, 1962 (Sunday)

The UK was blanketed with snow in an unusual winter storm. Overnight temperatures of −18 °C (0 °F) were recorded during the morning at Benson, Oxfordshire and Woodford, Greater Manchester in Britain.

A bomb exploded at the Paris apartment building where controversial existentianalist author Jean-Paul Sartre lived. Sartre was not home at the time, and his mother was not injured, but the fire destroyed most of his unpublished manuscripts.

Soviet theoretical physicist Lev Landau, who would win the Nobel Prize later in the year, was seriously injured in an auto accident, leaving him in a coma for two months. Landau survived, but was never able to return to work, and died on April 3, 1968.

An assassination attempt against Indonesia's President Sukarno failed, but the hand grenades thrown at his automobile killed three bystanders and injured 28 others in Ujung Pandang (at that time, Makassar).

Born: Aleksandr Dugin, Russian ideologist and advocate of reclaiming the former Russian Empire, and author of The Fundamentals of Geopolitics; in Moscow

January 8, 1962 (Monday)

In the Harmelen train disaster, two trains collided, killing 91 people in the worst rail crash in Netherlands history. An express train running from Leeuwarden to Amsterdam and a slower moving commuter train from Rotterdam struck each other at the same switching point after 9:18 am in a heavy fog.

The first two teams of the United States Navy SEALs, were commissioned as the United States Navy's Sea, Air and Land teams, with an order backdated to January 1, in order to carry out President Kennedy's recommendation for the development of "unconventional warfare capability". SEAL Team One, based in Coronado, California served the Pacific Fleet and SEAL Team Two served the Atlantic Fleet out of Little Creek, Virginia. Each team consisted of 50 men and ten officers.

In a closed session at the Presidium, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev delivered what was later referred to as the "meniscus speech", using the analogy of a wineglass filled to the point that it could overflow at any time. In the speech, which was not revealed until 40 years later, Khrushchev told the ministers that the U.S.S.R. was weaker militarily than the United States, and that the only way to compete against American superiority was to maintain the threat that world tensions could spill over. "Because if we don't have a meniscus," Khrushchev said, "we let the enemy live peacefully."

The Yugoslavian freighter Sabac was cut in two by the British steamer Dorington Court in a collision in the English Channel. Only eight of the 33 men on the Sabac survived.

Born: Anatoliy Serdyukov, Russian Minister of Defense since 2007; in Krasnodar Krai

Died: Maximilian, Duke of Hohenberg, 59, eldest son of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Countess Sophie

January 9, 1962 (Tuesday)

Rashidi Kawawa was appointed as the last Prime Minister of Tanganyika, by President Julius Nyerere, who had formerly had both posts. The position of Prime Minister would be abolished on December 9, after which Tanganyika and Zanzibar had merged to form Tanzania. Kawawa would become the first Prime Minister of Tanzania when that post was created in 1972.

Cuba and the Soviet Union signed a trade pact.

January 10, 1962 (Wednesday)

An avalanche on Mount Huascarán, the tallest peak in Peru killed 4,000 people. At 6:13 pm, melting ice triggered the slide of three million tons of ice, mud and rock down the side of Huascaran, quadrupled in size as it gathered mass, and, within eight minutes, buried the town of Ranrahirca (population 2,700) the village of Yanamachico, and three other villages totaling 800 residents. Ranrahirca, which had only 50 survivors, would be rebuilt, then destroyed again in an earthquake and an even larger avalanche on May 31, 1970.

The U.S. House of Representatives elected Majority Leader John W. McCormack of Massachusetts as the 53rd Speaker of the House, to fill the vacancy created by the death of Sam Rayburn. The 253-159 vote was along party lines, with the Democrats voting for McCormack and the Republicans for Minority Leader Charles A. Halleck of Indiana.

Eleven coal miners were killed in an explosion at a mine near Carterville, Illinois.

January 11, 1962 (Thursday)

Soviet submarine B-37, nine days away from being dispatched to Cuba, was moored at Polyarny, conducting maintenance and pressurizing of outdated gas-steam torpedoes. At 8:20 am, a fire in the torpedo compartment detonated all twelve torpedoes and instantly destroying the submarine. Captain Anatoly Begeba, who had been outside, inspecting the top of the sub, survived. The 78 men inside the sub drowned as it sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea.

Piloting the newest model of long-range bombers, the B-52H Stratofortress, crewmembers broke 11 non-stop distance and course-speed records, for its aircraft class and time, when they successfully completed a more-than-21-hour non-refueled flight—flying approximately 12,500 miles across the globe.

Nelson Mandela secretly left South Africa for the first time, as he was driven across the border to Botswana. From there, he went to Ethiopia to speak at a conference in Addis Ababa. He would tour the continent for the next six months. Upon his return to South Africa on August 5, he would be arrested.

Born: Kim Coles, American actress, in Brooklyn, New York

January 12, 1962 (Friday)

Operation Chopper, the first American combat mission in Vietnam, began as the American pilots transported hundreds of South Vietnamese troops to fight against a Viet Cong force near Saigon. Three days later, President Kennedy told reporters at a press conference that American troops were not being used in combat.

A spokesman for the Army of Indonesia, Colonel Soenarjo, that soldiers had begun landing on West Irian, the semi-independent western side of New Guinea that remained under the administration of the Netherlands.

Born: Richie Richardson, Antiguan cricketer and one time captain of the West Indies cricket team; in Five Islands Village

January 13, 1962 (Saturday)

American comedian Ernie Kovacs, 42, was killed in a car accident while driving on Santa Monica Boulevard. Kovacs and his wife, Edie Adams, were driving home separately from a baby shower in honor Mrs. Milton Berle. At 2:00 in the morning, his station wagon skidded and crashed into a utility pole. Kovacs suffered a fatal head injury and died at the scene.

With the United States having halted its U-2 flights over the Soviet Union, the Republic of China (Taiwan) began regular U-2 surveillance flights over the People's Republic of China, with a group of American-trained pilots nicknamed the Black Cat Squadron.

Albania allied itself with the People's Republic of China, as the two nations signed a trade pact.

First Lady Jackie Kennedy brought Charles Collingwood and a CBS News television crew into the White House for an unprecedented look at the American presidential residence. The tape of the visit was edited into the program "A Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F. Kennedy", and shown on CBS and NBC on February 14.

Born: Trace Adkins, American country music singer, in Springhill, Louisiana

January 14, 1962 (Sunday)

The NFL Pro Bowl, described by some as one that "may have been the best in history", was won by the all-stars of the NFL Western Conference, 31-30, on the last play of the game, before a crowd of 57,409 in Los Angeles.

A Netherlands warship sank an Indonesian torpedo boat after it approached the disputed territory of West Irian, a Netherlands colony claimed by Indonesia.

Born: Jörgen Elofsson, Swedish songwriter, in Ängelholm

January 15, 1962 (Monday)

After the United Kingdom sought to join the European Economic Community, the Meteorological Office first began using Celsius temperature values in its public weather information, following the Fahrenheit values. In October, the Celsius values were listed first, and by January 1, 1973, when the government entered the EEC and completed its conversion to the metric system, Fahrenheit numbers were only used occasionally.

Portugal abandoned the U.N. General Assembly due to the debate over its East African colony in Angola.

The Derveni papyrus, written in about 340 BC, was discovered in a cist that had been buried at the site of the Greek city of Derveni, near Thessaloniki. The oldest surviving manuscript in Europe, the papyrus roll contained a commentary on philosophy and religion.

A 13-year-old boy testified before a Chicago juvenile court judge and confessed to setting the Our Lady of the Angels School fire that had killed 92 children and 3 nuns on December 1, 1958 in Chicago. The boy said that he had asked to be excused from class, then tossed lit matches into a cardboard waste barrel filled with paper. After an investigation, the court concluded that the evidence did not support the boy's confession, and no charges were ever filed.

Died: Kenneth MacKenna, 62, American actor and film director

January 16, 1962 (Tuesday)

A military coup in the Dominican Republic, led by General Pedro Rodriguez Echavarria, forced President Joaquín Balaguer to resign and to go into exile. Earlier in the day in Santo Domingo, soldiers fired into a crowd of people protesting against the new regime, killing 8 people and wounding many more. Balaguer had been the leader of a council of state with seven civilians, and had pledged to hold elections on February 27, 1963. The junta consisted of two former state council members, two civilians from the old Trujillo government, and three military officers, but had no presiding leader. The other council members were placed under house arrest.

Sutan Sjahrir, who had been the first Prime Minister of Indonesia (1945–47), was arrested on orders of the President he had served, Sukarno. He would remain incarcerated for three years, until Sukarno sent him into exile for reasons of health, and would die in 1966.

A Strategic Air Command B-47E Stratojet of the 380th Bomb Wing, Plattsburgh AFB, New York, on low-altitude bombing run training mission, was reported overdue at 0700 hrs. After a four-day search, wreckage was spotted in the Adirondack High Peaks. The bomber had clipped the top of Wright Peak (16th tallest mountain in the Adirondacks, at 4580 feet) after veering 30 miles off course in inclement weather, high winds. The remains of Aircraft Commander 1st Lt. Rodney D. Bloomgren, of Jamestown, New York, copilot 1st Lt. Melvin Spencer, and navigator 1st Lt. Albert W. Kandetski were found after a search, but those of Airman First Class Kenneth R. Jensen KWF were never recovered. A memorial plaque was later erected on a rock near the summit by the 380th Bomb Wing.

The Jackson State Times, an afternoon daily newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi, published its last issue, leaving the city with the two dailies owned by Mississippi Publishers, the Daily News and the The Clarion-Ledger.

Died: Ivan Meštrović, 78, Croatian sculptor

January 17, 1962 (Wednesday)

United States government workers were given the right of collective bargaining by President Kennedy, in Executive Order 10988.

Ten former game show contestants, all of whom had testified under oath that they had not been given answers in advance of their appearances, pleaded guilty to perjury. The most prominent was former Columbia University instructor Charles Van Doren, who had won $129,000 on the program Twenty One.

A furniture warehouse fire in the German city of Nuremberg killed twenty employees, including four who jumped from the fourth story of the building. Police arrested one of the survivors, a paper press operator who had worked in the basement and was believed to have accidentally caused the blaze by throwing a cigarette.

Frank Sinatra completed the recording of his album All Alone, in Los Angeles.

Born: Jim Carrey, Canadian-American actor and comedian, in Newmarket, Ontario

Died: Gerrit Achterberg, 56, Dutch poet

January 18, 1962 (Thursday)

Two days after seizing power in the Dominican Republic, General Pedro Rodriguez Echavarria was overthrown in a counter-coup by his own officers, who then freed members of the former council of state who had been under house arrest. The council's first act of business was to accept Balaguer's resignation, with Rafael Filiberto Bonnelly as his successor.

1962 FIFA World Cup: The drawing, to determine the arrangement of the 16 teams World Cup finalists, took place at Santiago in Chile, host of the world soccer football championship. The four seeded teams, and the three others in each group, were Uruguay, Colombia, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in Group 1;Italy, Chile, Switzerland and West Germany in Group 2; Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Mexico and Spain in Group 3; and England, Argentina, Bulgaria and Hungary in Group 4. Competition would begin on May 30, with the finals on June 17.

In the lead-up to the opening of negotiations on Ireland's entry to the European Community, Irish Prime Minister Seán Lemass addressed the members of the other EC governments at their headquarters in Brussels.

Former Nazi German General Karl Wolff, who had been chief of staff to Heinrich Himmler and overseer of the SS Einsatzgruppen, was arrested by West German police at his lakeside vacation home in Kempfenhausen.

January 19, 1962 (Friday)

KGB agents identified Colonel Oleg Penkovsky as the man who was secretly meeting British national Janet Chisholm in Moscow. The agents, who had been shadowing Mrs. Chisholm, had first seen the two together on December 30, and followed Penkovsky to his apartment. Surveillance determined that Colonel Penkovsky, a high clearance official with the Soviet military intelligence agency GRU, had been bringing home classified material relating to ballistic missiles, photographing it, and giving the film to the British intelligence agency MI-6. Penkovsky, whose information alerted the United States to the placement of nuclear missiles in Cuba, would be arrested on October 22, when the Cuban Missile Crisis began, and would be executed on May 16, 1963 for treason.

Died:

John Beals Chandler, 74, former Lord Mayor of Brisbane

Onn Jaafar, 66, Malay politician

Snub Pollard, 72, American silent film comedian

January 20, 1962 (Saturday)

The play Prescription: Murder, by Richard Levinson and William Link, was first presented, with the premiere at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. Character actor Thomas Mitchell portrayed a disheveled police detective named Lt. Columbo. When the play was made into a TV movie in 1968, Peter Falk portrayed the detective, and then in the title role of Columbo, one of the recurring segments of the NBC Mystery Movie. Columbo had been seen once before, on July 30, 1960, in the presentation "Enough Rope", part of The Chevy Mystery Show.

Petula Clark had her first number one hit in France with "Romeo".

Died:

Robinson Jeffers, 75, American poet

J. Spencer Love, 65, who went from being a payroll clerk at a textile company, to being the founder of Burlington Industries.

January 21, 1962 (Sunday)

The Organization of American States (OAS) began its Eighth Meeting of Consultation of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Punta del Este, Uruguay, in the course of which the United States agreed to resume aid to Haiti in return for its support of sanctions against Cuba. Haiti's participation was essential because the United States was a vote short of having the 2/3rds majority of the 21 member nations.

Born: Marie Trintignant (d. 2003), French actress, in Boulogne-Billancourt, the daughter of Jean-Louis Trintignant and Nadine Marquand

Died: Andrew Schoeppel, 67, U.S. Senator from Kansas since 1949

January 22, 1962 (Monday)

While cast in the film Cleopatra, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor fell in love on the first day of filming the re-enactment of the romance between Mark Antony and Queen Cleopatra, which had taken place in 40 BC. They divorced their respective spouses, Sybil Burton and Eddie Fisher, and married in 1964, divorcing in 1974, remarrying in 1975, and divorcing again in 1976.

The Organisation Armée Secrète (OAS), opposed to the independence of Algeria, bombed the French Foreign Ministry, by placing a time bomb inside a truck that was going into the compound. A mailroom worker was killed, and three people were seriously injured by the shattering of hundreds of windows at the Quai d'Orsay. Gunmen from the OAS also kidnapped a member of Parliament, Dr. Paul Mainguy, who was rescued that afternoon by French police.

The Organization of American States (OAS) suspended Cuba's membership. Whilst technically still a member, the Cuban government was denied the rights of representation, attendance at meetings and

Born: Mizan Zainal Abidin of Terengganu, 13th Yang di-Pertuan Agong, constitutional head of state of Malaysia (2006-2011); in Kuala Terengganu

January 23, 1962 (Tuesday)

In his first year of eligibility, Jackie Robinson was elected to the Baseball Hall Of Fame, receiving 124 of the 160 ballots cast and becoming the first African-American to be enshrined at Cooperstown. In addition to being the first black MLB player of the modern era, Robinson had also been a six time All-Star, the 1947 Rookie of the Year, and the 1949 MVP for the National League. Cleveland Indians pitcher Bob Feller, elected on the same day, was also inducted in his first year of eligibility. It was the first time since the original five selections (Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, Honus Wagner and Christy Mathewson) that anyone had won 75% of the votes on their first try.

Singer Tony Bennett first recorded what would become his signature song, I Left My Heart in San Francisco.Ralph Sharon, who accompanied Bennett's songs on the piano, had been shown the song in 1959 by writers George Cory and Douglass Cross, then put it away in a dresser drawer. Sharon ran across it again when Bennett was invited to perform in San Francisco, and Bennett sang it in December. The song was released as the B-side of Once Upon a Time, and went on to sell two million copies and to win two Grammy Awards.

American inventor Thomas Townsend Brown receives U.S. Patent 3,018,394 for an "Electro-kinetic Transducer", a means of using an electric field as a means of propulsion of aircraft.

Died: Natlia Sedova Trotsky, 79, widow of Leon Trotsky

January 24, 1962 (Wednesday)

The East German government instituted conscription into its armed forces, which formerly had been filled by volunteers. Western sources speculated that the East Germans had waited until the completion of the Berlin Wall before announcing the draft.

Brian Epstein made a verbal contract with the four members of The Beatles, becoming their manager in return for receiving up to 25 percent of their gross earnings.

An attempt by the United States, to launch five satellites into orbit from the same rocket, failed when the final stage of the Thor-Able-Star rocket failed to provide sufficient thrust to break the pull of gravity. Falling into the Gulf of Mexico "well south of Cuba" were the 80 foot rocket and the satellites SR-4, Injun II, Lofti II, Secor and Surcal, worth $3,500,000 altogether.

Died: Stanley Lord, 84, Captain of the SS Californian, at the time of the sinking of RMS Titanic nearly 50 years earlier.

January 25, 1962 (Thursday)

Governor of Montana Donald G. Nutter was killed, along with five other people, in a plane crash. Nutter had been on his way from Helena to a speaking engagement in Cut Bank when his C-47 plane went down in a mountain canyon near Wolf Creek. He was succeeded by Lt. Governor Tim M. Babcock.

Anandyn Amar, who had served twice as Prime Minister of Mongolia (1928–30 and 1936–39) and Chairman of the Presidium of State (1932–36) before becoming a victim of a purge by Joseph Stalin, was posthumously rehabilitated, more than 20 years after his execution by the Soviet Union on July 27, 1941.

January 26, 1962 (Friday)

The American space probe Ranger 3 was launched to from Cape Canaveral at 3:30 pm local time with the objective of duplicating the Soviet feat of landing a satellite on the Moon. Hours later, NASA announced that the Atlas rocket had hurled Ranger 3 into its trajectory too quickly, and that the probe would miss its target by 22,000 miles. Intersecting the Moon's orbit after 50 hours instead of the planned 66 hours, the spacecraft arrived too soon, got no closer than 22,862 miles from the Moon and went into orbit around the sun.

Seventeen employees at the National Steel Company in Volta Redonda, Brazil, were killed when a ladle of molten steel poured down upon them during the morning shift.

Died:

Charles "Lucky" Luciano, 64, Sicilian-born American mafioso who had been deported from the U.S. months earlier. Exiled in Italy, Luciano had just greeted film producer Martin Gosch, who had arrived at the Capodichino Airport in Naples to discuss plans for a film about Luciano's life. As the two men walked out of the terminal with policeman Marcelo Resta, Luciano, who had ordered the murder of more than 40 rival gangsters during his career, collapsed from a fatal heart attack at 5:25 pm. A deputy commissioner of the U.S. Narcotics Bureau told reporters later that day that Luciano had been facing re-arrest for his role in a major drug ring. The film, Lucky Luciano, was made eleven years later and released in 1974, with Italian actor Gian Maria Volontè portraying Luciano.

Gerald Rudolff Ford, 71, adoptive father of future U.S. President Gerald R. Ford and owner of a paint and varnish manufacturing company in Grand Rapids, Michigan, died of injuries after slipping on an icy sidewalk. In 1917, the elder Ford had married Ford's mother and then changed the name of her 3-year-old son, Leslie Lynch King, Jr. to his own, with the exception of spelling the middle name as Rudolph.

Died: Eunice Gray, 77, died in a fire at the Waco Hotel in Fort Worth, Texas, which she had operated for 40 years. Theories abound that Gray was the same person as Etta Place, former girlfriend, last seen in 1907, of the Harry Longabaugh, the Sundance Kid.

January 27, 1962 (Saturday)

With the publication of a January 15 decree of the Supreme Soviet, the Soviet Union changed all remaining street names and place names honoring Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, Georgi Malenkov, and Kliment Voroshilov two months after the five aides to Joseph Stalin had been denounced by the Soviet Communist Party. The Azerbaijan SSR city of Molotov would become Oktyabrkend, and the city of Perm had reverted to its name after Molotov's ouster in 1957; Voroshilovgrad was renamed Luhansk and Voroshilov in the far east became Ussuriysk.

The planned 7:30 am launch of Lt. Col. John H. Glenn, Jr. was postponed after the countdown clock stopped 20 minutes before liftoff. Glenn had been in the capsule since 5:10 am and was prepared to become the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth, while much of the nation watched live coverage. After technical difficulties halted the countdown, the skies became overcast with thick cloud cover, and the mission was scrubbed at 9:20 am.

Peter Snell set a new world record for the mile, running the distance in 3 minutes, 54.4 seconds, at Cook's Gardens, Wanganui. Herb Elliott of Australia had held the record since August 6, 1958.

At a major conference in Beijing, Liu Shaoqi, President of the People's Republic of China, criticized the "Great Leap Forward" economic policies of Party Chairman Mao Zedong. "People do not have enough food, clothes or other essentials... agricultural output has dropped tremendously," Liu told the assembly, adding "There is not only no Great Leap Forward, but a great deal of falling backward." Chairman Mao made a rare self-criticism three days later, and eventually took revenge on Liu, who disappeared in 1968 and reportedly died in 1969.

January 28, 1962 (Sunday)

The last streetcar in Washington, D.C. ran for the final time at 2:00 am, as the transit company retired its 27 car fleet. The day before, free rides were offered for all children accompanied by a paying adult and thousands took advantage of the offer. By 1962, only ten American cities still had trolleys.

Johannes Relleke, a tin miner at Kamativi in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), survived 2,443 bee stings and earned a spot in the Guinness category "Most bee stings removed".

Wasfi al-Tal, who would later be assassinated, succeeded Bahjat al-Talhouni as Prime Minister of Jordan.

Born: Peter Verhelst, Belgian writer, in Bruges

Died: Robert J. O. Compston, 64, British World War I fighter pilot

January 29, 1962 (Monday)

The Automobile Manufacturers Association of the U.S. announced that all 1963 model American vehicles would be equipped with amber-colored turn signals on the front, rather than being the same color as the headlights, which had been the standard since the signals had first been introduced in 1938. The change was made after the manufacturers had lobbied for the repeal of bans in 25 states against amber-colored lights.

The Miss Dominican Republic competition was held in Santo Domingo and was won by Sarah Olimpia Frómeta Pou.

Born: Olga Tokarczuk, Polish writer, in Sulechów

Died: Fritz Kreisler, 86, Austrian violinist

January 30, 1962 (Tuesday)

Two of the high-wire "Flying Wallendas" were killed when their famous 7-person pyramid collapsed during a tightrope walking performance at the Shrine Circus at the State Fair Coliseum in Detroit. Dieter Schepp, who had lost his footing and caused the group to topple, and Richard Faughnan both died of head injuries after falling 36 feet to the concrete arena floor. Mario Wallenda was paralyzed as a result of the accident, and Karl Wallenda and Jana Schepp were hospitalized for their injuries.

Fourteen of the 21 member states of the Organization of American States voted to oust Cuba. Six other nations abstained, and Cuba voted against the resolution, which barely passed by a 2/3rds majority.

Tanganyika laughter epidemic: Three students at a girls' boarding school in the Tanzanian village of Kashasha began laughing, and other students reacted. Within six weeks, 95 of the school's 159 students were laughing uncontrollably, and on March 18, the school closed and sent the pupils back to their home villages. The mass reaction spread to the villages of Nshamba, Ramanshenye, and Kanyangereka and affected hundreds of people before halting in 1963.

Born: Prince Abdullah of Jordan, to King Hussein and Princess Muna al-Hussein, formerly Antoinette Avril Gardiner of Britain. He would succeed his father as King Abdullah II in 1999.

January 31, 1962 (Wednesday)

Telling reporters that "It's a tradition that the show must go on," tightrope walkers Gunther Wallenda and his father, Herman Wallenda walked the high wire at the Shrine Circus in Detroit, 24 hours after the disastrous had killed two members of the troupe, and put the three others in the hospital.

Twenty-eight people had been killed by the fourth day of an unusually heavy fog in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys in central California, with the deaths of 11 people on their way to a labor camp in Mendota. Their bus was hit by a Southern Pacific freight train. Since January 28, seventeen other people had been killed on U.S. Highway 99 in accidents related to visibility of less than 100 feet. The cloud cover dissipated by February 2.

Arthur Watts relinquished the leadership of the National Party of Western Australia.

Snowfall with accumulation recorded on the Mediterranean island of Malta. A very rare meteorological occurrence.

Born: Alexey Miller, Russian industrialist, in Leningrad (now Saint-Petersburg

Died: Noel Purcell, 70, Irish water polo and rugby union player who represented the Ireland national team in both sports during the 1920s.