November 1962

November 1, 1962 (Thursday)

Mars 1, also known as Sputnik 24, was launched by the Soviet Union as part of its Mars program, with an expected arrival date of June. The probe would come within 120,000 miles of Mars on June 19, 1963, but the system that adjusted the probe's antenna, to maintain contact with Earth would fail on March 21, 1963.

The United States resumed its arms blockade of ships bound for Cuba, after a two-day suspension during which negotiations had taken place. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union began dismantling its missiles there.

Soviet scientist Lev Landau was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physics in recognition of "his pioneering theories for condense matter, especially liquid helium".

The first issue of Diabolik was published in Italy.

Died: Ricardo Rodríguez, 20, Mexican racing driver, was killed in a crash while practicing for the Mexican Grand Prix at Magdalena Mixhuca Circuit.

November 2, 1962 (Friday)

The Australian Ballet gave its first ever performance.

Sino-Indian War: The United States began airlifting weapons to India, with U.S. Air Force C-130 transport planes transporting mountain artillery from its West German bases to match the Chinese weaponry.

Cuban Missile Crisis: The Soviet Union and the United States reached a final agreement on the terms for Soviet removal of nuclear missiles from Cuba and American verification; President Kennedy announced the plan on television that evening.

Born: David Brock, American journalist and founder of Media Matters for America, in Washington, D.C.

Died:

Godfrey Lowell Cabot, 101, American industrialist and philanthropist

Tripuraneni Gopichand, 52, Telugu language writer

November 3, 1962 (Saturday)

The earliest use of the term "personal computer" by the media, was made in the New York Times in a story about John W. Mauchly's speech the day before to the American Institute of Industrial Engineers. Mauchly, "inventor of some of the original room-size computers" said that "in a decade or so", everyone would have their own computer with "exchangeable wafer-thin data storage files to provide inexhaustible memories and answer most problems". Mauchly was quoted as saying, "There is no reason to suppose the average boy or girl cannot be master of a personal computer."

In what one author describes as a milestone in the term "country music" replacing what had been referred to as "country and western", Billboard magazine renamed its "Hot C&W Singles" chart to "Hot Country Singles", and stopped referring to "western" music altogether.

As the state of emergency in India continued, the Defence of India Ordinance took effect. President Radhakrishnan suspended Article 21 (preventing the deprivation of life or liberty without due process) and Article 22 (prohibiting "preventive detention") of the Constitution of India.

A group of bandits murdered 25 passengers and the driver on a bus that was traveling near the city of Neiva, Huila in Colombia. The group appeared on the road, ordered the bus to stop, fired guns inside and then hacked the occupants to death with machetes. Six other people survived the attack with injuries.

Born: Amy B. Smith, American computer engineer, in Lexington, Massachusetts

Died: Harlow Curtice, 69, American automobile executive and President of General Motors from 1953 to 1958

November 4, 1962 (Sunday)

The United States conducted an atmospheric nuclear test for the last time, and all of its tests since then have been made underground. The Soviet Union would halt atmospheric testing less than two months later, the last explosion being on Christmas Day. The last atmospheric test ever would be by China on October 16, 1980.

The body of USAF Major Rudolf Anderson, the only fatality in the Cuban Missile Crisis, was returned to the United States by Cuba.

The first Mexican Grand Prix was won by Jim Clark and Trevor Taylor.

Born: Jean-Pierre Bemba, Congolese presidential candidate in 2006, former Vice-President, and convicted war criminal; in Bokada

Died: Enos, 6, the first chimpanzee to orbit the earth. Enos, who was sent up by the U.S. three months before John Glenn's orbital flight, had been sick for two months. Officials at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico said that there was "no connection with the two-orbit space flight the chimp made Nov. 29, 1961."

November 5, 1962 (Monday)

President Ayub Khan of Pakistan was given a note from U.S. Ambassador Walter P. McConaughy, on authorization from President Kennedy, which said that "The Government of the United States of America reaffirms its previous assurances to the Government of Pakistan that it will come to Pakistan's assistance in the event aggression from India against Pakistan." The existence of the pledge was kept secret, but in 1971, National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger would reveal its existence to Anatoly Dobrynin, the Soviet Ambassador to the U.S.

Rotary Interact, a program of the Rotary Club service organization for boys aged 12 to 18, was established, with the first chapter being created in Melbourne, Florida.

Saudi Arabia broke off diplomatic relations with Egypt, following a period of unrest partly caused by the defection of several Saudi princes to Egypt.

A coal mining disaster in Ny-Ålesund, on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen, killed 21 people. The Norwegian government would be forced to resign in August, 1963, in the aftermath of this accident.

Martin Luther King, Jr. visits the University of Michigan. In the course of the day, he makes a speech at Hill Auditorium and participates in a group discussion at the Michigan Union.

November 6, 1962 (Tuesday)

The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies, and called for all UN member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation. The result was 67 in favor, 16 against (including the U.S., the U.K., France, Japan, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa), and 27 abstaining.

In his first meeting with his cabinet, Saudi Arabia's Prime Minister Faisal (later the King) announced his plans to abolish slavery within the Kingdom and to have the government pay owners for the manumission of their slaves.

In midterm elections in the United States, the ruling Democratic Party maintained control of the House of Representatives (261-174) and increased its majority in the Senate (64-36). Former U.S. Vice-President Richard M. Nixon, who had narrowly lost the 1960 presidential election to John F. Kennedy, was heavily defeated in his bid to become Governor of California, while the President's younger brother, 30-year-old Teddy Kennedy, was elected U.S. Senator for Massachusetts.

James E. Mills, the editor of the Birmingham Post-Herald, was arrested for violating Alabama's state election laws after publishing an editorial in that newspaper, urging voters to support a proposed change in city government. Under the law, soliciting votes on election day was a criminal offense. A trial court initially dismissed the charges as an unconstitutionally-broad interpretation of the law against electioneering on the day of an election, but the Alabama Supreme Court would reverse the dismissal and send the case back to trial. On May 23, 1966, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Mills v. Alabama would reverse the Alabama Court, with Justice Hugo Black noting that "Suppression of the right of the press to... contend for or against change, which was all this editorial did, muzzles one of the very agencies the framers of our Constitution thoughtfully and deliberately selected to improve our society and keep it free."

Voters in San Francisco, Alameda County and Contra Costa County, California approved the creation of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system.

November 7, 1962 (Wednesday)

The morning after losing his race for California Governor, a bitter Richard M. Nixon told reporters that "You don't have Nixon to kick around any more, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference".

South African dissident Nelson Mandela began a five-year prison sentence. Partway through his time behind bars, he was indicted and convicted for other crimes, and remained in prison for an additional 22 years, until 1990. In 1994, he would be elected the first black President of South Africa.

Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Premier Khrushchev announced that the withdrawal of Soviet missiles from Cuba was complete. By agreement of the two superpowers, the United States Navy searched all Soviet vessels leaving Cuba to ensure that the missiles were being transported back to the U.S.S.R., and over the next three days, all 42 ballistic missiles had passed through the inspection.

The Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage, and Registration of Marriages was opened for signature and ratification by United Nations General Assembly resolution 1763 A (XVII).

Died: Eleanor Roosevelt, 78, former First Lady of the United States, at her apartment on 55 East 74th Street in Manhattan.

November 8, 1962 (Thursday)

Glenn Hall, goalie for the Chicago Black Hawks of the National Hockey League, ended his streak of consecutive games at 552, taking himself out of the game against the visiting Boston Bruins ten minutes after it started. "It was the first time he missed a minute of play since the first game of the 1955-56 season," a wire service report noted.

Parliamentary elections were held in the Faroe Islands. The Social Democratic Party won 8 of the 29 seats, to become the largest single party in the Løgting.

Died: Willis H. O'Brien, 76, American special effects producer whose stop-motion animation earned him an Academy Award in 1950.

November 9, 1962 (Friday)

Brigadier Sir Bernard Fergusson became Governor-General of New Zealand, the last British native to be appointed to that position.

India's Defence Minister Krishna Menon was forced to resign as the Sino-Indian War proved to be disastrous to India.

Died: Louise Hanson Dyer, 78, Australian music publisher and patron of the arts

November 10, 1962 (Saturday)

The funeral service for Eleanor Roosevelt took place at St. James Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, New York. Sitting next to each other in the same pew were two former Presidents of the United States (Harry S Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower), the current President (John F. Kennedy) and the next President, Vice-President (Lyndon B. Johnson).

Sino-Indian War: Evacuation of the Indian state of Assam began as troops from China invaded, and residents of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh prepared for a probable Chinese takeover as well. Rather than conquering Assam, however, China later withdrew its forces.

Thai educator and writer Mom Luang Pin Malakul was awarded the West German Federal Cross of Merit, and the Belgian Order of Leopold,

U.S. President Kennedy signed Executive Order 11063, directing an end to discrimination in public housing that received any federal assistance. However, the order was prospective only and did not apply to "low income units built or planned before November 20, 1962".

Born: Demon Kakka, Japanese musician and entertainer, as Takashi Kogure, in Shibuya, Tokyo

Died: John Alden, 54, Australian actor and Shakespearean director, died of a coronary occlusion

November 11, 1962 (Sunday)

The French ship Jean Gougy ran aground at Land's End, Cornwall, United Kingdom and capsized. Eight of the twenty crew were rescued by helicopter or breeches buoy. Sergeant Eric Smith of 22 Squadron, Royal Air Force would be awarded a George Medal for his actions in the rescue.

The first constitution for Kuwait was approved by the Emir, Abdullah III Al-Salim Al-Sabah, providing for an elected unicameral parliament of 50 members, an executive rule by "the descendants of the late Mubarak Al-Sabah", and specifying, in Article 2, that in the absence of specific legislation, the Sharia Islamic law was to govern the emirate's jurisprudence.

Article 14 of the Indian Constitution, the right to equal protection of the laws, was suspended by Presidential order as part of the Defence of India Ordinance; the suspension of constitutional rights under Articles 15, 21 and 22 would remain in effect until January 1969.

Born: Demi Moore, American actress, as Demetria Guynes in Roswell, New Mexico

November 12, 1962 (Monday)

Two hand surgeons, Dr. Harold E. Kleinert and Dr. Mort Kasdan, performed the first successful revascularization of a severed digit (in this case, a partially amputated thumb) on a human patient, reconnecting the dorsal veins in order to restore function to the hand. The procedure took place at the University of Louisville hospital.

U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy attended a reception for the visiting Bolshoi Ballet troupe at the Soviet Embassy in Washington, and passed along a verbal message from the President to Ambassador Dobrynin, to send to Chairman Khrushchev. In return for the U.S.S.R. announcing plans to remove their Ilyushin Il-28 bombers from Cuba over a 30-day period, President Kennedy said, the U.S. would end its blockade.

Born:

Mariella Frostrup, Norwegian journalist and television presenter, in Oslo

Naomi Wolf, American author and political consultant, in San Francisco

November 13, 1962 (Tuesday)

Dag Hammarskjöld invert: After American philatelists discovered a rare printing error that affected 400 of the hundreds of thousands of four-cent commemorative stamps, U.S. Postmaster General J. Edward Day ordered 400,000 identical misprints in order to reduce the value of the original goofs, and commented, "The Post Office Department isn't run as a jackpot operation." The mistake, which had changed the background on two sheets of 200 stamps, had been the first by the U.S. Post Office in 44 years, and made each 4 cent issue worth as much as 350 dollars to collectors. Collector Leonard Sherman, who had purchased an unbroken sheet of 50 inverts, saw a potential fortune of $175,000 get deflated to $2.

For the first time since the 7th century AD, a new name was added to the Canon of the Mass of the Roman Catholic Church, as Pope John XXIII added Saint Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus Christ, to the list of people venerated in the Communicantes.

Died: Baron Stasys Šilingas, 77, Lithuanian lawyer and statesman

November 14, 1962 (Wednesday)

Eritrea, for ten years an autonomous unit that was part of a federation with Ethiopia, lost its independence by annexation as the 14th province of the Ethiopian Empire. With a force of Ethiopian soldiers outside the Eritrean Assembly building in the region's capital, Asmara, the Eritrean administrator, Asfaha Woldemichael, urged the Assembly to pass a resolution to unite with the "Motherland". The next day, Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie issued Order No. 27, citing the unanimous approval of the Assembly. After another 18 years of war, Eritrea would regain its independence in 1991.

In the Quebec general election, the Quebec Liberal Party, led by Jean Lesage, was re-elected.

At about 1:30 AM, the southeast door of the Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), located on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, was bombed. FBI agents state that the explosive had been wrapped around the door handles on the southeast entrance of the temple. The large wooden entrance doors were damages by flying fragments of metal and glass, and eleven exterior windows were shattered. Damage to interior walls occurred 25 feet inside the temple, but damage to the interior was minor.

November 15, 1962 (Thursday)

Archie Moore, who had reigned as boxing's world light heavyweight champion between 1952 and 1962, fought unbeaten challenger Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) in Los Angeles. Clay, who had gained a reputation as "the Louisville Lip who calls the round for a knockout and makes it come true", predicted that he would win in four rounds and knocked Moore out in the fourth.

The Greek freighter Captain George, with a cargo of explosives, caught fire during a storm while sailing in the Caribbean Sea near Bermuda. The crew of 25 abandoned the ship and boarded a lifeboat, which capsized after being battered by 45 foot high waves.

Danish Defence Minister Poul Hansen resigned his position to replace the recently deceased Hans R. Knudsen as Minister of Finance.

Died: Irene Gibbons, 61, American film costume designer. Mrs. Gibbons, who billed herself simply as "Irene", checked into Room 1129 of the Knickerbocker Hotel in Los Angeles, drank heavily, wrote a suicide note and then jumped to her death.

November 16, 1962 (Friday)

The Russian-language literary magazine Novy Mir published part of the novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, with the support of Soviet Communist Party Chairman Khrushchev, giving hope to authors that government censorship of literature in the U.S.S.R. would be eased.

Tipped off by an anonymous letter to French Cultural Affairs Minister Andre Malraux, police went to a barn at Villiers-Saint-Georges and recovered 56 paintings that had been stolen on July 16, 1961. The works, taken from the Annonciade museum in Saint-Tropez, were hidden under a pile of hay and were valued at $2.2 million. The thieves, who apparently were unable to sell the masterpieces anywhere, left a message saying, "We beg forgiveness for having stolen these works of art. By giving them back we hope our crime will be forgotten."

The Detroit trolleybus system went out of service, for the second and last time.

Project Highwater: SA-3, an unmanned craft in the Apollo program, was launched by the US from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 34 and destroyed five minutes later, as part of an experiment.

Born:

Gary "Mani" Mounfield, English bass guitarist for The Stone Roses, in Manchester

Nabil Gabol, Pakistani politician, in Karachi

November 17, 1962 (Saturday)

At Chantilly, Virginia, 26 miles from Washington, D.C., U.S. President Kennedy dedicated Dulles International Airport, named after the late U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.

In the UK, the Seaham life-boat George Elmey capsized while entering harbour after rescuing the crew of a fishing boat. All five crew and four of the five survivors were killed.

The Alabama Crimson Tide, the #1 ranked college football team in the U.S., lost, 7-6, to the Georgia Tech Yellowjackets 7–6, bringing to an end a 19-game winning streak.

Died: Arthur Vining Davis, 95, American multimillionaire philanthropist and former chairman of the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa); he had retired in 1957 as the third-richest person in the world with assets of $400 million, comparable to $3.2 billion in 2017.

November 18, 1962 (Sunday)

French legislative election, 1962: The first round of voting took place for the 482 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, with 96 of the candidates winning a majority of the votes in their races, including 45 of Charles De Gaulle's UNR Party. The remaining 386 seats would be decided in the second round on November 25, with only a plurality of the votes required.

Sino-Indian War: After a three-week pause in China's offensive on the Indian frontier to allow reinforcement and buildup of troops, a second and more massive invasion began, with Chinese troops overrunning Indian positions in Assam.

The Greek liberty ship Captain George exploded and sank with the loss of 18 crew.

Born: Kirk Hammett, American guitarist and songwriter in the heavy metal band Metallica, in San Francisco

Died: Niels Bohr, 77, Danish physicist and Nobel laureate; element 107, bohrium, is named in his honor.

Died: Dennis Chavez, 74, Hispanic American politician and U.S. Senator for New Mexico since 1935

November 19, 1962 (Monday)

A message in Morse code was transmitted from EPR (Evpatoria Planetary Radar) in the Soviet Union, directed at the planet Venus and using the second planet "as a passive reflector". The "message", however, was simply the Russian word "Mir" (МИР) which can refer to the Earth, or to peace. The medium was to repeat a pattern of signals of 30 seconds for "dash" and 10 seconds for "dot" (— —)(· ·)(· — ·).

The Newfoundland general election was won by the Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador, led by Joey Smallwood.

Born: Jodie Foster, American actress and film director, twice winner of Academy Award for Best Actress; as Alicia Christian Foster, in Los Angeles

November 20, 1962 (Tuesday)

In response to the Soviet Union having removed its missiles, and announcing that it would remove its Il-28 bombers from Cuba, President John F. Kennedy ended the U.S. quarantine proclaimed during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Two days after launching an offensive that threatened to overrun northeast India, China suddenly announced a unilateral ceasefire in the Sino-Indian War, effective at midnight local time, and ordered that by December 1, its troops would withdraw 20 kilometers behind the "line of actual control" that had existed three years earlier.

János Kádár, Prime Minister of Hungary and General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, announced a general amnesty for all persons who participated in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, effective March 21, 1963.

November 21, 1962 (Wednesday)

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission issued an order directing that all television sets manufactured in or imported into the United States, on or after April 30, 1964, had to "all-channel equipped", to receive UHF channels 14 through 83 in addition to VHF channels 2 through 13.

Born: Igor Škamperle, Slovenian mountaineer, sociologist and writer, in Trieste, Italy

Died: Sao Shwe Thaik, 68, first president of the Union of Burma and the last Saopha of Yawnghwe

November 22, 1962 (Thursday)

A mob of between 100 and 250 black South African members of the terrorist group Poqo marched from the township of Mbekweni and into white neighborhoods in the city of Paarl. Armed with machetes and clubs, the group surrounded the police station, while others entered homes at random, and attacked residents in the early morning hours, while others vandalized storefronts in the downtown.

In the UK, the Chippenham by-election, caused by previous MP David Eccles, having been raised to the House of Lords, was won by Daniel Awdry of the Conservative Party.

Died: René Coty, 80, President of France 1954 to 1959

November 23, 1962 (Friday)

United Airlines Flight 297, a Vickers Viscount 754D, struck a flock of whistling swans while making an approach to Washington, D.C., and crashed north of Ellicott City, Maryland, killing all 17 people on board. One of the swans collided with the left horizontal stabilizer on the tail section, causing the plane to go out of control and into the ground.

November 24, 1962 (Saturday)

General elections were held in Jordan, where all political parties were banned at the time

The first episode of influential British satire show That Was The Week That Was was broadcast on BBC Television.

November 25, 1962 (Sunday)

second round of voting for France's Chamber of Deputies, President De Gaulle's UNR party won 188 of the remaining 386 seats still contested, giving the UNR a total of 233 seats in the 482 seat Chamber, 8 short of a majority. With the support of at least 30 other candidates from other parties, the UNR had enough to form a coalition government.

Katherine Batis, later Katherine, Crown Princess of Yugoslavia, married her first husband, Jack W. Andrews.

November 26, 1962 (Monday)

German police ended their occupation of the offices of the West German weekly newsmagazine, Der Spiegel', bringing an end to the "Spiegel scandal"

Mies Bouwman started presenting the first live TV-marathon fundraising show (Open Het Dorp), which lasted 23 hours non-stop.

The Beatles made their definitive recording of "Please Please Me" at EMI Studios in London. George Martin produces.

November 27, 1962 (Tuesday)

The first Boeing 727 was rolled out from its hangar in Seattle, and would be flown for the first time on February 9, 1963, with Eastern Airlines putting it into commercial service a year later.

French President Charles De Gaulle ordered Georges Pompidou to form a new government.

Mátyás Tímár became Minister of Finance in the government of Hungary.

November 28, 1962 (Wednesday)

U.S. Postmaster General J. Edward Day announced the "Zoning Improvement Plan" that would implement a five-digit number identifying each post office in the United States, beginning on July 1, 1963. The "ZIP Code" was initially intended for businesses that had high speed electronic data sorters, but Day said that use by private citizens would not be mandatory, noting that "We're not too concerned if Aunt Minnie doesn't put the numbers on her letter."

The United States Armed Forces lowered its defense readiness condition back to DEFCON 4 after having been at DEFCON 2 since October 23 during the start of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

At the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, Japanese artist Yoko Ono married fellow-artist Anthony Cox. At the time, the future wife of John Lennon was also married to (but separated from) composer Toshi Ichiyanagi, causing Ono to temporarily be in a state of bigamy that would be fixed by an annulment of the marriage to Cox, a divorce from Toshi, and a remarriage with Cox.

Following the victory of his party in national elections, Georges Pompidou formed a new government as Prime Minister of France.

Mrs. Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, sister of the Indian Prime Minister, became Governor of Maharashtra.

Born: Jon Stewart, American comedian and host of The Daily Show, as Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz in New York City

Died: Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, 82, who reigned from 1890 to 1948 before abdicating in favor of her daughter, Juliana.

November 29, 1962 (Thursday)

An agreement was signed between Britain and France to develop the Concorde supersonic airliner. Only 14 would ever enter service

The Norwegian cargo liner Ragna Ringdal ran aground off Vatoa, Fiji. All passengers and crew would be rescued after three days.

Died: Erik Scavenius, 85, former Prime Minister of Denmark

November 30, 1962 (Friday)

The United Nations General Assembly elected U Thant of Burma as the new UN Secretary-General.

Eastern Air Lines Flight 512, a Douglas DC-7B, crashed while trying to land in heavy fog at Idlewild Airport in New York City. Twenty-five of the 51 people on board were killed.

Franz Josef Strauss, was forced to resign as West Germany's Defence Minister. Strauss was relieved of his duties as a result of the Spiegel scandal, after being accused of ordering police action against the staff of the magazine Der Spiegel.