July 12, 1962: The Rolling Stones debutJuly 6, 1962: Nevada crater dug by nuclear testSedan Crater, 1200 feet wide, 320 feet deepJuly 9, 1962: Hawaii receives EMP from distant nuclear testJuly 2, 1962: First Walmart store opens
Bruce McLaren won the 1962 Reims Grand Prix. McClaren of New Zealand, a former rugby player turned race car driver, finished the 250-mile (400 km) course in 2 hours, 2 seconds.[5]
Five simulated off-the-pad Gemini ejection tests began at Naval Ordnance Test Station and were completed by the first week of August. The tests showed problems which led to two important design changes, adding a drogue-gun method of deploying the parachute and installing a three-point harness-release system similar to those used in military aircraft.[11]
France and its President, Charles de Gaulle, recognized the independence of Algeria, with the signing of the declaration at a meeting of the French Cabinet.[14]
The French Assembly voted 241–72 to remove former Prime Minister Georges Bidault's immunity against arrest and prosecution, which he had held in April 1961, when he called for the overthrow of President Charles De Gaulle. The vote cleared the way for treason indictment of Bidault, who had fled to Italy.[21]
After Algeria's independence was recognized by France, 20 French Algerians and 75 Algerians were killed in a massacre which took place at Oran, the section of Algiers where most French Algerians lived.[22]
Irish broadcaster Gay Byrne presented his first edition of The Late Late Show.[23] Byrne would go on to present the talk show for 37 years, making him the longest-running TV talk show host in history.
The 320-foot (98 m) deep Sedan Crater, measuring 1,280 feet (390 m) in diameter, was created in a split second in Nye County, Nevada, with an underground nuclear test.[24] The fallout exposed 13 million Americans to radiation; regular monthly tours are now given of the crater, which ceased being radioactive after less than a year.[25]
Martin Marietta presented its plan for flight testing the malfunction detection system (MDS) for the Gemini launch vehicle. This so-called "piggyback plan" required installing the Gemini MDS in Titan II engines on six Titan II flights to demonstrate its reliability.[11]
In the most important symbolic gesture of post-war French-German unity, President Charles de Gaulle of France and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer of West Germany, both devout Catholics, attended mass at the Reims Cathedral and prayed together. The Cathedral was where the Emperor common to both nations, Carolus Magnus (Charlemagne in France and Karl der Große in Germany)— had been baptized at Reims.[31]
In the Starfish Prime test, the United States exploded a 1.4 megaton hydrogen bomb in outer space, sending the warhead on a Titan missile to an altitude of 248 miles (399 km) over Johnston Island.[33] The first two attempts at exploding a nuclear missile above the Earth had failed. The flash was visible in Hawaii, 750 miles (1,210 km) away, and scientists discovered the destructive effects of the first major manmade electromagnetic pulse (EMP), as a surge of electrons burned out streetlights, blew fuses, and disrupted communications.[34][35] Increasing radiation in some places one hundredfold, the EMP damaged at least ten orbiting satellites beyond repair.[36]
NASA scientists concluded that the layer of haze reported by astronautsJohn Glenn and Scott Carpenter was a phenomenon called "airglow". Using a photometer on his mission in May, Carpenter was able to measure the layer. Airglow accounts for much of the illumination in the night sky.[7]
The All-Channel Television Receiver Bill was signed into law, requiring that all televisions made in the United States to be able to receive both VHF signals (channels 2 to 13 on 30 to 300 MHz) and UHF (channels 14 to 83, on frequencies between 470 and 896 MHz). The result was to open hundreds of new television channels.[43]
One of the spans in the Kings BridgeinMelbourne, Australia, collapsed after a 45-tonne (44-long-ton; 50-short-ton) vehicle passed over it, only 15 months after the multi-lane highway bridge's opening on April 12, 1961. The collapse occurred immediately after the driver of the vehicle had passed over the span, and nobody was hurt.[44][45]
Died:Tommy Milton, 68, American race car driver and first to win the Indianapolis 500 twice (in 1921 and 1923 despite being blind in one eye), shot himself twice after making his own funeral arrangements.[48]
The first person to swim across the English Channel underwater, without surfacing, arrived in Sandwich Bay, Kent, England, 18 hours after departing from Calais, France. Fred Baldasare wore scuba gear and was assisted by a guiding ship and the use of oxygen tanks.[49]
Representatives of Gemini Project Office (GPO), the U.S. Air Force Space System Division, Marshall Space Flight Center, and Lockheed conferred on Atlas-Agena coordination, with GPO presenting a list of minimum basic maneuvers of the Agena targeting and docking. Ten months would be required to modify pad 14 at Cape Canaveral for the Atlas-Agena, to begin immediately after the last Project Mercury flight.[11]
The first telephone signals carried by satellite were made by engineers between Goonhilly in the UK and Andover, Maine, in the U.S.[42]
Born:Julio César Chávez, Mexican boxer, WBC champion at three levels (super featherweight, lightweight, light welterweight and welterweight) between 1984 and 1996; in Ciudad Obregón
With his popularity declining, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan fired seven senior members of his cabinet, including Chancellor of the Exchequer Selwyn Lloyd, the Lord Chancellor, the Ministers of Defence and Education, and the Secretary of State for Scotland. The move was unprecedented in United Kingdom history, and was followed by the firing of nine junior ministers on Monday.[54][55][56] Liberal MP Jeremy Thorpe would quip, "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his friends for his life."[57] The British press would dub the event Macmillan's "Night of the Long Knives".[58]
Tests of the Mercury pressure suit were conducted with a human subject, who wore a modified B-70 (Valkyrie) harness, which appeared to have advantages over the existing Mercury harness.[7]
A 1958 Pakistan law, banning all political parties, was repealed by a National Assembly resolution, amending the Constitution of 1962. The only requirement was that a party could not prejudice Islamic ideology or the stability or integrity of Pakistan, and could not receive any aid from a foreign nation.[62]
In the third match of the rugby league Test series between Australia and Great Britain, held at Sydney Cricket Ground, a controversial last-minute Australian try and the subsequent conversion resulted in an 18–17 win for Australia.[63]
The Washington Post broke the story of thalidomide tablets that had been distributed in the United States, in a story by Morton Mintz under the headline "Heroine of FDA Keeps Bad Drug Off Market". As a result of the publicity, more than 2.5 million thalidomide pills, which had been distributed to physicians by the Richardson-Merrell pharmaceutical company pending approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, were recalled. Although thousands of babies were born with defects in Europe, the FDA identified only 17 known cases in the United States.[65]
Born:Glen Edward Rogers, American serial killer who was suspected of stabbing and strangling an elderly man and four women in five separate states between 1993 and 1995; in Hamilton, Ohio[67]
Died: Six animals (two monkeys and four hamsters); of radiation; they had been sent up 24 hours earlier by NASA in the first test of whether astronauts could safely endure prolonged exposure to cosmic rays. They had been inside a space capsule that had been kept at an altitude of 131,000 feet (40,000 m) by a balloon.[68]
French explorer Michel Siffre began a long-term experimentofchronobiology, the perception of the passage of time in the absence of information, staying underground in a cave for two months after entering. While inside, he used a one-way field telephone to signal to researchers when he was going to sleep, when he was getting up, and how much time had passed between events during his waking hours. He was brought back out on September 14, 1962, sixty days later; according to his diary, he thought only 35 days had passed and that the date was August 20.[69][70][71]
The U.S. Senate voted 52–48 against further consideration of President Kennedy's proposed plan for Medicare, government-subsidized health care for persons drawing social security benefits.[72] Two liberal U.S. Senators had switched sides, preventing a 50–50 tie that would have been broken in favor of Medicare by Vice-President Johnson; as President, Johnson would sign Medicare into law effective July 30, 1965.[73]
Major Robert M. White (USAF) piloted a North American X-15 to a record altitude of 314,750 feet (59.612 mi; 95.94 km),[74] narrowly missing the 100 kilometer altitude Kármán line that defines outer space, but passing the 50-mile altitude mark that NASA used to define the threshold of space. The record of 67 miles (108 km) would be set by Joseph A. WalkeronJuly 19, 1963.[75]
The Eritrean Liberation Front staged its first major attack in seeking to separate Eritrea from Ethiopia, by throwing a hand grenade at a reviewing stand that included General Abiy Abebe (Emperor Haile Selassie's representative), Eritrean provincial executive Asfaha Woldemikael, and Hamid Ferej, leader of the Eritrean provincial assembly.[76]
Four years after the USS Nautilus had become the first submarine to reach the geographic North Pole, the Soviet Union reached the Pole with a sub for the first time, with the submarine K-3 (later renamed the Leninsky Komsomol).[77]
The Minnesota Twins became the first Major League Baseball team to hit two grand slams in the same inning of a game, as Bob Allison and Harmon Killebrew drove in eight runs in the first inning of a 14–3 win over the Cleveland Indians.[79] In 50 years, the feat has been accomplished seven more times since then, most recently on September 11, 2015, in the eighth inning of a 14 to 8 win by the Baltimore Orioles over the Kansas City Royals.[80] On April 23, 1999, both of the St. Louis Cardinals' grand slams in the third inning were made by the same batter, Fernando Tatis.[81]
The largest space vehicle, up to that time, began orbiting the Earth, after the United States launched the communications satellite "Big Shot". After going aloft, the silvery balloon was inflated to its full size as a sphere with a diameter of 135 feet (41 m).[84]
Gemini Project Office and North American Aviation agreed on guidelines for the design of the advanced paraglider trainer, the system to be used with the Gemini spacecraft. The most important of these guidelines was redundancy for all critical operations.[11]
The first successful intercept of one missile by another took place at Kwajalein Island, with a Zeus missile passing within 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) of an incoming Atlas missile, close enough for a nuclear warhead to disable an enemy weapon.[86]
NASA AdministratorJames E. Webb announced that a new mission control center would be established at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) in Houston. Project Mercury flights were controlled from the center at Cape Canaveral, but these facilities were inadequate for the more complex missions envisioned for the Gemini and Apollo programs. Philco Corporation had received a contract for a design concept for the flight information and control functions of the new center, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would supervise construction of this center as it had all major facilities at MSC. Total cost was estimated at $30 million for the center, to open in 1964 for Gemini space rendezvous flights.[11]
Tou Samouth, Communist leader of the Khmer People's Revolutionary Party in Cambodia, disappeared and was assumed murdered. His successor, Saloth Sar, would go on to lead the Communist Party of KampucheaasPol Pot, and then exact revenge on former government employees.[87]
Executive Order 11307 prohibited unlicensed U.S. citizens (and people under U.S. jurisdiction) from possessing or holding an interest in gold coins from outside the United States, unless the coins were of "exceptional numismatic value".[88]
The world's first regular passenger hovercraft service was introduced, as the VA-3 began the 20-mile (32 km) run between Rhyl (in Wales) and Wallasey (in England).[89]
The United Arab Republic (Egypt) successfully fired four missiles which, President Gamal Abdel Nasser said, could strike any target "just south of Beirut", a reference to neighboring Israel. Nasser said that the Nakid El Kaher (Conqueror) missile had a range of 380 miles (610 km), which could reach all of Israel, as well as cities in Syria and Jordan, and that the El Zahir (Victory) missile had a range of 222 miles (357 km), including Tel Aviv.[91] The missiles came as a surprise to Israel's intelligence service, the Mossad. In August, Mossad chief Isser Harel would report to Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion that German scientists were assisting in the development of 900 more missiles capable of carrying chemical and biological weapons and would organize Operation Damocles to target the scientists on the project.[92]
The Mariner 1 spacecraft flew erratically several minutes after launch and had to be destroyed after less than five minutes, at a cost of $4,000,000 for the satellite and $8,000,000 for the rocket.[93] The $12 million dollar loss was later traced[94] to the omission of an overbar in the handwritten text from which the computer programming for the rocket guidance system was drawn, which should have been written as : being rendered as :; thus, there was no smooth function to prevent over-correction of minor variations of data on rocket velocity.[95]
OnCanadian Pacific Flight 301, 27 of the 40 people were killed after the four-engine plane had a failure of one engine shortly after takeoff on departure from Honolulu. The airliner crashed during an emergency landing, with only 13 survivors.[96]
While in Geneva, W. Averell Harriman of the U.S. met with North Vietnam's Foreign Minister, Ung Văn Khiêm in an unsuccessful attempt to talk about a similar neutrality agreement in Vietnam. Decades after the end of the Vietnam War, sources in Hanoi would reveal that the North Vietnamese Politburo had approved the pursuit of discussions, but that Khiem had not been informed of the Politburo decision that might have averted a protracted war. American and North Vietnamese diplomats would not meet again for six years.[99]
Telstar relayed the first live trans-Atlantictelevision signal, with two 20-minute programs. The first was a set of U.S. TV shows (President Kennedy's news conference, 90 seconds of the Phillies-Cubs baseball game, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir) to Eurovision (2:00 p.m. New York, 8:00 p.m. London). At 4:58 p.m., New York Time, live transmission of European broadcasting was shown on all three American networks, beginning with a live picture of the clock at London's Big Ben approaching 11:00 p.m.[59][100]
Thirty-six people were killed, and 100 injured, when a train between Paris and Marseilles derailed while crossing a viaduct near Dijon. Most of the dead were vacationers traveling to the French Riviera, and were on a passenger car that plunged into a ravine.[101]
In the first press conference broadcast by satellite, U.S. President Kennedy blamed the Soviet Union for the resumption of nuclear testing and the inflexibility about the Berlin crisis.[104]
The first successful use of a biological valve in human heart surgery was performed by Dr. Donald Nixon Ross in London, with a subcoronary implantation of an aortic allograft.[108]
The government of Italy's Prime Minister Amintore Fanfani enacted a law providing for free textbooks for primary school students.[109]
The U.S. had another failure in its Operation Dominic series of nuclear tests, when a Thor missile exploded on the launch pad at Johnston Island. Although the 100-kiloton warhead was destroyed without a nuclear blast, the area was contaminated with plutonium, ending plans to routinely launch nuclear-powered space probes.[111]
"Skyphone" service, permitting airline passengers to make telephone calls while in flight, was inaugurated. The first call was made from American Airlines Flight 941 en route from New York to Cincinnati, from stewardess Hope Patterson to the Associated Press.[112]
McDonnell reduced the rated thrust of the two forward-firing Gemini thrusters from 100 pounds-force (440 N) to 85 pounds-force (380 N) to reduce disturbance torques generated in the event of maneuvers with one engine out.[11]
"Aid to Families with Dependent Children" (AFDC) was created with the passage of the Public Welfare Amendments of 1962 to the U.S. Social Security Act, increasing the number of people receiving federal public assistance.[113]
Buckingham Palace, residence of the Queen of the United Kingdom, was opened to the public for the first time with the dedication of the Queen's Gallery, an art museum.[114]
The first phone call by satellite between Italy and the United States took place. Osvaldo Cagnasso, the mayor of Alba in Piedmont, called his counterpart, Mayor John Snider in Medford, Oregon. The mayors of the twinned cities exchanged their greetings, in the call relayed by Telstar 1, for 12 minutes. In the hours that followed, the satellite broadcast another 11 calls from one side of the Atlantic to the other.[115]
The first birth defects in the United States from the drug thalidomide were detected. The unborn child's mother asked the Supreme Court of Arizona State for an order permitting her to abort her fifth pregnancy. In previous months, she had used the controversial medication, which was banned in the U.S., but had been bought by her husband in London. Her request was rejected.[116]
In Algeria, during the split within the GPRA, Belkacem Krim and Boudiaf got the Kabylie to organize the resistance to Ben Bella's army. Benkhedda remained in Algiers to cooperate with the opposing faction.[117]
The first nuclear missiles shipped to Cuba by the Soviet Union were unloaded in at the port of Mariel. Their discovery would precipitate the Cuban Missile Crisis.[118]
To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the founding of the republic in Egypt, President Nasser declared an end to tuition in the nation's universities.[119]
The French Chef, starring Julia Child, appeared on television for the first time, as a program on the Boston public television station WGBH.[120]
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began its project to acquire and restore properties in the small town of Nauvoo, Illinois, where the Mormons had been centered from 1839 to 1844. Within a year, Nauvoo Restoration, Inc., had acquired 30 of the 35 buildings still standing in Nauvoo.[124]
Jess Oliver (Oliver Jsesperson) applied for the patent for the Ampeg B-15 Portaflex portable bass amplifier, which would become the most popular bass amplifier in the world for bands; the patent would be granted on May 11, 1965.[125]
A train derailment killed 19 people and injured 116 when a Pennsylvania Railroad went off the tracks at Steelton, Pennsylvania. The nine-car train was carrying baseball fans to the Pirates-Phillies baseball game at Philadelphia, when the last five cars went off track, and three fell down a 40-foot (12 m) embankment.[126]
A 103–26 vote of delegates to the German Football Association (DFB) convention at Dortmund created the Bundesliga, the national league of West Germany's top professional soccer football teams.[127] The Bundesliga would begin its first season on August 24, 1963, with 16 teams out of 46 applicants.[128]
South Korea's President Park Chung Hee issued the memorandum "The Establishment of a Social Security System" and set about to forcibly implement programs for assistance for the elderly, disabled and unemployed in what was, at that time, a poor nation.[129]
The USSR launched Kosmos 7, the first successful Soviet mission to conduct surveillance photography of the entire United States.[130]
Marilyn Monroe made a final telephone call to the U.S. Justice Department, six days before her death. Monroe had been a regular caller to U.S. Attorney GeneralRobert F. Kennedy, and historians speculate that he told her during the eight-minute phone call that they could no longer see each other. Monroe's phone records would be confiscated by the FBI, but Kennedy's phone logs would be donated to the National Archives after his death.[135]
U.S. President Kennedy agreed to halt reconnaissance flights over Soviet ships in the Caribbean Sea, after USSR Premier Khrushchev proposed the idea "for the sake of better relations"; in the two months that followed, the ships delivered missiles to Cuba.[136]
On the same day, President Kennedy began tape-recording conversations in the White House.[137]
The professional football career of Ernie Davis, who had been the #1 choice in the 1962 NFL Draft, ended three days before he was to begin play for the Cleveland Browns in the preseason College All-Star Game in Chicago. Davis had checked into the Memorial Hospital in the suburb of Evanston, Illinois, on suspicion that he had the mumps, and then with mononucleosis.[138] The next day, it was announced that he had a "blood disorder", and in October, it would be revealed that he had leukemia,[139] the disease that would claim his life the following May 18.[140]
Alarge annular solar eclipse covered 97% of the Sun, creating a dramatic spectacle for observers in a path up to 102.5 kilometres (63.7 mi) wide across South America's Caribbean coast and across Southern Africa. The eclipse lasted 3 minutes and 32.66 seconds at the point of maximum eclipse.
Clarence E. Willard, 79, American circus performer who could alter his height from 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) to 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) through muscle manipulation.[143]
^"Jetliner Vanishes, 94 Aboard". Miami News. July 7, 1962. p. 1.
^"15 Students Killed During Burma Riots". Toledo Blade. July 9, 1962. p. 1.
^"Old Foes Parade In Reims", Ottawa Citizen, July 9, 1962, p. 1; William Kidd and Brian Murdoch, Memory and Memorials: The Commemorative Century (Ashgate Publishing, 2004) p. 266
^"Grand Prix Win to U.S. Driver", The Age (Melbourne), July 10, 1962, p. 10
^Goodchild, Peter (2004). Edward Teller, the Real Dr. Strangelove. Harvard University Press. p. 300.
^"U.S. Fires H-Bomb In Sky". Miami News. July 9, 1962. p. 1.
^"U.S. Explodes Warhead 200 Miles Above Earth". Ottawa Citizen. July 9, 1962. p. 1.
^Darrin, Ann Garrison; O'Leary, Beth Laura (2009). Handbook of Space Engineering, Archaeology, and Heritage. CRC Press. p. 536.
^"13-Story Balloon Fired 950 Miles Above Cape". Miami News. July 18, 1962. p. 1.
^Bill, James A. (1989). The Eagle and the Lion: The Tragedy of American-Iranian Relations. Yale University Press. p. 146.
^Hamilton, John A. (2009). Blazing Skies: Air Defense Artillery on Fort Bliss, Texas, 1940-2009. Government Printing Office. p. 46.
^Ben Kiernan (2008). How Pol Pot Came to Power. Verso. p. 197. ISBN9780300148442.
^Ganz, David L (2011). The Essential Guide to Investing in Precious Metals: How to Begin, Build and Maintain a Properly Diversified Portfolio. Krause Publications. pp. 62–63.
^"The Hovercraft Pioneers- First Paying Passengers Take the Air To-day". Glasgow Herald. July 20, 1962. p. 4.
^"Paris and Tunis Resuming Ties; End Rift That Started After '61 Bizerte Fight". The New York Times. July 21, 1962.
^"Egypt Fires 4 Rockets in Test Series- Nasser Boasts Missiles Could Hit Targets in Israel". Youngstown Vindicator. Youngstown, Ohio. July 21, 1962. p. 2.
^Plaw, Avery (2008). Targeting Terrorists: A License to Kill?. Ashgate Publishing. p. 41.
^"Venus Shot Veers, Destroyed", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 23, 1962, p. 1
^"So! It Was Man Who Goofed In Venus Probe", Deseret News (Salt Lake City), July 28, 1962, p. 1
^"Mariner I -- no holds BARred", by Peter G. Neumann, The Risks Digest, 30 May 1989; Vincenzo De Florio, Application-Layer Fault-Tolerance Protocols (Idea Group Inc., 2009) p. 32; Peter G. Neumann, Computer-Related Risks (Addison-Wesley Professional, 1994)
^Civil Aviation Authority 1974, p. 18/62; "Airliner Crashes, 25 Killed", Miami News, July 23, 1962, p. 1
^"Ilyasah Shabazz". New Jersey Education Association. November 2017. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved November 18, 2017.
^Robert S. McNamara, et al., Argument Without End: In Search of Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy (PublicAffairs, 2000) pp. 125–127
^"First Live European TV Due Via Telstar Today", Miami News, July 23, 1962, p. 1; "What America Saw 'Live' From Europe", Miami News, July 24, 1962, p9C
being rendered as :
; thus, there was no smooth function to prevent over-correction of minor variations of data on rocket velocity.[95]
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Grimwood, James M. "PART III (B) Operational Phase of Project Mercury June 1962 through June 12, 1963". Project Mercury - A Chronology. NASA Special Publication-4001. NASA. Retrieved 12 February 2023.