1962 History, Facts, and Trivia

In 1962, the world came closer to nuclear war than it has before or since. For thirteen days in October, the United States and the Soviet Union faced each other over Soviet missiles in Cuba, and the outcome depended in part on decisions made by individual people in submarines and in the White House and in the Kremlin whose names most Americans would not know for decades. John Glenn orbited the Earth. Marilyn Monroe died. Lawrence of Arabia opened. The Beatles were turned down by a record company. Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, which helped start the environmental movement. Johnny Carson took over The Tonight Show. It was, in the most literal sense, a year in which the world’s survival turned.

Quick Facts from 1962

• World-Changing Events: The Cuban Missile Crisis, October 16-28, 1962, brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war; John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth on February 20
• Top Song: Stranger on the Shore by Mr. Acker Bilk was the best-performing single of the year on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100; I Can’t Stop Loving You by Ray Charles spent five weeks at number one and was the most culturally significant recording of the year
• Must-See Movies: Lawrence of Arabia, The Manchurian Candidate, To Kill a Mockingbird, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Dr. No, The Longest Day, and How the West Was Won
• Most Famous Person in America: Elvis Presley, whose commercial dominance was approaching its mid-decade peak
• Notable Books: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle and Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
• Price of a Men’s 100% Wool Suit: $45.00
• Price of a Movie Ticket: 70 cents
• The Funny Guys: The Smothers Brothers
• The Funny Lady: Moms Mabley
• The Funny Late Night Host: Johnny Carson, who took over The Tonight Show on October 1, 1962
• The Other Late Show Host: Steve Allen
• The Guy Who Had One Successful Funny Album: Vaughn Meader, whose The First Family album parodied the Kennedy White House and sold 7.5 million copies
• The Superstores: Sam Walton opened the first Wal-Mart Discount City in Rogers, Arkansas; Woolco, Target, and Kmart also opened their first locations in 1962
• Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Tiger, associated with courage, competitiveness, and a tendency toward dramatic confrontations — all applicable to 1962
• The Habits: Playing Spacewar!, doing the Limbo, reading Silent Spring
• The Conversation: Did you hear about Cuba? And have you tried the Twist?

Top Ten Baby Names of 1962

Girls: Lisa, Mary, Susan, Karen, Linda
Boys: Michael, David, John, James, Robert

Lisa had claimed the top spot for girls. Mary, which had been the most popular girls’ name in America for decades, was still in the top five but declining. Michael continued its long reign at the top for boys.

Fashion Icons and Sex Symbols of 1962

Ursula Andress, Brigitte Bardot, Carroll Baker, Honor Blackman, Claudia Cardinale, Doris Day, Angie Dickinson, Annette Funicello, Audrey Hepburn, Sophia Loren, Jayne Mansfield, Ann-Margret, Marilyn Monroe, Julie Newmar, Kim Novak, Stella Stevens, Elizabeth Taylor, Natalie Wood

Marilyn Monroe’s last public appearance was at Madison Square Garden on May 19, 1962, when she sang “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” to John F. Kennedy in a performance so suggestive that it became one of the most discussed moments of the decade. She died three months later. Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren represented opposing aesthetics — Hepburn’s gamine elegance and Loren’s Mediterranean abundance — that defined the era’s visual vocabulary. Ursula Andress emerged from the ocean in a white bikini in Dr. No in October and became one of the world’s most recognized faces.

Hollywood Hunks and Sex Symbols of 1962

Sean Connery, Robert Goulet, Elvis Presley, Gregory Peck

Sean Connery had played James Bond for the first time in Dr. No and immediately established the character so thoroughly that every subsequent actor in the role has been measured against him. Gregory Peck had played Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird and produced one of the most celebrated performances in American cinema.

The Quotes

“Heeere’s Johnny!” — Ed McMahon, introducing Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, beginning October 1, 1962, a phrase that would be heard on American television for thirty years

“Bond. James Bond.” — Sean Connery in Dr. No, a line delivered with a casualness that somehow made it more memorable than any amount of dramatic emphasis would have

“With a name like Smucker’s, it has to be good.” — Smucker’s Jelly, in a campaign that turned the company’s unusual name into its primary asset, operating on the logic that anyone willing to name their company Smucker’s must be confident in the product

“Think small.” — Volkswagen, in a campaign created by Doyle Dane Bernbach that ran counter to every advertising convention of the era and is still cited in creative writing programs as one of the finest advertising campaigns in history

“We try harder.” — Avis car rental, in a campaign that made the company’s second-place status the reason to choose it over the market leader, one of the most ingenious pieces of positioning in advertising history

Time Magazine’s Man of the Year

Pope John XXIII, for convening the Second Vatican Council in October 1962, the first ecumenical council of the Catholic Church since 1870, and the most significant gathering in the history of modern Catholicism. Vatican II modernized the Catholic Mass, encouraged dialogue with other Christian denominations and non-Christian religions, and reframed the Church’s relationship with the modern world. Pope John XXIII, elected in 1958 at age 76 and initially expected to be a caretaker pope, proved to be one of the most transformative figures in the Church’s recent history. He died of cancer in June 1963, before the Council concluded.

Miss America and Miss USA

Miss America: Maria Fletcher, Asheville, North Carolina — the first Black woman to win Miss America
Miss USA: Macel Wilson, Hawaii

We Lost in 1962

Marilyn Monroe, the actress and cultural icon whose combination of physical beauty, comic timing, and emotional transparency had made her one of the most recognizable people on earth, was found dead at her home in Brentwood, California, on August 5, 1962, at age 36. The official cause of death was acute barbiturate poisoning, ruled a probable suicide. She had been found by her housekeeper. Her most recent completed film was The Misfits (1961); she had been fired from the uncompleted Something’s Got to Give weeks before her death. Joe DiMaggio, her second ex-husband, handled all funeral arrangements. He sent red roses to her grave three times a week for twenty years.

Ernie Kovacs, the comedian and television pioneer whose experimental approach to the medium’s visual possibilities had made him one of the most inventive figures in early television, died on January 13, 1962, at age 42, in a single-car accident in Los Angeles. He had been driving home from a party hosted by Milton Berle. The cause was attributed to wet roads and excessive speed. His work, largely in live television, influenced every subsequent television comedian who cared about the relationship between comedy and the camera.

Eleanor Roosevelt, the former First Lady, diplomat, and humanitarian who had been one of the most significant public figures in American life for three decades, died November 7, 1962, at age 78, of aplastic anemia complicated by tuberculosis. She had been the longest-serving First Lady in American history, had chaired the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, and had been the primary architect of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

William Faulkner, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist whose work — The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Absalom, Absalom! — had examined the American South with a moral intensity and stylistic innovation that made him one of the most influential American writers of the 20th century, died July 6, 1962, at age 64, of a heart attack. His final novel, The Reivers, was published posthumously and won the Pulitzer Prize.

Stuart Sutcliffe, the original bassist of the Beatles who had left the group in Hamburg to pursue his painting and his relationship with German photographer Astrid Kirchherr, died April 10, 1962, at age 21, of a brain hemorrhage in Hamburg. His death preceded the Beatles’ first recording session by months. Had he lived, the history of the band would have been different; how different it would have been remains a genuine counterfactual.

America in 1962 — The Context

John F. Kennedy was in the second year of his presidency. The Cold War was the defining framework of American foreign policy, and the Space Race was its most visible expression. John Glenn’s orbital flight on February 20 — becoming the first American to orbit the Earth, after two Soviet cosmonauts had already done so — was not merely a scientific achievement but a strategic one, demonstrating that American technology could match Soviet capability.

The civil rights movement was intensifying. James Meredith enrolled at the University of Mississippi on October 1, 1962, becoming the first Black student to attend the institution, escorted by federal marshals against violent opposition from state authorities and segregationist mobs. President Kennedy federalized the Mississippi National Guard. Two people were killed in the riots. Meredith graduated in 1963.

The Space Age was generating a specific kind of consumer anxiety. You could purchase a backyard fallout shelter in 1962 for as little as $100 for a basic model, providing up to two weeks of radiation protection for a family. More elaborate models cost $5,000 and above. The Cuban Missile Crisis, arriving in October, made these purchases feel less eccentric in retrospect.

The Cuban Missile Crisis

On October 14, 1962, an American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft photographed Soviet ballistic missile installations under construction in Cuba. The photographs were presented to President Kennedy on October 16. What followed was thirteen days of secret deliberation, public confrontation, and private negotiation that brought the world closer to nuclear war than at any other point in the Cold War.

Kennedy announced the crisis to the American public on October 22, imposing a naval “quarantine” of Cuba and demanding the removal of the missiles. Soviet Premier Khrushchev initially denied the missiles’ existence. American and Soviet naval forces operated in dangerously close proximity. Soviet submarines, out of radio contact with Moscow and under attack by US Navy depth charges, came within individual decision-making of launching nuclear torpedoes.

On October 27, 1962 — later called Black Saturday — the crisis reached its most dangerous point. A U-2 reconnaissance plane was shot down over Cuba. Another U-2 accidentally strayed into Soviet airspace. Soviet submarine B-59, pursued by US naval vessels and unable to reach Moscow for instructions, came within the decision of three officers to authorize a nuclear torpedo launch. Two of the three agreed; Vasili Arkhipov, the flotilla commander aboard the submarine, refused. The crisis was resolved on October 28 when the Soviets agreed to remove the missiles in exchange for an American pledge not to invade Cuba and a secret agreement to remove American Jupiter missiles from Turkey.

The CIA had first identified the Soviet installation sites partly because analysts noticed soccer fields in aerial photographs of Cuba. As one analyst later explained, Cubans play baseball; the soccer fields indicated the presence of Soviet personnel.

Pop Culture Facts and History

James Bond made his cinematic debut in Dr. No, released in the United Kingdom on October 5, 1962, and in the United States in May 1963. Produced by Albert “Cubby” Broccoli and Harry Saltzman for $1 million, the film earned $59 million worldwide. Sean Connery’s Bond — dry, dangerous, charming without effort — was so thoroughly convincing that the character has remained in continuous production for over 60 years. Ursula Andress emerging from the ocean in a white bikini, as in Honey Ryder, is one of the most reproduced images in film history.

Lawrence of Arabia, directed by David Lean and starring Peter O’Toole, was released on December 10, 1962, at a running time of 227 minutes. It won seven Academy Awards at the 35th ceremony in April 1963, including Best Picture and Best Director. The film’s desert photography, its examination of the gap between myth and reality, and Peter O’Toole’s performance as T.E. Lawrence — charismatic, self-invented, finally hollow — have made it one of the most consistently cited candidates for the greatest film ever made.

To Kill a Mockingbird, directed by Robert Mulligan and starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, was released on December 25, 1962. Peck won the Academy Award for Best Actor. The film’s portrait of racial injustice in Depression-era Alabama, seen through the eyes of Finch’s daughter Scout, was received both as a work of art and as a moral argument at a moment when the civil rights movement was making such arguments urgent. The American Film Institute later named Atticus Finch the greatest hero in American film history.

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, opened on October 31, 1962. The film’s combination of Grand Guignol horror and the genuine animosity between its two stars generated enormous press coverage and revived both careers. Davis was nominated for the Academy Award; Crawford, who was not nominated, organized a campaign to prevent Davis from winning and accepted the award on behalf of the winner, Anne Bancroft, who was unable to attend.

The Manchurian Candidate, directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey, opened on October 24, 1962. The film’s plot — a Korean War veteran brainwashed by Communists to become an assassin — was considered too politically sensitive after Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 and was pulled from distribution, not re-released until 1988.

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson was published on September 27, 1962. The book documented the environmental damage caused by the widespread use of pesticides — particularly DDT — with scientific rigor and accessible prose. It is credited with launching the modern environmental movement, leading to the eventual ban on DDT, and contributing to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. The chemical industry immediately attempted to discredit Carson; President Kennedy ordered a government review of pesticide policy that confirmed her findings.

Decca Records rejected the Beatles on January 1, 1962, after an audition at which the band performed fifteen songs. A&R executive Dick Rowe reportedly told their manager Brian Epstein that guitar groups were on the way out. The band was subsequently signed by EMI’s Parlophone label under the production of George Martin. Rowe, to his credit, signed the Rolling Stones the following year. The Beatles went on to become the best-selling music act in history.

Johnny Carson took over The Tonight Show from Jack Paar on October 1, 1962. He held the position for thirty years, retiring in May 1992. Ed McMahon’s introduction — “Heeere’s Johnny!” — became one of the most recognized phrases in American television. Carson’s combination of Midwestern decency, genuine intelligence, and controlled mischief defined late-night television for a generation and made every subsequent host’s performance a negotiation with his legacy.

President Kennedy ordered 1,200 H. Upmann Cuban cigars from a Washington tobacco dealer on the evening of February 6, 1962. The following morning, he signed the executive order imposing the US trade embargo on Cuba. The order had not yet taken effect when the cigars were delivered.

Vasili Arkhipov’s decision on October 27, 1962, to refuse authorization for a nuclear torpedo launch aboard Soviet submarine B-59 is one of the most consequential individual decisions in human history. The submarine was under attack from US Navy depth charges, had lost radio contact with Moscow, and had two of three required officers agreeing to launch. Arkhipov alone refused. The established narrative — that one man’s calm prevented nuclear war — has been confirmed by subsequent Soviet and Russian sources.

Frances Oldham Kelsey, the FDA medical officer who had refused to approve Thalidomide for sale in the United States throughout 1960 and 1961 despite significant commercial pressure, received the President’s Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service in 1962. Thalidomide, a sedative approved in West Germany, Canada, and other countries, had caused severe birth defects — primarily the absence or malformation of limbs — in over 10,000 children. The United States had been largely spared because of Kelsey’s refusal. The Thalidomide crisis directly led to the Kefauver-Harris Amendment of 1962, which significantly strengthened FDA drug approval requirements.

The Tanganyika laughter epidemic of 1962 affected 14 schools and over 1,000 students in Tanzania, beginning January 30, 1962. Affected individuals experienced uncontrollable laughter and crying that lasted from a few hours to several days. The epidemic forced several schools to close. It remains one of the most thoroughly documented cases of mass psychogenic illness in history.

Sam Panopoulos, a Greek-born Canadian restaurateur, placed pineapple and ham on a pizza at his Satellite Restaurant in Chatham, Ontario, in 1962, calling it the Hawaiian pizza. The combination of sweet and savory became one of the most commercially successful and most hotly debated pizza toppings in the world — the subject of more polarized opinion per square inch of topping than virtually any other food question.

The Centralia, Pennsylvania, coal seam fire was ignited on May 27, 1962, when a burning trash dump in a former strip mine ignited an exposed coal seam. The fire spread underground through a network of abandoned mines and has been burning ever since. By the 1980s, sinkholes and carbon monoxide emissions had rendered the town uninhabitable. The population of Centralia declined from approximately 1,000 in 1980 to fewer than ten permanent residents. Geologists estimate the fire may continue to burn until 2256.

Nobel Prize Winners in 1962

Physics was awarded to Lev Landau of the Soviet Union for his pioneering theories of condensed matter, especially liquid helium, and for a comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding how matter behaves at extremely low temperatures, which laid the groundwork for modern condensed matter physics.

Chemistry went to Max Perutz and John Kendrew for their studies of the structures of globular proteins — specifically hemoglobin and myoglobin, whose three-dimensional atomic structures they had determined using X-ray crystallography. Their work established protein crystallography as a field and earned them the Nobel Prize, simultaneously with a chemistry prize that would have been expected to go to Linus Pauling for the same work, had he not already won it.

Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Francis Crick, James Watson, and Maurice Wilkins for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material — the double helix structure of DNA, published in 1953. Rosalind Franklin, whose X-ray diffraction work had been critical to the discovery, had died in 1958 and could not receive the prize.

Literature went to John Steinbeck of the United States for his realistic and imaginative writings, which combine sympathetic humor and keen social perception. Steinbeck’s most celebrated works — The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, East of Eden — had been written decades earlier; some critics considered the award long overdue, others considered it a consolation prize.

Peace was awarded to Linus Pauling, making him the only person in history to win two unshared Nobel Prizes — his first had been the Chemistry Prize in 1954. The Peace Prize recognized his work against nuclear weapons testing; his No More War! published in 1958 had been influential in the debate over atmospheric nuclear testing. The award was controversial and was withheld for a year; it was presented in 1963 for 1962.

Economics — The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was not yet established; it debuted in 1969.

1962 Toys and Christmas Gifts

Tammy fashion dolls, Mille Bornes card game, LEGO Model Sets with wheels, the Password TV Game home version, and the Limbo Party Kit rounded out a holiday season in which the Space Age and the Cold War both generated toy lines. Fallout shelters, while not technically toys, were being marketed to families at prices ranging from $100 for a basic kit to $5,000 for a fully appointed underground shelter with its own ventilation system.

Broadway in 1962

Never Too Late, a comedy about a middle-aged couple who discover an unexpected pregnancy, opened November 27, 1962, at the Playhouse Theatre and ran until April 24, 1965, completing 1,007 performances. It was a modest entry in a Broadway season otherwise notable for the continuing runs of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, which had opened in May 1962.

Best Film Oscar Winner

West Side Story, the film adaptation of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway musical, directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, won Best Picture at the 34th Academy Awards on April 9, 1962, for the 1961 film year. The film won 10 Academy Awards, a record at the time. George Chakiris and Rita Moreno won the supporting acting awards. Jerome Robbins won an honorary award for his choreography. Patty Duke won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Miracle Worker at the following year’s ceremony — the 35th, held April 8, 1963 — making her, at 16, the youngest competitive Oscar winner at that time. She delivered the shortest acceptance speech in Oscar history: “Thank you” and walked off the stage.

Top Movies of 1962

1. The Longest Day
2. Lawrence of Arabia
3. In Search of Castaways
4. That Touch of Mink
5. The Music Man
6. Mutiny on the Bounty
7. To Kill a Mockingbird
8. Hatari!
9. Gypsy
10. Lolita

The Longest Day, the D-Day epic produced by Darryl Zanuck with an ensemble cast including John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, and dozens of others, was the highest-grossing film of the year. Lawrence of Arabia was the most critically acclaimed. To Kill a Mockingbird was the most morally significant. Dr. No, not in the domestic top ten but enormously successful internationally, launched the most commercially durable film franchise in history. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? generated the most press coverage per dollar of production cost, and Bette Davis’s performance remains one of the most committed in the history of the horror-adjacent genre.

Most Popular TV Shows of 1962

1. The Beverly Hillbillies (CBS)
2. Candid Camera (CBS)
3. The Red Skelton Show (CBS)
4. Bonanza (NBC)
5. The Lucy Show (CBS)
6. The Andy Griffith Show (CBS)
7. Ben Casey (ABC)
8. The Danny Thomas Show (CBS)
9. The Dick Van Dyke Show (CBS)
10. Gunsmoke (CBS)

The Beverly Hillbillies, premiering September 26, 1962, was the fastest-rising new series in television history to that point, reaching number one in its first season. The Dick Van Dyke Show, in its second season, was establishing itself as one of the most consistently written comedies in American television. Bonanza was expanding its audience. CBS dominated the ratings in 1962 so thoroughly that the network held nine of the ten top spots for most of the year.

1962 Billboard Number One Hits

December 18, 1961 – January 12, 1962: The Lion Sleeps Tonight — The Tokens (carryover from late 1961)
January 13 – January 26: The Twist — Chubby Checker (second separate run at number one)
January 27 – February 16: Peppermint Twist Part I — Joey Dee and the Starliters
February 17 – March 9: Duke of Earl — Gene Chandler (3 weeks)
March 10 – March 30: Hey! Baby — Bruce Channel (3 weeks)
March 31 – April 6: Don’t Break the Heart That Loves You — Connie Francis
April 7 – April 20: Johnny Angel — Shelley Fabares April 21 – May 4:
Good Luck Charm — Elvis Presley May 5 – May 25: Soldier Boy — The Shirelles (3 weeks)
May 26 – June 1: Stranger on the Shore — Mr. Acker Bilk
June 2 – July 6: I Can’t Stop Loving You — Ray Charles (5 weeks)
July 7 – July 13: The Stripper — David Rose
July 14 – August 10: Roses Are Red (My Love) — Bobby Vinton (4 weeks)
August 11 – August 24: Breaking Up Is Hard to Do — Neil Sedaka August
25 – August 31: The Loco-Motion — Little Eva
September 1 – September 14: Sheila — Tommy Roe
September 15 – October 19: Sherry — The Four Seasons (5 weeks)
October 20 – November 2: Monster Mash — Bobby “Boris” Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers
November 3 – November 16: He’s a Rebel — The Crystals
November 17 – December 21: Big Girls Don’t Cry — The Four Seasons (5 weeks)
December 22, 1962 – January 11, 1963: Telstar — The Tornadoes (carrying into 1963)

Stranger on the Shore by Mr. Acker Bilk, a British clarinetist, was the best-performing single of the year on the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 and the first British recording to reach number one in the United States, anticipating the British Invasion by two years. I Can’t Stop Loving You by Ray Charles, taken from a Don Gibson country song and transformed through Charles’s gospel-inflected piano and arrangements, spent five weeks at number one and demonstrated that genre boundaries meant less to Charles than they did to radio programmers. The Four Seasons had two separate five-week runs at number one — Sherry and Big Girls Don’t Cry — making Frankie Valli one of the most commercially dominant voices of the year. The Twist by Chubby Checker made its second separate run at number one, an extremely rare occurrence in chart history, driven by its adoption as a dance craze at Manhattan’s Peppermint Lounge by celebrities and society figures. Telstar by the Tornadoes — named after the communications satellite launched in July — closed the year and carried into 1963, becoming one of the few purely instrumental recordings to reach number one in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

Sports Champions of 1962

World Series: The New York Yankees defeated the San Francisco Giants four games to three, in a series decided in the final inning of Game 7. Willie McCovey hit a line drive with two runners on base and the Giants trailing by one in the bottom of the ninth; second baseman Bobby Richardson caught it to end the game. It remains one of the most discussed final plays in World Series history. Ralph Terry, who had surrendered Bill Mazeroski’s walk-off home run to end the 1960 Series, was the winning pitcher in Game 7.

NFL Champions: The Green Bay Packers defeated the New York Giants 16-7, their second consecutive NFL championship. The Super Bowl did not exist; this was the league’s championship game. Bart Starr and Paul Hornung led the offense. Vince Lombardi was in his fourth year as head coach.

AFL Champions: The Dallas Texans defeated the Houston Oilers 20-17 in double overtime in the AFL Championship Game on December 23, 1962, in one of the most exhausting championship games in professional football history. The game lasted 77 minutes and 54 seconds. The Texans relocated to Kansas City the following year and became the Chiefs.

NBA Champions: The Boston Celtics defeated the Los Angeles Lakers four games to three, extending their dynasty to six consecutive championships. Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain — who was playing for the Warriors, not the Lakers, at this point — faced each other throughout the season in what was already considered the defining rivalry in basketball.

Stanley Cup: The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Chicago Blackhawks four games to two, winning their first of three consecutive championships. Johnny Bower and Frank Mahovlich were the key performers.

U.S. Open Golf: Jack Nicklaus won his first major at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania, defeating Arnold Palmer in an 18-hole playoff. Nicklaus was 22 years old. Palmer was playing at home before a partisan crowd that booed Nicklaus throughout. The victory announced the arrival of the player who would go on to win more major championships than anyone in history.

U.S. Open Tennis: Rod Laver of Australia won the men’s title, and Margaret Smith won the women’s.

Wimbledon: Rod Laver won the men’s title, beginning his first Grand Slam year — he would win all four major championships in 1962 before the Open Era began. Karen Susman of the United States won the women’s title.

NCAA Football: USC, under John McKay, won the national championship. The Trojans finished the season 11-0 and were the consensus number-one team.

NCAA Basketball: Cincinnati defeated Ohio State 71-59 in the national championship game. It was Cincinnati’s second consecutive national title under coach Ed Jucker.

Kentucky Derby: Decidedly, trained by Horatio Luro and ridden by Bill Hartack, won in a time of 2:00.4 — a new Derby record. The margin of victory was two and a quarter lengths. Decidedly was a 10-1 shot who simply ran faster than everyone else.

FIFA World Cup: Brazil defeated Czechoslovakia 3-1 in the final in Santiago, Chile, winning their second consecutive World Cup. Garrincha was the tournament’s dominant player after Pelé was injured early.

Frequently Asked Questions About 1962

Q: How close did the Cuban Missile Crisis come to nuclear war?
A: Closer than most Americans realized at the time. On October 27, 1962, Soviet submarine B-59 was under attack from US Navy depth charges, had lost radio contact with Moscow, and had two of three officers required to authorize a nuclear torpedo launch in agreement. Vasili Arkhipov, the flotilla commander, refused. His refusal is widely considered one of the most consequential individual decisions in history. The overall crisis was resolved on October 28 through a combination of public American pledges not to invade Cuba and a secret agreement to remove American Jupiter missiles from Turkey.

Q: Why was Silent Spring significant?
A: Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, published September 27, 1962, documented the environmental damage caused by pesticides — particularly DDT — with scientific evidence and accessible writing. It is credited with launching the modern environmental movement, contributing to the eventual ban on DDT in the United States, and helping create the conditions for the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. The chemical industry responded with a significant disinformation campaign; the scientific evidence held.

Q: Why did Decca Records turn down the Beatles?
A: Decca held an audition with the Beatles on January 1, 1962, and passed, with A&R executive Dick Rowe reportedly observing that guitar groups were on the way out. The band was subsequently signed by EMI’s Parlophone label under the production of George Martin. Rowe partially recovered his reputation by signing the Rolling Stones the following year. The Beatles sold an estimated 600 million records worldwide.

Q: What was Thalidomide, and why is Frances Kelsey significant?
A: Thalidomide was a sedative widely prescribed in West Germany, Canada, and other countries in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including for morning sickness in pregnant women. It caused severe birth defects — primarily the malformation or absence of limbs — in over 10,000 children. Frances Kelsey, an FDA medical officer, refused to approve the drug for sale in the United States throughout 1960 and 1961, citing insufficient safety data, despite commercial pressure. Her refusal spared the United States the worst of the disaster. She received the President’s Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service in 1962.

Q: What happened to Marilyn Monroe?
A: Monroe was found dead at her Brentwood, California, home on August 5, 1962, at age 36. The official cause was acute barbiturate poisoning, ruled a probable suicide. She had been fired from the uncompleted film Something’s Got to Give weeks earlier. Conspiracy theories involving the Kennedy brothers, the CIA, and organized crime have circulated since the day of her death; none have been substantiated with direct evidence. Joe DiMaggio, her second ex-husband, arranged the funeral and sent roses to her grave three times a week for twenty years.

Q: Why was Jack Nicklaus’s 1962 U.S. Open win significant?
A: Nicklaus won his first major at age 22, defeating Arnold Palmer in an 18-hole playoff at Oakmont, Palmer’s home territory, before a crowd that was actively hostile to the young challenger. The victory announced the arrival of the player who would go on to win 18 major championships — the most in the history of professional golf. Palmer, who had been the dominant figure in the sport, spent much of the rest of his career being measured against Nicklaus.

In a year when the world spent thirteen days deciding whether to end itself over Soviet missiles in Cuba, when a British clarinettist named Mr. Acker Bilk topped the American charts, when James Bond arrived in cinemas, when Lawrence of Arabia opened, when Rachel Carson told the world what it was doing to itself, and when Johnny Carson took over The Tonight Show for a thirty-year run, 1962 delivered the full measure of what a year at the middle of a consequential decade can contain. The Beatles were rejected by a record company. Vasili Arkhipov said no. The world continued.

More 1962 Facts & History Resources:

BabyBoomers.com (1962)
Most Popular Baby Names (BabyCenter.com)
Popular and Notable Books (popculture.us)
Broadway Shows that Opened in 1962
1962 Calendar, courtesy of Time and Date.com
Fact Monster
1960s, Infoplease.com World History
1962 in Movies (according to IMDB)
JFK 1961-1963 PBS
Retrowaste Vintage Culture
1962 Television
1960s Slang
1960 US Census Fast Facts
1960s Timeline: SEC
Wikipedia 1962