World Events
Population: 3.136 billion
Nobel Peace Prize: Linus Pauling (US)
France transfers sovereignty to new republic of Algeria (July 3).
Cuban Missile Crisis: USSR to build missile bases in Cuba; Kennedy orders Cuban blockade, lifts blockade after Russia backs down (Aug.-Nov.).
Pope John XXIII opens Second Vatican Council (Oct. 11).
Cuba releases 1,113 prisoners of 1961 invasion attempt (Dec. 24).
Burundi, Jamaica, Western Samoa, Uganda, and Trinidad and Tobago become independent.
U.S. Events
President: John F. Kennedy
Vice President: Lyndon B. Johnson
Population: 186,537,737
Life expectancy: 70.1 years
Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 20.2
Property Crime Rate (per 1,000): 18.6
Homicide Rate (per 100,000): 4.8
Economics
US GDP (1998 dollars): $585.2 billion
Federal spending: $106.82 billion
Federal debt: $302.9 billion
Consumer Price Index: 30.2
Unemployment: 6.7%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.04
James H. Meredith, escorted by federal marshals, registers at University of Mississippi (Oct. 1).
Pat Brown defeats Richard Nixon in the California gubernatorial race.
Sports
World Series
NY Yankees d. San Francisco Giants (4-3)
NBA Championship
Boston d. LA Lakers (4-3)
Stanley Cup
Toronto d. Chicago (4-2)
Wimbledon
Women: Karen Susman d. V. Sukova (6-4 6-4)
Men: Rod Laver d. M. Mulligan (6-2 6-2 6-1)
Kentucky Derby Champion
Decidedly
NCAA Basketball Championship
Cincinnati d. Ohio St. (71-59)
NCAA Football Champions
USC (11-0-0)
World Cup
Brazil d. Czechoslovakia (3-1)
Entertainment
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: The Edge of Sadness, Edwin O'Connor
Music: The Crucible, Robert Ward
Drama: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Frank Loesser and Abe Burrows
Oscars awarded in 1962
Academy Award, Best Picture: West Side Story, Robert Wise, producer (United Artists)
Nobel Prize for Literature: John Steinbeck (US)
Grammy Awards
ecord of the Year: Moon River - Henry Mancini
Album of the Year: Judy at Carnegie Hall - Judy Garland (Capitol)
Song of the Year: Moon River - Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer, songwriters
Miss America: Maria Fletcher (NC)
Marilyn Monroe dies of a drug overdose at age 36.
The first transatlantic television transmission occurs via the Telstar Satellite, making worldwide television and cable networks a reality.
Government regulations force studios out of the talent agency business.
Johnny Carson takes over hosting duties of The Tonight Show.
Movies
Lawrence of Arabia, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Manchurian Candidate, Divorce-Italian Style
Books
James Baldwin, Another Country
Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths, Ficciones
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
Robert Frost, In the Clearing
Günter Grass, The Tin Drum
Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo' Nest
Sylvia Plath, The Colossus and Other Poems
Anne Sexton, All My Pretty Ones
William Stafford, Traveling through the Dark
Richard Yates, Eleven Kinds of Loneliness
Science
Nobel Prizes in Science
Chemistry: Max F. Perutz and John C. Kendrew (UK), for mapping protein molecules with X-rays
Physics: Lev D. Landau (USSR), for his theories about condensed matter
Physiology or Medicine: James D. Watson (US), Maurice H. F. Wilkins, and Francis H. C. Crick (both UK), for determining structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)
Lt. Col. John H. Glenn, Jr., is first American to orbit Earth—three times in 4 hours 55 minutes (Feb. 20). Background: US Staffed Space Flights
Mariner II, the first interplanetary probe, reaches Venus. Background: US Unstaffed Planetary and Lunar Programs
Unimation introduces the first industrial robot.
he commercially sponsored Telstar communications satellite is launched.
Deaths
Niels Bohr
William Faulkner
Ernie Kovacs
Eleanor Roosevelt