1962

1950–1980	UK [television]	Watch With Mother, a series for young children featuring favourite characters such as Andy Pandy, the Flowerpot Men, Rag, Tag, and Bobtail, and the Woodentops, is shown on British television.
1960–1969	UK [popular music]	The Beatles' song ‘She Loves You’ is the best-selling single of the 1960s in Britain. The Beatles are responsible for five out of the top six singles in Britain in the 1960s.
1962	UK [consumer products]	Bacofoil, the first aluminium kitchen foil, is launched on the British market.
1962	USA [consumer products]	Royal Crown Cola launch Diet-Rite Cola in the USA, the first sugar-free soft drink on the market.
1962	USA [consumer products]	Iron City Beer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, produces the first aluminium can with a ring-pull. These are not immediately popular because they add to the cost of the product and early designs are awkward.
1962	USA [psychology]	US psychologist A H Maslow publishes Towards a Theory of Being.
1962	USA [magazines]	Helen Gurley Brown publishes her best-selling Sex and the Single Girl, a celebration of the opportunities outside marriage now available to young women. She will go on to become the editor of Cosmopolitan magazine.
1962	USA [materials]	The Dow Corning Corporation (manufacturer of chemicals, glass, and other materials) of Detroit, Michigan, develops the silicon breast implant.
1962	Russia [orchestral music]	The Russian composer Dmitry Shostakovich completes his Symphony No. 13, Babi Yar, inspired by a poem by the Russian writer Yevgeny Yevtushenko.
1962	Germany [philosophy]	German philosopher Martin Heidegger publishes Die Technik und die Kehre/The Question Concerning Technology.
1962	Japan [philosophy]	Japanese philosopher D T Suzuki publishes The Essentials of Zen Buddhism.
1962	USA [economic theory]	The US economist Milton Friedman publishes Capitalism and Freedom.
1962–1965	Vatican [Catholicism]	The Second Vatican Council, a council of the Roman Catholic Church convened by Pope John XXIII, is held, its aim being to reform Catholic ministry and liturgy, and to seek reunion with other Christian denominations.
1962	USA [civic and commercial buildings]	The Trans World Airlines Terminal at Idlewild (now John F Kennedy) Airport, in New York City, designed by the Finnish architect Eero Saarinen, is completed.
1962	Italy [fiction]	The Italian writer Giorgio Bassani publishes his novel Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini/The Garden of the Finzi-Continis.
1962	England [fiction]	The English writer Doris Lessing publishes her novel The Golden Notebook.
1962	Russia [fiction]	The Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn publishes his novella Odin den Ivana Denisovicha/One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, which wins international acclaim after being allowed into print by the Soviet authorities in the magazine Novy Mir.
1962	England [fiction]	The English writer Anthony Burgess publishes his novel A Clockwork Orange, which becomes controversial because of its violence. An equally controversial film adaptation by the director Stanley Kubrick is released in 1971 and soon withdrawn from general circulation in Britain.
1962	UK [food and drink]	The food company Golden Wonder introduces the flavoured potato crisp into the British market when it launches cheese and onion crisps.
1962	Czechoslovakia [health and medicine]	Czech ophthalmologist Otto Witcherle develops soft contact lenses.
1962	Netherlands [information technology]	The Dutch firm Philips introduces the audiocassette for recording sound on magnetic tape.
1962	UK [television]	Following publication of the Pilkington Committee report, the British government authorizes the launching of a second British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) channel, the development of colour television, and the improvement in the line definition standard to 625 lines (thereby improving picture resolution, which is determined by the number of lines per (vertical) inch). It also makes provision for the number of adult education programmes on television to be increased.
1962	UK [television]	University Challenge, a quiz between teams from competing universities based on the US programme College Bowl, begins on British television. It is hosted by Bamber Gascoigne until 1987 and, after its revival in 1994, by Jeremy Paxman.
1962	USA [science]	The US philosopher of science Thomas S Kuhn publishes The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
1962	Switzerland [plays]	The play Die Physiker/The Physicists, by the Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt, is first performed in Zürich, Switzerland.
1962	Australia [tennis]	The Australian tennis player Rod Laver achieves the Grand Slam, winning all four major tennis championships (the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open) in the same calendar year. He is the first person to do so since Don Budge of the USA in 1938.
1 January 1962	Pacific, Samoa [political events]	Western Samoa, previously administered by New Zealand, becomes the first sovereign independent Polynesian state.
15 January 1962	UK [earth sciences]	British weather reports start giving temperatures in centigrade as well as Fahrenheit.
February 1962	UK [magazines]	The satirical magazine Private Eye is launched in Britain. In April, it has to be saved from financial difficulties by comedian Peter Cook.
4 February 1962	UK [television]	The Sunday Times is the first newspaper in Britain to introduce a separate colour supplement, the Sunday Times Colour Section (which becomes the Sunday Times Magazine), an initiative followed by other newspapers.
20 February 1962	USA [space exploration]	US astronaut John Glenn, in the Mercury capsule Friendship 7, becomes the first US astronaut to orbit the Earth. He makes three orbits.
2 March 1962	Burma [revolution]	A military coup in Burma (now Myanmar), led by General Ne Win, overthrows the government of Prime Minister U Nu.
18 March 1962	Algeria, France [diplomacy]	Following secret discussions (completed at Evian-les-Bains, France), the French government and the Provisional Government of Algeria make the ‘Evian agreements’, under which a provisional Muslim–French government is to be installed in Algeria and a referendum is to be held on self-determination.
18 April 1962	Jamaica, UK [legislation]	Following Jamaica's vote (in September 1961) to leave the British West Indies Federation, the British Parliament passes the West Indies Act, dissolving the federation.
12 May 1962	Laos [diplomacy]	Negotiations are held in Laos between the leaders of the three warring parties, who reach agreement. A Provisional Government of National Unity is established on 22 May, with Prince Souvanna Phouma as president.
6 July 1962	USA [births and deaths]	William Faulkner, US novelist, author of a series of novels known as the Yoknapatawpha cycle and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949, dies near Oxford, Mississippi (64).
10 July 1962	USA, Europe [communications]	The US communications satellite Telstar is launched for the American Telephone and Telegraph company (AT&T) by the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Weighing 77 kg/170 lb and orbiting the Earth every 158 minutes, it is designed to receive a signal from the ground, amplify it, and then relay it to another ground station. Live television pictures of the chairman of the American Telephone and Telegraph company (AT&T) are transmitted from Andover, Maine, to Goonhilly Down, Cornwall, southwest England, and Brittany, France. Transmissions last only 15 minutes per orbit but they are the first to connect the television networks of Europe and North America.
18 July - 20 July 1962	UK [cricket]	The Gentlemen v. Players cricket match, established in 1806, is played for the last time at Lord's, London, England, as the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) votes to abolish the distinction between amateurs (‘gentlemen’) and professionals (‘players’).
5 August 1962	USA [births and deaths]	Marilyn Monroe, US actor and sex symbol, dies in Los Angeles, California, from an overdose of sleeping pills (36).
6 August 1962	Jamaica [decolonization]	Jamaica becomes independent within the British Commonwealth.
8 August 1962	South Africa [crime and punishment]	The leader of the South African organization Umkonto we Sizwe (‘ Spear of the Nation’), Nelson Mandela, is arrested when returning to Johannesburg, South Africa, from Natal. He is tried in November, and convicted of inciting workers to strike and of leaving the country without valid documents. He is sentenced to five years in prison.
31 August 1962	Trinidad and Tobago [decolonization]	Trinidad and Tobago (previously members of the West Indies Federation) becomes an independent nation within the British Commonwealth.
9 October 1962	Uganda [decolonization]	Uganda gains independence within the British Commonwealth.
22 October 1962	USA, USSR, Cuba [diplomacy]	The Cuban Missile Crisis begins. The US president John F Kennedy announces that the USSR has installed a missile base in Cuba, and declares a naval blockade to prevent missile shipments.
22 October 1962	USA, USSR [television]	During the Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F Kennedy of the USA delivers his ultimatum to the USSR in a television address.
27 October 1962	USA [plays]	The play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, by the US dramatist Edward Albee, is first performed, at the Billy Rose Theater in New York City.
28 October 1962	USA, USSR, Cuba [diplomacy]	The Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he has ordered the withdrawal of nuclear missiles from Cuba, and the US president John F Kennedy promises the USA will not invade Cuba, ending the Cuban Missile Crisis.
9 December 1962	Tanganyika [administration]	Tanganyika (now Tanzania) becomes a republic within the Commonwealth, with Julius Nyerere as president.