WHAT HAPPENED IN 1962.
Look what happened the 1962.

The Cuban missile crisis between the United States, Cuba, and the Soviet Union begins when US President John F. Kennedy is shown photographs of missile sites in Cuba. (16. October 1962)

Kuwait's National Assembly ratifies the Constitution of Kuwait. (11. November 1962)

Independence of Rwanda. (1. July 1962)

James Joseph Dresnok defects to North Korea after running across the Korean Demilitarized Zone. Dresnok still resides in the capital, Pyongyang. (15. August 1962)

Workers at four New York City newspapers (this later increases to nine) go on strike for 114 days. (8. December 1962)

Second Vatican Council: Pope John XXIII convenes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years. (11. October 1962)

Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbits the Earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule. (24. May 1962)

Charonne massacre. Nine trade unionists are killed by French police at the instigation of Nazi collaborator Maurice Papon, then chief of the Paris Prefecture of Police. (8. February 1962)

An avalanche on Huascarán in Peru causes 4,000 deaths. (11. January 1962)

Vostok 3 launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev becomes the first person to float in microgravity. (11. August 1962)

Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the earth, making three orbits in 4 hours, 55 minutes. (20. February 1962)

James Meredith, an African-American, is temporarily barred from entering the University of Mississippi. (20. September 1962)

The first Wal-Mart store opens for business in Rogers, Arkansas. (2. July 1962)

In Burma, the army led by General Ne Win seizes power in a coup d'état. (2. March 1962)

Two dissident Vietnam Air Force pilots bombed the Independence Palace in Saigon in a failed attempt to assassinate South Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem. (27. February 1962)

Newly independent Algeria, by referendum, adopts a constitution. (8. September 1962)

Uganda joins the United Nations. (25. October 1962)

Vietnam War: Operation Chopper, the first American combat mission in the war, takes place. (12. January 1962)

Cuban missile crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation. (20. November 1962)

The Pacific Northwest experiences a cyclone the equal of a Cat 3 hurricane. Winds measured above 150 mph at several locations; 46 people died. (13. October 1962)