WHAT ALL HAPPENED FEBRUARY TO DECEMBER 1962
Find out what all happened February to December 1962

Telstar, the world's first communications satellite, is launched into orbit. (10. July 1962)

James Meredith enters the University of Mississippi, defying segregation. (30. September 1962)

Roy Lichtenstein's first solo exhibition opened, and it included Look Mickey, which featured his first employment of Ben-Day dots, speech balloons and comic imagery sourcing, all of which he is now known for. (10. February 1962)

Japan conducts a test of the NAMC YS-11, its first aircraft since World War II and its only successful commercial aircraft from before or after the war. (30. August 1962)

The Starfish Prime high-altitude nuclear test is conducted by the United States. (9. July 1962)

St. Martín de Porres is canonized by Pope John XXIII. (6. May 1962)

Apartheid: The United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies and calls for all UN member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation. (6. November 1962)

The Centralia mine fire is ignited in the town's landfill above a coal mine. (27. May 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)

Uganda becomes an independent Commonwealth realm. (9. October 1962)

Trinidad and Tobago becomes independent. (31. August 1962)

Uganda joins the United Nations. (25. October 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)

The Algerian War of Independence against the French ends. (3. July 1962)

Ne Win besieges and dynamites the Rangoon University Student Union building to crush the Student Movement. (8. July 1962)

East German border guards kill Peter Fechter, 18, as he attempts to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin becoming one of the first victims of the wall. (17. August 1962)

NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus. (14. December 1962)

Project Mercury: Sigma 7 is launched from Cape Canaveral, with Astronaut Wally Schirra aboard, for a six-orbit, nine-hour flight. (3. October 1962)

Prince Rainier III of Monaco revises the principality's constitution, devolving some of his power to advisory and legislative councils. (7. December 1962)

Lyman Lemnitzer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, delivers a proposal, called Operation Northwoods, regarding performing terrorist attacks upon Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, to Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. The proposal is scrapped and President John F. Kennedy removes Lemnitzer from his position. (13. March 1962)