 | President: John F Kennedy Vice President: Lyndon B Johnson |
 | The population of the United States is 185,771,000 |
| National Debt 302.9 Billion |
| Unemployment is 6.7% (up 1.2% from 1961) |
| Life Expectancy: 70.1 years |
| Family median income = $6,000 (up $300. from 1961) |
| Academy Award : West Side Story (click to buy)  (Best Picture) |
| Grammy Award : Moon River: (click to buy)  (song), Judy At Carnegie Hall (click to buy)  (album) |
| Pulitzer Prize : The Edge of Sadness (click to buy)  (Fiction) |
| The United States Navy Commissions the first SEAL (SEa, Air and Land)Team |
| President Kennedy announces an embargo blocking any soviet ships from reaching Cuba |
| Francis Gary Powers the U-2 pilot who was shot down over Russia is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel in Berlin |
| Adolph Eichmann, the captured Nazi, is found guilty of war crimes and executed in Israel |
| The United States Supreme Court rules that mandatory prayers in public schools are unconstitutional (Engel v. Vitale) |
| Wal-Mart opens its first store in Rogers, Arkansas |
| American artist Andy Warhol premieres his Campbell’s Soup Cans exhibit |
| AT&T launches Telstar, the world’s first commercial communications satellite |
| Telstar relays the first live trans-Atlantic television signal |
| Nelson Mandela is arrested and jailed in S. Africa |
| The Beatles (click for Beatles pages)replace drummer Pete Best with Ringo Starr |
| Johnny Carson takes over as host of NBC’s Tonight Show, he hosts the show until 1992 |
| Dr. No, the first James Bond film, premieres |
| The US discovers the building of Soviet missiles in Cuba, in a series of diplomatic and military moves President Kennedy forces their removal from the communist nation |
| Britain and France sign an agreement to develop the Concorde supersonic airliner |
| Mariner II, the first interplanetary probe, reaches Venus sending the first ever signal from another planet |
| Popular dances were of course the twist also the mashed potato, the jerk, the swim, the monkey and the Watusi |
| Television debuts included: The Jetsons, and The Beverly Hillbillies (click show title for more info) |
| Marilyn Monroe apparently committed suicide leading to conspiracy theories centered around her involvement with the Kennedy’s |
| John Glenn is the first American to orbit the Earth, he was one of the original Mercury “7” astronauts chosen for having “The Right Stuff”. |
See also Celebrity Birthdays 1962
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