November 1962


The following events occurred in November 1962:

[November 1], 1962 (Thursday)

[November 2], 1962 (Friday)

[November 3], 1962 (Saturday)

  • The earliest use of the term "personal computer" by the media was made in The New York Times in a story about John W. Mauchly's speech the day before to the American Institute of Industrial Engineers. Mauchly, "inventor of some of the original room-size computers" said that "in a decade or so", everyone would have their own computer with "exchangeable wafer-thin data storage files to provide inexhaustible memories and answer most problems". Mauchly was quoted as saying, "There is no reason to suppose the average boy or girl cannot be master of a personal computer."
  • A group of bandits murdered 25 passengers and the driver on a bus that was traveling near the city of Neiva, Huila in Colombia. The group appeared on the road, ordered the bus to stop, fired guns inside and then hacked the occupants to death with machetes. Six other people survived the attack with injuries.
  • As the state of emergency in India continued, the Defence of India Ordinance took effect. President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan suspended Article 21 and Article 22 of the Constitution of India.
  • In what one author describes as a milestone in the term "country music" replacing what had been referred to as "country and western", Billboard magazine renamed its "Hot C&W Singles" chart to "Hot Country Singles" and stopped referring to "western" music altogether.
  • Born: Jacqui Smith, British politician and former Home Secretary, known for her involvement in the United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal; in Malvern, Worcestershire
  • Died: Harlow Curtice, 69, American automobile executive and President of General Motors from 1953 to 1958

[November 4], 1962 (Sunday)

[November 5], 1962 (Monday)

[November 6], 1962 (Tuesday)

  • In midterm elections in the United States, the ruling Democratic Party maintained control of the House of Representatives and increased its majority in the Senate. Former U.S. Vice-president Richard M. Nixon, who had narrowly lost the 1960 presidential election to John F. Kennedy, was heavily defeated in his bid to become Governor of California, while the President's younger brother, 30-year-old Teddy Kennedy, was elected U.S. Senator for Massachusetts.
  • In his first meeting with his cabinet, Saudi Arabia's Prime Minister and Crown Prince Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud announced the immediate abolition of slavery within the Kingdom and plans to have the government pay owners for the manumission of their slaves as part of a program of modernization and reform.
  • The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies and called for all UN member states to cease military and economic relations with the nation. The result was 67 in favor, 16 against, and 27 abstaining.
  • James E. Mills, the editor of the Birmingham Post-Herald, was arrested for violating Alabama's state election laws after publishing an editorial in that newspaper, urging voters to support a proposed change in city government. Under the law, soliciting votes on election day was a criminal offense. A trial court initially dismissed the charges as an unconstitutionally-broad interpretation of the law against electioneering on the day of an election, but the Alabama Supreme Court would reverse the dismissal and send the case back to trial. On May 23, 1966, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Mills v. Alabama, would reverse the Alabama Court, with Justice Hugo Black noting that "Suppression of the right of the press to... contend for or against change, which was all this editorial did, muzzles one of the very agencies the framers of our Constitution thoughtfully and deliberately selected to improve our society and keep it free."
  • B. F. Goodrich delivered a prototype full-pressure suit to MSC for evaluation by Life Systems Division. The partial-wear feature of this suit, demanded by the long-duration missions planned for the Gemini program, comprised detachable sleeves, legwear and helmets. MSC requested Goodrich to provide 14 more suits based on this design, varying only in size. The prototype suit was designated as G-2G-1 and the remaining suits were designated G-2G-2 through G-2G-15. MSC requested extensive design changes after evaluating G-2G-1. The final model, was G-2G-8, would be delivered to MSC on January 21 but would later be rejected in favor of a different Gemini space suit designed by David Clark Company, Inc.. The Clark suit would incorporate Goodrich helmets, gloves, and additional hardware.
  • Voters in San Francisco, Alameda County and Contra Costa County, California approved the creation of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system.

[November 7], 1962 (Wednesday)

[November 8], 1962 (Thursday)

[November 9], 1962 (Friday)

[November 10], 1962 (Saturday)

  • The funeral service for Eleanor Roosevelt took place at St. James Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, New York. Sitting next to each other in the same pew were two former Presidents of the United States, the current President and the next President, vice-president.
  • Evacuation of the Indian state of Assam began as troops from China invaded India in the course of the Sino-Indian War. Residents of East Pakistan prepared for a probable Chinese takeover as well. Rather than conquering Assam, however, China would later withdraw its forces.
  • U.S. President Kennedy signed Executive Order 11063, directing an end to discrimination in public housing that received any federal assistance. However, the order was prospective only and did not apply to "low income units built or planned before November 20, 1962".
  • Thai educator and writer Mom Luang Pin Malakul was awarded the West German Federal Cross of Merit, and the Belgian Order of Leopold.
  • Died: John Alden, 54, Australian actor and Shakespearean director; of a coronary occlusion

[November 11], 1962 (Sunday)

[November 12], 1962 (Monday)

  • U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy attended a reception for the visiting Bolshoi Ballet troupe at the Soviet Embassy in Washington, and passed along a verbal message from U.S. President Kennedy to Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, to send to Soviet Premier and Party Chairman Nikita Khrushchev. In return for the USSR announcing plans to remove their Ilyushin Il-28 bombers from Cuba over a 30-day period, President Kennedy said, the U.S. would end its blockade.
  • Two hand surgeons, Dr. Harold E. Kleinert and Dr. Mort Kasdan, performed the first successful revascularization of a severed digit on a human patient, reconnecting the dorsal veins in order to restore function to the hand. The procedure took place at the University of Louisville hospital.
  • Born:
  • *Mariella Frostrup, Norwegian journalist and television presenter; in Oslo
  • *Naomi Wolf, American author and political consultant; in San Francisco

[November 13], 1962 (Tuesday)

  • After American philatelists discovered a rare printing error, known to collectors now as the Dag Hammarskjöld invert, that affected 400 of the hundreds of thousands of four-cent commemorative stamps, U.S. Postmaster General J. Edward Day ordered 400,000 identical misprints in order to reduce the value of the original goofs, and commented, "The Post Office Department isn't run as a jackpot operation." The mistake, which had changed the background on two sheets of 200 stamps, had been the first by the U.S. Post Office in 44 years and made each 4-cent issue worth as much as 350 dollars to collectors. Collector Leonard Sherman, who had purchased an unbroken sheet of 50 inverts, saw a potential fortune of $175,000 get deflated to $2.
  • For the first time since the 7th century AD, a new name was added to the Canon of the Mass of the Roman Catholic Church, as Pope John XXIII added Saint Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus Christ, to the list of people venerated in the Communicantes.
  • Gordon Cooper was named as the pilot for the Mercury 9 one-day orbital mission slated for April 1963. Alan Shepard, pilot of Mercury 3, was designated as backup pilot.
  • The B. F. Goodrich Company completed its design, fabrication, and testing of a pivoted light attenuation tinted visor to be mounted on the government-issued Mercury spacesuit helmet.
  • Born: Lydia Gouardo, a French woman who was imprisoned for 28 years, raped, and tortured by her stepfather, Raymond Gouardo; in Maisons-Alfort, Val-de-Marne
  • Died: Baron Stasys Šilingas, 77, Lithuanian lawyer and statesman

[November 14], 1962 (Wednesday)

  • Eritrea, for ten years an autonomous unit that was part of a federation with Ethiopia, lost its independence as it was annexed as the 14th province of the Ethiopian Empire. With a force of Ethiopian soldiers outside the Eritrean Assembly building in the region's capital, Asmara, the Eritrean administrator, Asfaha Woldemichael, urged the Assembly to pass a resolution to unite with the "Motherland". The next day, Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie issued Order No. 27, citing the unanimous approval of the Assembly. After another 18 years of war, Eritrea would regain its independence in 1991.
  • At about 1:30 a.m., the southeast door of the Salt Lake Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, located on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, was bombed. FBI agents stated that the explosive had been wrapped around the door handles on the southeast entrance of the temple. The large wooden entrance doors were damaged by flying fragments of metal and glass, and eleven exterior windows were shattered. Damage to interior walls occurred inside the temple, but damage to the interior was minor.
  • In the Quebec general election, the Quebec Liberal Party, led by provincial premier Jean Lesage, increased its majority from 51 to 63 of the 95 seats.

[November 15], 1962 (Thursday)

  • Archie Moore, who had reigned as boxing's world light heavyweight champion between 1952 and 1962, fought unbeaten challenger Cassius Clay in Los Angeles. Clay, who had gained a reputation as "the Louisville Lip who calls the round for a knockout and makes it come true", predicted that he would win in four rounds and knocked Moore out in the fourth.
  • The Greek freighter Captain George, with a cargo of explosives, caught fire during a storm while sailing in the Caribbean Sea near Bermuda. The crew of 25 abandoned the ship and boarded a lifeboat, which capsized after being battered by high waves.
  • Danish Defence Minister Poul Hansen resigned in order to replace the late Hans R. Knudsen as Denmark's Minister of Finance.
  • Died: Irene Gibbons, 60, American film costume designer. Mrs. Gibbons, who billed herself simply as "Irene", checked into Room 1129 of the Knickerbocker Hotel in Los Angeles, drank heavily, wrote a suicide note and then jumped to her death.

[November 16], 1962 (Friday)

[November 17], 1962 (Saturday)

  • Nine people were killed in the capsizing of the British Seaham life-boat George Elmey as it was entering harbour after rescuing the crew of a fishing boat. All five crew and four of the five fishing boat survivors were killed.
  • At Chantilly, Virginia, from Washington, D.C., U.S. President Kennedy dedicated Dulles International Airport, named after the late U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.
  • A fire broke out in a chamber at the U.S. Navy's Air Crew Equipment Laboratory during a pure oxygen test, after a faulty ground wire arced onto nearby insulation. After trying to extinguish the fire by smothering it, the crew escaped the chamber with minor burns across large parts of their bodies.
  • The Alabama Crimson Tide, the #1 ranked college football team in the U.S. lost, 7–6, to the Georgia Tech Yellowjackets, 7–6, bringing to an end a 19-game winning streak.
  • Died:
  • *Arthur Vining Davis, 95, American multimillionaire philanthropist and former chairman of the Aluminum Company of America ; he had retired in 1957 as the third-richest person in the world with assets of $400 million, comparable to $3.2 billion in 2017.
  • *Olivia Dahl, 7, oldest child of British author Roald Dahl and the American actress Patricia Neal; from encephalitis caused by measles

[November 18], 1962 (Sunday)

  • The first round of voting took place for the 482 seats in France's Chamber of Deputies, with 96 of the candidates winning a majority of the votes in their races, including 45 of Charles De Gaulle's UNR Party. The remaining 386 seats would be decided in the second round on November 25, with only a plurality of the votes required.
  • After a three-week pause during the Sino-Indian War in China's offensive on the Indian frontier to allow reinforcement and buildup of troops, a second and more massive invasion began, with Chinese troops overrunning Indian positions in the Indian state of Assam.
  • The explosion and sinking of the Greek liberty ship Captain George killed 18 of its 31 crew. The 13 survivors were rescued by a British ship.
  • Born:
  • *Kirk Hammett, American guitarist and songwriter in the heavy metal band Metallica; in San Francisco
  • *Jamie Moyer, American baseball player; in Sellersville, Pennsylvania
  • Died:
  • *Niels Bohr, 77, Danish physicist and Nobel laureate. Element 107, bohrium, is named in his honor
  • *Dennis Chavez, 74, Hispanic American politician and U.S. Senator for New Mexico since 1935

[November 19], 1962 (Monday)

[November 20], 1962 (Tuesday)

[November 21], 1962 (Wednesday)

[November 22], 1962 (Thursday)

  • A mob of at least 100 black South African members of the terrorist group Poqo marched from the township of Mbekweni and into white neighborhoods in the city of Paarl. Armed with machetes and clubs, the group surrounded the police station, while others entered homes at random, and attacked residents in the early morning hours, while others vandalized storefronts in the downtown.
  • In the UK, the Chippenham by-election, caused by the elevation of MP David Eccles to the House of Lords, was won by Daniel Awdry of the Conservative Party.
  • Died: René Coty, 80, 17th President of France from 1954 to 1959

[November 23], 1962 (Friday)

[November 24], 1962 (Saturday)

[November 25], 1962 (Sunday)

[November 26], 1962 (Monday)

[November 27], 1962 (Tuesday)

  • The first Boeing 727 was rolled out from its hangar in Seattle, and would be flown for the first time on February 9, 1963, with Eastern Airlines putting it into commercial service a year later.
  • French President Charles De Gaulle ordered Prime Minister Georges Pompidou to form a new government.
  • Born: Emma Walton Hamilton, British-American children's book author, theatrical director, and actress; in London, as the daughter of singer and actress Julie Andrews and set/costume designer Tony Walton

[November 28], 1962 (Wednesday)

[November 29], 1962 (Thursday)

[November 30], 1962 (Friday)

  • Franz Josef Strauss was forced to resign as West Germany's Defence Minister. Strauss was relieved of his duties as a result of the "Spiegel affair", after being accused of ordering police action against the staff of the magazine Der Spiegel.
  • The crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 512 killed 25 of the 51 people on board, after the Douglas DC-7B, crashed while trying to land in heavy fog at Idlewild Airport in New York City.
  • Gemini Project Office reported its revision of plans for implementing the preflight checkout of the Gemini spacecraft at Cape Canaveral..
  • Born: Vincent "Bo" Jackson, American MLB baseball and NFL football player known for being the only professional athlete in history to be named an All-Star in two major North American sports; in Bessemer, Alabama