December 1962

January – February – March – April – May – June  – July – August – September – October – November – December

The following events occurred in December, 1962

December 1, 1962 (Saturday)

• The 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games come to an end, in Perth, Western Australia.
• The 1963 American Football League Draft takes place.
• Ron Ashman becomes manager of UK soccer club Norwich City F.C.

December 2, 1962 (Sunday)

• Vietnam War: After a trip to Vietnam at the request of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield becomes the first American official to make a non-optimistic public comment on the war's progress.
• In Japan, the annual Fukuoka Marathon is won by Toru Terasawa, in a Japanese national record time of 2:16:18.4.
• Beginning of a week of severe smog in London, which causes several deaths.

December 3, 1962 (Monday)

• The Canadian cities of Ottawa and Toronto hold municipal elections. Metro Toronto holds two referenda on the same day.
• Born: Hyo Jin Moon, eldest child of Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han Moon (d. 2008)
• Died: Dame Mary Gilmore, 97, Australian poet and journalist

December 4, 1962 (Tuesday)

• The first Jacob's Awards ceremony is held in Dublin; these are the first Irish television awards. Winners included Joe Lynch, Charles Mitchel and Proinsias Mac Aonghusa.
• Died: Pietro Tomasi Della Torretta, 89, Italian politician and diplomat

December 5, 1962 (Wednesday)

• The Tasmanian Blue Gum is adopted as an official symbol of the Australian state of Tasmania.
• The body of 20-year-old Sophie Clark is found strangled in Boston Back Bay, making her the seventh victim of the Boston Strangler.
• The first Test match of the 1962–63 Ashes series ends in a draw at Brisbane Cricket Ground.
• Born: José Cura, Argentine operatic tenor, in Rosario
• Died: Arthur Murray, 3rd Viscount Elibank, 83 (the peerage becomes extinct on this date)

December 6, 1962 (Thursday)

• Bob Dylan records five tracks for his new album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, at Columbia Records Studio A in New York City.
• Born: Claude Chirac, daughter and later personal advisor of French President Jacques Chirac

December 7, 1962 (Friday)

• Rainier III, Prince of Monaco revises the principality's constitution, devolving some of his formerly autocratic power to several advisory and legislative councils.
• Bill Wyman is hired as bass player in the Rolling Stones.

• Born: Imad Mughniyah, Lebanese terrorist, in Tayr Dibbah (d. 2008)
• Died: Kirsten Flagstad, 67, Norwegian soprano

December 8, 1962 (Saturday)

• The first period of the Second Vatican Council closes.
• The North Kalimantan National Army revolts in Brunei, in the first stirrings of the Indonesian Confrontation.
• The 1962 New York City newspaper strike begins, affecting all of the city's major newspapers; It would last for 114 days.
• Former Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands is buried at the New Church in Delft.
• The Playboy Club opens a new venue in New York City.

December 9, 1962 (Sunday)

• Tanganyika (now Tanzania) becomes a republic within the Commonwealth, with Julius Nyerere as president.

December 10, 1962 (Monday)

• In South Africa, Dr Martin Luther King and Chief Albert Luthuli launch a Human Rights Campaign appealing for “Action against Apartheid"
• David Lean's epic film Lawrence of Arabia, featuring Peter O' Toole, Omar Sharif, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, and Anthony Quinn has its première in London.
• (Scottish boxer Jackie Brown defeats Nigeria's Orizu Obilaso to win the Commonwealth flyweight title.

December 11, 1962 (Tuesday)

• In West Germany, a coalition government of Christian Democrats, Christian Socialists, and Free Democrats is formed. Hans Ehard steps down as Minister President of Bavaria, after a total of more than ten years in office, to be replaced by Alfons Goppel.
• The last execution by hanging in Canada takes place at Don Jail, Toronto, when Ronald Turpin, 29, and Arthur Lucas, 54, convicted for separate murders, are executed.

December 12, 1962 (Wednesday)

• The Bukhansan Monument, dating from the 6th century CE, is designated the 3rd National Treasure of Korea.

December 13, 1962 (Thursday)

• George Wright is indicted for murder. Wright is subsequently sentenced to 30 years in prison, but escapes in 1970, remaining a fugitive until 2011.
• Siegfried Balke is dismissed from his cabinet post as Federal Minister for Nuclear Energy in a reshuffle resulting from the Spiegel scandal.
• Died: Admiral John Cunningham, 77, British naval leader; Rudolf Wissell, 93, German politician

December 14, 1962 (Friday)

• U.S. spacecraft Mariner 2 flies by Venus, becoming the first probe to successfully transmit data from another planet.
• The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci Mona Lisa is assessed for insurance purposes at US$100 million, before the painting tours the United States for several months. It is the highest insurance value for a painting in history. However, the Louvre chooses to spend the money on security instead.

December 15, 1962 (Saturday)

• In a storm over the North Sea, the Belgian pirate radio station Radio Uylenspiegel is knocked off the airwaves, never to operate again.
• Muhammad Shoaib replaces Abdul Qadir as Finance Minister of Pakistan.
• The 1962 Rand Grand Prix is held at Kyalami, South Africa, and won by Jim Clark.
• Died: Charles Laughton, 63, English actor and director

December 16, 1962 (Sunday)

• The Manitoba general election results in a second majority victory for the Progressive Conservative Party under the leadership of Dufferin Roblin.
• Đorđije Pajković becomes President of the Executive Council of the Socialist Republic of Montenegro.

December 17, 1962 (Monday)

• The new Constitution of Monaco is published.
• Died: Thomas Mitchell, 70, American actor

December 18, 1962 (Tuesday)

• Died: Garrett Mattingly, 62, American historian

December 19, 1962 (Wednesday)

• Britain acknowledges the right of Nyasaland (now Malawi) to secede from the Central African Federation.

December 20, 1962 (Thursday)

• NASA research pilot Milton O. Thompson, after making an X-15 weather evaluation flight for an impending launch in NASA Lockheed JF-104A-10-LO Starfighter, 56-0749, c/n 183-1037, makes a simulated X-15 approach at Rogers Dry Lake, Edwards Air Force Base, California, but experiences major problems. Unable to resolve the situation, he ejects inverted at 18,000 feet after the airframe makes four complete rolls. The fighter impacts nose first on Edwards bombing range, whilst the pilot descends safely and walks to a nearby road where NASA Flight Operations chief Joe Vensel, speeding to the crash site expecting the worst, finds him waiting uninjured. An investigation finds that the crash was probably the result of an electrical malfunction in the left trailing-edge flap.
• Died: Emil Artin, 64, Austrian mathematician

December 21, 1962 (Friday)

• Rondane National Park is established as Norway's first national park.
• Britain agrees to purchase Polaris missiles from the U.S.

December 22, 1962 (Saturday)

• "Big Freeze" begins in Britain: there will be no frost-free nights until March 5, 1963.
• Born: Ralph Fiennes, English actor, in Ipswich

December 23, 1962 (Sunday)

• Died: José Giral, 83, prime minister of the Spanish Republican government in Exile 1945-47

December 24, 1962 (Monday)

• Cuba releases the last 1,113 participants in the Bay of Pigs Invasion to the U.S., in exchange for food worth $53 million.
• Died: Wilhelm Ackermann, 66, German mathematician

December 25, 1962 (Tuesday)

• The Thai-language daily newspaper Thai Rath is founded by Kampol Vacharaphol.
• Born: Sanjeeb Choudhury, Bangladeshi singer, lyricist and journalist (d. 2007)
• Died: Mohiuddin Qadri Zore, Indian Urdu poet, literary critic and historian, on his 57th birthday

December 26, 1962 (Wednesday)

• Jamaica signs up to the ILO's Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention.
• Dinmukhamed Konayev becomes the head of government of Kazakhstan (Chairman of the Council of Ministers) for the second time.
• Died: Calcedonio Di Pisa, 31, Sicilian mafioso, murdered on the Piazza Principe di Camporeale in Palermo while walking to a tobacco kiosk. Three men are said to have shot him with a sawn-off shotgun and a revolver, but bystanders in the square, when questioned by the police, cannot recall hearing any shots.

December 27, 1962 (Thursday)

• Born: Simon King, British wildlife photographer and broadcaster, in Nairobi, Kenya
• Died: Serge Raynaud de la Ferriere, 46, French religious philosopher

December 28, 1962 (Friday)

• Died: Kathleen Clifford, 75, American stage and screen actress

December 29, 1962 (Saturday)

• The 1962 South African Grand Prix is held in East London and won by Graham Hill.
• The Ralph Waldo Emerson House in Concord and the John Greenleaf Whittier House in Amesbury are designated National Historic Landmarks, along with several other historic houses in the US state of Massachusetts.

December 30, 1962 (Sunday)

• United Nations troops occupy the last rebel positions in Katanga; Moise Tshombe moves to South Rhodesia.
• An unexpected storm buries the US state of Maine under five feet of snow, forcing the Bangor Daily News to miss a publication date for the first and only time in history. The same day, also the Netherlands are covered with several feet of snow.

December 31, 1962 (Monday)

• The body of 23-year-old Patricia Bissette is found strangled in Boston Back Bay; she is the eighth victim of the Boston Strangler.
• UK airline Tradair becomes a subsidiary of Channel Airways.