August 1962

File:Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah Bomb Attack.jpg

• An assassination attempt against Ghana's President Kwame Nkrumah, failed when Nkrumah finished a speech early before a time bomb went off. Nkrumah had stopped in the village of Kulungugu on his way back from a state visit to Upper Volta.{{cite news |title=Ghana Assassin Fails, Youth Killed |newspaper=Miami News |date=August 2, 1962 |page=1}}
• A Nepal Airlines RNA Douglas C-47A-DL (9N-AAH), en route from Kathmandu-Gaucher Airport to New Delhi, crashed near Tulachan Dhuri. The wreckage was discovered eight days later on a mountain top at {{Convert|11,200|ft}}. All four crew and six passengers were killed, including Nepal's ambassador to India.{{cite news |title=Plane Crash Killed Ten |newspaper=Saskatoon Star-Phoenix |date=August 13, 1962 |page=5}}[http://aviation-safety.net/database/dblist.php?sorteer=datekey_desc&kind=%&cat=%&page=1&field=Operatorkey&var=5478 Aviation Safety Network] retrieved 18 November 2006 Initial reports were that rescue teams had found the airliner, and that all 10 people on board were safe.{{cite news |title=Lost Nepali Airliner Found, 10 Aboard Reported Safe |newspaper=Palm Beach Post |location=Palm Beach, Florida |date=August 4, 1962 |page=11}}
• The Darul Islam rebellion in Indonesia was defeated with the capture of its leader, Sekarmadji Maridjan Kartosuwirjo, who would be executed a month later.{{cite book |first=Alonzo III |last=Surrette |title=Jemaah Islamiyah in South East Asia: The Effect of Islamic Nationalism on the Indonesian Political Climate |year=2009 |page=4}}
• In Major League Baseball, pitcher Bill Monbouquette, playing for the Boston Red Sox, pitched a no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox, one of five that year after only one had been pitched in 1961.{{cite book |last=Scoggins |first=Chaz |title=Game of My Life Boston Red Sox |location=New York, NY |publisher=Sports Publishing |orig-year=2006 |year=2014 |page=50}} Besides Monbouquette, no-hitters were also pitched in May (by Bo Belinsky of the Angels), two in the final week of June (on June 26 by Monbouquette's Red Sox teammate Earl Wilson and on June 30 by the Dodgers' Sandy Koufax), and a final one on August 26 by Minnesota's Jack Kralick.
• Died:
• Dr. Geoffrey Bacon, 44, British scientist, died three days after being accidentally infected by bubonic plague at Britain's germ warfare center at Porton Down, Wiltshire.{{cite news |title=Germ War Scientist Victim Of Black Death |newspaper=Charleston News and Courier |location=Charleston, South Carolina |date=August 4, 1962 |page=1}}
• General Gordon Bennett, 75, Australian military leader{{cite book |last=Legg |first=Frank |author-link=Frank Legg |title=The Gordon Bennett Story: From Gallipoli to Singapore |year=1965 |publisher=Angus & Robertson |location=Sydney, New South Wales |oclc=3193299 |page=291}}

• In order to bring an end to the Saskatchewan doctors' strike, a special session of the legislature of Saskatchewan amended the provincial Medical Care Insurance Act that had caused an unprecedented work stoppage by doctors and surgeons, adjourning after completing its work in less than 12 hours.{{cite news |title=Sask. Ends Medicare Rift |newspaper=St. Petersburg Times |date=August 4, 1962 |page=3-A}}
• North American Aviation began testing its emergency parachute recovery system for Project Gemini's Paraglider Development Program. The first test was successful, but in every test afterward, recovery parachutes separated from the spacecraft immediately after deployment and the test vehicle was destroyed on impact. The test series ended on November 15.{{Source attribution}} {{cite book |title=Project Gemini Technology and Operations - A Chronology |chapter=PART I (B) Concept and Design January 1962 through December 1962 |last1=Grimwood |first1=James M. |last2=Hacker |first2=Barton C. |last3=Vorzimmer |first3=Peter J. |series=NASA Special Publication-4002 |chapter-url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4002/p1b.htm |publisher=NASA |access-date=20 February 2023}}
• Cominco Binani Zinc Ltd. was established on the banks of the Periyar River in Kerala, India.
• Born: Brian France, American businessman, CEO of NASCAR, and son of Bill France Jr.; in Daytona Beach, Florida

• President John F. Kennedy decided to break ties with singer Frank Sinatra after his brother, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, reported to him about Sinatra's connections with organized crime. Sinatra was reportedly so enraged by the President's decision to no longer visit the singer's Palm Springs home, that he took a sledgehammer and personally destroyed a landing pad built to accommodate visits by the presidential helicopter, Marine One.{{cite book |first=David |last=Talbot |author-link=David Talbot |title=Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years |title-link=David Talbot#Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years |publisher=Simon and Schuster |year=2007 |page=140}}
• "Tusko", a 14-year-old male Indian elephant at the Oklahoma City Zoo, was injected with {{Convert|270|mg}} of the hallucinogen LSD in an experiment by researchers at the University of Oklahoma to simulate musth, the periodic condition of aggressive behavior and rage by male elephants. Tusko collapsed five minutes after the injection and died less than two hours later.{{cite journal |title=Lysergic Acid Diethylamide: Its Effects on a Male Asiatic Elephant |url=http://www.psych.ufl.edu/~steh/PSB3002/LSDelephant.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121215123355/http://www.psych.ufl.edu/~steh/PSB3002/LSDelephant.pdf |archive-date=15 December 2012 |first1=Louis Jolyon |last1=West |author1-link=Louis Jolyon West |first2=Chester M. |last2=Pierce |author2-link=Chester Middlebrook Pierce |first3=Warren D. |last3=Thomas |journal=Science |date=December 7, 1962 |volume=138 |issue=3545 |pages=1100–1102|doi=10.1126/science.138.3545.1100 |pmid=17772968 }}{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2002/aug/08/research.highereducation |title=A dose of madness |newspaper=The Guardian |date=August 7, 2002}}
• The U.S. Air Force outlined its plans for converting Complex 14 at the Atlantic Missile Range at Cape Canaveral for use by the Gemini Project Office. The site of Project Mercury launches, Complex 14 would be modified for Project Gemini operations as the Agena target vehicle launch site.
• Died: Dean Cromwell, 82, American athletics coach, nicknamed "Maker of Champions", who coached the USC Trojans track team to 12 national championships, including nine consecutive titles from 1935 to 1943.

• Marilyn Monroe took a fatal overdose of Nembutal at her home at 12305 Fifth Helena Drive in Brentwood in Los Angeles, apparently at some point between a 7:15 p.m. phone call from her former stepson, Joe DiMaggio Jr. and a 7:30 p.m. call from actor Peter Lawford. The Nembutal interacted with a dosage of chloral hydrate already in her body and she was in a coma by 10 p.m.John David Ebert, Dead Celebrities, Living Icons: Tragedy and Fame in the Age of the Multimedia Superstar (ABC-CLIO, 2010) p66-67[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=wZJMF1LD7PcC&dat=19620806&printsec=frontpage&hl=en "MARILYN MONROE DIES!"], Milwaukee Sentinel, August 6, 1962, p1
• Crown Prince Vong Savang of Laos married Princess Mahneelai.{{cn|date=November 2023}}

• Nelson Mandela was arrested in South Africa, and imprisoned for more than 27 years. After returning home from a tour that he had made of African nations, Mandela was being driven by Cecil Williams to Johannesburg. Their car was near the village of Cedara, outside of Howick, when a Sergeant Vorster recognized both men and pulled them over. Mandela, who identified himself as David Motsamayi, was taken to Pietermaritzburg. While serving part of a five-year sentence for illegally leaving the country, he was tried and convicted on new charges in 1963 for sabotage and given a life sentence. He would not be released until February 11, 1990. In 1994, Mandela would be elected the first black President of South Africa.Max du Preez, The Rough Guide to Nelson Mandela (Penguin, 2011) pp109-110
• The Soviet Union conducted the second largest nuclear test in history, detonating a 40 megaton hydrogen bomb."Soviet nuclear test in 40-megaton range",Regina Leader-Post, August 6, 1962, p1
• 3C 273, the first identified quasar, was found by Australian astronomer John Bolton with the radio telescope at the Parkes Observatory in New South Wales.Brad Collis, Fields of Discovery: Australia's CSIRO (Allen & Unwin, 2002) p391
• American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell was the guest of honor at a rally of Britain's neo-Nazi party, the National Socialist Movement, led by Colin Jordan. Rockwell had been barred from the UK by order of the Home Office, but sneaked in anyway to be present at the camp in Gloucestershire."Nazi Sneaks Into London; Attends Rally, Press Says", Miami News, August 6, 1962, p2
• Graham Hill won the 1962 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring.{{cite magazine | ref = IMS9 | title = Skyfall över Tysklands GP |trans-title=Deluge on German GP | page = 24 | language = sv | last = Blunsden | first = John | location = Lerum, Sweden | magazine = Illustrerad Motor Sport | number = 9 | date = September 1962 }}
• Born: Patrick Ewing, Jamaican-born American basketball player, 1985 NCAA player of the year and 11-time NBA All-Star; in Kingston{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/03/sports/ncaabasketball/georgetown-hires-patrick-ewing-as-mens-basketball-coach.html |title=Georgetown Hires Patrick Ewing as Men's Basketball Coach |newspaper=The New York Times |first=Marc |last=Tracy |date=April 3, 2017 |access-date=April 4, 2017 |archive-date=May 2, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170502124519/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/03/sports/ncaabasketball/georgetown-hires-patrick-ewing-as-mens-basketball-coach.html |url-status=live }}

• Jamaica received its independence from the United Kingdom. Princess Margaret of the UK and U.S. Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson were among the dignitaries who watched the lowering of the British flag in Kingston.{{cite news |title=Jamaica Jubilant — It's Free

|newspaper=Miami News |date=August 6, 1962 |page=1}}

• The Friendship 7 spacecraft used in John Glenn's Mercury 6 flight completed its exhibition tour around the world with its display at the Century 21 Exposition in Seattle, Washington. Afterward, Glenn's capsule would be presented to the National Air Museum of the Smithsonian Institution on February 20, 1963.{{Source attribution}} {{cite book |title=Project Mercury - A Chronology |chapter=PART III (B) Operational Phase of Project Mercury June 1962 through June 12, 1963 |last=Grimwood |first=James M. |series=NASA Special Publication-4001 |chapter-url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4001/p3b.htm |publisher=NASA |access-date=13 February 2023}}
• Patsy Cline released her final studio album, Sentimentally Yours, seven months before her death in a plane crash.{{cite web|url=http://patsycline.info/decca.html|title=Patsy Cline recording sessions - the Decca Years|publisher=Patsy Cline.info|accessdate=2008-12-20}}
• Born: Michelle Yeoh, Malaysian actress; in IpohEncyclopædia Britannica Almanac 2010, [https://books.google.com/books?id=kd2bAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA75 p. 75] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111030119/https://books.google.com/books?id=kd2bAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA75 |date=11 January 2023 }}
• Died: Ángel Borlenghi, 58, Argentine labour leader and politician, Interior Minister and enforcer for dictator Juan Perón (1946–1955){{cite book|title=Britannica Book of the Year|publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica, Incorporated|year=1963|page=465}}

• Guillermo Valencia of the Conservative Party was sworn in as the new President of Colombia, quietly succeeding Alberto Lleras Camargo of the Liberal Party. Valencia's inauguration marked the first successful test of a unique agreement, whereby the Liberal and Conservative agreed to alternate the presidency every four years.{{cite news |title=Colombia Swears In New Chief |newspaper=Miami News |date=August 7, 1962 |page=6A}}
• Algeria's provisional government, led by Prime Minister Benyoucef Benkhedda, stepped aside in favor of leftist Vice-Premier Ahmed Ben Bella, who had returned to Algiers from Oran four days earlier.{{cite news |title=Ben Bella Consolidates Algeria Rule |newspaper=Pittsburgh Press |date=August 7, 1962 |page=13}}

File:Frances Oldham Kelsey and John F. Kennedy.jpg

• At the White House, President Kennedy presented the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service to Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey, a reviewer for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration who successfully blocked the approval of the birth-defect causing drug thalidomide for American sale.{{cite web |url=https://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography_182.html |title=Celebrating America's Women Physicians |publisher=National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health}}

• Elizabeth Ann Duncan, 58, became the last woman to be executed in the United States prior to the restoration of the death penalty in 1977. She was put to death in the gas chamber at California's San Quentin State Prison on the same day as the two men whom she had hired to murder her pregnant daughter-in-law. On November 17, 1958, Mrs. Olga Kupczyk Duncan and her unborn daughter had been beaten to death by Augustine Baldonado and Luis Moya, to whom Elizabeth had promised $8,000 which was never paid.{{cite news |title=Mrs. Duncan Dies In Gas Chamber |newspaper=Toledo Blade |location=Toledo, Ohio |date=August 8, 1962 |page=3}}{{cite book |first=Kathleen A. |last=O'Shea |title=Women and the Death Penalty in the United States, 1900-1998 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=1999 |page=71}}{{cite news |url=http://www.vcstar.com/news/2001/aug/19/ma-duncan-files-resurrected/ |title=Ma Duncan files resurrected |newspaper=Ventura County Star |location=Ventura County, California |date=August 19, 2001}}
• Atlas launch vehicle 113-D was delivered to Cape Canaveral for the October Mercury 8 mission of Wally Schirra.
• The 3rd Nippon Jamboree came to an end in Gotenba, Shizuoka Prefecture in Japan.
• Born: Charmaine Crooks, Jamaican-born Canadian athlete; in Mandeville
• Died: Don Davis, 28, died of injuries sustained in a sprint car race three days earlier at New Bremen, Ohio. Less than three months earlier, Davis had finished in fourth place in the 1962 Indianapolis 500.

• Prime Minister of Canada John Diefenbaker shuffled his cabinet, giving new jobs to six Ministers and bringing in three new men. Five of his Ministers had lost their seats in Parliament in the June 18 elections.{{cite news |title=Canadian Cabinet Gets Revamping |newspaper=Miami News |date=August 10, 1962 |page=1}} Among the changes were the move of Finance Minister Donald Fleming to Minister of Justice and Attorney General and the removal of William Joseph Browne who left the office of Solicitor General of Canada, a position that would remain vacant for nearly a year.
• Died: Hermann Hesse, 85, German-born Swiss novelist known for such works as Steppenwolf and Siddhartha, and 1946 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature{{cite web |title=Hermann Hesse – Facts |website=NobelPrize.org |publisher=Nobel Prize Outreach AB |year=2023 |access-date=20 February 2023 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1946/hesse/facts/}}

• CIA Director John McCone provided his first memorandum to U.S. President Kennedy about surveillance that would lead to a U.S. and Soviet confrontation in the Cuban Missile Crisis, describing an increase of Soviet shipments to Cuba, and his speculation that the Soviet Union was placing offensive missiles in the Caribbean island nation. McCone would give the President three more warnings in August.{{cite book |first=Kenneth Michael |last=Absher |title=Mind-Sets and Missiles: A First Hand Account of the Cuban Missile Crisis |publisher=Strategic Studies Institute |year=2009 |page=30}}
• The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library was dedicated and opened to the public in West Branch, Iowa. Hoover, who had served as the 31st President of the United States (1929–1933) was present and was celebrating his 88th birthday.{{cite book |first=Miriam A. |last=Drake |title=Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science |edition=2d. |publisher=CRC Press |year=2005 |page=201}}
• The Bell 533 research helicopter made its first flight, at Bell's Fort Worth, Texas, headquarters.{{cite book |last=Pelletier |first=Alain J. |title=Bell aircraft since 1935 |location=Annapolis, Maryland |publisher=Naval Institute Press |year=1992 |isbn=978-1-55750-056-4}}
• Died:
• Paul David Devanandan, 61, Indian Protestant Christian theologian
• Ted Husing, 60, pioneering American sportscaster

• Andriyan Nikolayev became the third Soviet cosmonaut, and the fifth man to orbit the Earth, when the Soviet Union launched Vostok 3 from Baikonur Cosmodrome.{{cite news |title=3rd Russian Shot into Orbit |newspaper=Miami News |date=August 11, 1962 |page=1}} Although the Soviets maintained the practice of not announcing the launch until after it had happened, live video of a Soviet cosmonaut in orbit was broadcast for the first time.{{cite book |chapter=Heavenly Twins |first=Arthur C. |last=Clarke |author-link=Arthur C. Clarke |title=Into That Silent Sea: Trailblazers of the Space Era, 1961-1965 |title-link=Into That Silent Sea |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |year=2009 |pages=171–174}}
• The Mercury spacecraft reaction control system test was completed. Data compiled from this test was used to evaluate the thermal and thruster configuration of the Mercury extended range or 1-day mission spacecraft.
• King Kong vs. Godzilla made its debut in Japan, becoming the 2nd-highest grossing movie in Japanese filmography, earning ¥352 million at the Japanese box office, under a ¥150 million budget.{{cite web|title=キングコング対ゴジラ＜高画質版＞|url=http://www.nihon-eiga.com/program/detail/nh10005863_0001.html|website=nihon-eiga.com|publisher=Nihon Eiga Broadcasting Corp|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141016003938/http://www.nihon-eiga.com/program/detail/nh10005863_0001.html|archive-date=October 16, 2014|language=Japanese}}
• Pyotr Bolotnikov of the Soviet Union set the new 10,000 metres world record race in Moscow, completing the distance in 28 minutes, 18.2 seconds. Bolotnikov, broke his own record of 28:18.6.
• Died: Harry Wexler, an American meteorologist who had been researching the link between depletion of stratospheric ozone and aerosol propellants, died of a heart attack while on vacation. Wexler had accepted an invitation to deliver a lecture entitled "The Climate of Earth and Its Modifications" at the University of Maryland Space Research and Technology Institute. Another twelve years would pass before the first papers about the effect of chlorofluorocarbon on the ozone layer were published. "Had Wexler lived to publish his ideas", an author would comment later, "they would certainly have been noticed and could have led to a different outcome and perhaps an earlier coordinated response to the issue of stratospheric ozone depletion."{{cite book |first=James Rodger |last=Fleming |author-link=James Rodger Fleming |title=Fixing the Sky: The Checkered History of Weather and Climate Control |publisher=Columbia University Press |date=December 2, 2011 |pages=221–222}}

• The Soviet Union launched Vostok 4 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, with cosmonaut Pavel Popovich on board, marking the first time that two crewed spacecraft were in orbit at the same time. The two Vostok capsules came within {{convert|6.5|km|mi|abbr=on}} of one another, and the cosmonauts established ship-to-ship radio contact.{{cite news |title=Red 'Twins' Orbit For Another Night |newspaper=Miami News |date=August 13, 1962 |page=1}}{{cite book

| last = Gatland

| first = Kenneth

| title = Manned Spacecraft, Second Revision

| publisher = Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.

| year = 1976

| location = New York

| pages = 117–118

| isbn = 0-02-542820-9}}

Arthur C. Clarke would write later that the double launch "stunned the world", because the Soviet Union accomplishment "required synchronization of Herculean proportions at the launch site", with the second launch "at exactly the right moment to ensure the near-perfect rendezvous... only their fourth manned space flight," something well beyond the American space program at the time.

• On the first anniversary of the creation of the Berlin Wall, three minutes of silence were supposed to be observed at noon in West Berlin. Instead, angry crowds began hurling stones across the border at police in East Berlin, who responded by firing a water cannon across the Wall and into the crowd. After more stones were thrown by the Western protesters, tear gas grenades were fired from East Berlin, after which West Berlin riot police sent their own tear gas across the border. The clash ended after an hour, and there were no serious injuries."GUARDS AT WALL HURL GRENADES", Miami News, August 13, 1962, p1
• Renato Daguin and Giovanni Ottin made the first complete ascent of the west face of the Matterhorn.Guide des Alpes Valaisannes, du Col Collon au Theodulpass, 1992, Swiss Alpine Club This was the last face to have been completely ascended.
• Jean Marie Bertrand became Administrator Superior of Wallis and Futuna, a colony of France.
• Died: Mabel Dodge Luhan, 83, American patron of the arts

• For only the fifth time in its history, and for the first time in 35 years, the U.S. Senate invoked cloture, the ending of a filibuster against the Communications Satellite Act of 1962. The vote was 63–27 in favor of ending debate, three more than the two-thirds necessary.{{cite news |title=Filibuster Broken On Satellite Bill |newspaper=St. Petersburg Times |date=August 15, 1962 |page=1}} When it came up for a vote, the bill, establishing COMSAT, passed the Senate 66–11 and the House 371–10. President Kennedy would sign it into law on August 31.{{cite news |title=Kennedy Signs Satellite Bill |newspaper=Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star |location=Fredericksburg, Virginia |date=August 31, 1962 |page=3}}
• Robbers armed with submachine guns held up a U.S. Mail truck near Plymouth, Massachusetts, and heisted its $1,500,000 cargo that had been en route to the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston. A man dressed as a police officer flagged the truck down, and two cars pulled out from side roads.{{cite news |title=Mail Truck Robbed; $2 Million Haul? |newspaper=Miami News |date=August 15, 1962 |page=1}} The caper was financed by mobster Gennaro "Jerry" Angiulo and carried out under the direction of John "Red" Kelley. Kelley would later arrange for the murder of six of the participants in the plot, would avoid prison by becoming a witness against his fellow criminals, and, after being relocated by the federal witness protection program, would eventually die of natural causes.{{cite book |first1=John |last1=Partington |first2=Arlene |last2=Violet |author2-link=Arlene Violet |title=The Mob and Me: Wiseguys and the Witness Protection Program |publisher=Simon and Schuster |year=2010 |pages=113–124}}
• North American began flight tests for the half-scale text vehicle (HSTV) for the Paraglider Development Program, towing it aloft by helicopter. Despite various minor malfunctions in all five test flights from August 14 to October 23, test results verified the stability of the wing/vehicle combination in free flight and the adequacy of control effectiveness.
• Born: Ikililou Dhoinine, President of the Comoros from 2011 to 2016; in Djoièzi
• Died: Rudi Arnstadt, 35, East German border guard captain, was shot by Hans Plüschke, a 23-year-old West German border guard. Plüschke claimed to be returning fire after his patrol was shot at.{{cite news |title=East German Dies in Wall Shooting |newspaper=The New York Times |date=August 16, 1962}}

• Representatives of the Netherlands and Indonesia signed the New York Agreement, with the Netherlands transferring administration of the Western New Guinea colony to the United Nations Trusteeship Council until May 1, 1963, after which the U.N. Temporary Executive Authority (UNTEA) and Indonesia would jointly administer the territory for a period of six years, during which the Western New Guineans were to be given a choice as to their future. In 1969, the territory would be incorporated into Indonesia.{{cite book |first1=Robert |last1=Cribb |first2=Audrey |last2=Kahin |title=Historical Dictionary of Indonesia |publisher=Scarecrow Press |year=2004 |page=314}}
• PFC James Joseph Dresnok of the United States Army decided to defect to North Korea while stationed on the south side of the Korean Demilitarized Zone.{{cite news |title=TASS Says U.S. Army Man Defects to North Korea |newspaper=The New York Times |date=August 23, 1962}} Fifty years later, he was the only surviving American defector remaining in North Korea.[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/joe-dresnok-an-american-in-north-korea/ "Joe Dresnok: An American In North Korea"], by Daniel Schorn, on 60 Minutes
• Vostok 3 landed at 06:52 UTC at {{coord|42|2|N|75|45|E}}, near Karaganda.{{cite web |url=https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1962-036A |title=NASA NSSDC Spacecraft Trajectory Details |access-date=17 March 2009 |publisher=NASA}} Cosmonaut Andrian Nikolayev ejected the spacecraft during its descent and parachuted to earth, having set a new record of 64 orbits during nearly four days in space.{{cite news |title=SPACE TWINS LAND SAFELY |newspaper=Miami News |date=August 15, 1962 |page=1}}
• The Australian Air Force's "Red Sales" aerobatic stunt flying team was wiped out when all four of its Vampire jets crashed, killing the six airmen aboard, during formation flying near the East Sale Air Force Base.{{cite news |title=Crash Wipes Out Aussie Flight Team |newspaper=Miami News |date=August 15, 1962 |page=1}}
• South Africa legalized the sale of beer, wine and liquor to Africans and Asians for the first time. Previously, the privilege had been limited to White people only.{{cite news |title=Drink Up, But Be Careful, Government Tells Africans |newspaper=Miami News |date=August 16, 1962 |page=1}}

File:Lei Feng 13.jpg

• Died: Lei Feng, 21, who had in 1957 been named as a "model worker" by the People's Republic of China for good citizens to emulate, and in 1960, a "model soldier" of the People's Liberation Army, died "after being accidentally killed by a falling telephone pole that had been run into by a truck".{{cite news |first=Daniel |last=Leese |title=Mao Cult: Rhetoric and Ritual in China's Cultural Revolution |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2011 |page=104}} He would become even more famous on March 5, 1963, when China Youth Daily would begin the "Learn from Lei Feng" campaign (Xiang Lei Feng tongzhi xuexi).{{cite book |first=Henry Yuhuai |last=He |title=Dictionary of the Political Thought of the People's Republic of China |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |year=2001 |pages=229–230}}"China's Latest Hero Is Good Follower", Los Angeles Times, March 11, 1977, p.I-15

• The four former colonies of French India were formally transferred to Indian control with the exchange of the instruments of ratification by the French parliament of the 1954 transfer agreement. The four French territories (Pondicherry, Karaikal, Yanam and Mahé) would be merged to form the Union Territory of Puducherry.{{cite book |first=Indu |last=Ramchandani |title=Students' Britannica India |publisher=Popular Prakashan |year=2000 |pages=175–181}}
• Beatles drummer Pete Best was fired and replaced by Ringo Starr.{{cite book |first=Chris |last=Ingham |title=Rough Guide to the Beatles |publisher=Penguin |year=2009 |page=15}}
• The Gemini Project Office (GPO) approved eight of the Agena status displays for the Gemini spacecraft. The GPO also approved a list of 34 commands required to control certain Agena functions during rendezvous and docking maneuvers by the Gemini spacecraft.
• The U.S. Air Force and NASA agreed to use a standard Atlas space booster for the Gemini program, with the first rocket expected to be available by September 1963.
• Born: Steve Carell, American comedian and TV and film actor known for The Office and The 40-Year-Old Virgin; in Concord, Massachusetts
• Died: Phillip Kastel, 69, American gangster

• Peter Fechter, aged 18, was killed by East German border guards as he attempted to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin. Fechter's death has been described as "the most notorious incident of all"Patrick Major, Behind the Berlin Wall: East Germany and the Frontiers of Power (Oxford University Press, 2009) in the 27-year history of the Wall, because Fechter slowly bled to death from his bullet wounds, in front of newspaper photographers and hundreds of spectators who were unable to assist him, and East German guards who refused to approach him until he died an hour later. In 1996, indictments would be returned against the two former guards, Rolf Friedrich and Erich Schreiber, who had shot Fechter.[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VuweAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ds8EAAAAIBAJ&pg=3036,3141853&dq=rolf-friedrich&hl=en "2 ex-guards charged in Berlin Wall death"], Spartanburg Herald-Journal, July 11, 1996, pA-10 They would be convicted of manslaughter on March 5, 1997, and placed on probation.
• Television was first broadcast in Indonesia, at the time a nation of 97,000,000 people, as Jakarta station TVRI (Televisi Republik Indonesia) or The National Television Channel of Indonesia, began test broadcasting on Channel 5, coming directly from the Presidential Palace on the Indonesian independence day.Karl D. Jackson and Lucian W. Pye, Political Power and Communications in Indonesia (University of California Press, 1980) p243 Regular broadcasting began on August 24, with transmission of the Asian Games.
• Foy D. Kohler was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be the new United States ambassador to the Soviet Union."Demo Blocks Senate Vote On Bohlen", Spokane Spokesman-Review, August 18, 1962, p1

• Denied the right to an abortion in her home state of Arizona and anywhere else in the United States, Sherri Finkbine received the procedure in Stockholm.{{cite news |title=Sherry Finkbine Has Abortion |newspaper=Miami News |date=August 18, 1962 |page=1}} Mrs. Finkbine, host of a children's TV show in Phoenix, had been seeking to terminate her pregnancy since late July after learning that a medicine she had taken was thalidomide, which was found to cause severe birth defects, and her search for a legal abortion began the first nationwide debate in the U.S. over whether abortion should be legal.
• An experiment in publishing a "worldwide newspaper" by satellite was conducted from New York City, as seven newspaper pages were photographed, reduced in size, transmitted to the orbiting Telstar satellite, and then received at ground stations on various continents.{{cite news |title=One-Paper World Envisioned |newspaper=Miami News |date=August 19, 1962 |page=2}}
• Norway launched its first sounding rocket, Ferdinand 1, from Andøya Space Center to begin its space program.{{cite web |url=https://www.romsenter.no/Laer-om-rommet/Norge-som-romnasjon |title=Norge som romnasjon |trans-title=Norway as a space nation |last=Romsenter |first=Norsk |website=Norsk Romsenter |language=no |access-date=2020-03-12}}
• A group of 17 children from the Blessed Hope Missionary Baptist Church of Quincy, Florida drowned along with their Sunday school teacher when their boat capsized in Lake Talquin. The children, seven of whom were from the same family, ranged in age from 5 to 14 years old.{{cite news |title=Seventeen Children Drown While On Church Outing |newspaper=Ocala Star-Banner |location=Ocala, Florida |date=August 19, 1962 |page=1}}
• Drummer Ringo Starr made his first appearance as a full member of the Beatles, at a Horticultural Society dance at Port Sunlight.{{cite book |last=Harry |first=Bill |author-link=Bill Harry |title=The Ringo Starr Encyclopedia |publisher=Virgin Books |year=2004 |isbn=0-7535-0843-5}}

• Born: Felipe Calderón, 63rd President of Mexico from 2006 to 2012; in Morelia, Michoacán state

• The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Hungary (officially, the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party) purged 24 former politicians, including former General Secretary Mátyás Rákosi and his successor, Ernő Gerő, as well as Politburo member Károly Kiss, in a move to rid the Party of Stalinists.{{cite news |title=Hungary Boots 24 Stalinists |newspaper=Miami News |date=August 20, 1962 |page=6A}}
• Italian driver Lorenzo Bandini won the first Mediterranean Grand Prix, held at the Autodromo di Pergusa, Sicily.

• The U.S. Department of Defense announced plans to develop a Titan III launch vehicle powered by both solid and liquid fuel rocket motors with a total thrust of over 11 million newtons (2.5 million lbs). Scheduled to become operational in 1965, the Titan III would be used to launch the Air Force's X-20 Dyna-Soar crewed spacecraft, as well as heavy uncrewed military satellites. Martin Marietta Corporation had been selected as prime contractor for the project, at an estimated cost of between $500 million and $1 billion. At a news conference the following day, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara cited the Titan III as a major step toward overtaking the Soviet Union in various phases of military space development.{{Source attribution}} {{cite book |title=SKYLAB: A CHRONOLOGY |chapter=PART I: Early Space Station Activities -1923 to December 1962. |last1=Brooks |first1=Courtney G. |last2=Ertel |first2=Ivan D. |last3=Newkirk |first3=Roland W. |series=NASA Special Publication-4011 |chapter-url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4011/part1a.htm |publisher=NASA |page=19 |access-date=8 March 2023}}
• Fifteen people were killed in the crash of a Panair do Brasil DC-8 airliner, after it skidded off the runway while attempting to take off from Rio de Janeiro to Lisbon. Another 90 were rescued, or escaped, from the flaming airliner.{{cite news |title=80 Survive Fiery Jet Crash |newspaper=Miami News |date=August 21, 1962 |page=1}}[http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19620820-0 Accident description on Aviation-Safety.net]

• The source of what would be developed into the anti-cancer drug taxol (paclitaxel) was discovered by a team of botanists, led by Dr. Arthur Barclay, who collected bark from a specific type of Pacific yew tree, Taxus brevifolia Nutt, in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Taxol, developed from the extract of the bark, is now used in treatment of ovarian and breast cancer.{{cite book |first=Gordon M. L. |last=Cragg |title=Anticancer Agents From Natural Products |publisher=CRC Press |year=2005 |page=90}}
• The Mexican soccer football team C.D. Guadalajara won the 1962 CONCACAF Champions' Cup, defeating the Guatemalan team C.S.D. Comunicaciones by a 6–1 aggregate over two games.[https://www.rsssf.org/tablesc/cacups62.html RSSSF.com]
• Born: David Morales, American musician and 1998 Grammy Award winner; in Brooklyn{{Cite web|url=https://www.discogs.com/artist/7624-David-Morales|title=David Morales|website=Discogs.com|access-date=December 16, 2019}}
• Died:
• Hermann Höfle, 51, Nazi war criminal, hanged himself in prison in Austria, where he had been incarcerated since January 1961. He was awaiting trial for war crimes during World War II.{{cite news |title=Held for Killing Jews, Hangs Self in Prison |newspaper=Chicago Daily Tribune |date=August 22, 1962 |page=21}}
• Richard Garrick, 83, Irish-born American film actor and director

• An assassination attempt against French President Charles De Gaulle failed, as he, his wife, and son-in-law were near Petit Clamart, being driven in his Citroën DS from Paris to the Villacoublay Airfield. A team of 12 OAS gunmen, led by former French Air Force Lieutenant Colonel. Jean Bastien-Thiry, attacked the limousine. The rear window and two tires of De Gaulle's car were shot out, and the President was struck by shattered glass, as ambushers fired more than 120 bullets at the automobile, but miraculously, nobody was injured."De Gaulle Narrowly Escapes Bullets Showered At His Car", Meriden (CT) Record, August 23, 1962, p1 Bastien-Thiry was arrested on September 17, and executed by firing squad on March 11, 1963.George Fetherling, The Book of Assassins (Random House Digital, 2011)

• Soviet writer Valery Tarsis was punished for his anti-government novel, The Bluebottle Fly. He was forcibly committed to the Kuschenko Psychiatric Hospital with a diagnosis of "expansive paranoia". He would not be released for six months, and would later describe the experience in his novel Ward 7.{{cite book |first=Victor |last=Terras |title=Handbook of Russian Literature |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1990 |page=464}}
• The National Reconnaissance Office of the United States made its first successful launch of a weather satellite intended to determine cloud cover in advance of a pass by spy satellites and spy planes.{{cite book |first=Dino A. |last=Brugioni |author-link=Dino Brugioni |title=Eyes in the Sky: Eisenhower, the CIA, and Cold War Aerial Espionage |location=Annapolis, Maryland |publisher=Naval Institute Press |year=2010 |page=200}}
• John Lennon secretly married Cynthia Powell at Mount Pleasant Register office in Liverpool.{{cite book |last=Spitz |first=Bob |author-link=Bob Spitz |title=The Beatles – The Biography |url=https://archive.org/details/beatlesbiography00spit |url-access=registration |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-316-80352-6 |page= [https://archive.org/details/beatlesbiography00spit/page/348 348] |via=Internet Archive}} Lennon's fellow Beatles, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, attended the ceremony, and their manager Brian Epstein served as Lennon's best man.
• Mohammad Ichsan and Abdul Wahab Surjoadiningrat were appointed to the Third Working Cabinet of President Sukarno in Indonesia.
• Died: Hoot Gibson, 70, American western actor

• In the most dramatic attack on Cuba since the Bay of Pigs Invasion the year before, a suburb of Havana was shelled from speedboats operated by the Cuban exile terrorist group Directorio Estudiantile. Operating from a {{Convert|31|foot|adj=on}} boat, the attackers, led by Manuel Salvat, fired 60 artillery shells at buildings in Miramar, an upscale section of the Havana suburb of Playa. Nine rooms of the Icar Hostel, formerly the Hotel Rosita de Hornedo, were damaged, and 20 people were injured. The boat departed after seven minutes.{{cite news |title=Ships Dart In, Shell Havana Suburb |newspaper=Miami News |date=August 25, 1962 |page=1}}{{cite news |title=Havana Raiders Return To Florida |newspaper=Miami News |date=August 26, 1962 |page=1}}{{cite book |first=Robert L. |last=Scheina |title=Latin America's Wars |volume=2 |publisher=Potomac Books |year=2003}}
• TVRI or Televisi Republik Indonesia (Indonesian National Television Channel), the first national television network of Indonesia, made its official debut with a broadcast of the opening of the 1962 Asian Games in Jakarta.
• Born: Craig Kilborn, American television host, actor, comedian, and sports commentator; in Kansas City, Missouri{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1997/05/31/the-deadpan-zone/19556021-fad9-4d08-b1b3-adf8075833fc/|title=The Deadpan Zone|last=Lel|first=Richard|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=31 May 1997|access-date=3 November 2015}}

• Venera 2MV-1 No.1, also called Sputnik 19, was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome,{{cite web|url=http://planet4589.org/space/log/launchlog.txt|title=Launch Log|last=McDowell|first=Jonathan|publisher=Jonathan's Space Page|access-date=28 July 2010}} with the aim of being the first craft to land on the planet Venus. However, the probe never succeeded in leaving low Earth orbit and re-entered the atmosphere three days later.[https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1962-040A "Sputnik 19"], National Space Science Data Center, NASA.gov At the time, Soviet policy was to never announce a space mission until after it was launched, and to never announce a failed launch."Russia Made Try For Venus", Miami News, September 1, 1962, p2
• Born:
• Rajiv Kapoor, Indian actor and film-maker, son of Raj Kapoor; in Mumbai (died from a heart attack, 2021)
• Taslima Nasrin, Bangladeshi doctor, author and human rights activist; in Mymensingh

• The last major event of baseball's Negro American League was played, as the annual East-West All-Star Game took place at Municipal Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. In the final season of the NAL, there were only four teams. The defending NAL champions, the Kansas City Monarchs, along with members of the Birmingham Black Barons, paced the West team in a 5–2 win."West Boner Defeats East In Negro Tilt", Kansas City Times, August 27, 1962, p27
• The Soviet national newspaper Pravda denounced the European Economic Community (known then as the "Common Market"), as "an imperialist agency intensifying aggressive activity against the Communist nations"."Reds Flay Common Market", Spokane (WA) Spokesman-Review, August 27, 1962, p2
• The 1962 Danish Grand Prix was won by Jack Brabham.
• Died:
• Edward Turnour, 6th Earl Winterton, 79, English politician who served as a member of the House of Commons from 1904 until his retirement in 1951; during his last six years, he was the "Father of the House" as the longest serving MP in the United Kingdom.
• Vilhjalmur Stefansson, 82, Canadian Arctic explorer and ethnologist

• The proposed Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, outlawing the poll tax, was submitted to the states for ratification. The House of Representatives voted 295–86 to approve the resolution, which had passed the U.S. Senate 77–16 on March 27.{{cite news |title=Poll Tax Measure To States |newspaper=Daytona Beach Morning Journal |location=Daytona Beach, Florida |date=August 28, 1962 |page=1}} By 1962, only two American states (Alabama and Mississippi) still used the poll tax to deter African-Americans from voting, and only three others (Arkansas, Texas and Virginia) had a poll tax law.{{cite news |title=Anti-poll tax amendment now up to any 38 states |newspaper=Oxnard Press-Courier |location=Oxnard, California |date=August 28, 1962 |page=118}} The Amendment would be ratified on January 23, 1964, when South Dakota would become the 38th of 50 states to approve it.{{cite book |title=Senate Manual 2011 |publisher=Government Printing Office |year=2012 |page=1184}}

File:Mariner 2 launch.jpg

• NASA launched the Mariner 2 space probe toward the planet Venus, The probe lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 1:58 a.m. (658 UTC) local time.{{cite news |title=Spacecraft Off Toward Venus |newspaper=Miami News |date=August 27, 1962 |page=1}} As the first successful mission to another planet, Mariner 2 would reach Venus on December 14, 1962, gathering data for 42 minutes and approaching within 21,600 miles (34,752 km).{{cite web |url=http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?MCode=Mariner_02&Display=ReadMore |title=Missions to Venus |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150118232732/http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?MCode=Mariner_02&Display=ReadMore |archive-date=January 18, 2015 |department=Solar System Exploration |website=NASA.gov}} The launch came a month after the failed American launch of Mariner 1 to Venus, and three days after the Soviet launch of Sputnik 19 to Venus.
• At a meeting in Guangzhou between China's Prime Minister Zhou Enlai and North Vietnam's Prime Minister Pham Van Dong, the People's Republic committed to supplying the Viet Cong, at China's expense, "with enough weapons to arm 230 infantry battalions".{{cite book |first1=Barbara |last1=Barnouin |first2=Changgen |last2=Yu |title=Zhou Enlai: A Political Life |publisher=Chinese University Press |year=2006 |page=211}}
• Born: Sjón (Sigurjón Birgir Sigurðsson), Icelandic novelist, poet and lyricist; in Reykjavík

• The Gemini Project Office and McDonnell revised the projected launch date of the Gemini 1, the first Gemini flight from August 1963 to September 1963, because of delays in the delivery of components. The second Gemini mission (Gemini 2) and the first human flight (Gemini 3, with Gus Grissom and John Young) remained scheduled for November 1963. Ultimately, Gemini 1 would be launched in April 1964, Gemini 2 in January 1965 and Gemini 3 in March 1965.
• Felix Frankfurter, one of the nine justices of the United States Supreme Court since 1939, sent U.S. President Kennedy his letter of resignation, citing health problems. U.S. Secretary of Labor Arthur J. Goldberg was nominated to replace Frankfurter.{{cite news |title=Frankfurter Leaves Court; Goldberg In |newspaper=Miami News |date=August 27, 1962 |page=1}}
• Born:
• David Zuckerman, American TV producer and writer; in Danville, California{{cite web|url=http://www.foxflash.com/tca/pdfs/2011/wilfred.pdf |title=Wilfred |publisher=20th Century Fox |work=Fox Flash |accessdate=2011-07-04 }}{{dead link|date=December 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
• David Fincher, American film director; in Denver, Colorado{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/david-fincher-awards-are-just-icing-on-the-cake-1520062.html |title=David Fincher: "Awards are just icing on the cake" |newspaper=The Independent |date=February 1, 2009 |first=James |last=Mottram |access-date=October 11, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141028131323/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/david-fincher-awards-are-just-icing-on-the-cake-1520062.html |archive-date=October 28, 2014 |url-status=live }}
• Died: Edmond Privat, 73, Swiss Esperantist, historian, academic, journalist and peace activist

• Photographs by an American U-2 spy plane over Cuba first revealed the presence there of Soviet SA-2 missiles, for anti-aircraft defense. Offensive, nuclear-armed missiles would not be discovered in Cuba until later flights, precipitating the Cuban Missile Crisis.[http://www.foia.cia.gov/docs/DOC_0001511595/DOC_0001511595.pdf FOIA.CIA.gov] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101105070810/http://www.foia.cia.gov/docs/DOC_0001511595/DOC_0001511595.pdf |date=November 5, 2010 }}; "The Cuban Missile Crisis", by Dino Brugioni, in Events That Shaped the Nation (Richard C. Phalen, ed.) (Pelican Publishing, 2001) p161
• FC Nuremberg defeated Fortuna Düsseldorf, 2–1, in the final of the 1961–62 DFB-Pokal, the postseason tournament of the 16 highest finishing West German clubs.[http://www.fussballdaten.de/dfb/1962/ Fussballdaten.de]

• An American U-2 spyplane, flying from Japan, accidentally drifted over the Soviet Union's Sakhalin Island, the only known incursion after the 1960 U-2 incident. The U.S. State Department formally apologized to the Soviet Union following a protest.{{cite book |first=Glenmore S. |last=Trenear-Harvey |author-link=Glenmore Trenear-Harvey |title=Historical Dictionary of Air Intelligence |publisher=Scarecrow Press |year=2009 |page=188}}
• Born: Alexander Litvinenko, Russian defector who was murdered by polonium-210 radiation poisoning in 2006 after publishing two books critical of the regime of Vladimir Putin; in Voronezh
• Died:
• Al Tomaini, 50, retired American circus performer billed as "The Tallest Man in the World" (verified as being {{Convert|8|ft|4.5|in}} tall in 1931); in Gibsonton, Florida, of complications after the removal of a pituitary gland tumor a few weeks earlier.{{cite news |title=Retired Circus Giant Dies After Surgery |newspaper=Orlando Sentinel |date=September 3, 1962 |page=10}}
• Aaslaug Aasland, 72, Norwegian Social Affairs Minister from 1948 to 1953

• Trinidad and Tobago, consisting of the two southernmost islands of the West Indies, became independent after 165 years as a British colony. As midnight approached in Port of Spain on August 30, the British flag was slowly lowered as the Royal Marine Band played Taps, and after a moment of silence, the new nation's red, white and black flag was quickly run up the flagpole as the National Guard and police bands played the new national anthem, Forged from the Love of Liberty. Eric Williams served as the nation's first Prime Minister, while former governor Solomon Hochoy became Governor-General.{{cite news |title=Trinidad-Tobago Raise Flag Of Free Nation |newspaper=Meriden Journal |location=Meriden, Connecticut |date=August 31, 1962 |page=1}}
• Gemini Project Office outlined plans for checking out the Gemini spacecraft units, Cape Canaveral, including the enlargement of the Hangar S complex at Cape Canaveral, and housing major test stations at the adjacent Hangar AR, an existing facility adjacent to Hangar S. The required facilities were set for completion by March 1, 1963, in time for the checkout of Gemini spacecraft No. 1, scheduled to arrive by the end of April 1963.

{{Reflist}}

{{Events by month links}}

1962

*1962-08