This was the classic era that was later to be celebrated by "Happy Days" and "American Graffiti". The girls still wore skirts and the guys dressed preppy. Vietnam was still called Indochina and Castro was seen as the major threat. Doing drugs was the thing that inner-city kids did; middle-class kids drank 3.2 beer. Rock was still in the hands of Elvis, Neil Sedaka and the groups with the Philadelphia sound.

The USSR installed ballistic missiles on Cuba, just 90 miles away from the coast of Florida and John Kennedy was forced to counter that move by threatening war unless they were removed. For a short time the world seemed to be on the brink of nuclear war and both US and Soviet forces were put on alert. Khrushchev agreed to remove the Soviet missiles, but he backed Kennedy into the corner of having to withdraw US missiles from Turkey.

In a famous speech responding to the Sputnik embarrassment, the President set a goal of landing a man on the moon before the end of the decade, Later, he more ruefully directed that the US become deeply entangled in the geo-politics of Southeast Asia by training South Vietnamese pilots and providing military advisors.

Folk music had been very popular with the collegiate crowd featuring groups like The Kingston Trio, The Limelighters and Peter, Paul and Mary, but it was now morphing into contemporary protest music thanks to young artists like Bob Dylan. In a much less political genre, the birth of surfing music, exemplified by the Beach Boys, quickly garnered and still retains many loyal fans. Protest is one thing, but living the good life on a beach is altogether alluring, especially when that vision is coupled with complex harmonies and enduring rhythms. All the while Chubby Checker and the Twist were converting many new fans to that short-lived popular music fad.

The new hit on TV that year was "The Beverly Hillbillies" and westerns were still very big on the small screen. The first of the James Bond movies, "Dr No", was an instant success, as had been Ian Fleming's popular novels. Some of the other movies to make a mark in '62 included "Lawrence of Arabia" "The Music Man " and "To Kill a Mockingbird ".

By 1962, the foreign sports cars, the Volkswagens, and the other imported cars had made inroads into the American scene. Many of the compacts were selling well in the US. The transistor was revolutionizing electronics and the Japanese were becoming ascendant in radios. Many records were pressed in one-song-per-side "45 rpm" disks and humor albums on "33 rpm" disks were commonly played at parties. Color TV was just beginning to get going and every drug store had a "tube tester" for home repairs of TVs and stereos.

Cost of Living 1962 How much things cost in 1962? Yearly inflation rate USA: 1.20% Year-End-Close Dow Jones Industrial Average: 652 Average cost of new house: $12,500.00 Average Income per year: $5,556.00 Average monthly rent $110.00 per month Tuition at Harvard University: $1,520.00 Tuition at University of Colorado: $340 (in-state) 4WD International Harvester Scout: $2,150.00 Renault, a French economy car: $1,395.00 Average cost of a new car: $3,125.00 Eggs per dozen: 32 cents Gas per gallon: 28 cents Factory workers average take home pay: $94.87/Wk. Federal Debt totaled: $302 B

Sports Trivia

World Series Champions:	New York Yankees
NFL Champions:	Green Bay Packers
AFL Champions:	Dallas Texans
NBA Champions:	Boston Celtics
Stanley Cup Champs:	Toronto Maple Leafs
U.S. Open Golf	Jack Nicklaus
U.S. Tennis: (Men/Ladies)	Rod Laver/Margaret Smith
Wimbledon (Men/Women):	Rod Laver/Karen Susman
NCAA Football Champions:	USC (Fight on for ol' SC !)
NCAA Basketball Champs:	Cincinnati
Kentucky Derby:	Decidedly

 

News Events of 1962

• The Cuban Missile Crisis erupted when the US detected that the USSR had started to deploy missiles in Cuba. The ensuing actions by the US and the Soviets seemed to bring the world to the brink of a nuclear war. The US blockaded Cuba to prevent more missiles being delivered. Both countries began mobilization and put their forces on alert. Then the USSR agreed to dismantle Soviet silos and ship the missiles back to Russia.
  The crisis began On October 15th ended on November 20th
  Although no formal announcement was ever made by the United States, following the Soviet dismantling of missiles in Cuba, the United States did withdraw all nuclear missiles from Turkey by April 24th 1963. Because the Soviet Union and the United States came that close to all out war, a hot line was established between Moscow and Washington, D. C.
  

• Marilyn Monroe was found dead on August 5th after ostensibly overdosing on sleeping pills, with the concomitant conspiracy theories still roiling.
  

• Rioting on University of Mississippi campus followed Black student James Meredith attempting to enroll, ended when federal troops and U.S. marshals take control.
  

• The first Wal-Mart discount store was opened by by Sam Walton in Bentonville Arkansas
  

• The first US rocket, Ranger IV, landed on the moon on April 26th
  

• The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies
  

• East German border guards shot attempted-escapee Peter Fechter and left him to die on the Berlin Wall
  

• The first K-Mart department store opened in Garden City, Michigan
  

• An Air France Boeing 707 crashed during a take-off at Orly Airport in Paris
  

• John H. Glenn, Jr., became first American to orbit the earth during the Friendship 7 mission.
  

• An oral polio vaccine, developed by Albert Sabin, was given to millions of children to combat polio
  

• Algeria gained independence from France
  

• Jamaica gained independence from Great Britain

• Niels Bohr, William Faulkner, Ernie Kovacs and Eleanor Roosevelt all died

• First color TV series had its debut: The Jetsons
  

Popular Culture

• Andy Warhol issued his famous painting of a can of soup

• Beverly Hillbillies began a long run on TV

• Family comedy shows were very popular on the networks

• Johnny Carson began as host on The Tonight , replacing Jack Parr

 

Top 10 Highest Grossing Movies

1.	Lawrence of Arabia	Columbia	Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif and Alec Guinness
2.	The Longest Day	20th Century Fox	John Wayne, Henry Fonda & host of others
3.	In Search of the Castaways	Disney Productions	Hayley Mills and Maurice Chevalier
4.	What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?	Warner Bros.	Bette Davis and Joan Crawford
5.	The Music Man	Warner Bros.	Robert Preston and Shirley Jones
6.	Dr. No	United Artists	Sean Connery and Ursula Andress
7.	That Touch of Mink	Universal	Cary Grant and Doris Day
8.	Mutiny on the Bounty	MGM	Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard
9.	To Kill a Mockingbird	Universal	Gregory Peck
10.	Gypsy	Warner Bros.	Rosalind Russell and Natalie Wood
10.	The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance	Paramount	John Wayne and James Stewart

Top 10 TV Shows

1	Bonanza	NBC
2	Wagon Train	NBC
3	Gunsmoke	CBS
4	Hazel	NBC
5	Perry Mason	CBS
6	The Red Skelton Show	CBS
7	The Andy Griffith Show	CBS
8	The Danny Thomas Show	CBS
9	Dr. Kildare	NBC
10	Candid Camera	CBS

Popular Singers

• Chubby Checker

• Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons

• Neil Sedaka

• Roy Orbison

• Bob Dylan

 

Technology 1962

• Telstar relayed the first live trans-Atlantic television signal
• US Air Force investigated using lasers to intercept missiles
• 90% of US households owned a television set
• Britain and France agreed to develop the Concorde
• Silicone breast implants were first used by Houston plastic surgeons
• 12 European countries formed European Space Agency
• A communication satellite was launched, the USA Telstar
• First planetary probe was sent to Venus, USA Mariner 2
• LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) were introduce to be used for displays
  

 

Major World Political Leaders

Australia Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies

Brazil President João Goulart

Canada Prime Minister John Diefenbaker

China Chairman of the People's Republic Liu Shaoqi

France President Charles de Gaulle

Germany Chancellor Konrad Adenauer

India Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru

Italy Prime Minister Amintore Fanfani

Japan Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda

Mexico President Adolfo López Mateos

Russia / Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev

South Africa Prime Minister Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd

United States President John F. Kennedy

United Kingdom Prime Minister Harold Macmillan