WHERE WERE YOU IN ’62?
Here’s a look at what the world was like in 1962…when the world still had to wait 26 long years for Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader to be invented.
MAJOR EVENTS
•On February 20, astronaut John Glenn is launched into space and becomes the first American to orbit the Earth via the Friendship 7 capsule.
•The Space Needle, the centerpiece of the Seattle World’s Fair, opens on April 21.
•Spider-Man debuts in the August edition of Marvel Comics’ Amazing Fantasy.
•Riots and protests break out at the University of Mississippi in September, as an African American student named James Meredith tries to enroll in classes. President John F. Kennedy sends in federal troops to ensure Meredith’s safety.
•The Cold War nearly ends in a deadly conflict with the 13-day Cuban Missile Crisis, which starts on October 16 after American spy planes discover Soviet missiles in Cuba; the United States blockaded the island nation, leading the Soviet Union to threaten war before ultimately agreeing to remove its missiles.
•In a speech at Rice University on September 12, President Kennedy challenges the nation to send a man to the Moon by the end of the decade.
MOST ADMIRED
John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy are voted the most admired man and woman in a Gallup poll. That’s the first time that respondents named both the American president and the sitting First Lady.
BIGGEST BOX OFFICE HITS
1.Lawrence of Arabia, an epic about British military figure T. E. Lawrence
2.The Longest Day, a war film about D-Day, which starred many of the most popular actors in Hollywood, from John Wayne to Red Buttons to Henry Fonda to Rod Steiger
3.In Search of the Castaways, a Disney high seas adventure starring Hayley Mills and Maurice Chevalier
4.That Touch of Mink, a romantic comedy starring Cary Grant and Doris Day
5.The Music Man, the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical
Lawrence of Arabia wins seven Oscars at the Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for David Lean, and Best Musical Score…but Peter O’Toole loses Best Actor to Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird.
In 67% of U.S. presidential elections, the taller candidate has won.
•January 26: Mob boss Lucky Luciano, 64
•June 1: Adolf Eichmann, 56, Nazi leader and architect of the Holocaust (he is tried and hanged for his crimes)
•July 6: American novelist William Faulkner (The Sound and the Fury), 64
•August 5: Marilyn Monroe, 36
•September 3: Modernist poet E. E. Cummings, 67
•November 7: Eleanor Roosevelt, 78, United Nations ambassador, activist, and former First Lady
MUSIC
According to Billboard, these are the top five hit songs of the year:
1. “Stranger on the Shore” by Acker Bilk (a clarinet-based instrumental)
2. “I Can’t Stop Loving You” by Ray Charles
3. “Mashed Potato Time” by Dee Dee Sharp
4. “Roses Are Red (My Love)” by Bobby Vinton
5. “The Stripper” by David Rose
NOW AVAILABLE IN STORES
•Lemonheads candy, Planters Dry Roasted Peanuts, Kellogg’s Froot Loops, and Diet Dr Pepper (actually called Dietetic Dr Pepper)
•Fisher-Price introduces the Chatter Telephone in 1962, the classic toddler pull toy consisting of a smiling rotary telephone. It will be Fisher-Price’s best-selling toy until 1980.
WHAT THINGS COST
A new home (on average): $12,550
A new refrigerator: $500
A color television: $400
A new car: about $2,900
Gasoline: 27¢ a gallon
An LP record album: $3
A 45 rpm record: $1
A movie ticket: 50¢
Popcorn at the movies: 20¢
A daily newspaper: 10¢
A stamp to mail a letter: 4¢
Eggs: 32¢ a dozen
A loaf of bread: 20¢
Ground beef: 40¢ a pound
Sugar: 89¢ for a 10-pound bag
Bacon: 69¢ a pound
Coffee: 85¢ a pound
A candy bar or pack of gum: 5¢
How are you going to pay for all that? The average American household earns about $6,000 a year. (The minimum wage is $1.25 an hour.)
A good gig if you can get it: “Wealth therapists” help rich people deal with the guilt and isolation that comes from having lots of money.
•The seventh annual FIFA World Cup of soccer takes place in Chile. Brazil wins its third global championship.
•The first Super Bowl and the merger of the American and National Football Leagues are years off, but there are still two end-of-the-year football championships. In the AFL title game, the Dallas Texans defeat the Houston Oilers; in the NFL, the Green Bay Packers prevail over the New York Giants.
•In Major League Baseball, the National League expands for the first time in more than 60 years, going from eight teams to ten with the addition of the New York Mets (following the Giants’ move to San Francisco) and the Houston Colt .45s (later renamed the Astros).
•In basketball, NBA superstar Wilt Chamberlain achieves something not replicated since. On March 2, he scores 100 points in a game. His Philadelphia Warriors defeated the New York Knicks 169–147.
•Boxer Sonny Liston becomes the world heavyweight champion after knocking out Floyd Patterson. Liston gets the job done just two minutes and six seconds into the match, one of the quickest knockouts ever.
•Australian tennis player Rod Laver does what only one other player (Don Budge, 1938) had done to that point: win all four major singles titles—the Australian Open, French Open, U.S. Open, and Wimbledon—in a single calendar year.
•Under the tutelage of coach Punch Imlach, the Toronto Maple Leafs win their first of three straight Stanley Cups. They’d win once more in the ’60s, in 1967… and, as of 2018, they have yet to win one since.
TELEVISION
•ABC becomes the third of the “big three” TV networks to introduce color programming on September 23, when it broadcasts the first episode of The Jetsons. (The futuristic show will be canceled at the end of the 1962–63 season.)
•NBC’s The Tonight Show has been the dominant late-night show since 1954. Steve Allen hosted until 1957, when Jack Paar took over, but the show takes a giant leap toward legendary status on October 1, when comedian and game show host Johnny Carson takes over. The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson will run for 30 years and vanquish all competitors along the way, including Dick Cavett, Merv Griffin, Joey Bishop, Joan Rivers, and Pat Sajak.
•CBS’s fall lineup includes a goofy sitcom about a bunch of yokels who strike oil and use the money to move to Beverly (Hills, that is). The Beverly Hillbillies gets panned by critics…but instantly becomes the #1 show on TV.
All German animal shelters are no-kill shelters.