The following events occurred inJuly 1962:

• Rwanda andBurundi, the northern and southern portions ofRuanda-Urundi, were both granted independence fromBelgium on the same day.^[1]Grégoire Kayibanda of theHutu tribe was sworn in asPresident of Rwanda atKigali, andMwambutsa IV, who had reigned as the titular leader of theTutsi tribe since 1915, continued asKing of Burundi.
• InMerritt Island, Florida,NASA formed the Launch Operations Center, now known as theKennedy Space Center. Since December 1968, KSC has been NASA's primary launch center of human spaceflight including the launch operations for theApollo,Skylab, andSpace Shuttle programs.^[2]
• The first CanadianMedicare plan was launched inSaskatchewan, resulting in theSaskatchewan doctors' strike.^[3] Thousands of citizens joined the protests against compulsory health care ten days later.^[4]
• Bruce McLaren won the1962 Reims Grand Prix. McClaren of New Zealand, a former rugby player turned race car driver, finished the 250-mile (400 km) course in 2 hours, 2 seconds.^[5]
• Julio Adalberto Rivera Carballo becamePresident of El Salvador. He had been the only candidate inelections on April 30.^[6]
• Relocation of theManned Spacecraft Center (now theJohnson Space Center) fromLangley Field toHouston,Texas, was completed.^[7]
• The Treaty ofNordic Cooperation ofHelsinki, signed on March 23, 1962, came into force.
• Supporters ofAlgerian independence won a 90% majority in areferendum.^[8]
• Born:Andre Braugher, American actor best known for his roles as DetectiveFrank Pembleton inHomicide: Life on the Street and Captain Raymond Holt inBrooklyn Nine-Nine; inChicago, Illinois (d. 2023)^[9]
• Died:Bidhan Chandra Roy, 80, Indian politician andChief Minister of West Bengal since 1948^[10]

• Sam Walton opened the firstWalmart store asWal-Mart Discount City inRogers, Arkansas, United States. By 1970, there would be 38 Walmart stores.^[11] After 50 years, there were more than 9,766 stores in 27 countries, and 11,766 by mid-2019.^[12]
• Off-the-padGemini ejection tests began atNaval Ordnance Test Station and were completed by the first week of August. The tests showed problems which led to two important design changes, adding a drogue-gun method of deploying the parachute and installing a three-point harness-release system similar to those used in military aircraft.^[13]

• France and its President,Charles de Gaulle, recognized the independence of Algeria, with the signing of the declaration at a meeting of the French Cabinet.^[14]
• TheChichester Festival Theatre, Britain's first large modern theatre with a thrust stage, opened.Laurence Olivier was the first artistic director.
• The1962 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships opened in Prague and ran until July 8.^[15]
• Born:
  • Tom Cruise, American film actor known forRisky Business,Jerry Maguire and theMission: Impossible film series; as Thomas Cruise Mapother IV inSyracuse, New York^[16]
  • Thomas Gibson, American TV actor known forCriminal Minds andDharma and Greg;inCharleston, South Carolina^[17]

• TheBurma Socialist Programme Party was established byNe Win's military regime.^[18]

• Houston welcomed theMercury astronauts with its Fourth of July parade, followed by a barbecue at theSam Houston Coliseum featuring a performance by burlesque dancerSally Rand. This event would form the basis of a major set piece inTom Wolfe's 1979 bookThe Right Stuff.^[19][20]
• Born:
  • Pam Shriver, American tennis player, winner of multiple women's doubles championships with Martina Navratilova; inBaltimore
  • Neil Morrissey, English comedian and actor; inStafford,Staffordshire

• The French Assembly voted, 241 to 72 to end the immunity of former Prime MinisterGeorges Bidault against arrest and prosecution, which he had held in April 1961, when he had called for the overthrow of PresidentCharles De Gaulle. The vote cleared the way for a treason indictment of Bidault, who had fled to Italy.^[21]
• AfterAlgeria's independence was recognized byFrance, 20 French Algerians and 75 Algerians were killed in amassacre which took place at Oran, the section of Algiers where most French Algerians lived.^[22]

• Irish broadcasterGay Byrne presented his first edition ofThe Late Late Show.^[23] Byrne would go on to present thetalk show for 37 years, making him the longest-running TV talk show host in history.

• The 320-foot (98 m) deepSedan Crater, measuring 1,280 feet (390 m) in diameter, was created in a split second inNye County, Nevada, with an Americanunderground nuclear test.^[24] The fallout exposed 13 million Americans to radiation; regular monthly tours are now given of the crater, which ceased being radioactive after less than a year.^[25]
• Martin Marietta presented its "piggyback plan" for flight testing the malfunction detection system (MDS) for theGemini launch vehicle. The plan required installing the detection system in engines on six Titan II flights to demonstrate its reliability.^[13]
• Died:
  • Archduke Joseph August of Austria, 89, aFeldmarschall (field marshal) of theAustro-Hungarian Army and for a short periodhead of state ofHungary^[26]
  • Roger Degueldre, 37, former French Army officer who rebelled to form the OAS Delta Commandos, was executed by a firing squad^[27]
  • William Faulkner, 64, American novelist and 1950 Nobel laureate^[28]

• All 94 people aboardAlitalia Flight 771 were killed when the airliner crashed into a hill about 84 kilometres (52 mi) north-east ofMumbai.^[29]
• In Burma, the government of GeneralNe Win forcibly broke up a demonstration atRangoon University, killing 15 students and wounding 27.^[30]
• ASoviet Air Force pilot flying aMikoyan-Gurevich Ye-152 set a new airspeed record of 1,666 miles per hour (2,681 km/h).

• In the most important symbolic gesture of post-war French-German unity, PresidentCharles de Gaulle of France and ChancellorKonrad Adenauer of West Germany, both devout Catholics, attended mass at theReims Cathedral and prayed together. The Cathedral was where the Emperor common to both nations, Carolus Magnus (Charlemagne in France andKarl der Große in Germany)— had been baptized at Reims.^[31]
• The1962 French Grand Prix was held at Rouen-Les-Essarts and won byDan Gurney of the United States.^[32]
• Born:Joan Osborne, American singer-songwriter; inAnchorage, Kentucky

• In theStarfish Prime test, the United States exploded a 1.4 megaton hydrogen bomb in outer space, sending the warhead on a Titan missile to an altitude of 248 miles (399 km) overJohnston Island.^[33] The first two attempts at exploding a nuclear missile above the Earth had failed. The flash was visible in Hawaii, 750 miles (1,210 km) away, and scientists discovered the destructive effects of the first major manmadeelectromagnetic pulse (EMP), as a surge of electrons burned out streetlights, blew fuses, and disrupted communications.^[34][35] Increasing radiation in some places one hundredfold, the EMP damaged at least ten orbiting satellites beyond repair.^[36]
• NASA scientists concluded that the layer of haze reported byastronautsJohn Glenn andScott Carpenter was a phenomenon called "airglow". Using aphotometer on his mission in May, Carpenter was able to measure the layer. Airglow accounts for much of the illumination in the night sky.^[7]
• American artistAndy Warhol first presented hisCampbell's Soup Cans at theFerus Gallery in Los Angeles.^[37]
• Died:Georges Bataille, 64, French philosopher and writer; ofarteriosclerosis^[38]

• AT&T'sTelstar, the world's first commercialcommunications satellite, was launched into orbit fromCape Canaveral at 3:35 a.m. local time, and activated that night.^[39] The first image transmitted between continents was a black-and-white photo of the American flag^[40][41] sent from the U.S. transmitter atAndover, Maine, toPleumeur-Bodou in France.^[42]
• TheAll-Channel Television Receiver Bill was signed into law, requiring that all televisions made in the United States to be able to receive bothVHF signals (channels 2 to 13 on 30 to 300 MHz) andUHF (channels 14 to 83, on frequencies between 470 and 896 MHz). The change encouraged the opening of hundreds of new U.S. television stations.^[43]
• One of the spans in theKings Bridge inMelbourne, Australia, collapsed after a 45-tonne (44-long-ton; 50-short-ton) vehicle passed over it, only 15 months after the multi-lane highway bridge's opening on April 12, 1961. The collapse occurred immediately after the driver of the vehicle had passed over the span, and nobody was hurt.^[44][45]
• Francisco Brochado de Rocha was approved as the newPrime Minister of Brazil by a 215–58 vote of Parliament.^[46]
• Born:Christopher Martin, formerly known as Play, comedian, actor and rapper of the hip-hop duoKid 'n Play; inQueens^[47]
• Died:Tommy Milton, 68, American race car driver and first to win the Indianapolis 500 twice (in 1921 and 1923 despite being blind in one eye),shot himself twice after making his own funeral arrangements.^[48]

• NASA officials decided to proceed withProject Apollo, the crewedlunar exploration program, to usinglunar orbit rendezvous (LOR) as the prime mission mode, rather thandirect ascent orearth orbit rendezvous. The decision enabled immediate planning for the next phase of Americanspace exploration to proceed.^[7]
• The first person to swim across theEnglish Channel underwater, without surfacing, arrived inSandwich Bay, Kent, England, 18 hours after departing fromCalais, France. Fred Baldasare wore scuba gear and was assisted by a guiding ship and the use of oxygen tanks.^[49]
• Born:Pauline McLynn, Irish comedian and TV actress; inSligo,County Sligo^{[citation needed]}
• Died:Owen D. Young, 87, American businessman who foundedRadio Corporation of America (RCA) and co-founded theNational Broadcasting Company (NBC)^[50]

• TheRolling Stones made their debut at London'sMarquee Club, Number 165 Oxford Street, opening for the first time under that name, forLong John Baldry.Mick Jagger,Brian Jones,Keith Richards,Ian Stewart,Dick Taylor andTony Chapman had played together for the groupBlues Incorporated before creating a new name inspired by theMuddy Waters 1950 single "Rollin' Stone".^[51] The day before the concert, an ad in the July 11, 1962, edition ofJazz News, a London weekly jazz paper, had shown the drummer to beMick Avory, who later played forThe Kinks, rather than Chapman. Avory himself, however, would say in an interview that he did not play in the event.^[52]
• The first telephone signals carried by satellite were made by engineers betweenGoonhilly in the UK andAndover, Maine, in the U.S.^[42]
• Representatives of Gemini Project Office (GPO) presented a list of minimum basic maneuvers of the Agena targeting and docking at a conference with the U.S. Air Force Space System Division, Marshall Space Flight Center, and Lockheed on coordination of theAtlas-Agena program for a linkup of vehicles in orbit above the Earth. The parties agreed to begin work immediately after the lastProject Mercury flight.^[13]
• Born:Julio César Chávez, Mexican boxer, WBC champion at three levels (super featherweight, lightweight, light welterweight and welterweight) between 1984 and 1996; inCiudad Obregón
• Died:James T. Blair, Jr., 60, former Governor of Missouri (1957–1961); along with his wife, from accidentalcarbon monoxide poisoning at his home, nearJefferson City, Missouri^[53]

• With his popularity declining, British Prime MinisterHarold Macmillan fired seven senior members of his cabinet, including Chancellor of the ExchequerSelwyn Lloyd, theLord Chancellor, the Ministers of Defence and Education, and the Secretary of State for Scotland. The move was unprecedented in United Kingdom history, and was followed by the firing of nine junior ministers the following Monday.^[54][55][56] Liberal MPJeremy Thorpe would quip, "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his friends for his life."^[57] The British press would dub the event Macmillan's "Night of the Long Knives".^[58]
• International telephone calls, via satellite, were inaugurated byAT&T, as company president Eugene McNeely placed a call to the FrenchMinister of Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones,Jacques Marette. On Telstar's next orbit, McNeely spoke with Sir Ronald German, the BritishGeneral Post Office Director-General.^[59]
• Tests of theMercury pressure suit were conducted with a human subject, who wore a modifiedB-70 (Valkyrie) harness, which appeared to have advantages over the existing Mercury harness.^[7]
• U Thant,Secretary-General of the United Nations, arrived inDublin, and paid tribute to Irish soldiers who fought in theCongo.
• Burmese leaderNe Win left the country for a trip toAustria,Switzerland and theUnited Kingdom, "for a medical check up".^[60]
• Born:Tom Kenny, American voice actor best known as the voice ofSpongeBob in over 300 episodes of the long-running cartoonSpongeBob SquarePants; inSyracuse, New York^[61]

• A 1958 Pakistan law, banning all political parties, was repealed by a National Assembly resolution, amending the Constitution of 1962. The only requirement was that a party could not prejudice Islamic ideology or the stability or integrity of Pakistan, and could not receive any aid from a foreign nation.^[62]
• In the third match of therugby league Test series between Australia and Great Britain, held atSydney Cricket Ground, a controversial last-minute Australian try and the subsequent conversion resulted in an 18–17 win for Australia.^[63]
• TheMiss Universe 1962 beauty pageant took place atMiami Beach, Florida, and was won byNorma Nolan of Argentina.^[64]
• Henry Brooke became the new UKHome Secretary in Harold Macmillan's reshuffled cabinet.

• The Washington Post broke the story ofthalidomide tablets that had been distributed in the United States, in a story byMorton Mintz under the headline "Heroine of FDA Keeps Bad Drug Off Market". As a result of the publicity, more than 2.5 million thalidomide pills, which had been distributed to physicians by the Richardson-Merrell pharmaceutical company pending approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, were recalled. Although thousands of babies were born with defects in Europe, the FDA identified only 17 known cases in the United States.^[65]
• Six animals (two monkeys and four hamsters) died from radiation poisoning, after having been sent into space by NASA a day earlier in the first test of whether astronauts could safely endure prolonged exposure tocosmic rays. The animals had been inside a space capsule that had been kept at an altitude of 131,000 feet (40,000 m) by a balloon.^[66]
• Jacques Anquetil won theTour de France for the third time.^[67]
• Born:Glen Edward Rogers, American serial killer who was suspected of stabbing and strangling an elderly man and four women in five separate states between 1993 and 1995; inHamilton, Ohio^[68]

• French explorerMichel Siffre began along-term experiment ofchronobiology, the perception of the passage of time in the absence of information, staying underground in a cave for two months after entering. While inside, he used a one-way field telephone to signal to researchers when he was going to sleep, when he was getting up, and how much time had passed between events during his waking hours. He was brought back out 60 days later on September 14, 1962. According to his diary, he thought only 35 days had passed and that the date was August 20.^[69][70][71]
• Prime Minister of LiechtensteinAlexander Frick resigns and is succeeded byGerard Batliner.^[72]

• The U.S. Senate voted 52–48 against further consideration of President Kennedy's proposed plan forMedicare, government-subsidized health care for persons drawing social security benefits.^[73] Two liberal U.S. Senators had switched sides, preventing a 50–50 tie that would have been broken in favor of Medicare by Vice-President Johnson. As President, Johnson would sign Medicare into law effective July 30, 1965.^[74]
• MajorRobert M. White (USAF) piloted aNorth American X-15 to a record altitude of 314,750 feet (59.612 mi; 95.94 km),^[75] narrowly missing the 100 kilometer altitudeKármán line that definesouter space, but passing the 50-mile altitude mark that NASA used to define the threshold of space. The record of 67 miles (108 km) would be set byJoseph A. Walker onJuly 19, 1963.^[76]
• TheEritrean Liberation Front staged its first major attack in seeking to separate Eritrea from Ethiopia, by throwing a hand grenade at a reviewing stand that included General Abiy Abebe (Emperor Haile Selassie's representative), Eritrean provincial executive Asfaha Woldemikael, and Hamid Ferej, leader of the Eritrean provincial assembly.^[77]
• Four years after theUSSNautilus had become the first submarine to reach the geographicNorth Pole, the Soviet Union reached the Pole with a sub for the first time, with the submarine K-3 (later renamed theLeninsky Komsomol).^[78]
• The finalatmospheric nuclear test by the United States was made, a test shotLittle Feller I (of a "Small Boy" weapon).^[79]

• Manuel Prado Ugarteche, the 73-year-oldPresident of Peru, was arrested during a coup d'etat after Peruvian Army officers used a Sherman tank to batter down the gates of the presidential palace inLima. Prado was replaced by amilitary junta led by GeneralRicardo Pérez Godoy.^[80] The election results ofJune 10 were annulled.^[81]
• The largest space vehicle, up to that time, began orbiting the Earth, after the United States launched the communications satellite "Big Shot". After going aloft, the silvery balloon was inflated to its full size as a sphere with a diameter of 135 feet (41 m).^[82]
• Unpopular and unable to implement economic reforms,Ali Amini resigned asPrime Minister of Iran. He would be replaced byAsadollah Alam.^[83]
• TheMinnesota Twins became the first Major League Baseball team to hit twogrand slams in the same inning of a game, asBob Allison andHarmon Killebrew drove in eight runs in the first inning of a 14–3 win over theCleveland Indians.^[84] In 50 years, the feat has been accomplished seven more times since then, most recently on September 11, 2015, in the eighth inning of a 14 to 8 win by the Baltimore Orioles over the Kansas City Royals.^[85] On April 23, 1999, both of the St. Louis Cardinals' grand slams in the third inning were made by the same batter,Fernando Tatis.^[86]
• Typhoon Kate, which would kill at least 110 people in Taiwan and in Communist China, formed a short distance from northern Luzon in the Philippines.
• Born:Abu Sabaya, Philippine leader of rebel groupAbu Sayyaf; as Aldam Tilao inIsabela, Basilan (killed, 2002)
• Died:Eugene Houdry, 70, French chemical engineer who developed high octane gasoline and thecatalytic converter

• The first successful intercept of one missile by another took place atKwajalein Island, with a Zeus missile passing within 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) of an incoming Atlas missile, close enough for a nuclear warhead to disable an enemy weapon.^[87]
• Gemini Project Office andNorth American Aviation agreed on guidelines for the design of the advanced paraglider trainer, the system to beused with the Gemini spacecraft. The most important of these guidelines was redundancy for all critical operations.^[13]

• Tou Samouth, Communist leader of the Khmer People's Revolutionary Party inCambodia, disappeared and was presumed to have been murdered. His successor, Saloth Sar, would go on to lead theCommunist Party of Kampuchea asPol Pot, and then exact revenge on former government employees.^[88]
• Executive Order 11307 prohibited unlicensed U.S. citizens (and people under U.S. jurisdiction) from possessing or holding an interest in gold coins from outside the United States, unless the coins were of "exceptional numismatic value".^[89]
• The world's first regular passenger hovercraft service was introduced, as the VA-3 began the 20-mile (32 km) run betweenRhyl (in Wales) andWallasey (in England).^[90]
• France andTunisia reestablisheddiplomatic relations, a year after breaking ties following theBizerte crisis.^[91]
• NASA AdministratorJames E. Webb announced thata new mission control center would be established at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) in Houston. Project Mercury flights were controlled fromthe center at Cape Canaveral, but these facilities were inadequate for the more complex missions envisioned for the Gemini andApollo programs.Philco Corporation was awarded the contract for a design concept for the flight information and control functions of the new center, and theU.S. Army Corps of Engineers would supervise construction of this center as it had all major facilities at MSC. Total cost was estimated at $30 million for the center, to open in 1964 for Geminispace rendezvous flights.^[13]
• Born:
  • Carlos Alazraqui, American voice actor and stand-up comedian; inYonkers, New York
  • Jeong Han Kim, South Korean mathematician; inSeoul

• TheUnited Arab Republic (Egypt) successfully fired four missiles which, PresidentGamal Abdel Nasser said, could strike any target "just south ofBeirut", a reference to neighboringIsrael. Nasser said that theNakid El Kaher (Conqueror) missile had a range of 380 miles (610 km), which could reach all of Israel, as well as cities in Syria and Jordan, and that theEl Zahir (Victory) missile had a range of 222 miles (357 km), including Tel Aviv.^[92] The missiles came as a surprise to Israel's intelligence service, theMossad. In August, Mossad chiefIsser Harel would report to Prime MinisterDavid Ben-Gurion that German scientists were assisting in the development of 900 more missiles capable of carrying chemical and biological weapons and would organizeOperation Damocles to target the scientists on the project.^[93]
• Died:G. M. Trevelyan, 86, British historian

• TheMariner 1 spacecraft flew erratically several minutes after launch from the U.S. and had to be destroyed after less than five minutes, at a cost of $4,000,000 for the satellite and $8,000,000 for the rocket.^[94] The $12 million dollar loss was later traced^[95] to the omission of anoverbar in the handwritten text from which the computer programming for the rocket guidance system was drawn, which should have been written as :${\displaystyle \overline{{\dot{R}}_n}}$ being rendered as :${\displaystyle {\dot{R}}_n}$; thus, there was nosmooth function to prevent over-correction of minor variations of data on rocket velocity.^[96]
• OnCanadian Pacific Flight 301, 27 of the 40 people were killed after the four-engine plane had a failure of one engine shortly after takeoff on departure fromHonolulu. The airliner crashed during an emergency landing, with only 13 survivors.^[97]
• Born:
  • Steve Albini, American musician, audio engineer, and music journalist; inPasadena, California (died from a heart attack, 2024)^[98]
  • Ilyasah Shabazz, third daughter ofMalcolm X andBetty Shabazz; inNew York City^[99]

• While inGeneva,W. Averell Harriman of the U.S. met with North Vietnam's Foreign Minister,Ung Văn Khiêm in an unsuccessful attempt to talk about a similar neutrality agreement in Vietnam. Decades after the end of the Vietnam War, sources in Hanoi would reveal that the North Vietnamese Politburo had approved the pursuit of discussions, but that Khiem had not been informed of the Politburo decision that might have averted a protracted war. American and North Vietnamese diplomats would not meet again for six years.^[100]
• Telstar relayed the first live trans-Atlantictelevision signal, with two 20-minute programs. The first was a set of U.S. TV shows (President Kennedy's news conference, 90 seconds of the Phillies-Cubs baseball game, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir) to Eurovision (2:00 p.m. New York, 8:00 p.m. London). At 4:58 p.m., New York Time, live transmission of European broadcasting was shown on all three American networks, beginning with a live picture of the clock at London'sBig Ben approaching 11:00 p.m.^[59][101]
• A railway crash killed 36 people and injured 100, when a train betweenParis andMarseilles derailed while crossing a viaduct nearDijon. Most of the dead were vacationers traveling to theFrench Riviera, and had been on a passenger car that plunged into a ravine.^[102]
• TheInternational Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos was signed inGeneva.^[103] Under the agreement, all foreign military personnel were to withdraw within 75 days; the last Americans, advisers to the U.S. Special Forces, would leave by October 6.^[104]
• In the first press conference broadcast by satellite, U.S.President Kennedy blamed the Soviet Union for the resumption of nuclear testing and the inflexibility about theBerlin crisis.^[105]
• The Saskatoon agreement brought an end to theSaskatchewan doctors' strike.^[106]
• Born:Eriq La Salle, African-American TV actor; inHartford,Connecticut
• Died:
  • Henry Dworshak, 67, U.S. Senator from Idaho since 1949. Dworshak was the fourth conservative Republican U.S. Senator to die in less than a year.^[107]
  • Victor Moore, 86, American stage and film actor best known forIt Happened on 5th Avenue

• InGeneva, after the ending of theconference about Laos, five Ministers for Foreign Affairs (the AmericanDean Rusk, the EnglishLord Home, the CanadianHoward Charles Green, the SovietAndrej Gromyko and the IndianKrishna Menon) had a new meeting about thedisarmament and the Berlin crisis. Notwithstanding the cordial atmosphere, no progress was obtained about the two questions.^[108]
• The first successful implantation of abiological heart valve was performed by Dr.Donald Nixon Ross in London, with a subcoronary implantation of an aortic allograft.^[109]
• The government of Italy's Prime MinisterAmintore Fanfani enacted a law providing for free textbooks for primary school students.^[110]
• Died:
  • Margaret Buckley, 83, Irish Republican leader who served asPresident of Sinn Féin, Ireland's ruling political party, from 1937 to 1950
  • Victor Bourgeois, 64, Belgian modernist architect

• Three weeks afterAlgeria became independent, civil war broke out within theFLN between theProvisional Government of the Algerian Republic (GPRA) ofAhmed Ben Bella and theOujda group ofBoumédiène. Ben Bella's troops occupiedBona andConstantine, with bloodshed, while the GPRA held control only of theAlgiers region.^[111]
• "Aid to Families with Dependent Children" (AFDC) was created with the passage of the Public Welfare Amendments of 1962 to the U.S. Social Security Act, increasing the number of people receiving federal public assistance.^[112]
• Buckingham Palace, residence of the Queen of the United Kingdom, was opened to the public for the first time with the dedication of theQueen's Gallery, an art museum.^[113]
• "Skyphone" service, permitting airline passengers to make telephone calls while in flight, was inaugurated. The first call was made from American Airlines Flight 941 en route from New York to Cincinnati, from stewardess Hope Patterson to theAssociated Press.^[114]
• The U.S. had another failure in itsOperation Dominic series of nuclear tests, when a Thor missile exploded on the launch pad atJohnston Island. Although the 100-kiloton warhead was destroyed without a nuclear blast, the area was contaminated with plutonium, ending plans to routinely launch nuclear-powered space probes.^[115]
• TheUnited States Army formed its first armed helicopter unit, usingUH-1 Hueys.
• Born:Doug Drabek, AmericanMajor League Baseball pitcher from 1986 to 1998, and 1990Cy Young Award winner; inVictoria, Texas
• Died:
  • Thibaudeau Rinfret, 83,Chief Justice of Canada from 1944 to 1954
  • Nelle Wilson Reagan, 79, mother of future U.S. PresidentRonald Reagan
  • Christie MacDonald, 87, Canadian-American actress and singer

• The first nuclear missiles shipped toCuba by the Soviet Union were unloaded in at the port ofMariel. Their discovery would precipitate theCuban Missile Crisis.^[116]
• The first birth defects in the United States from the drugthalidomide were detected. The unborn child's mother asked theSupreme Court of Arizona State for an order permitting her to abort her fifth pregnancy. In previous months, she had used the controversial medication, which was banned in the U.S., but had been bought by her husband in London. Her request was rejected.^[117]
• To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the founding of the republic in Egypt, President Nasser declared an end to tuition in the nation's universities.^[118]
• The French Chef, starringJulia Child, appeared on television for the first time, as a program on the Boston public television stationWGBH.^[119]
• The first phone call by satellite between Italy and the United States took place. Osvaldo Cagnasso, the mayor ofAlba in Piedmont, called his counterpart, Mayor John Snider inMedford, Oregon. The mayors of the twinned cities exchanged their greetings, in the call relayed byTelstar 1, for 12 minutes. In the hours that followed, the satellite broadcast another 11 calls from one side of the Atlantic to the other.^[120]
• In Algeria, during the split within the GPRA,Belkacem Krim andBoudiaf got theKabylie to organize the resistance to Ben Bella's army.Benkhedda remained in Algiers to cooperate with the opposing faction.^[121]
• Born:
  • Galina Chistyakova, retired Russian athlete who currently holds the world record in thelong jump, jumping 7.52 metres on June 11, 1988; inIzmail,Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union^[122]
  • Sergey Kiriyenko,Prime Minister of Russia from March to August 1998; inSukhumi,Georgian SSR, Soviet Union
• Died:
  • Matt Cvetic, 53, American government employee who infiltrated the U.S. Communist Party, then wrote about it inI Was a Communist for the FBI, died of a heart attack^[123]
  • Raquel Meller, 74, Spanish singer and actress

• Inventor David P. Wagner applied for the patent for the firstpharmaceutical packaging designed forcompliance with dosage directions, to simplify use of birth control pills on a specific date. Wagner would receive royalties fromG.D. Searle & Company and fromOrtho Pharmaceutical, who would use the design for their contraceptives.^[124]
• Jess Oliver (Oliver Jsesperson) applied for the patent for theAmpeg B-15 Portaflex portable bass amplifier, which would become the most popular bass amplifier in the world for bands. The patent would be granted on May 11, 1965.^[125]
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began its project to acquire and restore properties in the small town ofNauvoo, Illinois, where the Mormons had been centered from 1839 to 1844. Within a year, Nauvoo Restoration, Inc., had acquired 30 of the 35 buildings still standing in Nauvoo.^[126]
• Atlas launch vehicle No. 113-D was inspected atConvair and accepted for theMercury 8 orbital mission, scheduled for September 1962 for astronautWally Schirra.^[7]
• Born:Mariela Castro Espin, Cuban sexologist, niece ofFidel Castro; inHavana
• Died:Richard Aldington, 70, English poet and author

• A 103–26 vote of delegates to theGerman Football Association (DFB) convention atDortmund created theBundesliga, the national league of West Germany's top professional soccer football teams.^[127] TheBundesliga would begin its first season on August 24, 1963, with 16 teams out of 46 applicants.^[128]
• South Korea's PresidentPark Chung Hee issued the memorandum "The Establishment of a Social Security System" and set about to forcibly implement programs for assistance for the elderly, disabled and unemployed in what was, at that time, a poor nation.^[129]
• The USSR launchedKosmos 7, the first successful Soviet mission to conduct surveillance photography of the entire United States.^[130]
• A railway crash killed 19 people and injured 116 atSteelton, Pennsylvania. The nine-car Pennsylvania Railroad train was carrying baseball fans to the Pirates-Phillies baseball game at Philadelphia, when the last five cars went off track, and three fell down a 40-foot (12 m) embankment.^[131]
• Race riots broke out inDudley,West Midlands, in the UK.^[132]
• Born:Jason Sherman, Canadian playwright and screenwriter; inMontreal

• Sir Oswald Mosley, who had founded theBritish Union of Fascists and been a vocal Nazi sympathizer prior to Germany's attack on Britain inWorld War II, was beaten by an angry crowd inManchester, after leading members of his extreme right-wingUnion Movement on a march through the city.^[133]
• A few weeks afterAlgeria had attained its independence, 2,000 rebel guerrillas under the command of Colonel Si Hassan seized control ofAlgiers.^[134]
• In the final of the1962 Speedway World Team Cup at Slaný in Czechoslovakia, the five-membermotorcycle speedway team of Sweden finished in first place with 36 points, followed by Great Britain (24), Poland (20) and Czechoslovakia (16). Sweden'sBjörn Knutson andSoren Sjösten were the best of the riders, each with 10 points.
• Born:Scott Steiner, American college and professional wrestler; as Scott Rechsteiner inBay City, Michigan
• Died: SirRonald Fisher, 72, English biologist

• TheTrans-Canada Highway was opened at a ceremony to mark the completion of the 92-mile (148 km) longRogers Pass Highway through the Canadian Rockies, for the final link of the nearly 5,000-mile (8,000 km) system betweenSt. John's, Newfoundland, andVictoria, British Columbia. B.C. PremierW. A. C. Bennett snipped a ribbon nearRevelstoke.^[135]
• Marilyn Monroe made a final telephone call to theU.S. Justice Department, six days before her death. Monroe had been a regular caller toU.S. Attorney GeneralRobert F. Kennedy, and historians speculate that he told her during the eight-minute phone call that they could no longer see each other. Monroe's phone records would be confiscated by the FBI, but Kennedy's phone logs would be donated to theNational Archives after his death.^[136]
• U.S. President Kennedy agreed to halt reconnaissance flights over Soviet ships in the Caribbean Sea, after USSR Premier Khrushchev proposed the idea "for the sake of better relations"; in the two months that followed, the ships delivered missiles to Cuba.^[137]
• On the same day, President Kennedy began tape-recording conversations in the White House.^[138]
• Born:Alton Brown, American chef and host of the Food Network showGood Eats; inLos Angeles
• Died:Helge Krog, 73, Norwegian journalist

• The professional football career ofErnie Davis, who had been the #1 choice in the1962 NFL draft, ended three days before he was to begin play for theCleveland Browns in the preseason College All-Star Game in Chicago. Davis had checked into the Memorial Hospital in the suburb ofEvanston, Illinois, on suspicion that he had themumps, and then withmononucleosis.^[139] The next day, it was announced that he had a "blood disorder", and in October, it would be revealed that he hadleukemia,^[140] the disease that would claim his life the following May 18.^[141]
• Alarge annular solar eclipse covered 97% of the Sun, creating a dramatic spectacle for observers in a path up to 102.5 kilometres (63.7 mi) wide across South America's Caribbean coast and across Southern Africa. The eclipse lasted 3 minutes and 32.66 seconds at the point of maximum eclipse.
• TheVietnam Era began for Australia, with the arrival of ColonelTed Serong, followed by 30 advisers later in the week. Over ten years, ending onDecember 2, 1972, there would be 521 Australians killed in the war.^[142]
• A symposium outlining a future U.S.space station was held atLangley Research Center in Virginia.^[143]
• Born:
  • Luis Castiglioni,Vice President of Paraguay from 2003 to 2007;Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2018 to 2019; inItacurubí del Rosario
  • Wesley Snipes, American film actor; inOrlando, Florida
• Died:
  • Clarence E. Willard, 79, American circus performer who could alter his height from 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) to 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) through muscle manipulation.^[144]
  • Niels Miller, 63, American inventor and founder of theMiller Electric manufacturer ofarc welding equipment
  • George Pepperdine, 76, American philanthropist and founder (in 1937) ofPepperdine University

• July 1962
• July by year
• Months in the 1960s

• Source attribution
• CS1 German-language sources (de)
• CS1 Italian-language sources (it)
• CS1 errors: missing title
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from November 2023