Video: August 4, 1962 (at 0:54)
(Saturday, August 4, 1962) — On the last night of her life, actress Marilyn Monroe turned down a dinner invitation from Peter and Patricia Lawford and opted instead to stay at home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles. She retired to her bedroom at about 9 p.m.
(Wednesday, August 1, 1962) — U.S. President John F. Kennedy today promised stiffer government controls to avert drug tragedies and urges every woman in the country to guard against take thalidomide, blamed for thousands of malformed births in Europe.
Video: July 23, 1962 (at 5:51)
(Monday, July 23, 1962, during the the Laotian Civil War, part of the Vietnam War/Second Indochina War, part of the Cold War) — Delegates of 14 nations today signed the International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos, formally bringing to a close 14 months of efforts to restore peace to the Asian kingdom.
Video: 'Declassified U.S. Nuclear Test Film #62'
(Sunday, July 8, 1962, 11:00:09 p.m. HAST) — The United States tonight conducted Starfish Prime, a nuclear test in which a 1.44 megaton warhead was detonated 250 miles above the Pacific Ocean. The resulting electromagnetic pulse caused limited electrical disruptions in parts of Hawaii.
Video: 'JULY 05 1962. the end of a world, the oran massacre, the pied noirs forced to leave algeria'
(Thursday, July 5, 1962) — Independence took effect in Algeria today as civilians of European descent, mostly French, came under attack by extremists in the port city of Oran. Reports of the death toll vary from about a hundred to the thousands.
Video: 'Birdman of Alcatraz' trailer
(Tuesday, July 3, 1962) — Birdman of Alcatraz, a fictionalized film version of the life of Robert Stroud, a federal prison inmate known as the “Birdman of Alcatraz” because of his life with birds, opened today in the U.S. Continue reading ‘Birdman of Alcatraz’ opens in the U.S. 50 years ago today (1962)
Video: 'The Wal-Mart Virus'
(Monday, July 2, 1962) — The first Walmart store (called “Wal-Mart Discount City”) was opened today at 719 Walnut Ave. in Rogers, Arkansas, by Sam Walton and his brother, James.
Video: 'Firing Line "Should the House Committee on Un-American Activities Be Abolished?"' (taped Apr. 21, 1966)
(Thursday, June 28, 1962) — A jury in New York awarded $3.5 million to former radio-TV personality John Henry Faulk today in his libel suit against the group AWARE Inc. and two individuals who’d accused him of Communist sympathies and gotten him blacklisted. The judgment was reduced to $550,000 by an appeals court.
Video: '76 Trombones'
(Tuesday, June 19, 1962) — The Music Man, a film about a con man who comes to a Midwestern town with a scam using a boy’s marching band program, opened today in the U.S.
The film was directed by Morton DaCosta and stars Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, Buddy Hackett and Ron Howard. It won one Academy Award and was nominated for five more.
Video: 'PORT HURON STATEMENT DN041312'
(Friday, June 15, 1962) — Students for a Democratic Society, at the conclusion of a five-day convention in Michigan, issued the Port Huron Statement calling for disarmament, enfranchisement of “publicly disinherited groups” and social change.
