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.
Video: 'Lolita' profiled (at 7:05)
(Wednesday, June 13, 1962) — Lolita, a comedy-drama film about a middle-aged man who becomes obsessed with a teenage girl, opened tonight at the Loew’s State and the Murray Hill theaters in New York City.
Directed by Stanley Kubrick, the film stars James Mason, Shelley Winters, Sue Lyon and Peter Sellers.
Video: 'President John F. Kennedy's Commencement Address at Yale University, June 11, 1962'
(Monday, June 11, 1962) — President John F. Kennedy urged today that his economic critics get in step with the times and said the government must be a partner with all sectors of society if America is to propser. Continue reading JFK calls for cooperation of business in Yale speech 50 years ago today (1962)
Video: Monroe fired June 8, 1962 (at 12:14)
(Friday, June 8, 1962) — 20th Century Fox fired actress Marilyn Monroe today from its production Something’s Got to Give, saying she was unreliable having only reported for work on twelve occasions out of a total of 35 days of production. Fox later changed its mind, but Monroe died before filming could resume, and the movie was abandoned.
Video: 'Moon River'
(Tuesday, May 29, 1962) — Composer Henry Mancini walked away with five awards tonight, all from his score for the movie Breakfast At Tiffany’s, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year for Moon River, at the 4th Grammy Awards held in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. Judy Garland won Album of the Year (other than classical) for Judy at Carnegie Hall and Best New Artist went to Peter Nero.
Video: May 24, 1962 (at 20:50)
(Thursday, May 24, 1962, 12:41:21 p.m. EDT) — Astronaut Malcolm Scott Carpentered orbited the world three times today in his Aurora 7 spacecraft, but overshot the planned landing area in the Atlantic Ocean by 200 miles. Splashing down to earth at 12:41 p.m. EDT, Carpenter was sighted in a life raft outside his floating Mercury space capsule shortly after 1:20 p.m. EDT.
Video: 'The Miracle Worker' trailer
(Wednesday, May 23, 1962) — The Miracle Worker, a biographical film about the determined teacher who helped Helen Keller overcome deafness and blindness to learn to communicate, opened today at the Astor and the Trans-Lux Fifty-second Street theaters in New York.
Directed by Arthur Penn, the film stars Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft, both of whom would win acting Oscars for reprising their Broadway roles as Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan.
(Wednesday, May 22, 2002) — A jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicted former Ku Klux Klansman Bobby Frank Cherry of murder today in a 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls: Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Denise McNair.
Video: McNamara in Vietnam May 9-11, 1962 (at 3:30)
(Friday, May 11, 1962, during the Vietnam War, part of the the Indochina Wars and the Cold War) — Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara wound up a 48-hour tour of South Vietnam today, and said he was encouraged, by what he had seen.
