The Dayton Hudson Corporation opened the first of its Target discount stores. The store (now a "SuperTarget") is located at 1515 West County Road B, in the St. Paul suburb of Roseville, Minnesota.[1]
Norwich City F.C. won the English Football League Cup, beating Rochdale F.C. 1 to 0 in the second leg of the two-game final after having defeated them 3 to 0 at Rochdale on April 26, for an aggregate score of 4 to 0.
Died: Sir Sydney Cockerell, 94, English curator and art collector
An OAS car bomb exploded at the docks of Algiers, killing 96 people. The deaths of 14 other people and the injury of 147 overall made the occasion "the bloodiest single day in the modern history of Algeria's capital".[2]
The value of the Canadian dollar was put at a fixed exchange rate at 92.5 United States cents (USD 0.925) after having had a fluctuating value since September 30, 1950. The Canadian Exchange Fund would purchase U.S. dollars in order to keep the Canadian dollar from going more than one percent above 92+1⁄2¢ American, until May 30, 1970.[3][4]
Died:Clairvius Narcisse, 40, Haitian peasant who would attain media attention from 1980 onward as being the identity of a zombie after her death.[5][6]
A railway crash involving three separate trains killed 160 people in Japan near the Mikawashima Station at Arkawawa, a ward of Tokyo. Engineer Norifumi Minakami drove a freight train through a red signal and sideswiped a commuter train. As surviving passengers climbed out of that train, a third train ran through them, then plunged over an embankment.[7]
Dr. Masaki Watanabe of Japan performed the very first arthroscopic surgery to repair a meniscus tear, a common injury for athletes. The first patient to receive the procedure was a 17-year-old basketball player, who was returned to playing six weeks after the meniscectomy and resection of his right knee by Dr. Watanabe.[8]
U.S. Ambassador to Canada Livingston Merchant, in his final month as envoy, made a final visit to Prime Minister John Diefenbaker in Ottawa. At the meeting Diefenbaker angrily brought out an American memorandum that had been left behind during President Kennedy's visit in May 1961.[9] The President's handwritten notes in the margin included the letters "OAS" (the Organization of American States), "but Diefenbaker read Kennedy's handwriting as 'SOB',"[10] and threatened to use the memo (and the suggestion that Kennedy thought that Diefenbaker was a "son of a bitch") in the upcoming June 18 elections. After conferring with his superiors, the ambassador later told Diefenbaker that he was personally reluctant to report "anything which could be construed as a threat" and that publication of the memo would "make difficult future relations". The memo was never used, but Kennedy and Diefenbaker never trusted each other again.
Seattle businessman Stanley McDonald inaugurated a cruise ship service that would eventually become Princess Cruises, starting with the departure of the Canadian steamer SS Yarmouth from San Francisco for the first of 17 ten-day cruises to the 1962 Seattle World's Fair and back.[12][13] After a successful six-month lease of the Yarmouth, McDonald would spend more than three years in making plans for the Princess Cruise line (which would be made famous by The Love Boat television series) on a regular series of winter tours from Los Angeles to Acapulco, starting at the end of 1965.[14] "Yarmouth Cruises, Inc."
The first nuclear explosion to be caused by an American ballistic missile, rather than by a bomb dropped from an aircraft or at a fixed site, was accomplished at Christmas Island, 1,200 miles (1,900 km) from its launch site. Previous ICBM tests had been done without a nuclear warhead. The USS Ethan Allen fired the armed Polaris A-2 missile, from underwater, to its target.[17][18]
Martin de Porres (1579-1639) of Peru was canonized as the first mixed-race Roman Catholic saint, 125 years after his beatification. The son of a Spanish nobleman father and a freed slave mother of African and Indian descent, Porres was designated as the patron saint of mixed-race individuals, barbers, innkeepers, and public health workers.[20]
The National Bowling League rolled its last game, with the Detroit Thunderbirds defeating the Twin Cities Skippers, 27-15, to sweep the best 3-of-five "World Series of Bowling" for the first, and only, NBL championship.[21][22][23]
Died:Thomas Gilcrease, 72, American philanthropist and collector of indigenous artifacts of the Americas
Three officials of the Central Intelligence Agency met with U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and implored him to stop investigation of Mafia crime boss Sam Giancana. For the first time, the CIA revealed that it had offered $150,000 to several organized criminals to carry out a "hit" against Cuba's Prime Minister, Fidel Castro.[24] The secret meeting would become public in 1975, with the release of the Rockefeller Commission's report on an investigation of the CIA.[25]
Detroit became the first city in the United States to use traffic cameras and electronic signs to regulate the flow of traffic. The pilot program began with 14 television cameras along a 3.2-mile stretch of the John C. Lodge Freeway, between the Davison Expressway and Interstate 94.[26]
The six-member township council of Centralia, Pennsylvania, voted in favor of improving the new landfill at the edge of town, in time for Memorial Day ceremonies. Every year, the contents of the city dump would be set afire, despite a state law prohibiting the practice, and the May 27 burning would prove to be the end of Centralia.[27]
J. Paul Austin became the new President of The Coca-Cola Company. During his 19-year tenure, Coca-Cola's annual worldwide sales would grow ten-fold, from $567 million to $5.9 billion.[30]
Brian Epstein visited the HMV (EMI) store at 363 Oxford Street, London, to have The Beatles' Decca audition tape transferred to 78 rpm acetates.
The lunar crater Albategnius became the first area of the moon to be illuminated by a laser beam from Earth. Scientists Louis Smullin and Giorgio Fiocco of MIT aimed the beam and then observed it.[34]
The Japanese monster film Mothra opened in the United States, after having premiered in Japan on July 30, 1961.[36]
Pravda, the official newspaper for the Soviet Communist Party, printed the official response to pleas to prevent the continued tearing down of Moscow's monasteries and churches. The plea had been in an editorial in the magazine Moskva about the urban renewal decisions of the Architectural Planning Administration. The editorials were unsigned, but apparently approved by First Secretary Khrushchev. The day before, three of the journalists from Moskva were informed that the article was anti-Soviet.[37]
Born:John Ngugi, Kenyan athlete and 1988 Olympic gold medalist in the 5000 metre; race in Kigumo, Muranga District
In accepting the Sylvanus Thayer Award, retired General Douglas MacArthur delivered his memorable "Duty, Honor, Country" speech to West Point cadets. The 82-year-old MacArthur delivered the 30-minute address from memory and without notes, and a recording of the remarks would be released as a record album later.[39]
The Philippines continued to distance itself from its past as an American protectorate, changing its name on postage and coinage to Pilipinas.[40]
Archie Moore gave up his world light heavyweight boxing title to move up to heavyweight. His successor was Harold Johnson.
Nine men, on a fishing trip, died in shark-infested waters after their boat sank off the coast of Newport Beach, California. Chester McMain of Norwalk was taking the Happy Jack on its first voyage when it ran into rough weather. Though they were wearing life jackets, the sharks apparently pulled them underwater. Searchers on the fishing boat Mardic located six bodies the next day, with sharks swimming around the group.[41][42]
The last execution of an American for armed robbery, without homicide, took place in Huntsville, Texas as an African-American man, 20-year-old Herbert Lemuel Bradley of Dallas was put to death in the electric chair. Bradley, who had shot an elderly grocer six times in the robbery, told reporters before he died, "I have no complaints. A man has to die sometime, but I don't think this has been fair," noting that he shared the prison with convicts serving terms of 5 to 25 years for armed robbery.[47][48] The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had upheld the death sentence on February 28, noting that the victim was still in the hospital more than a year after being shot four times in the stomach during a gunfight.[49]
Died:Michael Dillon, 47, English physician born as Laura Dillon, who became (in 1946) the first person to undergo female-to-male transsexual phalloplasty
Thalidomide was withdrawn from sale in Japan, bringing an end to the worldwide distribution of the morning sickness drug that had caused birth defects. Dainippon Pharmaceutical halted further shipments; about 1,200 "thalidomide babies" were born in Japan.[51]
African-American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a proposed "Second Emancipation Proclamation" to U.S. President Kennedy along with a proposal that Kennedy sign an executive order with the proposed title "On Behalf of the Negro Citizenry of the United States of America in commemoration of the Centennial of the Proclamation of Emancipation". Kennedy declined to act on the request "and noticeably avoided all centennial celebrations" of the original Emancipation Proclamation (which had been signed by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln on September 22, 1862).[52]
British soldiers erected a barbed wire barricade along Hong Kong's 12-mile (19 km) border with the People's Republic of China. The purpose was to block refugees from fleeing China into Hong Kong. At the time, as many as 4,000 people were attempting to flee Communist China into the British colony.[53] The next day, British administrators imposed penalties on any Hong Kong resident attempting to assist a refugee's escape.[54]
The Panchen Lama, leader of the Tibetan people since the nation's conquest by Communist China, presented a 70,000-word petition to visiting Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, pleading for relief for the suffering of Tibetans under Communist rule. Repression of Tibetan Buddhists eased to some extent after the Panchen Lama's bold move.[55]
Al Oerter became the first person to throw the discus more than 200 feet (61 m), setting a mark of 61.10 m (200'5") at Los Angeles.[56]
Marilyn Monroe made her last significant public appearance, singing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" at a birthday party for President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden. The event was part of a fundraiser to pay off the Democratic Party's four million-dollar debt remaining from Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign.[57] Monroe was stitched into a $12,000 dress "made of nothing but beads" and wore nothing underneath as she appeared at the request of Peter Lawford; President Kennedy thanked her afterward, joking, "I can now retire from politics after having had 'Happy Birthday' sung to me in such a sweet, wholesome way."[58]
The first specifically built coronary care unit in the world opened at the Bethany Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, under the planning of cardiologist Dr. Hughes Day. Other CCUs followed in Toronto, Sydney, New York and Philadelphia, and by 1970, most major hospitals had units designed to treat heart attacks.[59]
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev accepted the recommendation from his Defense Council to place nuclear missiles in Cuba, an act which would lead to the Cuban Missile Crisis and the threat of a nuclear war between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. in October.[60]
Egypt's President Gamel Abdel Nasser unveiled his "National Charter of the Arab Socialist Union", proclaiming that the "Arab Revolution" would win its "battle of destiny" by "enlightened thought", "free movement" and "clear perception" of the revolution's objectives.[61]
In Baltimore, federal district judge Roszel C. Thomsen dismissed the antitrust lawsuit by the American Football League against the National Football League. The suit arose from the NFL's action of placing franchises in Dallas and Minneapolis after the AFL had been founded with teams there.[62]
All 45 people on board Continental Airlines Flight 11 were killed when the Boeing 707 was destroyed by dynamite while at an altitude of 39,000 feet (12,000 m).[63] The airliner was flying from Chicago to Kansas City when the explosion occurred in the rear lavatory while the jet was over Centerville, Iowa near the border between the U.S. states of Iowa and Missouri. The fuselage came down 19 miles (31 km) from Centerville on a farm near Unionville, Missouri.[64] Contact was lost at 9:15 pm and the plane had disappeared from radar at 9:40 after leaving behind a 60-mile (97 km) line of debris, including a briefcase with the initials "T.G.D."; Thomas G. Doty, one of the passengers, had been on his way to Kansas City to face criminal charges for armed robbery. He had taken out a $300,000 life insurance policy payable to his wife and had bought sticks of dynamite at a hardware store before carrying out the murder-suicide.[65][66]
Brian Pillman, American football player and professional Wrestler who worked for WCW and the WWF (now WWE) (died from heart disease 1997)
John Sarbanes, American politician and U.S. Representative for Maryland’s 3rd district since 2007, son of longtime Congressman and Senator Paul Sarbanes; in Baltimore[68]
Former French Army General Raoul Salan, founder of the French terrorist Organisation armée secrète, was sentenced to life imprisonment for treason, after initially being given a death sentence in absentia. General Salan would be pardoned by President Charles de Gaulle on June 15, 1968, after more than six years' incarceration at the prison in Tulle.[69]
The first successful reattachment (replantation) of a severed limb was accomplished by Dr. Ronald A. Malt at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Everett Knowles, a 12-year-old boy, had had his right arm severed at the shoulder by a freight train. A year after the limb was saved, Everett could move all five fingers and bend his wrist, and by 1965, he was again playing baseball and tennis.[70][71]
U.S. President Kennedy signed a Presidential Directive waiving the quota against accepting immigrants from China. Since 1943, the quota for Chinese immigrants had been only 105 per year. Within three years, President Lyndon Johnson would put the quota for Asian nations at the same level as that for European nations.[72]
Drilling for the first subway in Montreal commenced at 8:00 am, as a crew began to bore a 1.2-mile (1.9 km) long tunnel under Berri Street, to run between Metropolitan Boulevard and Jean Talon Street.[73]
Died:Rubén Jaramillo, 61, Mexican activist for land reform, along with his wife and three of his four children, after being arrested by Mexican soldiers at his home in Xochicalco.[74]
Scott Carpenter orbited the Earth three times in the Aurora 7space capsule, then splashed down 250 miles (400 km) off course in the fourth mission of Project Mercury. He was located and rescued by the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid. Carpenter's rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 7:45 am local time, went around the Earth three times, then began its return at 1:30. Instead of being tilted 34° toward the horizon, the capsule was inclined at 25° and overshot its mark, landing at 1:41 pm. Carpenter deployed a rubber raft and stayed afloat for another three hours before being spotted.[75]
The string quartet piece ST/10=1, 080262, the first classical music composed using a computer, was premiered. Greek composer Iannis Xenakis had created the work with the aid of an IBM 7090 computer.[76]
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow renewed the passport of Lee Harvey Oswald and approved the entry of his wife and daughter into the United States.[33]
The new Coventry Cathedral, also known as St Michael's Cathedral, was consecrated in Coventry, West Midlands, for the Church of England, more than 20 years after the November 14, 1940 destruction of the 500-year-old Cathedral by German Luftwaffe bombers during World War II. The new cathedral, symbolic of forgiveness and rebirth, stands next to the ruins of the old one.[77]
Born: Anthony Joyner, American serial killer and rapist convicted for at least six homicides (and suspected in 12 others) of elderly women at a nursing home where he was employed; in Philadelphia
Died:
Simone Tanner Chaumet, 45, French humanitarian honored for her role in saving hundreds of Jewish children in France during World War II, and later a peace activist in Algeria, was murdered in the Algiers suburb of Bouzaréah.
David Ogle, 40, English automobile designer who had founded his own sports car company, was killed while driving his Ogle Mini GT sports to a race circuit where he was going to demonstrate the vehicle. He was on the A1 highway at Digswell, Hertfordshire and traveling at 85 miles per hour (137 km/h) when he collided with a van and the car burst into flame.[79][80]
Pursuant to the township council resolution of May 7, the contents of the new landfill in Centralia, Pennsylvania, a town with 1,435 residents, were burned as part of a cleanup on the day before Memorial Day. As had been done in the past, the volunteer fire department then extinguished the blaze. The new landfill, however, had been placed above an abandoned coal mine and the fire continued to burn underground, ultimately reducing Centralia to a ghost town.[27]
Born:Ravi Shastri, Indian cricketer who was captain of the Indian national team in the 1980s and later the team's coach; in Bombay (now Mumbai)
The Soviet Union launched the Kosmos 5 scientific research and technology demonstration satellite, becoming the last satellite in the Kosmos programme to reach orbit successfully.
Born:
Monie Captan, Foreign Minister of Liberia from 1996 to 2003
Negotiations began between the European French Algerian paramilitary rebels of the OAS (Organisation armée secrète), and the Arab Algerian independence fighters of the (FLN) Front de libération nationale with a goal toward reaching a ceasefire between the two armies in the Algerian War. Fighting would finally cease on June 17, 1962, and Algeria would become an independent nation, ruled by its Arab Algerian majority population, on July 5.
In a runoff in the primary election for the Democratic Party nominee for Governor of Alabama, segregationist and circuit judge George C. Wallace defeated state senator Ryan DeGraffenried, Sr.[82]
On the same day, in the Philippines, 30 people were killed and 10 injured when a bus, carrying students on a holiday outing, fell off of a wooden bridge and was swept away by the Alalum Falls near the town of Sumilao in the Bukidnon province on southern Mindanao.[88]
The 1962 FIFA World Cup began in Chile with 16 nations qualifying for the competition to reach the final, with four groups of four teams each. On the first day, with games all starting at 3:00 in the afternoon, Uruguay beat Colombia 2—1 (Group 1) at Arica; Chile beat Switzerland 3—1 (Group 2) at Santiago; Brazil beat Mexico 2—0 (Group 3) at Viña del Mar; and Argentina beat Bulgaria 1—0 (Group 4) at Rancagua/
A speeding freight train crashed through the back of a passenger train near Voghera, Italy, killing 62 people. Most of the dead were vacationers on their way to the French Riviera.[89]
The hanging of Adolf Eichmann, 56, German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant Colonel) and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust, took place at 11:58 pm local time "on an improvised scaffold in a third story storeroom" at the Ayalon Prison in Ramla, near Tel Aviv. Eichmann, who had been captured by agents of Israel's Mossad spy agency on March 21, 1960, and then taken from Argentina to Israel for his role in the extermination of 6,000,000 European Jews, would become the first person to be legally executed in the history of modern Israel. The body was cremated soon afterward and Eichmann's ashes scattered over the Mediterranean Sea.[90]
^Hart, Michael (2003). A Trading Nation: Canadian Trade Policy from Colonialism to Globalization. UBC Press. p. 222.
^"Zombies: Do They Exist?". TIME. October 17, 1983.
^Louis, Andre J. (2007). Voodoo in Haiti: Catholicism, Protestantism & A Model of Effective Ministry in the Context of Voodoo In Haiti. Tate Publishing. p. 166.
^"Engineer Arrested After Train Crash Kills 163 In Japan", Nashua (NH) Telegraph, May 4, 1962, p1
^Mark D. Miller and Brian J. Cole, Textbook of Arthroscopy (Elsevier Health Sciences, 2004) pp 4–5
^Jamie Glazov, Canadian Policy toward Khrushchev's Soviet Union (McGill-Queens University Press, 2003) p147
^Edelgard Mahant and Graeme S. Mount, Invisible and Inaudible in Washington: American Policies Toward Canada (University of British Columbia Press, 1999) p48
^Scheina, Robert L., Latin America: A Naval History 1810-1987, Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1987, ISBN0-87021-295-8, p. 225.
^"Cruise Ship to Make Fair Runs", The Daily Chronicle (Centralia WA), April 18, 1962, p7
^"Just Announced! Fabulous 10-day Seattle World's Fair Cruise... from just $195 round trip", advertisement, Los Angeles Times, April 18, 1962, p25
^Peter Plowman, The SITMAR Liners: Past and Present (Rosenberg Publishing, 2004) pp189-190
^"Super Spurs turn Cup Final into a Soccer Classic", The Observer (London), May 6, 1962, p20
^"Tottenham English Soccer King Again", Miami News, May 6, 1962, p1C
^Donald A. MacKenzie, Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance (MIT Press, 1993) pp342-343
^"Segni Wins Presidency After Melee", Spokane Spokesman-Review, May 7, 1962, p1
^Michael J. Walsh, ed., Butler's Lives of the Saints (HarperCollins, 1991) p 361
^"Detroit Wins Title In U.S. Pin Loop", May 7, 1962, p19
^"Thunderbirds Sweep Bowling World Series", Lansing (MI) State Journal, May 7, 1962, C-1
^"For the Record", Sports Illustrated, May 21, 1962, p 117
^Evan Thomas, Robert Kennedy: His Life (Simon and Schuster, 2002) p171
^Andrew Downer Crain, The Ford Presidency: A History (McFarland, 2009) p123
^Mary M. Stolberg, Bridging the River of Hatred: The Pioneering Efforts of Detroit Police Commissioner George Edwards (Wayne State University Press, 2002) p177
^ abDavid DeKok, Fire Underground: The Ongoing Tragedy of the Centralia Mine Fire (Globe Pequot, 2009)
^Amanda Vaill, Somewhere: The Life of Jerome Robbins (Random House Digital, 2008) p 344
^Theodore S. Creedman, Historical Dictionary of Costa Rica (Scarecrow Press, 1991) p 222
^Harold H. Martin, Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events : Years of Change and Challenge, 1940-1976 (University of Georgia Press, 1987) p 349–350
^Donald M. Pattillo, Pushing the Envelope: The American Aircraft Industry (University of Michigan Press, 2001) p209
^Vincent P. Benitez, The Words and Music of Paul McCartney: The Solo Years (ABC-CLIO, 2010) p6
^ abThe Warren Commission Report: Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Associated Press, 1964)
^Tammy Plotner and Terry Mann, The Night Sky Companion: A Yearly Guide to Sky-Watching (Springer, 2007) p435
^"Shark-Mangled Bodies Found At Sea". Toledo Blade. May 14, 1962. p. 2.
^"New India President In Plea for Unity", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 14, 1962, p2
^Robert N. Minor, Radhakrishnan: A Religious Biography (SUNY Press, 1987)
^"Royal Houses of Spain and Greece Joined", Lewiston (ME) Daily Sun, May 15, 1962, p1
^Angel Smith, Historical Dictionary of Spain (Scarecrow Press, 2009) p368
^ "Negro Bandit Dies in Chair Holding Bible", Fort Worth (TX) Star-Telegram, May 16, 1962, p. 2-7
^James W. Marquart, et al., The Rope, The Chair, and the Needle: Capital Punishment in Texas, 1923–1990 (University of Texas Press, 1998) p 116
^"Texans Under Death Decree Lose Appeals", Tyler (Texas) Morning Telegraph, January 11, 1962, p. 4-7
^"U.S. Jets Land In Thailand", Miami News, May 16, 1962, p1
^Kunio Goto, A Social History of Science and Technology in Contemporary Japan (Trans Pacific Press, 2006) pp 489–490
^"King's Forgotten Manifesto", by David W. Blight and Allison Scharfstein, The New York Times, May 16, 2012
^"Barbed Wire Curtain Halts Flight To Hong Kong". Miami News. May 18, 1962. p. 1.
^"Hong Kong Refugee Aid Is Banned". Miami News. May 19, 1962. p. 1.
^Shakya, Tséring (1999). The Dragon in the Land of Snows: A History of Modern Tibet Since 1947. Columbia University Press. pp. 271–273.
^Matthews, Peter (2012). Historical Dictionary of Track and Field. Scarecrow Press. p. 64.
^"$1,000,000 Raised for Party at JFK 'Birthday Salute'", St. Joseph (MO) News-Press, May 20, 1962, p1
^Richard D. Mahoney, Sons & Brothers: The Days of Jack and Bobby Kennedy (Arcade Publishing, 1999) p 161
^Nigel I. Jowett, et al., Comprehensive Coronary Care (Elsevier Health Sciences, 2007) p 16; "Resuscitating a Circulation Abstract to Celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Coronary Care Unit Concept", by W. Bruce Fye, M.D., Circulation magazine, May 1, 1962, pp1886-93
^Norman Polmar, Spyplane: The U-2 History Declassified (Zenith Imprint, 2001) p182
^Arthur Goldschmidt, A Brief History of Egypt (Infobase Publishing, 2008) p174
^"$10 Million AFL Suit Ruled Out", The Milwaukee Sentinel, May 22, 1962, p 2–3
^"Use of Powered Scaffolds for Window Cleaning and Building Maintenance Suspended". The Building Industry. Building Industry Employers of New York State. 26–27: 24. 1962.