50 Years Ago: The
World in 1962
A half-century ago, the space race
was heating up and the Cold War was freezing over. Soviet missile bases
discovered in Cuba triggered a crisis that brought the U.S. to the brink of war
with the U.S.S.R. Civil rights activists won hard-earned victories against
segregationists in the American South, and John Glenn became the first American
to orbit the Earth. Algeria gained independence from France and the U.S. slowly
escalated its involvement in Vietnam. Meanwhile, Seattle held a World's Fair
called the the Century 21 Exposition, celebrating the themes of space, science,
and the future. Let me take you 50 years into the past now, for a look at the
world as it was in 1962. [50
photos]
Aerial view of the Space Needle and surrounding
area in Seattle in 1962. The Century 21 Exposition, also called the Seattle
World's Fair, was held from April 21, 1962, to October 21, 1962. This year, to
celebrate the 50th anniversary, the iconic Space Needle was once again painted
in its original "Galaxy Gold". (AP Photo) ![](http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/i/lnk.jpg)
President John F.
Kennedy, left, is the subject of cameras as he arrives on January 19, 1962 at
New York?s 46th Street Theatre to attend a performance of the Broadway play,
"How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." (AP Photo) #
Dr. John W. Mauchly,
inventor of some of the original room-size electronic computers, poses in
Washington, DC, on November 2, 1962 with one the size of a suitcase after
addressing a meeting of the American Institute of Industrial Engineers. He now
is working on a pocket variety which, he says, may eliminate the housewife's
weekly shopping list and the chore of filling it by hand. He predicted everyone
will be walking around with his own personalized computer within a decade.
(AP Photo/Byron Rollins) #
Donald Campbell's
rebuilt Bluebird, the car in which he plans to make an attempt on the world land
speed record on Lake Eyre, Australia, in Spring 1963 on show to the public for
the first time as he drives it round the Goodwood Circuit, on July 14, 1962 at
the Goodwood Festival of Motoring in Sussex, England. In 1964, Campbell set a
record of 403.10 mph (648.73 km/h). (AP Photo/Str/BIL) #
A model wears an
ample golden tan cape, made from shantung organdy -- a creation by the Renato
Balstra, shown in Rome, Italy, on January 11, 1962. (AP Photo/Mario
Torrisi) #
In this August 1962
file photo shot by Associated Press photographer Horst Faas, a South Vietnamese
soldier holds a cocked pistol as he questions two suspected Viet Cong guerrillas
captured in a weed-filled marsh in the southern delta region. The prisoners were
searched, bound and questioned before being marched off to join other detainees.
Faas, a prize-winning combat photographer who carved out new standards for
covering war with a camera and became one of the world's legendary
photojournalists in nearly half a century with The Associated Press, died on May
10, 2012 at the age of 79. Please see the NYT's "Horst Faas: A Last
Hurrah"). (AP
Photo/Horst Faas) #
South Vietnamese
government troops from the 2nd Battalion of the 36th Infantry sleep in a U.S.
Navy troop carrier on their way back to the Provincial capital of Ca Mau,
Vietnam. (AP Photo/Horst Faas) #
A U.S. crewman runs
from a crashed CH-21 Shawnee troop helicopter near the village of Ca Mau in the
southern tip of South Vietnam, on December 11, 1962. Two helicopters crashed
without serious injuries during a government raid on the Viet Cong-infiltrated
area. Both helicopters were destroyed to keep them out of enemy hands. (AP
Photo/Horst Faas) #
Cattle walking the
last mile to this slaughterhouse are treated to this dazzling, but incongruous
display of light before the end in Gross-Umstadt near Darmstadt, West Germany,
on November 29, 1962. The chandelier came from a nearby factory that didn't have
room to assemble it there, so they decided to assemble it in this
slaughterhouse. The name of the Arab ruler who ordered the 532 bulb chandelier
made up of 200,000 separate parts is a secret. Also, a secret is the price he
paid for it. (AP Photo/Lindlar) #
In Kabul,
Afghanistan, at the Faculty of Medecine, two Afghan medicine students (left and
center) listen to their Professor as they examine a plaster showing a part of a
human body, in 1962. (AFP/Getty Images) #
A wall is covered
with an Algerian independence slogan as people drink coffee outside in Algiers,
on June 17, 1962. (FARENC/AFP/Getty Images) #
A French soldier
walks past the body of settler killed on Rue D' Isley in Algiers, on March 26,
1962. Another European lies in the background amid debris of the battle that
ensued when European settlers, carrying the French tricolor flag, marched on the
center of town in response to a call by the terrorist secret army organization.
The French armed forces forcibly dispersed the riot. Some sources estimate the
result at 31 dead and 130 wounded. (AP Photo) #
Britain's Mike
Hailwood, winner of the 350 cc Junior Tourist Trophy race, roars round
Creg-Ny-Baa corner on his second lap round the Isle of Man circuit in the United
Kingdom, on June 6, 1962. Riding an Italian MV Agusta machine, Hailwood's
average speed for the 6-lap, 226.4 mile race was 99.95 mph. (AP Photo) #
Jammed together in a
coastline inlet at Aberdeen harbor in Hong Kong are these sampans which serve as
homes on the water for more than 130,000 person in the British Crown Colony. A
good portion of the water residents work ashore. This photo is dated August 7,
1962. (AP Photo/Harry Koundakjian) #
In this March 20,
1962 photo, President John F. Kennedy's daughter Caroline Kennedy rides her
pony, Macaroni, on the south grounds of the White House in Washington. An
unidentified handler runs along to keep pace. (AP Photo) #
U.S. President John
F. Kennedy speaks before reporters during a televised speech to the nation about
the strategic blockade of Cuba, and his warning to the Soviet Union about
missile sanctions, during the Cuban missile crisis, on October 24, 1962 in
Washington, DC. (Getty Images) #
Evidence presented
by the U.S. Department of Defense, of Soviet missiles in Cuba. This low level
photo, made October 23, 1962, of the medium range ballistic missile site under
construction at Cuba's San Cristobal area. A line of oxidizer trailers is at
center. Added since October 14, the site was earlier photographed, are fuel
trailers, a missile shelter tent, and equipment. The missile erector now lies
under canvas cover. Evident also is extensive vehicle trackage and the
construction of cable lines to control areas. (AP Photo/DOD) #
Aerial picture taken
09 November 1962 on the Cuban coast of the Soviet freighter "Anosov" carrying
missiles in accordance with the US-Soviet agreement on the withdrawal of the
Russian Missiles from Cuba. American planes and helicopters fly in at a
low-level to keep close check on the dismantling and loading operations, while
US warships watch over Soviet freighters carrying missiles back to Soviet Union.
(AFP/Getty Images) #
Cuban Prime Minister
Fidel Castro looks over the Sierra Maestro mountains as he revisits the area
where his revolution started in this June 1962 photo in Cuba. (AP
Photo/Revolucion, Korda) #
During the Cuban
Missile Crisis, U.S. Army anti-aircraft rockets sit, mounted on launchers and
pointed out over the Florida Straits in Key West, Florida, on October 27, 1962.
(AP photo) #
Fiber Drum and
polyethylene liner provided by the department of defense office of civil defense
for public fallout shelters. Each drum is filled with 17.5 gallons of water
which will provide drinking water for 5 persons for 14 days. Photo taken on
February 19, 1962. (AP Photo) #
Father Luis Manuel
Padilla holds a wounded government rifleman shot down in the streets of Puerto
Cabello, Venezuela, during a bloody revolt against President Betancourt in June
1962. More than 200 were killed before rebels were beaten. This photo won the
Pulitzer Prize for Hector Rondon. (AP Photo/Hector Rondon) #
Geisha girl Harukoma
(Etsuke's professional name) applies the white make-up that marks the Geisha as
she prepares for an evening party with business executives, on July 19, 1962.
(AP Photo) #
Three NASA personnel
suited in space-flight restraining gear prepare to climb aboard the Apollo
Spacecraft April 6, 1962. This preliminary mock-up model was placed on display
April 6, 13 feet wide and 12 feet high, this command module will be the most
complex manned flight device ever designed and built for earth orbit and lunar
landing. (AP Photo) #
In a room lined with
pyramids of foam plastic that absorbs radio energy, engineer Charles A. Haas
inspects a model of the Telstar experimental communications satellite at the
Bell Telephone Co., lab in Hillside New Jersey, February 1962. (AP Photo)
#
US astronaut John
Glenn enters into the Mercury "Friendship-7" capsule in Cape Canaveral, Florida,
on February 20, 1962, prior to the launch of the spacecraft for the first US
manned orbital flight ever. (AFP/Getty Images) #
Astronaut John
Glenn, aboard the Friendship 7 Mercury Capsule launches from Cape Canaveral,
Florida, on February 20, 1962, sending the first American into orbit. (AP
Photo) #
Police and
Guatemalan student demonstrators battle in street over possession of a
Guatemalan flag as a terrified student, left, runs away, on March 16, 1962 in
Guatemala City. Similar clashes occurred throughout the day in this riot torn
city. Students were protesting the conservative government of Miguel Ydigoras.
(AP Photo) #
Some of the 60,000
Chinese refugees who arrived illegally in Hong Kong from China in May of 1962.
They hold out hands from a lorry asking for food as they were expelled to China
by Hong Kong authorities on May 28, 1962. (AFP/Getty Images) #
Double-decker buses
circle the Prince Albert statue at Holborn Circus in London, England, in the
smog at night on December 6, 1962. The heavy smog, caused by coal-fired heating
and burning gasoline in motor vehicles, claimed more than 100 lives in 1962.
(AP Photo) #
Parents of students
picket Glenfield Junior High School in Montclair, New Jersey, to dramatize their
effort to improve education for the school's students, 90 percent of whom are
African-American, in Montclair, New Jersey, prior to the school board's decision
on August 22, 1962 to divide Glenfield's 182 students among the wealthy suburb's
three other high schools. (AP Photo) #
A workman removes a
restroom sign at Montgomery Municipal Airport, on January 5, 1962, in compliance
with a federal court order banning segregation. However, city officials delayed
plans to remove waiting room furniture and close toilets and water fountains.
But they said these and the airport restaurant will be closed if there is a
concerted integration attempt. (AP Photo) #
A white girl follows
an African-American girl down the slide at Thomas J. Semmes school in New
Orleans during recess on Sept. 7, 1962. The children played together as the
school went into its second day of integrated classes. (AP Photo/Jim
Bourdier) #
An African American
and a white girl study a sign in the integrated Long Island community of
Lakeview, New York, on April 1962. It reads "Negroes! This community could
become another ghetto. You owe it to your 'family' to buy in another community."
The sign was an attempt to keep African Americans from exceeding the number of
whites who want to live in an integrated town. (AP Photo) #
Chief U.S. Marshal
James McShane, left, and an unidentified marshal at right escort James Meredith,
center with briefcase, to the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford,
Mississippi, on October 2, 1962. Meredith, was the first black student to attend
the University of Mississippi after integration. (AP Photo) #
President John F.
Kennedy with daughter, Caroline, sailing off Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, in a
1962 photo. (AP Photo) #
A curved ceiling and
glass walls are distinctive features of the lounge at TWA's new terminal
building at New York's Idlewild Airport (now John F. Kennedy International
Airport), on May 29, 1962. (AP Photo) #
A high wall of
concrete blocks, topped with barbed wire, divides Sebastian Strasse in the
Kreuzberg district of Berlin, Germany, on February 15, 1962. To the left is the
American sector and beyond the wall to the right is the Russian sector.
(AP Photo) #
Dying Peter Fechter
is carried away by East German border guards who shot him down when he tried to
flee to the west in this August 17, 1962 photo. Fechter was lying in no-man's
land for 50 minutes before he was taken to a hospital where he died shortly
after arrival. (AP Photo) #
This aerial view
shows the new baseball stadium for the Los Angeles Dodgers under construction in
Chavez Ravine near Los Angeles, California, on March 7, 1962. The infield and
outfield have been sodded and construction of the center field bleachers is
underway. (AP Photo) #
Fans and teammates
rush onto court to congratulate Philadelphia Warriors Wilt Chamberlain in
Hershey, Pennsylvania, after he scored his 100th point in a 169-147 win over the
New York Knickerbockers, on March 2, 1962. The record still stands, 50 years
later. (AP Photo/Paul Vathis) #
Five thousand people
stood shivering in Trafalgar Square in London, England, on February 25, 1962 at
a rally organized by the British anti-war group Committee of 100. (AP
Photo/Laurence Harris) #
The rising fireball
of the Aztec nuclear detonation test, part of Operation Dominic, a series of
over 100 nuclear test explosions in Nevada and the Pacific in 1962. (U.S.
Department of Defense) #
The Space Needle and
monorail in Seattle, Washington in 1962, part of the Seattle World's Fair.
(AP Photo) #
The Halloween
festival in Anaheim, California, on October 20, 1962. Nearly everyone in town
turned out to watch the parade, and thousands were on hand to watch the show
that launched it at the Palma Stadium. (AP Photo) #
South African police
beat women with clubs in Durban, South Africa, on on April 17, 1962, when the
women raided and set fire to a beer hall in protest of police action against
their home brewing activities. (AP Photo) #
Said to be the
smallest television receiver in the world at the time, this tiny model was shown
by the Japanese electronics industry at the international samples fair in Milan,
Italy, on April 21, 1962. The picture is compared with a postage stamp only 4
centimeters wide. (AP Photo) #
A soldier of the
West German Army (Bundeswehr) carries a woman to safety in Hamburg, Germany, on
February 17, 1962, after rescuing her from rising flood waters with an army
rubber rescue craft. (AP Photo) #
Teenagers play
volleyball in Mongolia in March of 1962. (AP Photo/Igor Oganesoff) #
First Lady
Jacqueline Kennedy attends dinner with honoree Minister of State for Cultural
Affairs of France, Andre Malraux, on May 11, 1962 in Washington, D.C.
(Photo Courtesy of Kennedy Library Archives/Newsmakers) #