* Atlas Computer ( Manchester ) ( 1962 – 1971 ), an early computer built at the University of Manchester

** Atlas Major, a Standard Motor Company van 1962 – 1963

* Atlas ( 1927 – 1962 ), a LMS Royal Scot Class steam locomotive

* 1962 – Leonard Bernstein causes controversy with his remarks from the podium during a New York Philharmonic concert featuring Glenn Gould performing Brahms ' First Piano Concerto.

* 1903 – Mickey Cochrane, American baseball player ( d. 1962 )

* 1962 – Iris Häussler, German artist

* 1901 – Lowell Stockman, American politician ( d. 1962 )

* 1962 – Art Alexakis, American singer, composer, and guitarist ( Everclear, Colorfinger, and The Easy Hoes )

* 1962 – Nobuhiko Takada, Japanese mixed martial arts fighter and wrestler

* 1962 – The Mariner 2 unmanned space mission is launched to Venus by NASA.

* 1962 – Vic Mignogna, American voice actor, singer, and director

* 1962 – Adam Oates, Canadian ice hockey player

* 1962 – Jamaica becomes independent from the United Kingdom.

* 1892 – Hoot Gibson, American actor ( d. 1962 )

* 1962 – Marc Lavoine, French singer and actor

* 1962 – Michelle Yeoh, Malaysian-Hong Kong actress

* 1872 – Archduke Joseph August of Austria, Austrian field marshal ( d. 1962 )

* 1962 – Louis Lipps, American football player

* 1962 – Kevin Mack, American football player

* 1962 – John " Hot Rod " Williams, American basketball player

* 1962 – Representatives from the Russian Orthodox Church and Vatican City meet in Metz, France, and come to an agreement wherein the Russian church would send observers to the Second Vatican Council and in exchange, the Roman Catholic Church would refuse to condemn Communism.

* 1879 – John Ireland, English composer ( d. 1962 )

* 1890 – Ellen Osiier, Danish fencer ( d. 1962 )

* 1962 – Thanos Kalliris, Greek singer-songwriter ( Bang )

* 1962 – John Slattery, American actor

The Cuban Missile Crisis in the Autumn of 1962, in which the United States blockaded a Soviet attempt to put nuclear missiles on Cuba, created some anxiety about the possibility of imminent nuclear war and CND organised demonstrations on the issue.

The Cuban missile crisis — known as the October crisis in Cuba and the Caribbean crisis () in the USSR — was a 13-day confrontation between the Soviet Union and Cuba on one side and the United States on the other ; the crisis occurred in October 1962, during the Cold War.

In August 1962, after some unsuccessful operations by the US to overthrow the Cuban regime ( Bay of Pigs, Operation Mongoose ), the Cuban and Soviet governments secretly began to build bases in Cuba for a number of medium-range and intermediate-range ballistic nuclear missiles ( MRBMs and IRBMs ) with the ability to strike most of the continental United States.

In January 1962, General Edward Lansdale described plans to overthrow the Cuban Government in a top-secret report ( partially declassified 1989 ), addressed to President Kennedy and officials involved with Operation Mongoose.

In February 1962, the United States launched an embargo against Cuba, and Lansdale presented a 26-page, top-secret timetable for implementation of the overthrow of the Cuban Government, mandating that guerrilla operations begin in August and September, and in the first two weeks of October: " Open revolt and overthrow of the Communist regime ".

East-West tensions increased during the first term of U. S. President Ronald Reagan ( 1981 – 1985 ), reaching levels not seen since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis as Reagan increased US military spending to 7 % of the GDP.

* 1962 – The United States bans all Cuban imports and exports.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the families of military personnel were evacuated from the base.

* 1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U. S. President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation.

Women Strike for Peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

* 1962 – Cuban missile crisis: Adlai Stevenson shows photos at the UN proving Soviet missiles are installed in Cuba.

* 1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he had ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba.

* 1962 – Major Rudolf Anderson of the United States Air Force becomes the only direct human casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis when his U-2 reconnaissance airplane is shot down in Cuba by a Soviet-supplied SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missile.

* 1962 – Jon Secada, Cuban singer and songwriter

* 1962 – The Cuban Missile Crisis begins: A U. S. Air Force U-2 reconnaissance plane and its pilot fly over the island of Cuba and take photographs of Soviet missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads being installed and erected in Cuba.

* 1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis between the United States, and Cuba and the USSR, begins.

On a Sunday in 1962, the world stood still at the brink of nuclear war during the October Cuban missile crisis from the implementation of U. S. vs U. S. S. R. nuclear blackmail policy.

* 1962 – The Soviet ship Poltava heads toward Cuba, one of the events that sets into motion the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Unable to reach political accommodation on disputed territory along the 3, 225-kilometer-long Himalayan border, the Chinese launched simultaneous offensives in Ladakh and across the McMahon Line on 20 October 1962, coinciding with the Cuban Missile Crisis.

* The Cuban Missile Crisis ( October 1962 ) – a near-military confrontation between the U. S. and the Soviet Union about the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba.

To counter this threat, Castro forged an economic and military alliance with the Soviet Union and allowed them to place nuclear weapons on the island, leading to the events of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

The genesis of the NCS began in 1962 after the Cuban missile crisis when communications problems among the United States, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and foreign heads of state threatened to complicate the crisis further.

This escalating situation came to a head with the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.