* 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 – 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

* 1962 – NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.

* 1962 – Mariner program: Mariner 1 spacecraft flies erratically several minutes after launch and has to be destroyed.

Launch of Mariner 1 in 1962

The Mariner program was a program conducted by the American space agency NASA in conjunction with Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) that launched a series of robotic interplanetary probes designed to investigate Mars, Venus and Mercury from 1962 to 1973.

Mariner 1 ( designated Mariner R-1 ) was launched on July 22, 1962, but was destroyed approximately 5 minutes after liftoff by the Air Force Range Safety Officer when its malfunctioning Atlas-Agena rocket went off course.

Mariner 2 ( designated Mariner R-2 ) was launched on August 27, 1962, sending it on a 3½-month flight to Venus.

Mariner 2 ( Mariner-Venus 1962 ), an American space probe to Venus, was the second unmanned space probe to conduct a successful planetary encounter.

Mariner 2 passed within of Venus on December 14, 1962.

The two-stage Atlas-Agena rocket carrying Mariner 1 had veered off-course during its launch on July 22, 1962 due to a defective signal from the Atlas and a bug in the program equations of the ground-based guiding computer, and subsequently the spacecraft was destroyed by the Range Safety Officer.

A month later, the identical Mariner 2 spacecraft was launched successfully on August 27, 1962, sending it on a 3½-month flight to Venus.

As it flew by Venus on December 14, 1962, Mariner 2 scanned the planet with its pair of radiometers, revealing that Venus has cool clouds and an extremely hot surface.

Mariner 2 was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 12 at 06: 53: 14 UTC on August 27, 1962 by a two-stage Atlas-Agena rocket.

On December 14, 1962, Mariner 2 passed Venus at nearly 41, 000 km, collecting data about the current condition of the atmosphere and of the planet.

The Mariner 1 spacecraft was identical to Mariner 2, launched 27 August 1962.

* 1962 – The Mariner 2 Venus flyby performs the first closeup observations of another planet

* Mariner 2 – 27 August 1962 – First successful planetary encounter, First successful Venus flyby

In 1962, JPL utilized the Ranger 1 and Ranger 2 design for the failed Mariner 1 and successful Mariner 2 deep-space probes to Venus.

The United States ' Mariner 2 became the first successful interplanetary mission in December 1962 when it collected data within of Venus.

Data from the fly-by of Mariner 2 ( December 1962 ) as well as radio astronomy from the same time pointed to a hot, dry Venus, but as late as 1964, Soviet scientists were still designing Venus probes for the possibility of landing in liquid water.