OCTOBER 1961
1 N.Y. Roger Maris hits record 61st homer of season.
2 Saigon: Diem says struggle with Viet Cong has become a war in last year.
10 U.S.: Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" is published.
11 Calif: X-15 sets flight record flying 40 miles over Edwards Air Force Base at 3,477 mph.
16 Quincy, Mass.: Bethlehem Steel displays first nuclear-powered surface warship, USS Long Beach.
23 U.S.S.R. expoldes record-sized 30-megaton bomb.
30 Soviets detonate enormous 50-megaton H-bomb.

NOVEMBER 1961
9 Albany: Gov. Rockfeller wins legislative approval for major fallout shelter plan
9 Calf.: X-15, from Edwards Air Force Base, shatters speed records, hitting 4,070 mph.
9 U.S. sending 200 Air Force instructors to S. Vietnam.
24 U.N. adopts bans on nuclear arms over U.S. protest.
29 Cape Canaveral: NASA orbits chimp named Enos twice and recovers him.
30 New York: Soviets veto U.N. seat for Kuwait, pleasing Iraq.

DECEMBER 1961
4 Toronto: Patterson retains boxing title against McNeeley.
10 Dag Hammarskjold gets posthumous Nobel Peace Prize.
11 U.S. Supreme Court voids first integration sit-in convictions.
16 Caracas: JFK begins South American tour to cheers.
18 Bogota: 500,000 gret JFK on Alliance fo Progress tour.
31 Green Bay: Packers blank N.Y. Giants 37-0 for NFL title.

JANUARY 1962
2 U.S. publishes report condeming Cuban military build-up, Soviet ties.
3 Beatles rejected by Decca Records "experts (convinced) that the four would never make it on the music charts."
17 Charles Van Doren and 9 other former contestants guilty in quiz show fix.
18 South Vietnam: U.S. sprays foliage with pesticide to reval Viet cong guerrillas
23 New York: Jackie Robinson elected to Baseball Hall of Fame.
26 Cape Canaveral: U.S. rocket Ranger 3 strays off path, missed moon by 20,000 miles.
27 New Zealand: Peter Snell sets mile record of 3:54.4.
30 Uruguay: Organization of American States, at U.S. request, bans Cuba.

FEBRUARY 1962
2 New York: American John Uelses becomes first to pole vault over 16 feet.
3 JFK orders ban on all trade with Cuba.
8 U.S. Defense Dept. reports creation of Military Assistance Command in S. Vietnam.
9 Toyko: Robert Kennedy debats Japanese leftist Akira Iwai; invites him to U.S. to see value of capitalism.
10 Soviet Union released American pilot Francis Gary Powers in exchange for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.
13 Washington: JFK and King Saud confer on U.S. air base in Saudi Arabia.
14 JFK defends role in Vietnam, says men are "not combat troops in the generally understood sense of the word."
14 Jackie Kennedy guides TV tour of White House.
18 Saigon: RFK says troops will stay until communism defeated in Vietnam.
20 John Glen, in Friendship 7, becomes first American to orbit earth.
24 Bronx: Police seize $20 million worth of heroin.
 

APRIL 1962
3 U.S. Air Force announces first satellite TV broadcast.
6 New York: U.S., U.K. ask U.N. to censure Israel for attack on Syria last month.
8 Havana: Bay of Pigs invaders get 30 years; Castro offers exchange for $62 million.
9 Georgia: Arnold Parmer wins Masters golf tournament.
15 South Vietnam: 400-man U.S. helecopter unit joins war against Viet Cong.
15 New York: 500 attend memorial services of 50th anniversay of Titanic sinking.
18 Boston: Celtics win fourth straight NBA title.
20 New Orleans: Segregationists offer Negroes free one-way bus transport to Northern cities.
21 Florida: JKF opens Seattle World's Fair by remote control.
24 JFK orders resumption of atmospheric atom test.
26 U.S. rocket Ranger IV, launched four days ago, crashes on dark side of moon.

MAY 1962
4 Pacific: U.S. expoldes fourth atom bomb in ten days.
8 Groton: Jackie Kennedy christens Lafayette, world's largest submarine.
10 JFK orders ships and 1,800 Marines to Indochina to counter Communist gains in Laos.
15 U.S. orders 4,000 troops to Thailand.
17 JFK calls U.S. troops in Indochina a "diplomatic solution."
18 U.S. indicts Jimmy Hoffa for accepting $1 mil. illegally from Detroit truck lin.
24 M. Scott Carpenter makes second American manned orbital flight. Mecury spacecraft lands 250 miles beyond designated recovery point.
28 New York: Stock prices take sharpets dive since 1929.
30 Moscow: Khrushchev, at Benny Goodman concert, is pleased but puzzled.
30 Roger Ward wins Indy 500 powering his Leader Card Roadster around the track at average of 140.3 mph.

JUNE 1962
1 Pentagon announces first federal construction plans for fallout shelters.
4 U.S. Supremen Court voids convictons of six Freedom Riders.
11 Hollywod: 20th Century Fox shelves film due to Marily Monroe's absenteeism.
12 San Franisco: Three convicts dig way out of Alcatraz with spoons.
14 Paris: 30 arrested in plot to kill de Gaulle
17 Pennsylvania: Jack Nicklaus wins U.S. Open golf title.
25 U.S. Supreme Court bans official prayers in public schools.
29 Mexico City: One million cheer JFK on visit.
30 Los Angeles: Sandy Koufax hurls no-hitter to beat Mets 5-0.