1962

Events

January 11 to February 7 - The Communist Party of China hosts the Seven Thousand Cadres Conference in Beijing to discuss the consequences of the Great Leap Forward, which is declared over.
March 2 - Ne Win seizes control of Burma in a successful military coup.
June 1 - Adolf Eichmann is hanged for crimes against humanity committed during the Holocaust at Ayalon Prison in Ramla, Israel.
July 1 - Rwanda declares independence from Belgium, marking the end of the Rwandan Revolution. Grégoire Kayibanda is named the first President of Rwanda, with his Parmehutu party becoming the country's ruling party. Kayibanda becomes the first person to promote Hutu Power.
July 4 - The Burma Socialist Programme Party is established to serve as the governing political party of Burma.
August 17 - Harry J. Anslinger steps down as Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics.
September 26 - Beginning of the North Yemen Civil War.
October 16 to 28 - The Cuban Missile Crisis: the United States and the Soviet Union have a 12-day standoff after it is revealed that the Soviet Union had constructed missile launch facilities in Cuba. After intense negotiations between President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Union agrees to dismantle the Cuban weapons, and in exchange, the United States agrees to remove their weapons from Turkey. The confrontation is often considered the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war.