Visit Other Hall High Class Pages
Cost of Living in 1962
- Yearly Inflation Rate USA 1.20%
- Year End Close Dow Jones Industrial Average 652
- Average Cost of new house $12,500.00
- Average Income per year $5,556.00
- Average monthly rent $110.00 per month
- Tuition to Harvard University $1,520.00
- All Wheel Drive Scout off road $2,150.00
- Renault Imported car $1,395.00
- Average Cost of a new car $3,125.00
- Eggs per dozen 32 cents
- Gas per Gallon 28 cents
- Factory Workers Average Take Home Pay with 3 dependents $94.87
Pop Culture:
#1 Movie – Lawrence of Arabia
#1 Song – Stranger on the Shore – Mr. Acker Bilk
Beatles Turned Down By Decca Records
- Release of first Beatles recording: the single “Love Me Do”
- Andy Warhol’s famous painting of a can of soup
- Beverly Hill Billies is on TV
- The Dick Van Dyke show on TV
- Johnny Carson begins as presenter for The Tonight Show
Popular Films
- West Side Story
- Spartacus
- El Cid
- Lawrence of Arabia
- To Kill a Mockingbird
Popular Songs (Click To Hear)
- I Can’t Stop Loving You – Ray Charles
- The Loco-Motion – Little Eva
- The Twist – Chubby Checker
- The Wanderer – Dion
- Breaking Up Is Hard to Do – Neil Sedaka
- The One Who Really Loves You – Mary Wells
- Twist and Shout – The Isley Brothers
- Lover Please – Clyde Mcphatter
- Baby Its You – Shrelles
- What’s Your Name – Don & Juan
- You Don’t Know Me – Ray Charles
- You Beat Me to the Punch – Mary Wells
- She’s Got You – Patsy Cline
Popular Singers
- The Beatles
- Bob Dylan
- Chubby Checker
- Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons
- Neil Sedaka
- Roy Orbison
- Shirley Bassey
1962 Headlines
- January 1 – The United States Navy SEALs are activated.
- February 20 – Project Mercury: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth, three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes.
- March 1 – The S. S. Kresge Company opens its first Kmart discount store in Garden City, Michigan.
- March 2 – Wilt Chamberlain scores 100 points in a single NBA basketball game.
- May 1 – The Hulk debuts with The Incredible Hulk #1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
- July 10 – AT&T’s Telstar, the world’s first commercial communications satellite, is launched into orbit and activated the next day.
- August 5 – Marilyn Monroe dies from an overdose of sleeping pills and chloral hydrate, officially ruled a “probable suicide”. However, the exact cause of her death has been disputed.
- August 10 – Marvel Comics publishes Amazing Fantasy#15, which features the first published appearance of the superhero character of Spider-Man, created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko.
- September 12 – President John F. Kennedy, at a speech at Rice University, reaffirms that the U.S. will put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
- September 30 – CBS broadcasts the final episodes of Suspense and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, marking the end of the Golden Age of Radio.
- October 1 – Johnny Carson takes over as permanent host of NBC’s Tonight Show, a post he would hold for 30 years.
- October 24 – Cuban Missile Crisis: First confrontation between US Navy and Soviet cargo vessel. The vessel changes course.