The year 1962 in science and technology involved some significant events, listed below.

Astronomy and space exploration

• January 26 - Ranger 3 is launched to study the Moon. The space probe later misses the Moon by 22,000 miles.
• February 4–5 - During a new moon and total solar eclipse, an extremely rare grand conjunction of the classical planets occurs, including all five of the naked-eye planets plus the Sun and Moon, all within 16 of each another on the ecliptic.
• February 19 - Penumbral lunar eclipse
• February 20 - Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn orbits the Earth three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes, becoming the first American to do so.
• April 26 - The Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.
• May 24 - Mercury program: Scott Carpenter becomes the second American to orbit the Earth aboard Aurora 7.
• July 17 - Penumbral lunar eclipse
• July 11 First live transatlantic television broadcast from the United States to Britain, via AT&T's Telstar satellite (launched the previous day) and Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station.^[1]
• July 22 - Mariner program: The Mariner 1 spacecraft flies erratically several minutes after launch and has to be destroyed.
• July 31 - Annular solar eclipse
• August 15 - Penumbral lunar eclipse

Biology

• Emile Zuckerkandl and Linus Pauling publish a paper introducing what will become known as the molecular clock concept.^[2][3]
• The first nude mouse strain is discovered by Dr. N. R. Grist at Ruchill Hospital's Brownlee virology laboratory in Glasgow.^[4][5]

Computer science

• At MIT, Ivan Sutherland uses the TX-2 computer to write Sketchpad, the origin of graphical programs used for computer-aided design.
• October - J.C.R. Licklider becomes the first head of the computer research program at ARPA, which he names the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO).
• December - John Mauchly "envisions a time when everyone will carry his own personal computer".^[6]

Ecology

• June - Rachel Carson's Silent Spring begins serialization in The New Yorker.

History of science

• Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is published in the United States.

Medicine

• James W. Black synthesises propranolol, the first beta blocker (used for regulation of angina pectoris), which becomes the world's best-selling drug.^{[7][8][9][10]}
• Joseph Murray performs the first cadaveric renal transplant.^[11]
• Nodding disease is first documented, in southern Tanzania.^[12]

Technology

• The New Austrian Tunnelling method is so named.^[13]

Awards

• Fields Prize in Mathematics: Lars H rmander and John Milnor
• Nobel Prizes
  • Physics - Lev Davidovich Landau
  • Chemistry - Max Ferdinand Perutz, John Cowdery Kendrew
  • Medicine - Francis Harry Compton Crick, James Dewey Watson, Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins
  • Peace - Linus Pauling

Births

• June 18 - Lisa Randall, American theoretical physicist.
• June 29 - George D. Zamka, American astronaut.

Deaths

• February 19 - Georgios Papanikolaou (born 1883), Greek American inventor of the Pap smear.
• March 24 - Auguste Piccard (born 1884), Swiss physicist and explorer.
• May 13 - Henry Trendley Dean (born 1893), American dental researcher.
• November 18 - Niels Bohr (born 1885), Danish physicist.
• December 20 - Emil Artin (born 1898), Austrian-born mathematician.
• December 24 - Wilhelm Ackermann (born 1896), German mathematician.

References

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