Tag Archives: 1962

19 March 1962

Posted on by

The Algerian War of Independence ends.

photo 2012-10-03Grafik4594230478217451407_zps6jkuhbi0.jpg

Algerian War, also called Algerian War of Independence, war for Algerian independence from France. The movement for independence began during World War I and gained momentum after French promises of greater self-rule in Algeria went unfulfilled after World War II . In 1954 the National Liberation Front began a guerrilla war against France and sought diplomatic recognition at the UN to establish a sovereign Algerian state. Although Algerian fighters operated in the countryside—particularly along the country’s borders—the most serious fighting took place in and around Algiers, where FLN fighters launched a series of violent urban attacks that came to be known as the Battle of Algiers. French forces managed to regain control but only through brutal measures, and the ferocity of the fighting sapped the political will of the French to continue the conflict. In 1959 Charles de Gaulle declared that the Algerians had the right to determine their own future. Despite terrorist acts by French Algerians opposed to independence and an attempted coup in France by elements of the French army, an agreement was signed in 1962, and Algeria became independent.

Upon independence, in 1962, 900,000 European-Algerians fled to France, in fear of the FLN’s revenge, within a few months. The French government was totally unprepared for the vast number of refugees, which caused turmoil in France. The majority of Algerian Muslims who had worked for the French were disarmed and left behind as the treaty between French and Algerian authorities declared that no actions could be taken against them. However, the Harkis in particular, having served as auxiliaries with the French army, were regarded as traitors by the FLN and between 50,000 and 150,000 Harkis and family members were murdered by the FLN or by lynch-mobs, often after being abducted and tortured. About 91,000 managed to flee to France, some with help from their French officers acting against orders, and as of 2016 they and their descendants form a significant part of the Algerian-French population.

8 January 1962

Posted on by

A train crash in Harmelen, Netherlands killed 93 people.

The Harmelen train disaster was the worst railway accident in the history of the Netherlands on 8 January 1962. Harmelen, in the central Netherlands, is the location of a railway junction where a branch to Amsterdam leaves the Rotterdam to Utrecht line. It is common at high-speed junctions to avoid the use of diamond crossings wherever possible — instead a ladder crossing is employed where trains destined for the branch line cross over to the track normally employed for trains travelling in the opposite direction for a short distance before taking the branch line.The accident spurred the installation on Dutch railways of the system of automatic train protection known as Automatische treinbeïnvloeding (ATB) which automatically overrides the driver in such a “signal passed at danger” situation. The junction itself was later rebuilt as a flying junction.The accident happened 1.5 year after the Woerden train accident, the derailment of a British furlough train nearby.

28 October 1962

Posted on by

maxresdefault

The Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev orders the removal of the Soviet missiles from Cuba, ending the Cuban missile crisis.

As the Cuban missile crisis unfolded in October 1962, President John F Kennedy found himself wondering why Nikita Khrushchev would gamble with putting nuclear missiles into Cuba. The Soviet leader felt he had justification enough. There were American missiles in Turkey and Italy; US bases dotted the globe; and Castro was a friend and ally under threat from the US.

It was a gamble, and most observers argue that Khrushchev lost. In his memoirs, Khrushchev claims that the outcome of the missile crisis was a “triumph of Soviet foreign policy and a personal triumph”, but few, even on the Soviet side, have seen it that way. Khrushchev’s then foreign minister, the dour Andrei Gromyko, in his scanty memoir account of the Cuban events praises Kennedy. While the crisis is historically the “Cuban” crisis, Cuba was perhaps a subsidiary consideration for Khrushchev, as Castro later noted – ruefully – in conversation with Soviet emissary Anastas Mikoyan.

Save

14 August 1962

Posted on by

Gunmen hijack a mail truck in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and make off with $1.5 million.

image068

The Plymouth Mail robbery, or what the press called “The Great Plymouth Mail Truck Robbery” was, at that point in time, the largest cash robbery of all time. On the 14th August  1962, the two gunmen stopped a US Mail truck which was delivering $1.5 million in smaller bills from Cape Cod in Massachusetts to the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston, Massachusetts. The hijacking occurred on Route 3 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The two robbers who were dressed as police officers and where carrying submachine guns, tied up the driver and the guard and then drove the truck themselves to some unknown destinations, where the money was dropped off in several places. The truck and its two captured occupants were then left in Randolph, Massachusetts alongside Route 128.

A federal grand jury later indicted four men and one woman for this robbery. One of those indicted just before trial and has never been found. The other defendants were acquitted at trial. The $1.5 million in cash (equivalent to almost $12 million in 2013 dollars) has never been found.

A Boston mobster, Vincent “Fat Vinnie” Teresa, who was a a lieutenant of Raymond L.S. Patriarca, made the claim in his book called, My Life in the Mafia, that it was John “Red” Kelley who actually planned the robbery. Kelly allegedly got 80 cents on the dollar when the money was finally laundered.

2 June 1962

Posted on by

During the 1962 FIFA World Cup, the police had to intervene multiple times in fights between Chilean and Italian players. This was one of the most violent games in the history of football.