| 1962 |
 Chronomedia index
Numbers after entries link to the list of references. |
links and notes |
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Cultural highlights | Predictions made this year |
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| January 1 |
The Beatles fail an audition at Decca Records.
This may have been a result of prevailing corporate thinking at Decca (see quotation) |
> June 6 |
| January 15 |
Celsius measurements are first used in UK weather forecasts. |
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| January |
Television service starts in Kampuchea (Cambodia). |
Television service start dates |
| February 14 |
Televised tour of the White House in Washington DC conducted by Jacqueline Kennedy is carried simultaneously on CBS and NBC networks, achieving an audience of 46.5m. |
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| February 15 |
CBS agrees to pay the National Collegiate Athletic Association a record $10.2m for exclusive television rights to college football games. |
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| February 24 |
First telephone and television relays by satellite are achieved via Echo 1. |
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| February |
First issue of The Sunday Times colour supplement includes a James Bond story and cover pictures by David Bailey of Jean Shrimpton wearing Mary Quant clothes. |
> 1964 |
| March 8, 17:00 |
The Beatles make their first UK radio appearance on the BBC programme Teenagers Turn (Here We Go), pre-recorded the previous evening at the Playhouse Thaetre, St John's Road, Manchester. |
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| March 25 |
Commercial for Shell petrol with a soundtrack sung by Bing Crosby is shown on UK's ITV network for the first time. |
< 1955 September 23 |
| March 29 |
Independent Television Authority’s offer to finance an enquiry into the use of television as a means of fostering moral concepts and attitudes is reported to UK parliament, leading to formation of the Noble Committee and its five-year research programme. |
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| April 16 |
Walter Kronkite replaces Douglas Edwards as anchor on CBS Evening News. |
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| April |
US television network ABC begins Sunday Night Movies series of recent feature films. |
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| May 1 |
US Congress passes the ETV Facilities Act, providing $30m a year to develop educational television. |
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| May |
Transmitter mast for WRBL-TV and WTVM opens at Columbus, Georgia, US—at the time the world’s tallest structure at 533m. |
< 1960
> 1963 |
| May |
UK commercial television companies end the use of the words ‘peak and off-peak’ in defining advertising time. |
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| June |
Machtronics of California introduces high standard portable helical scan videotape recorder MVR-10 using one-inch tape running at 7.5 inches per second (ips). The machine contains a monitor and records for up to 90 minutes. Followed by MVR-11, without monitor, weighing 65 lb. |
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| June 5 |
Report of the Committee on Broadcasting 1960 (Pilkington Committee) on the future of UK broadcasting is published. |
> December 18 |
| June 6 |
The Beatles’ first recording session for Parlophone Records at the EMI Studios, Abbey Road, London. |
> September 11 |
| June 29 |
Pay TV transmissions begin at Hartford, Connecticut and continue until January 1969. |
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| July 2 |
Ulster Television broadcasts the first adult education series on ITV. |
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| July 10 08:35 GMT |
Telstar I communications satellite, made by AT&T, is launched by NASA from Cape Canaveral, Florida. |
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| July 11 |
AT&T makes the first transatlantic television transmission via Telstar from Andover, Maine, US to Goonhilly Down, Cornwall, England. |
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| July 23, 10:58 BST |
First official Telstar link from London and Paris to USA. |
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| August 24 |
Television service officially starts in Indonesia. |
Television service start dates |
| August 28 |
BBC conducts stereo radio test transmissions from Wrotham using the Zenith-GE system. |
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| September 1 |
Channel Television begins broadcasting in the Channel Islands, completing ITV coverage of the UK. |
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| September 11 |
The Beatles record Love Me Do at the EMI Abbey Road studios, released on October 5. |
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| September 19 |
Welsh-language broadcaster Teledu Cymru starts transmissions in North and West Wales. |
> 1964 |
| September 29 |
First Canadian satellite, Alouette 1, is launched. |
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| September |
Television service starts in Malta. |
Television service start dates |
| September |
Film musical South Pacific ends a record-breaking run of 2,551 performances over 231 weeks at the Dominion Theatre in London. |
See also 1958 April |
| October 11 |
The Beatles enter the UK record charts for the first time with Love Me Do, which gets to number 17. |
> October 17 |
| October 17 |
First television performance by The Beatles on Granada Television’s early evening People and Places magazine programme. They perform Some Other Guy. |
> 1963 |
| October 22 |
US President John F Kennedy broadcasts by television his ultimatum to the Russians over the Cuban missile crisis. |
< 1955 |
| October |
NBC announces further progress with colour kinescope recording. |
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| October |
First images recorded and played back from 3M/SRI optical video disc. |
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| October |
Television service starts in Gibraltar. |
Television service start dates |
| November |
Television service starts in Trinidad and Tobago. |
Television service start dates |
| November |
3M files patent for Electron Beam Recording system using laser technology. |
 The quest for home video |
| November 24 |
First edition of the late evening satirical programme That Was the Week That Was is broadcast by BBC Television. |
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| November |
BBC begins to transmit colour test programmes for 7½ hours each weekday from its Crystal Palace transmitter in south London. Initially it uses the NTSC format. |
> 1963 |
| November |
Australian government appoints a Select Committee (the Vincent Committee) to investigate means of stimulating film production in the country. The report, published the following year, recommends loans, tax concessions and incentives but nothing is implemented. |
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| December 18 |
In its second memorandum on the Pilkington report, the UK government rejects the need for a fourth television television channel, funded by advertising revenue, as there is little evidence of public demand. However, it proposes that an experimental pay TV service should run for two or three years. The possibility of introducing local sound broadcasting will be reviewed at a future date. The Independent Television Authority should have greater powers to ensure quality programming on ITV and that commercial television broadcaster should pay considerably higher rentals. |
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| December |
Atlas computer, capable of processing one million instructions a second, runs successfully at the University of Manchester. It is the most powerful computer in the world. 'Well, that's another problem solved,' says Professor Tim Kilburn. |
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| • |
ATV Television buys the National Studios at Elstree. |
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| • |
Danish Navy and police arrest the pirate radio ship Lucky Star; the Swedish authorities close Radio Nord. Both have been broadcasting from international waters. |
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| • |
Media conglomerate MCA, threatened with legal action by US Justice Department, closes its artists agency business. |
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| • |
The Joint Industry Committee for Television Audience Ratings (JICTAR) commissions market research company Marplan to conduct television audience research in the UK. |
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| • |
Ampex markets VR-1100 solid state monochrome videotape recorder, priced at under $50,000. |
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| • |
First American TV series in 90-minute episodes, The Virginian, starts airing on NBC network. |
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| • |
United Paramount-American Broadcasting Company—parent of the ABC broadcasting networks—changes its name to American Broadcasting Companies. |
> 1986 |
| • |
How the West Was Won is the first drama feature film shot in the Cinerama format. |
> next |
| • |
Ultra Panavision 70, recording a slightly anamorphosed image on 70mm film, produces the same aspect ratio as three-strip Cinerama (2.77:1) on a single film. |
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| • |
Marlon Brando is paid $1.25m for his acting appearance in Mutiny on the Bounty, including a percentage cut. The film is shot in the Ultra Panavision 70 wide-screen format. |
< Actors' pay |
| • |
Dr No initiates the James Bond feature film series, of which 17 appear in the next 25 years. |
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| • |
Italy abolishes restrictions on the number of American film imports. |
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| • |
First feature film made in Gabon is a French-co-production: Mamy Watta, directed by Robert Darene. |
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| • |
First film produced in
• Cameroon is L’Aventure en France, a short directed by Jean-Paul N’Gassa.
• Haiti: Et Moi Je Suis Belle, a feature-length drama documentary directed by Jean Guilbaut Dominique and Michaelle Lafontan. |
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| • |
BBC develops a 625- to 405-line television standards converter. |
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| • |
First cable television networks in Argentina are built. |
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| • |
Radio service starts in The Gambia. |
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| • |
African and Malagasy Industrial Property Office formed. |
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| • |
Alley Cat by Bent Fabric (Bent Fabricius Bjerre) becomes the first international record hit to originate in Denmark. The piano tune is written, recorded and produced by the head of the Metronome record label on which it is released. Another unlikely international hit released this year in Japan is Sukiyaki (Ueo Muite Aruko) by Kyu Sakamoto; it becomes a worldwide success during 1963. |
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| • |
Publisher of UK weekly Reynolds News, Co-operative Press, changes its title to Sunday Citizen. |
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