Editing 1962 (section)

===January===
{{Main|January 1962}}
* [[January 1]] &ndash; [[Samoa|Western Samoa]] becomes independent from [[New Zealand]].
* [[January 3]] &ndash; The office of [[Pope John XXIII]] announces the [[excommunication]] of [[Fidel Castro]] for preaching communism and interfering with Catholic churches in Cuba.
* [[January 8]] &ndash; [[Harmelen train disaster]]: 93 die in the worst [[Netherlands|Dutch]] rail disaster.
* [[January 9]] &ndash; Cuba and the [[Soviet Union]] sign a trade pact.
* [[January 12]] &ndash; The Indonesian Army confirms that it has begun operations in [[West Irian]].
* [[January 13]] &ndash; [[People's Socialist Republic of Albania|Albania]] allies itself with the [[People's Republic of China]].
* [[January 15]]
** Portugal abandons the [[United Nations General Assembly]] due to the debate over Angola.
** French designer [[Yves Saint Laurent (designer)|Yves Saint Laurent]] launches [[Yves Saint Laurent (fashion house)|his own fashion house]].<ref name=Gem>{{cite book|first=Nigel|last=Gross|display-authors=etal|title=Collins Gem 1960s|publisher=HarperCollins|location=London|year=1999|isbn=0-00-472310-4}}</ref>
* [[January 16]] &ndash; A [[military coup]] occurs in the [[Dominican Republic]].
* [[January 19]] &ndash; A counter-coup occurs in the Dominican Republic; the old government returns, except for the new president [[Rafael Filiberto Bonnelly]].
* [[January 22]] &ndash; The [[Organization of American States]] suspends Cuba's membership; the suspension is lifted in [[2009]] (47 years later).
* [[January 24]] &ndash; The [[Organisation armée secrète]] (OAS, a right-wing paramilitary organisation opposed to Algerian independence) bombs the French Foreign Ministry.
* [[January 26]] &ndash; U.S. spacecraft ''[[Ranger 3]]'' is launched to study the Moon; it later misses the Moon by {{convert|22,000|mi|km|abbr=on}}.
* [[January 27]] &ndash; The [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] government changes all place names honoring [[Vyacheslav Molotov|Molotov]], [[Lazar Kaganovich|Kaganovich]] and [[Georgy Malenkov]].
* [[January 30]] &ndash; Two of the high-wire "[[Flying Wallendas]]" are killed when their famous seven-person pyramid collapses during a performance in [[Detroit]].